Chapter 191

Chapter 191 \n191. Strangely Shaped Rock Island 3\n

“Finished…” (Mitsuha)

In front of my eyes, or rather, under my feet, is an island 200 meters in diameter, 500 meters away from the shore.

The whole island is a giant lump of rock, and the shape of the island is a natural on that is [almost circular but slightly distorted], but the top surface is unnaturally flat. And, soaring from the middle of the island is an unnaturally detailed columnar…. Hill?

No no, as expected I can’t treat it like a natural object. There’s no other choice but to call it a [Tower]. And there’s a Luxurious mansion built with its back attached to the tower. And three warehouses built near it.

There are steep cliffs all around the island. The height from the sea surface is about 10 meters… Unless using the stairs or the ramp for wagons from the dock, climbing to the top would be quite challenging.

“…alright, it’s perfect!” (Mitsuha)

Right, if it’s 500 meters offshore, it’s unlikely that it will be attacked by land forces.

It’s unlikely that an armed soldier can swim 500 meters, and the effective range of the musket of the New Continent is around 45 meters at most.

If the inside of the barrel is engraved with rifling, and if it uses conoidal bullet, something like the [Minié rifle] of the mid-century earth, the effective range could reach no less than 300 meters. …with the maximum of 900 meters, but those numbers have no meaning.

They can reach from the shore if they use a cannon, but if the enemy carries the cannon to this place from the land side, it means that this country has already been destroyed, so I can just escape at that time. Either using my transfer or an escape boat that I plan to prepare on the ocean side of the island.

Let’s cut out the rock to create a secret bunker and hide a small cruiser there. The one that can cruise while putting a nonstop battle from here to the neighboring country. …I’m sure it’d be fine to bring that much. I can just say that it’s a one-of-a-kind artifact of unknown technology.

Archeologist of later generations might suffer from seeing the OOPArt they found at the ruins of the Bunker! Fuhahaha!

No, I guess power ship has been developed in the future if they can afford the technology to excavate archeological sites.\n

Alright, let’s get a used ship and teach Beatrice how to operate it. To get a license for a small vessel on earth you have to learn various things such as Collision Prevention Regulation (COLREGs), but there’s no need for such a thing in this world. If it’s just to learn how to operate it then it should be easy. And I can just carry it to the earth for maintenance.

However, despite the appearance, this mansion was made on earth. I cut a hole on the rock to perfectly fit the base part, and since it was a sea-side mansion I think it already have salt damages prevention measures, but it was built with the assumption that it’d be connected to electricity, gas and water services so the bath, kitchen and washroom cannot be used as it is. I have to put something like a water tower and connect it with water pipe to the bath. I will not allow for the place where Beatrice-chan would live to have no bath!!

…but what should I do with the water itself.

It can be anything while I’m here. But my basic policy for developing the territory is to take every precaution so that it would be fine even if I need to hide, or if I’m gone from this world, or, although the possibility is low, if I lose my transfer ability. So of course, things about this island are also based on that policy.

Carry by boat every time?

Aside in peacetime, relying on external transport of water in times of war is too risky.

Desalinate the seawater?

The multi-stage flash method requires oil and gas, and reverse osmosis method requires a lot of power to operate the high-pressure pump. About 3 KWh to make 1 ton of fresh water…

Besides, desalinated seawater needs to be sterilized, and it is necessary to adjust the taste by adding minerals because it tastes terrible… Of course, something like [There’s an underground river flowing in the basement of a mansion built on the top of a rocky mansion…] only exists in an adventure drama novel from Meiji era. (Note: I don’t get the reference)

You have to dig through the rock bed or deeper to get underground fresh water. …probably, there will only be seawater coming up even if I dig through this rock mass.

Well, whatever. Let’s save it for later.

For now, let’s install an earth-made water tower and let the water supplied by ship.

It’ll also creates a new job and be a source of income for our fishing village.\nOf course, Count Bozes will have to pay. With the economy in the county improving due to shipbuilding and naval industry, he doesn’t have to worry about money.

Not many people will live here anyway, and Beatrice-chan will not always staying here. That way, Beatrice-chan will be lonely, in the first place, Count Bozes and Iris-sama won’t allow such a thing.

Of course, it’ll be one day trip. And only once every few days. If the weather is bad or the sea is rough, of course, pass. This is just a symbolic, or to put in a simple term, an excuse, that this is [An island spanning between the border of Yamano Viscounty and Bozes County], it’s not necessary to do all the work here.

I will make sure to prepare a working room for Beatrice-chan in our territory residence.

And then slowly drag Beatrice-chan into the Yamano Viscounty. Fuhahaha!!

It’s not good for me to do everything alone. Let’s throw the rest to Count Bozes.

There’s a lot of option whether we’re going back and forth by boat all the time, or to connect the island to the land with a floating pier, or rather a floating bridge, but for now, I’ll save that for later.

Alright, I guess this is enough for today!

Transfer!

The next day, I took Randy-san to the rocky area I cut yesterday.

The purpose is, of course, to investigate any promising ore now that there’s a deep hole on it. Randy-san is an expert in metalworking, so of course he can identify some minerals. …or rather, there’s no other person that Randy-san in the territory.

That’s why we checked it out, but…\n\nOf course, the main purpose is to draw irrigation water for the farmlands. Even if the river is running low, this much stock will last to some extent. That’s why, with that in mind, I cut a rock mass near the river. …I’m more or less always think everything through before doing something, you know!

And sands were transferred from a certain place to fill the site where the second rock mass was cut out. Although the depth of the hole is 2 meters, I only fill up to 1 meter in depth.

If I fill it with sand all the way up, it will scatter around because of wind or something.

…Right, it’s the birth of a super huge sandbox!

It would be the best place for children, dogs, and cats to play.

But let’s pay attention so that it doesn’t become a huge litter box for dogs and cats!

I cut it that way because I want to make a pool out of it at first, but when it comes to swimming pools, things such as water quality and temperature management, accident prevention, etc. are too much trouble. Especially water quality management, since there’s no chlorine here.

I don’t want it to be a source of illness, and it would be unbearable if a child in an accident there.

So I canceled the pool plan.

The alternative was this huge sandbox.

As expected, no one would die in a one-meter deep sandpit. The pool would be riskier, as there were cases where human drowned in a 30cm deep pool.

Alright, I think I can call it a stopping point over here. So let’s check the situation on the new continent for a little bit.

I think it’s about time to move…