They got to the edge of town, Silva looked at the space that was there, then turned to Elaine. "I need a shovel, a hoe, and an axe as well. Can you get that from the blacksmith? Oh yeah, and something to carry dirt inside," he said.
Panic filled her face immediately. "Young master, I thought you wanted to have the people of the town work. Why are you asking for those materials for yourself?" she asked.
"Elaine, the best way to get people to believe in a cause is when the leader wholeheartedly believes in that cause as well," he said with a smile, then pulled out a gold coin and placed it in her hand.
She was reluctant, but she went. Raze sat down on a rock and looked at the town, then he pulled out the plans from his pocket.
It was the blueprint for a bathhouse. He made sure he drew it to perfection, making sure that he got every detail.
Now why would he want to build something like this? Incentive. If people saw this and knew the use, they would most definitely be eager to help build it, and when they felt the goodness, they would definitely want to help him more because now they had seen the great things he could do.
"Just a little bit of business psychology," he muttered.
A few minutes later, she returned with what he asked for. They were a lot less fine-tuned than what he knew from Earth, but they would do for now.
He walked up to them and picked the hoe. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt, took it off, and handed it to her, exposing his pale and frail body to the sun.
He handed her the shirt. She took it with worry. "Young master, I heavily advise against what you want to do, it's really dangerous," she said.
"Don't worry about it, Elaine," he said with an assuring smile.
'Oh, I'm going to die. Why do I have to do this? Look at my arms, I'm not built for this type of freaking labor,' he cried in his mind as he walked away from her.
He lifted the hoe and swung down. It hit the ground and went a few inches deep.
'Huh? That's the deepest I could take it? What the actual hell? I'm sooo weak.'
He gritted his teeth and readied it again, swinging down the second time. And so he began, marking out the place where the bathhouse would sit.
It went on for half an hour and nothing happened, not until the lady from the bakery arrived with bread. She saw what was happening and asked. Elaine whispered it to her, and she was stunned.
Raze noticed that and couldn't help but smile. The seed had been planted, and he knew this because she rushed off after hearing that.
And only a few minutes later, a couple of men came. They stood at a distance and watched for a while before they turned to leave, but Raze wasn't bothered. He knew what was happening now.
And as he thought, half an hour went by. He was soaked in sweat and already wishing he never started, but he had marked out all the bathhouse, showing where the foundation should be.
"Young master, young master," Elaine called to him, and when he looked up, he saw over fifty men, young and old, standing there, each with a building-related tool in his hands.
He stood on, his hoe still in his hands, and a smile formed on his face.
One of the men stepped forward. He was ripped, with bulging muscles and tanned skin.
"Young master Raze, how can we be of help? I've been building for most of my life, so I'm sure I can assist," he said.
"You guys want to help?" Raze asked, acting shocked.
"Yes, we heard you are building something for the town, so we want to help," the man said. He looked around, and everyone nodded as well.
'Yup, now it's the time for the final pitch,' Raze thought.
"Well, everyone works hard in this town, doing what they can to survive, but there is no way to relax after a full day's work.
So I decided to make a bathhouse, a place where you can get steaming hot baths and relax, because everyone deserves to relax," he said with a smile, and those words sounded like the singing of an angel.
They all erupted in cheers of celebration, and before Raze even knew it, they took over the whole work. The few that knew how to cut trees started cutting them down, and those that knew how to lay a foundation already started.
Raze stood at the side watching, a grin on his face.
"Young master, was this your plan all along?" Elaine asked.
"Yes, the first part to changing the town is fixing it." He then turned around. "I'll be back in an hour. I need you to do me a favor, get as many water barrels as possible," he said to her.
After he left, he found a secluded corner and got into the library. He found the book for basic water magic and immediately started reading. He already knew that it was a lot easier to read when in the library, so he did it there.
[Skill seed detected]
[Water magic, unawakened]
He pushed himself to understand water magic in only an hour, and through the struggle and some recklessness, he managed to do just over an hour.
He returned to town where the workers were still working, with the barrels.
He walked past Elaine, stretched his hands, took a deep breath, and started casting water magic. The water formed and poured into the barrels, clean and sparkling.
The workers all hushed when they saw this, watching in awe.
"The young master knows magic?" one asked.
"Forget that, he is using it to make water for us. His own mana wasted for us? I'm going to make sure I work hard enough to earn that," one man said, and everyone erupted in cheers, pushing to continue working.
The townspeople never really knew Raze, so they held no feelings towards him. This being his first action for them made them love him right off the bat.
But not everyone could love you. Some were heavily linked to the baron and his sons, and they snuck off to tell.