Raven said clearly, "First, don't stop purchasing Demon Cores. Tell Fili that if second-tier Demon Cores can't be obtained in the short term, there's no need to force it, but the supply of first-tier Demon Cores must be guaranteed. It absolutely cannot be fewer than 20 a month."
"Second, have Fili, in my name, hire or requisition five skilled tanners within ten days. They must be able to make Leather Armor independently. The hiring price can be thirty percent higher than the market rate, but every contract must be for at least five years."
"Third, continue importing live pigs. No fewer than 100 a month."
Old Gordon recorded everything neatly, then looked up and reported the expenses. "Lord Baron, according to your requirements, five skilled tanners, each bringing three apprentices, makes twenty people in total. Their wages for a year will be approximately 4.8 Gold Coins. That isn't very much."
"One hundred live pigs will cost approximately 18 to 23 Gold Coins per month. That's also within our means."
"But on average, Fili will deliver around 24 to 30 Demon Cores each month. At the average price of 3.72 Gold Coins, that will cost at least 93 Gold Coins."
"Besides that, we'll need to pay 179.6 Gold Coins in loan repayments each month."
"Adding military pay and personnel wages, we'll need to spend an average of 311.52 Gold Coins per month. Meanwhile, the monthly returns from Angel's Tear are only around 270 to 300 Gold Coins. Our expenses exceed our income."
Raven nodded. He had a general idea of these figures, but he didn't understand them as clearly as Old Gordon did. "The taxes from Shining Gold Town and the autumn harvest from Eagle Town should be added to the accounts soon, right?"
"Yes, my lord." Old Gordon said, "The taxes from Shining Gold Town have basically been tallied this time. They should amount to approximately 617.65 Gold Coins. As for the autumn harvest, we expect to bring in around 80,000 kilograms of wheat, which can produce approximately 70,000 kilograms of Coarse Wheat Flour."
"Hmm..." Raven tapped on the table. "In other words, we'll also have a shortfall in food?"
"Yes, my lord." Old Gordon said, "However, there are still 21,000 kilograms of Coarse Wheat Flour in the warehouse. Including the autumn harvest, we'll have around 100,000 kilograms, enough to support seven months of consumption."
"That's not enough. It's far from enough." Raven shook his head. "Denise happens to be the right person to handle the food problem. Discuss this with her. I need 200,000 kilograms of Coarse Wheat Flour, and the more the better. As long as she can get it, I'll take even a million kilograms."
Old Gordon's breath caught. "My lord, isn't that too much? Although grain isn't expensive, we simply can't use that much. It would be like throwing money away. Besides, we don't have a warehouse that large."
"Don't worry. It's impossible for us not to use it all." Raven spoke meaningfully. "As for the warehouse, organize people to build one. The autumn harvest is almost over anyway, so this will give them something to do."
"Also, organize the women who are idle at home and have them clean up the abandoned empty houses in Eagle Town. Don't let the relocated citizens arrive without anywhere to live."
After recording all of Raven's instructions, Old Gordon was just about to speak when Raven said half-jokingly, "Are you about to say that I'm making use of everyone again?"
"Your insight is truly remarkable, my lord." Old Gordon nodded with a chuckle. "However, there are still some problems with making use of everything."
"Our finances are still too tight. Even after the Angel's Tear payments arrive and the autumn taxes from Shining Gold Town are collected, we'll only have around 500 to 600 Gold Coins in the treasury. With that amount, it'll be difficult to deal with... unexpected events."
At the end, Old Gordon raised his head and glanced at Raven.
"I think we need at least 2,000 Gold Coins to be safe."
"Yes, we still have too little money on hand." Raven sighed.
As a mage, he needed to purchase new spells and spices that could improve his meditation efficiency. First-tier spells cost roughly 120 to 500 Gold Coins, while second-tier spells cost 800 to 3,000. Spices weren't cheap either. Even first-tier spices cost 80 to 200 Gold Coins, while second-tier ones were outrageously expensive, starting at 500 Gold Coins. Spending 1,000 wasn't impossible.
Now that Raven had become a First-tier Transcendent, improving the strength of his subordinates also had to be put on the agenda. He needed to produce at least three more First-tier Transcendents. At 300 Gold Coins per bottle of First-tier God-Given Potion, even with a fifty percent success rate, he would need at least five bottles, which meant 1,500 Gold Coins. Then there was also helping Eric advance his rank.
