Lester Randolph didn’t know why Lucas was suddenly interested in the logging and forestry industries of Falcon’s Bend, but with all the incredible ideas the boy had already offered to him, he didn’t see a reason to refuse, "Alright then. There’s a big sawmill right next to the main southern shipyard, so we can add that to the tour for today."

"Great!" Lucas beamed, very much looking forward to the tour he had been promised last night.

"As for seeing the forest," Count Randolph frowned slightly, "That will depend on how far out you’d like to go, and how deep you need to trek into the woods."

"Oh, you need not worry about that, Lord Randolph," Lucas smiled casually, "I only need to get an idea of what kind of tree species are common around Falcon’s Bend."

"I see," Lester nodded, "If that’s all, just talking to the local woodcutters will probably be sufficient. I’ll make the arrangements."

"I’m coming with you," Nicholas announced, his voice muffled as he scarfed down a pile of fried eggs.

"Really? Are you sure you’re up to that, Father?" Lester asked with a hint of worry in his tone, "You know what Mother said..."

"Bah! Each and every one of you! You think I’m some kind of invalid? That I can’t even handle a small walk around town!?" The burly former Count snarled as he banged his fists against the table, obviously taking offence to his son and wife’s ’pointless concerns’.

Count Randolph wanted to sigh, but he knew that would only irritate his father further. The only one who could deal with Nicholas Randolph when he got like this was the former mistress of the house, and she was, unfortunately, out of the city right now, so Lester simply nodded, "Very well. I’ll have the stables prepare your usual horse."

"Good, that’s what you should have said from the start," Nicholas Randolph snorted, stabbing a big piece of smoked meat on his plate and stuffing it into his mouth, chewing as if he had some kind of grudge against it.

.....

Standing on a raised walkway, staring out across the rocky beach, Lucas’ brow couldn’t help twitching at the sight before him.

If this was the biggest and best military shipyard in the Rockwell Kingdom, Lucas really worried about just how long it would be before he was able to reunite with his parents.

The situation wasn’t completely hopeless, there were at least a lot of skilled workers bustling about, but the level of technology that was being used was even more primitive than Lucas had imagined.

To put it simply, almost everything here was done with manual or tamed beast labour; whether it was carrying materials, shaping ship components, or even the simplest task of holding things in place, it was all done by hand.

Now, Lucas wasn’t expecting to see automated construction drones or zero-g 6DOF metallo-plasma fabricators, but why wasn’t there even waterwheel powered hammers or simple cranes?

Hell, why wasn’t there even proper scaffolding?

These were things that Lucas knew existed in the Rockwell Kingdom, but for some reason they were almost completely absent from this so-called shipyard.

"Glorious, isn’t it?" Count Randolph said proudly from the side, his voice breaking Lucas’ spiralling chain of thoughts.

"It certainly is... big," Lucas commented, giving the only honest compliment he was capable of.

Over 20 ships were currently being built here, about half of which seemed to be the same large-sized oar-and-sail ships he had previously been riding. This certainly made for a shocking first impression, but it only took a brief closer look for Lucas to realize that this shipyard was riddled with problems.

Even the large number of ships being built simultaneously was just a side-effect of the construction process not being coordinated or standardized in any way.

Different groups of shipwrights and labourers were all working on their own individual projects, sharing the same space but not cooperating in any meaningful way. It was all horribly inefficient, so the only way to keep producing enough ships to meet demand was to build many of them at once.

Letting out a sigh, Lucas had to keep reminding himself that this wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just the level of development of this world.

What seemed like simple, obvious improvements to Lucas were untested, unverified techniques to everyone else. With deadlines looming and hundreds of thousands of Gold Coins on the line, no one wanted to take risks, so they just followed traditional methods, leading to the current situation.

Shaking his head, Lucas decided to not intervene in the already established parts of the shipyard, as that would be pointless. He had dealt with professional craftsmen before and knew how stubborn they could be, especially when they were in the middle of a project.

