The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The Toilet Problem and Trust

"Toilets?"

"Yes. For the time being, rather than installing them household by household, we'll deal with it by building communal toilets at set intervals... Would that be difficult?"

In the story of the game, only Hard Mode had you go out directly to farming villages, and otherwise almost all of it unfolded within the royal palace.

The palace had clean water from water magic stones and a proper sewer system, and in the game the topic never came up, but it was a problem that couldn't be avoided in order to live in that world... namely, the toilet situation.

With the exception of the palace and the manors of great nobles, the toilet situation in this world was extremely bad. It was common practice to relieve oneself into a bucket or chamber pot and throw it out the window.

It was a custom that got a no-go from both her previous life and Melfina's memories. It was also a problem she wanted to deal with during the winter, the slack farming season.

"Since it's you, Lord, I'm sure you have some thinking behind it, but may I hear what you're thinking?"

"Master, that's rude."

"Shut up. If we don't hear the needs properly, we can't meet them, especially with this one."

Ricardo's apprentice shrank his shoulders in apology. His reaction was almost pitiful.

"I'm glad that you care about the intent."

Craftsmen, when commissioned, apparently generally make it exactly as told. They don't offer opinions on how the thing is used afterward. Ricardo had started out that way too, but as she kept making all sorts of requests, he gradually began to ask why, and what for.

"First of all, excrement is extremely unsanitary."

"Well, it does smell, that's true."

"In a crowded city with stone paving, in summer it can be unbearably smelly."

"The bad smell isn't the only problem. Rotting excrement makes people sick in various ways, contaminates water and gives them stomach trouble, and becomes a cause of breeding vermin and pests like rats. And besides, it's also a great waste."

"I can sort of see the illness part, but waste?"

Discarded human waste either became pig feed or was washed away by rain. And the pigs, too, relieved themselves everywhere, and even if it was washed away, the sewage system was not developed, so it merely thinned out and spread all over the place.

In other words, as things stood, excrement was only being dumped at random around where people lived.

"...I'd like to hear your opinions on this. Ricardo, you know that I'm making fertilizer, don't you?"

"Yes, the reason for Enkar's great harvest. I hear you gather straw, animal bones, and leftover food and make it from those."

"...If I told you that the same thing can be done with human excrement, would you resist eating food made with it?"

Compost made with cow dung existed in this world as well, and some regions used it, but human waste was simply thrown away as a nuisance.

Yet fertilizer made from human waste had been used since ancient times in her previous life.

In the Edo period, farmers who wanted to buy excrement directly, and night-soil wholesalers who bought up excrement and sold it to the highest bidder, existed, and the owners of row houses earned great profits, which showed how excellent a fertilizer it was.

At Melfina's question, Ricardo and Eddie opened their eyes wide, and then groaned.

"Vegetables made from piss and shit, hmm..."

"...Honestly, if I heard that was how they were grown, I might feel resistance."

They were reluctant to speak, and clearly showed disapproval.

"Even though it's tossed around everywhere normally, and you step in it, and sometimes it even falls on your head from above?"

"If you step in it, you feel bad, and if you get hit by something falling from above, you'd storm in shouting and extract some small change, at the least. It's something we don't want to touch, a detestable thing."

If so, then even if toilets were built, the excrement could only be dumped in the mountains or washed into the river. And many would hate the job of carrying it.

She wanted to deal with the disposal of excrement before the next warm season came, and she thought the carriers would absolutely be needed work, but she didn't want to force people into work they hated.

While she was troubled, Marie, sitting beside Melfina, raised her hand.

"Lady Melfina, how about trying it as a trial in the former serfs' settlement?"

"I don't mind trying, but is the settlement better than Enkar Village?"

"The former serfs' settlement was the first area to start making Lady Melfina's fertilizer, so it has the deepest trust in what you do. It may be an idea you resist, Lady Melfina, but the former serfs are used to handling filth and won't mind carrying it from the communal toilets to the compost."

"How about letting the fertilizer made from excrement be used for the time being only for the settlement's self-sufficient fields? As with the craftsmen, if you offer it free or very cheaply for the first few years, I think many households will want to use it, and once its effect is demonstrated and more people want it, they'll naturally cooperate with the toilet project."

