Let’s Just Give It A Try First! (8)

What was an ordinary daily life?

First, I had to check my daily routine.

“Hmm, well, first, morning coffee… I’ve had that.”

Beni glanced at me with strange eyes as I muttered to myself, but she was also drinking coffee.

“Beni, are you in charge of the Lord’s castle today too?”

“Yes, it seems Ms. Seria isn’t feeling well. I think they said it’s a cold.”

“Did she take her medicine?”

“She said she took the emergency medicine, so we should hope for a quick recovery.”

Around the time the season transitioned into winter, a large amount of emergency medicine had been stocked in the Lord’s manor. I had told Vincent to keep refilling any empty spots, so I thought the maids would take care of their own health.

“I’m going for a short morning walk.”

After saying that to Beni and leaving her behind as she saw me off with a “Have a good trip,” I stepped out of the inner keep while feeling refreshed.

Then, Demina, who appeared out of nowhere, stood close to my side and asked.

“Is it a morning schedule today too?”

“Please call it a walk.”

“But you’re going to work, aren’t you?”

“I can at least point out things that are bothersome, can’t I?”

“That is what they call work.”

Thinking that I couldn’t get through to her, I shut my mouth and moved my feet to take a lap around the Lord’s manor first.

Since it was just past dawn and it was still early for the slaves to start their day, the slaves’ street was quiet.

I wondered if they were making good use of the items placed everywhere for trash disposal.

I could see that the streets were being kept quite clean, and the slaves who were starting their day early ran over upon spotting Demina and me, greeting us with polite smiles and deep bows.

“Good morning, my Lord!”

“It looks like you’ve been sweeping?”

“Yes. It’s quite uncomfortable when dust or snow piles up in front of the house. So I made a broom and have been sweeping.”

“Are there no rats or bugs in the house? You have to be careful as this is an area where things like poisonous spiders frequently appear.”

“Well, since I applied the insecticide you made for us everywhere, didn’t all the bugs just die on their own?”

After nodding and saying that was good, I told him to keep sweeping and moved my steps toward the Lord’s manor.

“You’re quite sensitive to rats and bugs.”

“I have to be. Most plagues start from those two things.”

“….Is that true?”

“I’m not joking. There was a case where half the population of a continent died from a plague, and I learned that the cause was bugs parasitic on rodents and the like.”

“….That’s terrifying.”

Demina shivered as if she had goosebumps, but I didn’t think the plague bacteria existed in this world. No, it might exist, but I couldn’t imagine it breaking out in our domain.

To put it bluntly… this was the Ingrad Domain, where even rats found it hard to survive.

After that, I stopped by the Lord’s manor to check on Vincent and the maids preparing early breakfast, then received the cookies I had requested from Riin the day before at the dining hall, and left the manor with a glass of milk to head to a nearby workshop.

It was a workshop where female beastkin extracted juice from herbs, and the representative here was Hirna. She was the wife of Debik, who could be called the representative of the bear beastkin, and I remembered her working hard with quite a lot of affection for the task.

“It seems they finished yesterday’s work cleanly and went home.”

They hadn’t clocked in yet, and I could see slaves, who started their day about two hours early, moving the herbs to be processed today into the workshop.

“I heard the volume is quite large lately; they’re working hard, aren’t they?”

“Is that because I’m doing a good job again?”

“What do you mean?”

Demina asked the question as if she was puzzled, so I began an explanation of my corporate(?) management style.

“I’m the kind of person who believes you shouldn’t be stingy with those who work. For example, let’s say the profit Hirna and the other female beastkin earn at this workshop is 100.”

“Yes, and?”

“Out of that amount, after subtracting incidental costs like procuring materials, managing facilities, and having slaves move the work volume, about 70 remains as net profit. From that, I am paying 20% of that amount as wages to the people working here, including Hirna. That’s how it works.”

“I don’t really get it.”

Right, Demina had no interest in such things. But had she given my story a little thought? She came back with an unexpected answer.

“I understand that 20% of the profit earned here is spent on their wages, but thinking in terms of numerical figures, I don’t know how much that is.”

“Oh… Demina, finally you’re actually think… sorry.”

I realized from the look in Demina’s eyes just now that I shouldn’t speak recklessly, and I shut my mouth.

After that, I provided various explanations and told her that those who labor under me are seeing a lot of benefits and becoming part of the ‘wealthy class.’

“Then does that mean most of them aren’t working under the Lord?”

“For now, it can be divided into several stages, and the beastkin who bring and sell herbs to me can be called primary producers in the literal sense.”

“It’s complicated.”

It’s not complicated at all…?

I thought that Demina really hated using her head. So, while explaining the parts she could understand, I inspected everything around the Lord’s manor, and next was the butchery station set up in front of the manor. This was the place where many slaves, including Aenia, played the role of supplying meat to the entire domain, and it was an area where beastkin bringing herbs very often took meat instead of money.

Since it was a profit for me no matter what I did, I hadn’t been paying much attention, but this place was also expanding in scale day by day.

“The smell of blood is too strong here.”

