With my pay safe and secure, I returned to the receptionist counter.
"Oh welcome back Scarlet. Are you thinking about taking a second request today? Even though you're so strong, I do recommend you take the rest of the day off and rest. Even strong adventurers might be taken down by weak monsters if they don't rest properly."
Once again she gave me good advice. Fortunately, I had no intention on pushing myself to do more than I had to, but I had pushed myself pretty hard at times in the dungeon. I should remember this when I went back home.
"Ah no. I want to use the library."
"Oh, in that case, follow me."
She got up and I followed her through the back entrance and up the stairs, down the familiar hall to the library entrance. She opened the door for me, and I passed through, giving a nod to the man who was virtually a librarian. He only gave me a glance before turning back to his pile of wooden planks. Not even a 'hrmph' came out of his lips.
All the receptionist and I could do was give each other a wry smile before I turned to the shelves and started reading again.
Randomly picking up slate after tablet after stray parchment, most of them were things of little importance to me. From the local history (or rather the local lord's family history), to stray but unsubstantiated theories about how stone mole colonies form, and even synopsis of yet another hero who sounded more like the church's hit man than the protector of the people.
Maybe I had just developed some jaded preconceptions about heroes ever since Alicia often spoke of that one in her stories about Scarlet in such disdain. That was just one guy, and everyone made mistakes. His was just particularly bad.
Then again, there was the saying that the road to evil was paved in good intentions.
Actually, I needed to be particularly careful on that end. I've thought I've been doing a lot of good deeds, but I hadn't really put any thought into any of them. It was possible that the consequences of my actions would be quite different from what I had intended. I may even end up doing something really bad with the assumption that it was for the betterment of the people.
I needed to spend more time thinking about my actions, and the orphanage was a pretty good place to start. Realistically, no matter how much I donated to it, it wouldn't mean much the moment I left this city, as it would become pretty difficult to continue giving donations.
Not only that, but my donations would likely be pretty unreliable in the first place. And if people thought that the orphanage was doing better because of my donations, others might consider reducing their donations even if the orphanage desperately needed them.
The end result would be that my own actions would've made things worse for those kids rather than better.
A cold stone formed in the pit of my stomach as I thought about this problem.
The more I interacted with that orphanage, the more I was responsible for it and the kids it cared for. But I couldn't stay here forever. Hell, I probably wouldn't stay in this city for more than a few more days. I already had plenty of travelling funds and there didn't seem to be much interesting to see here.
But not doing something to help secure the orphanage's future left a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if my good intentions turned out for the worse for the orphanage. I needed to do something that would help them in the long term.
The orphanage needed a reliable source of money or goods. For that, they needed a reliable patron, or a way to earn money.
But nothing really came to mind. There really wasn't any way for an orphanage to make money, and I hardly knew anything about this world outside of the dungeon I called home.
It was hopeless.
I really had no way to help the orphanage in the long term.
All I could do was clench my teeth as the cold knot hardened in my stomach.
"Hey, are you alright Scarlet?"
I turned and looked up. The receptionist was standing there looking worried.
"Huh?"
"Is something the matter? You don't look well."
"I, uhh..."
My eyes fell to the ground.
Was it right to burden her with my troubles? We hardly knew each other and our relationship was entirely professional.
"If there's something troubling you, at the very least I could listen to it."
(Was she trying to be considerate?)
"Umm...what if...you intended on doing something good, but the results of helping someone might've made their situation worse in the long term...?"
"I'm...not quite sure what you're trying to say."
"Ummm...what I mean is, I helped some people, but what if helping them might make things worse later on?"
"Are you saying you're sure it'll become worse?"
"No, but they need continuous help, and the more I help, the more likely things will go bad in the future"
"That's a really difficult problem. You want to help them, right?"
I nodded.
"I don't think there's anything wrong about that, but you're sure that things will become bad if you keep doing so?"
"Not completely, but pretty sure. And I can't keep helping if I leave the city"
"Well, you're an adventurer, and it's common to keep moving around. Though I'd miss having you around..."
"Huh?"
"A, anyways, you want to make sure that they can do alright even when you can't help them anymore, right?"
I nodded again.
"Then the answer's simple. Help them help themselves. Once they can help themselves, they won't need your help anymore"
"'Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime' huh?"
"That's a pretty good line. But yea, something like that."
(But how do you make an orphanage self sufficient?)
"Did you...already think that far?"
After a moment of hesitation, I nodded for the third time.
"Well, maybe it's a problem about what type of help they need? Everyone can find a way to stand on their own two feet. If they don't have two feet, then you just need to give them a second foot, even if it's made from wood."
"Everyone? Even kids?"
"This is about children? Well, I suppose it depends on how young they are, but I helped out sewing with my mother when I was six, so as long as you're not talking about children much younger than that, then there's probably a way. I mean, I imagine you started fighting even younger than that."
I got my first kill on the first day of my life, but I was hardly a good point of comparison as I not only spawned just big as I currently was, but I kept the 30 odd years of memories from my last life. But all I could give her was a blank stare. I was worried anything else would reveal more than I was willing to let out.
"Well, I don't know what those children are able to do, but don't look down on them just because they're young. In many families, even a six year old is expected to help bring in some money for the family, so maybe you can find a way for those children to stand on their own?"
