Chapter 122 - 122 Mosquito Coil
Steve was at the Experimental Farm in the Archibalt Territory. Cyril was beside him. Slightly behind them, the local villagers had gathered to help with the farm work. Among them were a few children from the orphanage in the Royal Capital, and Amber was there too.
Today, they would cultivate Dalmatian Chrysanthemums here.
The Dalmatian Chrysanthemums had almost all been burned in the orphanage fire. However, Steve had used magic to grow the few that remained and collected their seeds.
He brought them to the Experimental Farm and planned to use magic to forcibly grow them, repeating the harvest.
The orphanage children had arrived safely in the Archibalt Territory. Mary felt it was inappropriate to receive alms without doing any work, so the older children were asked to help within a reasonable range.
Furthermore, since the villagers were originally from the Archibalt Territory, they did not treat Steve with excessive formality, so Amber had not yet understood that Steve was a very high-ranking noble.
Cyril spoke to Steve.
"Lord Steve, even if we succeed in producing insecticide, won't the Royal Research Institute publish it, leading to similar products being released?"
"That's unavoidable. Besides, I don't think our factory alone can meet all the demand. Mosquitoes and flies carry the causes of disease, so having many medicines made to eradicate them is a good thing, isn't it? Well, if it comes down to a price war, I'm not willing to lose."
"I am concerned about that as well."
Cyril was not only interested in the effectiveness of the insecticide but also in the mass-production line Steve was considering. He wanted to see how he could create something others couldn't imitate.
"Let's begin."
At this instruction, the villagers began sowing the seeds.
Once the sowing was finished, Steve used the plant growth magic. In an instant, white flowers bloomed across the Experimental Farm. Normally, Dalmatian Chrysanthemums take one to a year and a half to bloom. That was finished in a moment.
"Harvest everything except the area enclosed by the rope."
Steve gave the next instruction. The area enclosed by the rope was the zone for collecting seeds. Since Dalmatian Chrysanthemums have the highest Pyrethrin content when in full bloom, they are harvested for insecticide at that stage. Some must be left to collect seeds, so they are left like this.
To prevent accidentally picking them all, they are made visible with the rope.
Repeating this, the picked Dalmatian Chrysanthemums piled up in no time.
Steve used Storage Magic to put the piled Dalmatian Chrysanthemums into subspace. The orphan children, including Amber, were amazed and moved by this magic, but the villagers, used to it, remained perfectly calm.
"Harvesting is about done. Next is drying."
This time, Steve used earth magic to build a small hut. He took out a little of the Dalmatian Chrysanthemums stored in magic inside. Then, using fire magic, he heated the hut from a distance. He was forcibly drying them.
The dried items were ground into powder. This was the pre-process before making the coils.
The powder produced was to be bagged. To prevent inhaling the powder, they were asked to wear masks while working. It was quite heavy labor, so Steve thought as he watched the work that this might be too much for the orphanage to handle alone.
While watching the work, Cyril asked Steve a question.
"It seems more efficient to extract Pyrethrin with magic."
"That's fine, but it wouldn't become an industry. I don't want to create products that can't stand without me."
Cyril, watching Steve's work, thought that the difficulty of the powder-making process was driving up manufacturing costs. If Separation Magic were used, the labor costs for this process could be compressed instantly. He thought Steve might be aiming to automate this part if he intended to win on cost competition.
However, Steve denied that.
"So, the secret lies in the post-process, then?"
"Yes. I've even given it as homework to our Ellie. You should think about it too, Cyril-san."
Steve smiled mischievously.
With enough material for prototypes ready, today's work came to an end.
Steve offered words of encouragement to Amber and the others.
"Amber and the others, good work. I'll send you back to the orphanage now, so go home and study again."
"Can we ride that fast thing again on the way back?"
"Yes."
The "fast thing" Amber referred to was the train. Since it was a tram train, it didn't reach the speed of a steam locomotive, but to the children, it was fast enough.
Travel from the Royal Capital was instantaneous via Teleportation, but for today's work, they traveled by tram train to give them social experience.
The children were greatly excited about riding a train for the first time. So, knowing they could ride back, they were overjoyed.
"Well, when you get back, listen carefully to what Teacher Mary says and study. This is your wages for today's work."
Steve said this and handed the wages for today's work to the children. Amber accepted it with a smile.
"I've been able to do calculations recently. With this money, I can even go shopping by myself."
"Then, next time I buy flowers from Amber, maybe we won't have to repeat paying one copper coin for five flowers over and over."
"Yes."
Amber nodded firmly.
The two orphanage teachers had received guidance from Lala and were now able to conduct lessons according to the national curriculum guidelines. The teaching materials were also supplied by Lala.
This allowed lessons to be conducted at the orphanage as well. However, due to their lack of experience, Lala visits regularly to observe the lessons and provide guidance.
Furthermore, they had asked the orphanage to educate the villagers as well. So, Mary and the others were receiving wages as teachers.
This was not sympathy but formal payment for labor, and since it was the cultivation of future workers for the territory, the educational content was evaluated without leniency.
Lala was also moving under the research theme of teacher training, so there was no reason to be lenient.
However, things were proceeding smoothly for now.
Steve had increased the staff at the orphanage so that Mary and the others could devote time to education. There were children who had not yet reached the age for education, and staff were needed to look after these young children while Mary and the others were teaching.
The other villagers were paid and dismissed.
And the next day, the location changed to the prototype building of the factory. Gathered were Steve, Cyril, Nick, Ellie, and Christina.
Steve asked Ellie for the answer to the homework.
"Well, Ellie, did you finish the homework?"
Christina, who didn't know about the homework, looked at Steve's face.
"Homework?"
"Yes. The burning time of a coil is generally about an hour. I gave you homework to think about how to solve the problem of having to wake up multiple times at night to light the coil, and to design the product."
