Maximus looked at Capito.
Capito responded, "Actually, it won’t even take a month. Yesterday, the construction supervisor Gaius told me that it would only take twenty days to complete the two granaries."
Maximus then said, "This is indeed a good remedial measure."
Gaius finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Leader, the designs you drew last time have been crafted by Tetilipus and his team. When will you find time to take a look?" Capito asked again.
"Oh, the spinning wheels and weaving looms have been made!" Maximus, visibly pleased, immediately said, "I’ll go check them out tomorrow. By the way, bring Sesret along too!"
.............................................
Sesret was a middle-aged woman with an unremarkable appearance and average weaving skills. She had previously been a female slave in a large estate in Campania. There were many in the Weaving Workshop more skilled than her, but the reason she became the head of the Weaving Workshop was that she, like Acronis, was among the first batch of female slaves to join the rebel army. Back then, her tailoring and sewing skills were the best among the female slaves, so Maximus appointed her to gather a team responsible for sewing inner linings and pouches for the soldiers.
Later, when the rebel army occupied Sarabia, they found that Sarabia City had a unique specialty—woolen clothing and woven rugs—due to the famous wool produced at Kargalum Cape in Italy. The city had several textile workshops, and the female slaves working in them were all absorbed into the rebel army.
However, Maximus did not replace Sesret with a more skilled female slave to lead the Weaving Team. Her prior dedication and loyalty had earned his trust, and her senior status within the rebel army commanded the respect of the newly incorporated female slaves.
In fact, even as the Weaving Team expanded and its numbers increased, it maintained order and consistently contributed, whether during the army’s relocations or later at the Nix Tribe’s Weaving Workshop. This success was inseparable from Sesret’s efforts.
That said, whether during the time of the rebel army or now in the tribe, the Weaving Workshop was probably the department Maximus cared least about. Even the less conspicuous Furniture Workshop had received his attention multiple times, with him drawing new furniture designs.
This wasn’t because Maximus overly trusted Sesret’s abilities but rather because, during that time, the conditions didn’t allow for much else. He believed that as long as the Weaving Workshop maintained its current output, it would suffice.
It was precisely Maximus’s past indifference toward the Weaving Workshop that made Sesret, who had rarely been summoned directly by the leader, feel extremely nervous when she learned that he wanted to meet her in person.
Her direct superior, the Public Works Officer Capito, didn’t reveal the reason for the meeting to Maximus, only mysteriously reassuring her, "This will be a huge benefit for your Weaving Workshop! Come on, hurry up and follow me. You’ll see soon."
An anxious Sesret followed Capito to the Tribe Hall.
When Maximus saw her, he joked, "Sesret, you’re finally here. It’s really not easy to get a meeting with you."
Sesret grew more nervous and was about to explain.
Maximus waved his hand and said, "It’s fine, you’re here now. Follow me."
With that, he turned with a wave of his hand and walked out of the hall. The attendants guided Capito and Sesret to follow closely behind.
Unlike at Slodia, the main house in Ophelia is larger in scale and had been roughly divided into three sections by Maximus: one for the leader’s administrative affairs, including the Tribe Hall, the Political Affairs Hall meeting room, the leader’s office, and the Guard’s lounge; one for Maximus, his three wives, and their children; and one ostensibly under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, besides the kitchen and procurement managed by Acnes, also included the Intelligence Division, Archives Division, and Attendant Division of the Secretariat.
If the Guard’s quarters adjacent to the main house were added, there would be four major sections.
Maximus headed toward the area managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After passing through a courtyard, he arrived at a building, pushed open its ajar door, and walked inside.
"Leader, you’ve arrived!" came a familiar voice that made Sesret even more nervous.
Without taking a closer look, she followed Capito into the room.
"Oh, Sesret, my dear sister!" Acronis ignored Capito, who had entered first, and embraced Sesret as she approached. "It’s been over a year since we last met, hasn’t it? I’ve missed you! What about you?"
"Uh... me too..." Sesret responded awkwardly, her attention completely drawn to two objects placed at the center of the room. She instinctively pushed away Acronis’s hug and walked, almost subconsciously, toward the room’s center.
