Chapter 25: Destined for Manual Labor

“What’s this?”

As Harold stepped into the small courtyard rented by Wu Qingsong and his companions, ready to kick off another day of training, he caught sight of Wu Qingsong carefully slicing a large, semi-transparent object laid on a wooden board into even pieces.

“It’s soap,” Wu Qingsong answered, casually tossing a slice to Harold.

While he waited for the soap to harden, Wu Qingsong had already crunched the numbers. He could cut it into thirty-two bars in total. The fish oil, a component that spoiled easily, especially in the hot weather, had cost him only twenty copper coins. Given that it could be sold locally in their port city, it wasn’t an expensive ingredient.

He had spent two renals on a bag of refined plant ash but had only consumed half of it. Similarly, a bag of raw quicklime had cost him ten copper coins, of which he’d used less than half.

Taking stock of these figures, and setting aside the initial cost for wooden molds, large pots, and disregarding labor, space, and fuel costs for the moment, the total cost for his thirty-two bars of soap came to a mere one hundred and twenty-five copper coins, averaging less than four copper coins per bar.

Wu Qingsong mused that his costs were only this high because he was in the experimental phase, making soap in small batches with pricier materials. If he transitioned to large-scale production, he believed he could get the cost per bar down to just three copper coins. Even when accounting for rent, water, and fuel, he was confident that the total cost per bar would not exceed five copper coins, provided he produced in high volume.

But in the shops, even the cheapest bar of soap was priced at one renal.

‘Absolute daylight robbery,’ Wu Qingsong found himself inwardly fuming after his cost calculations.

That said, he considered that others might use different soap-making techniques. According to his soap-enthusiast cousin, Europeans had discovered how to make soap several centuries before Christ. Yet for some reason, soap remained a costly item.

On one hand, the ancients didn’t have access to caustic soda, so they had to make do with weak alkalis like plant ash for saponification. This resulted in a lot of impurities and a high risk of a failed reaction due to weak alkalinity. On the other hand, even the price of plant ash made from seaweed wasn’t exactly cheap.

In reality, the failure rate for newcomers making homemade soap is still quite high even today. However, Wu Qingsong had the advantage of his cousin’s passion for self-made soap. This allowed him to use an excessive amount of alkali without worrying about the cost and to choose the hot-process method to guarantee a successful reaction.

In any case, Wu Qingsong was targeting the low-end market. The beastfolk, with their rugged skin, wouldn’t be as obsessed with wellness and skincare as his cousin and her trendy friends. A bit of extra alkali likely wouldn’t faze them, nor would they accuse him of selling inferior soap that damaged their skin.

In fact, they might even rave about the exceptional cleaning power of Wu’s Soap.

Wu Qingsong planned to price his soap at twenty copper per bar. In the small tavern in Umber, that sum would buy you a pint of beer. He was confident that this pricing would appeal to all the financially constrained beastfolk who still yearned for cleanliness.

As Wu Qingsong envisioned countless coins metaphorically taking flight toward him, Harold took a cautious sniff of the soap. After tentatively licking it, he frowned and asked uncertainly, “Is this… scented soap?”

“I prefer to simply call it soap,” Wu Qingsong replied. “By the way, your fur is getting all matted. You should really wash it.”

He was eager to see Harold’s reaction. Although he hadn’t tested the product yet, he had full confidence in his craftsmanship.

Harold, however, tossed the soap back at him, his brow furrowed as he asked, “Is this what you’ve been crafting with all those materials?”

Wu Qingsong had spent most of yesterday in this modest courtyard, and Harold had caught glimpses of the activities. As a longtime resident of Umber, Harold was well aware of the value of the materials Wu Qingsong had gathered. Now, what he saw before him was a massive block of soap?

“What’s the matter?” Wu Qingsong could tell something was off from Harold’s expression.

“You’re not planning to make and sell this soap yourself, are you?” Harold questioned once more.

“Is that a problem?” A wave of anxiety washed over Wu Qingsong.

Harold let out a heavy sigh. “You’re not a resident of Umber, so it’s understandable you might not be aware. But you should know that nobody in Umber can sidestep the authority of the City Council, which, in reality, boils down to the three major guilds.”

“You mean taxes?” Wu Qingsong ventured.

Indeed, although Wu Qingsong hadn’t resided in Umber for long, he had already begun to feel the omnipresent grasp of the three major guilds. 

Residents were required to pay an entrance and exit tax at the city gates, a charge that deterred many beastfolk from even leaving the city for years on end. And nobody could escape other costs like water fees, waste disposal charges, and home maintenance fees.

The Commercial Guild managed the water fees, as they had financed the construction of the extensive pipeline system and public fountains. The Port Guild was responsible for waste disposal fees, overseeing all transportation coming in and out of Umber, including both carriages and ships. As for home maintenance, that clearly fell under the jurisdiction of the Craftsman Guild.

In Wu Qingsong’s view, these fees appeared to be variations of a head tax.

But that was just scratching the surface. Consider, for instance, the inn where they had previously stayed. The Port Guild supervised the purchase of all ingredients, whether it was seafood from the harbor or vegetables imported from outside the city. Taxes had to be paid to them during these transactions. Even the fuel and seasoning were taxed in the same manner.

Meanwhile, the Commercial Guild charged business taxes on the storefront, and the Craftsman Guild collected fees for road usage.

The numerous taxes were crushing, eating up more than half of their total revenue. After accounting for the costs of rent and procurement, what they actually earned over the year was almost negligible. This explained why the innkeeper was adamant about renting out every available room and refused to offer refunds under any circumstance.

If it weren’t for this, Wu Qingsong wouldn’t even think about selling a bar of soap that cost five copper coins to make for twenty copper coins.

‘Would this price be sufficient to cover the taxes?’ he wondered.

Wu Qingsong wasn’t inherently opposed to taxation. Even before entering the city, he had learned from a coachman that the cost of Umber’s autonomy from the Nisair Duchy was a hefty annual tribute of 200,000 Renals along with a certain quota of goods.

A little thought made it clear that the three major guilds wouldn’t foot this bill themselves. Instead, the cost would inevitably be distributed among all the residents of Umber. Adding in the extra expenses needed for maintaining the city’s daily operations, its water supply, and other infrastructure, not to mention the almost certain corruption and graft, he wouldn’t find it surprising if the real tax burden was double or even triple the official rate.

While the tax rate was steep, given the imperfect society they lived in, acceptance was his only option.

“If it were just about taxes, that’d be one thing,” Harold remarked. “You should be aware of the significant profit margins on your homemade goods. These major guilds are relentless. They gobble up everything and leave nothing behind. For someone like you, without any roots but armed with such a valuable secret, you have two options, either keep what you can do a closely guarded secret or align yourself with one of these guilds. If you do neither, the only path left for you is likely a dead-end.”

Harold’s words weighed heavily, casting a shadow over Wu Qingsong’s entrepreneurial aspirations. Suddenly, the harsh realities of the city’s power dynamics came into sharp focus.