Public Baths

If education drove commoners to Gadreel, superior sanitation, and jobs enticed them to stay.

Similarly, many businesses chose Gadreel as their headquarters due to the amenities, low tax rates, and trade route; it was also a boon to have your headquarters in a city that didn't smell of excrement.

This was a period when most rural villages or towns were ankle-deep in a putrid mix of wet mud, rotten fish, garbage, entrails, and animal dung. People dumped their buckets of feces and urine into the street or simply sloshed it out the window.

That's why, when Will constructed Gadreel almost ten years ago, he focused on building main sewage and water pipes.

While the capital, Yorkshire, was somewhat to Gadreel due to its proximity to water; it was common in Guidon to defecate in the alleyways. Thus, wealthy nobles and merchants preferred Gadreel to Guidon.

Albeit uncommon, it was still possible in Guidon to walk in working and poor neighborhoods and have a person empty a chamber pot above your head. No such thing existed in Gadreel, and the working and poor neighborhoods enjoyed that privilege.

In Gadreel, each townhouse was built with a wooden toilet and iron pipes that ran waste to underground main sewage pipes and out into the bottom of Friendship River.

Above each townhouse was a cistern. The cisterns ranged in size from five liters to ten dekaliters, depending on the size of the property and own owner's ability to pay the refilling cost.

Although each townhouse came equipped with a or multiple toilets, paying for refilling the cistern, and annual maintenance for cleaning their service pipes was the renters' or owners' responsibility.

It didn't take long before there was an entire industry devoted to water delivery and plumbing.

Moreover, both businesses were regulated by the City Administration. Not only were their regulations on water vendors and plumbers, but Kurosawa also imposed sanitary regulations on local businesses and the citizens.

Citizens were required to clean the street directly in front of a person's house or shop. People prided themselves on a clean area around their house or business. This became such a point of pride, that neighbors would sue each other for not cleaning around their residence.

The clean streets encouraged people to take pride in their neighborhoods and districts.

Furthermore, if migrants or tourists attempted to relieve themselves or defecate, they were chased away. New arrivals who did not know proper bathroom habits were ridiculed as barbarians.

As Gadreel grew larger, the number of toilets was a huge selling point when people were looking to rent or purchase. Rental prices varied based on location to the city center and the number of toilets in the domicile.

Yet, this was still unsatisfactory for Will. The population of Gadreel was closed to a million. As the population increased, so too did the cost of water delivery and plumbing. The price of water delivery was becoming a luxury, like the cost of electricity.

According to Kurosawa, the average citizen could only afford to bathe biweekly or monthly. Of course, the wealthier, like Will, could luxuriously bathe daily. But more and more citizens were being priced out of the market.

That was the purpose of the tour two years ago. Will, Kurosawa, Bubba, and the city guards toured the working and poor neighborhoods looking at the health conditions of the citizens.

Will saw and smelled the putrid grim on people's bodies. While Will was not a moralist, he still found this phenomenon unacceptable.

While he observed his citizens, he remembered a common idiom: every cloud has a silver lining.

Gadreel was branded as the cleanest city in Fermion, as well as the wealthiest city and the entertainment capital of Albania and Fermion. Staying on brand was very important for Will, and he knew just how to deflate the cost of water delivery while increasing the sanitation in his city.

Will planned to privatize public baths. On earth, several medieval countries had done the same thing to improve cleanliness among their populace.

This was a perfect opportunity for second and third sons who asked Will for entrepreneurial advice.

Ironically, people jokingly referred to Gadreel as the mecca for second and third sons. Second and third sons that didn't want to go into the priesthood, or military would seek out Will for an opportunity.

Many of these young men recognize the value of owning their own business. They would gallop down to Will's manor announce themselves as a fellow member of the bourgeoisie and purchase a business idea from Will.

Will directed most of these men into building textiles factories because Gadreel had an abundance of cotton and flax.

Now, he would guide these men into managing a Japanese-style sento or public bath. In a few short months, public bathhouses popped up one after the next.

Will even asked Kurosawa and Bishop vont Omar to announce a new sanitation policy alongside the Church of Gaia.

The new policy could be summed up as, "cleanliness is next to godliness." Soon people began to adore bathhouses. The affordable fees made it possible for working citizens to bathe like the wealthy. Additionally, bathhouses quickly became like local taverns, a place to socialize.

In Fermion, churches were responsible for healthcare. Yet, many priests were surprised to see the prevalence rate and morbidity in Gadreel decrease in the last two years. The church explained the decline in disease and death as a sign from the gods. The gods were pleased with the clean parishioners in the temples.

Although the bathhouse designs varied based on the location, most public baths had three separate rooms. Past the cashier, the first was the same-sex dressing rooms. In the dressing rooms, patrons would undress. Each customer was given a magical lock and rune to keep their valuables secure.

Before going to the pool, guests would arrive at the second room. The second room had small benches and faucets where guests would sit and shower. Each bathhouse provided guests with soap and a cypress-wood bucket to shower with.

After cleaning themselves, guests could enter the third room which had a relaxing heated pool. Most pools were rectangular and made from stones. On average the pools were heated between 32-to-40 Celsius. Due to regulations from the Church of Gaia and Aether, two pools existed for men and women. However, there were a few couple bathhouses, mostly at brothels.

While that surmised most bathhouses, noble bathhouses were more refined. Most had picturesque landscape murals of Friendship Valley and a koi pond. Inside guests were treated to V.I.P services, any food or item they requested could be brought in from across the city. Many guests relaxed in the warm water, drank milk tea and ate honeybuns.

As the popularity of bathhouses increased, bathhouse owners created the Bath Guild. The guild provided owners the ability to collectively afford a dedicated year-round, 24-hour aquamancer and pyromancer to maintain the pools.

In two years, bathhouses became a ubiquitous sight in Gadreel. Citizens joked about how every neighborhood almost had its bathhouse. Bathhouse became a part of a neighborhood's identity. Some bathhouses name themselves' after the neighborhood they resided in.

With fewer people purchasing home water deliveries, the cost of water decreased. However, many people still preferred to shower privately at home.

Still, Will was thrilled to see hygiene become commonplace, especially with the rumored pandemic in Durres, Albania's largest port city.