Chapter 33: I Released Cola in Nortaris! (3)
Chapter 33: I Released Cola in Nortaris! (3)
Translation: Godtl
Jurgen, Penelope, Serena.
The three of them stepped into Cola Factory No. 1, riding in a Caliburn Model K (4-seater).
Naturally, Serena took the wheel.
As they inspected the factory's interior, an overwhelming surge of emotion struck Jurgen's chest.
"Oooh..."
The interior, once a dusty brewing facility, had transformed beyond recognition.
Even though it wasn't his first time seeing it, Jurgen was moved to awe every single time.
A syrup manufacturing unit equipped with precision mixing modules and viscosity control devices.
A carbonation injector with functions for syrup-water blending and bottle sterilization.
A bottling machine fitted with cooling and vacuum chambers.
The equipment, forged from corrosion-resistant brass, gleamed with golden reflections, exuding grandeur.
Though not real gold, to Jurgen, it was more beautiful than any royal treasury.
"Miss Serena, this is truly... magnificent..."
The great Gastronomic Revolution had just taken its second step here!
"Ahem, ahem..."
Penelope's nose tingled as well.
They had their first factory.
She now had a business card as co-CEO of Y&P Trading Company.
Thanks to the misunderstanding that she was entangled with the mafia, her standing in high society remained somewhat intact.
At the very least, no one dared to openly disrespect her.
Even if they found her unsettling, wasn't it better to be feared than outright ignored?
Thanks to those rumors, she had even managed to snag a few bargains at auctions.
"..."
The past, marked by lethargy and failure, flickered through her mind.
This factory felt like a reward for all the pain and humiliation she had endured.
Suddenly, her eyes met Jurgen's.
He had been looking at her too.
"It's all thanks to you."
"What are you talking about? You're the one who's been a tremendous help, Penelope."
"Well, that may be, but I wouldn't have made it this far without you. Absolutely not."
Just as the two were basking in the warmth of the moment—
"Hwaaaaahhh...! Hwaaaaaaahhh!"
A booming wail, loud as a Caliburn's exhaust, echoed through the factory.
Turning around, they saw Serena on all fours, shedding tears of pure emotion.
"Hwaaaaahhh...! Hwaaaaaaahhh! I'm so glad... We did it... It's so amazing..."
Jurgen and Penelope weren't the only ones overjoyed by the factory's completion.
"Hwaaah, waaah...! If something had gone wrong...! It would've been a disaster...! I was so worried...!"
Seeing their satisfied reactions, Serena wept in relief.
No one knew just how terrified she had been throughout the entire process.
Memories of driving herself relentlessly, as if whipped from behind, flashed through her mind like a slideshow.
"Serena, I thought you were just some weirdo at first. But you're actually pretty great."
"Miss Serena, I'm truly grateful."
"Sniff... Sob... Y-yes..."
Penelope's heart swelled at the sight of Serena celebrating as if it were her own achievement, while Jurgen smiled warmly.
"Now, all that's left is... hiring the workers, right?"
Though Britannia had no beverage production facilities with this level of technology, was it a limitation of the world's setting?
Full automation was out of the question.
They needed:
- 30 production workers in total, divided into two shifts (15 per shift) for tasks like raw material preparation, bottle washing, line supply, quality inspection, and finished product loading.
- 2 line supervisors to manage each section.
- 4 sales personnel.
- 1 office administrator for attendance tracking and ledger management.
- 1 factory manager to oversee the entire operation.
Given the booming Demon Realm mining industry in Nortaris, hiring this many at once would normally be difficult, but...
"It shouldn't take too long, right?"
"I agree."
After all, Jurgen had the generous Polaranze workforce at his disposal.
The workers who had been employed at Polaranze's production factories found themselves jobless after its collapse.
Connor, who was sitting in a tavern drinking beer in broad daylight, was one of them.
"Gwah! Daytime beer really hits different. For some reason, it just doesn't taste the same at night. I could live like this forever."
