It's just perfect

The group arrived at the kilns a few minutes.

Before the fire, the clay structures were used to produce charcoal for the inhabitants of Redwater. These were one of the few structures that survived the blazing inferno that levelled the town that night, albeit damaged from the fire they were usable again after a little patching up here and there.

Levi plan was simple.

He intended to produce only a modest amount of lime mortar to serve as a chemical binder for the construction process.

His method of making a small amount of mortar to make the stone structures from locally available fieldstone would make the process easier, more tolerant of errors due to the inexperience of the labour and was more in the wheelhouse skills-wise for the already existing local stonemasons.

To further reduce his required cement volume, he chose to use mortar, not straight cement. Levi vaguely remembered mortar being made by mixing an amount of real cement with hydrated lime and sand.

In this scenario they would only have to cook half the lime at high temperatures, then powder and mix the other half with water and cook it at a lower temperature, after drying it then they would mix it with hydrated lime.

For every part of the mortar mix, they would also need to mix in 2 parts sand, meaning in the end 1 part cement, 1 part lime, and 4 parts sand.

Due to the relatively low-quality material, he planned on whitewashing these buildings in a lime slurry. This was to prevent the actual structural mortar from being washed away over time from exposure to the elements and can easily be re-coated every few years as it wears down.

Plus it makes for a nice white painted aesthetic. which would be a nice touch for a nice new rebuilt town. Similarly, the interior of the buildings could also be plastered for a nice smooth finish.

After the serfs sifted the slit with fishing nets used for catching small fish fry from the river they separated the useful shards from the small pebbles and dirt. Smaller stones fell out through the gaps leaving behind a fairly clean pile of white shards and a few larger pebbles that refused to fall out of the improvised sieve.

Under his guidance, the serfs picked out the remaining pebbles littering the pile before they grounded the limestone shards into powdery form and piling them up in a corner for processing.

Since he couldn't find a reliable way of controlling the temperature and honestly don't even remember at what temperature cement is baked, Levi decided to opt for a charcoal flame over a normal one running on wood.

Since charcoal would burn much hotter and stabler than the normal flames he was hopeful that it might slightly increase his chances of producing cement on his first try and avoid unnecessarily embarrassing himself in front of sir Lancelot.

To further increase his chances of producing a pile of decent mortar lime on his first try, he added crushed shells from oysters, clams to lower the temperature needed to calcine the lime.

"Lord Levi you still haven't explained to me what this... 'cement' is." Sir Lancelot pointed out.

"Who knows, Even I'm not completely sure what it truly is," Levi replied languidly causing the Viscount's brow to scrunch up in annoyance.

It wasn't that Levi was withholding information from Lancelot, It was just that he knew that even the learned Viscount most probably wouldn't be able to understand the concept of how cement works since there are very few things of similar properties in this world.

Too lazy to even come up with a proper reply stood up from his crouched position, stretching his sore back.

Taking a stroll out of the burnt-down town into the woods, he stopped at the foot of a large grey willow. Sitting down, he rested his spine against the tree's sturdy trunk to hide away from the warm autumn glare in its benevolent shade.

Listening to the peaceful chirping of birds and the calm rustling of leaves whilst watching dried up swathes of grass sway in the wind, He soon dozed off, his souls at peace.

Drifting off into what could only be described as a peaceful place, a place without the fear of some greedy nobles invading his fief, A place without the fear of dying the very next day, a land utterly free of worries, he for once in a very long time remembered what inner peace felt like.

. . . . .

"Lord..."

"Young... lord..."

"YOUNG LORD WAKE UP!!!"

"Huh!!!

What?

What happened?"

"Lord Levi, it's been six hours and the charcoal has burnt out, what are we to do next?" Sir Lancelot asked poking Levi awake from his sleep with his long slender index finger.

"Uh? let me sleep some more, after all, it is just six...

"Wait..."

"Six hours?"

"SIX HOURS!!?? WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME EARLIER!" He shouted jolting from a sleep-induced stupor. Hurriedly crawling up to his feet whilst wiping off drool that from the corner of his mouth.

Praying in his heart to an unknown being, he made a rushed towards the kilns.

With only superficial knowledge, he wasn't sure if calcining the lime for too long would have an adverse effect on the cement. While he could easily get the materials he honestly didn't want to have to start the process of producing everything again.

"I tried to my lord but I didn't know you wandered this far, so I had quite a hard time finding you..." Lancelot explained easily keeping up with his pace.

They soon arrived at the kilns. Hurriedly Levi opened the clay oven and gingerly scooped out a shovel full of the powdery substance while covering his nose with his sleeves.

Lime wasn't actually safe to breathe in and is said to have adverse effects on the lungs. Aware of this Levi wasn't taking any chances with this stuff, especially after dreadfully remembering what claimed his life on earth.

Tightly covering his nose, he pulled out the shovel and what he got was a pile of fluffy grey powder that felt soft like baking flour when pinched between his fingers.

Still slightly warm to touch, Levi guessed the fire had died out for quite a while now so the lime had enough time to cool.

Lancelot poked out his head from behind him and asked curiously whilst staring curiously at the grey fluff.

"Did it turn bad?" He asked worriedly seeing the powder go from chalky white to pale grey.

"No...

No." Levi replied, a radiant smile blossoming on his face.

"It's just perfect."

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A.N.:

Actually charcoal doesn't burn nearly hot enough to bake limestone into Lime mortar, much less cement. Since charcoal burns at 1100 degrees celsius and limestone need to be baked at 1450 degrees celsius to turn into cement, theoretically the scenes above shouldn't be possible.

Ideally, coal would have been a much better substitute since it burns much hotter ( around 2500 degrees Celsius), but in order not to complicate things too much, I eventually decided to go with charcoal with the unverified assumption that baking it longer could possibly create cement albeit of lower quality.

Fun Fact:

Wood burns hottest at 600 degrees Celsius

IMPORTANT!!!

Credits to @Stormcloak who provided valuable info on the correct production of Lime mortar and tips on its proper application. Thanks brother, I really appreciate the gesture.