The Village's Reconstruction

" Spiritual Blackmith? No, this old man is just a common man with a dream." Milton sighed as he looked at the small smithy his family had operated for generations.

-" Huh? So? How you are even going to craft something like that?" Jack felt as if he had entered a den of madmen.

-" The name Human Realm is not for nothing you know." Mathew commented, as he had already studied Sigebert's memories thoroughly and was quite knowledgeful about this matter now. "Exceptional blacksmiths can make a Human Realm Spitiriutal treasures, they just need good materials and skill."

-" Of course, I know this! But we are speaking of exceptional blacksmiths! Not an old man who made farming tools for villagers." Jack snorted in anger, it seemed that everyone in this village had something wrong with their head.

-" Jack... Calm down, this doesn't have anything to do with us." Ronald let out a deep breath as he stopped preparing the area for the building." Come help me, we should focus on what we were called for."

Jack was slowly losing patience with Ronald, as he didn't understand why he was so lenient with the group, it was clear to him that the group had something wrong with them, and working for people like this was never a fruitful matter, but he still decided to not push the matter any further and help Ronald as instructed.

Henry scratched his chin as he looked at the two stonemasons, he could feel the aggressiveness coming from Jack, he just couldn't understand why, but on the other hand, his impression of Ronald couldn't be better, as the man had an incredible work ethic and even had the patience to explain things.

It didn't take long for Ronald and Jack to finish the measurements and zoning of the building exterior and began to work on the interior part. They kept asking Milton about the forge's layout because they weren't sure how many rooms there were or how big they should be.

Mathew was in awe as he watched the two men work; they had perfect control over the entire process, from outlining the site to inserting wood stakes in the ground and attaching some ropes around them.

Mathew knew that his work would be way easier if he had people so skilled in the village, however, there was little to no chance that people like Jack and Ronald would choose to move here.

After finishing the first parts of Milton's forge, Mathew took the two men to the iron mine, as this was the second work he was most interested in completing.

Ronald looked at the mine in surprise, there were very few people working there, giving it the impression that it was poorly managed. "It's the mine working with so few people?" There were only around eight people mining, while six were shoveling ores and pushing the carts to the deposits in the village.

-" Just another thing that proves me right!" Jack snorted as he approached the mine. " Even if the mine was in a bad state, you could clearly put more workers here." He stopped right at the entrance of the mine and looked back. "Let's go! I want to finish this as soon as possible."

Mathew wanted to rebuke them, but, decided to stay silent and followed the group inside the mine, each time he passed by one of the mine workers, they all stopped what they were doing and greeted Mathew with happy faces, after all, not only he was the one who gave them such a good job, he also had defended them against some of the villagers earlier that day.

This caused Jack and Ronald to be even more curious, miners generally disliked the nobles or bureaucrats that managed them, as they were the ones responsible for imposing the long and grueling hours of work in the mine.

-" Quite a lovely atmosphere in this mine, I must say." Ronald thought that the mine had just opened again, as all the miners looked to be in good spirits and refreshed;

-" They are quite happy today." Mathew smiled proudly as he looked at them, it had been just a few months since he came to this world, but, he wanted to make the lives of everyone in the village easier. " The village caravan departed today, and most of them decided to bring their families here, so you can imagine how they must be feeling."

-" Bring their families? Quite the sad thing... I can't imagine having to work so hard on the mines and still not being able to support their families." Jack commented with a tinge of irony in his voice.

-" Not being able to support their families?" Mathew stopped and let out a hearty laughter." I fear that you are wrong... They decided to bring their families to live here because they trust me and my vision for the village, not because they can't support them."

Jack snorted once again, and was about to rebuke the man's words, but, he suddenly froze as he recognized one of the miners working in the deeper parts of the mine. -" Albert?! What are you doing here? Didn't you work at the Maplehill mine?"

" Oh! If it isn't Old Jack! Don't tell me that your guild was the one who took the job?" Albert, one of the most experienced miners that came to the Hard Pine Village, rushed to greet his old friend. " Even Ronald is here! I never expected to meet you two here! We must grab a few drinks tonight!" Albert was pumped, the three months he had spent here were good, but, he still missed his family and friends.

-" Albert, did something happened here? Why are you working on this run-down village?" Jack's eyes were wide from the shock, Albert was one of the responsible for the Maplehill's mine, and it made no sense for him to leave his job there to come here.

-" I found a better job here." Albert smiled as he remembered that fateful day, the sudden job posting caught him off guard, and like most of the miners, he thought that this was a scam at first.

-" A better job? Is your head fine?" Jack thought that this village must have something to make all its citizens go crazy. " How is working on this mine better?"

-" I'm already old, and can't put in the same long hours." Albert patted his friend and tried calming him down. " I'm getting paid the same salary and working less here, besides that... life is pretty good around here."

-" Life is pretty good?" Jack sighed believing that Albert choose to live in this small village due to his old age. " I just don't see what's so great about this village."

-" Well, this village may not be much now, but, it won't take long for you to understand." Albert had a big smile on his face as he patted his old friend on his back.

-" Soon enough?" Ronald gazed at Mathew and thought back to his words earlier that day. " Its looks like you trust the magistrate very much." Ronald was sure that Albert was speaking about Mathew's plans.

-" It's not that I trust him, but, that I have faith in his vision." Albert had worked hard his whole life, and he still wasn't able to provide his family with what they truly deserved. " And this village is my final hope of giving a comfortable life for my family."

Jack looked at Mathew with scorn and sympathy; he thought the man's goal of bettering the lives of the villagers was noble, but the method he chose was too utopian; after all, he wasn't the first person to think about developing a village, and he wouldn't be the last one to completely fail. " I hope that your choice is correct."

The group continued to walk deeper into the mine, now in Albert's company, he had accompanied them as he was the most experienced miner, and had quite a good understanding of the failures in the infrastructure.

Many of the shafts that held the roof of the deepest parts of the mines were rotten or broken, making the area quite dangerous, especially to the mine as the impact could cause a cave-in and endanger the miners' lives.

-" It looks like the air pipes are clogged too." Jack frowned as he felt the air getting sparser and sparser as they proceed deeper into the mine "The situation isn't dire, but repairing mines is always difficult."

-" The materials are simpler too." Ronald nodded and touched the wood shafts. " We won't need any stone or clay for this work, just some iron parts and wood."

-" Wood and iron..." Mathew sighed in relief, the cost of the materials for Milton's forge surprised him, and he feared that the cost of repairing the mine would be even higher. "Why don't we go for the second mine? This is the only functioning mine of the village, and the rest of them are basically totally unusable." Mathew was pleased with the village reconstruction, and while some problems had come up, it looked like they wouldn't hold back the progress of the reforms.