I woke up in the morning with not a slight knot in the body or with any joint pains. Today, we would be expecting 3 batches if delivery and I would be getting to work once the items arrive since my little room only could accommodate at least 6 to 8 baskets in a single time, I néed to make several trips.
I stood up and went to the kitchenette to prepare breakfast and mid-morning tea break and before that, I washed my face first with the jasmine scented soap and immediately felt super refreshed. I stood at the doorway and soon a messenger came and I stopped him.
"I need to send a message to the shop that sells the types of essential oils." and the messenger gave a note and I wrote that I need 5 barrels of coconut oil, 5 barrels of olive oil and send it to Hiko Seijuro residence with receipt and full amount would be paid.
Then I took another note and wrote to the shopkeeper to send 6 bags of 5 kilograms of lye to Hiko Seijuro residences with receipt and full payment would be done upon receiving.
I told him where the notes are to be sent and I took some coppers with me from my bedroom to pay his services. "Here's 1 copper each for the each note, and here's 3 coppers each for your kind help to send this faster to them. Thank you, kind sir." I said as I pressed the money in his hands. He thanked me and bowed his head and made his way to the marketplace to deliver the notes to them.
"Considered my tasks for this part is done. Now to wait for the deliveries and send it to the Realm of Mind." I said as I sat at the terrace while waiting for the breakfast and tea to be ready.
"You're up early, kid. I heard you ordered the coconut, olive and lye already. You really worked fast, kid." remarked Hiko-sama as he came out of his bedroom with a tussle of his hair that had been loosed by his hair band. "Huaaahhh..." he yawn as he stretched his arms. "Yesterday was really hard work, so what's your plan for me today?"
"Let's work on the main 3 ingredients today, because we need to make the main mix and then carefully seperate it into 15 kilograms each for the mixer. As for the flowers, we can do it when it comes later."
"That's great kid, so now, you had prepared the food for the workers? What are they having today?" asked Hiko-sama as he took one of his towel to prepare for his bath.
"Since they had yam in the mid-morning and banana in the mid-afternoon, I made sweet corn for the morning and sweet potato for the afternoon. At least there's a variation for their breaks as lunch was a standard one."
"That's good, kid. You seem to put others ahead of yourself. That's pretty decent of you and I almost didn't believe that this comes from a 11-year-old person. Haaaa.... I'm going for my shower now." Hiko-sama mentioned as he walked into the bathroom.
"I wonder how long more would Hiko-sama's complete their expedition, it has been 7 days since they left. Hope they are doing just fine. As for the business proposal, I hope I could garner their help and not depending on the export department as they had a very high tax!" I thought to myself as another idea struck me as businesses engaging in exports would definitely suffer in this manner.
I decided to inform Hiko-sama sama to raise the threshold for the minimum order quantity to 5,000 pieces for the [Refined Iron] plates.
I went to my bedroom and counted the gold coins. I have a main balance of 720 gold coins not to mention bundles if silvers and coppers since I had an injection of 540 gold coins from the blacksmith last night and 200 balances from the 1st transaction.
The gold coins flowed like water the same way cash travels in my world. At least one thing for sure is that the iron plates that were manufactured was free! I decided to store the remaining in the savings account after todays purchases.
The Construction workers and their foreman arrived with the horse-drawn wagons filled with construction materials. They greeted me and bowed and I exchanged the greetings back.
I went down and sat at the garden as the foreman approached me. "Where is Senior Master, young Master? By the way today, as mentioned last night, 6 workers would work on the installation of the roof and elevated ventilation vent. The other 4 would work on the kitchen and bathroom part, so once the 6 had fixed the roof, they would be performing the side and front panelling part."
"That's very good. It seems you had planned for the work indegeniously and those guys would complete the job for the roof, bathroom and kitchen by mid-day." I asked as I made an estimation. Judging by the speed they worked yesterday, it seems that nothing is impossible.
"You have an eye for things, Young Master. That's very good and you can forsee things happening and forming in the future." the foreman tried to jacked up my ego as he praises me for having a good forecast.