"I...I think I'll try. Thanks."
I gave her a smile and extended my hand.
"It's no problem. If it's only this much, I don't mind listening to as many of your troubles as you want, Scarlet. It's certainly better than being hit on constantly by bored adventurers."
The latter bit she turned her head and only whispered, but I heard it clearly. I supposed women really did have to deal with that sort of problems even in this world.
(Wait, I'm a woman too. Am I going to have to deal with that at some point?)
The cold realization made me feel insecure. Not only that, but it made me realize that not only was that likely in my future, it had already happened to me in the last village. I wasn't sure how I would have to deal with it if that problem continued to crop up.
"Thanks. I might just take you up on your offer...ah!"
"Is there something else you want to ask?"
"..."
It was embarrassing, but if I didn't ask here, it could easily turn into a bigger issue down the line.
"Ummm...I don't know your name."
"Ah, I never mentioned it? Sorry. It's Lucy. Lucy Tileoger."
"I'm Scarlet, as you already know."
I clasped her outstretched hand and smiled.
After that, I left the guild building. The library was already closed and the rest of the building was preparing for the evening.
Since I was done there, I headed straight towards the orphanage. I still had no idea how to solve their problem, but at the very least I could help out in smaller ways in the meantime.
"Miss Scarlet!"
"You came again!"
A pair of the orphanage's kids were playing on the street and greeted me as I approached.
"Hey, you guys doing alright?"
I patted them on the head.
"We are! Did you come to play again?"
The first kid asked immediately. He had small, round ears on top of his head and a stubby little tail that was barely more than a pompom. His eyes half closed as I rubbed his short, black hair.
"Or maybe make dinner again?"
The second's eyes sparkled at me, practically ignoring how my hand moved. Despite being shorter than his buddy, this kid was much more horizontally built and there were a handful of lonely strands growing from his chin.
"Haha. I wonder which one you guys are hoping for the most?"
The two kids looked at each other for a second before answering me with with a full-faced grin.
""Both!""
(Cheeky little...)
After a short moment, the two grabbed my hands and lead me inside the building.
"Hey! Look who we found!"
The taller of the two boys opened the door wide, but just as I thought it would slam into the wall, he made sure to have a firm grip to stop it from being damaged.
"It's Scarlet!"
"You came again!"
"Yay! Did you come to play?"
"Are you going to make dinner again?"
Almost in an instant, I was swarmed by the kids before I could take a second step into the lobby. In all their excitement, I wasn't able to respond as they rapid fired their questions and statements one after the next. But a change happened that made it even more difficult for me to answer.
"Those furs on the beds! Were they yours?!"
"Yea! They're so soft and warm!"
"And the window shutters too!"
"And the doors don't creak anymore!"
"And the cracks in the walls are gone!"
"Was that all you?"
"It was amazing!"
"Everyone, what do you say when someone gives you something?"
Like a final nail in the coffin, what would normally be words one would welcome felt more like the biggest attack when I was already being overwhelmed.
"""Thank you Scarlet!!!"""
Everyone yelled so loud I bet that the neighbours could make out the words. The fact that the front door was still open only made things worse.
"That's right. Thank you very much Miss Scarlet for everything you had done yesterday. Don't think that you can get away without being properly thanked"
(Was it me, or was that a threat?)
The kids all huddled around me, the closest grabbing at my robes and pulling me deeper into the building. While they were expressing their happiness and excitement with how they pulled at me, from my perspective, I couldn't help but feel like an insect caught in a spider net.
In the end, it wasn't as bad as I was fearing, though I knew that it wasn't like the kids were going to eat me or something. Instead, they sat me down and brought me all sorts of gifts that they scrounged up or made during the day. From freshly picked flowers to hand fulls of berries, I was practically buried in them as I did my best to hold them without dropping any.
"So how does the heartfelt thanks of everyone in the orphanage feel?"
(Overbearing)
But it wasn't like I could actually say that. The directer figuratively looked down at me with a smug expression despite her head barely peeking out from behind the shorter of the orphans. If any of the older kids were in front of her, the view of her would've been blocked entirely.
"I can feel everyone's warmth firmly in my chest"
My smile cramped up.
"Well anyways, everyone, if you stick so closely to Miss Scarlet, she won't be able to do what she came for"
With her words, I was finally given some reprieve as the kids made some space around me.
"Considering the time, I suppose you came to make dinner again?"
"Yea."
I gave her a nod, and subsequently stiffened for a moment as the kids all cheered loudly.
After getting some help to put all the gifts into my bag, I made way to the kitchen and started on the day's dish. Considering the number of mouths, soups and stews really were the best option as there weren't any woks to make stir fry with.
But to change things up, I went with meat from a large bird monster called a Roc, mixed in with potatoes, onions, and broccoli, all boiled in a thick, white soup heavy in goat's milk and goat butter.
As I tried to get away after serving everyone's share, the director grabbed my arm and made me sit down despite my protests.
"Now now, you've already done so much work and given us so many things. You should at least take a break while the children enjoy your meal, right?"
"Ah, but..."
"Everyone, what do you say to Miss Scarlet?"
"""Thank you for the food!!!"""
Without me getting a chance to say anything, Philia firmly held me down, preventing me from escaping.
"Even if you don't need to eat, isn't it good to take some time and enjoy the smiles that your food brings?"
