Reincarnated as the Descendant of a Fallen Noble — Chapter 92: Chapter 92

#92

Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Why Are You Doing This to Me? (1)

A month had passed since that day.

Midday, in the flatlands behind Mudside.

Dozens of wooden buildings and tents lined up in a row here.

Taverns, clinics, restaurants, and so on.

Everything had been prepared—from facilities for the workers to use, to residences where they would stay during the construction.

Near the residential area, women were doing laundry, and refugee children were running around everywhere, turning the sea and construction sites into playgrounds.

Right in the middle of that lively scene.

“We... we did it.”

“Somehow... we managed to finish it on time.”

Malion, the supply officer Engelmann, and a few retainers stood there, faces darkened from sun and fatigue, gazing at the sight with deeply moved expressions.

As Malion shut his eyes tightly for a moment, a drop of transparent liquid rolled down from beneath them.

Build faster! We have to hurry!

...Yes, sir!

It had been exactly a month since Hardin had decided to accommodate and employ all the refugees.

Thanks to that, it hadn’t been enough to just revise all the pre-existing plans—they also had to resolve food and lodging for over two hundred people. Even ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough to handle it all.

Especially the housing issue—they had to visit guilds in nearby cities to purchase tents, and even mobilized the knight order’s personnel for labor. (It had helped that those guys had prior experience rebuilding Mudside.) They just barely managed to handle it by constructing temporary barracks.

Though they somehow pulled it off...

‘I’m never doing anything like this again.’

For Malion, it was truly a valuable(?) experience that let him understand exactly what it felt like to work himself to death.

That was when it happened.

“Hohoho! See? I told you it’d work out if we just did it! Why’re you acting like you’re dying?”

“...”

Hardin, who had been standing in front, suddenly threw his head back and grinned broadly.

‘If I could, I’d punch him. Just once would be enough.’

His fist trembled with rage, but what could he do?

That person was Hardin.

Just as Malion’s expression began to contort with frustration, Hardin casually threw an arm over his shoulder and said,

“Hey, hey, lighten up. Can’t you see the construction’s going well, just like I said?”

Hardin gestured with his chin toward the sea and smiled faintly.

Then Malion saw the sight of workers swarming the beach like a colony of ants.

“Alright, move it this way!”

“Coming through, make way!”

Everywhere, workers were carrying wood and stone. Stone masons and carpenters waiting near the coast were carving and distributing the materials.

Others were carefully stacking them, while plasterers rushed in between to add hardeners.

On the ground, the framework of a large warehouse connecting to the unloading dock was being built, paving stones were being laid to create roads, and foundational work was being done at the harbor.

Normally, each construction process should have been carried out in sequence, divided by phase and timeline. But now, everything was progressing in all directions simultaneously.

Letting out a deep sigh, Malion spoke to Hardin.

“Somehow… it really did work out just like you said, Brother.”

“See? I told you it would. You think I pushed this forward without a plan?”

“...I see.”

Then Hardin slung an arm around Malion’s shoulders and said,

“Once we finish the construction properly, we’ll be able to push forward without any roadblocks. Just look—now that we’ve got more hands to work, we can even build things like that.”

As Hardin raised his hand and pointed toward the sea, a long wooden wall came into view.

A breakwater—a wall built to block the waves.

Though it was a crude structure made of wood, it was good enough.

Being made of wood, its durability might be relatively low, but this wasn’t a region prone to tsunamis, and even something like that was sufficient to stabilize the flow of the waves.

By building it, they could significantly reduce the construction period.

“Phewwww. Not a single gap—flawless. Well, I am an exceptionally thorough guy, after all.”

At this, Malion, who had been staring blankly at the breakwater, let out a faint breath and said,

“Yes... you’ve done well, Brother.”

There was a certain reluctant tone in his voice.

Hardin’s boastful demeanor left Malion feeling strangely irritated, but what could he do? When someone did something right, you had to acknowledge it.

Hardin’s lips stretched into a wide grin.

“Hoho! Hohoho! Yeah, I did good. Damn good.”

“...Tsk.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you look like you’ve got a complaint.”

