Chapter 70
When Roa's group returned, I found a meeting about road development waiting for me. After making a quick report to Rays-sama, I hurried to the meeting room.
Nerphia and Sazaby—the secretary (?) duo—were accompanying me. Wickhart and Dick had wanted to come too, but I turned them down.
Putting aside those who knew us, the four of us together could be rather intimidating to people who didn't. Besides, Lufa, who had stayed behind, looked dissatisfied, so I asked them to look after her.
This meeting was about starting construction.
The tar arrived much faster than expected. Perhaps as thanks for the bottled goods, the minister of Fezaris had apparently sent it to us as a top priority.
We also had all the gravel and crushed stone we needed. Ludeck had plenty of mines, so we would have no trouble obtaining the stone produced during mining.
The meeting would be attended by several members of the Sixth Knight Order, several civil officials, and Drew and our group.
The Sixth Knight Order was the force responsible for carrying out the road construction. The civil officials were in charge of arranging the materials, food for the Sixth Knight Order, and so on. Drew was a civil official too, but he was almost completely incapable of handling behind-the-scenes work. Another civil official had been appointed separately as a coordinator.
As for me, somehow I had ended up beside Drew in the role of one of the road-improvement project's originators. Before I knew it.
It was true that I had proposed importing tar, received the minister's letter from Luluria, and learned the road-building method from Luluria. But in the end, everything had been thanks to Luluria. I hadn't done anything.
Despite that, I had been called in for Drew's sake. More specifically, both the Sixth Knight Order and the civil officials had asked me to rein Drew in.
Drew was an extremely free spirit. There were very few people he would listen to.
In other words, in the royal capital, the only people he seemed to listen to were me, Rays-sama, and, apparently, the female civil official in the neighboring department who looked after Drew whenever he collapsed from skipping meals.
That's quite a lineup...
Rays-sama was a given. As for me, Drew seemed to regard me as someone who brought him interesting ideas, so he was relatively willing to listen to me.
It would have been impolite to summon the busy Rays-sama to a meeting about expanding the roads, and there was no reason to call in a completely unrelated female civil official. So, by process of elimination, the choice fell on me.
"Sorry I'm late."
Everyone was already there by the time I entered the room.
"No, we're the ones who should apologize for bothering you so soon after your return," replied Orfook-san, the person in charge on the civil officials' side. I hadn't had any direct contact with Orfook-san when I was a civil official, but my impression was that he was a capable veteran. If Orfook-san was leading things, I could leave the matter to him without worry.
I was about to take my seat when I suddenly noticed something odd about the seating arrangement.
The table was square. The Sixth Knight Order, the civil officials, and Drew occupied the various sides, but two civil officials were seated on either side of Drew. For a moment, I thought there hadn't been anywhere else for them to sit, but there was still plenty of room on the civil officials' side.
Drew noticed my puzzled look and turned to me with a sly, narrowed-eyed grin.
"My subordinates!" he said, spreading his arms wide. His two slender hands landed squarely on the pair's faces.
Drew had subordinates? Well, it wasn't as if that was a problem, but were they really all right?
"Chief, that hurts," said the short-haired, strong-willed-looking young man as he brushed Drew's hand away and looked at me. He still looked young enough to be called a boy, so he must have only just become a civil official.
"I'm Hornet. Nice to meet ya."
The girl on the other side looked like a new recruit as well. With Drew's hand still pressed against her face, she waved her own hands frantically, apparently unsure what to do.
"A-ah! Um! I'm Judiano! P-pleased to meet you!"
"... I'm Roa. Nice to meet you."
What a distinctive pair had joined us.
"Ahem. If it is all right with you, shall we begin our discussion?" The speaker was Fogard-san, a unit commander of the Sixth Knight Order. Since many of the Sixth Knight Order's veteran officers had been demoted, he was one of the few valuable senior officers who remained as a unit commander.
"Ah, sorry. Please go ahead."
"Then, I would like to begin our discussion of the road construction connecting Ludecktrad and Gadeland. First, regarding the route, Orfook-dono..."
"Yes, here it is." Orfook-san hung a prepared map on the wall. It showed Ludecktrad, Gadeland, the major towns and roads, and more. Ruelue, the town where we had met the traveling troupe, was on it as well.
"I believe expanding the existing road is the most realistic option. Otherwise, the various towns along the route will surely complain."
Fogard-san gave a deep nod at Orfook-san's words.
"I generally agree, but there is one problem. According to the road-building method Roa-dono provided us, we first need to excavate the ground. Then we fill it with crushed stone and gravel—is that to improve drainage? After that, we cover it with soil and compact it, then harden the surface with something called tar. Is that correct?"
"Yes. That is what I heard from Luluria... the princess of Fezaris. However, I don't fully understand the reasoning myself, so I can only say that it is probably correct..."
"I also heard the procedure from the minister of Fezaris. I believe this is correct."
Orfook-san supplemented my explanation.
"The part about excavating is troublesome. Even for us, digging through a road that has been compacted for so many years would be rather difficult. Is there any good way to do it?"
"I see... Roa-dono, Drew, do either of you have any good ideas?"
When Orfook-san put the question to us, the absentminded Drew turned an expectant gaze on me. Perhaps he thought I might produce some interesting tool, but unfortunately, I had no particular ideas.
There was nothing to do but painstakingly dig it up with pickaxes and shovels.
When I said nothing, Drew looked a little disappointed, then spoke.
"There's no need to go to the trouble of digging up hard ground."
"No need to dig it up?" Fogard-san furrowed his brow.
"Yeah. We can just dig alongside the existing road, following its course. We can leave the original road in place as an old road. It might come in handy sometime."
"Ah, I see. It seems obvious once you give it a little thought. That would certainly be more efficient."
Fogard-san nodded in admiration. This was what made Drew so amazing. Once someone explained his idea, it seemed obvious, but the speed with which he came up with it was astonishing.
"Then we'll proceed that way. Next..."
Thus, one decision after another was made concerning the road construction.
After we'd finished discussing everything, the meeting was declared over, and everyone began to rise from their seats. At that point, Drew came over to me.
"Roa, I've finished what you asked me to make."
"Perfect timing. I had something new I wanted to ask you to do, too."
"Something you want to ask!? What is it!? What are we making this time!?"
Unlike during the meeting, Drew's eyes lit up. As I calmed him down, we headed for his room.