Chapter 41

July 1593. Wow, it’s already July. Lately, time feels like it’s passing by at a crazy speed.

Or… hmph. Have I just lost my sense of time?

Unlike the life of a 21st-century grape farmer, which ran on a precise year-round schedule, the life of a 16th-century angel was, how should I put it… incredibly laid-back.

Let’s plant the seeds around this time. Let’s harvest the grapes around this time. The new settlers are clamoring to see the angel, so… let’s schedule it for around this time.

It really was all ‘around this time.’ With no utility bills or rent due by a certain day, hour, and minute, my life stretched out without a sense of time.

The only things that gave me a sense of time were a rapidly growing Virginia and…

“This way! About three more steps this way!”

“Bring more hammers and nails over here!”

…this settlement.

The shipyard, which had taken months to lay the foundation, raise the pillars, and make many people suffer, was now on the verge of completion. The sawmill built next to it had also begun producing lumber smoothly, without any special need for me to display my future knowledge.

The only place I paid special attention to was the wood drying yard situated between them.

“Here, please design the ceiling so that the heat spreads evenly.”

“Understood.”

“Also, we’ll be placing stoves here and there, so please take special care to ensure the wood doesn’t crack or catch fire.”

“I will keep that in mind, Sir Nemo.”

This was a place where my knowledge and assets were worth intervening in. Whether it was wood or produce, one wrong move and it would grow mold all the same.

First, after putting the sawn lumber through a simple but special process, we move it to the wood drying yard. Then, we install stoves to keep the temperature of the drying yard high, and move a few of the sulfur fumigators from the farm to manage any pests like mold or insects that might damage the wood.

And so, we prepared a large quantity of dried lumber and had the shipyard facilities ready.

“Sir Nemo! I, Walter Raleigh, have returned! With no less than 210 cannons! This is enough to excellently arm several large ships!”

And we waited for Raleigh to return.

“You’ve returned at the perfect time. I’ve prepared the lumber to be used for the ships here, so please take a look.”

“Just in time! Excellent! May I have a look?”

“Of course.”

“Ah! You said that over there is the wood drying yard? I’ll head over there!”

“Let’s go see it together.”

“Then, let’s have a look…”

“What’s wrong?”

“…”

Raleigh’s face hardened slightly as he looked at the lumber stacked in the warehouse next to the drying yard.

“This… the wood is different from what I expected. It’s strangely… fresh? And it has a greenish tint.”

That’s because it underwent a special treatment. I had them soak it in a Kocide copper hydroxide solution. Its surface was preserved, so it would last much longer than most timber of this era. Plus, it had been fumigated with sulfur vapor, so there was no worry of it getting infested with bugs or rotting while it was stored for months.

“Oh… ooooh…”

“What do you think? When can we begin construction on the ‘Clipper’?”

“…”

Raleigh blankly stroked the wood, then looked at me and said, “As soon as the design is ready… we can start right now.”

Yes. Success.

“Looking closely, the internal structure of this is clearly different from other ships on land. Hah… this frame here, like this? It’s not just the sail arrangement that’s unusual, is it?”

After that, we threw ourselves into reverse engineering.

“Is that so? I wouldn’t know.”

“You did say you were ignorant about ships, Sir Nemo. But as someone who has designed ships myself, I can assure you. This ship is an innovation.”

Of course, it’s an innovation. It’s a 19th-century ship.

I had captured every image I could from Anno 1800—the loading screens showing ship construction, the views of the ship’s form from every angle, the manufacturing process—and handed them all to Raleigh. The rest was up to him.

I feel like I’m telling someone to build an Iron Man suit after only showing them the movies, but this is the best we can do. I mean, I did my best, too.

And the conclusion.

“This… we can’t build it according to the original design.”

“…What did you say?”

Has he finally gone mad from overwork? Do you know how many facilities we built and how much time we spent to make this?

“If you look closely… uh… here, this frame part, you see?”

“Yes. I see it. You’re talking about the part that’s slightly darker in color, right?”

“Yes, Sir Nemo. That part appears to be steel. Should we… change the design? In my opinion, I don’t think we can procure this amount of steel.”

