Today, the director of the hospital and I are going to visit the brewers' association to discuss the mass production of alcohol in earnest.
Serea is going to do her picture show at the orphenage, so I dropped her off there a while ago.
“Well, well, what business does a still-underage prince have visiting a brewery?”
I asked to speak with the master of the brewery association.
When we tried using alcohol in the hospital, the effects were immediate, especially in the treatment of wounds, where the post-operation care was much improved and the time to complete recovery was greatly reduced. The number of cases where wounds became infected was dropped by half. The director of the hospital was pretty surprised.
“I would like to ask you to introduce me to any breweries that are in decline or about to go out of business. We don’t need alcoholic drinks, we need pure alcohol, or more precisely a place that’s able to brew it.”
“In that case, the Balkan brewery might be a good place to check out. They tried to make the strongest drink in the country out of potatoes, but it was too strong and didn’t sell well.”
“Was it made just to make dares with people?......”
“......Every craftsman wants to be better than everyone else, to make the best product they can without caring about the business aspect of it, but he went too far.”
He should have focused on making the drink tasty, but he focused on the wrong thing instead. It fits my needs perfectly though.
I went to check out the Balkan brewery I was introduced to.
“I was just thinking ‘We can’t really compete with the famous breweries in terms of taste, so let’s just go and sell strong, cheap spirits to customers who just want to get drunk and don’t care about the taste.’ It was a big mistake though, no one wanted to buy that kind of drink. He he he......”Said the owner of the brewery Mr. Balkan as he gave a strained laugh.
The smell of the brewery is really something. I have no idea what in the world they are making the spirits from.
“How many bottles do you have left?”
“Six hundred.”
“Would you be willing to sell them all to the royal family?”
“Eh!? Why would you...!? No, actually that would be amazing, but why would the royal family buy such a cheap drink made for the poor?”
“It wouldn’t be for drinking. We want to use it in the hospital.”
I said that, and I had the hospital’s director explain further.
The fact that alcohol can be used for disinfection, that the treatment of injuries will be much better, that it’s definitely more effective than without it, and that alcohol of high purity will be needed in large quantities in the medical field.
“Is that true!?”
Mr. Balkan is pretty surprised.
“Have you ever heard about the practice of washing wounds with strong alcohol on battlefields, and that they say it will help the wounds heal faster?”
“I have, but I thought it was just a superstition.”
“Since it’s just for medical purposes we just need a certain amount at the moment. I would like to have the six hundred unsold bottles re-distilled to make the alcohol even purer.”
“Hmmm.”
“I don’t care about the taste, in fact, both the taste and the aroma are unnecessary. It would be great if it could be made tasteless and odorless.”[TN-1]
Mr. Balkan ponders for a bit.
“Charcoal is the best way to remove odours. If you filter the drink through it, it would get rid of the terrible smell, but if you overdo it, you will lose all of the taste as well.”
“That sounds good, overdo it then. What are you using to make it by the way?”
“Potatoes, sweet potatoes and wheat.”
“What kind of crops can you make alcohol from anyway?”
“Those with high starch and sugar content.”
Hmmmm...
“Since it’s not meant for drinking, it would be nice if it could be made from vegetables and fruits that can’t be sold anymore, of from leftover scraps.”
“There is this one thing that brewers aren’t allowed to use.”
“What is it?”
“Sugar radish pomace. There is a lot of it left over when making sugar.”
“Let’s see if we can make medical alcohol out of it!”
Mr. Balkan looks like it would be tough.
“If the palace were to finance the entire thing and tell me to do it I would, but if I did, I really would be completely ruined. If it were ever found out, I’d get expelled from the brewer’s association. So, I really don’t want to.”
“......Even if I look like this, I’m still a prince. I’ll get approval and funding from the King and the ministers.”
“Are you telling me to change my brewery into one that specializes in medical alcohol?”
“Let’s split the company. The country will buy shares in it, make and manage something like an alcohol testing facility, and you will be able to rebuild your brewery. How does that sound?”
“That sounds great! I have absolutely no problems with that!”
