Chương 212: 209. Risalis And The Romasi River

"That's because it's not nearly as dense as fedarus wood which is burning next to it," Kivamus explained.

"Even after using this wood press machine to compress the sawdust and wood shavings, it is still much less dense than any wooden branch cut directly from the tree. That means the small air gaps between the compressed particles easily transfer the air to the inner particles which makes them burn so well." Gorsazo gave a nod, thinking about it, while the labourers had started to refill the mold with more sawdust from a basket to repeat the process. Kivamus looked at the carpenter and called him over.

"Well done, once again. This is working much better than I thought. I'm not sure about it yet, but in the future we can make another wood press machine which will reduce our coal consumption even further."

"That will require us to allot a pair of labourers to gather more sawdust," Gorsazo said, "since the kids can only gather so much of it."

"Yeah, I am not planning to do it right now." Kivamus added, "Even this single machine will be enough to supplement our coal to make it last more than a month. That should give us enough time to clear the necessary farm land here." He looked at the carpenter.

"It's still early in the day, so you should use the rest of the time to continue your work on the second crossbow. We really need more of them." Darora nodded.

"I will have to go to help disassemble the water wheel tomorrow afternoon, but other than that I will put my full focus on making more crossbows. I have a good understanding with Cedoron now, and since the first one has been tested successfully, we already know the exact measurements of all the parts we need." He continued, "I was talking with the blacksmith about it yesterday, and he explained to me about the specialisation method you had taught him.

So, one of his apprentices will be specialising in forging the goat's foot lever, while another one will only make the iron bolt-heads. A third one will make any nails and the other small iron parts we need for it, with Cedoron supervising over all of them while helping out any of them who need it." Kivamus grinned on seeing the carpenter take the initiative on this.

"That will help in their production speed, and it will also slowly create a stock of all those parts to use in the future, in case one of the crossbows needs a repair or replacement of a part."

"Of course, it's not just him who is going to use this method," Darora bragged with a smile.

"I have also been teaching my two apprentices about wood crafting, and I have decided to give the responsibility of crafting the stock of the crossbow to one of them, with the prod being made by the other - this apprentice being a woman. Those are simple parts and they can do it easily enough by now. That will give enough time to me to craft all the finer parts while keeping an eye on them."

The carpenter explained, "When I start getting all the parts from everyone within a few days, I will assemble the crossbow myself." He gazed into the distance for a moment.

"I will only be able to give a better estimate after a week, but I believe we should be able to do much better than the whole month we had taken to make the first crossbow." Hudan's eyes sparkled with anticipation.

"Now you are just making me impatient for the day when we have more crossbows to give to the guards!" Giving a chuckle at that, Kivamus felt quite satisfied that at least a crude imitation of the modern assembly line process was already being used by the carpenter and the blacksmith.

"That's excellent! I can't wait to see the final product!" He praised Darora, making the young but talented carpenter beam with pride. Then he turned to look at the kids gathered nearby, some of whom had picked up a few briquettes and were looking at it in curiosity.

"Lucem, Clarisa, come on. We need to go back to the manor. The rest of you, return to the longhouse blocks and warm yourself properly. You can come again at lunchtime to gather more sawdust."

"Aww... I really wanted to keep watching... I am not even feeling cold!" Clarisa protested, before she sneezed, making everyone laugh while she blushed in embarrassment.

"Can I at least take one of them with me?" Lucem asked while showing the briquette in his hands. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Yeah, sure." Kivamus gazed at the other kids.

"The rest of you can also take one of the briquettes if you want - either to burn or to keep as a memento. These are the first briquettes made in Tiranat and your hard work was an important part of making it."

"What's a memento?" a boy asked in with his face scrunched up in confusion.

"It's something that you keep with yourself for a long time to remind yourself of a particular person or event," Gorsazo explained.

"In this case these briquettes will remind you of the first time you had worked in Tiranat, even years after today - even if it was only in return for some treats and not coins. Assuming these briquettes last that long, of course." The boy nodded in understanding, and soon there was a race to pick up the best briquettes amongst the kids.

Even though all the briquettes were of the same shape and size, there was still a competition between them coupled with some arguments to get whichever briquette looked the favourite to a kid, until Gorsazo had to scold them to hurry up. When they were all done, Kivamus gestured to the carpenter and the guards towards the village walls which were barely visible in the north.

"Let's go!"

In the evening, Kivamus was sitting in the manor hall once again with his advisors sitting nearby. The fire was cracking loudly in the fireplace making the insides of the hall much warmer than the freezing weather outside in the continuously falling snow. Remembering about his trip to the eastern stream, he recalled an idea he had been thinking about since that day.

Looking at the expectant faces of the others, he began, "Now that I have seen the stream between the hills myself, I know for sure that we simply can't make the kind of waterwheels found in the much deeper river waters of Cinran or Ulriga in that stream. However, the surrounding hills on both sides of the stream were close enough that I think a different solution can work in that place."

"What are you talking about?" Hudan asked in confusion.

"How can the nearby hills decide whether we can build a water wheel there or not?" Moving his hand through his silver hair which had grown long again over the winter, Kivamus grinned, "Because those hills give us a possibility of making a small dam there!"

"A dam?" Gorsazo repeated.

"Like a barrage which is built on the sides of some big rivers to prevent flooding?"

"I think I know what you are talking about," Duvas muttered while gazing at the fire.

"The northern city of Risalis - where I was born - is not very far from the Kinsari Mountain Range, which separates the Kingdom of Reslinor from our neighbouring country Binpaaz in the east. The mighty Romasi river - which originates in that range and passes through the city of Risalis before it drains into the ocean in the west at the capital Dorastiz has a long history of flooding."

He added, "It was decades ago from today, so I don't remember too well, but when I was young, I had gone on a hunting trip with my older brothers close to the Kinsari range." Before he continued, Kivamus stared at the majordomo.

"Hunting? You? With the fragile health in your childhood that you had told us about?" Duvas snorted.

"It's not like I went there by choice! I wasn't always this old, you know. At the time I must have been... perhaps twenty years old I think, and just like my older brothers, I also had to follow the orders of our father. Even though he was only a minor noble in that big city, for us his word was absolute, and he had ordered me to join my brothers in that hunting trip even though I wasn't up to it." The majordomo shook his head slowly.

"Anyway, the point is that we had gone close to the mountain range through its foothills, following the same river if I am remembering correctly, and we had found a huge lake there, where my brothers had even done some fishing. My brothers had told our father that they had done fishing in a lake, but he had scolded them and told us that it was an artificial reservoir of water, which had formed there because of a dam which the mad king had constructed in the past to prevent flooding in the downstream cities.

I was quite curious about it, so I had asked about it in detail and found out what a dam was. That is what you mean, right?" Kivamus nodded, being surprised at the excellent memory of Duvas, even though he must be pushing sixty by now.

"Indeed, it sounds similar enough." Being curious about exactly what the mad king had constructed, he asked, "Tell me, was there something special about that dam, or rather the wall which made the dam? Anything which could be used to perform some tasks - like grinding grains?" Duvas thought about it for a while.

"I don't think so, but it was so long ago that I can't remember for sure."

"Well, it doesn't matter right now," Kivamus waved it off, "but that's what I plan to construct here. I want to make a dam between those hills to block the water of the stream, which will also create a small water reservoir further uphill of the dam." Gorsazo frowned.

"Block the whole stream? What will that do to the water which flows downstream?"