The Greatest Estate Designer - Chapter 46.1

“Starting from today, we will turn this place into a fertile land!”

“Ribbit!”

Bangg!

Just when Lloyd began his speech, a frog in the swamp croaked loudly as if it was answering him.

However, none of the 120 members of the Construction Team who gathered there laughed. How could they laugh, when right beside Lloyd, there stood Sir Javier and Sir Bayern with a serious expression on their faces?

Some might’ve done that, but not the majority of the soldiers.

‘How will this construction proceed?’ the soldiers thought.

The ondol room, the paved road, the coal mine, and a part of the seokbinggo. Then, there was the warehouse expansion and the orc miners’ accommodations.

Once, they were just ordinary soldiers in an ordinary territory. However, things were different now. The soldiers had been transformed into Construction Team members, trained by numerous construction projects.

Therefore, they knew from experience how important this speech today was.

‘Young Master Lloyd considers this process as important.’

A speech before a full-scale construction. It didn’t contain any rhetoric, nor were there useless aspirations nor empty promises.

The speech that came out of Lloyd’s mouth was packed with information that was essential for the Construction Team members.

“Now, first of all, let me tell you the things you need to take note of for this construction. This is a swampy terrain. Don’t move around alone if you don’t really need to. If you’re unlucky and get your feet stuck in the swamp, you’ll be in trouble. And what if you got into such trouble? People will have a hard time seeing and finding you because there are so many reeds everywhere. The sunlight will be enough to toast your body dry like a beef jerky. If you don’t want it to happen, move in pairs. Do all of you understand?”

“Yes!”

“Okay. The next point you need to take a note of is, the weather is hot. But because we’re in the wetlands, it’s also humid. So, what should you do when faced with this situation?”

“Take a break once every hour!”

“That’s correct. And what’s the other one?”

“Drink salt water every break!”

“Ding dong daeng. We will always provide salt water on the construction site, so feel free to drink it. Don’t secretly gulp down too much plain water because you’re thirsty. You’re going to get dizzy after turning around once and then pass out.”

“Excuse me, what if the salt water doesn’t taste good?” a Construction Team member timidly raised his hand and inquired. He seemed to be a newcomer who recently entered the Construction Team as the group had just doubled in size.

Lloyd smiled generously at the newcomer. “Even so, you still have to drink it.”

“Do I have to drink it even if I feel like vomiting?”

“Yeah. If you didn’t drink it and then passed out, thus missing a whole day of work, I’ll deduct one daily wage from your bonus.”

“I understand!”

Lloyd was ruthless when it came to money. Especially when there were a lot of soldiers who volunteered to join the Construction Team hoping for a large bonus.

“And finally, the most important thing you need to take note of, Hamang will drink the water from the swamp here. So if you peed in the swamp while working, you’re committing a breach of etiquette and I will throw you into jail. Make sure to use the bathroom that has been installed for that purpose, got it?”

“I understand!”

“Now then, let’s get started. Hey, Hamang?”

“Ha-mang!”

Lloyd took Hamang out from his chest pocket. The eyes of the Construction Team members widened when they saw Hamang for the first time. Young Master seemed to have summoned a new one. 

There was a brief commotion among the members of the Construction Team, but soon after, all of their mouths were wide open in astonishment. 

“Hey, Hamang? Can you drink some of the water over here?”

“Ha-ma-mang? Ha-mang?”

“Yeah, you can drink all of it.”

“Ha-mang?”

“Oh, after that? Can you see the river tributaries over there?”

“Ha-ma-mang!”

“Yeah, it’s fine if you roll over there and spit it out. But, don’t spit it out all at once because the downstream will get flooded.”

“Ha-mang!”

Lloyd put down Hamang, who nodded as if he understood his assignment. As if he had been waiting for this, Hamang put his round head into the swamp water. Then, he started to drink the water.

“Heu-meung! Gulp gulp.” 

Sluurpppp.

Hamang sucked in the water, forming a whirlpool in the surrounding area. It was as if a giant vacuum cleaner was sucking in the water.

