Road to the Crown

Chapter 120: Meeting the locals

22nd April 1574

After spending the night in a surprisingly comfortable manner, as soon as the sun started peeking from beyond the horizon line, most of the workers woke up, used to this kind of schedule. While there was no city bell to wake me up, a simple request to one of the craftsmen was enough to get me going along with everyone.

With the entire new day at hand, the work started surprisingly quickly. From digging a small hole in the place where the steam horse would be just so that we could lay its foundations and make it more stable than it would be if built right on top of the ground. Even though the idea was to set up a long line of those machines one by one, for now, I still decided to prevent the workers from digging along the marked line, limiting them to preparing the space for a single set only.

Thanks to the fact that the amount of the different wares that we brough with us was so huge, there wasn't any problem with me sneaking out to collect some of the limestones from the huge pile of the leftover stone ditched right beside the entrance shed to the mine, turning it with the help of the system into a small pile of concrete. It was true that we brough way more than enough resources to build the frame for even three different steam horses at once, but if we were to use the local mortar on the foundations, this number would fall down drastically, forcing me to provide another kind of material that would actually do an even better job.

But when it finally came to laying down the foundations, I once again realised, how long it would take for this kind of simple job to be finished! With no concrete mixer, I had to steal one of the big pots that were supposed to be used by the cooks to prepare simple meals for everyone, clean it up with water, two bags of concrete inside and add enough water to turn it into a proper paste, before pouring it down to the hole which walls were reinforced with simple, wooden planks.

And this entire process, that took me about a quarter of an hour, filled maybe a twentieth of the hole itself!

Only at this point did I realise why the governor gave me two weeks before he would visit. If all the buildings steps would take so long, it would be hard to even finish this task in the given time-frame!

But thinking about this, rather than lacking the manpower here, we simply lacked the proper tools to speed up the progress of the more mundane tasks. And since that was the case, instead of lamenting over how long it would take us to finish just the first step of the job, it would be better to actually do something about it!

"Al, get four more people and give them some weapons. We are going to the nearby village."

After the trade deal back in Sandomir, even despite buying out all the resources with the coins obtained during the trade, I was still left with a pouch filled to the brim, but instead of the gold taking the most space, I had to exchange those few ducats that remained for silvers.

In fact, I did it without even considering the option of robbing the entire village out of all their tools that could become useful for the building process, since outside of the cities, showing up a single golden coin was enough to make the entire local community grab whatever weapons they could use at hand and chase us down to get their hands on this rare treasure!

That was also the reason why despite holding silvers in my pouch that were far safer to use in trade, I still brough a small escort with me as we departed to pay a visit to a nearby village.

With how beneficial it was for the fields and later, pushing the goods down the main trade highway of the Vistula river, walking on foot to the nearest settlement took us only about half an hour. Yet contrary to my expectations, the village we found wasn't nearly as big as I hoped it would be, indicating that the number of useful utensils that we could buy off them would be pitifully low, not to speak about a local smithy where such items could be produced.

"Who are you and what the fuck do you want in our place?"

As soon as we reached the distance when it became obvious that the village was the target for my small, relatively well-armed group, a party of villagers holding forks, knives and even some selfires(*) came out from the small yard around which most of the houses were build, forcing us to stop our travel.

"How dare you threaten a noble with your pitiful weapons! Drop them down and fall down to your knees"

Rather than letting me deal with the matter, Al stepped to the front with the intention of properly introducing me. But when I heard what kind of approach he took, I hurried forward only to hold him down, stopping this dumb noble from worsening our situation.

"I'm sorry for him. While I am a noble, I came here hoping to buy some stuff. Those people here are only for my protection. Can we all lower our weapons now? I don't think any reason to kill each other over a small misunderstanding like this one!"

Considering how those lands belonged to the Jan Bone alone, if I were to stir up some mess with his villagers, our relationship was bound to suffer a rather heavy hit. It wasn't even about the fact that killing his serfs would lead to a direct decrease of his income from his own fields, but rather the fact that he wouldn't do anything about someone who killed his people, putting the loyalty of the rest of his subjects in a danger.

"What the hell do you want then?"