148 5.37 8 Flowers, 9 Herbs, 7 Resin. 24 New Scents of Karada Soap

"Sensei, how about you call Izumi and Eko? They both deal with flowers and herbs, right? How about you ask them which flowers or herbs that would be great to add to the collection of our scents? In that way, we could visit them in order to purchase these herbs and to see how was the working conditions of Eko and Fei.

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"Good idea. Let me call them over," he replied and called out to Izumi and Eko.

"Yes, Senior and Young Master. What can we be of service?" they said and if anyone hears them saying those words, they could be easily be misunderstood.

"Ah... From now I would call you both and the rest without honorific because you would call me Senpai, and then young master plus you would call my Sensei as Hiko-Dono and the rest called him Senior Master. Its rather confusing so from now on just call me as Senpai and Hiko-sama sama here as Sensei... Phew!"

I said as I have to keep changing the honorific based on these side characters of this novel and it will turn out extremely very troublesome at times.

"Yes, Senpai," they answered. "By the way, we already knew Izumi works in the flower shop and you, Eko worked as a herbalist. Alright, can we start with Izumi, what types of flowers are best suited for this type Karada Soap?"

"Oh, you had used lavender, jasmine, lilac and rose. There are also Wisteria, Frangipani, Sweet alyssum, Sweet pea, Four o'clock, Chocolate cosmos, Lily of the valley and Gardenia."

"You could order and Riko and I would send it to you after lunchtime. At least you do not need to leave the house and monitor the workers." Izumi replied as she introduced another 8 more versions of scents, which means a total of 8 more new fragrances.

Hiko-sama looked at me and I replied, "OK, Izumi, we order 8 more baskets of flowers each tomorrow."

"Considered it as done, Senpai. Thank you for your orders. Hehe." Izumi replied with a giggle on her voice.

"Alright, Eko. It's your turn now. Tell me which is the best herbs that you would suggest to make a new scent for the Karada Soap?"

"Senpai, if you are considering a huge basket of flowers, you cannot expect the same size of the basket for the herbs as well. The basket would be the size of the steamer you had served us supper."

"However, for my own point of view, you could use herbs like Amyris, Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Narcissus, Beebalm, Lemon balm, Catmint, Peppermint and Thyme. Total of 9 herbs that can be used for Karada Soap."

"We would like to order 9 of those herbs on a basket, could you and Fei deliver them tomorrow the same time as Izumi? Please prepare a receipt and payment would be done upon delivery."

"Yes, Senpai. Considered it done. We will send it here tomorrow. Thank you for your orders, Senpai."

"OK, you both may return and enjoy your supper now." With that, they both bowed and return to their seats and continued their supper.

"Sensei, could you call Hanna and Gin? Even if they are dealing with forestry I am sure they would have chanced on some roots or grasses." I suggested and Hiko-sama nodded.

"Hanna, could you come here a moment?" Hiko-sama summoned Hanna and as soon as she heard her name, she quickly went over.

"Yes Senpai, I heard what you needed and there are types of gums of trees that gave off certain sweet smell and they are Myrrh, Frankincense, Pine, Fir, Olbinam, Agarwood and Balsam. A total of 7 resin fragrances but I'm not sure how you are going to extract because they are solids."

"Ah... For your information, anything that is solid would be from a liquid first and liquid is a mixture of several forms of gases. So in order to melt these solids, it needs to be crushed and then slowly boiled and stirred until they dissolve."

"Alright, do you as a forester collects these resin?" Hanna and Gin shook their heads. "Hmm, then do you know anyone who collects them?" Hanna replied that their head forester collects for the monks from the monastery.

"OK, inform your head forester that we need a basketful like a steamer basket yesterday, filled with resins. Tomorrow after lunch you and Gin will deliver them here. Inform the head forester to carefully label them and bring the receipt and we will pay upon delivery. Would that be OK?"

