Dream Life Chapter 23.2: “Completion of Soap”

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　He looks momentarily disappointed when he hears that he will be distributing it for free, but he quickly reconsiders the idea that it is for the good of the people.

“As a lord, I will order them to wash their hands with soap. But what if the peddlers want it?” (Matt)

“Direct them to make an offer directly to the lords. The price should be one-fifth of the circulating price, or 2 C, and you should only sell it in small quantities.” (Zack)

　My father looked a little reluctant as if he was not satisfied with that pricing.

“That’s too cheap. I feel it could be a little higher. …And why do you want to sell it in small quantities?” (Matt)

“The reason we sell them cheap is to make people think we don’t properly understand their value. And we sell it in small quantities to prevent the rumor from spreading quickly.” (Zack)

　My father is still confused by my explanation.

“If we sell only a little, the merchants will be more selective about who they sell to. Naturally, they would sell to the rich people they knew. And if word spreads among the rich, it will spread to the merchants with whom they do business. Once the merchants who deal with the rich, in other words, the merchants with financial resources, come here, they will sell off a large quantity of soap they have stocked and make a profit in one fell swoop.” (Zack)

　My father nodded in agreement with my explanation.

　I added that I would sell the manufacturing method to them.

“When we have made a certain amount of profit, we sell the manufacturing method to the merchants. Those who pay a certain amount of money will be given a written method of production with no limit on the number of people they can sell it to.” (Zack)

　At first, I thought of deciding who to sell to by bidding, but that would mean that he would not be making it public, so he decided to make it available to all those who paid royalties.

　But then my father got a little too eager.

“I thought it would be a shame to sell off the manufacturing process, but by all means, can’t we make it a local specialty of this village?” (Matt)

“It would be conceivable for a year or two, but not for a long period of time. First of all, it is not possible to manufacture it in large quantities here. And there is a fear that the powerful suppliers in the imperial capital will intervene. They might do anything to protect their own interests. Instead, it would be safer to pretend to be ignorant of the business and spread the word quickly.” (Zack)

　My father still thought it was a waste of time, but he soon remembered my secret.

“If you do anything rash, your secret will leak out. We are not merchants, and our business is no match for the real merchants, anyway.” (Matt)

　My father seemed genuinely concerned about me, and the bridge of my nose twitched a little. To cover it up, I continued talking.

“Yes, so it’s more profitable to sell the manufacturing method. If you sell it to several suppliers for about 10,000 C per supplier, that should be enough.” (Zack)

“10,000 C… Is it really okay to make it that expensive?” (Matt)

“The current price of soap is 10 C per piece, and depending on the quantity you make, on a commercial basis, the cost of materials and labor should be enough for a few tenths of that. In other words, most of the sales would be profitable. We do not know how much demand there is for the product, but if we sell it at half the price (5 C), we can make a profit in a little over 2,000 units. If you have about a hundred customers, you can get that much back in a year or so.” (Zack)

　My father tilted his head slightly as if he didn’t understand the significance of this.

“He may balk at the high price at first, but as the number of buyers increases, he will surely settle for that price. It would be unbecoming of a businessman to sit back and watch his rivals get their hands on it when he knows that he will surely make a profit.” (Zack)

　My father finally seemed to be convinced.

　I explained to him my prediction about the future trend of prices.

“If I were a merchant, I would sell the soap for 5 C a piece at first, and then sell it for 2 C to customers who buy in large quantities. The point is that it is better to create continuous demand. After that, as competitors emerge, the price will gradually come down, but I think it will settle at about 1 C per piece. At that level, the buying demographic is expanding, so we can make a profit, albeit at a very low-profit margin.” (Zack)

“I don’t really understand, but I’ll leave it to you and Nicholas to figure that out. The actuality of the fact that the actual skin is often rough is a common occurrence. You said you were going to be the test subject, but are you sure you’re okay with it?” (Matt)

　My father seems to be really worried about me.

