Chapter 93: Improving The Recipe

The new method Lucius had thought up of was actually quite simple. Since the peel of the Carom fruits was thick, boiling it should make it easier to remove. And along with this, there would be the added effect of the reduced bitterness due to the heat.

Lucius was basically hitting two goals with one stone. The problem with the peels was that it would take way too long for someone to peel all fruits by hand. The amount that they were going to produce was simply massive and it would not be viable to peel each fruit.

Even if they employed a large number of workers to do it, it would still take much longer than it was viable. Thus Lucius thought of this method and hoped that it would work.

He watched as the fruit boiled in the water for about five minutes before he removed it. Cooling it down slightly with cold water, Lucius then pulled on its skin.

~mush~

The peel of the Carom Fruit came out entirely at once, like a sock from a leg. 

"PERFECT!" Lucius exclaimed.

Noting this down in his notebook, Lucius did a few more tests such as if the bitterness was properly reduced or not, or if he boiled the fruit for too long, will it become too mushy to peel.

After about ten trials, Lucius was able to come up with a time period that seemed to work on both aspects well. He discovered that leaving the Carom fruits for about ten minutes was the best. If it was boiled for even two minutes more, the fruit would become too mushy to peel.

While if it was boiled for less than eight minutes, the bitterness was not sufficiently reduced. Thus he took an average and decided that ten minutes was the best time to boil the fruits for. Recording it in the notebook again, Lucius decided to leave for breakfast.

All the notes that Lucius was taking in his notebook were precious and would become the base behind the fortune that he will be making from the wine. If the recipe was leaked, it would not take long for other copycats to pop up.

Though it was going to be quite unlikely for it to be leaked, as Lucius was going to take multiple countermeasures. First of all, he wasn't going to let the knowledge that the wine was made from Carom fruits, public. 

But he knew this would not be hidden for long and eventually someone would figure out that the wine was made from them after seeing the large amounts that were bought by them. To attest to this, Lucius was already preparing to make carom fruit fields near the brewery.

This area would be fenced off and included in the area of the brewery, eventually. Though they would have to do it discreetly, or those nosy nobles would probably get involved again. Thankfully, the growing part of the equation was relatively easier as the Carom Fruits grew without much care and were almost like wild weeds.

People often had a hard time getting rid of them, rather than growing them because they grew so fast and took up so much space once they started to spread. Lucius even learned that some farmers would try to destroy the opponents' crops by secretly planting Carom fruits in their farm and letting them infest the fields.

This was actually a punishable offense was duly recorded in the laws of the kingdom. 

Lucius almost laughed at this when he read about it and wondered how many times it must have happened for the kingdom to explicitly make it into a law.

"You're up early," Lita said upon seeing Asher enter the dining hall.

Even though Lucius had spent nearly two hours in testing out the proper timing for boiling the carom fruits, it was still early for him to wake up. Or rather it could be said that it was an early time for 'him' to eat breakfast.

"Yes, mother I woke up early." Lucius replied, not bothering to tell that he had spent two hours working already.

The two of them ate in silence as Kiana appeared with some letters and documents.

"These are today's," Kiana stated, as she placed them near Lita.

~Sigh~

"Will these nobles never learn… asking irrelevant questions just for the sake of it…" Lita said while shaking her head.

"How's the brewery coming along?" Lucius suddenly questioned.

"The brewery? It's going fine." Kiana was the one who replied.

"What step are they at now?" Lucius questioned.

"Hmm… I heard yesterday that they were going to start on the foundation today. They are already done clearing out the area yesterday." Kiana replied.

"I see… that's good then. Hopefully, it is finished quickly so that we can get started." Lucius stated.

Both the women nodded their heads as they were looking forward to it as well. The fate of their territory was depending upon this plan, and they were taking it very seriously.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot. Your dress for the party is ready." Kiana said with excitement.

"It's ready?" Lucius asked, feeling a bit unsure.

"Yeah!, you should be getting it by tonight." Kiana replied.

"I'll see it then," Lucius replied before focusing on eating.

"The party is the day after tomorrow right?" Lita asked.

"Yes, mother." Lucius answered.

"Hmm… take Donald and a few guards with you… just in case." Lita said.

Lucius raised his head and looked at Kiana.

"I'll have Kiana with me too, so there shouldn't be any problems," Lucius said. "But since mother insists, I'll take them with me." He added.

The rest of the breakfast passed quickly, and Lucius went on to do his daily tasks. At night though, he had different things that he needed to do. Since Lucius had already formed the Hell Imprint, what he now needed to do was to increase the amounts of hell energy it channeled.

The usual methods that he used in his past world would not work here, as he was using a completely different coordinate. Thus he would have to use different methods of doing it.