Orc Harem Vol 3 Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Dependence to Sugar is Really High. In Other Words It Will Become Money

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Zacharic returned.

His hand was holding a scarf with embroidery of golden thread.

「Sorry to make you wait. I want you to receive this as proof of our friendship.」

「It’s my great delight that an inexperienced merchant like me is granted something magnificent like this.」

「I only judge that you have that much value for this.」

That scarf was created from silk. The embroidery of golden thread on it was really fine.

This was without a doubt a high class item.

But, what made me astonished wasn’t because of its high class.

The embroidery drew the crest of Zacharic Company. Anybody who did business in this city would know the value of this scarf.

It was a proof that the owner of this scarf had good relationship with Zacharic Company.

Just by showing this, most company would listen to the owner’s unreasonable request.

Opposing Zacharic Company was something that must not be done in this city. Someone who could become a friend of Zacharic Company would be gifted with all kinds of benefit.

The worth of such thing was more than a thousand gold coins.

「I believe that if it’s you Ork-kun then you will treasure it.」

What he meant by treasuring it wasn’t about keeping this scarf safe and maintaining its condition. He was referring about my self-control to not recklessly wield the authority of Zacharic Company for my own benefit.

「Of course. I shall make use of it carefully.」

I wouldn’t use it casually.

But, I told him that I would use it at the effective timing.

「That’s a good reply. Now then, before we enter about the business discussion that is our original plan, there is one thing that I wish to discuss with you first. About that instant thing, can it also be done with this cohilk?」

「Yes, it’s possible.」

「Hmm, if the bean is roasted, grinded, and then boiled, the bean pieces won’t melt into the water no matter what. I wonder just what kind of method you used for your drink……. I hope you deign to sell me that method no matter what. It will be easier for the cohilk to pervade into the society if it can be prepared easily. I wish to start selling cohilk in that instant form. Cohilk can possibly become our company’s main product. That’s why, I can prepare this amount in order to obtain that method of yours.」

The amount that he offered would be enough to purchase a mansion in a prime location of this city. As expected of the president of Zacharic Company. He was really lavish.

「I cannot sell this method……but, if I can get a contract which state that I will receive some margin from the instant cohilk’s sales in exchange of teaching this company the method, then I’ll agree. The margin that I ask is three percent of the sales. The time period of the contract will be for five years of the product’s sales. After that I don’t mind if this company make use of that method freely.」

If I simply sold the method, I would get the money once and that was it.

This was a product that would spread to the whole world after this. It would be a waste to just sell the method like that.

Perhaps three percent sounded small, but from the scale of Zacharic Company, the amount that I could expect from their sales would be more than satisfactory.

「You don’t have any opening at all. The number you suggest is just barely within my acceptable limit. Very well, I’ll draft the contract with that condition.」

「Then, please send me some cohilk beans to my mansion. I’ll process it into instant cohilk and come here again with the result and the recipe. We will finalize the contract at that time.」

「Let’s go with that. Good gracious, I never thought that I will meet this kind of greatly profitable scheme even before getting into the actual scheduled business discussion. Even though I brought out that cohilk in order to deal a shock to Ork-kun, it was me instead who was given a scare.」

「I was also surprised. This is truly a wonderful coincidence.」

A vast amount of income would flow into my pocket for five years just from teaching a production method. This kind of good business rarely occurred.

With just this, I would obtain the amount of money that I could use to play around for my whole life even if I lived somewhat luxuriously.

「Now then, Ork-kun. Let’s enter the main topic already. About the business proposal that you gave me.」

「Yes, I brought with me the actual detailed proposal. Regarding the mass production of cheap sugar that will be jointly carried out between Zacharic Company and my Ork Company.」

I took out a business proposal from inside my bag. At the same time I also took out a bottled sugar.

The outline of the business plan that I proposed to Zacharic during the caravan trip was written there.

The business that I proposed to him was the mass production of cheap sugar.

Sugarcane that was the ingredient for sugar didn’t grow in this continent. The climate of this continent was too cold to grow sugarcane here.

Because of that, currently sugarcane was being imported from the eastern continent across the sea.

In this era, the sailor’s ship handling skill and the ship production technology weren’t really decent. Ships were going to the faraway eastern continent in such condition, so the labor cost was really heavy. Something like ship sinking during the voyage was an everyday occurrence. The cost from those was added into the transport cost.

「Sugar is extremely expensive because the cost to transport it across the sea is immense. However, it’s not true that sugar can only be created from sugarcane. That is the crux of this business plan.」

Sugar could also be created from a plant named sweet beet. In my previous life another name for sweet beet was sugar radish.

That sweet beet was something common that was currently being used for feeding horse, cow, and other livestock. It could even be bought from market.

「Unbelievable……how can the expensive sugar be created from livestock’s feed?」

「But it’s the fact. We will establish a large scale sweet beet farm and factory to refine sugar. With that, it will be possible to mass produce sugar with better quality and price that is only a tenth of the current price. This sugar is the example that I created from sweet beet.」

If sugar could be produced in this continent, it would be possible enough to make the cost price to be a tenth of the original.

I wrote the preliminary calculation result in the business plan.

If this plan succeeded, we would be able to monopolize this continent’s sugar market and earned astronomical profit. The profit would rival or perhaps even surpass the sales of coffee just now.

