Chapter 65: Fire and Smoke Barricade

“A barricade…”

“If we have a barricade, we can delay enemy invasion.”

“Probably.”

If a barricade was built throughout the entire border and guards were placed at certain locations, others wouldn’t be able to easily invade Black Scale. However, Zaol couldn’t help but point out the flaw in Lakrak’s idea.

“But it will take a long time to build a barricade this long.”

“How long do you think it’ll take?”

Zaol was in charge of almost everything related to the construction of Orazen. There were better individual architects, but when it came to planning large infrastructure, Zaol was the best.

“If you want the barricade to be worth building, it might have to be as tall as or even taller than Automation’s rampart.”

There hadn’t been any more invasions once Lakrak obtained Automation. The only reason Automation’s barricades had become famous was that in the previous era, there hadn’t been any well-organized armies. Automation’s barricade was five meters tall, but it wouldn't be difficult for an army to scale it with a ladder.

Lakrak nodded in understanding.

“And it isn’t possible to build the barricade with clay like Automation’s rampart. Not only are there more rocks than clay in the valley, but if we did use clay in the wilderness to build the barricade, the water in the clay would freeze in the winter and melt in the summer, making it soft and mushy.”

Clay was everywhere, so it was good material for building short walls, but it wasn't the right material for everything.

“Stones are as common as clay. If we pile up stones first and then support them with clay, we should be able to build a barricade taller than Automation’s. Orazen’s house builders have become skillful in selecting the right stones and stacking them upright, so they should be able to show off their skills building the barricade.”

“That’s good.”

“The problem is that quarries aren’t too common,” said Zaol. “There are lots of stones here since we’re surrounded by mountains, but if we go into the wilderness, it’ll take a lot of manpower and time to move stones from the quarries. Even if we put all our men and money into the project, it’ll take at least 100 years.”

“Is that so?” Lakrak nodded slightly. “I thought it would take 200 years.”

Zaol let out a puff of air from her nose, wordlessly asking why Lakrak had even brought up the idea when he knew the reason it wouldn’t be viable.

“People cannot live 200 years. And Lizardmen can’t even live 100 years.”

“You don’t have to keep teaching me what I already know.”

“Then what? Are you gonna give up?”

“No. It was my initial idea, and I realized there was a problem as you pointed out. So I’ve improved upon it… Do we have more paper?”

Zaol put down a package of paper she had brought to Lakrak as a gift. Lakrak marked the paper and slowly drew while thinking more carefully this time. It was another map, but it portrayed a much smaller area in more detail.

“While we were passing through the wilderness to attack the Renards, there was a river here that flowed towards the north. Even though it’s the streambed where the currents should be slower, it’s still quite fast. There was a small group of around twenty Gnomes in the area, so I asked them about it, and they said that in the winter, only the surface of the river freezes over, so people can pass by on top, but wagons can’t.”

Zaol listened to what Lakrak was saying with interest. According to him, parts of the area the line crossed through could be excluded from the construction project.

“And here. I didn’t know until we arrived, but it’s a swamp. A warrior volunteered to test it out, and it was so deep that he didn’t reach the bottom even though he’d submerged himself until only his snout was above the surface.”

“It would be difficult for not only wagons to get through, but also someone riding Cockatoos.”

“Exactly.”

Zaol tapped on the canine tooth protruding from her lips and said, “I get what you’re trying to say. You’re saying that the wilderness itself has a variety of terrains, and they could act as natural barricades. But even if we assume these terrains are equally spaced out, the gap is still wide.”

“How long would it take to build the stone barricade with that taken into consideration?”

“80, no…I think it’ll take around 70 years,” Zaol said. “In that case…you might just be able to make it if that’s all you do for the rest of your life.”

“But I can’t just build a barricade for the rest of my life. And that’ll take too long. In the span of 70 years, enemies will have invaded our land numerous times.”

“Then we should abandon the idea.”

“I have another idea.”

Zaol didn’t laugh at Lakrak even though his plans had failed twice.

“Show me as much as you want.”

Lakrak nodded and drew again. This time, it wasn’t a map.

“The barricade acts as a way to delay the enemy’s invasion until I and the other warriors get to it. So what if we think in the opposite way?”

“For example?”

“What if instead of delaying the enemy, we gather our troops faster?”

“But Cockatoos are fast enough. They’re faster than horses or big Weasels. We can’t make them run faster. Cockatrices are the only ones faster than Cockatoos, but not everyone can ride a Cockatrice like you do.”