The tavern owner clicked his tongue as he wiped a glass.
"Who's going to make money for you if you laze around like this forever? You need to find a job, and fast."
"Eh, something'll turn up."
Connor, chewing on pickled herring, showed no trace of an unemployed man's anxiety.
"Actually, I was already thinking about moving to the Demon Realm for work."
"You wanna freeze to death in that hellhole?"
"An old buddy told me there's openings for haulers. Said they pay way better too."
And for good reason—Nortaris's Demon Realm industry kept hitting new peaks with each passing day.
It was an unprecedented boom.
Adventurers kept flooding in, but there was a dire shortage of haulers to transport the mined resources.
As long as you had all your limbs and a sturdy build, getting rehired as a hauler was child's play.
But one fact remained undeniable:
The Demon Realm was dangerous.
Though most high-risk monsters had been purged, they weren't entirely gone.
Terrifying beasts could appear out of nowhere, wiping out entire veteran adventurer parties in an instant.
And the outlaws preying on adventurers were another risk you couldn't ignore.
Even without such extreme cases, parties could collapse from simple bad luck.
In those situations, non-combatant haulers made excellent bonus loot.
No wonder Nortaris trading companies' stocks stayed steady.
"Who's gonna serve me drinks if you get yourself killed messing around? Forget the Demon Realm—how about this place instead?"
"What's this?"
"A factory job posting from the bulletin board. Snagged one for you."
"Pfft, no more factory work for me. A man's gotta have ambition."
"Just look at it. The conditions are seriously good."
Connor waved him off at first but reluctantly took the posting after the barkeep's persistent urging.
"Let's see... Monthly pay of 3 Crowns? Damn, that's almost hauler-level."
Something was off.
The standard wage for unskilled laborers was 1 Crown.
That was for six-day workweeks with 12-hour rotating shifts.
"How many hours are they trying to squeeze out of people? Huh...? Five-day weeks, two shifts? Where the hell is this place?"
"Y&P Trading Company, apparently."
"Never heard of 'em."
"You know that cola specialty from the north? The company that makes it."
Yet the job posting shattered all expectations.
Triple the standard pay, performance bonuses, paid leave, meals, benefits—the works.
They'd thought of everything down to the last detail.
Connor set the paper down after reading that far.
"Quit messing with me, boss. This ain't no factory job posting."
"Why would I lie to you?"
"There's no way this is real."
"It is! I'd have applied myself if I didn't own this place."
After some back-and-forth, once convinced it wasn't a prank, Connor grabbed his coat and stood.
"Thought you said it was fake?"
"Real or fake, I'm applying either way. A skilled worker like me? They'll be fighting to hire me!"
"What about the Demon Realm?"
"Who cares about the Demon Realm now? Thanks for the tip anyway, boss!"
With only 30 openings, this was no time to sit around drinking.
Jurgen offered top-tier conditions to attract top-tier talent.
Even Penelope—who rarely questioned Jurgen's decisions nowadays—read the posting and remarked,
"Hmm, aren't these conditions excessively generous? You don't need to go this far for simple labor."
Yet Jurgen had no intention of changing them.
Most employers treated production workers as mere factory accessories, but Jurgen knew better.
He understood how good conditions and treatment boosted morale and yielded better results.
But that wasn't all.
"Been famous for my speed since forever. Ask anyone—they'll all know Fast-Hands Connor."
"Fifteen years at the lemonade factory."
"I'll work real real hard! Just give me a chance!"
"Duncan here. Brewery management experience. Over ten years as plant manager until recently."
The unprecedented benefits drew applicants like clouds.
Jurgen only needed to pick the most skilled.
From these seasoned workers, the cream of the crop were assigned to production lines and supervisory roles.
"Ohhh, so this is how you make drinks with cutting-edge equipment? No wonder you kept going on about cola, cola!"
"Wow... How is this factory cleaner than my own house?"
"But the work itself seems pretty similar, doesn't it?"
