Imperial Crown.

Chapter 44 I Want More Than Just This

Raven said clearly, "First, don't stop purchasing magic cores. Tell Fili that if he can't get the second-level magic cores in a short period of time, he doesn't have to force it. The supply of first-level magic cores must be guaranteed to me, and it must not be less than 20 per month."

"Second, have Philip find me five skilled leatherworkers in my name, either by hiring or requisitioning them, within 10 days. They must be able to make leather armor independently. The hiring price can be 5% higher than the market price, but the contract must be at least five years."

"Third, continue to import live pigs, no less than 100 per month."

Old Gordon recorded the information neatly, then raised his head and reported the bill: "Baron, according to your request, five skilled leatherworkers, each with three apprentices, that's 5 people, and the annual wages are about 3 gold coins, which is not a lot."

"100 live pigs will cost about 18-23 gold coins per month, which is within our budget."

"But on average, Fili will send about 24-30 magic cores per month. Based on the average price of 3.72 gold coins, it will cost at least 93 gold coins."

"In addition, we need to pay a loan of 179.6 gold coins every month."

"Adding military pay and staff salaries, we need to pay an average of 311.52 gold coins per month. The monthly payment from Angel's Tears is about 270-300 gold coins. We are not able to make ends meet."

Raven nodded. He had a rough idea of ​​the numbers, but not as clear as Old Gordon. "The taxes from Goldfinch Town and the autumn grain from Eagle Town should also be accounted for, right?"

"Yes, sir." Old Gordon said, "The tax revenue of Shimmering Gold Town has been basically calculated this time, and it is about 617.65 gold coins. The autumn grain will be stored in the warehouse, and it is estimated that there will be 8 kilograms of wheat, which can produce about 7 kilograms of coarse wheat flour."

"Hmm..." Raven tapped the table. "So, there will be a shortage of food?"

"Yes, sir," said Old Gordon. "But there are still 2.1 kilograms of coarse wheat flour in the warehouse. If the autumn grain is included, there will be about 10 kilograms, which is enough to support seven months of consumption."

"Not enough, far from enough." Raven shook his head and said, "Denise is the right person for food. Go talk to her. I need 20 kilograms of semolina, and the more the better. As long as she can get it, I'll take 100 million kilograms."

Old Gordon's breath hitched. "Sir, isn't this too much? Although the price of grain is not high, we simply cannot consume it all. This is simply throwing money away. Besides, we don't have such a large warehouse."

"Don't worry, it's possible that it won't be consumed." Raven said meaningfully, "Let's organize some people to build a warehouse. The autumn harvest is almost over anyway, so it's a good opportunity to find some work for them."

"By the way, organize those idle women at home and clean up those abandoned empty houses in Xiongying Town, so that the new residents will have nowhere to stay when they come."

After writing down Raven's instructions one by one, Old Gordon was about to speak when he heard Raven say half-jokingly, "Are you going to say that I'm making the best use of my people again?"

"You have a keen eye, sir." Old Gordon nodded with a smile, "However, there are still some problems in terms of 'making the best use of things'."

"Our finances are still too tight. Even if the payment from Angel's Tears arrives and the autumn tax from Glittering Gold is collected, we will only have 500 to 600 gold coins in our treasury. This amount is hard to handle... er, emergencies."

At the end of his speech, Old Gordon raised his head and glanced at Raven.

"I think we need at least 2000 gold coins to be safe."

"Yeah, we still have too little money." Raven sighed.

As a magician, he needs to buy new spells and spices to improve the efficiency of meditation. A first-level spell costs about 120-500 gold coins, and a second-level spell costs 800-3000 gold coins. Spices are not cheap either, even a first-level spell costs 80-200 gold coins, and second-level ones are ridiculously expensive, starting at 500 gold coins, and 1000 gold coins is not impossible.

And now that Raven has become a first-level transcendent, improving the strength of his subordinates must be put on the agenda. At least three more first-level transcendents must be produced. A bottle of first-level divine potion costs 3 gold coins. Even if the success rate is 300%, at least 5 bottles are needed, which is 5 gold coins. In addition, Eric must be helped to upgrade his rank.

This is money that must be spent.

Not to mention the 7800 gold coins that need to be paid to Judra.