Hamang was swelling up as much as the swamp water was receding rapidly. He became 10 meters, 20 meters, and eventually 50 meters big.

“…. Gasp.” The jaws of the Construction Team Members, who had been ordered in advance to move far into the distance by Lloyd, dropped to the floor. 

However, the surprise didn’t end here.

“Heu-meung!”

Hamang, whose body had grown gigantic, moved by rolling his body towards the river tributaries Lloyd had pointed. It was like seeing a 50-meter big water balloon rolling about. When he arrived, Hamang slowly spat out the water.

“Heu-meu-meung! Huweekkkkk-”

Pour pour pour.

Thousands of trout, frogs, and other aquatic organisms that had been gulped by Hamang were all suddenly being migrated to the river tributaries, becoming new inhabitants to the ecosystem.

After that, the same process was repeated several times. Drinking water from the swamp, swelling up into a giant, rolling over to the river tributaries, and spat out the water that had been drunk.

“What is it that I’m seeing right now…?” the soldiers dazedly murmured to themselves as the water that once had fully filled the swamp nearby had completely vanished. Of course not all of the water in the wetlands, but only water from the area nearby.

However, this preparation was sufficient for today’s construction.

Lloyd proceeded to give out instructions.

“Attention, everybody! Get your shovel ready!”

“Shovel, ready!”

“Starting from now, remove all the remaining roots and rotten plants from the ground I marked. Let’s yell our slogan together to start the construction strongly!”

“UWOOOHHH!”

The members of the Construction Team were dispatched. They worked hard to shovel while sweating profusely.

The rotten roots and branches of various submerged plants that remained were dug out and removed from the place where an embankment would be built.

Lloyd took the lead by personally shoveling together with them.

‘If this basic process isn’t done properly, we will have water leaking out of the poorly-made embankment that needs to be fixed later on. Hup!’ Lloyd thought.

When it came to building embankments, many assumed it’d be easy. Just kept on piling up a lot of soil until it formed a mound.

However, in reality, things didn’t work like that. Even the most simple-looking common embankments that were frequently seen everyday were built with sophisticated science and engineering at its core.

Building embankments wasn’t just about piling up a lot of soil like children playing with soil. 

This was especially true for this case.

‘Here, the ground is soft and damp.’

Completely cleaning up the roots and plant remnants from the ground was a necessary procedure. Likewise, stabilizing the ground by draining the water that settled under the ground was a necessary procedure as well.

“Javier?”

“Alright.”

Lloyd turned to look at Javier.

Javier, who had been informed of what he needed to do in advance, stepped forward. He then drew out his sword and then stabbed the spot on the ground that had been marked by Lloyd one by one.

Boom.

Javier’s mana circles started to collide with one another.  A strong force erupted from his sword. The force dug straight and deep into the ground vertically.

Soon, vertical holes 50 centimeters in diameter and 10 meters deep were drilled into the ground with 4 m intervals in between.

Lloyd then shouted, “Sir Bayern!”

“Alright!” Sir Bayern responded to Lloyd’s shout.

The Construction Team members under Sir Bayern began to move. They came bringing bamboo straws that had been cut into 11 meters long.

Javier then thrusted the bamboo straws into the 10-meter deep holes he had just Mana Blasted into the ground. The bamboo straws were made by stabbing the inner part of the bamboo stems to clean it. 

Next was Ppodong’s turn.

“Ppodong!”

“Ppeu-deung!”

Ppodong, who had been waiting, came running while swaying his chubby butt. He then proceeded to pour out the thing that was stored inside both of his cheek pockets onto the ground. 

“Ppeu-deu-deung! Huweekkk-”

Sshhhhh!

The thing inside was a large amount of sand that had been collected from the riverside in advance.

“Construction Team! Make the sand bank!”

“Roger that!”

The Construction Team members who were on standby moved with their shovels in hand. They rushed to the mountain of sand Ppodong had spat out. Then, they were scooping the sand to make a sand bank. Obviously, the bamboo straws that were inserted to the holes were at the middle part of the sand bank.

Tl/n: This chapter is so long! :’D I’ll update the continuation soon.