Country of Eruchea:-

Time flew by since the departure of the mother-daughter duo.

Finally, November was about to come to a close.

And with the approach of December, came the deadline for Harry’s sub-mission.

He had to build a large community home for all the former slaves without families and the poor free farmers.

But thankfully, the entire thing was done with just a week left in November.

Sure, it wasn’t ultra-perfect.

The construction equipment used could have been much better, the scale of the various utility plants could have been better and the level of the luxury inside could have been much higher.

But considering the time limit, it was a great achievement, especially in this era.

Harry had designed other construction vehicles, such as excavators and cement mixers and proper dump trucks with hydraulic pistons etc.

He had a very short time for construction and training, so the vehicles couldn’t be compared to the modern versions on Earth, but they got the job done pretty well.

Even the plants like the sewage plants, electricity plants and water plants weren’t all that great.

The ones that had been built were just small proto plants, build only to be used for the two large community homes he had built.

The community homes themselves were just large two-storey houses.

Both floors contained bedrooms for everyone, with 2-3 people sharing a room and a bathroom.

But the ground floor also contained other rooms such as a large kitchen, a living area, a recreational area with some of the popular board games of Etheldor etc.

These two building also contained proper water supply, sewage disposal and electricity supply.

Harry also had to hold large classes for these people to explain to them the importance of proper hygiene and stop them from defecating in the open.

The somewhat modern-looking bathrooms (that looked heavenly to them) really helped to drive the point home since everyone seemed to be excited to use the bathrooms rather than going to open fields.

As for the lighting, Harry went for LED bulbs just because he could.

There were other options as well, like the early electric bulb or the CFL bulb.

But he would need a vacuum to suck out the air inside the bulb in all cases.

Since he didn’t have time to make a usable vacuum pump, he used Qing and Shin’s help, who used their qi to extract all the air from inside the bulbs.

And since he was going this far, he figured that he could just make LEDs from the get-go.

And so, today was the day that these two buildings would be open!

Harry and his group went to the inauguration ceremony.

There wouldn’t be a national holiday declared today or anything, but some basic things like a speech and a ribbon cut had to be done.

Harry saw the large crowd that had gathered.

All the to-be residents were there and along with them, several other citizens had also gathered to watch the grand opening.

Even some of the blacksmiths and chemists had come along.

It was quite a big event since the lowest of the citizens of Eruchea were about to get the best of the facilities.

Harry had even left remodelling of his palace for this.

Everyone was excited about the events.

Except for one little group.

Namely, the nobles of the country.

When Harry had announced his plans, the nobles were quite annoyed by it.

Several complaints had come in Harry’s direction about it.

The nobles were enraged at the fact that former slaves were getting such advanced and heavenly houses while they continued to live in their old mansions.

Any amount of logical reasoning that Harry had used to justify his actions was all done in vain.

Even though those nobles seemed nice earlier since they didn’t immediately flee the country when Harry came around, they were still nobles.

And so, after a few weeks of arguments and debating, they finally decided to leave the country.

They declared that such a country was bound for destruction and that they didn’t want to stay here as it fell.

Even though this would exponentially increase Harry’s workload, he was still pretty happy.

All the future internal threats were now gone without causing major damage since this issue could have been used as an excuse for a coup d'état or a civil war by those nobles.

Harry had used the system points he got from inventing all the machines to do a mass memory edit and implant false information in the minds of everyone who left.

This way, no one outside the country would get to know their development.

Now, Harry started his speech at the inauguration ceremony.

He talked of all the efforts that people had put in to make all the inventions a reality.

He also told everyone about the factories he planned on constructing as well as the time it would take to modernise the entire country.

This speech was met with a lot of cheering.

Everyone seemed to be excited about getting better houses and more jobs.

But they were desperately waiting for Harry to stop speaking and finish with the ribbon-cutting thing.

Everyone was desperate to get into their new homes.

All the people who were supposed to be the new residents of the new buildings had been given tours of the place a few days back.

All the rooms and other areas of both the building were made exactly the same.

It wasn’t like these people could choose the style of their room since everyone would be getting the same general layout.

But Harry felt that it was a good idea to still show everyone the insides of the buildings.

Due to the people from the construction teams, a lot of people had already heard of the wonders present inside the buildings.

But it would create a whole another sense of awe if they saw the things with their own eyes.

And so, after laughing a little at the desperate faces of the crowd, Harry proceeded forward and cut the ribbon, marking the place open.

And the moment the ribbon fell to the ground, the crowd surged forward like a tsunami wave towards the buildings.

***

Robert was standing among the crowd gathered for the inauguration ceremony of the community shelters.

He wasn’t one of the former slaves or the poor farmers, nor was he related to one.

Robert was one of the many middle-class citizens who had just gathered to see the heavenly buildings for themselves.

He had never been inside himself but had heard of its wonders from friends and from the rumours that were floating around.

These two buildings spanned a large area and looked almost nothing like any other structures in Eruchea.

Unlike the other structures he had seen that was mostly built out of wood, this was made of high-quality looking stone.

But even this stone was unlike he had ever seen.

Some buildings and the walls of the country were made up of stone, but not anything like this one.

Those were made of bricks stacked on top of each other.

This, however, had completely smooth walls.

