I’m a Rookie, but I’m an Experienced Professional - Chapter 52
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 52
After the metal ring incident, Callix Crowbell no longer assigned me menial tasks.
With overtime and weekend work naturally disappearing, my daily life regained peace after a long time.
Of course, since I never knew when Callix Crowbell might change his mind, I couldn’t completely let my guard down.
The metal ring on my wrist was also bothering me.
“Why on earth did he put this on me?”
On the way to work by public carriage.
I muttered while looking down at the metal ring on my wrist.
Callix Crowbell said it was a magical tool to prevent strange people from approaching me, but I didn’t believe him.
There was no way that man would prepare such a thing for my sake.
Above all, from my perspective, the strangest and most dangerous person was Callix Crowbell himself.
Clatter-
Just then, the public carriage that had been running smoothly suddenly stopped.
“Ack.”
I hit my head against the window and let out a short scream.
Other passengers must have been thrown around too, as groans and sounds of people clutching their bodies erupted from here and there.
“How can you stop so suddenly!”
A large man opened the window connected to the driver’s seat and shouted angrily.
“It’s not like I wanted to do that, but there are carriages lined up ahead so I had no choice!”
As the coachman said, carriages were lined up ahead like a train.
“Move aside, move!”
“Pull your carriage back immediately!”
I could see officers trying to sort out the situation and onlookers who had gathered wondering what was happening.
“What’s going on?”
I opened the carriage window and asked someone nearby.
“There was a carriage accident. Looks like they slipped on the icy road.”
It had rained briefly last night, which must have caused the road to freeze.
Then they could just sprinkle sodium chloride or something… ah, there’s no way such a thing exists in this world.
I wrinkled my nose and looked ahead again. From what I could see, it didn’t look like it would clear before work hours.
So I got off the carriage thinking it would be better to walk. Other people seemed to have the same idea as they were getting off one by one.
Following the road, I naturally passed by the accident scene.
Two carriages were overturned and tangled together in the middle of the cobblestone road.
The wheels spun uselessly in the air, and the horses lay collapsed on the frozen cobblestone road, breathing heavily.
“Ugh, cough-.”
“A rescue carriage will come soon, so please hang in there a little longer.”
On one side, a man who appeared to be a coachman was trembling in pain with his face and clothes soaked in blood, and on the other side, a middle-aged man was clutching his leg and suppressing his groans.
‘Ugh, how horrible.’
Not wanting to see any more, I hurried away from that place.
I walked as fast as possible because I didn’t want to be late, but I still ended up being about 30 minutes late.
“I’m sorry for being late!”
“The public carriage suddenly stopped running…”
Fortunately, other people were late too.
Even Anton Brown showed up an hour late.
From what I heard, there had been freezing accidents everywhere.
“Still, there are fewer this year.”
“That’s right. Last year there were accidents almost every day.”
What? Why is everyone talking about this with smiles as if discussing today’s lunch menu?
I felt puzzled and chilled, but I soon understood the reason.
In Belheim, these kinds of freezing accidents happened very frequently every winter.
“Then shouldn’t we come up with countermeasures?”
This doesn’t seem like something to laugh off saying “oh, it happened again,” does it?
“We’ve tried melting the frozen roads and various other attempts, but they all failed.”
At Anton Brown’s words, the other employees nodded as if they agreed.
“Natural disasters can’t be helped. Well, if we protected it with magic like here, it would be cleanly resolved, but that costs a lot of money.”
I thought I’d heard this story somewhere before – it was the same story I heard during the summer and autumn rainy seasons.
Since magic was so developed, civil engineering and construction technology were stagnant to a deformed degree.
This was why there were no drainage facilities in such a large city.
High-ranking nobles and wealthy people could just block rain with magic barriers when it poured, and melt only the area in front of their houses with heat magic when roads froze.
For them, researching things like drainage systems or anti-freezing technology was a waste of time and budget.
Because of this, only poor commoners continued to suffer damage.
‘I should help them too.’
[Surprise Quest appears!]
As if reading my thoughts, a Quest window appeared before my eyes.
[Q. Reduce the probability of freezing accidents.]
[Reward: Up to 100,000p (0/100%)
[※ Points will be awarded according to achievement percentage. D-7]
It’s been a while since a surprise Quest appeared.