"I see. So, did Ellie come up with a good design?"
"Yes."
Ellie explained that she had designed a burning stand that could hold six coils connected together.
Steve asked why she thought of this.
"Why did you think of this?"
"Yes. I thought that if the coil is too long, it might break easily, so I tried not to change the existing length. The reason I thought of this is that if the fire on the coils catches one after another, perhaps we can sleep for a long time."
"That's a wonderful point of view."
"Is it the correct answer?"
"No, maybe a little more. With the method Ellie thought of, the burning stand would become quite large. What I thought of was a spiral shape like a snake coiled up."
Saying this, Steve revealed a mold he had prepared in advance for the mosquito coils. There were two types: the spiral shape commonly seen in Japan (the cut-out type) and the type that pushes out the coil remaining inside the cut-out. He moved the push-out type back and forth with his hand to show the movement.
"I want Ellie to study these kinds of molds as well and understand what kind of mold produces what product. That way, the range of designs will expand."
"Yes. As expected of the President. I never could have thought of it."
Since Ellie praised Steve sincerely, Steve felt embarrassed. After all, he hadn't thought of it himself; he was just revealing an idea someone else had thought of.
"As expected of Wakasama. Making this mold seems to be hard work."
"This time I made it with magic, but Nick will make the update mold."
"I'd be delighted!"
Nick was overjoyed that he could make a mold with such a complex shape.
"Well, the materials for the coils other than Dalmatian Chrysanthemums are being supplied by the Emmanuel Trading Company, so let's try making a coil."
Steve immediately started making the coil.
First, he mixed the powder of Dalmatian Chrysanthemums with powder of Tabu-no-ki and water to knead it. Since kneading by hand is troublesome, he had a golem do this work. When mass-producing, this would be done by hand or automated using power sources like water wheels.
Then, the kneaded material was rolled by a roller to a certain thickness and set into a press machine.
Eight of the aforementioned molds were attached to this press machine, allowing sixteen coils to be punched out at once.
It was two per mold, so sixteen in total.
After punching out the shapes, the mold slid sideways, pushing the coils remaining inside the mold onto a tray.
"If we put this tray in the drying room and evaporate the moisture, it's complete. Today I'll dry it with magic, but if it were natural drying, it would take about two days."
Saying that, Steve dried the coils with magic. Then, he separated the two-coil sets individually and hung one of them on a stand made of wire.
Creating a small flame with magic and lighting the coil, smoke began to rise. Analyzing the components, they found Pyrethrin was contained, confirming that this coil had an insecticidal effect.
"Something like this. The material remaining after punching out isn't wasted; it's kneaded in again as return material. How is it, Cyril-san? Without the mold, we would have to shape the coils into a spiral by hand. If you compare the manufacturing costs, you should understand that we have the advantage."
"Yes. It would be difficult to imitate this manufacturing process, so other companies won't be able to catch up in terms of price."
Cyril had no intention of submitting this mold technology to the Royal Research Institute. The molds were all workshop know-how; if they were made public, there would be no competition left.
Satisfied with Cyril's answer, Steve distributed the remaining mosquito coils to everyone.
"Well, let's see how much power this exerts. Let's start using it from today. If the results confirm it's effective, we'll sell it. Nick, get started immediately on preparing the line and staffing."
"Wakasama, the mold is—"
"You can make them slowly once the line is running. Besides, even calling it an update mold, it won't wear out easily just by punching such soft material."
Nick hung his head in disappointment.
In contrast, Christina's eyes were shining.
"Lord Steve, has the sales price been decided?"
"I need to grasp the production capacity a bit more. But I don't want to make it too expensive. If this can remove insects that carry pathogens, everyone will no longer suffer from diseases. Well, I don't intend to make it a charity project."
"Understood. Until negotiations with the Emmanuel Trading Company, I will calculate the sales price on my end. Even if you ask me to handle the cost price, I will conduct the survey on prices that commoners can purchase continuously."
Thus, the prototype phase ended. Using the prototype, they found mosquitoes lying on the floor when they woke up in the morning, and the effect was confirmed sufficiently.
So, Steve decided to proceed with mass production of the mosquito coils.
However, mass production could not start immediately. A new factory had to be built to install the line. And employees would need to be recruited.
There were not enough workers within the territory, so they had to recruit immigrants again. After all, they needed not only factory line workers but also farmers to cultivate Dalmatian Chrysanthemums.
Recruiting immigrants for the Archibalt Territory, people gathered for the time being. However, Dalmatian Chrysanthemums bloom naturally next year, so until then, Steve would cultivate the Dalmatian Chrysanthemums with magic to secure materials.
As soon as sales began, the mosquito coils sold like hotcakes, and the cultivation of Dalmatian Chrysanthemums left no time for rest.
At such a time, a letter came from Sherry asking for mosquito coils to be sent to the Kingdom of Merda as well, but Steve left it for a while.
Then, Sherry came personally to pick them up.
She also toured the manufacturing factory. She said she would make them in her own country. Since the technician from the Kingdom of Merda accompanied her, Steve had suspected such a thing, but considering their own supply capacity, it was impossible to meet the Kingdom of Merda's demand, so he decided to allow it. He didn't show them the molds, of course.
Furthermore, Julia and Camilla came with technicians from the church.
"Lord Steve has bestowed the wisdom of God upon us to eliminate people suffering from disease from the ground."
Since they bowed to the two of them, it became difficult to refuse.
That was the original intention anyway.
So, he pinned them down not to sell within the Kingdom of Cascade and taught them the manufacturing method.
In this way, the mosquito coils spread across the continent in the blink of an eye.
Of course, the domestic share was top in the Archibalt Territory, contributing greatly to the surplus of the territory.
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