All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 308: A Royal Flush

I stared at the father-daughter combo. Well. That was unexpected. Still, it made me even more proud of Beatrice. She had been so afraid of talking to her father, and yet here she was, reprimanding him for his mess. The man looked sufficiently chastened, so I wouldn't reprimand him too much, but I did want to express my displeasure.

So I beeped at Beatrice. Normally, I would have simply projected my message, but I hoped that Beatrice would be able to make it more polite than I might've. Also, hearing the words from her might help to enforce her authority here.

"I cleaned up the disastrous mess outside," I stated firmly.

Beatrice frowned, then paled. "Uh, yes, master," she said before turning to her father. "Void says that it, er, cleaned up the mess outside."

The man stopped staring at me and shot a glance toward his daughter. Her father frowned. "A mess? Outside?"

Beatrice flinched slightly. "I think it means your beach."

Father stood up suddenly. "What?"

"Let's go see," she said, leading the way out of the room. Her father followed close behind. I could tell that, despite his sedate pace, there was a certain tension in his body. He obviously wanted to rush ahead to see what had happened.

I continued explaining the situation to Beatrice as we moved. Not just how I'd cleaned up the beach but also my sheer frustration at the intentionality of it being there. Really, who would want to build a field of dirt like that?

A few moments later, I swooped onto the veranda overlooking the glass monument to bad decisions. It sparkled attractively in the sunlight As the pair joined me on either side.

"What happened?" Beatrice muttered. "Master how?"

Her father just stared blankly, but I could see the corners of his mouth twitching. I began projecting words above my head. "I converted it into something better." Afterward, I explained with a slideshow of images how I'd melted the sand and then guided it, using my sanitation lamp and air to cool it quickly.

But as I continued to showcase my process, Beatrice's face just went even more pale. We all stayed there in silence for a long while until she eventually turned to her father.

"Father..." she began, her voice oddly strained. "I'm... sorry."

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?" Beatrice's father finally broke his silence. "This is incredible."

I saw a smile appear on his face for approximately 0.47 seconds before he quickly wiped it away, stoic once more. I wasn't sure if Beatrice had noticed, but she looked bewildered. "Butfather," she began. "You spent so much money and effort to maintain the beach."

He shook his head. "You're correct. However, the beach is just like the tea. It's not so much that I enjoyed the beach or that I enjoyed the tea, but the price and rarity of each is a status symbol. It is a strategic investment that allows me to access many clients and vendors that I wouldn't otherwise be able to reach. It also reassures investors that I have enough financial cushion to get them their investments back."

The man turned to face Beatrice more fully. "It's all about maintaining an image. And now?" He spread out a hand. "This must be the only glass beach in the entire world. No one's even considered a thing, much less had the resources to make it happen. No one will know how I managed to do it or how much it cost. And if they ever do figure it out, they'll just be even more amazed. Why, it's going to up my influence considerably."

Beatrice's father turned toward the entryway and tapped his finger on the railing twice. "Chives! Get me Shoot. I forgot that he's out. I'll need to tell him to bring up some of our contracts for renegotiation."

Now it was Beatrice's turn to go still. Honestly, this wasn't the reaction I was expecting. I mean, I was glad that her father appreciated the improvement, of course. His ability to recognize a vastly superior product redeemed him a bit in my book. But Beatrice seemed pretty surprised still.

"I... guess that makes sense," she admitted eventually. "I'm just... glad that you're not annoyed, I guess."

Stolen story; please report.

He shrugged. "Not much I can do about it. But might as well turn it to my advantage."

We went back inside, and I inspected the rest of the house while the two of them chatted for a bit longer. I have to say, I definitely approved of whoever had maintained it.

I had expected the worst after the beach debacle, but this was excellent. If this was the standard he kept at home, then it was no wonder that Beatrice was so orderly herself.

The conversation was still awkward and stilted, but it flowed slightly more naturally, with a maybe 8.4% reduction in silence by the time that Beatrice and I needed to go. It really started to sound more like two people having a conversation once they started talking about tax policies, but otherwise, it was almost painfully awkward.