At the center of the room stood a peculiar piece of machinery. Its main structure consisted of a sturdy base, with one end supporting a solid vertical axis. Attached to the axis was a large wooden circular wheel about a meter in diameter. Above the wheel were three spindles, each supported by a slender rod. On the other end of the base stood a C-shaped support, which carried a foot-operated treadle. The support divided the treadle into a roughly 4:6 ratio, with the long end extending into the wooden wheel...
A maid from the Ministry of Internal Affairs sat nearby, next to a large wooden rack loaded with six bundles of thin, thread-like material—flax fibers, processed through drying, peeling, soaking, boiling, and combing after being harvested earlier this year. Discover more novels at novel{f}ire.net
The maid took two bundles of flax fibers and loaded them onto a spindle. Once all three spindles were loaded, she placed her feet on both ends of the treadle, rocking it back and forth like a seesaw.
The long end of the treadle drove the axle, causing the wooden wheel to spin continuously. Grooves carved into the edge of the wheel created friction as it rotated, driving the three adjacent spindles to spin together. As the spindles rotated, the flax fibers were drawn, twisted, and wound onto them, gradually forming thin threads...
During this process, the maid’s main tasks, apart from rocking the wheel with her feet, were monitoring the supply of flax fibers and replenishing them from a wooden basin nearby whenever needed...
In this manner, after a period of time, the three spindles were filled with fine threads, forming thick, spindle-shaped bundles.
Sesret’s eyes widened as she watched the scene unfold, her face etched with astonishment.
The spinning conducted at the Weaving Workshop also involved spinning wheels, consisting of a rotating wooden wheel and a fixed spindle. One end held a bunch of flax fibers, and as the wheel spun, the fibers twisted into threads and wound onto the spindle... This method bore some resemblance to what she was observing now.
However, because the traditional spinning wheel required manual operation of the rotating wheel, it frequently had to be stopped to replenish the flax fibers. This stop-and-go process meant that completing a single spindle took considerable time, let alone three. It often took half a day to finish three spindles. Yet, this new spinning device could achieve high efficiency in such a short amount of time with minimal effort!
Though astonished, Sesret didn’t speak, for her gaze had already shifted to another device beside the new spinning wheel.
It was a loom! But much like the spinning wheel, this loom was vastly different from the ones in the Weaving Workshop.
The looms in the Weaving Workshop consisted of two upright posts supporting a horizontal cloth beam. Warp threads were fixed to the beam and tensioned from below using weights. In the middle, a horizontal rod separated odd-numbered and even-numbered threads to form a natural shed. The warp threads in the back could be raised to create an artificial shed. The weft carried on a shuttle passed through these sheds alternately, weaving cloth...
Because such looms were wide and upright, women in the workshop had to weave standing up, moving back and forth around the loom to guide the weft shuttle through the warp threads. Such a setup typically required two or three women working together, and creating a single one-meter-long, one-meter-wide piece of fabric often took about half a day.
At the end of a workday, the women were left with sore backs and aching muscles due to prolonged standing and movement. Yet, there was no alternative; whether in Rome, Greece, Egypt, or Little Asia, this was how looms operated.
But this loom before Sesret was unlike anything she had ever seen: Its frame was more upright, with a warp beam positioned at the top that unrolled threads downward. A finer rod divided the warp threads into odd and even layers, each layer controlled by heddles attached to upper and lower rods. On either side of the loom, there were horsehead-shaped hanging heddle rods. At the base of the loom were two foot pedals: a longer one on the left connected by linkage to the rear heddle rod, and a shorter one on the right connected by linkage to the horsehead, which in turn moved the front heddle rod.
Stepping on the shorter pedal caused the horsehead to tilt upward, pulling the front heddle forward and creating a shed; stepping on the longer pedal pulled the rear heddle backward, allowing the layers to switch and form a new shed...
Sesret watched as a maid seated at the loom deftly pressed the pedals with her feet, moving the horsehead up and down, alternately opening and closing the sheds. She guided the shuttle through the warp threads, then beat the weft into place with the reed...
Sesret stared without blinking. No one else in the room spoke either, though it wasn’t quiet. The machine’s parts creaked as they moved, the shuttle swished back and forth, and the warp and weft threads vibrated slightly as they intertwined... Together, these sounds created a somewhat noisy atmosphere.
Yet, none of the onlookers seemed bothered. They quietly observed as the maid skillfully maneuvered the loom...
It was unclear how much time had passed before Maximus finally spoke: "That will do."