Raleigh asked me carefully, and for the moment, he was right. A steel frame? My house wasn’t a smithy; I couldn’t create something like that with 21st-century farm technology. Even melting down the steel from my house and reusing it was ultimately something that would happen in a primitive 16th-century blacksmith shop.

But with a little thought, I could find an answer.

“Then what if we modify this part like this?”

“How do you mean?”

“Don’t we have another material that is stronger than steel and available in large quantities?”

Lexan (PC) sheets. Our clipper ship’s frame would now be Lexan sheets and steel pipes.

***

One day, I excitedly turned on a game… and was suddenly separated from my family and friends and dropped into the 16th century. I was even stabbed twice. I had no intention of being grateful to Hwangsook Soft just because they gave me a cheat in such a situation… but the benefits I received, I would chew them up and swallow them whole, from head to tail, bones and all.

I would not let a single part of this farm go to waste.

Lexan sheets. They were stronger than steel anyway, and lighter too. We would build a truss structure with the steel pipes and then fix the Lexan sheets to its faces. That’s how we would build the ship’s keel. Of course, the lifespan of a normal Lexan sheet under sunlight is 10 years, but that’s the same for iron and wood. For Lexan sheets to degrade, they need sunlight… and since we’ll be using them for the internal frame, it’s not a problem.

If we combined the transparent sheets and steel pipes we had been steadily accumulating, we could roughly estimate the quantity. It was definitely possible. Just in case, I had the artisans run an experiment, and it fell short in neither strength nor elasticity. The result was ‘definitely possible.’

That’s right. In the 16th century, I’m going to build a sailing ship with Lexan sheets.

…

…

…

…No, the more I think about it, putting engineering plastics into a 19th-century ship seems like a crazy idea, but if that’s the case, then I shouldn’t have been building a 19th-century ship in the 16th century in the first place.

Once we ‘really’ did it, the construction of the clippers was back on track. The ships would become high-speed transports for the colony’s goods and, at the same time, warships laden with a large number of cannons, protecting our colony from the Spanish navy. Timber was being produced endlessly every time we cleared farmland, and likewise, Lexan sheets and other materials were also being churned out, so the construction of the fleet was now just a matter of time.

“Probably within a year? Perhaps even much faster,” Raleigh declared.

Good. If we just wait a little, 19th-century sailing ships will be exporting our farm’s special 21st-century improved grape gift sets to England. In the meantime, we would scout the vicinity with the Nautilus to monitor the movements of the Spanish navy and defend the coast with the cast-iron cannons we had imported in large quantities from England. As long as the Spanish army didn’t invade right away, there would be no major problems. No, even if the Spanish army did invade, we wouldn’t go down without a fight. We had the power for that.

“Fire!”

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

I once read a column about why the army of the 19th-century British Empire was the most powerful. Something about them stockpiling a lot of gunpowder based on the saltpeter coming out of the Indian Empire. The important thing isn’t the fact that they had a lot of gunpowder itself.

“Fire again!”

Tat-tat! Tat-tat-tat!

What’s important is that because they had a lot of gunpowder, they could conduct firing practice at any time. It was the same for us. The reason was clear.

Black powder³ is composed of three main ingredients. Sulfur. Potassium nitrate. Charcoal. All of them came from our farm.

Not only that, but things like iron and copper pipes also spewed out endlessly, so we were able to realize a policy of one musket per household. That’s right. Every household should have a firearm; that’s the American way.

…Of course, that wasn’t the reason. It was just that with alligators and wolves appearing more often than tigers in the Joseon Dynasty, every household soon had a firearm in their hands.

And so, once the immediate defense of the colony was resolved, the time came.

“Now, finally… it’s time to return with the grapes.” Walter Raleigh rubbed his hands together and gave a meaningful smile.

“That’s right, Walter.” For some reason, the same smile spread across my lips.

“But I have a question. Why did you ask me to bring back the bark of the cork oak?”

“…There’s a reason for everything.”

Wine stoppers. Finally, if we just introduced cork, we would have the holy trinity of long-term wine preservation: sulfites, cork, and glass bottles.⁴ Then, we could age the K-wines we had been making for a few years and export them to Europe…! A great leap forward for the agriculture of the Republic of Korea was unfolding at this very moment.

“S-Sir Nemo?”