That was money he had to spend.
Not to mention the 7,800 Gold Coins he had to pay Judra.
"Two thousand Gold Coins is too little." Raven tapped the table. "In my opinion, we need at least 10,000 Gold Coins before we can call ourselves safe."
Although they had enjoyed several months of prosperity, Old Gordon hadn't forgotten their previous straitened circumstances. When he remembered that Raven had just sent Simon to the Bloody Highlands to gather intelligence, he suddenly developed a bad feeling.
He swallowed and advised, "My lord, your achievements over the past few months are already impressive enough. It would be better to advance steadily, taking things one step at a time. There's no need to take risks."
"Heh, don't worry. I value my own life more than anyone." Raven chuckled.
Old Gordon still looked uneasy. "Then... my lord, how do you plan to make money?"
"I have my own ingenious plan!" Raven shook his head and said something Old Gordon couldn't understand.
The ingenious plan arrived with the first batch of fresh flowers at Eagle Town the next morning.
After washing up, Raven briefly discussed the food purchases with Denise, then took his people straight to the riverside workshop.
At the entrance to a workroom at the very northern end, Raven stopped. "Bolo, you'd better think this through. Once you come in with me this time, you may not be able to leave this workshop for several months at the shortest, or a year and a half at the longest."
Bolo took a deep breath and nodded firmly. "Understood, my lord!"
"Good." Raven pushed open the workroom door, and a rich floral fragrance rushed toward them.
Large baskets of roses were piled in the corner.
Bolo followed him inside and immediately froze.
He finally understood why Raven had placed such strict demands on secrecy.
A rumor had already begun circulating in town: Baron Raven was obsessed with "magical experiments" and was wasting his family fortune.
In just two short months, he had ruined four large alchemical devices, bought two more in one go, and even commissioned four additional ones in preparation.
Raven had even gained a new nickname because of it: "The Second Prodigal Baron."
The first was, of course, the already-dead Donald.
Yet these four devices that were supposed to have "broken down" were now lying obediently inside this workshop.
Raven had no intention of explaining. As he put on his gloves, he said, "Don't just stand there. Give me a hand. Put on the gloves beside you and cut the flowers off those baskets of roses."
"Right away, my lord!" Bolo recovered and hurried to work alongside Raven.
After all the blossoms had been cut off and washed clean, there were 247 roses in total, weighing 10.12 kilograms.
"Watch what I do next very carefully. Remember every word I say." As he spoke, Raven carried a basin of flowers that had been drained of water to an alchemical device.
The main body of this device was a table three meters long and one and a half meters wide. It was made entirely of steel mixed with white mica, giving it fairly good resistance to corrosion and heat. Two cabinets, each 1.2 meters high, supported it. The cabinet on the left contained a furnace, while the one on the right held a wooden barrel for storing waste liquid.
On the left side of the tabletop, above the furnace, stood a spherical flask with a long neck and round bottom, about the size of a bucket. A branch extended from the right side of its mouth and connected to a straight glass tube. A leather water pipe was wrapped around the glass tube in a coil; pouring water into it provided cooling. The glass tube sloped gently downward to the right, then bent down at the end and connected to a detachable narrow-necked flask for collecting the final liquid.
The most valuable part of this device wasn't the table below, but the glassware above. Of the 83 Gold Coins spent on it, at least 60 had gone toward that.
And its raw material was nothing more than a pile of sand.
"What a rip-off!" Raven sighed, secretly grinding his teeth.
Once he obtained a source of good-quality sand in the future, he would produce glass no matter what.
Carefully, Raven spread some fine ceramic fragments across the bottom of the flask and said, "Don't get distracted, Bolo. You mustn't forget this step. It's better to add too much than too little."
This was to prevent violent boiling.
Once that happened, the sudden increase in air pressure inside the flask could easily burst it.
He then picked up the washed flowers and dropped them into the flask one by one. "Don't be lazy at this step. Put them in individually and bring in as little water as possible. Pay attention to the position of the flowers and don't let them stick to the branch tube. If they do, poke them through with a strip of straw. Never use anything else."
Soon, the bright red roses filled more than half the flask. Raven walked over to a water tank and opened its lid. "This contains water that has been boiled and then left to settle. Someone will keep replenishing it for you.
