Vivian watched the commander place his finger on the map.

The parchment was wide and rough, showing the whole northern border.

Mountains covered almost the entire top section, like a jagged wall, and cutting between those mountains and the mainland was a thick blue line,the Indus River.

Commander Vikram tapped that blue line again.

"This river will be our biggest problem."

His face tightened in a clear frown.

"There is only one bridge here," he said, pointing at a thin mark drawn across the water.

"But the moment war starts… they will destroy it. They won't leave us a clear path."

He straightened, folding his arms as his eyes moved slowly across everyone at the table.

"So the real question is simple. How do we get our soldiers across?"

His voice echoed in the room.

Silence followed.

Everyone stared at the map, their eyes fixed on the wide river that looked calm on paper but was known to be fierce in real life.

The room felt heavy, the kind of heavy that comes before big decisions.

Vined, Vivian's father, finally opened his mouth.

"We can use soldiers with earth element… no." He paused halfway, shaking his head as he corrected himself.

"It won't work. The water pressure will crush it."

He let out a tired breath.

"It's not strong enough."

His own idea broke before it even began.

The room fell quiet again, each man thinking, each one trying to see a path across that impossible river.

And Vivian felt the weight of the moment settle on his shoulders, like even the air had grown heavier.

Vivian's grandfather leaned forward, tapping the river with his finger.

"What if we use long iron rods," he said slowly, "and make a sort of base… then cover it with earth? Like making our own concrete bridge?"

For a moment, the room brightened.

Heads lifted.

Eyes sharpened.

It was a real idea, not just blind guessing.

But that brief spark faded the moment Vined sighed and shook his head.

"No… it still won't survive." His voice was calm but firm.

"The water pressure in the north is too strong. A normal bridge won't last. Even with iron and earth, it will break."

He continued, "and we need something strong enough to carry soldiers, supplies, weapon carts… everything."

He didn't raise his voice.

But his explanation was clear enough to crush the hope in the room.

Everyone slowly looked back at the map.

The blue line of the river sat there almost like it was mocking them.

Vivian could feel it too.

This wasn't just a river.

It was a barrier built by nature, cold, deep, and powerful.

In the frozen north, a river wasn't just water.

It was a fortress, a shield that protected the enemy without them lifting a finger.

And everyone at the table knew something very simple and very frightening:

If they couldn't cross this river, then the war ahead would bleed them dry.

More deaths.

More losses.

More pain.

They needed a plan, one that wouldn't crack or fail halfway.

A plan that could carry thousands of soldiers across the water… safely and fast.

A plan strong enough to start a war, not lose it at the riverbank.

The room stayed silent, each man sinking deeper into thought, as the weight of that single blue line grew heavier on all of them.

Vivian kept staring at the river on the map.

His eyes followed the flow of the blue line again and again, but his mind felt strangely empty.

He tried to think of something, anything, but nothing came.

In his old world, modern engineers would have handled this with machines, cranes, tools that didn't exist here.

Here, everything depended on hands, on magic, on raw skill.

No steel factories.

No construction teams.

No advanced bridges that could stretch for kilometers.

So his thoughts kept running in circles… until something snapped inside his mind.

A sudden idea hit him so fast it almost felt like he got shocked.

"Why… didn't I think of that earlier?" he whispered to himself.

His voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet room, everyone heard it.

All heads turned sharply toward him.

The emperor leaned forward, eyes focused.

"Vivian… do you have an idea?"

Vivian didn't answer right away.

He stayed silent, letting the idea settle, checking if it truly made sense.

A picture flashed in his memory, something he had seen during his hospital days, when he had been too weak to move.

There was a show playing on the TV, something about ancient wars on Earth.

That scene had caught his interest, so much that he later searched it up.

He remembered the shock he felt when he learned how clever the design was, even though it came from an old era of human history.

Simple.

Smart.

Efficient.

And it didn't need modern machines.

It was from the medieval age.

Vivian's eyes slowly widened as the full image took shape in his mind, how it looked, how it worked, how it crossed rivers stronger and wider than this one.

And with each second, his heartbeat grew faster.

'This… might actually work here.

Not perfectly. Not easily.

But it had a real chance.' He thought.

The others waited silently, watching him think, unaware that Vivian was pulling a solution from a lifetime they didn't even know he had.

The river felt less impossible now.