"Yes, Senpai. Considered it as done. The contents normally collected would be like our bowl of yakisoba. Would that be sufficient, Senpai?" Hanna asked hoping that at least they would be in their head forester good books after this.

"Alright, go join the others." I dispersed both of them and they went to continue their suppers.

I turned to Hiko-sama and explained the whole situation.

"The flowers and herbs would undergo the same process of extraction and distillation for at least 24 hours on medium heat and a half-filled bowl of water."

"However the resins need to be processed with a blender, and an extremely slow mixer running at 5 RPM has to be used to stir the contents until it is fully dissolved."

"This would be set for 6 hours with only a quarter bowl of water. Alright, at least I would be busy at home making the perfumes first then to store them away."

Hiko-sama only nodded and would be able to understand once he had seen the process in action.

"So that means we would have 24 more scents and altogether we would have a total of 29 scented soaps. Based on the past manufacturing calculations, each scent uses 15 litres of a mixture of coconut, olive oils and lye mixture, am I right?"

"That's right, Sensei. It's a balance of 25:25:1 ratio to make 15 litres of soap for every 5 scents. So the next 24 scents would require 120:120:120 except for the lye powder that required 30 kilograms."

"Phew, it's really hard to calculate using mental and how I wish I had a calculator." I this huge production, I have to visualise at least 24 more 20 litres capacity mixers. So basically we will use the present mixer to make batches of 5 scents each time first. We could only work at night then but as for the fragrances, I could go and do it myself."

I looked at Hiko-sama and found that he had racked his brains to work on overdrive mode to think on how the hell I'm going to manage this alone! And at 15 litres per scent, it would generate only 300 bars of soap and in total its a general count of7,200 bars of soap.

If the cosmetics shop places an order of another 100 bars of soap for each scent then they would have to part with 2,400 gold coins more to add 2400 bars of soap and 24 fragrances to their collections.

Just the cosmetics alone in Kitakata would cover the whole operating costs. Thinking of the stocks alone, we really need to have a storage space right now as big as a barn.

But a single floor with wooden pallets would work great. Especially with no other facilities, it would be decent enough. A lot of thoughts were playing in my head right now. To revolutionaries something, a huge investment and gamble would be done. We can't wait for things to happen, but we make things happen.

"Sensei, I'm going to Realm of Mind and set up the 24 new scents distillers first. Be right back."

Hiko-sama nodded as I went to my bedroom and closed the door and straight away I went into my meditative state and soon arrived at the Blacksmithing place. I swiped the whole scene to the left and it changes to the soap production area.

I quickly snapped my fingers and visualise that the distillers will be replaced with clean ones and made 24 distillers appear before me in rows of 6. The new distillers had a removable glass half-round top, that allows continual steaming and condensation at the same time. In the between the distillers were the 2 layers of cloth for filtration and sieving.

The readied essence was visualised to be on top of a 3 tiered shelf and there were placed on the top tier complete with clearly marked label. Then another 24 empty clear jars were visualised and they were arranged by 12 on both 2nd and 3rd tier of the shelf.

I walked back to the 200-litre mixer and visualised the main mixer to be pushed slightly back. Then I visualised 4 rows of 6 smaller capacity 20 litres mixers and arranged them neatly through my mind and it appeared just the way I had imagined.

I went back to the distillers and visualised 24 bunsen burners whereby 6 were connected to a 60 litres LPG tank and visualised 4 such tanks. Then all 17 clear glass bowls were filled with water halfway while the remaining 7 would be filled at only a quarter capacity but with a low 5/10 RPM mixer of with large bladed stirrer.

I visualise a cut off valve timers for all equipment and set the mixer to run for 24 hours, the 17 flowers and herbs at 12/8 hours while the resin one was set at 6 hours only.

With these, once I return to the Realm of Mind again, I could remove the top of the 17 distillers after 12 hours and let the water evaporate and the contents to be more concentrated by the next 8 hours.

I visualised a long table with 7 heavy-duty low-speed blender/processor of the brand Sumeet so the resin that would be processed would be powdered fine when processed.