"Remember, it must settle for at least one night. Also, throw away the final fifth of the water. Do not use it."
This was the method Raven had been forced to adopt to balance efficiency and results.
For distillation like this, purified water was best, to prevent scale from building up inside the flask and causing unnecessary trouble.
But there weren't enough alchemical devices or workers at present, and Raven neither could nor had the time to distill purified water.
Boiling the water reduced the impurities in it as much as possible. Letting it settle allowed the impurities precipitated by boiling to sink. Taking only the upper portion minimized interference from the impurities.
He ladled water into the flask until it was three-quarters full, then plugged the mouth with a cork. "Remember, the water level can't be too high, or it may surge into the cooling tube and affect the final result. Don't plug the cork too tightly. A small gap is better than pushing it all the way in, otherwise the mouth of the flask may crack..."
Raven continued explaining as he worked, occasionally stopping to answer Bolo's questions.
Once every step was ready, Raven put the prepared charcoal into the furnace and chanted several syllables. A flame appeared at his fingertip, and before long, it ignited the charcoal.
Bolo hesitated. "My lord... I... I don't know how to do this."
Raven chuckled softly. "I'm not asking you to learn that. There's a fire striker beside it. Besides, you're a cook. Surely I don't need to teach you how to preserve a fire?"
The flames rose and roasted the tabletop. After more than ten minutes, the water in the flask finally began to boil. Steam surged into the branch tube, condensed into droplets under the cooling effect of the leather water pipe, and flowed along the slight incline into the flask on the other side.
This was Bolo's first time seeing such a thing, and his eyes went wide.
"Don't just stand there. You'll have plenty of time to watch later." Raven clapped his hands. "Take charge of that alchemical device over there. You'll operate it this time."
Bolo immediately grew nervous. He knew how valuable these things were. If he broke one, selling himself wouldn't be enough to pay for it.
Seeing his nervousness, Raven reassured him, "Don't worry. I'm not some unscrupulous lord. As long as you follow my operating procedures, any damage to the device will be my loss."
Bolo swallowed again, nodded, and stepped forward to begin operating it. Every two steps, he would open his notebook to check against it.
Since he had experience extracting glycerin, Bolo learned quickly. Raven only had to correct a few minor problems before this alchemical device began operating as well.
"Good. There's one more task, and then you can relax for a while." Raven pointed toward the stove in the corner. "Render a basin of lard. The raw materials are on the rack over there, on the bottom shelf."
Bolo obediently followed orders.
Once the lard had been rendered, Bolo habitually asked, "My lord, where did you put the Caustic Soda?"
A Sodium Hydroxide solution would leave behind Caustic Soda after drying naturally. It could be mixed with water again when needed. Bolo had already produced and stored quite a lot of it.
"No rush. Leave it for now." As he spoke, Raven took several pieces of charcoal from a bag and threw them into the lard.
Bolo asked in surprise, "My lord, what is this?"
Raven couldn't be bothered to explain. "Just remember it. Don't ask questions. Once this charcoal has been used, burn it as fuel and put in fresh charcoal next time."
Porous activated charcoal could absorb the unpleasant odors in lard. Raven didn't have activated charcoal, but ordinary charcoal could make do.
As time passed, the rose petals gradually lost their color, changing from their original bright red to deep purple. The water in the flask grew shallower and shallower.
When only a trace of water remained in the flask, Raven immediately removed the heat. "Stop the other one as well. Let the residual heat dry it. It's better to leave too much than too little."
Bolo hurried to do as instructed.
Once the water had almost completely drained from the condenser tube, Raven removed the flask on the right. A rich rose fragrance instantly filled the air.
This liquid could be called Rose Hydrosol, or "water essential oil." It had a rich fragrance and was an important raw material for many cosmetics.
Bolo rubbed his nose, then sniffed again in disbelief. The intense fragrance made it difficult for him to believe what he was smelling. "My lord, is this the treasure you wanted?"
"It's only Rose Hydrosol. We're still far from done." Raven opened a clay jar on the nearby rack, grabbed a handful of salt, tossed it in, and began stirring with an iron spoon.
Once the salt had completely dissolved, Raven took a deep breath and produced a long, slender glass Funnel. He plugged the funnel's outlet with softwood, then covered its top with a glass plate and waited nervously.
Nothing went wrong during the experiment, but Raven didn't know whether the final result would be satisfactory.