But it was getting better.

I didn't go back to that house over the week that our entourage was in the city taking care of business. Instead, I busied myself carving out a sewer system. I wouldn't have time to do the full rework of everything - fixing the streets, replacing windows, and getting water running - but a sewer system was the next best thing. Based on my calculations, it did the most to keep a city clean and people healthy. And it was something I could accomplish in a week.

The bare basics weren't too bad, but hooking it up to each house and waste center took a little bit of time. By far, the most time-consuming part was explaining to people what I was doing in their houses and that I wasn't trying to hurt anyone, just make their lives a little better. That, and instructing them how to use and maintain the new systems.

Once they understood what was going on, things progressed very similarly to how they'd gone in the capital. A new profession was created, and teams of people went through the sewers, making sure everything was in order, dealing with blockages and any critters that got in, monstrous or otherwise. In fact, many of the initial jobs were taken up by the low-level adventurers who otherwise hadn't had much to do recently.

Eventually, though, our time came to an end. We left behind some soldiers to maintain order and establish a corridor of information, along with patrols back and forth between the capital and the city. Then, we headed to our next stop.

We didn't go right back to the capital but to the next city on the coast. As we marched, I fixed up the road again and occasionally would go off to investigate interesting points around the area. At one point, I found a cave full of glowing crystals a quarter mile underground. There was a long, winding passage to get down to it, but I left some markers for humans to follow and decided I would file a quest with the Adventurers' Guild in the next city so that they could go explore it. It seemed like an interesting place to have an adventure.

After that, it only took three days for us to arrive in the next port city. This time, the acquisition went a little less smoothly. In the end, the governor surrendered and "bent the knee," as Arthur put it, but it had taken a little bit of a show of force - surrounding the city and making it look like we were setting up for a siege. Whether or not they would actually go through with it, I wasn't sure, but it sure frightened the governor enough that he capitulated.

The merchants were very happy with the road we had built, so there weren't too many complaints afterward. Apparently, news of us had arrived not long after we did, via ship from the town we had just left, and news of the improvements we made was also received well. It helped things a lot.

We spent another week there, and I built another sewer system. I was getting a little bit faster at the process, but training the people wasn't becoming any easier. I needed to find a better way of doing that.

We moved on, and the cycle repeated with several more cities. Eventually, I figured out the best way to train people with the sewer system was to bring some of the people I had trained in the previous city with us, and they would help set up the sewer network while I could focus on building it.

I hadn't expected that too many people would be up for the job, but apparently, there were more than enough eager participants. Especially after Beatrice talked to them about class changes.

By the fourth city, I finished the sewers in three days - a new record! With all of my extra time, I started procuring running water for this city. I wasn't going to be able to hook it up to everyone's house, not even close, but I was able to replace most of the well systems so that all the community centers had access to fresh running water. Stuff that wouldn't likely be contaminated like wells could be. If the plumbing profession ever got out of the capital, they could also work on laying enough pipe to get it sorted into every house. If not, I could always come back later.

We continued on, staying a week in each city and spending roughly a week traveling between them until summer was coming to an end. The weather was beginning to turn colder, making traveling much, much slower. And so, we turned back toward the capital.

By now, we had made a crisscrossing canvas of roads all throughout the kingdom. We hadn't even visited half of the major cities yet, but a good portion of the network was fully established, and trade routes had been drastically shortened. Beatrix was absolutely ecstatic.

We took advantage of the nice roads and made our way back to the capital at a much faster pace. Once we arrived, Beatrice suggested that we make one last stop and build one more road before the snow began. So, the two of us headed all the way back to the castle and our friends there. We built a good, solid road leading to the forest and then a small, narrow path through the valley, forest, and into the castle. I offered to build a bigger one, but Beatrice declined. Evidently, the invasion made her a bit wary of having such a large path to the heart of our home.

When we were visible from the outer wall of the castle, a shout of joy went up from the walls, and moments later, it was echoed by many throats from within. The portcullis was raised, and I couldn't wait to go inside and say hello. It had been too long.

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