「Ork-kun, do you mind if I have a taste of that sugar?」

「Yes, please do.」

「……It’s an elegant and refined sweetness. This sweetness is meeker compared to sugarcane’s sugar. It has a chance to compete.」

「I won’t bring up this kind of business proposal if it can’t do at least that much.」

「Fumu, in your plan my Zacharic Company is in charge of creating a large scale sweet beet plantation, supply the crops to the factory, and then circulating and selling the completed sugar. You will be in charge of building the factory and producing the sugar. In short we are paying you to process the sweet beet and then after that we can sell sugar and profit from it as we please. The amount of sugar produced from the supplied sweet beet, the processing cost, all of them seems fair……but, because we won’t be involved with the sugar processing at all, we won’t be able to create sugar without you. You are keeping the initiative really close to your chest.」

It was just as he said, I would be the one holding the essential part of this business.

It was impossible for me to make a huge plantation or distributing sugar in world wide scale.

But, if it was just managing two or three factories, I would manage somehow by hiring people. I could hire as many factory managers as I wanted.

「Yes, if I let go of that, a small company like me will be swallowed in the blink of eye after all. So how about it? I believe that this will be a deal that will allow both of us to profit.」

「Fumu……I only have one large worry. You won’t teach us the production method of turning sweet beet to sugar. Well, that’s fine. But, I’m worried that the production method will leak out from your factory. If the production method is exposed and copied by other company, our sugar monopoly will crumble. If there is a company that can produce cheap sugar in large amount, than someone will surely try to expose that secret even if they have to go against my company in the process. They will send spy, bribe the factory worker, or kidnap the one who know the method. There are many ways for that. And they won’t hesitate to take such method with how much profit is hanging on this.」

How astute.

This business was powerful because it could create sugar from a common material like sweet beet.

At the same time that also served as weak point. Exactly because the raw material was common that it could be copied easily if the method was exposed.

「There is no need to worry, the people who will work in the factory won’t be able to understand the sugar production method even if they are watching it directly.」

「What do you mean?」

「The process of creating sugar consisted of ten stages. Cleansing, cutting, extraction of sugar content, removing impurities, refining, condensing, crystallization, centrifugal separation, drying. The work for each stage will be carried out separately by those assigned to it. The workers won’t be showed the complete picture of the process……furthermore, the processes of removing impurities, refining, condensation, crystallization, and centrifugal separation are difficult to be done manually. A large-scale and complicated device will be used to take care of those processes. Please look at this.」

I took out the blueprint that I had prepared.

To make sugar from sugarcane, it was possible to manage it somehow even using manual procedures, but to make sugar from sweet beet, it would take unbelievable amount of effort and time. Even the result from such method wouldn’t be satisfactory.

Carbonic acid saturation tank, ion exchange resin spire, multiple usage can, vacuum crystallization can. Without those devices that were using scientific knowledge, making sugar from sweet beet was out of the question.

That was exactly why in my previous life, it became possible to create sugar from sugar radish only after 1200 years had passed since sugar was created from sugarcane.

Strictly speaking, just making sweet crystal from sweet beet wasn’t that difficult. But using normal process, the result would have grassy smell that was several times worse than spinach. It would also have bitter taste mixed in. It couldn’t become a product that was worthy to be called sugar.

「I have never seen a device this complicated. I can’t even understand its principle even though I’m looking directly at the blueprint.」

「I’m the only one who can comprehend it, and I’m the only one who can create it. And then the workers in the factory will only be taught the way to operate this device. Therefore even though the workers can create sugar there, they won’t understand its method. It’s impossible for the information to leak out. Sure it will be exposed that the sugar is created from sweet beet and some people will try to research the method on their own. But, it will take them 300 years untl they can create sugar with the same quality like the sugar I’m  making……the only worry is if this blueprint is stolen.」

That was the unvarnished truth.

This device couldn’t be reproduced unless science had advanced for 300 years.

History had proven that.

「No, that’s not my only worry. What if the device itself is stolen?」

「I will make the device to be extremely large so that it won’t be stolen and so that it can create great amount of sugar. The bigger it is the harder it will be to get stolen.」

「That’s great. I’m relieved. Then, I’ll immediately look for lands that are ideal for the plantation and factory. I’ll also prepare the men to work in the factory.」

Zacharic didn’t propose that because of good will but to have me monitored.

But I had no intention of betraying him. And if he was the one who betrayed me, I intended to make the device to be impossible to reproduce even if it was disassembled and thoroughly analyzed.

That was why I’d leave it to him and had it easy.

「Please do. But, please allow me to decide the factory manager myself. I want to decide it after judging the person’s personality.」

「Very well. There won’t be any problem if I simply gather the number of people like what is written in this plan right?」

「Yes, I’ll leave it to you.」

Like this, a super large project began to move.

Sugar and instant coffee.

I would become super rich from these two products.

As expected, the bigger a business was, the bigger the profit would be.

Also it was really relaxing for me that most of the troublesome things would be taken care by other people like this.

But, perhaps it would also be nice to open a small restaurant in the future and ran it leisurely together with my beloved women for hobby.

A business not for obtaining profit, but to enjoy the leisurely running business. That kind of business would also be nice.

So that I would be able to have fun in that way too, first I had to make a lot of money.

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