Just a little.

Vivian let the whole plan form clearly in his mind, piece by piece, until he could almost see the river and the bridge as if they were right in front of him.

His eyes brightened.

"I have a solution," he said.

Every head turned toward him.

His grandfather leaned forward, a spark of curiosity in his old eyes.

"Tell us, Vivian. What idea did you come up with?"

Vivian took a steady breath and stood from his seat.

He reached across the table and pointed directly at the Indus River on the map.

"First," he said, "we need to scout the river. Find the place where the water pressure is the weakest."

The room stayed silent, everyone listening.

"This river is famous for its strength," Vivian continued.

"But even strong rivers have spots that are calmer. If we find those spots, everything becomes easier."

The emperor nodded slowly, following his reasoning.

Vivian then paused.

He could explain it in words, but it would get messy.

He needed them to see it.

"I think it'll be easier if I draw it," he said.

"Explaining only with words will be confusing."

He snapped his fingers.

From his subspace, a large roll of paper and a feather pen appeared in his hand.

His grandfather raised an eyebrow.

Commander Vikram muttered something under his breath.

Vivian ignored all of them.

He placed the paper on the table, smoothing it out with his palms.

Then he lifted the pen and started drawing steady, simple lines.

First he drew the riverbank.

A wide shape, transparent and clear, so everyone could see what he planned to add next.

The others leaned closer.

The emperor watched with his chin resting on his hand.

Vined crossed his arms but didn't hide his interest.

Vikram stared so hard his eyes almost narrowed to slits.

They were all waiting, quiet, focused, expectant.

Vivian's hand moved quickly now.

He sketched boat after boat, simple shapes at first, lined neatly across the river like stepping stones.

At first, no one reacted. It looked almost childish… just boats in a line.

But then Vivian drew the wooden planks that connected them.

Then the support beams.

Then the side rails.

Then the ropes that tied each boat together.

And slowly the picture changed.

It wasn't boats anymore.

It was a bridge.

A bridge floating right on top of the river.

Eyes widened around the table.

Even Vikram leaned closer without realizing it.

When Vivian finished, he slid the paper to the center of the table.

There it was, clear and solid—

A solid bridge.

This was the famous pontoon bridge, a design that dates back to some of the earliest ancient civilizations.

The first known uses appeared in Mesopotamia and China as early as the 2nd millennium BC.

Chinese records also describe floating bridges during the Shang and early Zhou periods.

The concept later became widely recognized for large-scale engineering feats.

One of the most notable examples was when Xerxes I built massive pontoon bridges across the Hellespont in 480 BC.

These early designs proved remarkably strong, capable of supporting armies and withstanding powerful river currents.

A bridge made of boats.

Strong enough to stand.

Flexible enough to move with the river.

And simple enough to build with the tools of this world.

Vivian began explaining, lifting the pen and pointing at the drawing.

"As you can see… each boat becomes a support base. But the key part is not the boats, it's the anchors."

He tapped the little shapes he had drawn under the boats.

"First, we drop heavy anchors into the river from every single boat. Not light ones, heavy ones. Enough to keep each boat from drifting even if the water hits hard."

Everyone listened with full attention.

"Each boat will have at least two anchors,"

Vivian continued. "One on the upstream side to hold against the current, and one on the downstream side to keep it steady. The goal is to stop the boats from moving even an inch."

He drew thick lines across the boats.

"Next, we use cables or heavy ropes across the river. These run from boat to boat. They keep the boats tied together tightly so they don't drift apart."

He tapped the lines.

"These ropes make sure the bridge stays in one long piece. Even if the water hits the side, the cables stop a single boat from being pushed away."

He pointed to the planks drawn on top.

"Finally, we place wooden planks over the whole thing. Thick ones. Enough to carry soldiers, carts, and supplies. The weight spreads across all the boats, not just one, so nothing sinks."

He leaned back slightly.

"The bridge floats, so it doesn't fight the river. It works with it. And because it moves with the water, it doesn't break under pressure like other bridges."

Everyone stared at the drawing like it was magic.

Commander Vikram's voice came out low, almost stunned.

"This… this could actually work."

The emperor nodded slowly, his eyes still locked on the paper.

Vivian's grandfather smiled with visible pride.

The river that felt impossible a few minutes ago looked suddenly crossable.

Not easily.

Not without work.

But possible.

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