“It can’t be helped. You’re bound to see blood in butchery work.”

“It’s cold, too..”

“Because the temperature has to be low to slow down the rate of decay.”

“Aren’t the byproducts left out too haphazardly?”

“They’re all things that need to be washed to be used anyway. So they’re just left in a convenient location to be moved. And once the herb transport is finished, the slaves will move the things here to the warehouse or the washing area. Probably?”

“What about things like the blood on the floor?”

“If possible, the impurities are filtered out to create something called ‘Blood Stone.’ That is also a fairly high-grade medicinal ingredient in its own right. It mainly goes into nutritional supplements.”

Demina looked at me with a disgusted face and asked.

“What kind of medicine would that be?”

“It’s a secret. If I tell you, you’ll just avoid eating that specific one, won’t you?”

Ignoring Demina, who was pestering me to please tell her, I inspected the brewery and warehouse this time. Here, too, it was still early morning, so no one had clocked in yet.

After looking around and seeing the alcohol lees piled up carelessly, I took out my notebook.

Then I took out my portable ink and quill pen and wrote down points for correction.

“What are you writing?”

“It’s because they’ve left the alcohol lees neglected, isn’t it?”

“Can’t this just be processed as something like food waste?”

“That’s true, but if you dry this well and make Black Cow feed, you can save on various costs. But if it’s neglected like this and goes sour, it just has to be thrown away.”

“….You feed alcohol lees to Black Cows?”

“You don’t know how much cows love alcohol, do you? Besides, the ones that grow up eating this stuff end up with incredible marbling.”

To her question about what marbling was, I explained the Black Cow cuts I had cooked for her last time, saying I’d grill a delicious part.

Only then did Demina’s eyes shine as she spoke.

“People don’t know how wasteful they’re being. Honestly, geez!”

After briefly thinking she was cute, I wrote down some improvements for building locations and the deployment of carts suitable for moving alcohol lees, and then headed to the artisan workshop street.

It was a street where artisans lived, and I could see various things like general handicrafts, furniture, and household goods produced and laid out; they were mostly items for sale, but half of them were also distributed as supplies.

Among them, wooden tableware had particularly high consumption, which was due to the recently arrived merchants.

Although wood was good to use, I thought improvement was needed because it cannot be recycled and was easily consumed, so I quickened my steps while thinking of having spoons and forks made of iron.

Demina, looking at me with puzzlement, asked.

“Why are you leaving without looking around?”

“There’s something I requested a while ago, so I’m going to check on how it’s coming along.”

It was to find out how much progress had been made on the request to produce stainless steel. Even though it’s just a mix of chrome and iron, I knew that getting the content right wasn’t something that succeeded instantly, and that was when I visited the iron workshop.

I saw shiny hardware with a familiar feel.

Seeing it shining in silver, I could think of ‘stainless steel,’ and upon entering the workshop and picking up various things to check, it seemed they had roughly succeeded in the mixing. There were quite a few buckets filled with various manufactured items, and judging by their condition, it appeared they were checking if they would rust after being submerged in salt water, just as I had told them.

Some had developed rust, showing red dots, but some were perfectly fine. It was clear that they had succeeded.

‘By manufacturing pipes… finally, the water…’

In fact, I wondered if a water supply system was necessary, but this also had its own romance. It’s because I wanted to make use of the massive bathtub in the inner keep.

To put it bluntly, filling that large bathtub with 20 maids wouldn’t be enough even in half a day.

But was the noise from rummaging through the workshop too loud?

A man with a familiar face walked out of the house built inside the workshop for the artisans to live with their families, hurriedly ran to me, and greeted me.

“Welcome, my Lord!”

“Gilbert, is it finished?”

“Yes. We’re trying various methods to increase the success rate, but… it’s just not easy…”

“What is the success rate?”

“It’s a little over 90%.”

“That’s good enough. Then let’s make it now.”

“What… do you mean?”

I took out my notebook, ink, and quill pen and showed him the basic shape of a pipe. And then I placed an order stating that it had to be done through casting, and since pressure would be applied, the thickness must be uniform and the circle must not be distorted, causing Gilbert to turn pale and ask cautiously.

“I might not be able to make what you ordered by myself.”

“If it seems like you can’t, bring in other artisans and use them. Gilbert, you complete the work as the representative. Got it?”

“Am… Am I the representative?”

“Well, it’s only right that the person who achieved this much of a result takes the lead, isn’t it?”

After firing up the motivation of Gilbert, who was overwhelmed with gratitude and humility, by telling him a performance bonus would be paid if he succeeded, I left the workshop.

Demina was looking at me strangely, but the morning schedule was roughly coming to an end.

“Now, I’m starting to get hungry, so shall we go eat?”

“…Are you hungry after eating that many cookies?”

The cookie basket Riin had made was empty before I knew it, but actually, I didn’t think it was that much.

“Didn’t you know that the stomach, since ancient times, can store rice, alcohol, and snacks separately?”

Demina’s expression looked as if she had heard everything crazy there was to hear.