Chapter 10: Coffee

The two who were wary of this male stranger in black were stunned by the sudden introduction. Desmend couldn’t make out the delicate changes in their facial expression. Still, from the reflection of the moonlight, he knew the young boy squinted his eyes.

It’s hard to see facial expression when you’re straddled by a very shot stack girl who he swears must be half Irish.

“I am Thaldal Hebrir; this is my younger sister...”

“Lassras Hebrir... Eh, we were watching the stars... that’s right.”

“Oh, really, I must find you kids a new spot to see the stars!” Desmend used the opportunity to get the distracted and embarrassed girl of him. After his recovery, he learned from his failure to use the physical boost spell in the yore. Further, he improved it, changing it into a spell with low mana cost, emphasizing just the legs for running. He quickly had become accustomed to it while running away from Eliza; even strenuous movement wouldn’t affect the spell. His enhanced legs enabled him to sprint at a breakneck pace.

Eliza was unprepared when Desmend stormed off, leaving a confused brunette who was about to do something she hadn’t done in a while.

“DESMEND!!!”

Eliza boomed. The South African boy whimpered in fear. Even though he was far away from her, her ability to terrify him reminds him of his mother.

“Ahhh!”

“Yeah...” Desmend calmly stated as he heard the half-dwarf fall to the ground. “She is so going to kill when she catches me...”

Ruldraic Wraitharm. He was stockily built, a dwarven man of five-nine feet high, with well-toned muscles bulging under his armour, and his armour were something. Made entirely out of gold because why not?

The expression on his face, as well the other dwarves, was in amazement and confusion.

“The king wishes he was here, but he ran away the moment he learned about the paper but asked me to show you this. So, what do you lads think?”

“It’s so… white,” said Ruldraic thinking about doing the same exact thing His Majesty had just done. Even he doesn’t like to do the forsaken pieces of paper.

One of the dwarven crafters rounded her eyes in puzzlement. Ingrid, Brosh, and Lucanos also stared at Harry’s hands with wide-open eyes.

Harry was holding pure white pottery with both hands.

Yes, pure white pottery.

“This pottery is produced by our kingdom. But, most importantly, from the king’s mind.” Harry smirked at the faces of Eliza maternal grandfather and his council.

“…Seriously?” Ruldraic said slowly.

Most pottery produced by the Kingdom and the Empire was black in colour. Neither country possessed the technology to produce white ceramic. Not just the Empire, but even the Silk Country of the Elves could not make white pottery. It certainly could be sold at a very high price.

Pure white was considered a sacred colour in the Monotheism faith.

“This is called bone porcelain. The white colour comes from animal bones. Apparently, the king knows the process of how to make it. The king decided that kingdom needed to have a monopoly on new products and services… This is one of them...”

Harry remembered what the king called It: Bone china.

As for why Desmend knew of the production method of bone porcelain… Well, Desmend actually wasn’t the one who made it.

It goes without saying.

No matter how much of a study freak and history channel he watched. Desmend would never be able to make bone porcelain just from the knowledge gained from reading books. That and he’d never had to forge bone china before.

So, he left notes to the artisans’ guild and hired them to recreate whatever was in them. He forgot about it days later since his medication wore off.

The king held absolute power in the Kingdom of Aucrulethen. So, if he requests something from you and you dare to refuse, then you’d better prepare to bite the dust. But, of course, failure also means death.

Not that Desmend would do so...

Because Desmend knew of the existence of bone porcelain, he never doubted that it would be a success... judging the history, of course... But for the artisans who had to obey the directions of an amateur who barely knew about pottery, it was natural for them to think that failure was inevitable.

This bone porcelain was the crystallization of the hardships endured by the artisans, who were resolved to die and shed tears while adjusting the flame upon seeing the product’s completion.

Well, Desmend did reward the artisans with enough money to fool around for a lifetime, and they would continue to make bone porcelain for the rest of their life so they should have no concerns about their future. That was the fruit of their efforts.

This proved without a doubt that Desmend would make a great king...

“This would explain the many side projects he made ahead of time,” Harry recalled the many documents and orders on certain products. “He knew that he would have to meet the three dukes on a later date and made plans to have a great first impression.”

“The pottery is still in the experimentation stage. But the white colour is impressive, right, lads?”

“It’s amazing enough already!!!”

Ingrid stood up in excitement. Lucanos still kept a poker face, but his eyes were fixed on the bone porcelain. Borsh gave a wry smile and said,.

“I didn’t expect His Majesty to show us something so incredible out of the blue.”

“I know, right,.” Harry agreed with him. “Right now, only our artisans can do this. Round up more artisans and your dwarven magic, and we can start mass production. Sales shall be taxed at 40%. Since the king is the one who invented it, they should have no complaint.”

The artisans should still earn a significant profit even if Desmend charged 40% of the sales as tax. There would be a very high demand for white pottery.

“There’s this as well.”

Harry snapped his fingers with a smug expression. A dwarven maid came out holding a tray, placed on which were five cups. She set the cups down on the desk, then bowed and left in silence.

