All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 304: Another Brick In The Wall

It turned out that the things Beatrix wanted to talk about were actually rather useful. While she was gone, the city itself had done well enough, but there was a larger kingdom as a whole to worry about.

Already, a lot of the kingdom's systems were starting to fracture without the leadership they were used to. Some of the duchies had started to make aggressive moves against each other, and it was clear that someone powerful would need to come in and regain control from the top of the feudal pyramid. If they didn't take action soon, then there would be a civil war within the kingdom, and it would likely splinter.

Arthur was responsible for a lot of the military expertise underlying these predictions, but Beatrix contributed an awful lot herself. Talking about the value of trade between various areas, the consequences of it breaking down, and what resources were provided by key cities gave Bee a far clearer picture of the situation. A picture that made it quite clear that inaction would lead to a generally terrible time for everyone and even affect the neighboring countries.

A lot of information came from Susan and the Warden as well. They had been working on repairing their intelligence network but had repurposed it slightly to gather more general intelligence.

By the time everyone headed off for the evening, it was pretty obvious what she had to do. It wasn't going to be easy, but she needed to go and stop at pretty much every major city or stronghold of the kingdom and secure their allegiance. It would be hard to justify bringing Void along everywhere, which didn't bode well for her. At the end of the day, a young girl declaring herself queen and demanding fealty wasn't the most intimidating sight, though maybe she could leverage her high level somehow. But she would make do with whatever support her master provided.

Beatrix suggested that they go to Aliel first - her aunt's home city and the place where Bee had grown up. She said she had connections with the governor, and they would likely be able to at least get a proper meeting without anything too aggressive happening. However, Bee was a bit hesitant. As logical as it seemed, she knew that she wouldn't be able to visit the place without meeting her father again. It was inescapable. And she wasn't sure that she was ready for that. But Arthur was insistent that it was also the most strategically important city on the list. Its close proximity, huge population, and bustling port all made the city valuable to keep and dangerous to lose.

The capital itself was landlocked, but this city was not. Keeping access to it would give them the ability to move troops around their country much more quickly. Even more so if they could maintain the kingdom's navy. If they couldn't, then they could always build more ships in the coming year or two. Maybe sooner if Void agrees to help.

It left Bee with a lot to think about when she went to bed that night. Void had stayed with them the whole time, occasionally contributing a comment but mostly just slowly wandering around the room polishing the stone. She was certain that her master had more important things to do, but she was grateful for its company and support. It seemed that her master had missed her just as much as she missed it.

As she lay down to sleep, the list of things to do sprawled before her. Not just the ones she'd heard in the meeting but also other matters she'd brought back from her own trip. Many of the people who were living at the castle were quite ready to go home. The kids, their mothers, and even some of the soldiers wanted to return to the capital. She had agreed that they could put together a traveling party and escort them back.

She sighed. Her brief vacation was officially over. There were just so many things she needed to do tomorrow, but she pushed him all out of her head and closed her eyes. Hopefully, she'd get one more night of good rest. As she drifted off to sleep, she heard a slight whirring. The blankets shifted around her, seeming to tuck themselves under her chin comfortingly. She smiled.

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I stayed around Beatrice until she had fallen asleep. It was good to have her back, really. And not just because it meant I could leave the administrative things to her, either. I hadn't realized quite how much I enjoyed tucking her in at night.

But now, I had plenty of other things to take care of.

If we might be leaving the city for a while, then there were some things that I wanted to finish up beforehand. First and foremost was a project that had taken me several days to even get as far as I had. My pace was slightly disappointing, but with the scale of it, well, a bit of extra time was expected.

The wall around my skyscrapers needed to be completed. Building the buildings was easy, but the wall? That I had taken a little bit more time to perfect. I didn't want to rush it and leave it vulnerable to concentrated attacks. It had to be at least as good as the one we'd built around the castle if I wanted any peace of mind.

That's not to say that the buildings themselves were weak. I'd made them built to last. But if someone like Daedalus wanted to tear them down, there wasn't much I could do to stop that kind of power and still build them efficiently. Hence why I wanted to focus on the wall.

I had fixed the center of every stone I had used, aligning their internal and exterior structures into perfect lattices. They would take impact from any direction without cracking. I had carved them so they slot together seamlessly, their cores interlocking. I even covered them with my sealant so that no weathering would take place. Even I would be extremely pressed to even scratch the wall. But this all took time and very careful planning.

I even leveraged my dustbin to improve the rocks further. I ran some tests and figured out the optimal amount of time in my dustbin. Just 3.14 minutes inside, they improved their strength by a massive factor, changing their structure to become even more stable and orderly. It also let me shape them more easily in some cases. It took a lot of focus to mass-produce them, but then the end result was worth it.

It was a difficult task, but if I put my processors to it, I was sure that I could finish it up today or maybe tomorrow. Then, I'd be ready to leave the day after, and no one would have to worry about an assault on the city in our absence.

However, my various building projects did bring another issue to light: I had exhausted all the readily available supplies of stone near the city when building the towers. Now, the small mountain that had previously existed off to the side was carved down flat, and anything else I needed would have to be dug out of the ground. That was just a recipe for disaster, not to mention eyesores.

I considered carving another reservoir out from underneath the city. Still, there didn't seem to be a purpose for one, not with the waste and water taken care of. And honestly, I was getting a little bit concerned about damaging the structural integrity of the ground. So far, I'd be fine, but I didn't want to push it too much.

So I had to transport stones from a long way away. Worse, I had to work with a few at a time if I didn't want to risk overdoing it in my dustbin. The few times I had left stones in for too long, they became almost impossible to build with. Either they transformed into solid crystals, or they became strangely insubstantial like projections that my claw would pass through. A few even exploded violently the second that I took them out of the dustbin. It was less predictable than I liked.

As I worked with these rocks, a lot of the Convergence of the Faithful helped me out quite a bit. Jewel cutter skills helped me maintain the crystals, and stonemason skills helped me pick the best and most complete rocks to save time and energy. Soon enough, I was able to quarry them away with a simple activation of a very basic skill. That didn't involve taking too much energy, and I was able to carry ten times my usual carrying weight with my claw thanks to many of the manual labor classes, their skills stacking on top of each other. It made everything much quicker and easier, but still, There was just so much to do manually.

I worked late into the night until the sun was peeking over the horizon. As its rays reflected off of the polished stone, I evaluated the beautiful wall that I had almost completed. I felt satisfied. It was good enough that I could leave if I needed to, but not quite as good as I would like. There were a few more finishing touches it needed.

I checked in with Beatrice to see what she had to say. Maybe, if she was going to stay and work for the day before we headed out, I would work on adding some of those guard towers that I planned. Now, those would be a sight to behold. I had a few crystals that would make excellent decorations...

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