Cedric, standing behind, followed Marie's words with that.

"I see... It feels like taking advantage of the settlement people's weak position, so I'm reluctant, but..."

"No, rather, if it's useful to you, Lady Melfina, I think they'll be glad. They love you, and they believe their lives will become richer through it."

That trust was heavy, and ticklish, but she also wanted to live up to it.

"Then I'll ask Nid myself later. Ricardo, now, about building the toilets... Ricardo?"

"Ah, sorry. ...No, I'm summoned to nobles' manors in the ducal capital as a master too and take work there, but I'm still not used to a head of house who takes so many opinions from those around her."

"If you get used to working with the lord, you'll need to brace yourself considerably in the ducal capital."

At Ricardo's words, his apprentice Eddie nodded seriously as well.

"I think it's better to have others make up for what you lack, you get better results that way."

"There are many who can't see that," said Ricardo in an oddly heavy tone, and slapped his knee.

"Well then, now that it's decided, tell me what specifications the toilets have and what shape you want."

"Basically, dig a deep hole and treat the inside of the hole so that liquid doesn't seep through. Put a toilet seat on top, and enclose it with walls so it can't be seen from outside. For the time being, to get people used to relieving themselves in a set place, we'll make them public toilets, but eventually I'd like to put one in each household."

"If you make them per household later, they'd probably be attached outside the existing buildings."

"If it's a communal toilet, we'd need to make it big with several seats, or there'd be arguments over waiting turns."

"As for scooping out, do you scoop the excrement out of this hole?"

"No, basically the hole is made wider sideways so it can be scooped from outside the toilet. The excrement scooped with a bucket is packed into big jars or barrels, moved to another hole dug in the ground, and covered. In summer it should be usable as fertilizer in about two months, but in winter we'll have to go by trial and error, watching how it goes."

"Lady Melfina, the fertilizer made with straw needed air to be mixed in, didn't it? Won't that be difficult if it's put in a hole?"

"Fertilizer from human excrement doesn't need that. You just leave it for a while and it becomes usable."

The fertilizer made from straw, bone meal, and leftover food was bokashi-style fertilizer, fermented using so-called aerobic bacteria, but night soil made only of excrement used fermentation by anaerobic bacteria.

Anaerobic: as the word says, bacteria that dislike air.

"Is storing it absolutely necessary? Wouldn't it be more efficient to use it as soon as it's scooped?"

"When we made the straw fertilizer, the fertilizer itself gave off heat and became warm, didn't it? The same happens with excrement fertilizer. That heat kills harmful insects and the sources of disease, so it's an absolutely necessary process."

In addition, it would also have to be made widely known that if sealed too tightly gas could build up and explode, so some air should be allowed to pass, and that it must be diluted with water when used.

Ricardo, who had been listening in silence, stroked his chin and gave a nod.

"Since it's the first time, we'll have to start with a prototype, but from what I hear it's not something that can't be done."

"Still, where did you acquire this sort of knowledge, Lady Melfina? I also studied the education for nobles with a tutor, but I never came across this kind of content," Marie asked.

At Marie's question, she felt a slight jolt, but she suppressed it and smiled.

"My tutors taught me only manners and dance, and only simple arithmetic. This kind of knowledge I got from books I bought on my own and from libraries. I suppose I was a little more eager for knowledge than other young ladies."

"I see. That's wonderful."

"As expected of a young lady of a Marquis's house," said Cedric, praising her too, but this was knowledge borrowed from her previous life, learned only from manga and novels in addition to games, not gained from experience, so being praised so much made her a little uncomfortable.

"After that, I hope everyone uses the toilets in the designated place, thoroughly. It's impossible to change habits all at once, so it may take time."

"If you tell them, Lady Melfina, everyone will follow."

"And I think everyone has gotten used by now to habits changing all at once."

They were probably being considerate, her secretary and her bodyguard knight saying so brightly, but in reality it would surely be quite difficult.

"Ricardo, building this many toilets will be a big job, but I'm counting on you."

"Not at all, having work is an honor for a craftsman. I'll give it my all, Lord."

Ricardo gave a strong grin.

It was some time later that she heard that the villagers were racing to use the toilets as they were built, and that until their number grew sufficiently, people were going every day to scoop them out.