It was a sunny spring day. The sun this year was brighter and warmer than any before it. Thanks to its blessing, the construction in the Frontera barony sailed along smoothly.
Heated flooring system construction continued to take place, one house at a time. The installation rate reached over thirty percent in preparation for the upcoming winter.
The mine construction also proceeded without any problems. The shield method prevented any accidents in the process. The workers were originally anxious about it, but now they felt relieved and focused on their work.
There was an atmosphere of vitality in the entire fiefdom. The farmers busily plowed the fields, while the soldiers in the engineering corps kept their noses to the grindstone. The women worked hard to keep the men supplied with meals and drinks. Even the children were busy. In spring, they used to go capture frogs. This year, the frogs enjoyed peace for the first time in their lives. Instead of chasing frogs, the kids hung around the construction site. Why? To catch a glimpse of Bangul, the summon partner Lloyd conjured for the project.
"Wow! She's come out!"
They would shout whenever Bangul made a rare appearance. When they cheered and hollered in excitement, Bangul never disappointed their little hearts. Even though she was out there to rest, she knew how to please her fans.
"Bangul! Ba-bangul!"
She'd take a bite of ground nearby. Then she'd release steel turds as she rattled her tail. Each time she did it, the children's shouting became more excited. That would bring the resting workers out of the mine to shout:
"Kids! Stop causing a fuss near the construction site! How many times do we have to tell you that it's dangerous out here!"
"No, it's not! It's safe here."
"You brats! If you don't listen to adults, ants as big as wolves will come to get you."
"That kind of ant doesn't exist!"
"Of course they do. Just wander up the mountain. There are many of those beasts in the eastern wasteland."
"But there aren't any here."
"Whoa! Won't you stop talking back!"
There was great energy and activity every day in the fiefdom. But not for everyone. There was one exception. That was Ppodong.
"Ppodong… Ppo-do-dong…"
I'm bored. Ppodong yawned at length as he thought to himself. I must have slept in. Wait, did I wake up in the morning and fall asleep again?
"Ppo-do-dong…"
He didn't actually have anything to do even if he did wake up early. That's how it was for the past few days. Lloyd didn't take him to the mine. He left him on the estate, advising him to relax and take a break once in a while. The reason was simple.
"I'm sorry. I don't have enough sunflower seeds. I think I barely even have enough for Bangul."
In order for Lloyd to mobilize his summons, he needed to feed them red sunflower seeds. That would make them gigantic. But Lloyd had a limited supply. They came in red and blue, and he used one RP each time he bought one of them. That's why Ppodong was left behind in the mansion.
Lloyd thought Bangul would make a better worker as she could dig tunnels much more safely.
"I'm also worried that you might hurt yourself. And the mine is a bit small for you. You can get badly hurt if it collapses. Do you get what I'm saying?"
Lloyd had merely comforted himself. Ppodong was slightly upset. But he knew that he couldn't complain. Lloyd was sincere when he said those words. So, ever since construction started, Ppodong was unemployed.
"Ppodong… Ppo-do-dong…"
He rolled one way and then the other way. Resting did feel nice, but it was too boring. There was no one to play with. For the entire day, he did nothing but roll around. First to the left, then to the right. But after twenty days passed, he resolved that he must take action and bring change to his monotonous existence.
"Ppodong! Ppo-do-do-dong!"
He shook his round head, his plump cheeks swinging. He thought to himself that something must be done.
"Ppodong!"
He needed to do something. The boredom would kill him at this rate. So, he made up his mind to go outside. Resolved, he kicked off his handkerchief and lifted himself up. Slowly, but steadily, he slid down the table leg. Then he waddled towards the door. He crawled up and pressed on the doorknob with his body.
Click. The door opened. And he went out of the room into the hallway.
"Ppodong?"
It was his first time going out this far without Lloyd. When he looked down the long hallway, a feeling of adventure and curiosity—not fear—swelled in his heart.
"Ppodong!"
Let's head out first. Ppodong trotted along the hallway. He went down the stairs and followed the maids. Sometime later, Ppodong found himself in the courtyard of the estate.
