Quantum Leap Vol 8 Harris Treaty July 29, 1858

C004 Hiko-Sama Becoming The Caretaker So I Could Retire Early

I then swiped the scene to the right and came to the Blacksmith area and I visualise the heavy print set to appear on an empty spot. There were sacks of iron ores, coal and limestone in standby. Since there was a single dispenser machine, I visualised another 4 similar ones with the conveyor belt and the forced cooling cryogenic system in the middle of the 3-meter track.

After all the 4 dispensers were visualised, the settings were fixed to release the Molten steel onto the target area for the fixed number of seconds to properly fill the moulds on the trays. It took about 15 minutes to get everything running and the temperature was quite alright because the furnace was not running yet.

I visualised a bigger smelting pot that could supply at least 5 dispensers at three-quarters full each time and since we have 5 dispensers, the proportion for the iron ores became 16 buckets, 8 buckets each for the coal and limestone. I started the automated pump of the furnace and the intense rising heat at first made Saika and Miko moved to the end of the conveyor belt away from the furnace.

It was painstakingly slow to remove all the slag and impurities but after the temperature hit the boiling point of steel, it was much easier to remove the slag. They looked a where I had dropped the slag and asked me where it ended and I said it may have given to a factory called Iron Mountain somewhere in Jurong.

I pouted the contents of molten steel into my main dispenser and showed them an example. I took a tray behind me, locked it in place in the target area and stepped on the pedal once to release the Molten lava onto the tray. It sizzled because of the heat and the molten lava ran into the 'runway' and ended in the plate reservoir.

I unlock the moulding tray and it moved into the forced cooling cryogenic chamber and slowed down. I made everyone test on my machine first and once they have gotten used to the procedure, they went to their individual dispensers system.

After ensuring the release system for the dispensers is accurate, everyone was armed with a kitchen muff to carry the plates over on the pallet. I advised them to be careful as I slowly manoeuvred the boom to pour the contents from the smelting pot into the dispenser systems.

After all, had been filled and emptied, I replace the smelting pot with another batch of iron ores, coal and limestone. And soon the process begin...! Everyone took their tasks seriously and only I can't keep up the pace since I have to smelt and clear the slags and after I had set the molten lava to be on heating point, I started my process on the dispenser system.

Nekoyasha was mimicking the sounds the machines were made with his mouth and I'm sure that tonight in his dreams he would be mouthing the same sound effects too. Hahahaha.

Soon 125 moulding trays were loaded on each pallet and were pushed away to make space for more pallet trolleys.

1 pallet...

5 pallets...

15 pallets...

30 pallets...

48 pallets.....

"Phew...!!! That's it, guys. We have reached our target for the day. Its been 3 hours here and we had reached 6,000 moulding trays already. Leave the rest in the dispenser units, once we leave this Realm of Mind, this place would be frozen in time."

I announced to the guys who had helped us to produce the 60,000 Refined Steel Plates and had filled 48 pallets of 125 moulding trays each. Since the moulds had gone through a cooling cryogenic system on the conveyor belt, the moment it had exited at the end of it, the temperature had cooled down to only 15% of its state.

Thus when we entered again to knock these plates out in the caged wagon, it would have long been cooled off.

We logged off from our meditative state and entered the real world. We sat around on the floor in the Ops Room of the empty warehouse and everyone seemed to be soaking from our perspiration.

"Please excuse us, we would like to take a shower first before heading for dinner. It is only an hour spent here in the real world right? But it seems to be an eternity there."

Saika and Miko felt very icky since they discovered that they had sweated buckets and soon excused themselves to clean themselves up.

Nekoyasha, Hiko-sama and I headed to the garden first and waited for our perspiration to dry off first from our sweaty bodies. Hiko-sama had a jar of yumeshu beside him and poured it into 3 cups.

"Kanpai...!" as we took our cups and cheered.

"How was it, Nekoyasha? You don't feel that too affected by the heat in the process of the plates."

"Keh...! This Fire Rat Robe prevents me from getting burnt or harmed by the heat or fire. It is alright, I do need the workout. The only workout I would get is when I held Miko and piggyback her."

"Other than that, the workout I got from your Blacksmithing area in the Realm of Mind is worth every single minute. It seems rather fun and simple, watching every single Molten steel drop into the trays and the rivulets and the plate mould."

"Too bad, as what you mentioned, it can't be brought back here. So you made this Kodachi the same way?"

"Something like that, but I used the anvil and hammer to knock at least 1,500 times to shape it, then plunge it into the furnace and hit again repeatedly."

