My Anime Shopping Tree & My Cold Prodigy Wife!
Episode : 146

Chapter: 291

He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with the familiar, intense light of a new, revolutionary concept taking shape. “Think of it, Father. How are clothes cleaned in this Duchy? In every noble house, in every common household? They are scrubbed. By hand. In tubs of water heated over fires, using the same harsh lye soap blocks we use for everything else. It is laborious, time-consuming work. It is brutal on the hands of the servants. And,” he added, playing to his father’s ingrained sense of aristocratic quality, “it is damaging to fine fabrics. The harsh alkali fades delicate dyes, weakens the threads of expensive silks and linens.”

Roy listened, his expression thoughtful. He had, of course, never washed a single piece of clothing in his entire life, but he understood the principles of labor, efficiency, and the preservation of valuable assets.

“I propose a solution, Father,” Lloyd declared. “Powdered soap. A concentrated, powerful, cleansing agent. We take our base soap formulation, but instead of curing it into bars, we dry it completely, pulverize it into a fine, easily soluble powder. We can then enhance this powder with other agents.” He was already thinking of Earth-based detergents, simplifying the concepts for his father. “Perhaps a natural abrasive, like finely milled pumice, for heavily soiled work clothes. Or a gentle, non-alkaline brightening agent, like a derivative of borax, for delicate white linens. We could even create scented versions, infusing the powder with lavender or citrus, leaving the entire household’s laundry smelling not just clean, but fresh.”

He painted a picture for his father. “Imagine, Father. A laundry maid no longer has to spend hours scrubbing a single shirt with a harsh block. She simply adds a small scoop of this powerful, concentrated ‘Ferrum’s Laundry Powder’ to her tub of water. It dissolves instantly, creating a potent, cleansing solution that lifts away dirt with minimal scrubbing. It saves time. It saves labor. It saves the fabrics.” He paused, then delivered the commercial masterstroke. “And we sell it by the sack. To every noble house. To every wealthy merchant. To every large institution with laundry needs – the Ducal Guard, the Royal Academy, the Guild Halls. The potential for bulk sales, for large-scale, recurring contracts, is immense. It is a different market from Aura, a market based not on luxury and status, but on efficiency, on practicality, on a demonstrably superior result for a fundamental, universal chore.”

Arch Duke Roy Ferrum stared at his son, his mind, a formidable engine of strategy and logistics, processing the implications. He saw it instantly. The efficiency. The scalability. The vast, untapped market. He thought of the immense laundry operations required to maintain his own household guard, the sheer volume of linens, uniforms, and tapestries that were constantly being washed, and often, slowly ruined, by the current crude methods.

A slow, almost predatory smile, the smile of a ruler who has just been shown a new, incredibly effective tool for improving his domain (and his bottom line), touched his lips. His approval was silent, but absolute, a tangible force in the room.

Fired up by his father’s unspoken but undeniable endorsement, Lloyd called an official AURA board meeting later that day. His ‘board’, consisting of Mei Jing, Tisha, Jasmin, and the three alchemists, gathered in the manufactory office, their faces curious, expectant.

Lloyd, standing before a large slate board, unveiled his plan. He didn’t just talk about powdered soap; he laid out the entire vision. He sketched the chemical process of pulverizing and drying the soap base. He outlined the potential for different formulations—a heavy-duty version, a delicate-fabrics version. He even, drawing on a distant memory of Earthly advertising, sketched a rough concept for the packaging: sturdy, brightly colored cloth sacks, branded not with the elegant ‘Aura’ logo, but with a new, robust, practical brand name.

“We will call it ‘Radiance’,” he declared. “Ferrum’s Radiance Laundry Powder. The name implies brightness, cleanliness, a new standard.”

His team stared, their expressions a mixture of shock, bewilderment, and dawning, almost frantic, excitement. They had just perfected the Silken Bar. They were still wrestling with the overwhelming success of their initial launch. And now, he was already proposing a whole new product line, a whole new industrial revolution.

Mei Jing, the pragmatist, was the first to speak, her voice sharp with logistical questions. “The drying process, my lord? It will require a new facility. A heated, low-humidity environment. And the pulverizing? We will need specialized grinding mills. This is a significant new capital investment.”

