Seeing the utter bewilderment plastered across Simon's face, Ewan could only let out a heavy, weary sigh. This planet was truly an enigma that defied all logic. At this point, Ewan couldn't even be certain if he was actually living in an interstellar era or if he had somehow slipped through a crack in time.
There were certain advanced concepts the locals understood perfectly, yet they remained blissfully ignorant of basic mechanics that even ancient humans had mastered. It was a jarring contradiction of cosmic proportions.
Ewan leaned down, his eyes scanning the ground until he spotted a dry branch lying near the edge of the field. He picked it up and began scratching lines into the dirt with deliberate precision. He sketched a large circle, followed by a series of diagonal spokes and hollowed cylinders representing bamboo pipes. It was a crude blueprint, but the silhouette of the mechanism was clear enough to be recognized.
"Take a look at this." Ewan said, his voice dropping into a tone of gentle patience, the kind one might use to soothe a confused child: "This is the design for a waterwheel. Think of it as a massive, rotating turbine that we can install down by the creek. By harnessing the kinetic energy of the water's flow, these wooden spokes will be forced to rotate in a continuous cycle. Every time one of these hollow bamboo tubes dips beneath the surface, it scoops up a full load of water. As the wheel's rotation carries the tube to the apex, the water spills out of the hollow chamber."
He pointed the stick toward the top of his drawing: "We can position a drainage flume right here to catch the falling water and channel it directly into the fields. If we pull this off, we won't need a single spark of electricity or an ounce of manual labor. The earth will be hydrated entirely by the grace of gravity and flow."
Simon stared intensely at the drawing on the ground, his eyes darting between the dirt sketch and Ewan, who was currently using rather animated hand gestures to illustrate the mechanical motion. Simon's eyebrows knitted together in a tight knot before slowly relaxing. He crouched down, circling the drawing like a predator inspecting strange prey, tilting his head from side to side as he tried to visualize the rotating monstrosity Ewan was describing.
"That sounds… incredibly strange, Ewan. Are people actually using these things out in the wider galaxy?" Simon scratched the back of his head, his voice thick with skepticism. He was well aware that Ewan hailed from another planet, a place that likely possessed technologies far more sophisticated than anything found on this backwater rock. Rubbing the back of his neck, he couldn't quite mask the burgeoning curiosity in his tone: "In this village, well, honestly, probably on this entire planet, with the exception of Silverton Town, everyone just carries water buckets on their shoulders to irrigate the crops. That's just how it's done. Occasionally, some might try to dig a few irrigation trenches. But you have to understand, the soil composition here is… temperamental. A few people tried digging channels in the past, and it ended up ruining the soil's fertility to the point where nothing would grow. Since then, nobody dares to go messing with the landscape."
It made sense, arable land was the lifeblood of this community. There was only so much tillable soil to go around, and while it didn't exactly produce five-star gourmet delicacies, it provided the basic sustenance required for survival. Not everyone possessed the raw survival instincts of Asher Ryder, who could simply disappear into the wilderness and return with a fresh kill. If you couldn't farm, you didn't eat. Foraging for wild greens was a temporary fix, not a lifestyle, and without a steady harvest of grain, there was no way to maintain livestock.
Ewan caught the note of trepidation in Simon's voice and realized just how sacred the locals held their dirt. He let out another sigh: "Where I come from, people don't really use these anymore…" He struggled for a moment to find the right words to explain the concept of obsolescence: "Uhm… they use automated pumps. Things that are much, much more efficient than a wooden wheel."
"Oh…" Simon couldn't help but let out a small gasp of wonder: "Life must be pretty incredible over there, huh?"
"Not really. If life were that great, I wouldn't have ended up here."
Fair point.
Simon muttered something under his breath. His mother always told him that life here was actually quite decent compared to the horrors of the outside world. She claimed there were people in the high-tech sectors who looked like they had everything, yet they were so miserable they didn't even want to keep living.
Perhaps the planet Ewan came from was one of those cold, soul-crushing places.
"I'll have a word with Asher Ryder and see if we can build a prototype waterwheel to test it out. The beauty of this design is that it doesn't disturb the soil at all. It's just wood and bamboo assembled over the water. It won't have any impact on the chemical balance of the fields."
Simon hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly: "As long as you don't go digging up the boundary between the common dirt and the cultivation soil, it should probably be fine."
Ewan nodded in agreement. Realizing there was still so much he didn't know about the local geography and social structure, he decided to probe further: "Do the people around here only survive on subsistence farming? Isn't there any trade? Or a marketplace for food and goods?"
Simon let out a short laugh: "Of course there is! It's just our Lower Village that's dirt poor."
"Lower Village? You mean Lunaris Vale is actually divided into different sectors?"
"Indeed it is. The village is far too sprawling for a single person to manage. The man we usually refer to as the Village Head is actually just the head of Lower Lunaris Vale. There's also Upper Lunaris Vale and Middle Lunaris Vale. Down here, we only have a market fair once every five days, but up there, trade happens every single day. They have actual stalls, shops, and a constant bustle of people. It's quite the sight. Every year near the festival season, I usually head up there with my mother and brother to sell our goods and stock up on supplies. You can get much better prices for your wares there, though it's a bit of a trek."
Simon pointed toward a towering mountain peak in the distance, situated in the opposite direction of the dense forest Asher Ryder had shown Ewan earlier. "If you follow the mountain pass over there, you'll hit a major crossroads. If you go straight, you're on the high road to Silverton Town. If you take a right, you'll reach Upper Lunaris Vale. A left turn takes you to Middle Lunaris Vale."
"By comparison, Upper Lunaris Vale is significantly wealthier than anywhere else in the region."
After listening to Simon's explanation, Ewan began doing the mental math to map out the local hierarchy. If he looked at it through the lens of old-world administrative divisions, this 'Lower Village' was essentially a tiny hamlet. The 'Middle Village' functioned like a small town, while the 'Upper Village' was more akin to a provincial capital.
And Silverton Town? That was effectively the metropolis of this planet.
The classification system was undeniably bizarre, yet strangely functional for such a secluded world.
Ewan nodded to himself, processing the information. He was just about to strike up another topic of conversation with Simon when a loud, familiar voice drifted over the fields toward them.
"Simon! Are you two done over there? Do you need me to come over and give you a hand?"