Lastly, I visualise the heavy print set machine to be pushed back a little, and a stack of 7,250 onion skin papers was set on the standby feeding tray. The printed papers I set it aside on a table I had visualised. This would yield close to 10,000 printed papers.

I checked and rechecked the whole setup especially those that run on the energy from the surroundings, and everything worked on a dry run simultaneously. I looked at the setup and was satisfied with it so I won't go back and re-edit this chapter, thus I proceed to log off from my meditative state and back to the real world.

I joined Hiko-sama and he checked his timing and remarked that I was gone for about 20 minutes which was close to an hour in the Realm of Mind.

"You are done with the setup already? All 24 of them? That was pretty fast! I guess since it's empty and awaiting process right?"

"That's right, Sensei. I've redesigned the distillers so we won't need continuous watch. The distillers were set at first 12 hours then the next 8 hours for concentration. Mixers all running on 24 hours."

"So once the fragrances were set after 20 hours, it would be poured in at 400 cc each. The resins will be distilled unclosed for just 6 hours then the contents would be filtered and sieved and poured directly into the mixing bowl."

"I need your help Sensei in the Realm of Mind to mix the contents first then measured accordingly to weight and into the smaller mixers, 5 at a time. Then repeat the whole process until everything is done."

"No problem, kid. When did I ever refuse to lend a hand to you? Your hard work should also be shouldered by me. I'm glad we are working hand in hand in this corporation to make it a reality, and you are the one that put on the most effort."

I smiled and squeezed his hand and he didn't mind a bit except anything more than a 5% of physical contact.

The girls were oblivious to the fact that I was gone for nearly 20 minutes. Hiko-sama poured me a cup of yumeshu and I sipped it slowly and felt the slight liquor flowed down my throat till it settled in my stomach.

"So tomorrow I would go and patent the hanger right?" Hiko-sama asked. "Don't worry about it, we patent these things together one time with the soaps as well."

"Let me take a breather first and I will move some buckets of weapon scraps into the Realm of Mind to standby for our later project. We will standby 10 batches of 200 [Refined Iron] plates while standby another 5 batches of 200 [Purified Iron] plates."

"Just to enter into the Realm of Mind to place those weapon scraps?" Hiko-sama raised his eyebrows that made him more frown than usual.

"Yes, Sensei. We strike while the iron is still hot. Let me wash my face and hands first before entering,"

"OK, make sure both bedroom doors are closed. If they ask me where you went, I just tell them you went to the basement."

"Thanks, Sensei," I replied as I went to the side of the house and carried the weapon scraps into the house and into my bedroom. Hiko-sama also helped to refill the buckets the moment I came back with empty ones as I stored all the weapon parts in the Realm of Mind.

I went back and forth until I felt drained and went to wash my face and hands once more and continued the tasks. I repeated this until 30 minutes later and had emptied our initial handcart and 2 handcarts that was filled by the earlier workers.

"Sensei, senpai... You could always summon us to do the work for you. Where are you going with the weapons?" one of the girls said

I wiped my forehead and told them that I'm sending it to the basement for storage.

"Next time, please do not hesitate to call on us to assist you, Sensei and senpai. We are here eating dinner and supper at your dispense and at least we could do is to help you out."

"You are helping us... Really... By giving an opportunity for those sellers of the yatai to earn in order to feed their families. Most of them are plebs, and they rely on their skills and expertise to earn some coins at the end of the day."

"Oh... We never realised that. Senpai, your definition is very deep. Even if I'm 18, I can't think like you at 11. Your mind is way very matured, like a 30 or 40-year-old wise man." said Hanna when I explained that what we are doing is giving back to the community. Like Robin Hood, take from the rich and give to the poor.

Oh Hanna, if only you'd knew, that I am a 47-year-old man who is from the 21st century, my dear.

I asked for Hiko-sama the time and he said its already past 8 pm. I approached the girls and asked them how was the food and what they had eaten and what they intend to bring back for breakfast.

