Episode 157 This Body Will Solve It (3)
Mercenaries are people who will do anything they are told as long as they are paid.
In her previous life, Jiselle also received many other requests besides fighting.
Of course, they were responsible for building castles and fortresses, but when there was a shortage of manpower during wartime, they even took on the task of building temporary barracks.
‘If I hadn’t been given the title of King of Mercenaries, I would have been called King of Construction.’
At first, I just worked hard without knowing anything, but as I continued to receive similar requests, I acquired basic knowledge of architecture and civil engineering.
After realizing that having a base and a place to live where troops can rest is important in winning a war, he even went out of his way to visit construction sites to learn.
Since I had the knowledge I learned in the field, it wasn’t difficult to direct the work.
“Gather a bunch of laborers first. The more people there are, the faster it will end.”
But people don’t know that Giselle has accumulated such knowledge.
To them, Giselle was nothing more than a brazen idiot who was not even an expert on a topic.
Still, I couldn’t object. Who would arbitrarily stop what the lord wanted to do?
Soon a large group of workers gathered, and Jiselle gave instructions on the work, recalling memories from her past life.
“Okay, let’s start by laying the foundation and working on the frame!”
At Giselle’s words, the laborers moved busily.
Since it was something the lord himself was doing, he couldn’t dare slack off.
As I absentmindedly followed the instructions, a somewhat plausible framework began to form.
The technicians grumbled as they worked.
“I think the lord knows something… … .”
“But what is this? Isn’t it just building a mansion?”
“Looking at the division of the areas, it looks like they’re just going to make a lot of big rooms and cram a lot of people into them?”
If we divide the area into areas like mansions or barracks and put all the people in there, the housing problem will be solved.
It wasn’t a house that I could give away to people, but since time was short, it wasn’t a bad idea to do it that way.
But is it really necessary for the lord to command it?
Finally, one of the carpenters raised his hand and asked.
“My lord, if you are going to build a large barracks, we will take care of the rest. There is no need for you to personally undertake such a dangerous task.”
“No, no. That’s not the kind of house it is. If you put all these people in one place, what kind of house is that? It’s just a pigsty.”
Then another person raised his hand and asked,
“Isn’t what you’re building a house with many rooms like the mansions of nobles?”
This time, Jiselle shook her head.
“It’s similar, but a little different. Well, if it’s really urgent, I’ll have to do it that way, but for now, I have some time. In times like this, I should make it right from the beginning.”
When people looked at her with curious expressions, Jiselle burst into laughter.
“Well, I’ll explain it briefly. You’ll be able to follow along better once you understand the concept. What we’re building now is a very large and sturdy structure with several houses inside.”
“There’s a house inside a house? Isn’t it just a bunch of smaller houses put together?”
In cities where land is scarce, mansions are sometimes built close together like this.
What Giselle presented was a concept that had never existed before, so people could only imagine that much.
“No, it’s not. It’s a structure where there are many smaller houses inside a large building. It’s called an apartment complex.”
“Is there a house like that…?”
Jiselle nodded vigorously and answered.
“Yes, now there will be a house like that here.”
After a disaster struck the continent in the previous life, many cities were fortified as survivors gathered.
In order for many people to live together in the limited space of a fortress, the space had to be utilized as efficiently as possible.
The concept that emerged from this was communal housing, which was to allocate separate living quarters to each household within a single, tall building.
Even though Jiselle explained it repeatedly, people just looked at her with puzzled expressions. It was easy once you knew it, but it was a problem that arose because they couldn’t break through the limitations of their thinking.
“Judging by your expressions, it seems you still don’t understand.”
Jiselle sighed and shook her head. As expected, it wasn’t easy to explain a concept that didn’t exist in the present age.
Then there is only one way left. As always, we have to show it directly.
“Okay, that’s all for small talk. If you don’t understand, just do as I tell you and do your best. You’ll understand when you see the results.”