"You are doing fine yourself, Kayu-san. I hope you had starting to see your warehouse and had started to clear them in order to make space for your upcoming projects. Surelyz once you clear the junk, you can even setup an elevated platform to showcase your more exquisite collection of fine furniture fit for the Emperor!" I reversed the situation and a glint appeared in his eyes of being a service to the Emperor.
Dream on, Kayu-san... The Emperor would normally have rosewood furniture, polished marble garden furniture and other art pieces that would cost hundreds of gold coins or even thousands. We here in Kitakata only services this village and its community.
"Please excuse me Kayu-san, I have to attend to something." I turned around and walked up to the house as soon as I said that, remembering that I am preparing breakfast as well as getting ready to get some good coins to pay for the purchases as I saw a horse-drawn cart heading this way.
I went to the kitchenette and stoked more firewood for the steamer and a kettle was nestled just beside it and the heat radiated from the steamer also heated up the water in the kettle at the same time.
I went to my room and took a bundle of gold coins and stood at the doorway before making way for the arrival of the goods. An apprentice came and greeted me, bowed and showed me the receipt. I paid up and asked for assistance to bring all the barrels into my room and stack them in two's.
The apprentice went up and placed some sacks on the barren floor and then he and another assistant proceeded to stack the 5x25 litres barrels of unscented coconut oil, 5x25 litres barrels of olive oil and soon left.
I closed the main door and I stood up before the barrels and entered my meditative state and brought all the 10 barrels into the Realm of Mind immediately.
A short while later, another person was pushing a handcart for the lye. He greeted me and showed the receipt and I paid 3 gold coins for the lye mixture. He helped to place them in my room and left.
Once again I brought the items back to the Realm of Mind. Luckily the soap production could just be expanded or shrunk according to the designs made up in the minds. There were 2 empty barrels and I visualise them to be filled with 20 of water so that it could be mixed with the lye.
I sighed as I looked at the grand size of the production area. If only these things could be brought to the real world, then we would have an easier time.
But we could only bring in and out things brought in from the real world and not the other way round as it would distort and cause ripples in the future timeline, like a butterfly effect. Except for the onion skin papers that had completed its run of 7,500 wrapping papers.
Hiko-sama had completed his bath and he saw my bedroom was in a mess with gunny sacks lined on the barren floor as I had removed everything out and placed it in the living room. He shook his head and wondered how much it would cost for the construction of the 2nd floor for living quarters.
"Which delivery had been completed, kid? Your room is like a storage area already. Hahahaha. You want to join me in my room, I still got a space there just nice for you and your stuffs."
"Really Sensei? In that case I greatly obliged. Thank you, Sensei. In this case, we don't need to build a 2nd storey but maybe a storage area behind the house." I thanked him for the offer and started to move my stuffs in his room. There was an adequate space for my stuffs and clothes too.
I went to the kitchenette and carried the large steamer basket and placed it outside including the kettle of green tea. I placed 14 cups and Hiko-sama and I sat and enjoyed breakfast.
I told Hiko-sama that I would be taking a shower after this. As for the savings deposit I decided to push it tomorrow as I may need gold coins to pay for the flowers herbs and resins.
The flowers arrived soon and Izumi and Riko were pushing the handcart. Riko waved at me and I waved back and went to the front of the house to receive the delivery and make payment. Izumi greeted me and bowed and I did the same. She showed me the receipt and I paid her up. She had labelled the basket with the flower names so at least I could not make a mistake. Total 8 new basket of flowers had arrived and I quickly store them in my bedroom before reminding them to come for dinner and supper tonight.
Then I went to my bedroom and sent back the items to the Realm of Mind. There, I quickly prepared the distillers for the flowers. After spreading the flowers on the cloth sieve and covered with another layer of cloth, I set the bunsen burners to medium heat and closed the top half-round glass cover and set the timer for 12 hours and went back to the real world.
After some time, Eko, Fei, Gina and Hanna walked up to the courtyard, greeted and bowed. I receive the items at the front of the house, and the items too were clearly marked. I checked the receipt and paid them and reminded them to come for dinner. They thanked me and as they passed by the construction of the house, they saw the workers fixing the roof and when the workers waved at them, the 2 little girls waved back.