“…It is for the blood of the Lord, so please ensure every preparation is made.”

“Ah, I understand. I will do my best.”

Wine = the blood of the Lord. I didn’t lie.

“I will never forget my experience here! Sir Nemo, you were the wellspring of my inspiration!”

“…It wasn’t my intention, but I’m glad you received inspiration.”

Shakespeare had to go back to his work, so it was bye-bye for now. Anyway, he had become a Nemoist, so he would do his part in England.

It would still be a long time before the clippers were completed. Raleigh and Shakespeare took the ship they had ridden from England and went back. After sending them off, I once again immersed myself in shipbuilding and various other tasks.

The most important of those various tasks… was the problem of ‘administration.’

***

10,000 people. In 21st-century South Korea, it’s a trivial number, the size of a few apartment complexes combined. But in ancient times, it was a population large enough to establish a country, and in this era, it was enough to form a small-to-medium-sized city. The residents of Croatoan Island were only 200 or 300, so it was fine, but the large population living in Chesapeake was beginning to need control.

“People have started to cultivate vegetable gardens around their own homes.”

“Hm? That’s a good thing. It seems we have enough land.”

“No. It’s not just a good thing.”

“Hmm… could you explain in more detail, Mr. Hewitt?”

Especially in land distribution.

“Until now, everyone has been tilling the fields together and sharing the harvest, haven’t they?”

“That’s right. Because we didn’t have much cleared land to cultivate.”

“You are correct. But that won’t be the case anymore. It’s about time people started getting greedy for land.”

The first to notice the signs was Hewitt. “People are slowly starting to divide the land by planting vegetable seeds they brought from Europe near their homes.”

“Hmm…”

“Of course, it’s not serious right now. But…” Hewitt glanced at the excavator and cultivator parked in a corner of my cabin and said, “Uh… the land reclamation that should have originally taken several years was finished in just a few months, so it’s only a matter of time before this problem comes to a head.”

“…Hmm. So, you’re saying that when we were sharing food in a cramped space, we worked together and shared, but now we’ve reached a scale where we can split up.”

“That’s right. I heard from Manteo that the situation is similar even among the natives.”

Got it. I understand.

“Then we can just divide the land appropriately and distribute it. My workload will increase a bit. What should I do about this…”

Is he saying it’s time to start privatizing the commons? As I was nodding along, Hewitt, with a strangely worried expression, began to watch my face. Why?

“Uh… in heaven, there may be no need for such things, but usually, at times like this, humans form what is called a ‘government’ to mediate conflicts.”

“…”

“That is to say, Sir Nemo, you do not have to take on all the work yourself. Yes.”

“…I am aware of that.”

I forgot. I had been living so much like a village chief that a 16th-century man just lectured me, saying ‘This is what’s called a [government]. It can make the system of rule more elaborate…’

“Ah, my apologies. I thought you might not be familiar with the affairs of the mortal world, Sir Nemo…”

“No, it’s fine. It happens.”

“…”

“…”

This is humiliating.

“…In any case, what I mean to say is that it is time for you to form a government, Sir Nemo.”

“I suppose I’ll have to.”

A government, huh. Distributing land to 10,000 people each wasn’t something we could just decide on the spot by gathering people for a meeting like we used to. We needed something more systematic and rigorous.

“Hmm…” Like an Excel file… huh?

As I was lost in thought, Hewitt blinked his eyes. No, he’s probably wondering what there is to think about. I could just tell Sir Raleigh to handle it. But that wouldn’t be ‘efficient.’

“…I think I know what to do. Mr. Hewitt, could you wait a moment and then come to my room?”

“Pardon?”

I found my tablet in my bag and called Hewitt over. “What… is this object? It’s shining.”

Now, it’s time to restore the pride of a 21st-century man.

“This is what’s called a ‘computer’.”

“A com…puter?”

Ah, you don’t know?

“Here, try pressing the left button of this ‘mouse’.”

Click.

“The picture in this frame is moving! Wh-What is this…!”

I smiled at Hewitt and said, “Now, that is what’s called a ‘click.’ And…” I took the mouse from Hewitt and opened Excel.⁵

“…With this, we will create a ‘government’.”

If you receive it, you use it. And that, of course, includes Excel.