But the most shocking thing about this wasn’t the smooth stone walls, it was the amount of paint that had been used.

Robert had never seen that much paint in his life.

Even the royal palace had less paint.

But this building looked like its every inch was drenched in paint.

He got chills just thinking about the insane amount of money their king must have spent on this project.

“Hey, Bob!

Just when are we going to go into those houses!?”

A man standing beside Robert shouted into his ear.

“Buddy, just wait for his majesty to finish, will ya!”

This was Robert’s neighbour and friend, John.

“All right, fine…”

This guy was quite impatient as always.

Always wanting things to be done faster.

“But do you really think that all the rumours are true?”, whispered John.

The guy could never really control himself.

“What rumours?”, Robert whispered back.

“Ya know, about the lights that don’t use fire and that this place was made by pulling up rocks using earth magic?”

“I don’t know about the fire-less lights part but I’m sure that magic wasn’t used to build the walls and stuff.”

“What!?

How else can there be such smooth walls if not for magic!?

Are you out of your mind or something?”

“Have you been living under a rock all this time?

Everyone knows that his majesty contracted the masonry guild to build these structures.

And do you know anyone in the masonry guild who can use magic?”

Just then, they saw their king moving towards the ribbon after finishing his speech.

Robert started getting excited.

In just a few moments, they would be allowed to enter and see the insides of the new buildings themselves.

And just as the ribbon fell, everyone started rushing forward.

It would have been a stampede if not for all the knights. (Some people still referred to the Eruchean soldiers as knights.)

They went running around to slow the crowd down and put them in proper order.

Robert had quickly joined a line and avoided the knights coming towards him.

But his friend John seemed to be in a rush and was forcefully pushed into a nearby line by them.

And so, the crowd entered the two buildings after forming proper straight lines under the watch of the soldiers.

There was no way that the entire group could fit inside one building.

The insides were some of the cleanest and most elegant places Robert had seen.

Everything was squeaky clean and properly arranged.

The crowd gathered in what appeared to be a large hall.

He could see many people looking around the place in awe.

Others were being guided to other parts of the house by the knights.

Robert also joined in one of the lines that seemed to be going towards the bedrooms.

And after seeing the beauty on the inside of the building, he couldn’t care less about where John went.

Arriving in one of the bedrooms, Robert saw clear glass windows and a few glass balls on the walls.

Just how rich was their king to use so much glass!

And just then, one of the knights accompanying Robert flicked a little thing on the wall.

And lo! A magical sight appeared in front of all the people gathered in the room.

The glass orb things on the walls began glowing and producing lots of light.

Robert was shocked.

“The lights are without fire!

These are the rumoured fireless lights!”

Someone cried out.

So this was the mystical item from the rumours.

‘Maybe John was right!

There is no way that lights can be made without magic!

His majesty must have invited some mage to make these!’

Robert started to lose his rationality.

Previously, he thought that their king was a mortal man.

But after seeing the LED bulbs light up, he started thinking that Harry was some great mana user in disguise.

Robert himself tried repeating what the soldier had done.

And as he found out, the great task of making lights without flames could be done just by the flick of a simple small lever-like thing stuck on the wall.

And that’s when he also noticed the plastic of the switch.

“What’s this thing made of?

This doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen!”

The switch appeared to be made of some weird white material that didn’t look like metal, stone or wood.

But before Robert could inquire about the material, everyone was ushered out of the room.

So, he decided to leave it for now.

It was better to explore this heavenly place first.

Now, the group was guided to the kitchen area.

And it was yet another magical sight for all the people.

The kitchen looked more like a restaurant kitchen, with several cooking counters and stoves.

The stoves were like hot plates that worked with coal.

The coal was supposed to go into a compartment and the heat generated would heat a metal plate on top, to be used for cooking.

There was also an exhaust pipe-like chimney connected to the contraption to transfer any fumes generated to the outside.

All these were inventions that Harry had made long ago but had kept in the royal palace.

This was the first time that non-royal palace personnel were seeing these things.

There was even a large pantry for keeping all the raw materials and ingredients.

Gulp.

This level of luxury was something that no one had seen in a kitchen.

Kitchens were usually out in the open or used some other sort of ventilation.

But the cooking was done on an open flame.

This was when the soldiers started saying that all these items would also be available in the markets.

And just the thought of being able to use these heavenly things made everyone extremely happy.

This time, everyone started asking a lot of questions about everything they saw.

Thankfully, the soldiers had been briefed about the various items present here and were able to mostly answer all the questions.

Robert got to know about plastics but still couldn’t wrap his head around the explanation.

But when he heard that the alchemists made it, he just let it go.

Those guys made a lot of insanely complicated things. There was no use in trying to understand anything when they were involved.

Next on the list, everyone visited the recreational areas.

Although they weren’t allowed to play any of the games kept there, everyone was still excited by the news that all of that will be available in the market as well.

This was basically the end of the tour.

The garden area was still left, but Robert decided to leave it since it was optional.

Outside, he met John who had a dazed expression on his face.

Robert decided to leave him there.

His reaction looked too funny to be disturbed.

And Robert’s thoughts were too busy to worry about a dazed friend in the first place.

These new inventions would change everyone’s lives forever.

He could feel a new and massive wave of development coming their way.

And Robert was desperate to be a part of it.