Road to the Crown

While I was all excited about the prospects of bringing prosperity to the beer trade in my lands and using it as a stepping stone to kickstarting my economical reforms in the area, I still managed to calm myself down and wait for the bail to be filled with water.

My testing of the system was so far limited to really small amounts of the brew, so I had to check whether it applicancies could be used in greater amounts. In the end, there was no way for me to personally spend the rest of my days brewing the beer for commoners and nobles alike! Even if that could become the backbone and source of fame and wealth of the town, if I wanted to change the history of this poor country, I had to think big!

After the time of patiently waiting was finally over with the servant pouring the last bucket of the water and bowing as he excused himself from the room, I made sure to close the doors and lock them three whole times, before bringing out the barrels of grains from my study into the proper part of the chamber, where I had enough room to actually manage the production.

As I was waiting for the servants to finish, I actually bothered to look through the right part of the window, that detailed how to set up automated production of the drink of my choosing. Starting with the necessary tools that I had to craft myself, through the industrial amounts of specific wares that one had to input in a specific order to the right machines, all the way to the right temperature and time of boiling the primary wort and sheltering the finished product in specific kind of barrels for a set amount of time in a strict environment.

With how complicated the entire thing looked like, I had the moment of doubt. Even crafting the metal boiler where the big amounts of wort could be prepared was a mammoth task, not to speak about all the other specific steps!

Thankfully, after playing around the options for long enough, I learned that the more common types of beer, especially when I didn't set their quality to its highest option, could be made with relative ease, as the only common hard part in all of the industrial recipes were limited to just the boiler and type of barrels used for storing the finished brew. And surprise surprise - I didn't even need to look for the crafting recipes of those machines through the entire system, as the moment I focused on this task, it instantly hyperlinked me to it!

The level of difficulty of accomplishing my task just turned from rather hard to a relatively easy mode!

"Let's do it then!'

Hyping myself up with this single sentence, I made sure to pour the previously made beer through the window and refilled both of the glasses with the water. During my wait, I found in total eight different recipes that didn't require some insane amount of preparations and intricate work, out of which only four could be called to be native drinks to this part of the world.

At this point, it didn't even matter what was the name of those specific types, since I would be the one to name them in this timeline of the world!

Making a single glass of beer for each of those four types, I tasted it one by one, only to finally pick two of the candidates. Wheat-based drink, with just enough hemp to keep it sour, relatively light with only five percent of the total volume being the actual alcohol, and just a tiny bit of fruity flavour coming from the apple cider mixed into the drink, and the other one being a mixed type, with barley and wheat mixed in seven to two proportions, a hefty amount of hemp spicing and high alcoholic content of exactly one part in every ten of them being the actual drug.

With the choice already made, I used the two empty barrels I prepared in advance and created the mix in right proportions in each of them, before activating the crafting mist and increasing the volume of the output for as long as it took for the recipe cost to break through the current amount of products inside each of the barrels. With four of them filled to about half-height, I still had enough room to slowly pour all the water necessary for the production of the actual liquid, before watching the open barrels be enveloped by mist, only to turn from a container filled with a strange, cereal soup, into a proper keg, filled to its brim with the proper drink!

After scooping up a few gulps worth of the beer from each of them and confirming that despite greater amount made, the quality fo the product didn't change at all, I finally brought the lids for the barrels and forced them on top, before slamming my fist a few to make sure it was properly secured.

Sitting down on the bed and looking at the four kegs of beer I made, I felt a strange sense of accomplishment. In all the novels I read that dealt with the situation I was currently in, the main character would start their journey by conquering entire lands with their advanced knowledge, implement age breaking technology like steam engines or complex medicines to gain supreme standing… Yet only now, when I happened to be in a similar spot, I realised how tough it was to live life in the past.

From the completely different mindset of the people when compared to what I was used from modern times, through the complexity of even the simplest inventions, the best I could do despite possessing this system, was to start with a damned beer! Even though I know how the computers work, higher mathematics had no secrets from me, and I knew about the existence of viruses or bacterias, not to speak about the idea how the world really worked through the theory of atoms… I didn't know how to use it to my advantage!

Starting with even the simplest matters, a small invention like an umbrella. Useful, funny and quirky, it could become a famous trend amongst the rich to carry one in order to protect oneself from the rain, from the sun or even just for the sake of a fashionable look. But then comes the question - how to make one? How to create the spring mechanism for the handle? What kind of fabric should be used that could withstand the humidity?

All the inventions that mankind came up with, were based on their prior knowledge. Starting from the further point didn't mean that I was able to create anything from the earlier stages, but indicated that I lacked the solid foundations required to do it in the first place!

With my thoughts carrying me to this unpleasant realisation, I laid down on the bed, turning my attention from this nervewracking reality to the future actions I had to take.

Meeting with the innkeepers was the pivotal point for my plans for using the system as the backbone of my future endeavours. If they confirmed my guess that the beer I just made was of superior quality when compared with their own products, I could invest my household savings in materials required to create the machines, that would allow me the constant production of this light and popular liquor. With that done, flooding the market with it while keeping the prices low would start generating some income for my family while giving me the leverage over the innkeepers to make them work in a way I would order them to… But it was only the first step out of many that I had to make almost simultaneously!

Even if everything related to this first business of mine would go smoothly, how I was supposed to deal with the matter of Elia and her city? If I could force her family into exile, how I was supposed to use this opportunity to expand my influence? What kind of revolutionary product I could introduce to this world in order to gain an edge over everyone else?

I only had five months to figure out the answers to those and many other questions, making it hard for me to even fall asleep. Just thinking about Pilzno, turned my attention towards the matter of my alleged marriage with Elia, posing yet another question right in the middle of my thoughts.

After everything would be dealt with, Pilzno included in my sphere of influence and this damned Peter pacified and his city either conquered or overshadowed… What I was supposed to do with that girl? The marriage could only be pushed for so long, forcing me to either break up with her at some point or actually go with the flow and take her as my wife.

But was I ready for such a drastic step?