The 4 girls didn't immediately go back but stood there for a while at the side of the paved road to see that their new home was taking shape.
After noisily discussing among themselves, they went back to their respective destination.
I asked Hiko-sama about the time and he checked and told me. "Are you going to change first, Sensei?" I asked as I was always in either my yakata or my gi. "No need, today we are not facing a furnace so I would be fine."
"Alright, ready when you are, Sensei, right after I had washed my face first." I said as I entered the bathroom and washed up.
Soon after entering my bedroom we entered our meditative state and start our process in the Realm of Mind. Hiko-sama helped to mix the 1st batch of the base soap ingredients and showed him how to operate the mixture at 30 RPM and showed him the weighing scale for each exact proportion.
I attended to the herbs that been crushed by Eko and Fei, making the job easier as I placed them in the distillers. I soon used the blender to crush the resins into fine powder as much as possible and directly placed them inside the distiller to be dissolved and stirred constantly. I set the bunsen burners to medium heat for the herbs and set the timer for 12 hours while the resins mixture was set to low heat and timed at 6 hours with the mixer set at 10 RPM.
I assisted Hiko-sama to weigh and distribute the contents evenly and set the mixer at 15 RPM for 24 hours. Hiko-sama worked fast and efficiently when he lifted the barrel on top of another empty barrel and tilted its content. After we had mixed and distributed the base soap evenly, we checked everything and made sure everything was according to requirements before heading back to our real world.
We walked out of the bedroom and sat at the garden and noticed that our lunch had arrived. Our lunch was separated and placed on the terrace and noticed that the workers had already completed the roofing and its elevated vent roof and were eating by pairs while the rest worked. It was like a perfect symphony and work continued to flow endlessly.
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'Omagai... Look how the time flies. The roof and gutter plus drainage for the rain catchment had been completed! The bathroom and kitchenette area would takes about 24 hours for the curing of the cement. The back panelling of the house had been erected with an empty slot for the louvers."
"Yes, Sensei. It's amazing to see the speed and efficiency of the workers at completion for the roof and also the part of the kitchen where the floorings had been partially installed. Good... Good... Hang on I need to ask the workers something." I walked to the workers who were having their lunch and they bowed to me when I was nearing them. I bowed back and asked them some questions.
"Sirs, where do you stay here in Kitakata?" I asked and was joined by Hiko-sama.
"Senior and Young Master, we all are from the outer circle where it was known as the Plebs District."
"How was the living and housing conditions there?" I curiously asked since I had never stepped into the commoners or plebs District.
"Oh, we had a long house and it's a mixed cluster of families that made up of 2 or more families, depending on the setup of the house. We have our own room which is also our living and dining area. That's for one family only." the first one replied.
"If the long house has 2 or 3 rooms, then it's normally for 2 or 3 families. So whatever happens inside like conversations, quarrels or even during intimate, I guess Senior and Young Master knows right?" the second one sheepishly replied.
"We had a shared dirty and clean kitchen outside the house with 3 rocket stoves and shared by 2 households. So sometimes dinner would be as late as 7 or 8 pm and normally our wives would prepare dinner as early as 5 pm." the second one added.
"We also have an open area public shower and laundry for both male and female. And draw water from the well, unlike here you used a hand crank to start up the pump to the water tower." the first one spoke.
"We also share the Water Closet which was designated for 2 household to share, and sometimes they even defecate in the bushes if the water closet was occupied. Its based on first come first served basis." added the second one.
"Is everyone there properly employed?" I asked as I thought that residents would not build a house every single day.
"Almost everyone there are employed but on adhoc basis only. The sellers from the yatai came from the inner district after us, knows as the commoners District. The people there have permanent jobs like apprentices, helpers, messengers but unlike us, we only work when there's work offered." the first one explained about the employability in the district.
"We do not have land to toil and harvest crops and we only hunt for small animals and forages the land for anything we could use for food. The money that comes by would mainly be used to buy grains that we would normally pound to make porridge. Having to eat from a bento box lunch is a blessing, but we also think about what our families back home was eating too, kind Senior and Young Master." the second one spoke of their hardship.
