Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Epidemic
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'It was the animal fat.'
He picked up one of the soaps piled in the workshop.
"Ugh..."
A foul stench assaulted his nose.
"Why use oil from animals? Can't you use vegetable oil?"
The solution was surprisingly simple.
Use vegetable oil.
But...
"Vegetable oil, you say... We never considered it. However,"
"However?"
"Animal fat is easy to obtain. And that keeps the price low."
"Easy to obtain? Extracting oil isn't exactly simple, is it?"
To make a single cup of oil,
far more animals or plants were needed.
And plenty of those animals or plants...
'Were available.'
The moment he realized why,
the soap maker explained.
"Monsters, my lord. Once the valuable parts are removed, the carcasses are cheap. We extract the oil from those."
Plants.
More precisely, fruits.
Oil from those was expensive.
A cup of vegetable oil inevitably cost more than the dozens of baskets of fruit used to make it.
But animal fat.
Especially from discarded monster corpses—it was cheap.
No other costs besides labor.
'And the supply is enormous.'
It was Monster Island for a reason.
Carcasses ripe for oil extraction littered the place.
"Do they use animal fat on the continent too?"
"Of course. There are monsters on the continent as well."
There was a rational reason for making soap with animal fat in this world.
Even so...
This wouldn't do much for hygiene.
Who would rub stinking soap on their body?
"Bring me some paper for now."
He wrote down the soap-making method on the paper.
Using the Designer's Guidance skill.
As expected, the completion degree was low.
"Do other places make soap the same way?"
"Almost all of them do. Some cities claim special recipes... but even their soap smells like soap."
Foul soap stench.
Evidently, even special recipes used animal fat.
"Gather all kinds of oils from Plain city. Especially every vegetable oil available. Mention my name, and they'll hand them over."
"Ah... Understood."
.
.
He gathered oils from Plain.
There were quite a few varieties.
Goblin oil.
Orc oil.
Troll oil.
And so on.
Oils extracted from various animals,
and from plants.
Among the vegetable oils, especially,
"Olive?"
Memories from Earth surfaced.
The olive soap at home.
He spread out a blank sheet,
and drew up a soap blueprint.
He kept the basic framework the soap maker had taught him.
But replaced the animal fat with olive oil.
And then,
"This is it!!!"
He hadn't even fine-tuned the ingredient ratios yet.
And the completion degree had doubled.
He went ahead and drew up several blueprints,
raising the olive soap completion to 71.
"Get more of this oil."
He said, holding up the jar of olive oil.
"Olive oil is hard to come by. This is just a small amount from a wealthy household."
According to the soap maker,
olives grew in the south even on the continent.
Monster Island's cold weather wouldn't let them grow.
'They were willing to pay top dollar for it...'
If it was that hard to obtain,
it wasn't suitable for mass production.
He set aside the olive soap blueprint.
What good was a completion over 70 if the raw materials were scarce?
"Not easy."
He'd been thrilled to hit 70 in a day,
but as expected, it wasn't that simple.
From that day, he dove into blueprint work in earnest.
He used every oil gathered in the workshop.
Completion 31
Completion 27
Completion 34
...
Completion 38
He stretched,
and leaned back in his chair.
"How many days has it been?"
"Day four, my lord."
He'd muttered to himself, but a reply came from beside him.
He turned his head to see the soap maker.
"When did you get there?"
"We've been taking shifts guarding the seat next to you, my lord."
"I see. Sorry about that."
He'd thought they were just bringing meals,
but they'd been watching over him the whole time.
That aside.
'This won't do.'
Including olives, all vegetable oils were hard to obtain.
And expensive.
So he tried mixing animal and vegetable oils.
Dozens of blueprints from that.
Not one exceeded 40 completion.
"I'm going to rest. You rest too."
The soap maker's face lit up.
"Thank you, my lord."
As he left the soap workshop,
harsh sunlight stung his eyes.
"Noon already?"
After four days straight, he'd lost all sense of time.
He trudged toward the government office.
Even then, his mind was full of soap.
'Just make ultra-premium soap?'
It would still cost less than potions.
"Still too expensive."
Cheaper than potions, sure,
but way too pricey for a consumable.
'Maybe rebrand it?'
It smells, but it's good for your body, so use it anyway.
Run a campaign like that?
"I'm grasping at straws now."
That meant he was truly stumped.
Designer's Guidance (Lv 1)
Assists with blueprint creation.
It showed completion degree,
but not the full picture from raw materials to sales.
"Well, it's not a god's skill. Can't do everything."
Upon arriving at the office,
Isaac came out to greet him.
"My lord, you've worked hard."
"It wasn't that bad. Let's talk after I get some sleep."
"I've prepared your bedroom. Rest well."
He reached the bedroom
and washed up.
He deliberately used soap.
Forcing himself to endure the stench.
After washing, he lay in bed.
The foul smell crept up slowly.
"Ah... Soap is really too much."
If he weren't exhausted,
the smell alone would've kept him awake.
When he woke,
it was dark outside.
"What time is it?"
He left the room.
The hallway was quiet, save for two knights guarding the door.
"My lord, heading out?"
"Yeah, need to walk a bit."
He left the office with his escort knights.
'This is so different from Korea.'
Plain city.
A major city in Frontier.
Yet at night, the streets were deserted.
No one wandering about.
Lights out in every house.
After walking some time,
a particularly bright street caught his eye.
"What's that?"
"Well..."
The knights exchanged uneasy glances.
"It's fine. Tell me."
"The red-light district."
"That's why it's lit up so bright?"
He headed toward the red-light district.
One knight spoke up awkwardly.
"Not a place for you, my lord."
"Me? Why? I'm an adult."
"That's not what I meant..."
"It's fine. Just looking around."
The moment two knights appeared in the red-light district,
it went quiet.
But
only briefly.
Everyone went back to their fun.
"Perfect."
No one paying attention made it easy to look around.
Getting stared at would've been awkward.
Especially there.
Then,
"Loyalty to the Heir!! Chooooooong!!"
A massive cheer filled the street, drawing every eye in the district to him.
Then the revelers stood and bowed.
"Heir."
"Heir."
"No... really, go back to what you were doing! I'm fine!"
Only after repeating it several times
did they sit back down.
But they couldn't relax like before.
The man who caused the scene approached with a silly grin.
"To meet you on such a moonlit night fills my heart with joy."
"Guard Captain, why are you here? At this hour?"
"Maintaining public order. Am I not the captain of Plain's guard?"
Moments later,
guards appeared from spots around the street.
He'd thought he was out carousing,
but it was real patrol duty.
"Makes sense... With guards around, people feel safe flocking here."
"Exactly. The former city administrator... ahem, well, he ordered us to patrol this street even at night."
He whispered an aside.
The taxes from the red-light district owners were no joke.
"Anyway... too crowded."
The guards surrounded him tightly.
Their wall blocked any view of the district.
"Haha. Sorry. Everyone, focus on patrol. I'll escort the Heir!"
He walked the red-light district with his two escort knights and the Guard Captain.
'Worth the heavy taxes.'
The district brimmed with people.
And lights illuminating the streets.
"Hm?"
He approached one building.
The woman at the entrance looked shocked.
He reached the entrance and extended his hand.
Her face flushed red.
Ignoring her, he touched the lantern lighting the building.
"Not an artifact."
In this world, light sources were mainly two kinds.
Light artifacts.
And lanterns.
"You use monster oil here?"
The woman jumped in surprise.
"I-I'll fetch the owner, my lord."