Chapter 67: The Steelworks Plan and Amber’s Return

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Often, Rebecca found that she couldn’t quite understand her Ancestor’s thinking. However, there was something good in being a stubborn girl, and that was not forcing herself to understand stuff that she could not. Anyway, Ancestor can’t be wrong; she’d just do as he said.

Watching Rebecca who’d happily left after receiving the order but did not even inquire why she had to burn rocks, Gawain could not help but rub his chin and muttered, “Indeed, the innate gifts that every person was born with are limited. Having more or less of it all depended on the dice. In Rebecca’s case, she’d probably rolled once and topped up her gifts in mathematics and imagination, then she was born with everything else at number one…”

But that didn’t matter since the blueprints and operation method had been assigned to her, he’d let her figure it out herself. The actual case of project Magic Web 1 had proven that other than being candid, stubborn, having low EQ, and occasionally coming up with thoughts that were asking for a beating, this young lady really had an astonishing talent in mathematics and creation. Such a gifted player should be thrown out and left to crash headfirst into it. As long as she didn’t fail, there’d usually be unexpected gains, and giving her a bunch of restrictions and fetters would instead easily restrict the outcome.

Besides, even Gawain himself wasn’t sure how many of those indigenous methods that he’d restored through his memories of Earth could succeed…

After casting the mission of ‘burning rocks’ to Rebecca, Gawain headed to the farm to have a look at their cultivation progress and confirm that production of the waterwheel had begun. Following that, he made a trip to the blacksmith store and tossed the modern furnace he’d designed to the old blacksmith, Hummel.

The old blacksmith revealed astonishment towards the blueprint that Gawain took out. He was truly surprised.

Hummel knew that the Lord was concerned about the modern furnace, and he remembered that Gawain had gathered some opinions and suggestions regarding the production of modern furnaces from him a few days ago. However, in his concept, coming to this extent for an aristocratic lord was already the utmost limit. Subsequently, he would, at best, send several craftsmen over to help him with the building of the new furnace and check on the progress occasionally. He’d never expected that Gawain would come to him directly with the blueprint.

Upon hearing the lord’s words that the blueprint for the furnace was ready, Hummel’s first reaction other than shock wasn’t surprise; neither was he very touched; instead, he felt nervous and troubled.

He maintained his stance. A duke, a great aristocrat, a figure who ought to be seated in a castle and eating using golden bowls, did he really have proper knowledge of forging, of building furnaces? Could the blueprint that he’d come up with really work?

What should he do if it couldn’t? Who would dare to comment? But if they were to forcibly use it… whose responsibility would it be?

The old blacksmith took the blueprint that Gawain handed over with a slightly woeful look. He quietly made up his mind: if this furnace was too impossible, he must not reveal it. At the worst, he would first agree, then work hard to build a furnace with a similar outer appearance but entirely different on the inside. If the Lord were to discover anything fishy and questioned him, he’d claim that the illiterate apprentices and slave laborers were too stupid, that they could not build the new furnace properly…

This thought lasted until he had a clear look at the blueprint with deft structures and a logical layout.

Gawain took in all of Hummel’s reaction and smiled.

He was not a blacksmith. To be honest, even if his experiences in his previous life had nothing related to smelting or forging, which internet powerhouse coming from an era of information explosion wouldn’t be able to come up with a bunch of theoretical knowledge?

Of course, an internet powerhouse with only theoretical knowledge would not come in handy, but that was all right; he still had the memories of Gawain Cecil.

Gawain Cecil was not a blacksmith, but the first Duke of the East was. And an important piece of bragging material for the Duke of the East when he treated everyone to wine was knowledge in smelting. Add to that their intimate friendship, Gawain Cecil had numerous experiences of being dragged by the Duke of the East to the furnace to practice his skill. He naturally knew what kind of structure a qualified furnace ought to have.

With two layers of knowledge combined and suggestions from Rebecca and Heidi, as well as minor damage to his hairline, drawing out a blueprint was at least possible.

However, confidence was confidence; Gawain wasn’t at the extent of being blindly conceited. He knew the drawbacks of a non-professional leading the proficient and understood that his identity could easily keep the true specialists from giving their honest views. Hence, he volunteered, “This blueprint is just something I modified according to some furnaces from the Gondor era, so it might not suit the current situation. It’s only meant to give you a line of thought. As for how this furnace could be operated, it’s your business. Feel free to reconstruct it as you wish, as long as it fulfills my demands.”

“No, no, no, this design is already very logical,” Hummel said hurriedly. “It has all the components that a furnace should have, and they all seem to connect very well. And this idea of continuous smelting… So long as there is a steady flow of ores into it and the slag is cleared, it can burn on?”