If Lucas tried to suggest different ways of doing things, the best he could hope for was a polite rejection. At worst, he would make enemies with the professionals here and foster resentment among them, which would only make implementing improvements more difficult in the future.

No, after heading several innovative projects in both Redwood Town and Iron Rock, Lucas had learned that the best way to get the conservative nobles and craftsmen on his side was to physically show them a better way, prove to them it was more efficient and profitable to make changes, then slowly have them adapt to his way of doing things.

Of course, Lucas wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that he knew best in everything.

Some of the knowledge these old craftsmen had was still essential, and when it came to navigating the complexities of the Rockwell Kingdom’s financial and political systems, Lucas felt he would never be as adept as those Lords and Ladies who spent generations playing such games.

However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to push his own ideas when he felt there was a better way.

As such, Lucas decided to focus on the southern-most section of the shipyard, where the beach was still being cleared, the first step in preparing the ground for a new set of drydocks.

Turning to the Count, who was still happily observing the work going on before him, Lucas asked, "Lord Randolph, how much concrete is available in Falcon’s Bend?"

"Hm? Concrete? What’s that?" Lester Randolph tilted his head in confusion, never having heard of this term before.

Face-palming, Lucas realized his bad habit of letting knowledge from his inherited memories slip out when he was frustrated was coming back.

Clearing his throat, Lucas quickly corrected himself, "Sorry, I meant, how much flowing rock do you have?"

When Lucas first arrived in Herald City and got a closer look at its walls, he realized that a primitive form of cement, and by extension concrete, already existed in this world.

It took far longer to set and harden than the ’modern’ concretes Lucas knew of from his inherited memories, and it also wasn’t nearly as strong or resilient, but it was still an extremely useful product for all kind of construction projects.

This was an exciting discovery for the young boy as it opened up a great many possibilities for him; unfortunately, Lucas soon learned that ’flowing rock’ was not produced in the Rockwell Kingdom.

In fact, in the South-Central Region of the Blue Sky Continent, only one nation was capable of manufacturing flowing rock, the Zilon Kingdom.

The Zilon Kingdom was barely a third the size of the Rockwell Kingdom in both landmass and population, so it came as a great surprise to Lucas that it was able to manufacture this relatively advanced, lucrative construction material.

Only after learning that the concrete recipe was originally from the Black Tiger Kingdom, and that the Zilon Kingdom simply inherited the technology when it broke away from that nation, did things make sense to Lucas.

Most of the flowing rock the Rockwell Kingdom imported came from its small, north-eastern neighbour, though some was also bought from the nearby Large-Sized Nations. However, despite the friendly relationship between the Rockwell and Zilon Kingdoms, flowing rock was still expensive and limited in supply, so it was naturally used as sparingly as possible.

Instead of a primary construction material, Flowing Rock was used more like a binder for more traditional bricks and stone.

Suffice-it-to-say, Lucas wasn’t expecting there to be much concrete just lying around in Falcon’s Bend, but if he wanted to build something even remotely like a reusable drydock with proper support infrastructure, then he had to at least ask.

"Oh, flowing rock, is it? If that’s what you need, you’re in luck. We just received a shipment of it from the Kore Sovereignty," Count Randolph answered.

"How many barrels, exactly?" Lucas hurriedly followed up.

"One thousand," Lester promptly replied

Great! Lucas felt the urge to cheer. From what he knew, each ’barrel’ of Flowing Rock weighed roughly 120 kg, so a shipment of 1,000 barrels was basically 120 tons of concrete!

That was more than enough for what Lucas had in mind; however, he quickly frowned, "Why was so much concrete... I mean, flowing rock, imported?"

"Concrete... I’ve never heard it called that before, but it does roll off the tongue quite easily," Count Randolph mused before answering, "We needed the... concrete, as you call it, to repair the southern city walls."

"That old section of wall still hasn’t been fixed?" The burly former Count grumbled, "It’s been slowly crumbling for the past 10 years! What have you been doing all this time, Lester?"