Chapter 284: Ask The Professionals
The next morning got off to a quiet start. The new mage girls worked silently as they prepared breakfast and helped Beth with lunch.
The Chef appeared to be quite pleased with this arrangement, as she had managed to get her morning workload down to just baking the day’s bread, while the girls did the rest of the prep work.
The boys left with the architects right after eating, and that left Dominic to go talk to the Techno Wizards while Alexis waited for her maids to finish their morning tasks so she could start their combat training session.
"Lord Dominic, what brings you by so early?" The Techno Wizards asked from their porch swings as he approached.
They were sitting in the cool morning air, sipping coffee. Dominic could see the crumbs of breakfast pastries from the bakery beside them both, and he tried not to laugh. They had fully embraced the bachelor life, and didn’t even cook breakfast anymore.
"I have some blueprints for simple magitech items that I want to test in the new apartment buildings. The shells will be up in the next few days, and then we will need basic amenities." He explained.
"Oh? What did you plan for them?" The more practical of the two old men asked.
"Only four items, and they’re the same ones I intend to make at the factory we will be putting up soon. A water pump with shower, an incinerating toilet, a stove and magitech lights." Dominic explained.
"So, a light in the main room, a toilet and shower, then a stove? Do you want a standalone stove? Or do you want a hotplate? Most bachelors don’t do any baking, so a hot plate is enough for them to make dinner in a pot or skillet." The old man explained.
Dominic shrugged. "We should likely ask the architect. I spent a decade cooking over campfires."
The old man nodded. "Exactly. That’s how we all cook. We will plan to make hot plates, just make sure that there is a good shelf in the apartments. How are they heated?"
Dominic shrugged. "I had assumed with the stove."
The old Techno Wizard set down his empty coffee cup. "Well, we should all go talk to the architect then. We’re always happy to take commissions. But you mentioned a magitech factory?"
Dominic nodded. "We’re looking for a magitech engineer willing to train skilled workers, but the idea is to make simple magitech lights for export."
The pair smirked. "The simplest of the simple, that any idiot with a bit of training can do?"
"Exactly. How many houses still rely on oil lamps and candles? As I recall, it should be most of them outside this area. If we can get them cheap lamps, we can build a solid income for the duchy and then expand into more products."
"Clay to copper and some mage grown quartz, and you just need to teach them the basics of how a magitech circuit works. I think that it can work. But the houses are more immediately important." The Techno Wizard joked.
They went as a group to see the progress, then waited as they watched a dozen boys and three skilled workers erect the stone walls of an entire apartment block at once.
When they stopped to take a break, Dominic led the others over to verify the blueprints.
"We had a few questions. These fine gentlemen will be making the essential magitech for the apartments. But we didn’t know how you planned to heat them, or the design." Dominic explained.
"Oh, welcome. I planned to heat them the traditional way. There is a stone dividing wall between each row, and there is a combined chimney and fireplace set in each wall."
The Techno Wizards nodded. "That’s fine. We can make magitech inserts for all of them. The question was more about the kitchen facility."
The architects turned to each other with embarrassed looks. "We might have forgotten that everyone here can use some level of magic, so we built them as traditional apartments, with a stone hearth and pot hangers."
The Techno Wizards smirked. "That’s even easier. Not a fancy kitchen, but it means we can skip the hot plates and just give them a magitech fireplace to cook at. How is ventilation?"
"Windows at both ends. If the bedroom door is open, it should be alright."
The dry season in Wistover could get quite warm, and that led most to not want to cook inside if they could avoid it. But apartment residents could not. Magitech Fireplaces would save them from needing to have the fire going for hours, though.
The reduction of lingering heat would make life much more tolerable.
"How many units are in the complex?" The Techno Wizard asked.
"Fifteen per building, six buildings. It might be excessive, but one more influx of refugees, and we will have at least half the units filled.
If you spread them between the buildings so that nothing is just standing vacant, it won’t seem like overkill."
The two old men sighed. "Ninety of everything, then? Well, that’s not a problem for the fireplace inserts or the showers. Assuming you have a cistern for the building. You do have one, right?"
The Architect smiled at them. "I did one better. I am building a water tower. If you make one big pump, everyone in the complex will have running water. Then you just need to heat the water for the showers, and not pump it.
We can expand that to all the new buildings that will go up in town, so only the existing ones will rely on their own storage tanks.
The tower will take the stress off, and we can feed it right from the river if we’re desperate. But I tested the well, and it should be far more flow than we need. It’s also much cleaner than the river water, and there is no need for water creation magic.
I know that we’ve got a whole mage tower now, a small one, but a whole mage tower. But there is no need to rely excessively on magic when we’re not in a drought."
Dominic smiled. This was why it was good to have professionals.