Unable to do resist, my eyes wandered as the surprisingly strong-willed woman continued to talk into my ear quietly. Around me, all the kids had huge grins as they quickly ate as if they were worried it would disappear before their eyes.
"Yum!"
"It's so good!"
"I love it!"
Everything that came out of their mouths were words of praise, and nothing but pure joy was on their expressions.
(Actually, this is kinda nice)
It wasn't like I didn't know that being praised for the work you do felt good, but ever since coming to this world, I had only done things for myself and Alicia. Alicia was my sister, so it was a given to make her as happy as I could, and it was also a given that I'd be happy whenever she was smiling.
I had done good things for others, but I hadn't once stopped to see the results properly.
(Maybe I should do that more often?)
"Scarlet! Scarlet! Won't you play with us?"
As I was enjoying the warm feeling in my chest a small group of kids rushed up to me.
"Oh? You guys done already?"
"We are! Thank you very much!"
"So will you play with us?"
"Hmm..."
As I looked around the room, it felt like as the rest of the kids noticed what was going on, they all increased their eating pace by a few steps. This could become a problem.
"How about something a little different until everyone's finished eating?"
"Like what?"
"Not playing?"
"Hmm..."
"How about a story? That way the children eating can also listen"
For once, Philia came to actually save my ass rather than scorch it.
"Sounds good. Story time then"
"Story!"
"Yay!"
Thankfully, the other kids slowed down, made their slurping quieter, and perked their ears in anticipation.
"'I love you, Suzu!' 'Thank you for loving me', she responded again. 'Please don't disappear Suzu! Suzu!' He yelled, holding her even more tightly. 'Thank you so much, for giving me your life.' As she said those words, her soul disappeared from the afterlife, returning to the reincarnation cycle, leaving Izuru behind as he cried, calling out for Suzu's name, over and over, but she was no longer in that world."
I opened my eyes, gazing at the ceiling. Tears were running down my cheeks, just like every time I saw that scene of that show from so many years ago. But after taking the time to stabilize my breathing, I continued the story.
"Days, weeks, perhaps months or even years later Izuru was able to..."
*Whack!*
Something hit the side of my head. It didn't hurt, but the sudden impact bent my neck a good 45 degrees. When I looked back, I saw the director staring at me, her face somewhere between pensive and frustrated...maybe?
I couldn't really read her expression very well, but there were tears running down her face.
"You...! What are you doing telling such a story to little children?!"
"Huh?"
I looked around. All the kids had long finished eating and were all looking my way, but there were tears running down their faces, and all of them looked like they were holding something furious back.
"Umm..."
"""Waaaahhhh~~~~!!!"""
But as I was trying to figure out what was wrong, they all burst out crying, practically in unison.
"Ah...wait...that's...!"
I didn't think they'd cry so hard from that story. Sure, I had tears running down my face, like pretty much every time I saw that scene, but I didn't think my poor retelling of that show's story would make the entire room of kids cry. Not only them, but the directer was pretty obviously holding back from crying herself.
(Was it that effective?)
But before that, I needed to calm all the kids down.
"Umm, the, the thing is...ummm...."
But I was drawing blanks, and the more the kids cried, the more flustered I became. It was one thing to deal with a kid one-on-one, but another to deal with a large group of them.
"You fool! So? What happened next Scarlet? I'm sure that the story doesn't end there, right?"
"Umm...that's right! Everyone! Calm down. There's still more to the story! But I can't tell it while everyone's crying!"
I wasn't finished telling the story, but I was interrupted before I could continue.
"See? Everyone, there's more! Even after little Suzu and Izuru were separated, there's more to the story!"
The director's strong, almost booming voice redirected all the kids' attention to her, and they managed to calm down enough to hear her words. But almost in unison, their eyes turned to me, filled with expectation beyond any level I had ever seen.
*gulp*
It felt like this was my only chance at salvation, but all I had was one, short scene after the ending credits. Since it was a show, it was a wordless almost entirely visual-based epilogue, but I had to somehow portray it in words in a way that everyone here would find satisfying.
The weight of this tension was heavier than facing any boss in the dungeon back home.
"Umm...anyways. Long, long, later, Izuru reincarnated in another world. He grew up, his memories of his time in the afterlife erased, his previous life gone. But he still felt that something was wrong. Something was missing. One day, as he was idly walking through the streets, he walked past a girl. She was an unremarkable girl. No different from any of the dozens he passed the last few minutes. But still, he turned and stopped. It wasn't because of what she was wearing, or for how she had her hair up. He stopped, because she was humming a tune. One he recognized, but couldn't remember from where. And when he gazed into her eyes, he felt that the thing he was missing all his life, that thing that was wrong for as long as he could remember, was right there.
Unable to hold back, he approached that girl.
The end."
The entire room was quiet. Everyone was staring at me so hard I thought that they'd bore a hole right through me.
*Clap...clap...clap*
To my side, the director was clapping slowly. Not a condescending golf clap, but a proper one. She had a gentle smile, but there were tears building up at the edge of her eyes.
"I see. So they were able to meet up again in the next life is it? How wonderful."
*Clap clap clap clap clap*
More and more hands started to clap, and it spread throughout the room. The kids no longer looked pensive, but large grins burst onto their faces.
