Episode 102 — The Guardian of Standards

"Alright! So I just need to make this 'jig' perfect, right?!"

Almost before the words were out of his mouth, Garam snatched up the drawings and tried to bolt out the door.

(Wait, wait, wait... I’m not even halfway through the explanation. This impulsive habit is exactly why you failed the rulers in the first place. You completely ruined my dramatic transition.)

I lunged forward, grabbed Garam’s massive arm, and hauled him back onto the sofa.

"I intend to move Felsen into the next phase."

I repeated the line clearly. Garam furrowed his brow, looking confused. He glanced back and forth between the drawing of the jig and my face. I stood up from my chair and spread out a large set of blueprints I’d kept hidden behind the sofa.

"Garam. The jig is just the software—the set of instructions used to define accurate work. But to run that software, we need massive hardware."

"...Hardware? There you go again with your weird words. Hey, this drawing... what is this? There’s a giant iron rod piercing through the center of the whole building."

"This is a Line Shaft—a power transmission system. This thick rod running through the building will be the backbone of the factory."

I pointed to the blueprints. I had adapted the system used in early industrial-age water-powered mills—like those built by Richard Arkwright—into something reproducible with this world's technical level.

"A backbone? How is a single rod supposed to move machines?"

"We’ll install a massive waterwheel in that rich river flowing through Felsen to generate stable rotational energy. We’ll use bevel gears to turn that force into vertical rotation, transmitting it to this main shaft that runs through every floor of the factory."

"Wait. If you’re sending power vertically, how do you connect it to the individual workstations? Are you saying we have to mesh gears into everything? Those would go out of alignment and rattle themselves apart in no time."

Garam made a sharp point. As expected of a veteran craftsman, he intuitively saw the issues of transmission loss and maintenance difficulty.

"That would be too expensive. Instead, we’ll run a long shaft along the ceiling and 'distribute' the power using leather belts and pulleys."

"Belts and pulleys! I see... and if you change the diameter of the pulleys, you can adjust the rotation speed for each machine..."

Garam leaned in, staring at the drawings as if he were trying to memorize them. These weren't just sketches; I had included calculations for bearing placement to reduce friction and tension maintenance based on actual mechanical engineering.

"With this one system, you can keep dozens of cutting and polishing machines running at a constant speed without any human labor."

"One rod spinning... and every machine in the factory moves. No more craftsmen sweating over treadwheels all day. No more blades slowing down."

Garam let out a breath of admiration, tracing the lines of the drawing with a calloused finger. But then, his finger stopped.

"...But Zect. Building something this big by the river... the scale of the construction would be insane. I’d have to beg Lord Gustav to move the budget and the manpower. If he orders every worker in the territory to help, we could get it done, but..."

"No. We can't rely on Gustav for this. Right now, he’s busy putting all his resources into our external security protocol—specifically, the Chess project."

"Why?! Asking the Lord for budget and men is the fastest way to get things done!"

"Because right now is a critical phase for establishing Chess as a global standard to protect Felsen from people like Duke Daryl. If we dump the backend infrastructure construction on him as well, the whole system will crash."

I took a sip of my Cola and looked the hesitant Garam straight in the eye.

"You’re going to be the lead on this project, Garam. This shouldn't be a lord-led public works project; it needs to be established as 'private industry,' run autonomously by the people on the ground."

"Are you crazy?! My specialty is hitting iron and carving wood! Building factories, sourcing materials, managing a massive workforce... just thinking about it makes my brain short-circuit!"

(Fair point. Forcing a specialist to act as a PM—Project Manager—is a classic mistake of black companies. If you force a developer to write specs while also handling budget negotiations and progress management, they’ll go insane. I certainly wouldn't do it.)

"Exactly. That’s why you shouldn't do it alone. You’d be the CTO—the technical lead—while someone else handles the tedious administrative grind. We need a partner who’s obsessed with logic and numbers. A strict Project Manager or CFO type to bridge the gap and manage the resources you lack."

Garam groaned, tugging at his short beard. A heavy silence filled the living room for a moment. Tama, who had been sleeping on my lap, opened one eye and looked at me with an annoyed expression.

"Mrrrp... (Trying to make this stubborn Dwarf handle numbers is a bad idea. He'd probably smash an abacus with a hammer.)"

As if reacting to Tama’s comment, Garam spoke up again.

"...I know one guy. But he’s... he’s too logical. He manages time down to the second. Plus, he’s stingy as hell with money. He and the guys on the floor get along like oil and water."

"Heh, sounds perfect. Being logical and obsessive about time and money are qualities I’d kill for in an industrialization project."

"The guy’s a cold fish who doesn't care about a craftsman's struggle as long as the numbers add up. You really want me to pair up with someone like that?"

(The classic clash between the Dev team and the Suits. It’s a trope, but projects without that friction usually fall apart in mid-air. Having them dislike each other is actually perfect for a system of checks and balances.)

"Can you bring him here next time? The three of us can hammer out the detailed factory specs and the budget plan."

"I don't like it... but to move this monster on the paper, I guess I don't have a choice. I’ll go convince him and bring him over. But listen, Zect. If he starts whining about the 'budget falling short' halfway through, you’d better be the one to shut him up, okay?"

"Deal. If the budget falls short, I’ll just build a system to generate more revenue. That’s what I do best, after all."

Garam had a complicated expression—one that suggested he’d found a new battlefield. He carefully rolled up all the blueprints and tucked them under his arm. This time, he left the house like a whirlwind, ready to shed his skin as an artisan and become a pioneer of industry.

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