Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt - Chapter 201



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Infinite Reincarnation – Arthur Hurt Chapter 201

36-Class conflict

“There will be a lot of opposition if you give me the title of heir. What are you going to do about it?”

Ah, that’s what I meant. Andre nodded and answered.

“But if this plan succeeds in increasing gunpowder production, it will be enough to formally grant me a title of nobility.”

“Isn’t that just a sufficient requirement? You can oppose it as much as you want.”

Andre laughed bitterly at those words. It wasn’t a wrong statement.

Arthur continued speaking there.

“And it is good for the country that the plan to increase gunpowder production can be carried out without me.”

“You’re not here?!”

Andre’s voice rose without him knowing it.

Arthur said, smiling and waving his hand.

“Oh, it’s not like immigration. It’s just that you never know what the future holds for a person. Who knows? You might die tomorrow. In that case, it’s risky to leave everything to one person.”

That’s what it means. But Andre’s expression didn’t lighten at the mention of premature death. Thinking about it again, where else can you find a loyal subject as talented and capable as the Count Hurt?

Arthur said.

“And anyway, my role is done with drawing up the big picture of the plan. Now, I have to select people to work on a more practical level and assign tasks to them. And that is beyond my authority.”

That’s right. Personnel was everything, so Arthur’s arbitrarily selecting people and putting them in charge of his plan to increase gunpowder production could easily be seen as an abuse of authority.

But Andre said this.

“There is also a way to recommend suitable talent to the King.”

“Hahaha! How would I, a craftsman, know anyone?”

“I heard you have a connection with Minhoe?”

“I just asked for help to utilize the manpower of the poor. Even if it was called the cooperation of the people’s council, only one person knew about it.”

“You mean Senator Fried? We can get his help.”

Andre already knew who Arthur was meeting.

Arthur replied, letting that part slide.

“I do not want to take the risk of recommending to His Majesty a person I have not met or know well, based solely on the word of someone I know.”

Arthur continued while Andre interpreted the political meaning of the words.

“And I’m not that close with Rep. Fried.”

“I guess we meet often enough to be called that.”

“He just came to see me unilaterally. This time, I went to see him, which was unusual, but it was because I knew Rep. Fried’s face, not because we were particularly close.”

Aren’t we close?

Arthur said to Andre, who was making a puzzled expression.

“Even though we come from the same commoner background, he and I are quite different. From what I can see, he comes from a fairly wealthy family.”

“exactly.”

“The relationship between the rich and the poor is just as difficult to understand as that between nobles and commoners.”

“Hmm… … But aren’t you a huge reject now?”

“But it’s hard to change what’s ingrained in your mind since you were young. Furthermore, I didn’t have any grand ambitions or achieve fame and fortune to become where I am today. I just worked hard and was fortunate enough to receive His Majesty the King’s favor. My thoughts are bound to be different from those of Rep. Fried.”

Andre nodded, finding Arthur’s words very plausible. Then he asked one last time to confirm.

“Are you sure it’s okay to step down from this job like this?”

“I’m not stepping down, I’m just handing over the job to someone who is better at it than I am. That way, I can focus on what I’m good at.”

“What are you good at?”

“To my shame, people call me a modern-day alchemist.”

Ignaqua’s re-creator. Andre nodded on his own.

“Then… … I guess I’ll start researching the production of the cornerstone again.”

“Now that the experimental results are out, it’s time to get started.”

“I see.”

Andre nodded, carefully folding the documents and giving Arthur some words of encouragement.

“There will be no one as loyal as you.”

“Haha. Thank you for your words.”

With that, Andre returned to the king and handed over the documents Arthur had written about the plan to increase gunpowder production and the plan to supply public toilets connected with it, and told him everything he had talked about with Arthur, and King Rye lamented that the greed of the Earl of Hurt was irreplaceable.

* * *

Arthur left the public toilet business to the King and returned to focusing on improving the quarry.

To be honest, it was a bit much to call it a quick fix. The king’s authority was needed to push forward a business that had not existed before. There was no policy drive as strong as the will to power. To be honest, if Arthur had been the one to do it, he would not have bothered to hand over the business-related documents to Andre.

In any case, Arthur’s goal, as he had told Rep. Fried, was to put guns in the hands of the public, not to gain the king’s favor and become the one above all others. To be honest, even if he had gained favor, it would have been impossible. The current king did not have the power to be above all others.

Anyway, Arthur decided to make sure that the cornerstone production for his plan was completed.

It was impossible to produce gunpowder from electricity or air because metallurgy was not yet fully developed. At the current level of technological civilization, perhaps the best option would be to systematically secure as much animal material as possible?

Arthur returned after a few months of working on his toilet business and reunited with Count Ullorence.

Count Ullorence was very pleased with Arthur, as he had confirmed the results of separating and concentrating the lye components suggested by Arthur and spraying them. He was also conducting research on which burnt ash was more profitable.

“That’s amazing. Have you ever burned seaweed?”

“seaweeds?”

“Oh, the research hasn’t progressed that far yet.”

“Just try it. Don’t worry too much.”