After finishing her explanation, Giselle returned to her work.
The construction was quickly on track. With only one resident’s intervention, the pace was noticeably faster.
One reason was that the laborers were careful not to slack off because they had to keep an eye on Jiselle, but there was a bigger reason.
“Come on!”
Crunch! Crunch!
Every time Jiselle would shout and swing her axe, smooth pieces of wood would pop out.
Everyone was astonished when he created the wood that would have taken several people to trim in the blink of an eye.
“Wow… … I’ve heard that your lord is very good at swordsmanship, but his axe-wielding skills are also amazing.”
“Does this make sense? What kind of person swings an axe like that? With just a few swings of the arm, the board pops out?”
Not only that. He could drive nails in at the same time by just picking up a handful of them and throwing them out, and he could shatter anything that needed to be broken with a single blow of the hammer.
Time-consuming tasks such as drying mud were completed in an instant by bringing in wizards.
That’s why other people were busy trying to keep up with Jiselle’s work speed.
Since finishing what I was told was the priority, I didn’t even have time to wonder about anything.
“Huh, huh, are we really building a house right now?”
“The speed is crazy. It feels like something is being put together… … .”
Of course, Giselle wasn’t just building it however she could.
Even if it brought back the structure and form of its previous life, the design had to be changed to fit the level of technology and resource reserves available in the current territory.
Giselle constantly taught the concept of communal housing to his assistants and put it into practice through thorough division of labor.
I sought advice from engineers and even sought out engineers, and incorporated all the elements necessary to live a human life.
“We’ll build a separate stove for cooking and use a fireplace for heating. If we build a separate passage for smoke to escape on each floor and build several chimneys on top, we won’t have to worry about smoke leaking out.”
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
“The toilet should have a drain so that when water is poured in, it flows into a large pit.”
“This is like this… … . That is like that… … .”
As time went by, people began to vaguely realize what Giselle was making.
“Isn’t it true that showing something once is better than explaining it a hundred times?”
People nodded their heads with blank expressions at Jiselle’s words.
I didn’t know what I was making and just did what I was told, but somehow a pretty decent building was being built.
Claude’s expression, which appeared every now and then as he came to watch, became increasingly strange.
‘What? Is this real? Are you really building a house?’
Claude was convinced that the lord would run wild and cause trouble when Giselle first came out.
The reason I didn’t stop him even though I thought about it that way was simple.
People need to experience defeat at least once to become humble and reflect on themselves.
But contrary to his expectations, a real ‘home-like thing’ was being built.
Moreover, the construction speed was incredibly fast. It was only natural that all the wizards who were working on the farmland were dragged in by the collar.
In just four days, the ‘shared housing’ that Jiselle had been talking about was completed.
It was a three-story building with four houses on each floor.
“Hmm, this is pretty good.”
Jiselle looked at the completed building with a proud smile on her face, a huge hammer slung over her shoulder.
Because it was built in a hurry, there was no decoration at all and it was very crude. However, the building was so large and sturdy, with a completely different shape from the existing ones, that even its crudeness felt solid.
Those who had participated in the work, like Jiselle, also stared blankly at the apartment complex. They finally understood clearly what the concept of the lord had been talking about.
“Oh… … This is really happening.”
“How did the lord come up with such an idea?”
They made it together, but it still didn’t feel real.
Claude asked Giselle with a bewildered look on his face.
“Huh, what do you think of this?”
“Well… … Since the work keeps getting delayed, I was looking for the fastest and most effective way to do it.”
Jiselle said with a mocking grin, but in fact, these types of apartment buildings were very common in her previous life.
Rather, back then, the houses built using magic were much easier to manage and more comfortable to live in than the houses built now.
Each floor contained more houses, and the number of floors had developed to the point where some were as high as seven stories.
Of course, the nobles and upper class still lived in mansions, while the commoners lived in communal housing.
Jiselle looked around at the technicians and said.