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

“There’s something faster than Cockatrices, and it’s something everyone knows how to use.”

“What is it?”

“Fire and smoke.”

“But…”

Zaol, who was about to say they couldn’t ride on fire and smoke, suddenly came to a realization and found the idea admirable. Messengers were usually the ones riding a Cockatoo to report enemy sightings, but fire and smoke didn’t require a messenger. They were the message themselves.

“If enemies are spotted at the end of the border here, the guards would light a fire and cause smoke. And seeing that from a distance, the guard at the next post would also light a fire. If this is repeated, we will know of an enemy’s appearance more quickly than using a Cockatoo or Cockatrice.”

What Lakrak drew looked like five altars made of stone, each of which had a platform where wood could be put on top and burnt. They were beacons.

“When I stood in the wilderness, the distance between me and the person standing on the horizon was about 4,000 steps. From a higher ground, one can see farther, and it’ll be easier to spot the enemies when they have a dangerous number of soldiers.”

“Why are there five?”

“One of the beacons would always be lit in order to see if the guards are doing their jobs. This would indicate things are peaceful. Two being lit would mean an enemy has been spotted.”

“Then what?”

“The third beacon would be lit only when the enemy were spotted approaching the border. The fourth would be lit when the enemies have invaded, and the fifth would be lit soon after to indicate that a fight has broken out.”

Lakrak didn’t want to just check for if an enemy was spotted or not. He also wanted the seriousness of the situation to be included in the message. Zaol agreed with this idea.

The more fires lit on the beacons, the more urgent the situation was, and through that, the number of troops to be sent to the border could be adjusted.

“With this alone, we would be able to defend ourselves against enemies coming from the wilderness. And the wilderness isn’t an ideal invasion route that enemies would choose in the first place.”

Zaol agreed.

“Yes. There’s no other choice when trying to get to the northern coast, but to get to Orazen, they would take the other way around, thus making the supply line longer.”

“That’s right. Wagons need to come and go in order to get supplies, but the route would become three or four times longer than going straight by Automation. Even if the enemies are to give up on getting supplies and depend on looting, there aren’t many villages in the area for that, and it would become more difficult to get water when they go farther in.”

“You’re right. In addition to starvation, thirst would also make it more difficult for them to fight properly.”

Then Lakrak replied, “Therefore, whoever comes through the wilderness would only be attempting to catch us off guard like the Renards had done, or they would be aiming to sneak a large number of troops in without us knowing. A barricade built from stones would provide stronger defense…but keeping other armies from sneaking in is also great in itself. How long would it take with this method?”

Zaol pointed at the first and second maps and asked, “How long is the distance from here to here?”

“Maybe less than half a day by walking.”

“Then it would be good to have a beacon placed here.”

Zaol took the charcoal and marked down the different locations.

“There is a side road in the valley of Automation, and if the enemies know about the beacons, they might focus on attacking Automation instead. Is there no other defense?”

“We’ll build the barricade as planned. But merchants need to come and go, so we can’t just block the road. We can find natural terrain like the valley and reinforce it with a mountain fortress.”

“And put a beacon on the ridge of the fortress?”

“That’s right.”

Zaol counted the dots marked on the map and added the number of fortresses to be built in the valley leading to Automation.

She thought about what it would be like to look down from God’s perspective at night. The border of Black Scale would be clearly visible from high up in the sky.

‘Because the border wouldn’t shine with a barricade of stone, but with a barricade of fire and smoke.’

The line Lakrak drew with charcoal would also be like a beam of light.

However, as Zaol was Lakrak’s companion, she needed to ensure that things didn’t go wrong due to Lakrak’s excessive confidence.

Zaol said in a serious tone, “It will only take a few wagons of stone to build the beacons. I will have to pay attention to how it’s built, but we can place a warrior there to protect the fire so that there won’t be much trouble in lighting the fire again if it gets put out by rain or wind. However, the problem lies in the fortress. It’ll likely take two, three, or maybe four times longer than the beacons to build. The Humans at Automation could look for natural terrain for us, but even if there are lots of stones, it’ll take a long time to dig up and stack them.”

“Hm. It’s okay if the fortress takes a little longer since Automation is there. We should make the beacons first. How long do you think it’ll all take?”

Zaol replied calmly, “About 5 years.”

***

Orazen. Three years later.

The royal palace of Black Scale was built on top of a stone platform with high-quality wood from the northern coast.

To make it cool in the summer, a maru and pillars were built on top of the stone platform, and to block out the cold in the winter, sliding doors would be installed between the columns to create rooms.

