"A bomb...... I knew it!"
The kids caught on faster than I expected.
I was glad to have such capable subordinates.
Could our kids actually be tremendous geniuses?
"That's right. I'm going to hide a tiny surprise element inside the soap. In simple terms, it's a lottery. Some soaps will have an enticing reward like a prize voucher inside, and......"
I said with a wicked smile.
"Some soaps will have a dud -- a bomb."
I was thinking I could put in a bomb icon along with a message like, 'Oh, what a shame. Better luck next time.'
The children listened and marveled.
Rang spoke in a slightly exhilarated voice.
"For the Empire's trash -- the irredeemable noble bastards who disrupt society and exploit the weak -- we can give them a special gift of the bomb-loaded soap."
Was this kid secretly from the modern era like me?
Rigging the odds. Now that was a diabolical idea.
But fleecing money off someone who deserved divine punishment through rigged odds was virtuous thievery. I'd accept Rang's suggestion.
"Gacha-style entertainment is extremely addictive. If it catches on, we'll be able to scatter our soap across the entire Empire."
That much I could personally guarantee.
Gacha...... once you got a taste for it, getting out was incredibly difficult. Your paycheck and your wallet would be in danger.
"The further our soap spreads, the more efficiently we can clean up the Empire's trash and purify the world...... As expected, Boss is something else entirely."
Being praised was making me a bit bashful.
In truth, I'd just copied some things I'd seen in the modern world.
"This will definitely work. Nobody would ever imagine something like that being inside a bar of soap."
"Exactly. If they don't see it coming, they won't be able to resist."
There couldn't be a single medieval person with immunity to modern gacha. If it hit right, it could be an absolute sensation.
"......So Boss had already thought this far ahead. How vast a picture are you painting? This Rang cannot even begin to fathom Boss's foresight."
Rang wore an expression of genuine awe.
I was relieved the reactions were positive all around.
I'd been worried I might get responses like "How does that make money?" or "That would just overcomplicate the manufacturing process."
"Mixing such a complex mechanism into the soap, and then mass-producing it on top of that...... This is certainly a complex challenge."
But the one who spoke up here was our manufacturing lead.
As expected, it was a somewhat difficult task after all.
The former apprentice was deep in thought.
I asked the craftsman carefully.
"Is this a bit too hard to pull off after all?"
Adding a lottery element might sound simple on the surface.
But for this alone, they'd need to handle the printing work, write explanations of the lottery somewhere on the product, and add a whole production step for inserting the draw tickets inside the soap.
And since this was their first time making soap in the first place, there would be plenty of trial and error. On top of that, they now had an additional fussy element to deal with.
But what came back was a smile brimming with confidence.
"It is difficult, yes. But by that logic, was Boss's goal of purifying this world with our own hands ever easy?"
The child turned the question right back at me.
"Well...... of course it's a difficult goal. But--"
My voice and the child's voice overlapped.
My subordinate and I spoke the same words at the same time.
""It's not about the difficulty. It's a mission that has to be accomplished no matter what, even knowing it's impossible.""
Our eyes met.
We shared a grin.
"Right? It's the same thing. It's hard, sure, but we're dreaming alongside you. For the sake of that dream, it's something we want to achieve and will achieve, whatever it takes."
I really was blessed with incredible people.
"Trust us. We'll make it happen, easily."
How had only kids this admirable come through the door?
Every single one of them was exceptionally talented and passionate on top of that. Comrades who shared my vision and were running alongside me.
"......Well, even if we're going to power through on sheer grit, there are practical issues. We'll need a certain amount of resources."
"That's only natural...... Resources, resources......"
We had the craftsmen.
We'd secured a decent production facility too. The workshop wasn't enormous, but for now, it was a satisfactory size.
But the most important thing still remained.
Materials to make soap.
We needed a way to procure raw materials in bulk.
In other words.......
"We're going to need help from a trading company."
***
This was actually the biggest hurdle in the business.
We couldn't just contract with any random trading company.
'You see it in the modern world sometimes. A restaurant does well, so the building owner kicks out the original owner and opens the restaurant themselves.'
If that happened in the 21st century, what about the medieval era?
It would be worse, never better.
Here, there wasn't even a minimum of legal protection.
Well, legal protection did exist, technically. But the Emperor's laws protected the perpetrators, not the victims, so it was hopeless.
"I can already see the future. The trading companies going 'Oh, the soap business is profitable? We should take it for ourselves' and swallowing this operation whole. That's the one outcome we have to prevent."
The Imperial Family sided with the trading companies that funneled bribes to them. Even if we appealed our grievances, they'd just be ignored.
"......That is indeed a problem. Cooperation with a trading company is essential for mass production. But greedy trading companies will certainly covet what we have and try to seize it for themselves."
Exactly what Rang had just said.
Sit around doing nothing and you'd get eaten alive.
And on top of that, the problems didn't end there.
"S-sis, we're all commoners to begin with. Don't we have zero connections to places like trading companies?"