They explained that they a bit for the supper and decided to bring back the rest. They said they had seen some people rummaging for scraps in the dumpster and garbage bins after 830 pm for food and so on and decided to give some to them away.

"Hmm, these girls even they are in a difficult position, would try to help others who were much more difficult than them. They have a big heart and we are not making a wrong decision to choose them to work for us."

I smiled at them and wished I could pat every head of theirs.

"Senpai, we help you clear the tables and the dishes ok?" Hanna and Izumi offered to help since they saw me serving them the tea and all.

There were some leftovers in the steamer basket and were set aside to be brought back for consumption or given away to the less fortunate ones. Luckily Hiko-sama reminded me to close both of our bedroom doors and at least they won't see where the scraps of metal had gone to.

Thankfully, the girls made the place like their own homes so it does help to ease the work around the house abit. It does seem that many hands do make the work lighter.

Once the girls had cleared up the garden and kitchenette, they decided to make their way back with foods in their hands. They bowed low to us and bade farewell after thanking us for their dinner and supper.

As they turned and walked out, both Hiko-sama and I returned to the Realm of Mind together in our meditative state after the girls' backs had long disappeared.

Hiko-sama was surprised to look at the setup of the soap production in the Realm of Mind and was thinking that I might have used a considerable amount of internal energy just to visualise all kinds of contraptions for the distillation right down to the mixing and printing of the wrapping paper.

As Hiko-sama looked at the stack of wrapping paper alone, he must have thought that it would have to make several trips just to bring it up to the real world. However, in the Realm of Mind, it would be possible to offload once. But the work to take it down from the ejector tray of the printed product have to be done manually.

He looked at the distillers' modification and discovered that it is more constructive and feasible than before. Guess he must have thought that as time progressed, subsequent changes and upgrades would be implemented to make things easier as time passed by.

The row of mixers had been set up and he was astonished that I could think of a way that would be most effective in terms of productivity. Next, he saw the blenders and was surprised when he saw the branding on it.

"Ah, this is an electrical blender and processor visualised from my real world. It is tough enough to blend the raisins into powder form. If I used any other brand, it would not last long. This low-speed heavy-duty blender could even process small pebbles like the size of the fingernail on our pinkies. Any larger the blades would be conked out.

He looked at the setup and was amazed that it could be operated by a one or two-man operation. Next, we stepped back as I swiped the whole scene to the right and the image before we changed to the Blacksmithing and smelting processes.

A huge pile of weapon scraps were on the ground waiting to be smelted. Even if we processed everything to turn out as [Refined Iron] plates, we could smelt them down again to be [Purified Iron] and this time another low furnace would visualise just in front of behind the smelter.

I further explain that once we make steel, we need a foundry with a tilting smelting pot because of the proportions of iron ore, coal and limestone had not been figured by me yet.

The ratio of the materials have to be precise in order to make [Ordinary Steel 95%], [Refined Steel 97%] and [Purified Steel 99%].

I told Hiko-sama that I would not go to [Super Refined 99.5%] and [Extremely Refine 99.99%] because at this present moment, without the right tools, no one is able to differentiate it. Even for the current iron plates, one or two glances would not make a difference except to those Blacksmiths that could appraise between the 3 classifications of Iron.

Hiko sama nodded and I said let's begin to work and I counted that we have 40 moulding sets that could make 200 plates in one go. So once we hit 200, I would visualise another 40 moulding sets to make another 200.

I asked Hiko-sama to timed the whole process to make 200 plates and I began to put the smelting pot in the middle of the bed of coals before I pumped the bellows. I then placed a considerable amount of weapon scraps into the smelting pot and watched the contents slowly glowed red hot and began to melt.

Hiko-sama waited until the scraps had been Molten down before he took the dipper and helped to pour in the contents. Every 10 moulds he filled, he would go back to the first one and using the prodder, he would leave a deep impression Mark of the company's initials, the type of iron and its purity, in the centre of the [Refined Iron] plates.