"Ppo-do-dong…"
The sun felt warm. The smell of grass in the soft wind pleased him. There was also a sweet scent of flowers coming from somewhere. The aroma led his way, and he followed it until he met eyes with someone.
"Oh!"
Ppodong heard the elegant voice of a human above. He looked up to see who it was. It was Baroness Frontera.
"A mouse…?"
"Ppodong?"
"Are you saying that you are not a mouse?"
"Ppodong!" He nodded.
Baroness Frontera, who was tending to her flower garden, removed her soiled gloves.
"I know now. You are my son's huge summon partner. Am I right?"
"Ppodong!"
"But what led you into this garden?"
"Ppo-do-dong? Ppodong."
"Hmn, I am sorry, but I cannot understand your words. Could it be… that you came to help me?"
"Ppodong?"
"I understand. Just as I thought. Is that right?"
"Ppo-do-dong?" Ppodong tilted his head to one side.
She smiled in satisfaction. "I'm very grateful. I was, in fact, concerned about my garden lately. Some mice have been ruining it badly."
"Ppodong?"
"They must be your cousins."
"Ppo-do-dong? Ppodong?"
"If possible, could you go find them? Please send them a message that I would like to keep my flower garden beautiful."
"Ppodong?"
"Can you do that?"
"Ppodong?"
Ppodong found himself nodding. But the truth was, he wasn't a cousin to the mice. He wasn't sure that they would be able to communicate. But her voice and smile felt so warm that he couldn't deny her. Besides, her request just gave him something to do, and it would ease the boredom he had been feeling.
"Ppo-do-dong! Ppodong?"
Ppodong stood up, supporting himself on two feet. He pounded his chest with his tiny paws as if to show his trustworthiness. After agreeing to go on this quest for Baroness Frontera, he rushed into the grass and disappeared.
****
Thwack!
"Push!"
Craaack! The energetic command rang loudly in the tunnel. Workers moved quickly, and the torches in the dark tunnel glinted on the sweaty muscles of the workers. They were covered with bulging veins. The steel shield slowly moved forward, and each time it lurched ahead, huge metal walls were placed behind it. The metal walls supported the weight of the tunnel. Nobody in the mine counted the number of metal walls they had built. They simply moved as they were ordered. As the blacksmiths and engineers panted for air, Lloyd yelled out a command.
"All right! Good job! Switch!"
"Switch!"
"On the double. Rest up. Next group, come in now!"
"Now!"
A group of blacksmiths and engineers moved from behind the shield, and they were replaced by another group.
"Master Lloyd, are you alright?" a blacksmith asked.
Lloyd chuckled. "Why? Are you worried?"
"Well, of course…"
"It's alright. It's not like I'm working like all of you are."
"But if you continue staying here in this hot area, without much air…"
"My, my, you're moving me to tears. Don't worry about me. Let's just get to work."
Lloyd waved him aside. The blacksmith turned and moved away. Lloyd was not fine. I'm burning. The mine was hot inside. It wasn't just warm. The place felt like a sauna. There was also barely any ventilation.
None of this surprised Lloyd, however. The area of excavation sat at the far end of the mine. The blind end. The temperature underground was naturally higher than on land. There was also the heat coming from the workers' bodies. Additionally, proper ventilation was out of the question as well.
If there was better technology, I'd have come up with a more efficient ventilation system. The construction of the tunnels hugely depended on ventilation. It directly correlated with the workers' safety. It wasn't good to breathe in large amounts of dust, but a lack of oxygen in an enclosed area could become a life-threatening situation. Knowing all this, Lloyd opted to create a makeshift ventilation system.
"Hey! Get your feet off the oxygen pipe," Lloyd shouted sharply. A soldier stepped back in shock, realizing that he had been stepping on a metal pipe as thick as an arm. The pipe served as the only channel to bring in oxygen from outside.
"We're holding up because at least we have that." The pipe was connected to the outside of the mine, where several workers operated a lever nonstop. The lever spun a pinwheel, sending air into the pipe to the end where they were.
