The Red Lands

Progress on different fronts

Visible waves of heat emanated from the surface of the forge. Adjusting the lever that varied the speed of the pumping bellows, the apprentice reached for the tongs. Clad in a thick leather apron, a full leather headgear, and donning gloves extending to his shoulders, he appeared like a visiting alien. Using his familiar tool, he plunged a bar of iron into the white-hot coals.

Ignoring the raging embers, he squinted through the slit in the headpiece. Now and again, the young man lifted and rotated the glowing metal. Achieving uniformity in color, he shifted it from the heath in a full one-eighty movement. With a clang, it landed onto the flat top of the anvil. Soon after, the rhythm of pounding iron echoed in the smithy. The thick-shouldered young man was unaware of the conversation occurring nearby.

"Knut is the youngest of the five who decided to become blacksmiths. I've taught him the basics over the years. He might not be the sharpest of the lot, but he has a passion for forging small pieces. When Finn built the first clock, he was the one who did the ironwork."

"Good enough. I want to borrow him for the next two weeks. Ming is heading to Karst, so I want someone with blacksmithing skills to accompany him. Might as well have him search the slave traders and slums for willing labor."

Chu replied while passing a hand over his forehead. The closed door ensured the chill air outside didn't affect the sweltering climate inside the smithy.

"Hmm... two weeks, huh? We have already begun forging the metal parts for the treadwheels and large cogs. Knut is in charge of the reinforcing plates needed to rivet onto the roller wheels. He is the only one who can go since the others are too busy."

"Don't worry too much, hopefully, we can find a few apprentices to double up our speed. It's no problem for them to manufacture the parts at the village smithy. We can do the assembly here."

Chu exited the smithy after chatting with Bon. As for the short, burly, young man hammering near the forge, he had no idea of his transfer. Chu popped his head inside the large warehouse next door.

Halter and his construction crew circled, hammering and shouting around the frames of a wheel, double the height of a man. Even for a tall man like the carpenter, the position of the axle lay way above his head.

"Don't forget, Halter. The bigger the wheel, the easier it will be to lift and move heavy loads."

Chu remarked while watching them nail in the threaders. His physics was rusty as hell, but he knew these simple machines would require less effort to move the heavy loads.

As for the gear ratio, reduction, and other technical information, they would learn from the breakdowns along the way. Smiling on seeing the block and tackle in use while hanging from the thick rafter, he retreated.

Wrapping his scarf, Chu heard someone hollering his name while he walked towards the gate. Searching, he ambled towards the waving man.

Jim propped himself on the fence gate leading to the stables. Noticing one of the older teens raking away the straw on the snow, Chu figured they had finished taking care of the horses.

"Boss, the guys and I were wondering why you haven't given the orders to restart the lumber camp. We have been itching to try out the new two-man saws. Rind and Jing busted four of those blades while testing them out on our storage lumber. The four latest ones we have, however, cut through wood like butter."

"Haven't you guys been busy helping to frame the construction equipment and machinery in the warehouse?"

"Boss, we have already whittled away half of our lumber supply. As for the machinery, we can do the construction at night within the warm warehouse."

Chu stroked his chin while listening to the forty-plus-year-old man. Jim might have sprouted a few greys within that yellow-haired head, but he looked prime for his age. Seeing the boy not willing to grant permission, Jim pressed again.

"Boss, these young-uns have been breathing down my neck. If it's safety you're worried about, have Dyna patrol while we work. Everyone is on fire since you decided to build our own castle. Rind has been practicing squaring logs for weeks, and Jing is a master with the jack plane."

The two curly-haired men nodded in agreement while tidying up the stalls. A tall young man in his twenties exited the stall at the far end and walked up to the stable entrance. He had hair the color of tree bark tied into a ponytail. Unlike the burly, muscled men of the smithy, the lumberjacks sported rugged appearances. Like a triangle with broad shoulders and thin waists, their bodies radiated lean endurance.

"Elder Jim, did you tell the Boss?"

"No, I figured since you're a man, it's your responsibility, Root."

Jim said while placing a hand behind his back to stretch out, a groan.

Chu smiled at the newcomer. Jim handled the task of providing the farm with their full source of lumber. Over the years, he had managed and watched over these young men. Most of them were older teens who had recently entered their twenties. It wasn't strange that the six lumberjacks under Jim were young.

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In the early days, these recruits were enticed by the thrill of trapping in the forest. Jim taught them the little woodsman skills after a hard day's work and the joys of capturing prey. Later, they accompanied Dyna and Miki on nightly hunts. While some of the older recruits had joined Clod to enjoy a peaceful routine, these boys preferred flirting with danger.

Besides Doug and his party, Jim and his lumberjack crew probably interacted the most with the little Boss. Thus, bites and scratches were no strangers, nor frequent trips to the infirmary. Similarly, like the little redhead who taught them the basics, they also played truant during reading and writing classes.

The woodsmen on the farm had straightforward and easygoing personalities. When not in the woods working or hunting, they assisted Clod. From running errands in the village to harvesting corn, the teenagers matured into all-around workaholics. They could also wield a crossbow just as well as their ax.

"Ah, Boss. It's like this. Remember when we had the village holed up with us? Well, I helped a girl back then draw water from the well, and we got talking. After the raid, I visited her a couple of times in the village. She's willing to marry me, but the status of her old man has changed, so it may pose a problem."