"2000 gold coins is too little." Raven tapped the table. "In my opinion, at least 1 gold coins are needed to be considered safe."

Although he had lived a wealthy life for a few months, Old Gordon had not forgotten his previous difficulties. When he thought about Raven sending Simon to Bloody Highlands to gather intelligence, he suddenly had a bad premonition.

He swallowed his saliva and persuaded: "Sir, your achievements in the past few months have been great enough. It is better to move forward steadily and step by step. There is no need to take risks."

"Haha, don't worry, I value my life more than anyone else." Raven laughed.

Old Gordon was still a little worried: "Then...how do you plan to make money, sir?"

"The mountain man has his own clever plan!" Raven shook his head and said something that old Gordon couldn't understand.

The clever idea arrived in Eagle Town the next morning along with the first batch of flowers.

After washing up, Raven briefly discussed the issue of food procurement with Denise, and then led his men into the riverside workshop.

At the door of a workshop at the northernmost end, Raven stopped and said, "Poirot, you have to think carefully. If you follow me in this time, you won't be able to leave this workshop for a few months at the shortest, or a year or two at the longest."

Poirot took a deep breath and nodded vigorously: "Understood, sir!"

"Very good." Raven said as he pushed open the door of the workshop, and a rich floral scent filled his nose.

In the corner, there were large baskets of roses.

Poirot followed him in and was immediately stunned.

He finally understood why Raven was so demanding about confidentiality.

A rumor has begun to spread among the people: Baron Raven is obsessed with "magic experiments" and is wasting his family wealth.

In just two months, he broke down four large alchemical equipment, and bought two more at once, and customized four more as a precaution.

Raven even got a new nickname because of this: "The Second Baron of Prodigal Son."

The first one is of course the dead Donald.

But now, these four devices that should have been "broken" are lying obediently in this workshop.

Raven didn't intend to explain. He put on his gloves and said, "Don't just stand there. Help me. Put on the gloves next to you and cut the flowers from those baskets of roses."

"All right, sir!" Poirot came to his senses and hurried to work with Raven.

All the flower buds were cut off and washed clean. There were 247 roses in total, with a total weight of 10.12 kilograms.

"You must pay close attention to what I do next, and remember every word I say." Raven said as he brought a pot of flowers that had been watered to an alchemy device.

The main body of this equipment is a three-meter-long and one and a half-meter-wide table. It is made of steel doped with [muscovite] and has very good corrosion resistance and heat resistance. It is supported by two one-meter-two-high cabinets. In the left cabinet is a designed stove, and on the right is a wooden barrel for storing waste liquid.

On the left end of the table, above the stove, is a spherical flask the size of a bucket, with a long neck and a round bottom. There is a fork on the right side of the flask mouth, connected to a straight glass tube with a circle of leather water pipe wrapped around the glass tube. Water can be poured in to cool it down. The glass tube is tilted to the right as a whole, and the end is bent downward, connected to a detachable narrow-mouthed flask to hold the final liquid.

The most valuable part of this equipment is not the table below, but the glassware on top. At least 83 of the 60 gold coins were spent on this.

And the cost is just a pile of sand.

"What a profiteer!" Raven sighed, secretly competing with himself in his heart.

When we get a good source of sand in the future, we will make the glass no matter what.

Carefully spreading some of the broken porcelain pieces on the bottom of the bottle with a spoon, Raven said, "Don't be distracted, Poirot. You must not forget this step. It's better to put more than less."

This is to prevent boiling over.

Once this happens, the sudden increase in air pressure inside the bottle is likely to cause the flask to explode.

Then he picked up the washed flowers and threw them into the bottle one by one: "Don't be lazy in this step, put them in one by one, try to bring as little water as possible, pay attention to the position of the flowers, don't let them stick to the branch pipe, if they do stick, poke them with straw, don't dare to use anything else."

Soon, the bright red roses filled up more than half of the flask. Raven walked over, unfastened the lid of a water tank and said, "This contains boiled and then left to stand water. Someone will keep refilling it for you.

Remember, let it sit for at least one night, and pour out the last fifth of the water directly, do not use it. "

This is the method that Raven had to adopt in order to balance efficiency and effectiveness.

