Michael discovered that a single gold coin was equivalent to 1,000 silver coins, and each silver coin was worth 1,000 bronze coins.
For context, maids like Castelle and Beretta earned about one gold coin per month, which was considered a very generous salary in this world. Most people lived only on silver and bronze coins, so even possessing a single gold coin could be considered very rich.
The best part about this was that the ingredients needed to produce the soap only cost a few hundred bronze coins. The profit margins were tremendous!
"I see. Thank you for telling me. If I were to sell this at the market, would you be the one to deliver the goods?" Michael asked.
Castelle's eyes lit up at Michael's request. "Of course, young master! It would be my honor. As long as we sell the soap to those madames, then I'm sure its reputation would spread like wildfire."
Michael nodded. Castelle described those women as the type of people who liked to flaunt their wealth. Once others started noticing that they were using his soap, many people would immediately envy them.
In this world, those madames were like the early version of influencers back in his original world.
"Take some of the other maids with you and buy some more ingredients for the soap. Oh, and buy some more exotic flowers and oils as well," he instructed.
If he was going to market his soap, Michael decided that he might as well offer different variations of the soap and shampoo—after all, not everyone liked the floral scent.
Castelle nodded eagerly and walked out of Michael's room with passion burning in her eyes.
_____
Now that he was all alone in his room, Michael turned his attention to a single piece of gear in his hands.
Using his 2-star spell, [Metal Bend], the smallest gear he could create was still about the size of an adult's palm and was far too big to create the wristwatches and pocket watches he envisioned.
I guess I'll just have to settle with a big clock for now…ChatJK1, can you explain to me in detail how the early version of a mechanical clock worked?
[Certainly. Mechanical clocks operate using a combination of gears and weights to maintain a consistent movement, which allows it to keep the time accurate…]
Michael lay back on his bed as the information flooded his brain. The mechanical knowledge needed for the creation of a clock was far too complicated than he had anticipated and was too intricate for him to learn in an instant.
He spent the entire night processing the information until finally, he understood the concept with the same mastery as an engineer.
He was so excited about this project that he almost couldn't sleep.
To tire himself out, Michael meditated and pushed his mana gathering beyond his usual limits. The strain eventually wore him down, finally letting him sleep.
All this time, even as he pursued his projects, he never slacked off on growing the mana stones within his body.
Right now, the four main elemental rocks near his abdomen had grown to the size of small acorns. He estimated that the amount of mana stored in those small rocks was enough to allow him to cast 1-star spells continuously for 10 minutes without getting tired.
ChatJK1, can you tell me how my mana compares to other mages?
[I'm sorry, I lack insufficient data to provide an accurate comparison.]
This was one of the downsides of keeping his magic a secret—he didn't have any tutor to guide him about the basics of magic.
Since he wasn't supposed to know magic, he wasn't supposed to ask questions about them.
This left him with a very shallow understanding of magic and how it truly worked.
He wanted to know a lot more. He wanted to learn other spells, he wanted to know if there were elements present other than the four main ones, and he wanted to know the difference between the star ratings of the spells.
I'll have to reveal my magic abilities to my parents at some point. When they return, I'll tell the truth and say that I created the plumbing system using my magic.
His motto for doing this was so that he could justify learning about magic more properly. Knowing his father, he would waste no time and immediately order a tutor to teach him everything he needed to know.
_____
The next day, Michael began working on creating the first components of his clock project.
Since the gears needed extreme precision, he couldn't afford to rush it—one mistake and the entire clock would be useless.
In the meantime, he assigned several maids to help him create the soap and shampoo he was going to sell to the market.
Of course, he immediately followed the modern methods, setting up a primitive version of a factory.
One group of maids was in charge of mixing the main ingredients by turning them into a fine powder. Another group was in charge of mixing those with water. Then, he also created more molds for the soap, where a third group of maids carefully poured the mixture into molds to shape the soap into perfect rectangles.
The maids were eager to take part in this project, especially after Michael promised them that they could take their own supply of soap and shampoo at the end of the day.
And even though Michael said that he would offer them some coins as compensation for their work, the maids immediately refused.
"There's no need, young master!" one of them insisted. "In the first place, we are hired to help you with everything in your life. And we are still incredibly thankful for the plumbing system you gave us—it has changed our lives. It is an honor for us to do this work!"
"Let them do it, young master," Beretta advised. "You don't know how grateful the maids are for your inventions. If you pay them, you'd be taking away their chance to show their gratitude."
Michael was incredibly moved by their devotion, but he didn't like the idea of unpaid labor.
He lived in a world where proper work deserved to be compensated. So, if they weren't going to accept money, Michael would simply shower them with more modern inventions for their convenience in the future.