At any rate, I’ll ask them to accept this proposal at the royal conference.
We approach the orphanage by carriage. Serea was doing a picture show for the children if I remember correctly. I believe it was called ‘Hayabusa’s errand’?
......I quietly approach a large room, and peek in.
“In the end, Hayabusa plunged into the atmosphere and burned up, but one of the falling stars did not disappear. The return capsule, falling at a speed of 12 kilometres per second, was protected by carbon-fibre insulation and withstood the intense heat of over 10 000 degrees Celsius during re[EN-t]ry, and so managed to deliver to us the small sample that he had collected from the asteroid Itokawa.” [TN-2]
Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about.
“After a long journey of seven years and six billion kilometres, Hayabusa has finally returned to Earth. After managing to finish his duty of releasing the return capsule with the last of his strength, Hayabusa received one last order, to take a picture of Earth. The image was cut short halfway, but Hayabusa was definitely able see his birthplace, Earth, with his own eyes.....”
Why are the children bawling their eyes out at that story?
I got back to the palace, and went directly to the King’s office to appeal to him in person.
“You can assure me that it definitely works, right?”
“Yes! I have collected all the necessary data.”
“Hmm...... I want you to buy the 600 unsold bottles of spirits and have them redistilled. That much you can do. After that outline a complete method of disinfection with alcohol.”
“Yes!”
Thank the goddess![TN-3] Now we can get enough medicinal alcohol for the hospital!
“That’s all I can allow you to do right now. The matter of mass production will have to be discussed with the ministers. There will be a meeting in three days. We will talk about it there.”
“Thank you very much.”
“However, you will be the one to propose it.”
“Yes...?”
“Shin, you will attend the royal conference and persuade the ministers.”
Wow, I’ve suddenly gotten a huge responsibility.
Even if I am a prince, the eleven year old me, will be attending the royal conference and convincing the ministers......?
“You are already married. Do the work needed to support your wife, I’m not going to treat you like a child.”
“......I understand.”
I went home after getting a whole bundle of data from the hospital director.
......When I got back to my room I thought about it for a very long time. How on earth am I, a child, going to convince the adult ministers? How can I convince them to allow me to invest the government’s money? It’s a huge problem.
“......Should I try doing what Serea did?”
“What I did?”
“I’m going to use a flip chart to show them a series of documents, like the picture show, and use those to explain it to them.” [TN-4]
“That sounds great! I’ll help you with the drawings!”
After deciding that, I went to the hospital to compile the data we got from the tests, then to Balkan’s brewery to learn about the fermentation and distillation methods, and worked hard to create the presentation materials. I took a lot of notes in my notebook, while Serea made sketches of the treatment at the hospital and the procedures at the distillery.
We spent the breaks between our studying, training, and dance practice, as well as all the time in the evening, before bed, frantically working on the presentation.
Serea didn’t even go back to her mansion either, but stayed at the palace with me, and is helping me by drawing illustrations with crayons.
In the morning, the head maid scolded us, after finding us sloppily sleeping on the carpet with a blanked covering us.
“If you are going to sleep together, do it properly on the bed.”
Eh? You are ok with that?
TN: I wonder how the ministers will take the presentation made by 2 eleven year olds illustrated with crayons.
On a more important note, the next chapter is a side story, it’s basically just the story that Serea is telling the children (Hayabusa’s errand), and is in no way connected to the main story. So I made a poll where you can say whether you want me to continue the main story or translate this side story.
[TN-1]: So that the doctors don’t drink it like the one from last chapter hinted, I presume :D
[TN-2]: Really Serea, really...... Again with a tragic story for the orphans, Shin needs to vet your Ideas a bit more. Also talking about spaceships, carbon fibres and samples from asteroids to a bunch of people who probably aren’t sure if the planet is flat or not...
[TN-3]: Swapped ‘thank god’ for ‘thank the goddess’ since they believe in a goddess, I thought that since the narration is done from his perspective I should write it in a way he would say it, not how it’s said here. if you guys think I should stick to how we talk nonetheless tell me in the comments below.
[TN-4]: And so, PowerPoint(medieval version) was invented.
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