Nekoyasha held the Kodachi in his hands and was amazed that it needs more than just hammering to shape this into a fine masterpiece that had not failed him during the expeditions.

"I'd be going off too. I prefer to go to the stream and soak for a while."

With that, Nekoyasha turned and bade farewell as he headed towards the outermost District and a small winding stream a short distance away.

"Sensei, so how was it having at least some people to help us produce these plates? It's more efficient, right? But the toll of taking more people in really affects my internal energies."

"Don't be too hard on yourself, kid. Take it easy. Furthermore, they have their duties to perform too."

I nodded in acknowledgement and Hiko-sama poured me another cup of yumeshu. After a few cups, I took my leave and went to shower and lay down for a while to gain back my depleted energies.

Bringing in 4 people and a Youkai into the Realm of Mind is a heavy task that I can't perform daily at all. Before I lie down after my shower, I sat down and meditated a bit as I channelled my energies from my 4th chakra point to my secondary points as well. After I had gained back my energies, I regain my sense back and lay down and dozed off minutes later.

=*=

After I had tested, I remembered that I need to print the introductory letters to all the 580 cosmetic shops all over Japan that had been discussed earlier with the Head Messenger. I meditated and went into the Realm of Mind and looked at the heavy print set that I had transferred from the soap processing area to the smelting one.

I wrote in English on the introduction using a thick sharpie and it automatically translated to Hiragana. I stated the Fasuto Japan is inviting all the owners of the cosmetic shops over to Kitakata Town to introduce several products that would be interesting for them.

As for the trouble of them coming here, there would be free accommodation to rest up the night over and be able to continue their journey back to their Prefecture. I noted that those coming over by sea to Shibata or Ibaraki to keep their journey tabs so that we can compensate them.

We do not accept physical gold coins but preferred them to carry a blank slip deposit so this they could fill in the blanks and then we could just deposit in our own Kitakata Treasury.

I allocated the days to be from Monday to Thursday and the arrival date would start in 2 weeks from now. After writing it and auto-translated to Hiragana characters, I set it on the heavy print set like a photocopy machine.

The paper that I used was onion skin and was translucent. It had a red boxed border with the seal of the corporation after I had signed on the bottom right-hand corner. It looked elegant enough during that time. I pressed once to copy and print to see how was the results.

Upon recovering the dispensed paper at the end of the heavy print set machine, the letter looked exactly like the original and I keyed in 600 letters just in case the Head Messenger was a bit inaccurate in his findings for the number of cosmetic shops around the prefecture that we had not ventured into.

The heavy print set immediate set to work on the copying and printing and in about half an hour or so, 600 copies had been ready. If this works, Fasuto Japan KabushikiGaisha is going to be unstoppable and would be conquered at least 90% of Japan's cosmetic market.

I retrieved the copied papers and held on to it as I logged off and went back to the real world. I carried the papers to the garden and placed it on the garden table. Upon seeing a Messenger, I sent a note for the Head Messenger to process the payment so that when she comes to collect the 600 printed copies, the payment would be settled there and then.

"You went back to the Realm of Mind just to print these? I saw the machine earlier but I think we were all too busy preparing the 6000 pieces of Refund Steel Plates for the next orders. According to my records here, we have an excess of a total 156,250 Refined Steel Plates in stock at the 1st warehouse now."

"With the addition of today's work, we would have a general total of 216,250 Refined Plates. With this quantity, we would be able to boost the total income and savings of 4.3 million gold coins to boot our economic stature of Kitakata Town."

"According to the status given by all the storekeeper, we have more than 90,000 crates of compiled list of products that had not been introduced and once this starts to move, the warehouses would be at only 33% capacity full."

"That's great, Sensei. You had improved quite a lot within the past few months and you are capable of handling all these. I had chosen the right business partner to be the caretaker in case I wish to retire early. Hehehehe."

"Hah...!!! Where you gonna head to with the 10% of shares that you have?!"

"In case you would like to know, gold coins are very hard and cumbersome to carry and I would like to smelt them and carry them like a Refined Steel plate instead. Hahahahaha. This would be the birth of a gold bar shortly."

"Hahaha... I don't think it would be accepted by the Treasury because of its weight and value once you smelt them. Sometimes you have a lot of crazy ideas, but most times they are workable."

"Yup...we might even take this industrialisation era one step ahead of other countries. Just that, I am not an engineering or mechanical student so I won't know how to design something that would be most beneficial to the economic structure of Japan."

"By the way, read this letter and let me know what you think. I should have present it to you before I mass print but I think this offer that I made for them would be beneficial for the shop owners if they come by ship, landing in Ibaraki and Shibata."