Quantum Leap - Vol. 6 Kingdom Building Garnering Wealth

C015 Learning The Plight Of Others

The Construction workers and their foreman arrived with the horse-drawn wagons filled with construction materials. They greeted me and bowed and I exchanged the greetings back.

I went down and sat at the garden as the foreman approached me. "Where is Senior Master, young Master? By the way today, as mentioned last night, 6 workers would work on the installation of the roof and elevated ventilation vent. The other 4 would work on the kitchen and bathroom part, so once the 6 had fixed the roof, they would be performing the side and front panelling part."

"That's very good. It seems you had planned for the work indegeniously and those guys would complete the job for the roof, bathroom and kitchen by mid-day." I asked as I made an estimation. Judging by the speed they worked yesterday, it seems that nothing is impossible.

"You have an eye for things, Young Master. That's very good and you can forsee things happening and forming in the future." the foreman tried to jacked up my ego as he praises me for having a good forecast.

"You are doing fine yourself, Kayu-san. I hope you had starting to see your warehouse and had started to clear them in order to make space for your upcoming projects. Surelyz once you clear the junk, you can even setup an elevated platform to showcase your more exquisite collection of fine furniture fit for the Emperor!" I reversed the situation and a glint appeared in his eyes of being a service to the Emperor.

Dream on, Kayu-san... The Emperor would normally have rosewood furniture, polished marble garden furniture and other art pieces that would cost hundreds of gold coins or even thousands. We here in Kitakata only services this village and its community.

"Please excuse me Kayu-san, I have to attend to something." I turned around and walked up to the house as soon as I said that, remembering that I am preparing breakfast as well as getting ready to get some good coins to pay for the purchases as I saw a horse-drawn cart heading this way.

I went to the kitchenette and stoked more firewood for the steamer and a kettle was nestled just beside it and the heat radiated from the steamer also heated up the water in the kettle at the same time.

I went to my room and took a bundle of gold coins and stood at the doorway before making way for the arrival of the goods. An apprentice came and greeted me, bowed and showed me the receipt. I paid up and asked for assistance to bring all the barrels into my room and stack them in two's.

The apprentice went up and placed some sacks on the barren floor and then he and another assistant proceeded to stack the 5x25 l****s barrels of unscented coconut oil, 5x25 l****s barrels of olive oil and soon left.

I closed the main door and I stood up before the barrels and entered my meditative state and brought all the 10 barrels into the Realm of Mind immediately.

A short while later, another person was pushing a handcart for the lye. He greeted me and showed the receipt and I paid 3 gold coins for the lye mixture. He helped to place them in my room and left.

Once again I brought the items back to the Realm of Mind. Luckily the soap production could just be expanded or shrunk according to the designs made up in the minds. There were 2 empty barrels and I visualise them to be filled with 20 of water so that it could be mixed with the lye.

I sighed as I looked at the grand size of the production area. If only these things could be brought to the real world, then we would have an easier time.

But we could only bring in and out things brought in from the real world and not the other way round as it would distort and cause ripples in the future timeline, like a butterfly effect. Except for the onion skin papers that had completed its run of 7,500 wrapping papers.

Hiko-sama had completed his bath and he saw my bedroom was in a mess with gunny sacks lined on the barren floor as I had removed everything out and placed it in the living room. He shook his head and wondered how much it would cost for the construction of the 2nd floor for living quarters.

"Which delivery had been completed, kid? Your room is like a storage area already. Hahahaha. You want to join me in my room, I still got a space there just nice for you and your stuffs."

"Really Sensei? In that case I greatly obliged. Thank you, Sensei. In this case, we don't need to build a 2nd storey but maybe a storage area behind the house." I thanked him for the offer and started to move my stuffs in his room. There was an adequate space for my stuffs and clothes too.

I went to the kitchenette and carried the large steamer basket and placed it outside including the kettle of green tea. I placed 14 cups and Hiko-sama and I sat and enjoyed breakfast.

I told Hiko-sama that I would be taking a shower after this. As for the savings deposit I decided to push it tomorrow as I may need gold coins to pay for the flowers herbs and resins.

The flowers arrived soon and Izumi and Riko were pushing the handcart. Riko waved at me and I waved back and went to the front of the house to receive the delivery and make payment. Izumi greeted me and bowed and I did the same. She showed me the receipt and I paid her up. She had labelled the basket with the flower names so at least I could not make a mistake. Total 8 new baskets of flowers had arrived and I quickly store them in my bedroom before reminding them to come for dinner and supper tonight.

Then I went to my bedroom and sent back the items to the Realm of Mind. There, I quickly prepared the distillers for the flowers. After spreading the flowers on the cloth sieve and covered with another layer of cloth, I set the bunsen burners to medium heat and closed the top half-round glass cover and set the timer for 12 hours and went back to the real world.