“That’s right. It’s continuous.” Gawain nodded. “But in doing so, the work pattern of ‘a blacksmith and a few apprentices rotating around a furnace’ might no longer be suitable?”

This evidently had not come to Hummel’s mind before this; he was still immersed in the intriguing concept of the modern furnace. With this reminder by Gawain, he was suddenly aware of what an extremely efficient furnace that didn’t need to be extinguished meant.

As if it was a certain instinct stemming from his occupation, he realized that a deep gap had appeared between the former clanging blacksmith stores and this furnace before his eyes.

And he associated that with those huge courtyards with lengths of a hundred meters that could hold tens of furnaces. He looked at Gawain with wide guys. “Lord…”

“Steel—steel is the basis of everything. Of course, we will still have to take into consideration all sorts of strange metals,” Gawain said as he pulled out another item from his chest for Hummel. “I’ve asked around. You’re literate, so you should be able to read these.”

Blacksmiths were an upper class amongst the civilians. Though they were still civilians, these people who held hammers had a roughly similar standing to clan warriors or even training knights with swords or whips in hand. Moreover, several generations within the Hummel family had been tasked with smelting steel and forging weapons for the Cecil Clan; their status was all the more exceptional. Hence, Hummel was literate; his father had been very liberal in this aspect.

Taking the sheet of paper from Gawain, Hummel merely glanced through it briefly before his eyes widened in surprise.

“This way—this way, is it still a blacksmith store?”

“No, this is Cecil Steelworks.” Gawain looked the old blacksmith in the eyes, “I want a large amount of steel. It could even exceed the total amount of steel you’ve seen in your entire life. The modern furnace and Magic Web 1 are merely foundations within the foundation. And all of this can only be sustained by a completely new set of production structures.”

This was the change from a workshop to a plant. Even Gawain himself wasn’t sure what results such a rigid, top-down revolution would bring. However, he could not continue waiting in leisure. He could not wait for this society to slowly develop the sprouts of capitalism and an industrial revolution. Even if he was willing to wait, the Heavens might not be.

While you’re caught up in farming and have yet to set up a base, and a flood of aliens and the Dark Wave is thrown at you, can you still go on?!

The progress of Magic Web 1 showed him an opportunity to greatly expand their productivity, or should he say, their productivity had come to a point where it could be expanded considerably. Only, in this world where magical power existed, it had been stuck in place. Magic Web 1 was the hope of breaking these shackles.

Failure could be a magical power. But so could success.

Hummel had sunk into deep thought yet realized that nothing came to mind. This had exceeded his world view; he, who had been forging metal his entire life, could not find a place for himself among the metals for the very first time. “Lord, if we really were to go according to your plan and had this many steel furnaces… how many blacksmiths would be enough? I am the only blacksmith in this territory now…”

“The smelting of ores and steel processing will be separated into two parts sooner or later. For that, I have subsequent arrangements.” Gawain glanced at Hummel. “After seeing the blueprint of the modern furnace, you should know this isn’t some sudden, fanciful idea.”

This dangerous thought had appeared in Hummel’s mind before, but with a reminder from Gawain, he recalled the bold yet logical furnace design.

Several seconds of silence later, Gawain deliberately went on in an even tone. “Did you think I was some foolish aristocrat with my head full of all sorts of naive, funny ideas and a wild imagination but with absolutely no idea of reality?”

Hummel broke out in cold sweat instantly. “No, no, how could you be…”

“It’s only normal if you had such a thought, because I see that more than ninety percent of the aristocrats in this era are seen in the same light.” Gawain chuckled. “Living in castles, superior, luxurious yet naive, unaware of how grains are grown, and without any knowledge about forging, building houses, lumbering… Yet, they love to carelessly give absolutely impossible orders. Am I right?”

Hummel stared speechlessly at Gawain; it took him a long while to keep himself from letting out the two words, ‘soul mate’.

How could this lord from 700 years ago be this incisive in his evaluation of the aristocrats?

“You must be wondering why I’m so sharp in my assessment. Very simple. I am Gawain Cecil. Seven hundred years ago, when this land was still barren, I was already leading pioneer teams here.” Gawain looked Hummel in the eyes. “We weren’t living in castles then. Speaking of production, I’m afraid many craftsmen in this territory are no match for me.”

Hummel’s expression changed slightly, and he slowly nodded.

Gawain rested a hand on the shoulder of this old blacksmith. “So, go do as I say. The first step is to finish building the modern furnace.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Betty who had jogged the entire way here.

“Lord!” The little maid first panted heavily for air and then bent over clumsily yet exaggeratedly. “Miss Amber is back! She also brought a—a—”

Betty thought hard for a moment and then said loudly, “A dirty old man!”

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