From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 361 - 355. Inventions

Two days had passed and the late morning light was illuminating the manor hall, providing a good amount of light for working. The air carried that faint softness that came before summer. The mild warmth felt pleasant now, though Kivamus knew it wouldn't last. From what he had heard, summers in this region were harsh, the kind that baked the soil dry, while autumn brought sticky humidity from the western sea winds and made it too muggy. But that was for later. He had a lot of work to do before that.

He had barely left the long table which doubled as his working space since the last meeting, leaving the place only to eat and sleep. The overall blueprint of the lathe lay finished in front of him—its frame, spindle, treadle, and crank assembly sketched in careful detail. Now he had to work on the blueprints of the individual parts, the kind that would need exact measurements before they could be made.

He stepped back from the long table to allow himself a short break and sat on an armchair, taking a sip of cold water from the wooden mug kept on the side table.

Trevalo had departed for Cinran the day before with eight guards, Tesyb leading the group. They had originally planned to send four, but Tesyb had to take a detour to find the encampment of the families of the men who had attacked Tiranat in desperation, so it made sense to send a larger escort, just to be safe. One of those men had also accompanied the caravan, so they could introduce the guards to the encampment and confirm the well-being of the rest of their group. Hopefully, Trevalo should return in about a week with six wagons full of wheat—and Tesyb would come back with more refugees, unless something went wrong.

On the bright side, another merchant had arrived yesterday with three wagons containing some wheat and a good amount of iron, since it was selling for cheap right now. He had returned to Cinran with three wagon loads of coal this morning. Overall the trade was still lopsided, and they were spending more on buying goods than they were earning from selling coal, but it helped that they had a good amount of gold right now, so they were able to buy all the iron and had stockpiled it for later use.

Duvas entered the hall through an inner door at that moment and smiled. "Milord, it's ready."

Kivamus nodded, and stood up. He crossed the hall toward the same door and followed the majordomo. Soon, they reached the inner room that served as their laboratory for making losuvil powder. The tablet press machine had been delivered the previous evening, while one of the hunting parties had returned with another big haul of losuvil leaves—enough to prepare the next large batch of medicine. Once the heat rose in the coming weeks, the leaves wouldn't stay viable long enough by the time they arrived here, but it was working for now.

When he entered, Syrene, Gorsazo, and Hudan were already there. Duvas followed behind, closing the door after him. An open window gave just enough light here without using braziers.

"Milord, you're here," Syrene said, glancing up from the worktable. "Should we start?"

Kivamus nodded and walked closer. The table in the center of the room held several shallow wooden bowls filled with reddish powder. The tablet press stood on the other side—a sturdy, compact machine of polished wood and iron hinges, with a small funnel-shaped hopper nearby, also made of wood.

"You should do the honors, milord," Gorsazo said with a faint smirk. "It's your invention, after all."

Kivamus snorted and gave him a look, half amused. Gorsazo knew perfectly well that none of this was truly his invention. The ideas were borrowed from a world long gone, but for now, they would serve this village well enough without him worrying about intellectual property rights.

He moved to the tablet press machine and picked up the wooden hopper, holding it right above the mold. Then he took one of the bowls and poured the powder slowly, making sure it was being deposited correctly into the molds. When it was full, he set the hopper aside and after leveling the powder using a flat piece of wood, he locked the upper mold piece into place with a simple latch from both sides.

He turned to Hudan. "Time to use your muscles, big guy. The lever makes it easy enough that even Syrene could press it, but since you're here, might as well utilize that strength."

Hudan snorted and stepped forward. "Glad to be of use," he said dryly. He grasped the mold with one hand and pressed down the far end of the long wooden lever with the other. It was a second-class lever, with its other end being fixed with a small iron hinge which served as the fulcrum. Just before that hinge, the lever pressed on the upper part of the mold as the captain used his muscles.

Soon, the lever stopped moving further, its fulcrum creaking slightly against the stand as the lever pushed down on the top plate.

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"Hey, that's enough," Kivamus called out. "Any more and you'll crush the thing."

Hudan laughed and stepped back. Kivamus leaned forward, released the latch, and lifted the top part of the mold to see under it. The powder had been compressed heavily, and it looked like the tablets were ready. Then he removed the middle piece—a thin board with nine round holes, each now filled with a compact red tablet—and set it over a sheet of paper Syrene had brought. The lowest part, which served as the base, remained there, attached to the hinge and the lever.

