Road to the Crown

There was a lot of differences between commonly used mortar of the current times and a proper, enriched cement. While just by looking at the fact that in the future, medieval palaces, castles and cathedrals were still standing as compared to the modern buildings requiring renovations every fifteen years or so, one might get the wrong idea that the mortar was, in the end, a better connecting material, but why would modern people with all the power of scientific research still invest heavily into creating a proper cement instead of sticking to the mortar their ancestors used?

The answer was like always, in the details. While mortar could help the buildings stand for a long amount of time as it was more resilient against natural elements like winds or moisture, when it came to its practical use, it was the cement that holds the spotlight.

Starting with the speed of bonding two materials together, while mortar required at least two days to turn stable while in a perfect environment one could just slap wet cement on any given surface, and in just a short amount of time, it could bind it several times stronger than even a fully dried mortar could!

"Where are we going?"

Since for now, I had no way to create the entire complicated production processing plant for the cement, I had to limit myself to creating some by myself. After leaving the palace and city altogether, I brough Elia on a small walk, while carrying just a single, cloth bag with me.

"Just a small trip. I need to collect some rocks."

Just like with the fantastical alchemy, one couldn't create something from nothing. In order to brew my beers, I had to provide all the base materials, starting with wheat, through the apples and ending with a hop. With a single look at the list of resources required for the production of cement, I simply marked the spots on the map and followed the half-transparent arrows appearing slightly above the ground.

After arriving at the designated ground, I did something that both all the nobles from current times and most of the historians from the future would want to kill me for. Brandishing my sabre and pretending to not notice the terrified expression on Elia's face… I slammed it into the ground! Originating from old, Hungarian smithies, my weapon was considered as the pinnacle of noble's weaponry. Only after the fifty years, the King that would take the throne after the next King that would replace our current escapist ruler would introduce a new sort of sabres, finally taking the spot of the best weapon on the continent.

Thinking about the sabres, I couldn't help but remember all the silly discussions of the nerds who believed that Japanese katana was the best cutting weapon ever made. While one could try to argue with them on any given point, the easiest way to prove them wrong, was to point at the production process of those swords.

Reheating, moulding, reheating, bending the metal into two and striking it with a hammer to get rid of the impurities while forcing two parts together, only to heat it up again, bend it in two, hammer the impurities out… And so the circle continued for a long time before even the base material for the sword could be made.

But why did those smiths even bother with such a complicated and ineffective process?

Simply because they not only had no access to the quality ores but also because they lacked the technology to create proper steel. As it was proven countless times, no amount of manufacturing can turn iron into the material more resilient than even simple steel!

So while the Japanese Samurais flaunted their pricey and fragile weapons that had to be used in a very specific manner in order to not break apart in the hands of a warrior, Polish and Lithuanian nobles could simply swing their steel sabres to cut through their enemy head, skull, brain and half of the neck, without even putting enough strain on the blade to create a single nick!

With that thought in mind, I decided that keeping my weapon in its best state wasn't as important as securing something that could let me take over an entire city without shedding a single drop of blood!

At least, not by myself.

After excavating the dirt from the hole I just made with the side of my sabre, I finally reached the part where the soft earth gave way to the material I was looking for. While limestone was insanely popular in this specific region, to the point where it was actually hard to find any other types of rock in my lands, it was way too fragile to be used as the building material!

With just a few violent hits with the blade of my beloved sabre, chips of the rock started falling apart, bursting out of the small cave I dug. While a simple shovel and pickaxe would prove to be far more effective in this kind of job, who could ever take me seriously in the future if I dared to carry commoner's tools while on a leisurely stroll with my fiancee?

"Did you really just want to get some of the limestones? Don't you have tons of mortar just lying around?"

With how it was both the base material required for the mortar and the cement, most of the cities had quite a huge stockpile of it for the case of urgent repairs. But while limestone was easy to obtain, it was simply too impractical to store, as there were still some steps one had to go through to create a proper mortar!

"I don't need mortar, I need the limestone alone."

While there were still some more materials I had to obtain in order to create a proper cement, all of them could be poached from my own castle, at least, that was what my system told me when I looked for the deposits on the map.

"Also, if everything will go as I plant it to go, we could depart to Pilzno tomorrow morning."

My plan for retaking the city was based on three aspects that limited the society of this day and age.

First, while religion was a huge part of their life, without popularisation of the science, everything that was even a bit out of place, would swiftly gain mystical meaning in the eyes of everyone. With how everyone was used to mortar, just by using cement in an efficient way and some background preparations, I could convince everyone that I'm capable of turning things into stone.

Second, the hierarchy of the power, especially when it came to nobles governing the cities, was insanely fragile. As almost every king had to promise noble's even more privileges to gain their cooperation, it was the cities and commoners that were burdened with what used to be noble's duty.

And lastly, people took the inheritance rights rather seriously in this day and age, as they believed that those who shared blood, had a high chance of sharing the same character! With how my ancestor was a great patron for the civilians and commoners, and Elia's father following his footsteps as far as he could with his limited capabilities, just by announcing our marriage, we could shake the ground under Elia's step-family legs!