I kept pumping the bellows and adding the scrap metal and once he had filled the last 200th mould, I visualise and created another 40 moulding sets. The bellows had been pumped regularly to control the heat and contents had been constantly been refilled with scraps and drained by the help of Hiko-sama.

We worked in silence and in perfect synchronisation until we hit the 400th plate.

"How much time did we spent in this process alone, Sensei? I asked while swiping torrents of sweat that poured from my forehead and my whole gi and part of my hakama was already drenched in perspiration.

"Just slightly over 2 hours, you want to go on? As what you said, strike while the iron is hot," he said as he too enjoyed the workout very much. 2 hours on the pocket watch would mean we had spent 6 hours already in the Realm of Mind.

"Just 200 more then we take a break already," I said as sweat was dripping profusely and Hiko-sama nodded as he wanted to make sure I do bit exert myself too much.

I pumped the bellows a few times before putting in more scraps and kept doing that until Hiko sama mentioned he got 10 more plates to fill and I stopped adding the scraps.

When he had left the impression stamp on the 600th plates with the prodder, he announced to stop and by that time I had already completely done with the pumping and there was some liquid iron in the smelting pot.

"That's it, Sensei. 600 plates are nothing much. We will knock these out from the would and stack on the wooden pallet for every 500 pieces. In case we have orders to be exported out by the business department, then we would be able to supply their demand. Bear in mind, these export moves by thousands of pieces. Let's go back, Sensei."

As soon as I said that, we soon logged off from our meditative state and returned to the real world.

"Fuyoooooo...! Exhausting but very rewarding piece of work. I didn't know that the pocket watch would be slow down as well back there! I had never perspired so much...! Hard work, extremely good rewards. 600 plates, wow... You just earned 3,000 good coins, little Sensei! "Hiko-sama laughed as he called me little Sensei and I pulled a smile despite being deflated since I worked the bellows for 9 hours in the Realm of Mind. Buts it's worth every drop of sweat.

"Sensei, use your charm to negotiate the terms with the exports office in the business district. Any less than 2,000 pieces, it would be based on cash payment or a form of cheque or endorsement for the treasury to direct the payment transfer from the exports office of the business district to the savings account. They can't expect you to carry 10,000 gold coins at one time go and no one would be holding so much gold in their office, right?"

"A cheque or an endorsement payment slip would indicate a direct payment of any said amount from their funds right to the saving account by indicating the payee's name."

"Ah, OK. I got it. Yes, I agree with you. No one in the right mind would keep so much gold coins in their petty cash box. So as you said, any order of below 2,000 would be paid upfront, correct? So what if they ordered 2,001 pieces?"

"Remember the tax that had to be paid? It is 10% of the value, right? So they will pay 10% less than the actual amount which amounts to just 9,000 coins. Its no problem, the material we use is free so let them have it at 9,000 gold."

"Anything between 2,001 to 5,000, they need to pay us 40% upfront and the balance 50% should be paid 30 days from date of delivery. No problem, we have other products to support. So they will remember, that we are helping them to have credit from us which means the government owes us a favour."

"Brilliant idea kid... Simply brilliant." Hiko-sama praised at the way I foresee way right into the future. "Remember everything has to be documented like how I did with Kayu-Sam before."

"Yes, yes... I fully understand, kid. I won't put us in a jeopardy and in a situation that we can't get out from. Don't worry, kid. I'd take care of it carefully." said Hiko-sama reassuringly to me.

"Alright, Sensei... You go ahead and shower first. I'm going to put these clothes aside. I think I could even wring my sweat out from these clothes. Hahahaha. I'm going to change into a yakata first and then take a shower before resting."

"Sure, kid. I hope Mesen would be able to fabricate the skeletal frame for Seijuro Tumbler already." Hiko-sama shared his thoughts with me. I told him only by next week we can arrange to meet Mesen and his nephew for lunch to discuss the terms and conditions of the lifetime contract.