Imperial Crown

In the blink of an eye, time came to September 22nd, eight days had passed since Raven plunged into the workshop.

During this period of time, Raven didn't even return to Eagle Castle. He occasionally took a break, which was to make do in the office of the workshop.

It wasn't that he didn't want to go back, or that he was addicted to being a craftsman. It was actually because he encountered a problem - alcohol.

To prepare alcohol, the wine needs to be distilled.

And this must control the temperature of the heat source between 80-100°C, otherwise it will only be able to distill out some solid impurities in the wine, and it will not be able to increase the alcohol concentration at all.

The problem arises here.

The alchemy equipment Raven purchased could not control the firepower at all. After all, there were no gas stoves in this era.

At first, Raven's idea was to only take the first half of the distillation.

Alcohol has a much lower boiling point than water, so by doing this, you can significantly increase the alcohol content of the distilled solution.

However, this method soon reaches a bottleneck. When the alcohol concentration reaches about 50%, no matter how distilled, the water content cannot be further reduced.

And this concentration is far from reaching Raven's requirements.

It was Poirot who came up with a stupid idea: when the heat is about to boil, immediately remove the fire, and then move the fire source after a while.

In order to verify the reliability of this plan and for the sake of confidentiality, Raven had to take turns guarding the still with Poirot.

In the morning light, in the workshop, with bloodshot eyes, Poirot removed the stove from the flask for the last time: "My lord...it's done!"

Raven nodded, took a sip of water, walked to the front of the stage, and took off the flask with Poirot. The strong smell of wine cheered him up: "Maybe it can work this time!"

Taking out a beaker with a graduation, Raven poured 200 ml of the newly distilled liquid into it, used a pair of tongs to pick up a piece of red-hot coal, and placed it on top to shake it gently.

Sparks flew everywhere.

With a bang, bright yellow flames suddenly burned, and black scorch marks suddenly covered the wall of the cup.

When the flame goes out, the beaker has turned completely black.

Raven stepped forward, covered his hands with a thick cloth, grabbed the beaker and poured the liquid into a clean beaker.

As the dark brown liquid flowed into it, cold sweat ran down Poirot's face.

When the last drop of water fell into the beaker, a satisfied smile appeared on Raven's lips.

Done!

The water in the beaker is only less than 20 ml. Of course, part of it is evaporated during the flame burning process, but even if it evaporates more, if it can burn to this extent, its concentration will be at least 75%.

"It's not in vain that I spent so many days." Lei Wen sighed and patted Poirot on the shoulder: "5 gold coins as a reward, I will do what I say! If you have similar ideas in the future, as long as it is useful, I will Give them all money.”

Poirot put his hand on his chest excitedly: "Thank you for your generosity, my lord!"

Raven smiled and said nothing, but took out the small glass bottle containing essential oil from the bottom of the shelf.

After 8 days, nearly half of the essential oil inside has been stored, about 10 ml, showing a luxurious golden color.

Raven placed the funnel on it, carefully scooped out a small amount of distilled alcohol and poured it in. When it was about full, he sealed the lid tightly and shook it gently.

"Poirot, go bottle the alcohol and remember to put a label on it." Raven ordered: "If it is distilled in the future, it must be sealed and stored as soon as possible."

Alcohol of this concentration will evaporate quickly if left for a little longer.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door, and Denise's voice came: "Raven, are you in there?"

"Wait a moment." Raven motioned to Poirot to continue, then walked to the door and opened the door.

Denise was startled by what she saw.

Raven was wearing a dirty white coat, and his originally smooth and polished hair had become greasy and messy. Although his eyes were clear, there was lingering fatigue between his brows.

How does this look like a baron?

Thinking of Raven staying in this workshop for eight consecutive days, Denise was furious. Just as she was about to reprimand, she saw Poirot who was busy.

The latter quickly put down what he was holding and saluted: "Mrs. Denise!"

The anger on Denise's face disappeared, and she said in a cold tone: "You continue to do your business, Raven, come out, I have something to talk to you about."

After walking out of the door, Raven faced the morning light and took a deep breath of fresh air: "I'm sorry, I really can't do anything these days."

Hearing what he said, Denise's anger immediately disappeared. When she saw his tired face, she couldn't even utter a word of rebuke: "Raven, after all, you are a baron, not a craftsman. Here No matter how busy you are, you should go to Eagle Castle to show your face."

"I know, it won't happen again in the future." Raven shook his neck: "But it seems that the Eagle Territory is running pretty well now, and it seems like nothing will happen if I leave for a few days."

"That's what you think." Denise glanced at him: "While you were away, many things have been accumulated. Although there has been no substantial damage, but..."

At this point, Denise couldn't talk any more. She looked at Raven helplessly: "Can you listen to me carefully? Do you have to cause irreparable damage before you are willing to repent?"