Root said with a crestfallen face. Having the consent of a girl was worth nothing in this world. If her old man willed, he could haul her off to marry someone of greater benefit. The only reason this girl of beauty in Root's eyes wasn't taken lay in her shy nature.

"How old is she?"

Chu inquired. His household consisted of educated individuals, but he still had to ask. If anyone made the mistake and demanded Dyna or Sakura's hand in marriage at their present age, it might very well instigate a world war.

"She is a year younger than I. Like I said, the only reason she hasn't been married off is that she usually helped her sickly mother inside the house. I'm worried about new guards and merchants coming in for goods during Springtime, since her father may find a qualified suitor."

Chu made a wry grin. Looking up to stare at the face of the young man, Chu lectured,

"Is that why you guys have been pushing to return to the forest? Don't worry, castle or no castle, you're still a member of the farm. As for status and ranking, you belittle yourself, Root. Do you think those villagers shoot you a look of awe for nothing? Tell Stavia or Ms. May about this and have them bring the old man over for lunch. By the time those women are finished discussing with him, he'll be begging you to marry his lucky daughter."

The cloud over the face of the young man lifted on hearing the chuckle from the raven-haired teen.

"Thank you, Boss, but what about the lumber?"

The sound of the gong lifted their ears. Chu then gazed towards the treeline of the forest.

"Don't worry about it since I already have it covered. Speak of the devil, here they come..."

***

Sakura pulled the quilt around her while trying to sleep. For the past few weeks, that busybody Sahara hauled her away every morning to the Governor's mansion in Limerock City. There, in a warm, high-ceiling hall where few nobles and even fewer commoners trod, she hovered over a large table. Crunching numbers faster than the Chief Engineer with his abacus, she relegated the wizened, snow-haired man to the status of helper.

Her high school knowledge of fractured, basic management practices rained like gold from the heavens to the advisors. Seated with a revolutionary fragment of milky white glass on the table, she shared Chu's ideas for the proposed site. Four years of stumbling and navigating hiccups on the farm positioned her to view management differently.

Displaying exhaustion from her ordeal, Mrs. Thomas banished her to the darkness of the bedroom. Here, she struggled to slow the spinning cogs within her head. While in the middle of tossing a few ideas around in the darkness, the bedroom door creaked open.

"Oh, man. I'm tired like hell. I haven't felt like this since the time we butchered the variant boar. Huh? Who is this?"

"Sue? Is that you? How come you're also here? You've been practically living at the Alchemist Hall."

Sakura replied while turning to face the shadow of the newcomer. Sue, for her part, began to strip off her robe down to her ruffled undergarments. Dropping onto the empty bed beside the brunette, Sue sighed as her fingers searched for the covers.

"Two weeks. Two whole weeks, Sakura. Day and night, I have been sitting beside some of the oldest men in the Empire while watching failed pill concoctions. Grandmaster Bing found a troublesome recipe which he decided to share with Elder Shi. The two of them then decided to drop their problems onto my lap since Lady Dyna departed."

The short-haired, freckled-faced girl grumbled in the dark while continuing,

"Lady Dyna, my foot! That redhead is probably running around wild in the forest by now. Wait until we return home, I am going to rub her ears so hard, it will match the color of her hair."

"So, how come those old geezers let you go? Did they run out of ingredients?"

Sakura asked since she knew it would be very hard for Sue to slip away. Alchemists tend to exhaust themselves fully before taking a rest when confronting a difficult problem. Sue answered with a chuckle in the darkness.

"I solved it, hehe! Remember when Chu had Dareck carve grooves to hold a lid tightly on a pot?"

"You're talking about the time when we had to cook that hard deer?"

"Yup, that's the one. Remember, Chu complained it was an old grandfather deer since the meat was so tough?"

Sue said.

Sakura propped her head on her hand and turned towards her shadowy companion. When it came to Chu and his explanations, she recalled most of them. On the farm, she was the one who wrote them out as learning material to enlighten the others.

"I think he made it so the lid screwed onto the pot, and it also had a small hole in it. Chu said the pressure would build in the pot because of the trapped steam, and the deer ligaments would end up melting in your mouth."

"Well, after watching the pill concoction fail for two weeks, I realized the case was similar to that one. This pill concoction required little or no loss of diffusion by air. The higher the concentration remaining in the pot, the greater the chances of success. Using Spiritual energy, even Grandmaster Bing found it hard to do this while concentrating on melding the ingredients."

Sue harrumphed with pride while continuing.

"When I realized what the problem was, it just clicked. Elder Shi had the blacksmiths construct a cauldron immediately according to my instructions. A couple of hours ago, Grandmaster Bing successfully concocted a rare blood detoxification pill."

Sakura smiled on listening to the success of her companion. The girl who held the status of cook on their farm possessed intuition and knowledge to awe men who spent a lifetime in their chosen field. She had arrived in reverence and fear at the Academy owned by the most powerful organization in the Empire. Yet, even here, they paled before the knowledge of Chu. Recalling their conversation, Sakura asked a question.

"How come you only now arrived home if the experiment finished so early?"

Sue cast a look of frustration, which was lost in the darkness.

"Have you ever tried dodging old alchemists?"