In the end, I needed some help from Philia, but I succeeded, it seemed. The tension in my shoulders disappeared all at once, but for appearance's sake, I continued to sit up straight.
Oh god, why you have to make me remember angel beats...
You making me cry again
Hmm, that line about Scarlet not needing to eat... it feels like Philia has figured some things out, and isn’t just talking about her having already eaten.
I felt like that was obvious before? The whole "you need to love yourself if you expect others to love you" seemed like a dead giveaway.
You underestimate sadness of Angel Beats tbh.
So we going MC x Lucy, right?
An Angel Beats reference, Kyon~!!??
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day but teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime
And
The road to he'll is littered with good intentions
Are somethings some isekai story fail at, good this Scarlet is being pragmatic about this.
Thanks for the chapter
Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Thanks for the chapter! I look forward to the next 1 always check this book every day to see if it has an update to my surprise there was 1 today I always look forward to reading this book
Next chapter will probably be released in two days, wait five more days after that then continue the pattern. I think thats the release schedule.
@Dking Pretty much. Local release pattern is Wed/Fri. I know it's a bit unorthodox, but it fits my personal schedule pretty well.
That said, when I do have bonus chapters, it's usually during the weekend.
Thanks for the chapter!
Hmm. Scarlet needs a friend. Maybe Lucy? Also, how's she going to get the orphanage to be nearly self-sufficient?
Teaching the kids to make soap would be their best bet. It was already said that since Scarlet knows how to make soap, if she were to sell it she could be rich.
The only problem would be getting the ingredients without Scarlet's help. The animal fat can probably be bought from butchers, but the lie is something that they would have to find a way to process from the burnt wood without the use of magic.
The soap idea seems like a great way to do exactly what Scarlet is trying to avoid doing: trying to do good deeds but ultimately causing harm.
If soap actually sells for a lot and word gets out that the orphanage is producing it, the orphanage would get a lot of unwanted attention. Greedy people would probably try stealing the soap or money since compared to a fancy store, the orphanage would be unprotected. They also might be kidnapped or coerced into revealing how to make the soap too, since if a whole bunch of uneducated kids could make soap, anyone could, and soon enough, selling soap wouldn't be profitable anymore.
@Jemini
I'm kind of averse to the isekai trope of random people being able to just start industrial revolutions with handicrafts knowledge and high school level chemistry.
First off, soapmaking is not a revolutionary technology. People already know about it, which is why Alicia was able understand what that was. She just thinks of it as an expensive luxury good that her family would never have afforded anyway.
You have to keep in mind that Scarlet lived in a magic dungeon that spawns infinite resources she's able to farm indefinitely. And then also has a magic stasis chamber to store perishables in.
And a major ingredient in soap is tallow. Rendered animal fat. Which means that it comes from livestock. Or alternatively, from a steady supply of hunted monsters. And if the kids owned livestock that they could slaughter for the fat, they wouldn't be orphans. If they could already fight monsters to get the same, then they'd already be working that job instead.
And then you need lye, which means you're making fires just boiling ashes. You could also buy it if somebody town was making it, but if they're making it, they're also already supplying a soap industry.
And again, if they could make those material investments, they wouldn't be poor. And hell, if you could make high-quality lye already, you probably wouldn't be poor. (That stuff is useful in textiles, soap and papermaking.)
Scarlet also admitted that her soap is that lumpen brown stuff that really isn't a highly refined luxury good. So there's a far cry between just a basic cheap necessity and a luxury good that might give them an edge over the competition. Again, more capital investment and labor. You want scented soaps with a high degree of purity? How about liquid soaps? Come on.
It's a full-time job at this point.
No, there's no magic button technology that'll fix this. It's kind of like you saying that the kids can just learn to forge swords and supply income to the orphanage that way and then grow up to have useful skills. It's naive. If they had that, they'd be apprentice craftsman, not orphans.
I'm afraid that the boring and unsexy answer is that the community has to give a crap about the orphans and change their public programs to improve their lives. As in, they just need a well-supplied and funded orphanage that has better work placement and maybe teaches reading, writing and arithmetic. Not some convoluted isekai industrial scheme.
The point of orphanages are to get children alive to adulthood. They're still technically minors. Expecting them to do physical labor at such a formative time is a little . . . well child labory.
@Blargh
1. Your argument is a little contradictory. On the one hand you are arguing against the idea of the isekai industrial revolution with handcrafts trope. On the other, you argue that the concept of soap already exists in this world and it's a known technology. Thing is, if it's a known technology, then this does not fit the isekai industrial revolution with handcrafts trope. Also, that's not what I was advocating for in the first place, so I'm not sure why the concept even came up.
2. The only think keeping the children from being able to make soap is initial investment costs. If you were to read my comment more closely, I said they could get the animal fat from the butcher, and maybe buy the ingredients for lye from someone else. They could probably process the lye in the large backyard that the Orphanage has. The only thing stopping them from embarking on this process is initial investment costs, once they make the initial investments and have some money they can start buying the ingredients pretty cheap since the animal fat would be a trash product for the butcher and wood is pretty cheap.
3. It was commented in the chapter that child labor is a common thing already in this world. It's a common thing in this world for a 6 year old to have to work to earn money for the family. Child labor laws only came into existence in the western world in the 1920s, after the industrial revolution created a strong middle class that could actually afford to live without forcing their children to work.
