The Alchemist Chapter 39

 

Chapter 39

The first thing we needed to do was zone grids and parcel out land on a basis that would make sense for my economic model. At the moment the houses that were being built were put up pell-mell. I needed to change that before it became cemented as a piece of the city. I didn’t want a winding, narrow street structure like in some cities in Europe. I wanted a clean structure that would be suited for trains and cars.

“We need to order a land survey,” said Reginald. “First things first.”

Reginald called upon several of his civil engineer friends to do the survey work. It took two days, and when it was finished we had an accurate gauge of the lay of the land. I spent half a day working with Reginald on how to lay out the streets.

“There’s something I’ve been working on regarding city planning,” said Reginald. “I call it the Fibonacci layout. Instead of working with grids like you’re planning on doing, we curve the roads relative to the golden ratio.”

I thought for a moment. That was the first brand new idea I had heard in this realm that had nothing to do with magic. Would it work?

“Okay,” I said. “You can have a quarter of the city to draw your Fibonacci streets. We need to work using the scientific method of designing experiments.”

“I was listening when you talked about that a while ago,” said Reginald. He rubbed the dog, Litmus’, ears. “We need both a control, an independent variable, and a dependent variable. The two thirds of the city you design using theories from your world will be the control.”

“And we’re going to have to use various metrics to decide if the experiment creates a significant difference,” I said.

“Exactly,” said Reginald. “It’s great to be around a mind as sharp as yours.”

“Thanks,” I said, “But aren’t you always around people with sharp minds?”

“In a way, yes,” said Reginald. “But people like Moray are afraid to try new things. In a way, they are entrenched in the past. I want to move forward.”

“I respect that,” I said. “That’s the same goal that I have.”

“Then we are together,” said Reginald. “I’ll begin talking to the foremen so that my quarter of the city can be built.”

“I’ll lay out the rest,” I said. I paused. “About walls,” I said. “Should we build one?”

“A year ago I would have said of course,” said Reginald. “But with the invention of cannon …”

“A wall wouldn’t hurt,” I said.

“Perhaps,” said Reginald. “But the funds used to construct the wall will come from somewhere. Could we use those resources for a better defense plan?”

“Barbed wire?” I said.

“Hm,” said Reginald. “Explain.”

“Barbed wire is a fence constructed of wire with sharp barbs placed at regular intervals. It stops people crossing it.”

“A little flimsy, it seems,” said Reginald. He played with a small wooden bauble.

“Regi,” said Moray, entering the office. He saw me. “Oh,” he said. “I didn’t realize you were here. Your vacation is over?”

“It is,” I said. “And I have a new product that I’m going to reveal in a bit.”

Moray sighed. “Of course. You used your vacation to create more inventions.”

“This isn’t an invention. It’s a game. A very fun one.” I paused. “And I’m talking to Reginald about the planning of the city.”

Moray sat down in a chair. “Oh?” he said. “As a simple mathematician, I can leave that stuff to the professional.”

Reginald began tapping his fingers. “We need to expect about twenty thousand new residents in the next six months,” he said. “At the rate people are pouring in. That’s if you don’t do anything to draw more people in. We need housing for all of them. And food, and water.”

“And sewage,” I said. “It would be a lot better to build a sewer now, when the land is open. Let’s build a sewage system capable of handling five hundred thousand people.”

Both scientists looked shocked. “Five hundred …” said Reginald.

Moray whistled. “And how are we going to finance this?” he said.

“I can do the digging,” I said. “My alchemy powers haven’t really factored into designing the city yet, but if you give me a plan, I can do all the digging and covering up. All you have to do is put the sewer together.”

“Why, exactly, do we need a sewer?” said Moray.

Reginald scoffed. “Do you think tossing chamber pots full of waste out onto the street is a sanitary thing?” He looked at me. “Markus has told us that pathogens and disease reside in human waste. A sewer would greatly decrease the number of disease outbreaks in the city.”

“Exactly,” I said. “So let’s build one. Five hundred thousand. I have a feeling even that won’t be enough in a couple of years.”

Moray and Reginald looked at me. “You’re planning big, aren’t you?” said Moray.

“Very big,” I said. “This city will be a metropolis before you know it.”

“But right now it’s a hamlet,” said Moray. “And we have a factory to build.” He stood up. “And the village elders are calling for a more effective government.”

“We’re going to hold an election,” I said.

“An—“said Moray.

“What?” said Reginald.

I looked at them both. “Exactly what I said. An election. As the lord of this land, I need to be at the top since I need to deal with politics outside my land. But I’m going to draft a constitution that includes an elected government, senate, and judicial system.”