For distillation work like this, it is best to use pure water to avoid scale accumulation in the bottle and causing unnecessary trouble.

But now there are not enough alchemical equipment and manpower, and Raven has no possibility and no time to distill pure water.

The purpose of boiling the water is to reduce the content of impurities as much as possible; the purpose of leaving it still is to precipitate the impurities precipitated after boiling; and the purpose of taking only the top part of the water is to avoid interference from impurities as much as possible.

He scooped water to fill the flask to three-quarters, and then plugged the mouth of the flask with an oak cork: "Remember, the water level cannot be too high, otherwise it may flow into the cooling tube and affect the final effect; the cork should not be inserted too tightly, it is better to have a little gap than to plug it all in, otherwise it may cause the mouth of the flask to break..."

As Raven worked, he kept talking, occasionally stopping to answer Poirot's questions. When all the steps were completed, Raven put the prepared charcoal into the furnace, chanted a few syllables, and a flame appeared at his fingertips, and soon the charcoal was ignited.

Poirot hesitated and said: "Sir... this... I don't know how to do it."

Raven chuckled. "I didn't ask you to learn this. There's a flint next to you, and you're a chef. You don't need me to teach you how to keep the fire going, right?"

Flames rose, scorching the table top. After more than ten minutes, the water in the flask finally boiled. Water vapor poured into the branch pipe, condensed into water droplets under the cooling of the leather water pipe, and flowed into the flask on the other side at a slightly inclined angle.

It was the first time that Poirot had seen such a situation, and his eyes widened in amazement.

"Don't just stand there, you'll have a chance to watch later." Raven clapped his hands and said, "I'll give you the alchemy equipment over there. You'll operate it this time."

Poirot became nervous when he heard this. He knew how valuable this thing was. If it was really damaged, he couldn't afford the compensation even if he sold it.

Seeing the nervousness in his heart, Raven comforted him: "Don't worry, I'm not that kind of unscrupulous lord. As long as you follow my operating procedures, even if the equipment is damaged, it will be my own loss."

Poirot swallowed again, nodded, walked forward and began to operate. He would open his notebook to check every two steps.

It must be said that due to his experience in extracting glycerin, Poirot got the hang of it quickly. Raven only corrected a few minor problems and the alchemical equipment was up and running.

"Okay, there's one more job to do, and then you can relax for a while." Raven pointed to the corner and said, "Make a pot of lard. The ingredients are on the shelf over there, at the bottom shelf."

But Poirot obeyed.

When the lard was ready, Poirot asked habitually, "Sir, where is the caustic soda?"

Sodium hydroxide solution will leave caustic soda when it dries naturally, and can be diluted with water when needed. Polo had made it and stored a lot of it before.

"Don't worry, put it aside for now." As he said that, Raven took out a few pieces of charcoal from a bag and threw them into the lard.

Poirot asked in surprise: "Sir, what is this?"

Raven was too lazy to explain: "Just remember it, no need to ask. When the charcoal is used up, use it as fuel. Put new charcoal in next time."

The porous activated carbon can absorb the unpleasant smell in lard. Although Raven does not have activated carbon, charcoal can be used as a substitute.

As time passed, the rose petals gradually faded from bright red to dark purple, and the water in the flask became lighter and lighter.

When there was only a trace of water left in the bottle, Raven immediately turned off the fire and said, "Stop the other one as well and let the residual heat dry it. It's better to leave more than less."

Poirot did so hastily.

When the water in the condenser was almost gone, Raven took the flask on the right, and immediately a rich rose scent filled the air.

This liquid can be called "rose pure water", also known as "water essential oil". It has a strong fragrance and is an important raw material for many cosmetics.

Poirot rubbed his nose and sniffed it in disbelief. The rich aroma made him a little unconvinced: "Sir, is this the treasure you want?"

"It's just rose water, it's far from it." Raven opened a clay jar on the shelf next to him, grabbed a handful of salt and threw it in, then began to stir it with an iron spoon.

After the salt melted completely, Raven took a deep breath, took out a thin and long glass funnel, blocked the outlet of the funnel with cork, and covered the funnel with a piece of glass plate, waiting nervously.

Nothing went wrong during the experiment, but Raven didn't know whether the final result would be satisfactory.

