I roamed my eyes around Father's main office as The Honorable Kilian Hurtzhofen guided me to take a seat at a vacant couch inside. "Do you want to have some tea, or coffee, Milady?" He asked, I modestly shook my head. "I am fine, thank you," I said with a smile.
"I see, then please excuse me." He said before bowing his head and then rushing towards Father and helped him sort out the paper works on top of his desk. "Before I forgot, is Count Drechsler already arrived?" I glanced at my father as he asked his assistant. "Yes, Your Grace. Should I call him for you?" The Honorable Kilian Hurtzhofen answered.
Ugh, it's so hard to address him, it was too long!
How were people from this era keeping up with this! I surely can't!
"There's no need for that. Just accompany Frieda towards the Count's office." He said. His assistant turned to me in confusion for a moment before bowing his head to father. Woah, how professional. I wish the madam, his aunt was like that too.
"I see, very well then, Milady. Shall we go now?" The assistant said he helped me stand up so I thanked him. "We will go now, Father," I said.
Before we could even leave the room completely, Father spoke once more. "I will check on you later." He said as he put on his glasses and started assessing the papers, stacked on his desk. "Yes, father," I answered, the assistant opened the door for me.
As we left the room, I saw my guards and Maria standing outside. I smiled at them. "There you are. Come on, join us, The Honorable Kilian Hurtzhofen will escort us to Count Drechsler's office." I said. I noticed the assistant glanced in our direction for a moment.
"It seemed that it was a lot of trouble for Milady to speak of my name, it would be much easier and will be my honour if you call me Kilian instead." He said I was surprised by what he said. Was that noticeable?
"The honour was mine, Kilian," I said with a smile, he still maintained his blank expression. He's not a fan of smiling, eh?
"We will be there, in a moment, milady." He said as we walked towards a long hallway. We walked past a couple of bureaucrats and they were in awe as they saw me walking along the hallway, but of course, they didn't forget to greet me.
Kilian was quiet as we walked and I was shy to open up a conversation with him because it was the first time we met and I could not think of anything to talk about. "We have arrived, milady." He said, he knocked at the door and someone responded so he opened it up.
"Kilian?" I heard a man's voice inside. "My Lord Drechsler, Third Lady Frieda Landerborne has come here to discuss something with you." He said as he showed me the way, I gave him a slight nod with a smile as I gave a curtsy at the count. "Greetings, My Lord Drechsler. It is I, Frieda Landerborne." I greeted him, he stood up in surprise as he walked around his table to give a peck to my hand.
"Milady, what a surprise." He said afterwards.
The Count was probably in his late 20s. If I was in my previous world, I would be surprised to see these many young people having these high positions in the government. But I almost forgot that the life expectancy of this era was 30 to 35 years old. To be honest, Father was a miracle to still be this strong in his late 40s.
Well, the Count have brown hair, he's fairly tall, his eyes were orange in colour. He also accumulated some visible fine lines on his face, he must be greatly stressed by his job. Just like any other people in the Chancery office, we wore a blue uniform with gold lining, a black cravat with the kingdom's medallion right above it.
I glanced behind him and saw several paper works, stacked on top of his desk and below it as well. "Oh, forgive me, My Lord, I think I came at the wrong time," I said with an apologetic expression, with both my hands covering my mouth.
"Oh, no! no! You have nothing to apologize, Milady. These many papers were a daily occurrence in my office." He said as he waved his hands and chuckled a bit. "But I am taking your time, you might need to extend your stay here, so I guess I should just come back next time," I said. He smiled at me.
"You went all the trouble to visit me here, milady. I could not just do that. Now then, what can I do for you, Milady? But before that, please have a seat," He asked with a bright smile. He guided me towards the couches in the middle of his office. Behind me, Maria and Kilian were standing. The Count sat across me, with his aide who's been here since earlier, standing behind him as well.
Dame Elise was standing at the door with one of the Count's knights while Sir Falcon was outside with another Knight, serving the count.
I heaved a sigh before speaking. "I have something to consult with you, My Lord." I started. "I will do anything I can do to help, Milady." He said. "But first, is it possible to summon the Master mason?" I asked. I can see the bafflement on his face but he maintained the smile on his face.