"Let's see how they turned out," he murmured. Using a fingertip, he pushed gently on each one until they popped free, falling onto the paper with soft taps. When all nine were out, he picked one up between his fingers.

It was smooth, about the width of his thumb and maybe half a centimeter thick, the color of dried tomatoes.

He looked up at the others and grinned. "Here it is."

Duvas picked up one of the tablets, turning it between his fingers. "This little thing alone is worth twenty silvers, huh..." he muttered under his breath.

The others each took one, examining it with quiet wonder.

"The machine just worked like you said," Gorsazo commented, "not that I had much doubt about it. Just imagine if this medicine was available everywhere... Then my wife..." He sighed, before forcing a smile. "I'm just glad that it will save so many lives in the future. Pydaso would also be happy to know that the tablets are going to be ready soon."

"He will," Kivamus said. "Just need to do this 22 more times, and we'll have the first advanced order ready to deliver. Anyone else wants to try the machine or should Hudan do the work?"

Syrene stepped forward eagerly. "Let me try it this time."

Kivamus nodded, stepping aside. She followed the same steps he had shown her—pouring the powder, leveling it, then pressing down the lever—and before long, another nine tablets came out just as neat and firm as the first.

Duvas stared at Kivamus, then at the machine. "I know you already said so but how is this possible? Syrene can't possibly use the same force that Hudan did. He's, what, three or four times heavier than her?"

Kivamus laughed. "Remember when I told you about something called mechanical advantage? When we visited the dam, and that worker could lift the heavy sluice gates alone? It's a similar principle here. The lever multiplies the force—depending on the ratio of the distance from the hinge to the mold and from the hinge to the handhold. As you just saw, it makes it easy for even a woman to use the press machine easily. Go ahead, you can try it too."

Duvas hesitated, then took the next bowl of powder and did the initial steps before he held the lever. To his surprise, the lever moved easily, and the pressed tablets came out perfect after the mold was removed. He stared at them, then at his frail arms, shaking his head in disbelief.

Gorsazo moved up next, pressing another batch with the same result. Once everyone had satisfied their curiosity, Hudan took over, repeating the process with steady rhythm while the others sat on a bench kept next to the wall, watching the massive man work.

At the side table, Syrene had begun packing the finished tablets into ceramic jars lined with paper to keep them dry. She counted carefully, then called out, "One hundred tablets." She closed the first jar and tied it shut with string, then began filling a second one. Before long, she had closed both. "The first advanced order of acelos medicine is ready, milord."

"Good," Kivamus said. "Each of those jars is worth two hundred gold. Keep them safe until we hand them over to Pydaso."

Syrene nodded and carried the containers to a new shelf on the other side of the large room, which one of Darora's apprentices had built for her.

Kivamus began, "We'll have to tell him to pack a wooden box with a good amount of straw to give it some cushion before he hides it in his wagon's secret compartment."

"I'll let him know," Duvas replied.

Hudan glanced up from the press. "Should I keep going?" He didn't even look tired—if anything, he seemed amused at how easy it was.

Kivamus looked at the remaining powder, and estimated that it would have been enough for another 50 to 60 tablets. "No. We'll give the rest to Feroy as it is. Syrene, pack it into small pouches. We don't have much spare cloth, and folded leaves wouldn't hold it securely enough. Use a few sheets of our paper instead—it'll hold the powder well enough on horseback and keep it dry."

Duvas frowned. "Isn't that a waste?"

"Hardly," Kivamus said. "It'll take four or five sheets at most to wrap up the remaining powder in a few dozen small pouches. The medicine we are giving Feroy to distribute is worth far more than that. Anyway, we're making paper at a good rate now, so it's not a problem." He turned to Syrene again. "What's the status of the next batch?"

"It'll take about a week," she said. "I'll also start processing the third batch today. That one will take another three weeks to be ready, but we'll easily have enough tablets for the next advanced order by the time Pydaso returns from Ulriga in around 20 days."

Kivamus nodded slowly. "That's good—but we need to be able to sell these tablets all year round if we want a steady income, but that's not possible as it stands. Losuvil vines don't produce any leaves in winter, and in summer or autumn the heat and humidity will spoil the leaves long before the hunters can bring them back from the eastern hills. So we have to stock up on as many tablets as we can before that starts to happen. How long do you think we can keep this up before the heat makes it impossible for the leaves to remain viable by the time they arrive here?"