Actually, just making contact with a trading company was the first hurdle.
Almost all of us were former slaves.
There was no way we'd have connections to a trading company head.
"This is troublesome. I was dying to see the look on those bastards' faces when they found a bomb in their soap. Seems like there's still a long road ahead."
Rang spoke in a slightly disappointed voice, but.
"I don't know, it doesn't look that far to me."
I smiled with a playful expression.
If a problem arose, you just solved it.
And we already had the solution in our hands.
"No need to overthink it."
"Pardon?"
"You say the problem is that we don't have connections to a trading company? We don't? Then we just borrow from someone else."
At my words, Rang's face was painted with bewilderment.
"Borrow from who? Do you know a noble?"
But I calmly held up the picture and waved it.
The picture that had been sitting proudly on the desk.
Right where I'd been sitting just moments ago.
"Of course I do -- our good friend. We have Lord Leon, who so generously gifted us an entire alchemy workshop, don't we?"
"Y-you're going to use the name of the noble who burned to death?"
We'd already taken the alchemy workshop and its craftsmen. At this point, what was there left to be squeamish about?
If we were going to milk it, we might as well milk it properly.
I rummaged through the appropriate drawers.
"Leon was a noble, pathetic as he was, so he must have had a communication crystal or something. If I dig around a spot like this......"
And sure enough.
As if he couldn't even be bothered to move, the storage shelf closest to where he always sat had a communication crystal shoved in carelessly.
Filthy bastard, true to form. There were food splatter stains on the crystal, but it was still functioning.
"He knew quite a few trading companies, it seems. Was he a somewhat notable noble before his downfall?"
I fiddled with Leon's communication crystal.
Rang asked with a worried expression.
"Boss, will you be all right? If anyone catches on......"
I answered with a face that said "why are you even asking?"
"Dangerous? Obviously it's dangerous."
"Then shouldn't we reconsider?"
"But here's the thing, Rang. In the end, we're going to try to use them, and they're going to try to use us. It's the same either way."
This truly barbaric medieval Empire.
Not a single thing about this country I liked.
Here, the logic of power was everything.
Which meant there was only one solution to use.
"It all comes down to who devours who first. If we eat them before they eat us, problem solved, isn't it?"
Of course, I had no intention of resorting to threats.
I wasn't that barbaric.
"Don't worry, I'm confident in 'negotiation.' We just need to bring them to their knees and leash them without hesitation."
I said with a smile.
"......With the weapons I have at my disposal."
This was what my future knowledge was for.
Money-making methods that only I knew and had shared with no one. Wouldn't these be enticing enough bait to blind a merchant and bend them to my will?
I'd pour out every last bit of my future knowledge.
"Indeed, my worry was needless. Rest assured, Boss. Whatever your weapons may be, I will burn everything in their path."
Rang wore a strangely self-assured expression.
Her support was much appreciated, but. The one with future knowledge was me, so why was Rang the one squaring her shoulders?
Kids were truly impossible to figure out.
"Then all that's left is to call in the prey."
Rang thought for a moment, then spoke.
"But...... will a trading company actually come? That bastard Leon flew into a rage all by himself and snapped at Boss, 'You're looking down on me too because you heard the rumors about me gambling away my fortune and going bankrupt,' remember?"
"He's a noble already picked clean to the bone. You're worried that using Leon as bait won't actually attract any prey?"
"Yes, exactly."
A sharp observation, to be sure.
But a shift in thinking was needed here.
"Well, obviously no respectable trading company would show up. What kind of idiot would want to do business with a debtor on the run?"
"Uh...... then doesn't that mean we can't get a contract?"
"But a greenhorn trading company that's not respectable would come. One with such poor intelligence-gathering that they haven't even caught wind of the rumors. A rookie operation that's only just started doing business."
In other words.......
"The kind of prey that even we, at our current level, could handle. Nice and easy pickings, coming right to us."
"Ah!"
"Well, there's also the chance that Leon being broke is so well-known that absolutely no one shows up. But we'll just have to leave that to luck."
It was well worth a try, at the very least.
I moved my hand without hesitation.
"Write 'I'm looking to get into the soap business, so send me supply support' in the most arrogant and obnoxious phrasing possible to match Leon's personality, send it...... and we're all set."
The bait was cast. All that remained was to wait for a bite.
But I didn't have to wait long.
Merchants moved fast the moment they smelled money.
Sure enough.
After a short wait, the presence of someone outside.
"Good day to you! I've come from the Rotan Trading Company -- your ever-reliable business partner, where trust is our trade!"
A man sporting his best customer-service smile beamed brightly, and then.......
"What? Where's your master? I just got a transmission a moment ago. Why don't I see his face anywhere?"
He narrowed his brow as he looked at me.
"You there, slave. What's going on here?"
I looked the company head straight in the eye.
......It was time to talk our prey onto the grill.
"Allow me to explain, sir."
I calmly stepped one pace forward.