148 5.37 8 Flowers, 9 Herbs, 7 Resin. 24 New Scents of Karada Soap (2/2)
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.