“Ahem. You’re mistaken.”

With that, the two of them bickered as they moved through the harbor construction site, inspecting every detail.

“Move the paving stones here over a bit. Looks like we’re short on labor over there, too.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll reassign the workers.”

Malion and the retainers cross-checked the plans with the current site conditions, pinpointing issues and giving guidance.

Watching this from behind, a satisfied smile crept onto Hardin’s face.

‘Now I can take it easy.’

The basic framework and foundation had already been established.

With Malion and the house retainers managing things, the construction should proceed smoothly from here until completion.

“Hehehe, hehehehehe.”

“Why are you laughing, Brother?”

“No, no, don’t mind me. Just keep working.”

Why laugh? Because I’m in a damn good mood, that’s why. You punk.

Hardin waved his hand as he answered.

While they were in the middle of inspecting the site...

“What is that?”

“Yeah... I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Suddenly, workers all around began murmuring and staring in the same direction.

“What the heck’s going on?”

“Why are they acting like that?”

Just as Hardin and Malion tilted their heads in confusion,

Engelmann, who had been standing nearby, widened his eyes and spoke.

“Uhhh, isn’t it because of that?”

“What do you mean ‘that’?”

“That! Don’t you see it?”

Hardin and Malion stared blankly toward the sea where Engelmann was pointing.

“...What are you talking about?”

“Doesn’t it feel like the horizon over there is... rising somehow?”

“Feels like it, I guess? Or maybe not?”

“What are you saying? Why would the horizon rise?”

“No, seriously, look closely!”

What was he even talking about?

Hardin and Malion squinted their eyes, focusing on the area near the horizon Engelmann had mentioned.

Swoooosh!

“Hm?”

“Uh...”

Just as Engelmann said, the ocean looked strangely elevated.

“Hmmm?”

“Huh?”

Everyone narrowed their eyes further, craning their necks forward like turtles.

And then—

KWAHHHHHH!

A massive wave—or rather, a tsunami—suddenly surged over the breakwater, erupting with a thunderous roar.

“What the...?”

CRASHHHHH!

The stacked layers of the wooden breakwater shattered in an instant, splintering apart and scattering in all directions.

It wasn’t surprising. The breakwater wasn’t built to block tsunamis—it was a crude wooden wall meant only to stabilize the waves. Naturally, it was obliterated in one blow.

“What the hell?”

Hardin and Malion’s mouths dropped open.

SWOOOOOOOSH!

As if destroying the breakwater wasn’t enough, the wave, now carrying wooden debris, came hurtling straight at them like a lunatic.

In that moment, both of them felt it at the same time.

‘Ah... we’re screwed.’

Something had gone wrong—horribly wrong.

And then the screams erupted.

“W-What’s happening?!”

“It’s a tsunamiiiii!”

The workers who had been laboring by the coast dropped all their materials and tools, trying to run in the opposite direction.

KWAHHH!

But the tsunami hit the coast before they could even escape.

“Aaaaah!”

Workers were swept away, and the materials scattered along the shore were sucked into the sea.

At that moment, Hardin’s brow furrowed sharply.

“Damn it!”

He rushed forward, shouting loudly.

“What the hell is this?! They said this place doesn’t get tsunamis!”

“I-I don’t know either!”

Malion, running after him, had a look of complete shock on his face.

‘Goddammit...’

As they ran, the surging wave reached up to Hardin’s ankles.

And what comes in... must go back out.

SWOOOOOSH!

“Uwaaah!”

Just as the water began to recede, a man was helplessly swept away in front of them.

In that instant—

Grab!

“Guh!”

Hardin caught the man by the scruff of his neck and flung him out of the wave’s path.

“Th-Thank you!”

The stunned man blinked and bowed his head, but Hardin, his face twisted in anger, shouted,

“Save the thanks and help someone else!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

As the man ran off in another direction, Hardin immediately turned to Malion and spoke quickly.

“Malion! First, let’s get things under control. Rescue anyone who’s fallen into the water, and salvage every piece of material we can get our hands on!”

“Yes, Brother!”

Both of their faces were filled with tension.