I liked both the Quest content and the reward, so I immediately pressed the accept button.
‘Now, how should I do this.’
The first thing that came to mind was sprinkling salt, but in this era, salt was as expensive and precious as gold.
If I carelessly sprinkled salt and the melted road froze again, it could become more dangerous, and problems like road corrosion could occur.
‘I need to find another method.’
While pondering what would be good, I remembered the method used by elderly people when I went on volunteer work to the countryside long ago.
That would be possible here too!
“Team leader, please prepare everything written here by tomorrow morning.”
I wrote down the necessary items on a note and handed it to Anton Brown.
Anton Brown, who was turning around saying he would prepare it right away, hesitated.
“…But is it right for me, the team leader, to do such menial work?”
“Menial work?”
I firmly grasped his hand holding the note.
“This is such important work. That’s why I’m trusting you and asking for your help, team leader.”
“You trust me…”
After mulling over my words, he soon nodded resolutely.
“I’ll take responsibility and prepare everything, so don’t worry.”
* * *
The next morning.
Anton Brown had prepared everything I had asked for.
“But what are you going to do with this?”
“What do you mean? I’m going to prevent the roads from freezing.”
“Huh? You can do that with these things?”
Anton Brown looked down at the contents of the box with a puzzled expression.
Inside were ashes left from cleaning the furnace, broken charcoal, and plenty of dry straw left over from the stable.
“I asked you to get them because it’s possible. Now, let’s take these and head toward the city gate.”
The area near the city gate had frequent carriage traffic, which caused an unusually high number of freezing accidents.
I headed toward the city gate with the City Planning Department employees, carrying the materials we had prepared together.
But unfortunately, there had been another accident. This time it was a freight carriage accident. Beside the overturned carriage, barrels had broken and milk was pouring out everywhere.
“Oh no, oh no. This business is ruined.”
Next to it, a man who appeared to be the carriage owner was wailing.
‘At least it’s fortunate that no one was hurt.’
I need to hurry and start working so no more terrible accidents like this happen.
“Alright, everyone.”
I clapped my hands to focus the employees’ attention.
“Please spread these materials on the street as I instruct you.”
“Are we really going to sprinkle this on the street? People might curse at us for dumping trash…”
When Anton Brown asked worriedly, the other employees nodded in agreement.
“Don’t worry, just do as I say.”
I put my hands on my hips and looked at the employees.
“I’ve never been wrong before, have I?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Let’s give it a try.”
As each employee picked up a box, I instructed them on what to do.
“First, we’ll sprinkle ash and charcoal thinly over the frozen road. Then we’ll break up straw into small pieces and scatter it. Focus mainly on the areas where carriages pass.”
The employees moved according to my instructions as if they had never doubted me.
“What are they doing over there?”
“I don’t know. They’re sprinkling something strange on the road…”
People whispered as they watched us. Just as Anton Brown had said, some people cursed at us, asking why we were spreading trash.
But I didn’t care and continued working.
After working for more than half a day, the effects gradually began to show.
“Huh, it’s much less slippery than before?”
“That’s right. Earlier it was so slippery it was hard to walk, but what happened?”
“Could that strange stuff really be effective?”
Really, everyone has to see it with their own eyes to believe it.
I thought I didn’t care what people said, but seeing them actually pleased made my shoulders lift with pride.
“Miss Eileen, should we sprinkle it over there too?”
“Let’s sprinkle it in the district areas while we’re at it.”
The employees, who had been somewhat intimidated by people’s criticism, became excited and offered various suggestions.
“It’s impossible to work on the entire city with this number of people. So let’s get help from the residents.”
“Help from the residents?”
Anton Brown asked back with a puzzled expression.
“Since it’s winter, every household uses firewood. Most of them will have charcoal and ash. Tell them to sprinkle that on the streets in front of their houses.”
“What about straw? Most houses in the inner city probably don’t have any.”
“We can secure that from nearby farms, distribute it to each administrative manager, and then have them allocate it to each house.”
“My goodness. How did you think of that? That’s amazing.”
Anton Brown even gave me a thumbs up as he praised me.
Not knowing about using charcoal and ash is one thing, but having to explain even such basic things.
With such a lack of talent, that man must have tried to appoint me as City Planning Department team leader when I was a newcomer.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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