After some time, Eko, Fei, Gina and Hanna walked up to the courtyard, greeted and bowed. I receive the items at the front of the house, and the items too were clearly marked. I checked the receipt and paid them and reminded them to come for dinner. They thanked me and as they passed by the construction of the house, they saw the workers fixing the roof and when the workers waved at them, the 2 little girls waved back.

The 4 girls didn't immediately go back but stood there for a while at the side of the paved road to see that their new home was taking shape.

After noisily discussing among themselves, they went back to their respective destination.

I asked Hiko-sama about the time and he checked and told me. "Are you going to change first, Sensei?" I asked as I was always in either my yakata or my gi. "No need, today we are not facing a furnace so I would be fine."

"Alright, ready when you are, Sensei, right after I had washed my face first." I said as I entered the bathroom and washed up.

Soon after entering my bedroom we entered our meditative state and start our process in the Realm of Mind. Hiko-sama helped to mix the 1st batch of the base soap ingredients and showed him how to operate the mixture at 30 RPM and showed him the weighing scale for each exact proportion.

I attended to the herbs that been crushed by Eko and Fei, making the job easier as I placed them in the distillers. I soon used the blender to crush the resins into fine powder as much as possible and directly placed them inside the distiller to be dissolved and stirred constantly. I set the bunsen burners to medium heat for the herbs and set the timer for 12 hours while the resins mixture was set to low heat and timed at 6 hours with the mixer set at 10 RPM.

I assisted Hiko-sama to weigh and distribute the contents evenly and set the mixer at 15 RPM for 24 hours. Hiko-sama worked fast and efficiently when he lifted the barrel on top of another empty barrel and tilted its content. After we had mixed and distributed the base soap evenly, we checked everything and made sure everything was according to requirements before heading back to our real world.

We walked out of the bedroom and sat at the garden and noticed that our lunch had arrived. Our lunch was separated and placed on the terrace and noticed that the workers had already completed the roofing and its elevated vent roof and were eating by pairs while the rest worked. It was like a perfect symphony and work continued to flow endlessly.

'Omagai... Look how the time flies. The roof and gutter plus drainage for the rain catchment had been completed! The bathroom and kitchenette area would takes about 24 hours for the curing of the cement. The back panelling of the house had been erected with an empty slot for the louvers."

"Yes, Sensei. It's amazing to see the speed and efficiency of the workers at completion for the roof and also the part of the kitchen where the floorings had been partially installed. Good... Good... Hang on I need to ask the workers something." I walked to the workers who were having their lunch and they bowed to me when I was nearing them. I bowed back and asked them some questions.

"Sirs, where do you stay here in Kitakata?" I asked and was joined by Hiko-sama.

"Senior and Young Master, we all are from the outer circle where it was known as the Plebs District."

"How was the living and housing conditions there?" I curiously asked since I had never stepped into the commoners or plebs District.

"Oh, we had a long house and it's a mixed cluster of families that made up of 2 or more families, depending on the setup of the house. We have our own room which is also our living and dining area. That's for one family only." the first one replied.

"If the long house has 2 or 3 rooms, then it's normally for 2 or 3 families. So whatever happens inside like conversations, quarrels or even during intimate, I guess Senior and Young Master knows right?" the second one sheepishly replied.

"We had a shared dirty and clean kitchen outside the house with 3 rocket stoves and shared by 2 households. So sometimes dinner would be as late as 7 or 8 pm and normally our wives would prepare dinner as early as 5 pm." the second one added.

"We also have an open area public shower and laundry for both male and female. And draw water from the well, unlike here you used a hand crank to start up the pump to the water tower." the first one spoke.

"We also share the Water Closet which was designated for 2 household to share, and sometimes they even defecate in the bushes if the water closet was occupied. Its based on first come first served basis." added the second one.

"Is everyone there properly employed?" I asked as I thought that residents would not build a house every single day.

"Almost everyone there are employed but on adhoc basis only. The sellers from the yatai came from the inner district after us, knows as the commoners District. The people there have permanent jobs like apprentices, helpers, messengers but unlike us, we only work when there's work offered." the first one explained about the employability in the district.

"We do not have land to toil and harvest crops and we only hunt for small animals and forages the land for anything we could use for food. The money that comes by would mainly be used to buy grains that we would normally pound to make porridge. Having to eat from a bento box lunch is a blessing, but we also think about what our families back home was eating too, kind Senior and Young Master." the second one spoke of their hardship.

"Normally owners would cook a simple rice meal and just boiled egg or some vegetables. But you both are so generous to let us enjoy foods that we never imagined to eat in our lifetime. Thank you." said the first one and the both bowed to us.

"How about wages? How much are you paid per day or is it by the completion of project basis?" I asked as the concern of their welfare comes to mind.