Release That Witch

The washing stones bought from Silver City had filled four ships, and it took a few days to unload them.     

Now that there were sufficient raw materials, the soap production plan was formally put on the schedule.     

The workshop and warehouse had been set up already to support the soap factory, which was located beside the industrial park next to the second steam assembly, which was the same shape as the soap factory. In addition to the wood cutting and hoisting being the responsibility of the witches, the roof, beams, and walls were a wooden structure that was smaller than the second steam assembly; therefore, the whole building project period was only a week.     

It was a series of chemical reactions. The washing stones were used as a natural alkali in making soap. And the crude materials were common, which included lots of lime cream and oil. In this process, lime cream which was soaked in water would precipitate the turbid liquid. And this liquid was used in reacting with sodium carbonate for getting a caustic soda. After the caustic soda made a chemical reaction with the oil, the higher fatty acid and glycerol would be produced. The former was soap, and the latter was the raw materials for explosives.     

Before making the soap, Roland had experimented with the whole reaction process in the castle backyard. The theory was the same, but it needed professional chemists to make the appropriate craftwork and rules to go from trial-production to volume production.     

Therefore, he asked the chief alchemist to come into his office.     

"Your Highness, I have thought of a possibly feasible plan about your request of making massive sulphuric acid." Kyle Sichi started speaking loudly when he came into his office. "But we need lots of lead and blacksmiths who can make lead into vessels. I heard that your witch can cut metal accurately, and she had made those ironwares that made a rumbling sound. Can I..."     

"You may. You can give me the size and shape of the vessel, and I'll tell the Witch Union to do this," Roland let him sit down and said, "It isn't about making acid, and I asked you to come here today for another project."     

"Your Highness, I'm too busy to do another project," Kyle shook his head and said, "It's a big challenge to make this massive acid, and I must try my best." He added, "Also, my students aren't available. They all help me to prepare that, so none of them have free time."     

"Don't worry about that. It won't take you much time," Roland said while drinking tea, "I also don't need your students to respond. What I need are just a few apprentices."     

"So... What's the mission?"     

"We'll make low-cost soap like in the Convenience Market. Besides the flavor, its function is the same as scented soap, which can be used for showering and cleaning clothes and dishes."     

"You mean the saponification which was mentioned in Elementary Chemistry?" Kyle touched his mustache and asked, "Is that the chemical reaction between caustic soda and oil, which can produce alcohol and salt?"     

Roland had to admit that it was amazing when he heard some professional and standard chemical words, which were made by himself, directly from an alchemist. Roland bore a happy expression and nodded seriously. He said, "Exactly, that's the saponification which is mentioned in the old book, and I'm also making soap based on this method."     

"What can I do for you? I suggest that this production can be put off if it isn't necessary. You know, it's not a big deal that your subjects can't take shower or wash clothes and dishes, after all. They also can drop into the river to clean themselves."     

"It's very important," the prince stressed that and said, "In another word, it's not important to make soap but make byproducts, which are what I urgently need."     

"You mean... alcohol?" Kyle asked without any expression.     

"Yes, it's alcohol, or you can say it's glycerin," Roland said, "It's a very important material which has the same significance as the two acids."     

"Alright," Kyle Sichi shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'd like to say this is worse than the situation before, for I really don't have time to implement that."     

Roland sighed lightly, for it was tiring to talk with the chief alchemist, and he said, "You just pick some smart apprentices and show them how to do that. I'll recruit some subjects for production. But I need these apprentices to supervise them." He made a pause and continued. "You can regard this as an unpractical chemical trial—this process means many alchemical formulas could be discovered, and these would make apprentices become alchemists in the alchemical workshop."     

Kyle was probably convinced by the last sentence and said, "In that case, I'll find another afternoon to teach some apprentices what you told me."     

"Good." Roland smiled. "You should know that the most vital part of this process is making enough caustic soda." He wrote down the reaction formula—natural alkali can be decomposed into sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide, and water by heating. These were the main materials of making caustic soda, so this method was used until today. Roland said, "You can heat, dissolve, and filter the washing stone; therefore, you can get more pure sodium carbonate solution.     

"Next you can heat it with lime cream to get sodium carbonate solution. It's easy for you to purify," he wrote on the paper and explained, "The clarification, distillation, and mix need repeating again until there're lots of crystal in the cold sodium carbonate solution."     

These all referred to the content in Elementary Chemistry. When he was a student in school, he had taken a long time in reciting this part, because two alkalis had many other names (such as caustic soda, soda ash, sodium thiosulfate, sodium bicarbonate, and soda) and were the keynote in the examination, too. That was why he remembered this part so clearly.     

"I see," the chief alchemist looked through the chemical equations from the top to the bottom and said, "but what about the oil, Your Highness."     

"I'll send those materials to you." Animals' oil was expensive that year, but after the guards found the olive seeds in Fallen Dragon Ridge in the last purchasing trip, Border Town had a reliable resource for plant oil. Although olives were planted in the castle backyard at a small scale, it would not be a problem to get plenty of olive fruits a day because of Leaf's magic power to accelerate ripening.     

Moreover, the process of squeezing the oil was easy, too. When the fruits were ready, you could filter out those scraps and dregs, and then you could get the limpid oil.     

In the end, Roland did not let Kyle Sichi leave his office until he asked Kyle Sichi to simply repeat the method of making soap and the requirements of extracting glycerol.     

In this way, he had acquired a stable channel of supplying the oil once the soap plant opened.     

Last but not the least, he had glycerol, which meant that the real smokeless ammunition and powerful explosives were on their way.