"Normally owners would cook a simple rice meal and just boiled egg or some vegetables. But you both are so generous to let us enjoy foods that we never imagined to eat in our lifetime. Thank you." said the first one and the both bowed to us.
"How about wages? How much are you paid per day or is it by the completion of project basis?" I asked as the concern of their welfare comes to mind.
"All of us were paid a single silver coin per day, so I heard it was supposed to be a 10 day project that would allow us to earn a gold coin but then the foreman said it must be completed by the 6th day and all the furnishings would be in by the 7th." elaborated the first one and sighed inwardly.
"So, since the foreman instructed us to finish the project by 7 days we had to comply even if it means we would be short of wages." explained the second one with a worried look on his face.
"Oh... I am sorry to hear that. Please forgive me. I was the one who made the foreman to commit the 7 day project. I didn't know, with my sincere heart, that your wages would be affected. Please forgive the both of us, kind sirs."
A look of surprise and shock overcame the workers as they heard and saw me bowed for forgiveness upon hearing their part of the story. Never in their life, they had witnessed a Young Master to ask for forgiveness because to the workers, a person with a stature would not bow to them and ask for forgiveness. THIS WAS THE FIRST!
"Eh, Young Master... You do not have to ask for forgiveness. It's not your fault at all. We are just lowly workers trying to make a living with just our experiences and skills. Please, you do not have to ask forgiveness. In the first place you have the right to negotiate with the foreman and it got nothing to do with us. Even if we work for one day, three days or 7 days, its our fate and decision. Please, Young Master, you are not and never in the wrong in the first place." explained the first and second one in a very flustered manner and bowed low as they spoke the words to me in turns.
"They are just simple minded people that just lives their lifes day by day. Just like a rooster that scratches the ground in the morning to eat in the morning and scratches the ground in the evening to eat in the evening."
"OK, don't worry. I'd take care of it. Thank you for sharing the information on this matters. Don't worry your foreman need not know and just keep up the good work. By the way, the weapon scraps in the northern side, are they still available?"I changed the subject and I had other plans as well.
"Well, it would barely be filled to the brim if qp of us goes there to collect them again for you, Senior and Young Master. Do you need us to collect them again for you?" the second one asked.
"Yes please, kind sirs. We need the 10 of you after work to collect as much as possible within the hours and return it here. I would need to use a wagon so I would ask the foreman for it later."
"Thank you, Senior and Young Master. I will inform the rest later and we will quickly finish our lunch and get back to work." they bowed and both Hiko-sama and I went back to the terrace.
"What's on your mind, kid?" asked Hiko-sama as this time I didn't reveal what was in my mind.
"Full spectrum of Logistics and Security." I said as I took the bento box and opened it up.
The workers we spoke to had gobbled up their lunch, and was replaced by another pair. I saw them talking and then the two men who were inquiring bowed deeply to us and walked to the garden to have their lunch.
"Tell me about your thoughts, come share with me and I will be grateful to assist." beckoned Hiko-sama as he shuffled closer to eat and listen to what I had in mind.
"OK, first off the list. By looking at the land leftover behind the house, may I ask your permission if we could build a small storage or warehouse and a place where could enter into our Realm of Mind? It would be a totally seperated room within the storage that only the both of us has access. On this way, we don't need to build an extension of another floor to this house."
"I don't see why not, kid. At least our sleeping quarters won't be affected in any way at all. Who knows one day I may have a partner in life and your could move to the warehouse... Haahaahaa... Just joking, don't take it seriously."
"Hahahaha....ok, the storage area would be as long as this land and there would only be one entry and exit and be able to be locked from the outside and the Realm of Mind room would be locked from both inside and out."
Then we will design a rail system where we could just push the finished products out from the Realm of Mind room and into the main storage space. That room would be as big as the size of your bedroom."
"We could work at night and rest longer in the day. And this should not be witnessed by anyone within the storage area.'
"Next is to hire a storekeeper and an assistant. These two would be here in the mornings to arrange the finished goods that we had pushed from the Realm of Mind room. The storekeeper would keep track of all the items and inventories them accordingly. The storekeeper and assistant would be required to arrange and store the items on pallets like those [Refined or Purified ] metals."