---

As the sun began to set, on the coast of Mudside—

“Haahhh, damn it.”

What a goddamn mess.

Soaked to the bone, Hardin tossed aside the wooden plank he had been holding under his arm and let out a deep sigh.

Ever since the tsunami hit, they’d been running around saving drowning workers and trying to patch up the wrecked construction site. It felt like all the life had been drained out of him.

Just then, Malion, equally drenched, stared at Hardin and said,

“Brother, didn’t you say everything was airtight?”

“What?”

“Ahem, for someone who claimed there were no gaps in the plan, this seems like quite the major accident.”

Malion adjusted his glasses and looked at Hardin pointedly.

Crack!

Hardin’s brow furrowed deeply as he snapped back,

“Hey, come on! This was just bad luck! They said tsunamis don’t hit this place!”

“Well, that may be true, but you were so confident I thought everything would be fine no matter what. Makes you wonder what the point of that breakwater was in the first place.”

“......”

This little bastard...

As Malion’s lips twitched into a smirk, Hardin’s body trembled with frustration.

‘Ha, seriously...’

Why the hell would a tsunami strike now, of all times—right after I finally built a breakwater in this place that supposedly never gets them?

At this point, it felt like someone was deliberately messing with him.

But what could he do? The hastily built breakwater had been completely useless.

Hardin clenched his fists, then changed his expression and spoke with determination.

“Alright, then I’ll do it right this time.”

“Do what?”

“I’m going to rebuild the breakwater out of stone so it never breaks again, no matter what.”

“A stone breakwater? Isn’t that a bit much...?”

“I told you already. I’m going to make this airtight. Whether it’s a tsunami or the god of tsunamis himself, nothing will break it again.”

“But building a stone breakwater will take quite a bit of time, won’t it?”

Malion asked with a concerned look, and Hardin snorted as he answered.

“...That’s why I took in all those refugees.”

“Sorry?”

“This is exactly when we make proper use of them.”

I didn’t increase our manpower for nothing.

‘Just wait and see, you bastards.’

Hardin’s lips began to curl into a sly smile.

---

Some time later, midday in Mudside.

“Bring more stone over here!”

“Yesss sir! Coming through!”

The workers, drenched in sweat, rolled neatly cut stones on logs, transporting them toward the shore.

The massive tsunami that had struck so damn inconveniently(?).

Thanks to it, the wooden breakwater was obliterated, and even the unloading dock construction site was completely wrecked.

Since that day, they had launched a new breakwater project, vowing never to suffer such misfortune again.

As the workers hauled the large stones to the shore—

“Strap it to the crane!”

“Yes, sir!”

They securely tied and fixed the stones to the nearby cranes that had been prepared.

“Turn it!”

“One, two! One, two!”

Creeeak! Creak!

The workers frantically spun the pulleys, hoisting the stones and moving them out to sea.

Once the stones reached the precise location...

“Lowering now!”

Thud!

The massive stone was set atop the stack of rocks already laid on the seabed.

Hardin, standing with arms crossed, watching closely, furrowed his brows and shouted,

“Faster, faster! We need to finish this even one day sooner!”

His voice was a strange mix of irritation and frustration.

And understandably so...

‘Just how unlucky can a person be... this is ridiculous.’

Before beginning the construction of the trade port, the entire household had double-checked and triple-checked everything.

Not once had a tsunami ever hit Mudside. There hadn’t even been any signs.

So why the hell did a tsunami have to hit now of all times, shattering the coastline?

The work the laborers were doing now served both as an outlet for their anger and as a countermeasure.

‘The wooden breakwater got smashed? Then we’ll build one with stone instead.’

A thick stone breakwater that could block both waves and tsunamis.

The construction cost and time required were incomparable to that of the wooden one.

But its durability and performance were equally beyond comparison.

Once this stone breakwater was completed, this trade port construction site would finally be sealed airtight and flawless.

It had already been nearly a month since they’d started construction, so in about three to four more months, it should be finished.

Hardin grit his teeth and thought to himself.

‘In a way, maybe it’s for the best. Might as well cross a stone bridge after knocking on it.’

You can be unlucky once—but never twice in a row.