Kays Translations

Chapter 61: Tea Party at House Heine, Continued

Fabienne still seemed to enjoy gardening, and Lady Nathalie appeared to be her gardening companion. She knew a great deal about flowers and herbs.

Naturally, as the person responsible for creating our medicinal herb garden, I joined their conversation. When I served a newly blended herbal tea, Nathalie took an immediate liking to it.

“Oh, that reminds me. I was planning to show everyone the magic tool I recently developed.”

“What kind of magic tool have you made this time, Lord Julius?”

Billy and Platon looked at me with shining eyes, while Edward leaned forwards in interest. At my signal, a servant indicated the hot-and-cold air blower that had been warming the room.

“This is it. I call it the hot-and-cold air blower.”

“I thought it was a wooden ornament,” Fabienne said, studying the polished casing.

“It’s a magic tool that can produce either warm or cool air.”

“I see,” Edward said. “So it can regulate the temperature of a room.”

“That’s only half of what it can do.”

“Half?” Nathalie tilted her head. The gesture made her look rather like a rabbit.

“I originally made it to dry hair.”

“It can dry hair?!”

Fabienne, Nathalie, and Melissa cried out together. Evidently, women in this world had long been troubled by the difficulty of drying their hair.

This was promising. The device might sell extremely well.

“At the moment, it’s producing fairly hot air to warm the room, but the temperature can be lowered to something more suitable for drying hair.”

I adjusted the control. A pleasantly warm breeze began to blow, and the three girls leaned closer, their eyes sparkling as I changed the airflow.

“This is how I dry my hair now,” Rosalia said, demonstrating in front of the blower. She had used it for several days and already handled it confidently.

“Big brother and I made several together. The servants use them as well.”

The boys reacted with surprise when Rosalia proudly said that she had helped make them. Their interest in the device immediately increased.

“Lord Julius, I would like to make one myself,” Edward said.

Billy and Platon nodded eagerly beside him. The design wasn’t protected by any patent, so there was no reason not to teach my friends how to reproduce it.

“That’s fine. I’ll give each of you a copy of the blueprint, although I’ll need some time to prepare them.”

“Lord Julius, I would like one too,” Fabienne said.

Nathalie and Melissa looked at me with the same hopeful expression.

That was good. If they talked about the device, demand would grow throughout the territory. The craftsmen who bought my blueprint could manufacture them in quantity, earn a profit, and pay taxes to House Heine. In the long term, that would benefit us far more than my making every unit by hand.

“All right. I’ll make one for each of you, but you’ll have to wait your turn.”

“Of course,” the three girls replied together.

With Rosalia helping me, producing the devices shouldn’t take too long.

Later, while we were discussing fashionable shops in the territorial capital, Melissa noticed something.

“Lady Rosalia, you smell lovely. Is that perfume?”

“No. It’s probably my soap.”

Rosalia took a small cloth pouch from her pocket. Inside was a piece of rose-scented soap. It was only a small sliver rather than a full bar, but carrying it like that was a clever idea.

“It smells wonderful. I’ve never seen soap like this before.”

“Of course not. Big brother and I made it ourselves.”

“You made the soap?”

The girls immediately began asking how it was produced. When I explained the process, they all said they wanted to try it at home, so I gave them the recipe as well.

If soap-making spread through the territory, the habit of washing one’s hands might spread with it. And if demand increased, merchants would begin importing larger quantities. Greater supply should lower the price until people no longer needed to make it themselves.

“Lord Julius, is it really all right to teach us so many valuable things?” Fabienne asked. “Surely you could earn a great deal by selling these ideas.”

“Don’t worry, Lady Fabienne. If these products are bought and sold within the territory, commerce will grow and a portion will return to House Heine as tax revenue.”

Fabienne was eight, the same age as me, yet she was remarkably level-headed. I had thought she was merely an innocent child delighted by new toys, but perhaps I ought to consider my audience more carefully before giving away information.

“I see. That’s reassuring.”

The racetrack was already earning substantial profits. Even without it, House Heine had never been poor. Grandmother was a high-ranking magic pharmacist, and the potions she made must have produced considerable income.

Once the conversation about soap ended, the tea party drew to a close. After seeing everyone off at the entrance, I began copying the blueprints and preparing the additional hot-and-cold air blowers.

I left the servants to tidy the salon and requested more materials.

Rosalia immediately started assembling a device from the parts already available, while I sat beside her and put pen to paper.

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