“Which our recent profits, and the King’s generous investment, can more than cover,” Lloyd countered smoothly.

Chapter: 292

Borin, the innovator, was practically vibrating out of his chair. “Powdered soap! Brilliant! We can add color-changing agents! So it turns the water blue! Or maybe one that fizzes! Like an alchemical bath bomb, but for your undergarments!”

“We will not be making fizzy, color-changing undergarment bombs, Borin,” Lyra stated, her tone weary but her eyes gleaming with a new, practical challenge. “But the concept of adding functional agents… borax derivatives for whitening… perhaps a mild acid for stain removal… the alchemical potential is fascinating.”

Tisha, the voice of the people, saw a different angle. “My lord,” she said, her hazel eyes bright with insight. “The nobles will buy this for their servants. But the true market… think of every washerwoman in the city. Every household. If we can create a smaller, more affordable package for the common market… the volume would be staggering. We would not just be a luxury brand; we would be in every home in the Duchy.”

The room buzzed with a new, powerful energy. The initial success of Aura had been a triumph. But this… this was the next frontier. This was the plan that would transform their small, luxury boutique operation into a true industrial powerhouse, a company that would change the very fabric of daily life in the entire realm.

The soap empire was about to get a whole lot bigger. And a whole lot cleaner.

—

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The intoxicating scent of a new frontier, of ‘Radiance’ Laundry Powder and burgeoning industrial might, filled Lloyd’s thoughts for the next several days. He was in his element, the engineer and the strategist working in perfect, exhilarating sync. He spent his mornings at the manufactory, locked in intense planning sessions with Mei Jing and his R&D team, sketching designs for drying kilns and grinding mills, debating the merits of citrus versus lavender for a ‘fresh linen’ scent profile. His afternoons were spent with Master Elmsworth, poring over maps, identifying potential sites for a second, larger factory dedicated solely to powdered soap production. The future was a vast, exciting blueprint, and he was the architect.

He had, for the moment, successfully compartmentalized the more… existentially terrifying… aspects of his life. The enigma of Ben Ferrum, the warning of reborn enemies, the lingering mystery of the Red Man from his dream—they were all filed away in a mental box labeled ‘Deal With This Later, Preferably After Becoming Invincibly Powerful and Filthy Rich’. His focus was on the tangible, the controllable, the profitable.

It was in the middle of one such productive afternoon, while he was deep in a debate with Borin over whether a gear-driven pulverizing hammer was more efficient than a stone grinding wheel (Borin was arguing for the hammer, mostly, Lloyd suspected, because it sounded more excitingly destructive), that the summons came.

It was not a simple request from a household guard. It was a formal, sealed missive, delivered by his mother’s personal handmaiden, a stern, older woman who looked at Lloyd’s ink-stained fingers and slightly soap-scented tunic with quiet, yet profound, disapproval.

The missive was brief, its elegant script a stark contrast to its undeniable, almost chilling, authority. ‘Lloyd. My private study. Immediately. - M.A.F.’

Milody Austin Ferrum.

Lloyd’s blood ran cold. A summons from his father was a regular, if often stressful, occurrence. A summons from his mother… that was different. He couldn’t remember the last time his mother had formally requested his presence for anything beyond a family dinner or a tedious state function. She was a quiet power in the estate, her influence subtle, pervasive, but rarely overt. For her to summon him, so directly, so formally… it could not be about soap. This was something else. Something… serious.

He excused himself from the factory, a knot of apprehension tightening in his stomach. He arrived at his mother’s private study, a set of rooms in the East Wing he had rarely entered, to find the atmosphere thick with an uncharacteristic intensity. The room was not like his father’s imposing, power-focused study. It was elegant, refined, filled with light, priceless art, and shelves of ancient-looking books bound in soft, worn leather.

His father, Arch Duke Roy Ferrum, was there, standing by the window, his arms crossed, his face an unreadable mask of granite. But it was clear he was not the one in command of this meeting. He was an observer. A witness.

His mother, Duchess Milody, sat behind her small, elegant rosewood desk. She was not smiling her usual polite, social smile. Her serene, almost placid, features were set in a look of grave, focused intensity. Her eyes, usually holding a quiet, intelligent amusement, were sharp, probing, fixed on him with a weight that was almost as heavy as his father’s.