(Also, it was an absolute disaster for the lower class who wound up having to force their daughters into child prostitution as a result of those child labor laws. This in turn resulted in the age of consent laws, which in turn resulted in poor families just having their children starve to death. In fact, child labor laws are an excellent example of good intentions having horrible unforeseen consequences.)
Honestly, I do not see how a single thing in your entire long shpeel refutes my comment in any way at all. @binarysoap's comment about the possible unintended consequences of teaching the kids to make soap on the other hand is a fairly big issue. On that subject, I think the solution is just to spread the knowledge of how to make soap throughout the kingdom. Go ahead an let the price of soap drop. That will keep the kids safe while also giving them an income. They will no longer be making a fortune off soap sales, but right now they are making nothing. "Less than the expected price for soap" is still more than zero.
@Blargh @Jemini
Animal fat is not trash by-product. Aside from the previously mentioned soap production, it was historically widely used in cooking, as wel as food preservation and likely other uses as well, so it would not be all that cheap. The poor lower class in particular had the tendency to use whatever they could, as they could not really afford to waste anything.
Wood also was one of the primary building materials and fuel sources, which could affect the price of firewood (and firewood shortages did happen in history).
Either way, the initiall investment to facilities and resources would have to be done by a third party (likely Scarlet if she has that kind of money), but it is not an insurmountable problem.
The production itself, they are orphans without notable skills, but that does not mean they can't learn.
The part about it being a "lumpen brown stuff" could ironically help them by making the product cheaper, accesible to wider populace.
The remaining concerns I see are them selling the soap cheap enough to have demand for it, but still make a profit (since it's not the quality product higher class would use, but uses largely the same materials) and the part about attracting unwanted attention - people who want a cut of the profit one way or another, or those trying to eliminate competition.
@Jemini
1) The contradiction is the very common trap of isekai writing. Magus's Grandson has a version of this, where enough people ought to know that air makes fire hotter. A blacksmith character already knows this fact and lives in the same city as a Royal Magic Academy. As in, there should be literal scientists thinking about this kind of thing in their efforts to optimize magic. But the protagonist is the first to make common sense leap and apply it to those ever-ubiquitous "imagine your magic clearly" systems.
As in, the invention really is not an invention at all. It should be common sense when all those elements of the setting are put together.
Same thing here really. You shouldn't get unfathomable wealth or set fashion trends entirely when your invention is entirely replicable. Ascendency of a Bookworm is a prime offender here. The main character invents hair ribbons woven in the shape of flowers which she immediately gets to patent for some reason. Despite the fact that her mother is able to make them once she grasps the concept (being a textile worker) and does it more skillfully. Said protagonist is being funded by a merchant who is the husband of her mother's literal boss at work. You know, somebody who quite literally runs the town's textile trade.
So you have a situation where everybody around her is actually far more qualified at making her invention. She just had memories of a past life handicraft class she took in like, middle school or something.
It is silly.
2) If they had those investment costs, the orphanage wouldn't be poor. Also, since the discussion is sustainability, I don't realistically think ALL the kids can grow up to be soap makers.
My further insinuation is that if they could simply buy all the materials, the infrastructure is kinda already in place. So why isn't there competition? People can just buy these things in a town like this? And nobody is making soap?
As pointed out, neither firewood nor fat is free. I thought that went without saying when Alicia's family would even be lucky to own oxen or a milk cow. Much less had the freedom to freely slaughter livestock.
3) The concept of 40+ hour work weeks were actually an abnormal exception, not the norm, prior to the modern era. And came about specifically as result of the industrial revolution. Legislation against it is actually reclaiming what was normal before . . . which was that time was relatively unstructured. Farmers worked hard but could expect quite a bit of downtime. And had frequent holidays and festivals, some of which were religious in nature, because the church was no dummy. Nobody was exactly clocking your lunch break either. If you wanted two hours to drink beer and talk to friends, you could do that.
Progress isn't linear. The irony here is that our current generations actually had it worse in some ways than some medieval peasants. Particularly if said peasants were experiencing relatively good economic times. It wasn't unheard of peasants to own manor estates to compete with a lord's.
The older children are certainly doing some kind of work. It's the young vulnerable ones that can't work that's the trouble. Too young to even really be of much help on a farm. That's the real point of the orphanage. That's why it's an orphanage and not a sweat shop.
It also raises the question of why they haven't sold charcoal or flowers or something. Some kind of glorified begging. Real piecemeal work that might be something somebody wants, but mostly they're buying it like Girl Scout cookies, because they know the product isn't the point. It's still charity.
@Blargh Ok, I have ABSOLUTELY no idea why you are still arguing, none of the points you just made make any sense at all.
1. Again, this IS NOT your common revolution by an isekai protagonist's other worldly knowledge. I AM NOT trying to argue that it is, YOU ARE. And, for some reason, you are also trying to argue that it's impossible for this to count as this trope at the same time.
I can only conclude you are not even reading what I'm saying and just making assumptions of your own and arguing against those. All I'm saying is Scarlet can teach the kids to make soap. Nothing more, nothing less. Stop attaching unneeded extras to it.
