*thunk…*
The sound of the piece of soap slipping out of Warren's hands and falling onto the tile floor might have been barely audible in the large bathhouse, but the sound of Charles' words was like a deafening crack of thunder inside of his head.
Going from 15 to 20 case of serious sickness a month to just 2 or 3 meant that the prevalence of disease in Redwood Town had decreased by over 80%!
That was a number so shocking that Steward Warren's jaw dropped wide open and didn't shut until bitter soap suds got into his mouth and caused him to cough.
After he managed to stop choking and rinsed out his mouth, Warren couldn't help grabbing Charles beside him by the shoulders and asking him pointedly, "Are you serious, Baron Newton?"
Being held so firmly and stared at so intensely by a practically naked man made Charles feel a little awkward; however, he understood the other party's shock and decided to brush this minor issue aside for the moment and answer, "I swear to the Heavens that every word I spoke just now is the truth."
"Tsss…." Warren could help gasping, falling into his own thoughts for a time before questioning, "Are you certain the drop in disease is because of the townsfolk's regular use of this bathhouse?"
"En," Charles nodded firmly, "Regular bathing is the only major change to the lives of the people in Redwood Town that has happened over the past few months. Even if it isn't the only reason, it has to be the main one."
What Charles didn't explain here was that lowering the amount of illness in town was the primary argument Lucas used to convince them to build the bathhouse in the first place. The boy had explained that within his inherited memories were much more detailed descriptions of the causes of disease, and that improving hygiene standards in town as much as possible could greatly reduce serious cases of sickness.
This was the driving force behind the new, more distant fertilizer fields and the public bathhouse, and also why Lucas had spared no expense implementing these two projects, contributing nearly half of the required funds without ever expecting to earn those coins back.
In fact, had it not been for the sake of maintaining a façade for his business, Lucas had planned on offering soap in the bathhouse for free, just to encourage more of the townsfolk to use it!
When he was making his pitch, Lucas had boldly declared that while coins were important, nothing was more valuable than lives!
Now, as harsh as it may sound, if it was just a handful fewer people falling sick and dying each year, spending 1,000 Gold on the bathhouse wouldn't have been worth it in Charles' opinion.
Despite Redwood Town being a peaceful place, death was common, whether from old age, accidents, or disease. There were even years with particularly harsh weather and poor harvests, leading to people freezing or starving to death.
Such tragedies hadn't happened recently, but that didn't mean they never had.
Dozens died each year, while dozens were born to replace them; that was just the natural cycle of life.
However, thanks in large part due to Lucas' dogged determination, Redwood Town had seen an astonishing decrease in the number of people suffering from illnesses, far more than just the handful Charles had expected!
If the pattern of the last 2 months held for the rest of the year, it would mean hundreds fewer would fall ill, and dozens fewer would die!
Hundreds fewer falling ill, and dozens fewer dying meant hundreds more people being able to work and contribute to Redwood Town. While each individual's contribution might seem small, when taken altogether, this added up to hundreds more Gold coins worth of goods and money circulating in the local economy, something Lucas called 'economic productivity'.
Charles hadn't quite understood what his little nephew was talking about, but after Lucas went through his entire presentation, his wife had agreed it was worth trying. Since he had always trusted Sasha to manage the town's finance, Charles made no objections, taking a wait and see approach.
2 months later, he was extremely pleased with the results.
…..
Warren wasn't quite sure how he made it back to the inn, his mind still churning with various thoughts after what Charles had told him back in the bathhouse.
It wasn't until one of his assistants brought him his evening meal that the middle-aged steward snapped out of his trance.
Turning to the young woman who had just set down a tray of freshly baked bread and Horned Boar stew, Warren couldn't help asking, "Heidi, what do you think of this town?"
"Uh…" Heidi, who was accompanying Warren on this trip instead of her Senior Brother, Able, was a new hire and had only been on the job for about a month. This was also her first trip to Redwood Town, so she wasn't sure whether her mentor was just asking her a casual question to make small talk, or whether he was testing her.
Not daring to be negligent, Heidi thought back on everything she had experienced today and promptly replied, "Redwood Town is prosperous and lively. The people here seem full of spirit and there are smiles on all their faces. What's more, they all seem willing to spend money, much more so than I would have expected from such a small settlement on the frontier."
"The air here is also very fresh, and there's no signs of waste or trash in the streets," knitting her brow, Heidi paused for a moment before commenting, "I've always lived in the city, so maybe it's because this is the countryside that it's so clean?"
At first, Warren nodded in agreement, then shook his head and explained, "You're partially right. This really is a good place, and the people here do seem to have more money and energy than average, but the cleanliness is unusual. It's also not uncommon for small towns to be less musty and dingy than the big cities, but the level of cleanliness in Redwood Town is definitely not normal."
"Why is that, Sir?" Heidi asked, now somewhat curious about why her new mentor had brought this subject up.
After thinking about how to answer for a while, a grin appeared on Warren's face as he said, "It's the difference between having a good Lord, and a bad one. Or rather, a Lord who cares about his people, and one who doesn't."