"You could have created a hole in the pipe! You may not notice it now, but if you create a hole in the pipe, the air is going to get thinner as we go down. There would be no more fresh air coming in. Got that? Watch where you step."
"J… I'm sorry."
"Tsk. Forget it. Let's get to work."
"Y-yes!"
The stuffy and oppressive environment made Lloyd irritable. But he didn't have the luxury to take breaks outside as the others did.
"I need to supervise the project all the time." He had a long list of things to check.
First on the list was the course of the mine. He needed to make sure that the shield was burrowing in the right direction, that is, toward the layer where coal was located. Thankfully, I have detailed records of the previous baron. He had paid a great sum to hire wizards and conduct a geographical investigation of the place, meticulously recording the seam of coal they had found then. They made setting the path much easier. However, he had much more to watch out for.
Dozens of dangers we cannot see lurk underground. Like groundwater or a layer of methane gas. Hit the wrong area, and the underground water could flood the entire tunnel. A layer of methane gas was worse. It was flammable, so it could cause an explosion.
"We'd be completely done for." This was the scariest part of the coal mining project.
Coal fed on methoxylated aromatic compounds, breeding methane bacteria that create methane gas. Because of the methane produced by the microorganisms, gas layers inevitably lurked in coal mines.
"So, I can't let my guard down for even a second." Lloyd needed to use his surveying skill at least three times a day. What lay ahead needed to be checked on a regular basis. Aside from that, Lloyd had to stay vigilant to watch out for any tail voids between the moving shield and the metal walls.
"It can happen because the shield has a larger diameter than the metal wall." The diameter between the advancing shield and the metal walls built did have a slight difference. So that difference would cause the land to sink a little after the shield traveled forward. The difference was merely a couple of inches, but it had the potential to wreak havoc and bury everyone alive. It wasn't something to overlook.
"Like I'd let that happen." The scorching heat and the murky air made Lloyd fight to stay focused in the midst of it all. He removed his soaked shirt and sweated in the heat. When he got dizzy, he put his mouth down to the ventilation pipe and inhaled some fresh air. The construction continued like this for several days. The tunnel grew longer, getting closer to the coal he was aiming for.
"Just a little more." He struggled to relieve the stress that piled on with the hot and murky air around him. Each morning he woke up, his body felt like it weighed a ton. Everything would be all right if he just endured it for a little bit more. This was not an unfamiliar situation for Lloyd.
"It was even worse back then!" Compared to the days he spent in his single dorm room in Korea, this felt heavenly. Back there, he could hardly sleep. In the afternoon, his nose bled in the lecture rooms. At night, the same thing happened during his part-time jobs because of sheer exhaustion. But there was more. He had to squeeze in some time to finish a pile of school assignments. The easiest way to make a few more hours in the day was to sleep less.
He cut down his sleep time one hour after another. Sleep deprivation and fatigue became routine. Like a zombie on the verge of collapse, he studied and worked day and night.
"But right now, I can eat to my heart's content and get a good night's sleep." It's only hard during the actual construction time. The food quality was incomparably better here than during his days as a student.
"All I had was the free rice and kimchi the dormitory offered!" These memories straightened out his attitude. He never wanted to go back to those days. He resolved every day to make this fiefdom more prosperous. That determination and resolve became the drive that kept the construction going without pause.
As the days progressed, Bangul and the workers became more proficient. The construction was picking up its pace. And finally, many days later, Lloyd's surveying skill led to the seam of coal.
It finally appeared. Just sixteen feet from their base awaited a rich black bed of coal. Treasure from underground… Coal.
"All right, we're almost there! Let's go!"
"Let's go!"
"Bangul!"
Lloyd shouted in excitement. The workers and Bangul cheered with him. Even the usually calm Javier shouted with the rest. Everyone felt it. The difficult digging was nearing its end. They could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"Bba-bangul!"
Bangul gobbled up one more chunk of soil right before the coal bed.
Translator: https://bettertranslation9.wordpress.com