“Um,” said Reginald. “Why would you give up your power?”

“I want this city to be a beacon,” I said. “A beacon of not only technology but of democracy. I regret that I have to stay on top, but I’ll mostly be a figurehead. With veto power.” I sat down. “I’ve been thinking on how exactly to draft a constitution.”

“What, exactly, do you mean by constitution?” said Moray.

“I mean a document that outlines how my government will run according principles laid out inside it.”

Moray looked at Reginald. “One thing after another,” he said.

“I’m going to give the elected government the ability to set taxes, set tariffs, and handle citizenship. After all, I can’t be the one who controls everything once this city gets big. It would be too much.”

“So you’re going to write a document,” said Moray.

“I am,” I said. “I’ll draft it now.” I took a pen and some paper.

I wrote down the entire Freedom Hill constitution in four hours. It included a senate, with representatives from each quarter of the planned city. It included a judicial system, with judges appointed by me. It also included a slot for mayor. I would, hopefully, become just a figurehead in the future for this burgeoning town.

Moray read the whole thing over. “You obviously based this off of something,” he said.

“My own country’s constitution,” I said. “And now for the bill of rights.”

I drafted a bill of rights that was identical to the American bill of rights. However, I included a clause that the law of the Royal House, which was above me, must still be abided by. So no second amendment. No free speech when it contradicted the royal decree. I was giving my people as much freedom as possible, but that was only so much. To exact bigger change I would need more influence. I would attain that later.

Once the constitution was drafted, I put in place a clause that the document would come into effect when the town grew to over twenty thousand people. For now, the town was too small to hold a proper election and have a proper government.

We were at around two thousand at the moment. The very next day after drafting the constitution, I began work on the sewers. We had already surveyed the land and knew exactly where the zones for houses would be. Since I wanted to experiment, I decided to use one quarter of the city as a “zone free” space. So that left two quarters as “controls,” where I would do municipal zoning, in addition to the Fibonacci quarter. The fib quarter would also require zoning.

I consulted with Reginald on what should be zoned where. I had played enough Sim City to realize that zoning was important.

We built the sewer over the course of one week. I used my alchemy powers more than I ever had before. Before we knew it, a modern, high capacity sewer had been built that could accommodate, according to Reginald’s calculations, six hundred thousand people.

I also built an aqueduct that brought water from the nearby river to the city, installing a series of pumps. I also fought to put a water treatment plant at the source of our city’s drinking water. Reginald was against it, telling me that it wasn’t necessary.

I managed to convince him one day by building a microscope and showing him the bacteria in untreated water.

The microscope was just good enough to see bacteria. Not very well, but it could be seen. Then Reginald let me install the system. It would take water from the reservoir and use magic to chlorinate it at levels acceptable to humans, just like back on Earth. I made sure to hire a number of staff whose only job was to look after the water purifier plant. I left it to Moray to train them.

The roads were built next. Since my alchemy power was enough to create a concrete-like material, I used it to its full extent. The roads on the three normally gridded quarters were easy to lay out. Each block was about as big as one from New York city. I technically owned the land, though I had to “kick” a few farmers off of their fields. I compensated them handsomely.

Once the city was laid out, I began running advertisements in the Brownfield Times talking about Freedom Hill. I knew people would come to this city on their own, but since I had such a good source of advertisement, it would be a shame not to use it. The town grew steadily.

Then the time came for the paper airplane contest. Moray had managed to convince the paper-parchment guild to host it. We were to throw our airplanes off of the bell tower to the cathedral. A dozen people had entered, and at least a thousand spectators filled the streets.

I had built the exact plane that won the Earth world championships, and held the Earth world record. I copied its formula straight from my smartphone.

I threw my plane and landed in second place. Moray had come up with an ingenious design that looked almost alien, proving again that he was smarter than I was. Which was fine, as he was on my side.

Moray won the prize of a hundred cris, and the paper-parchment guild got its share of advertisement and concessions revenue.

Next up, I decided to institute a baseball league. No one knew how to play yet, so I taught some of the local kids of Freedom Hill.

I commissioned a baseball field in the middle of the city that was about the same as a high school baseball field. We didn’t have the tech to be building baseball fields on the scale from Earth.

Baseball caught on like wildfire. While that was happening, I also taught some people how to play Magic: The Gathering. I had to figure out how to print the cards on a scale large enough to make me money, and I consulted Rachel about it. She eventually came up with a method that would perform to my standards.

We eventually set up an entire factory dedicated to just printing MTG cards. The game was a smash hit.

And so the time flowed, and it was autumn again, a year since I had arrived.