Several minutes passed. At last, a faint sheen of oil floated to the surface of the hydrosol in the funnel.
"It worked!" Raven clenched his fist excitedly. He took an iron bucket, opened the wooden stopper beneath the funnel, and drained away more than half the liquid. Then he plugged the funnel again and began repeating the process above.
The process was extremely tedious and boring, but neither Raven nor Bolo slackened in the slightest. Whenever one of them showed the slightest fatigue, the other would take over.
After a full four hours, the Rose Hydrosol in the two large beakers had finally been poured out completely. A layer of crystal-clear oil had finally condensed on the surface of the hydrosol in the funnel.
Raven carefully pried open the wooden stopper beneath the funnel and drained out the hydrosol. He paused after each small release, afraid of letting even a speck of the oil above escape. By the end, only a tiny amount of hydrosol remained in the funnel, and the layer of oil above it looked smaller than a soybean.
After placing the funnel on an iron stand, Raven rotated his wrist. "Hand me the small glass bottle beneath the rack over there."
Bolo hurried over, opened the stopper, and placed it in Raven's hand.
Raven set the small bottle on the tabletop, bent down, pursed his lips, and held his breath. He aimed the mouth of the funnel at the bottle's opening, then applied slight pressure with his fingers. The funnel tilted upward, and at last the oil slid into the glass bottle, spreading into a thin film across its bottom.
"Phew..." Raven exhaled deeply, quickly sealed the bottle, and held it high toward the sunlight as if gazing at his lover. "I finally have you!"
This was Rose Essential Oil. Its fragrance was far more lingering and profound than that of hydrosol. It had been extremely valuable even in his previous life and was known as liquid gold.
A total of 247 roses, weighing ten kilograms and costing 24.7 Silver Coins, had produced only this tiny drop of less than one gram.
"My lord, what should we do with all this... Rose Hydrosol? Throw it away?" Bolo's voice rang out.
Raven smiled. "We can't throw it away. After all this work, do you think I did it just for a drop of hydrosol?"
"Pour in the Caustic Soda powder and add the lard!"
Raven no longer needed to direct this step. After several months, Bolo had already become highly skilled at it.
He prepared the solution, heated the lard, and then poured the solution in.
The Caustic Soda solution made with Rose Hydrosol as its base was poured into the lard. As Bolo skillfully stirred, tiny flakes gradually gathered and precipitated, settling into layer after layer of Soap.
After filtering out the glycerin, Bolo habitually moved to throw away the Soap, but Raven stopped him and pointed at it. "Not so fast. Smell it."
Bolo brought his nose closer. "It doesn't seem particularly special... Ow! Cough, cough!"
Raven had taken the charcoal soaked in lard and brought it right beneath Bolo's nose. Bolo immediately smelled the intense, nauseating stench of pig.
Raven lifted his chin. "Now smell it again."
With some confusion, Bolo leaned forward and sniffed lightly. His eyes immediately lit up. "My lord... this... this is incredible! Did you use magic!?"
It was the same Soap Bolo was familiar with, but the smell was completely different. Not only was there not the slightest trace of the usual pig stench, it was filled with the enticing fragrance of roses.
Raven said nothing, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.
He had known long ago that charcoal could remove the unpleasant odor from Soap, but there was no need to do that.
A bar of Soap cost only 50 Copper Coins. Selling it rashly wouldn't bring much profit and would instead cause people to connect it with the suddenly appearing Angel's Tear.
There weren't that many fools in this world, especially among merchants.
That was also one of the reasons Raven had claimed that many of his alchemical devices were broken, even at the cost of earning the nickname "The Second Prodigal Baron."
He didn't want anyone to connect the alchemical devices with the new products.
"This can be called Scented Soap," Raven said.
Bolo nodded slowly and praised it sincerely. "Scented Soap... what a fine name, my lord. This will certainly become wildly popular in the homes of wealthy merchants and nobles!"
He was no longer merely Raven's cook. He was also Raven's chief craftsman. The more money Raven earned, the greater Bolo's benefits would be, since Raven had always been generous toward his subordinates.
"Then you're celebrating too early." Raven smiled mysteriously. "This is only the beginning. The thing I'm going to make next is the real main event."
After all, Rose Essential Oil alone couldn't achieve the effect he wanted.
"Bolo, go tell the storehouse.
"The alcohol can be brought over now."
Before you continue