"Those items are heavy so it would be best to be stored and arranged on a single tiered flat level. As for the Essense, they should be kept in jars and placed on 3 tiered shelves back in the Realm of Mind."
"Karada Soap that need to be cured would be placed on their individual moulding set and the be packed by the girls. Finished products are to be displayed and stacked according to their scents and batches on the 3 tiered shelving too."
"Every product would be properly inventoried and movement have to be tracked. You will keep a daily ledger for each item so that its easy for you to check on their movement, stock level, and also the incoming sales and profit."
"Don't worry about the costing because it would only be a small fraction of its production. Right now we have 24 types of fragrances and I would add a other 6 more to compete making it as a round figure of 30 variations of Karada scented soap."
"Also, we would be mass producing the hangers and keeping them in stock. I targeted about a 15,000 hangers to be produced monthly"
"Every end of the month, I would target about 20,000 plates for 4 kinds of both iron and steel, so it would be 5,000 plates each."
"Karada scented soap would be 30 fragrances and be produced at least 30,000 to 35,000 per month."
"The storage area would have enough spaces to store 50 barrels of coconut and olive oils plus the lye bags. These would be placed on pallets near the entrance of the main single door entrance."
"A storage place would also be required for the iron ores, coal and limestone and the scrap metal pieces."
"The storekeeper and assistant would also be required to ensure that every single item in the warehouse would be carefully be recorded in the receiving ledger."
"We would need 6 guards to ensure the place here is secured 24 hours a day. Then we also would need 2 helpers to assist in delivering or purchasing the items, be it our goods or our necessities and also act as our messenger boys. 1 housekeeper is needed to sweep, clean and mop the house and 1 laundry person to wash our clothes and cook our meals."
"A total of 10 men and 2 women would be working for us and they would be able bodied like these workers here to perform their tasks. You would be in charge to rotate the 10 men in their work weekly so that in one week, they became guards, the next they became delivery boys and the next they would be storekeepers. The guards would work on a rotational 8 hours shift."
"In this way, everyone knew of their roles and responsibilities. Would there be any questions you would like to ask me, Sensei, since I had finished pouring out my thoughts and ideas to you."
Hiko-sama placed his hand on his chin and wondered for some time before he asks, " How many jars of yumeshu that you can place on top of a wooden pallet?" and the moment he mentioned the subject, we both burst our laughing because he took the right cue to crack a joke on his most favourite matter!
We laughed until our stomachs hurt and I answered, "As for your answers, you need to have two pallets, Sensei!"
"I have no objection, your honour. So we shall invite Kayu-San for a drink later on to discuss on the next project?"
"Yes, Sensei. Its a very simple setup for the constructions, so it won't costs so much also. By the way, remember to increase the threshold for the exports of the plates to 5,000. We need to gather as much gold coins as possible to stabilise the corporation."
"How about the Seijuro Tumbler? You are not going to store it here, do you?" asked Hiko-sama as the thought of saving space in the storage for his drinks would be tremendously reduced if the Seijuro Tumblers were to be placed here.
"Definitely, Sensei. 1 Seijuro Tumbler would be shown as a showroom item and the production there would be not affected so much. All the Seijuro Tumblers would be stored here and the delivery boys would fetch and store here and when we have an order it would be delivered by them."
"An elevated platform would be erected so Seijuro Tumbler would be placed on it and underneath the platform would be the raw iron ores, coal and limestone."
"Wow, your visualisation of the whole storage space is truly amazing. A second ago I was thinking that I might lose one pallet space for my jars of yumeshu if the Seijuro Tumbler would take up alot of space. Haa Haa Haa...!" Hiko-sama frankly informed me of his fear and the disappointment he would feel in the future and we both laughed like crazy again.
"We will arrange to meet Mesen and his nephew on the day of the construction of the storage area. We finish one job first and continue. Duration for completion would be 3 days and the storage would have a slightly higher roof."
"Alright, your honour. I will go and get my jars of yumeshu and put it here by my side."
"And I would make some more green tea for the workers." I continued Hiko-sama's sentence and stood up to fetch the kettle and make more tea.