"No, it's actually more comfortable. I think I'll get the hang of this in no time!"
As a result, cola production skyrocketed beyond even Jurgen's expectations, quickly reaching full operational capacity.
The initial production target for the factory was 10,000 bottles per day, with plans to increase to 15,000 after stabilization.
Yet within just two days, they surpassed 15,000 bottles daily, and by the fourth day, achieved the astonishing feat of hitting the production facility's maximum capacity of 20,000 bottles.
"20,000 bottles? Did you say 20,000 bottles?"
For reference, Penelope screamed with joy when she heard this news.
But simply producing large quantities wasn't everything.
Keeping costs low was equally crucial.
Reducing production costs had a tremendous impact on operating profit margins.
Looking purely at manufacturing costs, the per-bottle material expenses consisted of cola syrup, water, bottles, and caps.
Among these, the custom-made Contour Bottles accounted for the largest portion.
Which was why preparations had been made from the very beginning.
"What about the bottles?"
"Through regular supply contracts, we'll lower the unit price of glass bottle deliveries."
The glass workshops were pleased to secure stable income, while Jurgen could reduce per-unit costs—a win-win situation.
And if they could fully establish a glass bottle recycling system, they'd be able to produce cola at even lower prices.
Through these measures, the production cost per cola bottle dramatically decreased to an average of just 0.4 pennies.
"How much was it when we made them one by one?"
"4 pennies."
"Now it's one-tenth of that. So this is why people build factories."
With production settled, distribution was the next consideration.
"This part will likely need to be outsourced to external distributors."
"True, the stockpile has grown enormous in just one day.
While 20,000 bottles might not sound like much, the packaged products alone weighed 14 tons, requiring over 800 crates.
Without modern container trucks—just cargo wagons hauling them one by one—considering the initial investment and labor costs, it was far more comfortable to outsource this.
Skilled teamsters would safely transport the cola to wholesale markets.
With production and distribution handled, all that remained was sales.
"This is where Miss Penelope's contribution shines."
"I won't deny that."
Previously, Penelope had purchased a warehouse near the central station at bargain prices during an auction, transforming it into a 'Cola Wholesale Market.'
The set wholesale price was 2 pennies per bottle.
After passing through middlemen wholesalers, the final consumer price would likely be around 3-4 pennies.
Still expensive, but considering cola's prestige, it remained highly competitive.
After all, isn't a product's price ultimately determined by what consumers are willing to pay?
People feel less psychological resistance spending money on things they've already assigned value to.
It's the same principle that allows modern consumers to casually buy 4,000 or 5,000-won Americanos without a second thought.
"So... that means we earn 1.6 pennies per bottle sold at the wholesale market?"
"Correct."
"Assuming 20,000 bottles sell daily at 1.6 pennies, multiplied by 30 days... Good heavens, that's 960 crowns!"
"Subtract labor, distribution, factory maintenance, equipment depreciation, and operating expenses from that, and what remains is the operating profit."
"Let me calculate it."
Penelope's fingertips trembled slightly as she tapped the calculator.
After checking the final number, she let out a soft, disbelieving gasp.
"...820 crowns."
Approximately 820 million won in Korean currency.
An astronomical figure that made the massive capital invested in factory construction seem trivial!
A mythical achievement accomplished in just half a year, starting from a shabby little shop on Brellum Shop Street!
Penelope, who had been bowing her head deeply, threw her hat in the air with a delighted scream.
"Jurgen! We did it! We're rich now!!"
"It's too soon to say for certain."
Penelope's calculation assumed every single bottle produced daily would sell out without exception.
And at this very moment, no cola was actually being sold in markets yet.
All production so far remained stockpiled in warehouses.
"Hmm~ That's unusually pessimistic for you."
But both Penelope and Jurgen already knew the answer.
20,000 bottles a day.
There was no way that much cola wouldn't sell.
The next day.
Rumors spread throughout all of Nortaris.
That Penelope had released cola in Nortaris.
That was the rumor.