The Mechanical Era

For the past week and a half, Decan had been constructing a blueprint for Kant for building a school to teach. He had taken the pictures Kant had given him to come up with the overall look of the building. He had managed to complete the blueprint just in time and was ready to go on the 29th.

Decan Hurst arrived at the palace gates holding a brown satchel bag. He informs the knights of the purpose of his visit, that being to discuss with the prince the blueprint of the school. The knights have been informed of his arrival, and open the gates for him. There he is led to the door where Kant resided in.

They knocked on the door and informed him of Decan. Kant allowed him to come in. Kant's office was dead silent, except for the sound of the typewriter at work, with its mechanical key clicks, to the stamping of the letters on the coffee brown paper. He appeared to be writing something. He takes out the piece of paper he was typing on, stacks it on top of another written paper, and hides it in a drawer.

"Good afternoon Mr. Hurst. Please, take a seat."

Decan complied.

"Now, I assume you have completed the blueprint of the school?"

"Yes sire. I have." He opens his satchel bag. He takes out the blueprint, which was on a large rolled-up brown paper, that he had in his bag. Decan placed it down on the table and unraveled it. He had used a pencil to draw the plans, as it was easier to fix mistakes. The building itself featured 4 stories total, all with the rooms Kant had ordered, with the walls being fitted with the expensive heat insulator to keep everyone warm in the winter.

The architecture itself, both interior and exterior, had the aesthetics of Art Deco, being simplistic, sleek, symmetrical, and unvaried repetition of elements, while also conforming to the technological levels the world stood in.

On the exterior, instead of having glass windows, he replaced them with wooden shutter bar windows that were intended to be open in the spring, and autumn to bring in as much light as possible. During the winter, when the windows have to be closed, most light will come from a lamp on the ceiling of every room.

On the interior side, along with a glass lamp, the white walls and columns all had large black arc patterns painted on them. The floor was made of wooden planks, all lined up like an arrowhead, also inspired by the pictures Kant had given earlier.

"Well, I am very impressed with this drawing. However, I would like to make some changes regarding a few aspects of it."

"Go on sire."

"First of all are the wall patterns. It seems a bit too excessive. I would like that switched and constrained to the lower part of the walls. Maybe this pattern instead would do?" Kant drew what he talked about; An upside-down Y all connected by their ends to form a simple yet beautiful pattern.

"Alright sire. That could be done." Decan replied.

"Wonderful. The next request would be to reduce the stories from 5 to 3."

Decan's eyebrows raised in surprise. He got curious as to why he wanted to do such an action. Especially given the speech he gave to him at his previous meeting.

"Why is that sire?" he asked politely. Kant was silent for a few seconds, clearly thinking.

"There has been a shift in priorities. Albersterg now wants to import the product I wanted to promote with this building. Now they are interested in purchasing it, there is no reason for me to go higher. Besides, I would like for the building to finish construction a lot sooner than anticipated."

"Oh alright sire."

"Now before I make my next request, there is a question I would like to ask you."

"Ask away sire."

"What are the other alternative heating methods rather than insulated plastering?"

Decan knew what it meant. Kant was seeing whether it was economical to remove the insulated plastering.

"There always is a fireplace, but that would require burning wood and adding some chimneys. It won't look good, on the building, and the palace finances."

"How long would it take to implement one?"

"A lot slower than the plaster sire. They both have the same effect."

"Are there any other alternatives?"

"I don't think so sire. No."

Kant leaned back and thought for a minute. The room entered a silence as Decan patiently waited for an answer.

"Then that is about it I think. These are my requests."

"If so then consider them done by today."

"Good. Considering the new building plans, how fast would we be able to build the school?"

Decan thought for a minute. He originally estimated that it would take 3 to 4 months for a building this size to be completed, at least from what he heard of the cement. As the building lose an extra story, he estimated that it could be finished building in...

"2 to 3 months. I would like to add that this is what I consider to be the most likely outcome. We might be able to build it a lot faster."

"Does your industry practice the division of labor?"

"Division of labor?" Decan asked.

"Yes. The division of labor is the separation of a work process into several tasks. Each task is performed by either a separate person or a group. Let's say one passes over the bricks, another makes the cement, and another layers the bricks. Like so."

Decan thought of the idea. However, he needed some examples regarding its effectiveness.

"Do you have any examples of it working?"

"Yes. We practice the division of labor in the cement factory. It was the reason why it was able to produce 20 tons per day. We should test whether it would work in construction." Kant replied.

"If that is the case, then we might be able to build it even quicker. However I have not seen it in action, so I would have to find out with my own eyes."

"Do you have a guess?"

"I don't know sire. Maybe at least 2 or 3 and a half months. We would have to see. When should construction start sire?"

Kant leaned back on his chair. He held his hand together and moved it to his mouth. It took Kant a few minutes to think and respond.

"When can you make the changes?"

"I can do it now sire. It won't take long."

"Should we finish it together then? When we receive our final product it is when I think I could make the right decision."

Decan agreed. The two went over for some time changing the blueprint to suit their needs. In the end, the blueprint ends up featuring a 3 story building, with wooden shutter windows, painted in white.

"When do you recommend we start construction, Mr. Hurst?" Kant asked.

"I think... we can start construction on the 5th, about 7 days from now," Decan replied with a certain face.

"5th of Asinus then," Kant replied when he saw Decan's face of certainty.

...

Arjun sat in his office, getting the next batch of disputes for Kant to settle. It was at this moment that he received a knock on the door. When the door opened, he was surprised to see Kristina walk in.

"Arjun, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"It's his majesty. He is diagnosed with mana fever." Arjun froze when his ears picked up what she told him. His majesty? With mana-fever?

"I just received the letter. Her Majesty says that he will have to remain in Nexert for another two months. His majesty is currently undergoing treatment, but it would take the next month to see whether it is effective."

"Anything else?"

"Yes. She instructs us to keep an eye on Kant. Make sure that he does NOT learn of his majesty's disease."

"I understand," Arjun replies with a nod.