Their conversation, which began with the types of ashes, extended to the structure of the foundation field.

“Once the specific components of the ash and animal matter are mixed well and fermented, it is certain that the yield of the saltpeter increases.”

“Yes. And to ferment it well, you need the right temperature. But rain is the problem.”

In order to ferment well, it must be fermented under warm sunlight, but if it rains even once, the basic ingredients are washed away.

This is because the cornerstone fields for the current Scara Kingdom’s cornerstone production were made by sufficiently fermenting the burial mounds made by mixing ash, compost, and straw.

Arthur said.

“What about indoor production?”

“Without sunlight?”

“Originally, compost generates heat during the fermentation process. Sunlight is probably not a necessary element. To be honest, fermentation happens inside, not outside, right?”

“Hmm… … I see.”

“And I think there are some problems with the process of extracting the cornerstone components.”

Arthur also spoke about the properties of the cornerstone.

“I understand that a poorly made foundation will absorb moisture from the air and melt. Is that correct?”

“Yes. A properly refined cornerstone will remain dry even in the air.”

This problem arose because, due to the nagging of their superiors, the stonecutters boiled down the water they had used to wash the stone fields, which should have been thrown away.

Although production volume increased, this was an important issue that determined the quality of gunpowder. Gunpowder made using such defective saltpeter would absorb moisture and not ignite well.

Arthur continued.

“So, you’re saying that proper saltpeter ingredients don’t dissolve well in water? That means that in order to extract saltpeter from a saltpeter field, you have to use a lot of water, and that means you have to use a lot of fuel to evaporate that water to get saltpeter again.”

“Ah… … . Is that so?”

“Now that we are using purified lye, it will be even more so. So I have devised a method.”

The method Arthur suggested was this: lay stones on the ground, cover it with plaster or something similar to prevent water from draining, then build a wide and high wall of basalt on top of it, and put a roof on it to protect it from rain. Then, sprinkle lye water, which is the concentrated form of only the ingredients needed to produce basalt, on top of the wall.

“If you scoop up the liquid that has accumulated on the floor and spray it during the process to adjust the moisture, it will have a similar effect to boiling it in a kamasol and blowing away the moisture.”

“But doesn’t it take a long time?”

“Won’t it take a long time to ferment anyway? Think of it as the process of drying out moisture and fermenting at the same time.”

Arthur explained that if his predictions were correct, the liquid that would pool on the floor would contain a high concentration of dissolved saltpeter, and if all went well, he would even be able to see saltpeter crystals growing from the saltpeter field that he had built like a wall.

Count Ullorence was skeptical about such assurances. Could such a dream come true? Could it be that without the laborious boiling and simmering of a stinking liquid in a cauldron, saltpeter crystals would bloom on the saltpeter field?

Arthur continued to persuade the earl, whose ears were fluttering.

As a result of his research, the principle of the saltpeter field was ultimately the result of the fermentation or decay of ashes and animal matter, so the key was to find out which conditions were the most profitable. However, washing the manure of the well-fermented saltpeter field with water and boiling it down required a lot of fuel and labor because the moisture had to be evaporated. After all, washing the well-fermented saltpeter field with water was a task in itself.

Arthur’s idea of ​​making saltpeter flowers bloom on top of the saltpeter field was so dazzling that Count Ullorence had doubts, but the results of the experiment that confirmed that the component that dissolves well in the ash was the main component of saltpeter were so good that Count Ullorence decided to follow Arthur’s idea this time too.

Since we weren’t going to improve the foundation field on a large scale anyway and were just doing an experiment, there was no pressure.

So an experimental improved bedrock was hastily created, and Arthur visited periodically to talk to practitioners about how to manage the improved bedrock.

“If the urine smells bad, doesn’t that mean there’s not enough lye? Why is that? Did the water used to wash the saltpeter field originally smell bad? As far as I know, if the urine smells bad during the fermentation process, you add more lye.”

“Please evenly sprinkle the water that has accumulated under the bed of rocks on top. Don’t you think you would want to tear down the bed of rocks and wash it with water?”

After months of meddling here and there in the experimental stone field, the toilet project was finally on track and the manure began to be transported.

Arthur specifically instructed that the sewage bins containing mixed feces and urine and the urine bins containing only urine be managed separately.

“Why should I do that?”

The porter asked dissatisfiedly. Isn’t it just as dirty anyway?

Arthur answered.

“To figure out what is more effective. If we can find a more efficient way, wouldn’t it save you a lot of work?”

Since the saltpeter fields that only used manure and the saltpeter fields that only used urine were divided in this way, Count Ullorence naturally approved. He was already waiting for the white powder that was beginning to appear on the surface of the saltpeter fields that had been built like a wall to gather enough white powder to be able to test whether it was really saltpeter crystals, while spinning a circuit of hope.

It must have been around that time that a riot broke out in Saint Skaal, the capital of the Kingdom of Skaal.

* * *

36-Class conflict

The riots at St. Scala were strikes, and they were easily suppressed. But the strikes were not a one-time thing.

It happened over and over again, and also by surprise.