Frowning slightly, Heidi wasn't quite sure how to interpret this answer. She wasn't from the slums, but she also wasn't born into a wealthy family. The best description for her background would be 'ordinary'. As such, she felt she had a pretty good idea about how nobles viewed commoners.
Indifference would probably be the norm, with pity being a bit better, and disdain not being uncommon.
The idea of a Lord caring so much about his people that he or she put effort into keep the domain they ruled over especially clean seemed strange, if not impossible to Heidi.
Noticing the look of disbelief on his newest apprentice's face, Warren didn't bother to explain and just signaled for her to withdraw. As far as he was concerned, this little girl, who wasn't even 20-years-old yet, hadn't seen enough of the world to understand. In time, she would learn that there were no hard-and-fast rules in life, and there were exceptions to everything.
Just as Heidi was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something and turned back, "That's right, Sir. After you and the Town Lord left, I received a large purchase order from Lady Sasha. I've written down the details here."
Saying so, the young woman pulled out a piece of paper with tens of different items scribbled onto it and handed it over.
Warren didn't pay this much mind and simply nodded, allowing Heidi to retire.
Although he hadn't been to Redwood Town for a few months, Warren still paid close attention to the transaction records, so he knew that every time a batch of soap was delivered, hundreds of Gold Coins worth of materials and equipment would also be ordered. This was all excellent business, so of course there was no reason to refuse.
Once he was done with his supper, Warren gave a quick glance at Sasha's list and noted that she had again bought many things such as metal ingots, reels of cloth, nails, glue, resin, and lots of different forged or carved items.
It was unusual for such a small place to buy so many crafted goods as most frontier settlements would simply produce what they needed themselves; but considering all the new things which kept appearing in Redwood Town, Warren wasn't too surprised.
Clearly, Redwood Town was on the brink of a kind of rapid growth spurt, where it would likely expand greatly, so importing more materials to prepare for the future was only natural.
It seems there will be many good opportunities to make money here in the coming years, Warren smiled to himself as he prepared to turn in for the night.
…..
"You want to expand your soap production even more?" Anna asked, with Drake also staring at his young son somewhat incredulously. After all, the rate at which Lucas' business had grown had greatly surprised them.
Since Lucas showed them his first bar of soap and said he wanted to start selling it, Anna and Drake had both realized it would be a profitable venture. As such, they hadn't hesitated to chip in to help their son get started, but they never imagined that in less than a year it would become such an unbelievable success.
Currently, Lucas had opened up a small-sized workshop with custom made stoves, large barrels filled with ash, and dozens of sets of giant wooden molds. He also had 10 employees working for him in this workshop alone, rendering fat, shoveling ashes, weighing ingredients, and preparing soap for hours each day.
Last month, this small workshop processed about 550 kg of animal trimmings into roughly 500 kg of rendered fat, then mixed it with some 200 litres of lye solution to create just over 4,400 bars of soap.
500 of these bars were reserved for use in the town's Bathhouse, 500 were sold or donated to the townsfolk and local peddlers, and the remaining 3,400 or so were sold to the Rising Sun Merchant Guild.
After all expenses were paid, this one month of work had resulted in just about 700 Gold in profit.
Now, not all of this money went into Lucas' pockets. He still had to pay out something he called 'dividends' to his initial investors, which included his parents. Lucas had also spent an enormous sum to build the bathhouse and expand the fertilizer yard, as well as on numerous other projects like researching better hand-pumps for the town's wells.
Even so, Anna and Drake, who were helping Lucas keep track of his funds, knew that their boy still had savings worth several hundred Gold.
In other words, soap making was the biggest and most lucrative industry in Redwood Town, eclipsing all others by a huge margin! The only thing comparable in terms of cash-flow to it would be farming, but that wasn't so much an industry as it was a necessity of life. On top of that, over 70% of the townsfolk were involved in agriculture, so it wasn't really fair at all to compare the two business.
Yet, despite all this success, Lucas didn't seem satisfied and constantly wanted to grow and expand his fortune.
Curious about just what it was their son was trying to achieve, Drake couldn't help asking, "Son, we understand your enthusiasm, especially considering how outstanding the results so far have been, but what exactly is your goal in all this?"
"To live a better life," Lucas declared without any hesitation.
"A better life?" Anna tilted her head, wondering just what her son meant by this.
Opening his mouth, Lucas was about to explain, when he suddenly found that he couldn't.
Putting it simply, he wanted to improve his standard of living to the same level, or even higher, than that which existed in his inherited memories; however, even if he described all the various wonders and conveniences of the other world to his parents, they wouldn't understand.
How could someone who had to work hard their entire life to afford food possibly imagine a world where food was so abundant that you could eat whatever you want, whenever you wanted, practically for free?
How was someone who had never flown through the sky even supposed to begin to imagine what traveling to other worlds was like?
Naturally such things were far, far beyond the young boy's current grasp, and it may take decades, centuries, or even millennia to reach such a level of prosperity and technological development given the current level of the world he lived in, but as long as he kept working at it while continuing to cultivate, adding years to his lifespan, Lucas believed that one day he would be able to reproduce the same kind of utopian paradise he had witnessed in his dreams.