“If we build it this way, we can finish the residential construction faster, right?”
The logic was that if there was a limit to the number of buildings one person could supervise, then the number of people allowed inside the buildings could be increased.
That’s not a wrong statement. You could build one of these buildings in the time it takes to build two or three small houses.
“Yes, this will save a lot of time. Even if you build just 10 houses, you can fit 120 households.”
“Okay. The workers will provide more support than they do now, so do your best.”
“All right!”
The technicians looked at Giselle with awe and shouted loudly.
Since detailed drawings were prepared separately while construction was in progress, there was no problem in building it identically.
The engineers were more aware of how great this apartment complex was than did Giselle.
The more I looked into it, the more I concluded that communal housing is the most suitable way to work in the current situation and a revolution in housing style.
Just twisting the stereotype of a house a little bit and this is what it turns out like!
Claude decided not to think about it any more as he watched the technicians gathered in groups of three or four, talking excitedly to each other.
‘Yes, I was mistaken. I shouldn’t have thought of that human as a normal person.’
Giselle spoke to Claude, who had a trembling expression on his face, as if scolding him.
“What are you doing? Are you out of your mind? Now, the work will be done faster, so send in a lot of workers.”
“Oh, I understand. I will immediately put out an advertisement to recruit additional workers.”
At Claude’s answer, Giselle raised one eyebrow as if she heard something absurd.
“So when are we going to finish this? Let’s hurry up and get going. We don’t have time right now, do we?”
“Huh? What do you want me to do…?”
“The immigrants. Have you fed them well and given them a good place to sleep for the past few days?”
“Yes, there are still some sick people left, but most of them have recovered their strength by now.”
Then Jiselle smiled and said.
“From now on, it’s not recruitment, it’s conscription. Bring everyone who can move. The free food ends here.”
* * *
The immigrants who had been living comfortably thought that the time had finally come when the conscription order was issued.
This was obvious news to those who firmly believed that there was no such thing as a free lord in this era. Some people were even relieved to hear the news of the conscription.
That’s why no one rebelled. Everyone just responded to the call without any motivation, like cattle being dragged to the slaughterhouse.
All able-bodied immigrants were forced to work on residential construction and reclamation of farmland.
Those who had been working without a soul began to change their gazes when they started moving into ‘shared housing’.
“Was it real? You’re giving me a real house, not a tent? I thought you were lying!”
“I thought we all lived in barracks together since it was communal housing… … This is incredible!”
“Buying my own home… … was it this easy?”
Most of the immigrants were semi-forcibly evicted from slums.
The houses they lived in were nothing more than dilapidated ruins, old tents that could barely keep out the rain, and structures roughly made of planks.
I was born without anything and learned nothing, so I lived my life thinking that it was natural to be sad and have a hard time.
But this place is different. Hard work pays big dividends.
Although it was said to be a house where several people lived together, it was much larger and cleaner than a shabby shack, and the living quarters were clearly divided by family.
It was a tremendous gift to those who had been living in poverty.
“I hated it at first, but I told you that if I hadn’t come, I would have lost my life.”
“The lord here is very generous! It was a good thing I came! I feel a sense of loyalty that I didn’t know existed.”
“What good can it be to come here after being kicked out? Still, it was fortunate that I was kicked out.”
For those who had been living without being treated as human beings, the Fenris Estate was a land where they could seize the opportunity of a lifetime.
The poor, who did not want to go back to the way things were before, cooperated with the construction project with all their might.
Thanks to this, construction progressed at a speed incomparable to that of before.
Jiselle smiled with satisfaction as she watched everyone having fun while working hard.
“To move with such a single mind for the land. With this kind of passion and determination, there is nothing they cannot do.”
Claude had no choice but to agree with that.
“That’s fortunate. If you have that much motivation, other projects will be finished faster too.”
“That’s a good thing. We have to be even busier in preparation for the coming war.”
Claude’s face darkened slightly at the mention of war.
