133.2. The Impossible Will Be Crushed, Isn’t It?

It was Jitaro.

I couldn’t help but smile wryly.

“You… Where exactly do you plan on getting that much rare metal from? Sure, if we could make it out of adamantite, we wouldn’t have to worry about buoyancy, but have you considered the issue of productivity…”

Think. Before I could finish my sentence, something caught in my thoughts. Productivity? Strength? Weight?

“Alchemical Hardened Rock…”

I muttered under my breath, but Leafan shook her head.

“It’s impossible, Craft-kun. Even if we pour hardened rock underwater—”

“No, I mean, what if we shape it into sheet piles on land and transport them by barge?”

Leafan’s head snapped up in realization.

“Of course! That’s it! We don’t need to pour it directly into the construction site. We can mold it in advance and use it as building material!”

Hope returned to Leafan’s expression. Then, once again, Jitaro casually dropped another wild suggestion.

“Then why not just build the bridge piers ahead of time and sink them into place?”

“That’s it!”

I snapped my fingers without thinking, but Leafan shook her head again.

“It’s an interesting idea, but there are two problems that make it impossible.”

“Problems?”

“If we do that, the piers would just sit on the riverbed surface. Without proper anchoring, they’d get washed away.”

“Wait a second, aren’t the piers supposed to be three times larger now? Do you realize how heavy that is?”

“Craft-kun, don’t underestimate water pressure. Even if it moves just a tiny bit each year, it will still shift eventually.”

“Is that so?”

So we’d still need to drive stakes deep into the ground to anchor them. Meaning we still need to drain the water after all.

“And the second issue: we have no way to transport or float something as massive as those bridge piers.”

True. No matter how large a barge we built, there’s no way it could float something that big.

“This method’s a no-go.”

Leafan rejected the idea, but her expression didn’t show despair. It seemed she was confident that by using hardened rocks for the sheet piles, the project could proceed.

At that point, Jabil-sensei, who had been quietly listening, raised his hand.

“Hmm. That gave me an idea. Instead of piers, what if we sunk cylindrical hardened rock?”

“What do you mean?”

I didn’t quite understand, so I asked for clarification.

“Instead of surrounding the area with sheet piles, we could use a giant cylindrical structure made of hardened rock from the start.”

With that explanation, I finally understood. It’s like submerging a barrel with the bottom removed into a bucket of water. Rather than assembling planks into a barrel, we’d just sink the barrel whole. It was a more realistic version of Jitaro’s idea.

“Leafan! What do you think?”

“It’s a good idea, but… it’s still too heavy.”

“So it’s impossible…”

As we were feeling disappointed, Jabil-sensei twisted his lips into a playful smile.

“Not at all. Just slice it into sections and transport it that way.”

“Slice…?”

I didn’t understand, but Leafan clearly did. She let out a gasp.

“That’s it! We can stack the sections like a ring toss game!”

Hearing the word “ring toss” finally made it click for me too. It’s like stacking bracelets or onion rings on top of each other.

“Indeed. This method would avoid the issues of water pressure, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Though I’m no expert, so I can’t speak to how exactly you’d align the sections underwater. This is just an irresponsible suggestion, after all.”

“No, it’s not! It’s an amazing idea! As expected from Jabil-sensei!”

Leafan was so excited that she hugged Jabil-sensei. She must have been thrilled. As expected from my Jabil-sensei!

Seeing the two young girls happily hugging was quite heartwarming.

“…Craft-kun, are you thinking something inappropriate?”

“Absolutely not!”

Is she psychic or something!?

“You might not realize it, but everything is showing on your face.”

Oh no.