CHAPTER 143: CHAPTER 92: MASTERY OF DYEING TECHNIQUES_2

She had already seen that Harano was no ordinary person, definitely not some idiot who got kicked in the head by a donkey, and her instincts had never failed her—sure enough, Harano had come up with something new again.

From here on, Harano didn’t need to meddle anymore—she’d take care of the rest!

"Hold on a second!" Harano too wanted to rake in a fortune, only, real life had way more problems than any game or NovelBin—just having the technique wasn’t worth squat; there was still a pile of other stuff to handle.

He immediately started energetically discussing with Ah Man how to reliably and massively get hold of the raw materials.

Things like soda ash, sulfur, salt, limestone—the kind of stuff needed for ’three acids two bases’—he’d already set up steady purchase channels for those, he just needed to ramp up the buying. But if he wanted to open a dyeing workshop, he still needed things like fine linen, cotton cloth, indigo, gallnuts, alum, madder root, hematite, mercury, acorns, persimmon leaves, holly leaves, chestnut shells, sage, knotweed seeds...dozens of completely random materials. It’d be quite the project to pull all that together, and in large quantities, anytime soon.

Then there was the site problem—which was equally tricky. He’d borrowed a patch of Takeshige Manor’s wasteland from Oda Nobunaga to set up the soy sauce workshop, and now the workshop had grown huge; all day long there was thick smoke and a stench in the air, and now Takeshige Manor was even running low on fuel, seriously affecting daily life there—Okurakiyebi was already starting to look a little sour.

If he opened a dye house as well—those vats needed constant heat to keep the water warm, and that would need even more fuel than the soy sauce shop. If he started crazily chopping wood and making charcoal around Takeshige Manor again...

Okurakiyebi’s face would probably be longer than a donkey’s, and he’d really come over to settle the score.

And on top of that, he’d been steadily recruiting and arming the Lang Faction, which had Okurakiyebi on edge; the guy had already given him a roundabout warning, telling him to knock it off. If he got any more Lang Faction armed, Okurakiyebi would suggest to Oda Nobunaga that Harano be asked to move out of Takeshige Manor—right now Harano had over thirty armed Lang Faction, who had nothing better to do than train all day. If there was a sudden attack, they might even overrun Okurakiyebi’s house, leave Takeshige Manor leaderless, and take the whole place over.

Even if he’d never had any such thoughts—not crazy enough to want to seize Oda Nobunaga’s direct land—but Okurakiyebi was a dead-serious guy, he still saw Harano as a threat and refused to let him expand any further.

There was nothing he could do about it; two months ago he’d stopped taking new people, and had even fired a few troublemakers. For now, he’d maintain a force of just over thirty armed men—the grand plan of saving up to a hundred and twenty Lang Faction in a year had died before it was born.

All of this was a land issue, really. No wonder land was the number one means of production; without his own territory, everything was inconvenient—even just chopping some wood for charcoal needed someone else’s permission. Ah Man had no good solution for the land problem either; after all, for the Samurai, land was their lifeblood—every day they went on about "risking their life for one estate." They believed that land was their only refuge, the source of their power, and would never give up an inch; even having money couldn’t buy it.

The two of them discussed it for ages and couldn’t come up with a good way to get hold of a bigger patch of land. Ningning, who was interested in business matters, squeezed over to offer suggestions, but though she was smart, she was too young and inexperienced. If even Harano and Ah Man couldn’t come up with anything, she was even more lost—putting in her two cents was about all she could do.

The three of them mumbled together for ages with no results, which cooled off Harano’s excitement a bit. He was starting to feel this was going to be a long road, and it really wasn’t that easy to make big money in ancient times—damn it, those protagonists in time-travel stories got whatever they wanted; but here, anything he wanted, he couldn’t get. It was just too hard!

But all things considered, it didn’t matter. Just take it slow, he’d find a way. He let the worry slide after a brief frown, and called everyone together to enjoy a good meal to celebrate the dyeing technique’s grand success.

He was in great spirits, happily savoring a delicious dinner. Afterwards, he sent a reluctant Ningning home, picking out a few pieces of top-quality sample cloth for her as gifts—to take back to the Asano Family. It’d keep those ties warm and also serve as an advance advertisement—the little apprentice liked hanging out here more and more. After all, she ate well here and life was fun, but it wasn’t convenient for her to stay overnight. She always had to go back to the Asano Family at night.

Later, when the night was still and quiet, he lay there unable to sleep, and started mulling over the land issue again. He planned to spend a couple days dyeing a really nice piece of cloth— "printed paste chemical tie-dye" didn’t only tie-dye a single color; but the more colors or the more complex the patterns, the more many times he’d have to print, batik, and dye, and the higher the waste rate. Costs would go through the roof, making the whole business unprofitable—not worth it.

But it would be perfect as a gift. He intended to dye a piece of cloth with extremely bright colors and elaborate patterns, ideally mixing in both gold and silver, and take it to bribe Oda Nobunaga. Someone like Oda Nobunaga, an Oddity who loved novel things, would probably be very interested, and maybe then Harano could talk him into lending another piece of wasteland—even if it was some out-of-the-way spot, that was fine. If there was no water, he could always pay for a well himself.

If that still didn’t work, Oda Nobunaga still owed him a favor. Maybe now was the time to use it—throw in both a favor and the fancy cloth, and ask him directly for ownership of a plot in Takeshige Manor, with free rights to cut wood nearby, to shut up Okurakiyebi, the Manor Chief.

As for continuing to arm the Lang Faction, that wasn’t really something he could push—after all, raising troops in someone else’s core territory, even if you weren’t planning a rebellion, was bound to make people suspicious. He’d just have to put that aside for the future—the plan back then was just too simple. He might have had no bad intentions and felt entitled to arm the Lang Faction, but in these unlucky times, betrayal and schemes were everywhere—you really couldn’t blame Okurakiyebi for being on guard all the time.

Of course, so long as he moved out of Takeshige Manor, that issue would naturally resolve itself. But moving out before he was ready didn’t seem wise—the three hundred or so Lang Faction and six or seven hundred Ashigaru right here in Takeshige Manor were a much safer bet for now. He didn’t want to leave just yet; even if he did, he’d wait until he had plenty of money, and could fully recruit and arm his people at one shot.

He was in the midst of figuring out his next step, letting his thoughts run wild, when suddenly he caught faint sounds—seemed like people yelling, and not just one person. It really sounded like a commotion, though it was pretty far away, maybe on the other side of the manor, and didn’t seem very big.

He’d been in this era for more than a year already, even played a bit part in several battles. His nerves were much steadier now—not panicking at all, he went right out to see what was going on, and sure enough, as soon as he stepped out, the noise in the distance got louder—and you could even see a red glow in the night sky far off. Looked like there was a fire.