“The ingredients may not agree with your skin, and lye itself is not good for you in the first place. But we have Liddy, so I’m sure it will be fine. Besides, I have a pretty good idea of what kind of symptoms it might cause.” (Zack)

　My father still looks at me with concern, but I smile and tell him it will be fine.

　I continued to use it for a few days, and since it didn’t cause any itching or skin irritation, I decided to have my maids, Molly and Tricia, use it as well.

　Thinking that as long as my skin was fine, they would be fine, since they always had rough hands because of the water.

　After about a month of use, no one, including me, saw any abnormalities. Therefore, we decided to have them use it not only at the mansion but also at the homes of the squires.

　In the meantime, Nicholas and Kate’s improvements continued to progress, and they succeeded in adding scents such as lavender and chamomile.

　They also seem to have found the optimum point with regard to quality, and a satisfactory soap is completed.

　November 15.

　I explain to the squires how to use the soap.

　First, I explain to them how to wash their hands and make sure they use them before eating and after using the toilet. I also instruct them to wash their hands as much as possible when touching infants, even though we don’t have any.

“Soap may not eliminate all sources of disease, but it can reduce them considerably. Especially the tips of the fingers and between the fingernails, where disease-causing germs tend to accumulate, should be washed clean. You can use it on dishes and clothes, but you need to rinse them clean so that no soap residue remains… ” (Zack)

　I don’t know if they agreed with my explanation, but they nodded.

“If it works here, I’m going to distribute it to the people in the village. Nicholas is going to explain to them that we use it at the house and at everyone else’s place, so make sure they know how to do it. If you have any questions, please ask me, Nicholas, or Kate.” (Zack)

　The plan was to distribute five soaps to each house for the time being and see how it goes for the rest of the year.

　Then, after the new year, I plan to distribute the soaps to the villagers.

　I have some things to reflect on this time.

　If I start something with half-baked knowledge, it will cause trouble for the people I command to do it.

　Nicholas is helping me with my grandfather’s order, but if it were not for my honorable grandfather’s order, Nicholas would have given up early. Conversely, if my grandfather ordered him to do something quite impossible, he would try to accomplish it.

　I ask my father to pay for materials and equipment, but he does most of the work for me. I regret that I have made him spend so much of his time when he is essentially indispensable to the operation of the village.

　I’m trying to figure out what to do next, and I think it should be something that doesn’t burden Nicholas and the others as much as possible.

　The same goes for Bertram the Dwarf in that regard, only he is more comfortable with that, as creating something new seems to be a fun and exciting thing for his craftsman’s soul.

　My next reform plan is going to be centered around Liddy, a person who seems to have a lot of free time on her hands.

　On a completely unrelated note, something has changed drastically since I started using soap.

　My father shaved his beard.

　I explained to him that if he shaved with soap, it would be clean and painless, and he shaved that same day.

　When I asked him about it, he told me that his mother did not like beards very much and that my father shaved at her request.

　After shaving, my father was a handsome man with shoulder-length brown hair pulled back lightly and clear blue eyes.

(I guess I can understand why my mother would prefer him without a beard. I hope this makes her fall in love with him again, and I hope to get more siblings…) (Zack)

　Since my father shaved his beard, Enos – the son of Squire Walt, who would marry Nicholas’ daughter Jean five days later on November 20 – also shaved his beard.

　The beard gives him a youthful look, and he looks pretty good with his father’s light-colored blond hair, which is trimmed short.

(Beards make you look older, don’t they? Enos is just under 20, but when I first saw him, I thought he was around 30. But maybe shaving will become fashionable in this village. Nah…) (Zack)

A/N: The soap is finally complete, but I’m not sure if it would really (it is probably because of Nicholas’s guts that the soap solidified, even if it’s impossible).

The idea of seaweed and salt is the information I saw on the internet. Are freshwater aquatic plants even possible substitutes?

I look forward to your comments and feedback.

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