"Very well then. Connell, summon Sir Ludwig as soon as possible." The Count told his aide, the latter nodded before leaving Count's office. "Do you want any beverages, milady? A tea or coffee, perhaps?" He asked but I politely declined, I'm not a tea or coffee-person after all.
"As we wait for er Mason, I think it was just right for me to tell you about the purpose of my visit." I started. He nodded. "Yes, please start Milady." He said as he got serious.
I rolled open the scroll that I have been holding earlier. I can see the confusion on his face. "I came here to ask you about construction. Here is the rough sketch of a sewerage system that I design." Well, not my design since it was just a simplified version of the one that I can remember from my past life.
"A sewerage system?" He asked in astonishment as he stared at my drawing, suddenly, my nerves got the better of me and I blushed in embarrassment, showing him this bad sketch that I did. "I apologize for it was not the best drawing there is," I said, he smiled at me. "No, it was fine. I can clearly understand it, Milady." He said. "But please, explain further." He said.
"Ah yes, so this is a type of sewerage system that does not need a lot of digging. The deepest you will dig was for about 10 Kleine palm deep (A/N: I used the Dutch system before Napoleon introduced the metric system, it is equivalent to 30 cm)." I can see the doubt in his face but he didn't voice it out. "I see, please continue." He said.
"With the same process, used in the aqua dam, I decided to lower it done to the ground and make small tunnels out of it that combining to be a larger tunnel that will lead to a sewer treatment facility that will filter the wastewater so we can reuse it for farming and cleaning, and it is even possible for it to be drinkable," I explained.
"A filthy water that can be reused?" I noticed the shock expression on his face.
If I date this era, based on my past life, I would say that we are currently in the 14th century.
Water treatment was first invented in the 17th century, designed by Robert Thom in Scotland. I would not be surprised if they are this confused about what I am talking about.
"Yes, the easiest way to treat it was by the process called Ceramic Filter," I said.
"What is that milady?" He asked, with his forehead wrinkling in bafflement. "W-well, Ceramic filter is a type of filtering mechanism that restricts the particles that can enter the filtering system, this will catch all the unneeded particles that will make the water cleaner," I said. "This can be done by punching the smallest holes on a ceramic, the solids that came with the water will be trapped and will not be able to pass through the tubes," I added.
"Will that be able to filter out the filthy particles from the wastewater?" He asked hopefully, I smiled at him. "Indeed, my Lord." I sighed after that.
"Although we will need to find a way to punch small holes, smaller than the smallest measurement to make the Ceramic Filtering possible of producing clean water for us to drink," I answered.
"That's alright, I am here, the best engineer in the whole kingdom—oh, let me rephrase that— the whole empire."
All of us were startled when someone suddenly spoke from the door.
A guy with a well-toned physique, long black curly hair, tied into a ponytail, wearing a commoner's outfit with a huge smug grin on his face was standing at the door.
Who is this man?
"To be able to punch a hole that was smaller than the smallest measurement... I know I can make a mechanism that can allow a thing like that to happen." He crossed his arms as he walked towards me, he kneeled on the ground as he reached for my hands and kissed them.
I flinched in surprise, I heard the Count scolded this man. "Ludwig! How dare you!?" He exclaimed the knights rushed in our direction and quickly drew their swords and pointed it towards the man, the Count called Ludwig.
Ludwig? Oh, the Master mason!
"You scoundrel! Where did you get the audacity to kiss our lady's hand!?" Sir Falcon shouted as he pointed his sword at Sir Ludwig's neck.
The latter raised both of his hands as he slowly stood up. "You're more affected than the young lady herself, man, you should calm down." He said, maintaining his smug grin, trying to provoke Sir Falcon further. "Do you know who our lady is!?" Now it was Maria who was shouting.
"Now, now, who would not know the Third Lady of House Landerborne." Sir Ludwig said as he smirked at me. "It was my honour to make your acquaintance, Milady. I am Ludwig Maurer, the official Master mason of the Great Kingdom of Beleriadcrest."
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