“What is that?” Ruldraic asked.

The cups placed down by the maid were made of pure white porcelain. Harry brought one of them to his mouth.

“Aye, that’s the good stuff.”

“…What is that supposed to be?”

Ingrid frowned while peering at the liquid inside the cups.

A mysterious, pitch-black liquid.

“It’s called coffee,” Harry explained.

“Cof—fee?”

A question mark appeared on top of everyone’s head.

Harry continued drinking his coffee silently, prompting the other four to drink. The dwarven council gingerly brought the cups to their mouth. Their reactions were as follows:

“So tasty!” exclaimed Ingrid.

“Eww…” Borsh moaned. “But I can’t stop drinking.

“This is really bitter,.” Christos frowned.

“I feel so awakened. What is this rushing sensation? I feel like I can work all night,” said Lucanos.

The others agreed with that statement.

Looking at these four, Hercule nodded in satisfaction.

“The king created this new drink to help the workers on night duty.”

Most of the water in the Kingdoms, as well as in its surrounding countries, was hard water. Freshwater sources were abundant but were guarded by ancient spirits that could level lands with ease. Therefore, most waters were not very tasty, and it was difficult to get hold of freshwater.

Alcoholic beverages basically never expire, so they can be stored for a long time. Also, when you dilute water with alcohol, the water gets sterilized; at the same time, that makes it taste a bit better.

But there’s a big problem with it.

You get drunk when you drink alcohol.

Yeah, no shit.

That was why tea was a popular drink among noblemen, clergymen and merchants. Not barley tea, of course, but tea made from leaves of a plant monster. This tea was imported from another supercontinent, naturally at a steep price.

That’s where coffee comes in!

This was Kings’s plan. Bloody hell, he got the reactions of everyone here down. Harry worrieds about what would happen if the king decided to become a tyrant... He would either join in a heartbeat or just kill himself.

Nevertheless, he had a job to do.

“This drink is very effective for keeping oneself awake. I tested it myself as well the night patrol. The stuff works wonders, mate.”

At first, Desmend wasn’t sure this was even coffee since they come from a cave. The beans looked smaller and had a darker shade of brown and a powerful smell to them.

Then he remembers this is not Earth.

The geography and vegetation of this world highly resembled those of Earth. But there was a significant difference.

There are demons, beasts and magic rivers.

“Princess Tangerine and her church know how to cultivate this plant. So, let’s grow it in your demesne for sale and export it to other countries. We’ll make a killing for sure.”

For the time being, Desmend intended to spread coffee among nobles, clergymen and wealthy merchants by selling the new drink to them at a high price. Then, after coffee had gained a certain degree of popularity and the common people had expressed interest in the drink, he would slowly teach farmers the cultivation method to increase the production output.

He would have the monopoly in the beginning. After that, he would gain more consistent profit from sales tax.

That is what Desmend told Harry throughout the journey here.

“We will focus on these two products for the time being. The king will bring move products to your services in time.”

“I have to agree with the king. Trying to sell too many products at once would go nowhere,” Harry thought. Desmend also informed him about many other products he was planning on selling.

Beekeeping, obtaining sugar maple or sugar beets if he could somehow find it, cotton seeds, and silkworm eggs, but it was impossible to do so many things at once. So Desmend said we should concentrate entirely on goods that could be produced quickly and reliably for now.

Harry didn’t understand most of what he said, but the look on his face reminded the knight about men who are about to make a lot of money. He also paid him 30% extra if he did it for him in case of something happened.

“Wow, he even planned not meeting but still gained their respect through me.”

Watching the excited dwarves, Harry thought in his heart, how long it would take before he could make Eliza blush?

“Next, we need to take a look at the administrative documents. As a present from the king to you as a sign of friendship.” Harry saved the best for last.

Smokeless coal. A solid fuel that does not emit visible smoke or emits minimal amounts during combustion.

“The king knows of our problems? And where is Eliza? I thought she would love to her grandfather even if she would never show it on her face,” Borsh said while looking at the smokeless coal.

“The king has fiscal affairs; everyone is working on fixing them.”

The Aurarock’s fiscal affairs weren’t so precarious in the beginning. They used to be quite well off in the old days. The finances only started to decline a short while after the late Aucrulethen king took the throne. They temporarily recovered thanks to his’ efforts but deteriorated again in the final years of his rule.

Firstly, the population incline and devastation of farmlands had caused the national income to fall. But Desmend thought that they shouldn’t have that big of an effect. If agricultural infrastructure had been so devastated that it caused the national finances to dwindle, the city would have been in ruins by now.

That left the other two reasons he thought of.

Because the taxation efficiency had decayed, the city could not collect the total tax value.

Or a portion of tax money had vanished because of waste and embezzlement.

“He also brought new alcohol beverages as well...”

Everyone paused as the maids brought out drinks. Harry counted off when they brought the mugs to savouring mouths.

3. 2. 1.

“ALL HAIL THE NEW KING!!”