"Evelyn! Come here!"
Evelyn looked up at Solomon calling her and quickly ran to his side.
Solomon spread a huge sheet of parchment directly on the open ground. Seeing Evelyn look at him strangely, he pointed to the cliff, his voice calm:
"We don't have to walk."
"We take the cliff."
Evelyn looked at him in confusion, completely clueless. How do we take the cliff? She looked at the blueprint he spread on the ground. Drawn on it was a complex system composed of countless ropes, winches, and strange pulleys.
Solomon decided to explain later. He looked at Tax Officer Barna: "I need some men. Men who are not afraid of heights, have guts, and have the steadiest hands and feet."
Barna was fast. A group of men was quickly assembled.
"This is called a safety rope. It will save your life. As long as you tie it according to my method, even if you slip, you will only hang in mid-air." Solomon took out a roll of brand-new rope and personally tied a complex knot around the waist of each volunteer, his movements skilled and precise.
Solomon explained every step clearly to everyone. Are you kidding? I used to work construction in my past life!
That confidence born of knowledge miraculously soothed the fear in the hearts of these volunteers.
The construction of the cableway began. Solomon stood at the edge of the cliff, demonstrating personally. Below his feet was an abyss, yet he showed no fear, patting the shoulder of every subject about to undertake dangerous work.
Three thick hemp ropes were tied with dead knots at both ends of the cliff. Several subjects with climbing experience took a deep breath, turned their heads away from the abyss below, trusted Solomon's rope and promise, and went first, driving deep iron spikes into every spot.
Solomon took a deep breath. Fortunately, Luchen and Lauchlan were not here, supervising the construction of the stockades; otherwise, they would never let him go up. Ignoring everyone's dissuasion and rejecting the pleas of the subjects who asked to go first, he personally climbed the mountain wall, following closely behind, finding the sturdiest rocks, stepping on the deep iron spikes driven by those before him.
Solomon appeared thin in the mountain wind of the precipitous cliff, yet like a nail, he was firmly fixed in the center of everyone's vision and hearts. When had they ever seen such a noble?
No one complained anymore. No one grumbled. Everyone watched Solomon hanging on the cliff tightly, their eyes filled only with worry.
"Can the rope bear that much weight?" A young subject couldn't help but voice everyone's doubt. "Lord Solomon won't be in danger, right?"
Evelyn didn't look back, staring fixedly at the boy's figure. Inside and outside the valley, everyone stopped their work. Hundreds, thousands of eyes held their breath and watched the boy crossing the abyss step by step.
The crowd looked toward Solomon, praying to the Seven for him, until Solomon stepped onto solid ground. Under the gaze of thousands, he and these subjects completed the installation of the cableway across the abyss.
Solomon turned back and gave the order. The subjects on the other side firmly secured the first carefully polished square giant stone with a rope net and hung it on the hook of the zip line.
"Release!!!" Solomon's arm swung down violently.
The winch loosened. The giant stone left the platform. After a momentary drop, it was yanked by the rope. With the whistling sound of wind, it slid rapidly out of the valley along the taut cableway.
The oiled rope reflected light. The iron pulley spun rapidly, just like the hearts of the watching crowd, emitting an ear-piercing yet melodious screech. Everyone's hearts were in their throats.
With a muffled thud, the giant stone landed steadily in the designated buffer zone outside the valley, kicking up a cloud of dust.
After a brief, suffocating silence, a cheer like a tsunami erupted inside and outside the valley. People waved their arms, roared, and shouted Solomon's name, releasing all the suppression and awe in their chests.
"By the Seven! A miracle! This is a miracle!!!"
The crowd looked at the young lord standing resolutely at the cliff edge. Their eyes held trust, worship, and awe. With wisdom difficult for mortals to understand, he had conquered this insurmountable natural barrier.
Evelyn trotted over, eyes wide with shock, looking at Solomon who was instructing Barna to install a few more transport ropes. Why do you look like the man who truly studies Old Valyrian technology?
Solomon turned and smiled at her. He had even thought of how to make money. He handed over a piece of parchment. Unexpectedly, I count as an intellectual in Westeros. He decided to guide this promising woman: "Little knowledge!"
"Evelyn, do you think light, like water, can also be guided?"
Evelyn looked up, staring blankly at Solomon before her.
"On the mountain body, we also need to carve some windows, even huge windows."
"Our castle currently only needs to accommodate five hundred people, so we must also consider living conditions."
"Then, at key nodes inside the mountain, such as the corners of tunnels or the tops of shafts, place this."
"Use copper or silver, or even water and glass, polished to the extreme, smooth as your mirror. Light comes in through the gap, shines on the first metal sheet, and then goes to the next place."
"Just like water in a canal. We use smooth metal plates one by one to transmit sunlight, ray by ray, to wherever we want it to go, even to the bottom of the deepest tunnel."
Evelyn's breath hitched. Her pupils contracted violently, staring fixedly at Solomon. This wasn't engineering; this was the utilization of the fundamental laws of the world. This was an architectural art bordering on magic!
Her body began to tremble constantly, not from cold, but from extreme excitement. She looked up, and the look in her eyes toward Solomon changed completely. It was worship. As if no difficulty could stump the boy before her. Problems that stumped her could be solved easily by him.
This boy before her, with a concept thrown out casually, easily crushed her pride. She suddenly realized that he was the one hiding the deepest. The secrets hidden by her little master were more than hers, more than all the Maesters in the entire continent of Westeros combined.
"I... I understand." Evelyn's voice carried a tremor even she didn't notice.
Solomon looked at the shocked Evelyn, suddenly realizing that some small knowledge far exceeded the development of this Westerosi era. Perhaps the way to wealth lies therein.
Evelyn threw herself into this new plan with a passion bordering on fanaticism.
She didn't sleep. She spent the whole night calculating and drawing, turning Solomon's genius, slightly rough concept into a precise, feasible, perfect plan.
She personally calculated the best placement angle and size for every reflective metal sheet.
A few days later, in the small hall already excavated inside the mountain, the first simple refraction system was installed. Evelyn personally directed in the hall. Craftsmen used ropes to slowly hoist copper sheets polished to a shine to their predetermined positions one by one.
When those copper sheets were carefully fixed and adjusted to the last precise angle, a miracle happened.
A bright, warm beam of sunlight, as if from heaven, pierced through layers of darkness and projected down precisely. The entire dark small hall lit up, illuminating the shocked, awed faces of the people in the dark.
Solomon stood at the window opened high above, looking down. The beam of light passed through his body, outlining his silhouette as a figure surrounded by radiance.
The miners in the tunnel bathed in this ray of artificial sunlight. First sluggish, then erupting into a huge uproar. Finally, they all fell to their knees, bowing piously in the direction the light beam came from—Solomon's direction—chanting "Miracle of the Seven."
And Evelyn stood among the cheering crowd at the bottom of the shaft, not looking at that magical beam of light.
She just raised her head, looking up at the figure of that boy.
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