2. First off, about the infrastructure already being in place, see #1. Second, the initial investment can come from Scarlet. THAT'S HOW SHE'S GOING TO HELP THEM. SHE'S GOING TO GIVE THEM THE INITIAL INVESTMENT! THAT'S THE EXACT POINT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO MAKE THIS ENTIRE TIME!!!
I can only conclude you are not even reading what I'm saying and just making assumptions of your own and arguing against those. To reiterate, my argument is that Scarlet can give them the initial investment, and that's how she's going to help them. I have no idea where you somehow got the idea I was saying these children should have been making soap on their own from the beginning out of nowhere, but that seems to be the point you're arguing against, and it's frustrating and confusing that you are going such insane directions with your argument.
3. What does the 40 hour work week have anything to do with this? I am saying child labor before the industrial revolution was the norm, and this is a pre-industrial society. It is stated flat out IN THE CONTENTS OF THIS CHAPTER that a 6 year old in this world is EXPECTED to work to earn money for their family.
Child labor! 6 year olds! Normal! READ THE CHAPTER! Have you even read this chapter, or did you just come straight to the comments section to start making trouble?
I'm not even going to repeat my "I can only conclude you are not even reading what I'm saying" reprive (which I was repeating in order to drive the point in) this time, because I have absolutely no idea at all what crazy place your brain is going in order to not be able to figure that one out.
@Jemini
1) Wow, let it go. I expressed the opinion that I want that cliche avoided. But you're taking this too personal.
And that's my point. It's not a secret. But if it's disproportionately rewarding, that's what it functionally is being presented as. A special prior life advantage that somehow makes the protagonist a demigod.
I might as well train the children to be swordsmiths, right? That's also a fairly high-end and processed luxury good. Just start-up costs, right? The thing is that all those armorers are already more qualified by far than anything I could hope to teach about it from some vague trivia I might've heard in passing.
2) If the infrastructure is in place, then why is nobody else making soap? I believe I mentioned this already. And I also mentioned that it's not exactly easy labor. Or implied it well enough.
That whole start-up costs thing sounds like it's putting the horse before the wagon. If they had that, it'd just be a functioning orphanage to begin with.
3) Uhhh what? Are we even reading the same passage?
"This is about children? Well, I suppose it depends on how young they are, but I helped out sewing with my mother when I was six, so as long as you're not talking about children much younger than that, then there's probably a way. I mean, I imagine you started fighting even younger than that."
You cannot talk about children getting crunched in industrial machinery and working in coal mines -- to helping mom sew clothes, haul the water, start fires and sweep the floors.
And I sort of thought the point of all this was to make it so they didn't have to scrape by, hand-to-mouth. Or suffer horrible deprivation.
The headmistress specifically mentions children YOUNGER than six. You know the thing orphanages do? Raise children too young to do anything? Because they're intellectually and physically incapable of it? Like these children have enough downtime to be playing. Even in poor villages. They're not actually trusted to do anything beyond menial chores.
And that's what makes it sound like an awful idea to begin with. Just thinking about the basics of soapmaking, and I mean the entire chain of production, sounds like a lot more than I expect children to handle physically or mentally. Like they're just not developmentally capable of it.
Maybe if they had the end products already, sure. I guess? But if it were that easy, then soap would already be widespread and commonplace. Not some expensive good associated with the wealthy. And even then, I wouldn't trust children of no more than six with concentrated lye. Remember the scene from Fight Club where Brad Pitt burns people with it?
I really do think the solution really is that boring one:
Your community has to give enough of a crap about orphans do something about it more systematically.
@Blargh Ok, well, you were responding to me and never clarified with even a single "that's right, I just don't want to see this happen." Therefore, it's pretty easy to see why I would think you were responding to me directly. Then, you said things that sounded like you were trying to argue against me that had absolutely nothing at all to do with my point. You can see where that might become frustrating.
Ok, so, moving on.
1. The disproportionately rewarding thing can be mitigated with the basic supply and demand curve. Only the first few products will get any kind of high value reward. After that, as they keep producing soap, the demand will go down because the rich are a very small customer pool and soon they will all already have their soap.
Also, as mentioned previously, in order to prevent harm from coming to the children Scarlet will have to give the soap making technique to a lot more people than just the orphanage.
2. The technique may exist, but you gotta keep the times in mind. I think this is your biggest issue. You seem to be assuming a 21st century level of education and business knowledge. This is a pre-industrial era. Education is, in and of itself, a luxury only afforded to the upper class. Remember, hand washing is not a common practice in this era. That's straight on accurate. Teaching children to read or do math is probably not going to be common practice either.
Because of the lack of education, while I did say something about the infrastructure being in place in agreement with you earlier, in actuality I will have to take that back because the infrastructure WOULD NOT be in place. The technique would be known, but only to a few. These few people who know the technique would probably keep it in the family in order to hold a monopoly on the knowledge in order to keep their demand high. And, without education being common, it's very easy for them to keep the technique within the family.
3. Once again, you are approaching this with 21st century sensibilities. This is an era where kids need to work to eat, gotta eat to live. Before the industrial revolution, kids helped out on the farm. Child labor in farm work was back breaking work, and they had to be under the sun all day. It was hard work every single bit as labor intensive as soap making, if not more so.
Also, what are you talking about children getting crushed inside industrial machinery. How many times do I have to remind you this is a pre-industrial era?
