The next morning I decide to produce the hand grain mill first thing. It took me quite a long time to determine the design. I do know how it works in principle, and I have seen pictures of it before. But how exactly it works is something else.

After a lot of thinking, I decided just to try something. So I create a small bowl of stone. And secondly, a grindstone that fills almost precisely the inside of the bowl. Then I hold the two parts together and rotate the millstone.

Yeah, I think that might work. But now how do I get the grain in and the finished flour out? And somehow I also have to apply constant pressure. After all, this is not an orange I want to squeeze...

After a while, I have an idea. And make a hole in the middle of the two pieces. And next, I take some of the iron I brought with me and form a crank. With that, I can fix the distance and let the grindstone rotate easily.

But that still doesn't do the trick... And then I notice something. I have thought way too complicated. The finished flour can simply pass through the gap between the bowl and the millstone.

And to feed the grain, I make a hole in the side of the bowl. If I now turn it 90 degrees, I can insert grain from the top, and a conical shape then conveys the grain to the outside.

Next, I make a holder out of wood to fix the mill at a 90-degree angle. And a funnel to simplify the refilling. But the first test was not really convincing. Because the grain does not behave the way, I want it to.

And after some more thinking, I decide to force it to behave the way I want. To do this, I form grooves in both the bowl and the grindstone. Like the thread of a snail, it takes over the transport. And the first test was very promising.

All I had to do was adjust the distance. To ensure that the fineness of the finished flour is correct. Which didn't take more than a few tries.

I probably used the wrong kind of stone for that. I once saw in a documentation that certain types of rocks are used for grain mills. And that they can even influence the taste. But at least now we have the necessary flour to bake bread.

And when I finished and handed the mill over to our new cook. I discover that I had spent the whole morning doing this little job...

So after I had a little snack with Isgard, we set off for the planned construction site. The carpenters and the mason are already on-site to have a look around.

"You really didn't have to wait for me. I'm sure there are other things you could have done..."

"I cannot do that, Your Highness. It is our duty to protect you."

"I am truly more than safe in this cave. No one can enter undetected. And there are always the traps if necessary."

"But that is only true as long as you are inside the cave. Who knows what can happen when you go to the construction site. Your Highness."

I'll try to talk to her for a while longer. And she listens to me politely and nods her head at my arguments. But I'm not getting anywhere. In fact, I'm lucky they're not both with me all the time.

Not that I have anything against their company, but I seem to have lost the right to step outside the door alone. Something I'll have to get used to, for better or worse.

Probably the same for everyone who has never had a bodyguard before and suddenly is under constant surveillance. I really need to learn how to handle a sword properly. Maybe I can win back a little freedom with it.

When we arrive at the construction site, the other dwarves seem to be involved in a discussion.

"Is there a problem here?

The dwarves all fall silent immediately and bow slightly to me. And after a short hesitation, it was the stonemason who spoke.

"I don't know if you would call it a problem, Your Highness. But none of us knows how to found a town. Which is why we're not sure where to begin."

Yeah, that is a problem. And since when are we founding a town? Haven't I always spoken of a village or a settlement? But it probably makes more sense to plan appropriately and not just build on it. Otherwise, it will be utterly chaotic, like in many old European cities.

"I see. Bring the measuring tools first, I'll draw the layout in the meantime."

So it is to become a planned city. The simplest would undoubtedly be a square layout, but that doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

In order to have the same distance to the town square from all ends, only a circular shape would be suitable. However, I decide on a hexagon. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems more accessible to me.

The next one is size. I have no idea how big I should plan. I'm sure architects spend a lot of time learning all this. But I doubt there's an architectural university nearby.

So I put the planned size at one square kilometre. My calculation skills tell me that in this case, a side length of 620 meters is necessary. Plus or minus a few centimetres.

Next, I set the side length of the town square to 62 meters. I'm still just guessing, but the size seems to me to be appropriate. If anything, it is probably too big, but that is really the least of the problems.

The main streets will then start from the middle of the side lengths. With one of them running parallel to the river nearby.

In the meantime, the workers have come back with the measuring tool. One of them immediately catches my eye. A Roman Groma. It is a simple but effective means to ensure straight lines over long distances.

The central part of the Groma are four plumb bobs which are attached to a cross with a string. The cross is then eccentrically fixed on a rod. The rod is then put into the earth. And a fifth plumb bob is then used to determine the centre of the measuring point.

And if you look in laterally so that the cords are precisely on top of each other, you can make a straight line. A second worker is then sent out with a rod and instructed until it is in line with the cords. All you have to do then is to determine the correct distance.

To make it easier for us, I modify one of the gromas so that it has six plumb lines instead of four. I thought about doing this whole thing like in school with a compass. But the distance seems too long for me to measure it with a string in this way.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was an even simpler solution for all this. But at least I can't think of one.

When I had explained the whole thing, however, I discovered a new problem. Apparently, nobody has heard of the unit meter. Which doesn't surprise me on the one hand, but doesn't stop me from introducing it.

After all, I'm a princess, so I take that liberty. And after I explained the advantage of the conversion, they were even half convinced that it would make sense.

For some reason, I can even tell you exactly how long a meter is. At first, I didn't even notice that. But all the quantities in my inventory were always metric. Like cubic meters of stone or kilograms of biomass. Obviously, it must be related to a skill. But why I use a different system than everyone else in this world, I don't really understand.

Next, we prepare a measuring line by making knots in the line at one-meter intervals. And then we start to measure.

And even though the explanation sounded really simple. It took us a while to gain enough experience with it so that it doesn't take forever every time.

The biggest problem was, who could have guessed. That all side lengths were really the same length. But in the end, we had all the markings we needed.

One staff was in the middle and six more in the corners of the hexagon. And then we had another six to mark the middle of the sides. From these, later on, the main roads would go away.

And when we finished, it was already evening. So we decided to go back to the cave. I doubt it, but hopefully, no bored goblin or something will come along and steal our sticks...

And after dinner, I'll retire directly to work on the plans for the town. My biggest concern is the order in which everything will be built. And how many workers we'll need.

Also, we should probably start farming sooner rather than later. You can't feed an endless number of people with hunting. Although we can probably import enough food from Bordertown for the time being.

We should probably also make contact with the surrounding villages. It would certainly be cheaper for us if we could buy grain and the like directly from there. On the other hand, we would probably have to transport it ourselves.

Anyway, I decide to create two more masons. And even those won't be enough. Once we start laying foundations.