After a few minutes, a light layer of oil finally appeared on the surface of the pure dew in the funnel.

"Done!" Raven clenched his fists excitedly, took an iron bucket, opened the wooden stopper under the funnel, drained more than half of the liquid, then blocked the mouth of the funnel and began to repeat the above process.

The process was extremely boring, but neither Raven nor Poirot slacked off at all. Once one of them showed signs of fatigue, the other would take over.

After four full hours, all the rose hydrosol in the two large beakers was finally poured out, and a layer of clear oil finally condensed on the surface of the hydrosol in the funnel.

Raven carefully pulled open the wooden stopper under the funnel and drained the hydrosol. He had to wait for a while after each drain, for fear that even a little bit of the oil on top would escape. In the end, only a little hydrosol was left in the funnel, and the oil on top looked no bigger than a soybean.

After placing the funnel on the iron shelf, Raven flexed his wrist and said, "Give me the small glass bottle under the shelf over there."

Poirot ran over, uncorked the bottle and placed it in the former's hand.

Placing the small bottle on the table, Raven leaned over, pursed his lips, held his breath, took the funnel, aimed its mouth at the mouth of the glass bottle, applied a little force with his fingers, tilted the funnel upwards, and finally, the grease fell into the glass bottle, spreading a layer of oil film on the bottom of the bottle.

“Huh…” Raven breathed a sigh of relief, quickly put the cork back on the bottle, and held it high up to the sun, as if he was looking at his lover: “Finally I got you!”

This is rose essential oil. Its fragrance is much longer-lasting than that of pure water. Even in the previous life, it was very valuable and was known as liquid gold.

A total of 247 roses, weighing 10 kilograms, cost 24.7 silver coins, but only this tiny drop of less than 1 gram was extracted.

"Sir, what should we do with these... uh, rose water? Throw it away?" Poirot's voice rang out.

Raven smiled and said, "You can't throw this away. I've been busy for so long. Do you think it's just for a drop of pure dew?"

"Pour in the caustic soda powder and add lard!"

There was no need for Raven to direct this step. After a few months, Poirot had become an expert at it.

Prepare the solution, heat the lard, and pour the solution in.

The caustic soda solution based on hydrosol was poured into lard. As Poirot stirred it skillfully, bits of debris condensed and precipitated out, then settled down, forming layer after layer of soap.

After filtering out the glycerin, Poirot habitually wanted to throw away the soap, but Raven stopped him and pointed at the latter and said, "Don't be so anxious, smell it."

Poirot put his nose close to it. "It seems... nothing special. Ouch! Ahem!"

It turned out that Raven had held a piece of charcoal soaked in lard and brought it close to his nose. Poirot immediately smelled the strong and disgusting smell of pig.

Raven raised his chin. "Now smell it again."

Poirot approached with some doubt, took a light sniff, and his eyes suddenly lit up: "Sir... this, this is simply amazing! Did you use magic!?"

The soap was still the soap that Poirot was familiar with, but the smell was completely different. Not only did it not smell like pig at all, but it was also filled with the alluring scent of roses.

Raven said nothing, but a smile was on his face.

He had known that deodorizing the soap with charcoal would solve the odor problem, but that was not necessary.

A bar of soap is only 50 copper coins. If you sell it rashly, not only will you not make much profit, but people will associate it with the sudden appearance of Angel's Tears.

There are not so many idiots in this world, especially businessmen.

This is also one of the reasons why Raven announced to the public that many alchemical equipment were broken and was willing to bear the infamy of "The Second Baron of Prodigal Sons".

He didn't want anyone to associate the alchemical equipment with the new product.

"This thing can be called soap," Raven said.

Poirot nodded slowly and admired from the bottom of his heart: "Soap...what a good name, sir. This kind of thing will definitely sell like hot cakes in the homes of wealthy merchants and nobles!"

He is no longer just Raven's chef, but also his chief craftsman. The more money Raven earns, the more benefits he will get. After all, Raven has always been generous to his subordinates.

"You're too happy then." Raven smiled mysteriously, "This is just the beginning. What I'm going to do next is the big deal."

After all, what he wanted could not be achieved with rose essential oil alone.

"Poirot, go tell the storeroom.

The wine can be brought over now.”

……

(End of this chapter)