Also, again, when child labor laws were put in place, this resulted in child prostitution. When this lead to the age of consent, it resulted in poor children starving to death. So, child labor laws in the 1920s resulted in children being sexually exploited and then dying. I bet they preferred working in factories over that. You really need to stop thinking of this in 21st century terms and start identifying with the times and the situation that's presented here.
@Jemini
Also, as mentioned previously, in order to prevent harm from coming to the children Scarlet will have to give the soap making technique to a lot more people than just the orphanage.
Isn't that kind of the definition of secret isekai knowledge?
If the kids suddenly get competitors because Scarlet shares her homebrew recipe for very simple and crude soap, isn't that EXACTLY the problem I'm describing?
We're not talking about the waxy bricks of scented soap you're used to either.
There's a huge gap of difference between pellets of potassium hydroxide and some weak rainwater leached solution of lye. The former needs to be mixed in the correction proportion with the oils or fats in order to not be too harsh.
And, on this point, I'm really dubious. Are we talking about a soap filled with impurities that might be as much fat as soap?
The technique may exist, but you gotta keep the times in mind. I think this is your biggest issue. You seem to be assuming a 21st century level of education and business knowledge.
Oh here comes that, "History was gritty and sh*t at all times," canard.
No. I am not.
Soap dates back to BC times.
The word sapo, Latin for soap, likely was borrowed from an early Germanic language and is cognate with Latin sebum, "tallow". It first appears in Pliny the Elder's account,[11] Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes, but the only use he mentions for it is as a pomade for hair; he mentions rather disapprovingly that the men of the Gauls and Germans were more likely to use it than their female counterparts.[12] Aretaeus of Cappadocia, writing in the first century AD, observes among "Celts, which are men called Gauls, those alkaline substances that are made into balls [...] called soap".[13] The Romans' preferred method of cleaning the body was to massage oil into the skin and then scrape away both the oil and any dirt with a strigil. The Gauls used soap made from animal fat.
None of this makes mention of the quality of soap. But I'm betting it's common backwoods, "get clean cheap" technology. And the Romans themselves never even bothered, being content to just use oils.
That on its own kind of says a lot. That it's almost as easy to just scrape away impurities by dissolving it in an oil phase and scraping it, rather than bother with a weakly soapy emulsion.
But fine, let's say this is some great guilded trade secret. Doesn't that mean that educated somebody is already making soap and that the kids have competitors? And that they've been doing the job at a higher level for a while? And that nothing Scarlet has to offer is particularly advantageous because they've already perfected a recipe?
How exactly is this different from selling flowers, matchsticks or charcoal from a kiln at this point? At that point, it is borderline charity begging. Because people know you're only buying this somewhat common product to think about the kids.
The thing is that if they could sell soap, it raises the question of why they weren't already doing other bit work like this to get by. This orphanage survived without Scarlet's intervention for that long.
This reminds me of Maine all over again. Making ribbons even though literally anybody would've invented her invention before her and could do it better.
Also, what are you talking about children getting crushed inside industrial machinery. How many times do I have to remind you this is a pre-industrial era?
You are talking about the 1920's. You seriously cannot talk about child labor laws outside of the context of the industrial revolution! It is not the same! You keep acting as though progress in history is linear.
The nature of society is completely different from the 1920's and some random European nation anywhere between 1000's to say, the 1700's.
Not everybody were Monty Python sh*t farmers!
@Blargh
Isn't that kind of the definition of secret isekai knowledge
But fine, let's say this is some great guilded trade secret.
Your arguments are kinda contradicting themselves here. If it's already known in world, it doesn't count as secret isekai knowledge. It counts as educating the poor using the advantages of the rich. Also...
None of this makes mention of the quality of soap.
Indeed, none of this makes mention of the quality of soap. Scarlet seems plenty concerned about the quality of the soap produced by her soap making technique because she is used to her industrially purified soap of the old world made using perfected techniques. Old days would not have that kind of high quality soap. In fact, her scented soaps are probably what would be considered high quality.
Also, having competition does not mean they won't earn anything. Again, you seem to be attempting to straw man me. They do not need to earn a gold coin for every bar of soap they make in order for it to greatly help out their orphanage.
Let's think about this from a different angle, crude oil sales in the modern day. There are a large number of different nations that have crude oil in the ground, you got the middle east, you got Venesuela, you got the US, and those are just the major oil producing nations. There are other countries as well.
Oil used to sell for $140 per barrel. It was a major money maker at that time, and it fueled a huge economic revival in the US when oil fracking was developed and we could pull more oil out of the ground. Then, the price dropped to $40 per barrel due to the additional competition brought about by the very fact that fracking introduced a huge glut of supply to the market, and also that natural gas was also pulled from the ground along with oil and natural gas could do the same job as oil in a lot of departments.
This was 28.5% of the original price. It was a HARSH price drop. However, OPEC nations in the middle east still make freaking bank on oil despite the harsh price drop. Getting competition from the US is what forced the price to drop like a freaking stone, but it is still VERY profitable.