"Of course not." Raven said with a smile: "I just found that you look good without makeup."

Denise's face flushed, her chest rose and fell, her brows furrowed: "Raven, I'm not kidding you."

"I'm not kidding you either." Raven opened his palm and handed the bottle filled with essential oils and alcohol mixture to Denise: "With this, you will definitely become the most attractive woman in the entire Mon'en City."

Denise was a little confused: "Is this also used to improve Angel's Tears?"

Raven did not answer, but said softly: "Stretch out your right hand."

Denise raised her wrist hesitantly, but Raven did not touch it as she expected, but opened the bottle stopper, turned it upside down, put a little liquid on her fingertips, and smeared it on her wrist.

A little cool feeling came, and Denise was stunned: "This is..."

Raven raised his wrist to the tip of his nose and raised his eyebrows again.

Denise followed the same action, brought her wrist close, sniffed it gently, and her eyes suddenly lit up, as if there were stars twinkling in it.

The rich rose scent filled her nose, warm but not pungent, making Denise feel as if she was standing in a rose field.

"Under a sealed condition, it will almost never deteriorate." Raven leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I stayed here for 8 days just for this. I named it 'Angel's Kiss'!"

"Angel's Kiss..." Denise said in a tone that was almost like chanting, "It's like a kiss left by an angel in a dream, invisible, but people can clearly taste it. What a good name."

"How much does it cost?"

Raven smiled dumbly, and his first reaction was to ask the price. Denise was indeed a qualified businessman: "2,600 roses, all in this bottle."

"Hiss——" Even Denise was stunned by the number: "Not counting labor, it will cost 2.6 gold coins. Give it to me, Raven, it will definitely sell for a sky-high price."

"Okay, I just happen to want to use your name to hold a 'press conference' '."

"Press conference?" Denise read the unfamiliar word: "What does it mean?"

Raven explained: "It means to gather the wealthy merchants and nobles of Nord Province to the town of Shining Gold, and then promote our products in front of them."

"Oh, it's a cocktail party for purely commercial purposes." Denise understood and summarized Raven's words, and raised a new question: "But we can't sell luxury goods on a large scale if the production volume cannot be increased."

"Well, so my purpose is not just to promote it." Raven said: "The real protagonist is the Angel's Tears with a new packaging, and this Angel's Kiss is just one of the supporting roles."

"One of them?" Denise keenly captured the information in Raven's words: "What is the other one?"

"What have you been using to wash your face in the past two days?" Raven asked.

Denise suddenly realized: "Oh, you mean the scented soap you asked people to send out?"

Raven nodded: "Yes, I named it, 'Angel's Embrace'."

"Cost?"

"The leftovers of Angel's Tears and Angel's Kiss."

"Production?"

"Based on 200 grams per piece, more than 3,000 pieces can be produced per month."

Denise's eyes were shining with the light of gold coins: "Then leave the rest to me. A scented soap like Angel's Embrace should be sold for at least 2 silver coins per piece. It should use a nice mold."

"Uh-huh, no problem, I'll leave it to you to be the agent in this regard." Raven said with a smile.

"Whether it's Angel's Tears, Angel's Kiss or Angel's Embrace, I can give you the sales rights completely." Raven said.

Denise looked happy, but she was not carried away. She asked with a little caution: "What are the conditions?"

Raven raised his eyebrows and smiled: "The condition is that Fedro's business will be completely integrated into the Eagle Territory's system, and the profits will be added to the Eagle Territory's treasury, and you can have the power to call up no more than 20% of the treasury's amount of gold coins each year without my consent."

Raven needs a deeper community of interests.

With the development of Eagle Territory, there will definitely be more and more things to encounter in the future, and Raven can't be all-encompassing.

A person's energy is always limited, and he needs Denise to help him share the pressure of business affairs.

As a member of the Griffith family, Denise and he share the same prosperity and loss, and have enough motivation to manage all this well.

And Raven is also confident, with the balance of old Gordon, and he is not completely letting it go, Denise is unlikely to cause any trouble.

Denise also thought of this. After weighing the pros and cons, she said, "I can promise you, but I will actually serve as the treasurer of the Griffith family in the future. Every income and expenditure requires my consent."

"No problem, but the final decision is still in my hands." Raven said.

Denise stretched out her hand: "Then I wish us a happy cooperation?"

Raven politely held her smooth fingertips: "Happy cooperation."

"Then I will go back to the castle first, Baron." Denise pulled her hand out without leaving a trace and said, "I hope my appointment letter can be issued as soon as possible."

Looking at her back, Raven shook his head and chuckled, turned around and went back to the workshop.

At noon that day, Raven returned to Eagle Castle and immediately issued an order to recruit workers, requiring them to be dexterous and preferably have a chef background.

