The days passed, and the young master’s inventions spread like wildfire amongst the workers in the Vanderbilt mansion.
Some of the people who were out of town when Michael created the faucets were immediately greeted with the strange sight of maids spending most of their time in the kitchen house and the latrines.
From the butlers’ perspective, the maids suddenly became addicted to washing themselves two times a day!
It wasn’t a day later that they finally learned the truth. It seemed that the young master installed a working shower and toilet in all the maids’ rooms, allowing them to have easy access to running water without having to bother the mages each time.
As expected, the butlers were as shocked as the maids when they first saw the faucets and toilets firsthand.
“The young master built this?”
A couple of the butlers were handymen as well and knew how difficult it was to create the pipes and equipment needed to create this whole system. It couldn’t have been made by hand alone.
Some of the more magic ‘savvy’ butlers immediately noticed that the pipes looked like they had been manipulated using a spell.
It would make sense how the young master created such a perfect pipe with barely any imperfections.
But that didn’t make sense as well. Michael was only five years old. He was only supposed to have just started learning about magic, much less casting them.
Since they were just butlers, they couldn’t question the young master himself.
But on the inside, they were slightly intimidated by how much of a monstrous genius the young master was for inventing this marvelous ‘plumbing’ system, as well as having the magic acuity to create them.
Of course, Michael noticed their looks.
He knew that his ‘secret’ of being able to cast spells wouldn’t last long. The maids may have not questioned how he was able to create the pipes, but his mother and father definitely would.
But since they weren’t here just yet, Michael’s secret was still a secret.
And to bribe the butlers for their silence, Michael went ahead and installed showers and toilets in their dormitory as well.
That seemed to have done the trick as they, too, got engrossed with the satisfying feeling of water flowing from the showers like they had their own waterfalls. They never made fun of the maids again and also went ahead and showered two times a day.
Of course, everyone had to pitch in whenever the water tank emptied.
Michael installed six manual water pumps right next to the tank, which was connected to the water source below the ground.
It would only take six people everyday to pump water a couple of minutes in the morning to make sure the tank had enough water for the whole day.
The effort to do this was very miniscule compared to manually taking water from the well and carrying it all over the mansion.
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It had been more than a week since Michael created the plumbing system and the atmosphere in the mansion completely changed.
Maids walked with a little bit more pep in their step, butlers walked with a little bit more swagger, and overall, everyone was more than satisfied with the changes the young master made for them.
On one particular day, Michael happened upon one of the butlers carrying the carcass of a deer on his back.
When he asked them, it turned out that the reason the butlers and mages were out of the mansion a week ago was because they were hunting out in the wilderness.
“We’re preparing for the winter, young master. We need to cure the meat now so that we have enough food for when the scarcity hits the nation.”
Michael looked at the sliced-open body of the deer and saw the yellowish-white part of the meat.
Fats…
Then, he suddenly got an idea.
When taking a bath, what was the most important aspect of keeping oneself clean?
The answer was soap.
Now, this medieval world did have a very primitive version of the soap that he was used to. But in his opinion, it wasn’t up to his standards.
Hey ChatJK1, can you give me step-by-step instructions on how to make soap based on my previous world’s standard?
[Certainly. To make soap that can cleanse and improve the skin, you can start by…]
His personal AI assistant once again flooded his brain with information, giving him a simple but comprehensive manual that he could do right now.
“Can I have some of the animal fats?” Michael asked the butler. Animal fat was an important part of creating soap, which he knew even before he asked ChatJK1 about it.
The butler looked at Michael, his expression curious as to why a five-year-old would need animal fat. But then again, that same five-year-old somehow created something that not even the smartest inventors could create. So, he eventually relented.
Michael went ahead and asked Beretta to procure the rest of the materials he needed for his next project.
“Young master, are you planning on creating something big again?” Beretta questioned him with a glint in her eyes after hearing about his request.
“It’s nothing big like the toilets. I promise I won’t destroy the house again,” he said with his hands on his chest.
Beretta sighed and looked over the list he gave her.
“Alright, young master. We’ll be buying these materials in the next town over. We’ll be returning before sunset.”
Beretta and a bunch of other young maids prepared for the journey.
After hearing that the young master wanted to buy some peculiar materials, a lot of the maids immediately offered their services to him. They were mostly still grateful for the toilets and the showers, but inwardly, they were expecting another great invention from the genius young master. They wanted to be the first ones to witness it.
Michael waved at them as they set off.
He inwardly rejoiced. Having rich parents perfectly enabled him to complete his projects with little to no obstacles. It would be like hell if he didn’t have money in this medieval world.
After waiting patiently, the maids finally returned with a rucksack full of materials he asked for.
Michael immediately rummaged through the bag and saw vials of essential oils and most importantly, lye.
Lye and animal fat were two of the main ingredients in creating soap, so he requested Beretta to procure a lot of them.
And she didn’t disappoint.
Michael immediately set off out into the forest towards his Project Room near the mountain.
“Come back for dinner, young master!” Beretta shouted.
She was already used to the young master going off on his own, so she didn’t make a big fuss out of it.
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The next morning, Michael excitedly got out of bed and immediately ran towards his project room.
Following ChatJK1’s instruction, he easily created a soap mixture made out of lye and animal fat. Last night, he poured this mixture into a mold and used a simple 1-star [Ember] spell to speed up the curing process.
And the next morning, it was finally ready. He had made soap!