Going back to the topic at hand, the orphans will probably be jumping for joy to be able to sell their soap for a gold coin per bar, but if they are able to sell it for a copper coin per bar this is still a LOT more than the orphanage is bringing in now. Plus, the drop in price will create more demand for soap among the lower classes. Remember, soap is thought of as something only accessable to the rich. This is because the price of soap is HUGE right now. If the kids drop their prices to a copper coin per bar, then they will actually be able to make a LOT of money by selling to the middle class people of the town.
As for why nobody has had this idea before, that would go back to the oil analogy again. OPEC, an alliance of the oil producing nations, used to set the price of oil by agreement between them to hold back on oil production to a certain extent in order to limit the supply thus raising the cost per barrel. However, once the US developed fracking, the price had to drop. OPEC did not want the price to drop, but there was no choice once the technique was spread around.
When knowledge of how to make something is limited, the producers can create monopolies and gouge prices. Do you even economics sir? This is not even economics 101, this is remedial level economics. This is stuff you ought to have learned as a freshman in high school. Which, again, is a LOT more education than a peasant in the 1500s would have. speaking of that...
Oh here comes that, "History was gritty and sh*t at all times," canard.
What are you talking about "canard?" Yes, pre-industrial society was so dirty that the average lifespan was 35 due to disease and malneutrition. This is historical fact. Also, before Germany started providing charity school education to its citizens in the mid 1800s and then started making it compulsory, only the very rich were educated. I've personally known adults who had only a 6th grade education. They are able to get by at some common life things, but you will be shocked at the skills and knowledge that they don't have. The issue is that they don't have a "well rounded" education. They only know some very specific things that they have been taught to do their jobs.
Ultimately, the biggest difference between an adult with a 6th grade education and an adult with a 70 IQ (I have also known some people with a 70 IQ) is that the former is less violent. Aside from that, they are functionally the same. Now, historically speaking, we are not talking a 6th grade education here. We are talking about zero formal education. That's what the average peasant had.
Now, finally, let's get back to the industrial revolution.
You are talking about the 1920's. You seriously cannot talk about child labor laws outside of the context of the industrial revolution! It is not the same! You keep acting as though progress in history is linear.
I am not acting as though history is linear. However, we are talking about a society here where when you don't have enough mouths to feed you send your children out to die as was shown earlier in this series. That means we are before the age of easy travel and charity relief being provided. This is not an information mass communication era.
Yes, technological development in history is not linear. However, you have to pass a certain benchmark in society levels in order to make things like child labor laws even a practical pipe dream. One of the things you need to make child labor laws pheasable is to have 100% of your population living on (and reliably earning) more than $10 per day. That's a feat that's 100% impossible without an industrial revolution. And, as a matter of fact, the child labor laws implemented in the 1920s in the US were implemented too early even. I'm going to quote myself now because you have still never addressed this point.
Also, again, when child labor laws were put in place, this resulted in child prostitution. When this lead to the age of consent, it resulted in poor children starving to death. So, child labor laws in the 1920s resulted in children being sexually exploited and then dying. I bet they preferred working in factories over that. You really need to stop thinking of this in 21st century terms and start identifying with the times and the situation that's presented here.
@Jemini
Yes, pre-industrial society was so dirty that the average lifespan was 35 due to disease and malneutrition. This is historical fact.
I really can't let this go because the average is not the median.
The low average is from infant mortality, not from adult deaths. Once you got past infancy, your chances of making it to 70 were actually pretty good.
@Blargh Actually it has been done several times in the past. It is like any other enterprise, you invest and hopefully, you make a profit. Normal workers make a living doing that. You buy grease and produce lye from burning wood and treating the ashes. Yes, it is a job, but it can be done by children if adequately supervised and it beat being starved.
As the orphanage doesn't need to make money for an owner, they can use the extra money to care for the younger children, the building and to give a small sum to start the orphan lives as adults.
Plenty of orphanages in the past had the female orphans working as seamstresses to learn a job a get some money for a dowry.
It is a Medieval/Renaissance-like world. Child labor is the norm, not an exception.
@Jemini I know this whole slew of comments was a while ago but there is one point that I think you are missing Blargh mentioned how you expect children around the age of 6 to handle concentrated lye. Lye can cause some serious chemical burns and this is set in the Middle Ages where you would not normally be able to treat said burn but yea there is healing magical and all but that would take money which the orphanage doesnt have.lets say scarlet cures the kid who most likely would want nothing to do with soap production after that and that's if scarlet is around to help said kid.
This is hilarious. No offense to any of you but I love watching people bicker, because I get to become smarter AND entertained.
@Jemini Lye from wood ash is super easy actually, my copy of the survival handbook from ca 1990 describes how to make it in the wild using only what you can gather and construct yourself. So no magic is needed, just ash, water, heat, and fats.
It /is/ caustic of course, but then again so is ash and that didn't stop kids from being chimney sweepers. You don't need industrial strength lye to make a basic soap so it's not overly dangerous to make.
In fact, they could get free lye by cleaning out chimneys, or even get payed for it. Assuming they don't use coal for winter heating.
Fat isn't too hard to source either. Looks like the adventurers guild would wind up with meat and fat from disgusting monsters from time to time. Or simply from fatty meat or fish. Save the fat and eat the rest, if soap making is such a rare thing in this world they'd make enough to get it rolling super quick.
What's a bigger concern is if the soap guild would send thugs to stop them, such a basic necessity doesn't become a luxury without some good old-fashioned guild secrets.