After all, the closest thing to a chemist in this world, besides an alchemist, is a cook.

After a deep sleep, Raven woke up refreshed and began a very regular life.

Every morning after breakfast, he held a routine meeting and handled all affairs; in the morning, he practiced magic in the courtyard of Eagle Castle until lunch; after lunch, he inspected the barracks and workshops, and after returning, he began to practice horsemanship and swordsmanship until dusk; after dinner, he locked himself in the study, studied the Elvish language for two hours, and then read the books brought back from Lux for two hours; he meditated every night before sleeping.

Among them, the practice of magic was still a bit fresh at the beginning, but it became boring after a few days.

A magician cannot cast spells just by having magic power and elemental affinity. Spells, gestures and magic power operation routes are indispensable.

Only when all three are in harmony can a spell be cast, otherwise you can only see a person dancing and talking nonsense on the spot, but nothing happens.

Raven has been dancing like this recently, and it looks like he is doing the third subject.

At the beginning, Raven may not succeed even once after dozens of attempts. After a few days, the success rate gradually stabilized at 30%. If he wants to improve, he can only work hard.

On the contrary, he read the books that he thought he would see and fall asleep: "Nothing Else Except God", "The Way of the Mage", and "The Self-cultivation of the Knight" with great interest.

In addition to some gossip in the circle, it also describes in detail the different ways of practice for each profession.

The divine magician must pray devoutly to the Lord of Light. It is said that when he reaches level 7 or above, he can even see the figure of the Lord of Light when praying.

The mage uses meditation as the main way to increase magic power, and can also increase the efficiency of meditation relatively quickly by consuming magic crystals. Generally speaking, this can increase the magic power growth rate of the magician by about 17% before level 3.

Knights or warriors are the most different ones. In addition to training their bodies every day, they also need to rely on external objects. They must consume minerals or plants with extraordinary energy that match their attributes and absorb the energy in them, so that they can improve their ranks.

And it was emphasized that magic cores cannot be used as raw materials, because all knights and warriors who rely on magic cores for training will eventually go crazy, which is called "beast transformation".

When seeing this, Raven couldn't help but think of Eric. He has served in Eagle Castle for more than ten years. His accumulated salary should be 800 gold coins if not 1,000. He is still at the first level now. I don't know where the money has been spent.

Reading is half a pastime and half a knowledge-enhancing activity. It is a good leisure activity.

But Raven's favorite thing is meditation.

Leaving the study and returning to the bedroom, Petty retreated with a gloomy look, and Raven began today's meditation.

He took off his clothes, sat cross-legged on the bed, crossed his hands in front of his lower abdomen, and naturally drooped them, gently closing his eyes.

According to the description on the scroll, Raven began to consciously regulate his breathing, the rhythm became slower and lighter, until the amplitude of his chest rise and fall became barely detectable.

First there was darkness in front of him, and then it became bright. Raven seemed to be in an infinite starry sky, with colorful stars everywhere he looked.

Brown represents the earth, blue represents water, red represents fire, cyan represents storm, white represents light, black represents darkness, and in addition, there are many wonderful light spots mixed with these colors.

Here, Raven has no shape, just a ball of silver mist.

He drove himself with his mind and approached a star. Soon the star turned into a ball of light. As soon as it came into contact with Raven, it was sucked into the silver mist.

The ball of light gradually became smaller and eventually disappeared, and Raven's magic power also quietly increased a little.

Magic power itself has no attributes, but when a mage meditates, he usually only absorbs the elemental light balls with which he has a higher affinity. The absorption efficiency is higher, and it can also slightly enhance the affinity of the corresponding element.

But Raven is different. He is compatible with the four elements of earth, water, fire and wind. He absorbs each light ball at a similar speed and does not need to be too picky. Therefore, his efficiency is much higher than that of ordinary mages.

Although there is no comparison, after a rough calculation and a simple experiment, Raven confirmed that his magic power growth rate is about 1.6 times that of mages of the same level.

As the sound of chickens crowing came from outside the window, Raven also ended this meditation and felt that his magic power had increased a little.

This feeling of hard work and harvest is why Raven likes meditation.

And it can also replace sleep.

After getting dressed with the help of Petty and having breakfast with everyone, Mosingan strode in before the meeting started:

"Report to the Baron, the people assigned have arrived in Shining Gold Town. We are short of manpower and hope to mobilize new soldiers to maintain order."

Old Gordon glanced at him with a little dissatisfaction: "It's just 600 people. Do you have to trouble the Baron for this?"

"No, it's not a matter of quantity..." Mosingan swallowed his saliva: "...I can't explain it clearly, Mr. Gordon, you will know when you see it with your own eyes."

"The Fox family is too much!"

...