Chapter 44 - Road

Having succeeded in creating the spell [Wall Construction], I decided to start building a road next. (TLN: Wall door questions? Read on....)

Right now, the wall is surrounding a square-shaped piece of land with a length of 4km.

There is a forest on the northern side and a village on the southern side.

For the time being, I will make a road toward the doorway that is the junction between the base and the village in the wall and the doorway that connects to the designated protected forest area in the forest on the northern side.

After having reincarnated in this world, I feel gratitude to roads.....

Because I can't find a decent road here.

Basically, there is a road around here that people often pass by, but that was made naturally.

It was rough on the way from the village to the city.

It was difficult to walk and ride in a cart on a road with just the obstacles that could cause traffic closures removed and the minimum maintenance that were needed.

I want to make something that was a little better that that, at least.

Actually, I thought I had already prepared something like a passage to the entrance on the wall that I am planning to create.

I used [Soil Improvement] for the part to be used as a field, but I kept a road-like path by using [Leveling].

But there were those who ruined that.

They not beasts like the wild boars, but humans.

The people who undertake work in my land, including my brother, had neglected to maintain it.

[Leveling] makes it so that the land is clean and flat, so it is very easy to walk on it.

However, if you are moving something by pulling a cart loaded with harvested goods, the ground will be scooped out where the wheels touch it.

As long as that continues, the soil becomes bumpy, which makes it difficult to move the cart.

Then what do you do?

You then have to travel over the field as far as you need to to not be stopped by the uneven soil. The people working here decided to start moving through the field and not the road that had gotten bumpy, but were pretty careful about it at the beginning.

I was also careful at first.

However, it seems that human beings have a thought circuit that they think they can do something when they see other people doing it.

Before I knew it, most people started to move on the fields as they pleased without following the route I had originally decided everyone should move on.

They could be very careful, but there is a possibility that they will not heed that advice.

If so, I want to secure what can be called a solid road at this time.

That was my thought process.

* * *

"I shouldn't worry ..."

I tried making some roads with magic.

At first, I thought about solidifying the road with concrete.

However, there was something I was worried about.

Sure, concrete and asphalt roads look pretty, but I think the people who ordered them actually had to pay for maintenance.

It may not make sense to consider the construction and maintenance costs because the road I am making is made by magic anyway, but is it too greedy for me to want to make a long-lasting road which may be a big deal in the future?

With that in mind, I rushed into the task of digging up memories and information that I had heard in my previous life.

I'm not sure about everything, because I've never been involved in road building.

However, I remember hearing that roads that were more than 1000 years old still remain today.

One such type of roads are the cobblestone roads created by the ancient Roman Empire.

I've heard that the ancient nations that have existed since B.C. certainly have roads they have created with their outstanding technology survive to this day.

Regardless of how hard it was to maintain, I should have seen on TV that it certainly made a lot of sense.

The basic method should have been like this.

First, dig deep into the ground according to how much you want to be the the width of the road.

Then, stones are buried in the hole, and clay and gravel are laid on that.

After that, the cobblestone stones are neatly placed on top of the clay and gravel.

At this time, the point to note is that when the cross section of the road is viewed from the side, the central part of the road rises slightly and becomes lower toward the end.

This is a device that allows water to flow to the edge of the road when it rains and make sure it will not flood.

But there are additional benefits.

It is said that the slight inclination makes it difficult for the cobblestone stones to shift due to the weight of each other pressing on every single cobblestone.

By doing this, it is possible to lay a road that is strong against water and heavy objects.

However, I think that there were some drawbacks.

Basically, it seems that this Roman road was only laid straight.

How thorough it was was that the road was laid in a straight line to the destination by making a tunnel and penetrating it without bypassing the mountain.

It's a scary think that you can only do it straight.

Can you tell how much the destinations 10km and 100km away will be off by just one degree of an angle towards the destination?

This road cannot be used without out-of-order measurement technology. (TLN: Most likely talking about how if you wanted to connect a road to another place with the Roman Empire's roads, you'd need to be precise, because if you were even 1 degree off, then after a long time, it would be really different. Like a star's light rays. The farther they get, the more spread-out they become. Example.

"Well, but do I want to try it with this thing?"

However, I dared to build this Roman road.

The reason is simply because.... it's my hobby.

That was the only reason I had a longing for cobblestone roads.

To be honest, I don't know how much effort it will take to maintain it, but once it's spell is patented, it won't be that much of a pain if I have my Familiars help me.

With that in mind, I started to work on the image in my head to create a new road.