These sliding doors were initially made with wooden boards, but as Zaol figured out paper could be used instead to let sunlight in, all the sliding doors were replaced with changho doors.

But that wasn’t enough to block out the cold. Under the floors of the royal palace was a twisty path starting from the furnace and ending at the chimney. This was an ondol. If the furnace was lit, the warmth would move along the path made of stone and red clay, thus heating up the entire building.

The ondol was originally made as a trial in the royal palace. Then the warriors spending the winter there learned of it, and even those who had already built their homes retrofit their floors to replicate the heating system at the royal palace. Beating the cold was an important matter for the Lizardmen.

Lakrak sat alone in the grand hall, a large open space where the throne was placed. It was an early winter morning, so even though Zaol had changed all the doors to changho doors, the grand hall was dark. There was only light coming from the torches that the vassals left lit. Fortunately, the air wasn’t cold even though the grand hall was the largest place in the royal palace. It was all thanks to the ondol, which was the pride of the royal palace.

There was still a lot of time until the vassals would come, but Lakrak woke up early for some reason.

“Hm.”

As Lakrak cleared his throat, his voice echoed in the grand hall.

Black Scale had been developing without much trouble.

The Elves in the northern coast had now settled down, the Humans at Automation were making big profits, and on the archipelago in the south, the Astacideas had learned mining techniques from the Lizardmen and started mining.

But Lakrak was troubled by something. Even though he had established a country, he thought there was a chance he wasn’t qualified to be king.

‘Who knew maintaining a country would be harder than starting one?’

Lakrak believed that he could somehow solve all the problems in front of him, and that was what he had been doing until now. However, problems always arose in Black Scale. And most of them arose in places far away where Lakrak couldn’t personally visit.

‘We need to strictly supervise internal situations as much as we focus on defending against foreign enemies…’

That was the problem. Unifying the Lizardmen and kicking out any other species to create a homogeneous group was a good strategy when first building a country. Everything would be simpler when allies and enemies were clearly defined. But that wasn’t the case after a country was established.

‘Other species, excluding the Humans, are afraid of Lizardmen.’

Not all species could be kicked out from Black Scale. Many of the tribes living in Black Scale weren’t Lizardmen, and they continued to lead their lives hunting, collecting, and farming. Although the sizes of the other species were small in comparison to the Lizardmen, the Lizardmen had been collecting their profits as taxes.

‘Fear isn’t always advantageous when ruling a country.’

Many species obeyed and accepted that the Lizardmen were above them, but some didn’t believe that. They would refuse to admit their defeat and try to challenge the Lizardmen. Of course, Black Scale had accepted and won all the challenges until now. If signs of rebellion emerged, the competent deputy warriors would gather warriors and defeat the enemies even when they had double or triple the numbers compared to the Lizardmen warriors. And Lakrak believed that they would always win under God’s care.

But if the number of different species continued to dwindle like this, Black Scale would eventually weaken as a nation.

Be submissive, or fight. Those were the two options. Fear would prevent other species from fitting in. If Black Scale allowed their population to drop while the other countries increased their populations, Black Scale would seem like a joke.

‘Hm.’

Lakrak tried to go over the different possibilities. In particular, he thought that rebellions could become less frequent if he got all of the other species to believe in the same god. However, faith couldn't be developed by force. And it would be even more unlikely for someone to suddenly revere a god that had threatened them for many years. In order to convert others to follow the Blue Insect God, it was necessary for there to be a way to unite everyone’s hearts.

“Is living together on one land not enough?”

Then a familiar voice suddenly replied to Lakrak’s question.

“Yes.”

Lakrak looked up to find the source of the voice. There stood a Lizardman.

“Just because you live on the same land doesn’t mean you live in the same time.”

There had been no sound of the doors opening, and this Lizardman had just appeared from behind a pillar. He was missing an arm and had wrinkles and non-shimmering scales, which were the characteristics of a Lizardmen elder. What was particularly interesting about his appearance was that there was a blue glow around the Lizardman’s silhouette.

Surprised, Lakrak looked at the figure.

It was a familiar face.

“Star catcher!”

1. Maru is a place built above the ground, covered with flat boards, so people can walk or sit on them. Commonly found in Korean traditional houses.

2. Doors originally used in Korean traditional houses. The doors are made by placing paper onto beautifully designed frames. https://images.app.goo.gl/3rYvgypPDouRZXxP9

3. An underfloor heating system used in Korean traditional houses. Direct heat is transferred from the wood smoke to heat the underside of a thick masonry floor.