As the sunlight reached its zenith, many of the residents of the village had started to return to their homes, not to eat lunch but to rest.
The highest peak of the sun was also the hottest time of the day yet, underneath the sweltering heat, Rexford, along with a group of Eldian Dwarves were hard at work.
Using a combination of various Elemental Magic and Alchemy, the Third Prince along with the Dwarves were busy building some unknown structure. A stone structure that did not truly match any of the conventional architectural designs in the kingdom.
"Master, I believe your request was for the dwarves to help you make the performance stages?"
Anne asked the moment she found Rexford resting and having a glass of cooled water.
"Hm? Yeah, but it's not like we have the land… well we do but the thing is… well… how do I say this- we need a few more pieces in place"
"Such as?"
"A few deals, I already talked with Delilah yesterday, I should be meeting with Ortrun and Ratna in the coming days. For now, I need you to complete the recruitment of the support staff"
The first day he awakened, Rexford gave Anne the initial plans he had conceived. It was nothing more than an outline and Anne was more interested in the summary of the wild story he made up on the spot.
But that did not mean Anne completely ignored everything else.
The story was barely 10% of the crap he wrote that day, most of the important parts were related to recruitment procedures, personnel requirements and other miscellaneous tasks.
Of course, his listings and plans were rough and really imperfect.
Rexford was not some Harvard Business major or an experienced film producer in his past life.
Hell the closest experience he had in film was acting as an extra!
The most he could brag about was being a "crowd member" and he wasn't even paid to do it! Other extras were paid, but only when they got actual screen time. Hell, the only reason he became an extra was because he was spending his day off in a coffee shop that coincidentally became part of a small film project.
Unlike major films that have production values in the millions, even billions of dollars. Most film projects were created with barely a few hundred thousand and such films can't really pay 100 bucks a day for a few hundred extras.
But that small experience is one of the reasons why Rexford got a bit more interested in the film industry than just complaining about the casting of a certain adaptation.
With a bit of time to spend wasting away on the internet, Rexford was able to gleam a little bit more "in depth" knowledge of how much various shows and entertainment media needs to actually look good.
There were many things that make a film stand out, to achieve them required not only manpower but also creativity.
Some directors would go as far as to spend years waiting for an actor of their choice to "grow their hair out" or "build a larger, more fit body", sometimes they needed both!
Other times, some would require their actors to learn new skills, such as camera work when filming shows better results when an actor could have a camera strapped to their body as they play around with it switching viewing angles to create an immersive "first person POV" experience.
But that is what most people know, actors needing to learn how to sing and dance, actors learning this, learning that…
Most of the things people know are about the actors but few look at the creativity and genius of those that surround the actors.
Rexford learned of the unknown elements and because of that, despite focusing more on the actors, he still placed a larger emphasis on the background elements.
Unfortunately, he was not that "experienced" or "skilled".
Yet, he was fortunate enough to have a person who was!
Anne was responsible for the rest of the staff, from the "set builders", "props makers", "sound team", "make up team"...
All the people who would ensure that the actors could show off their talents to their fullest were being scouted and discovered by Anne.
'Even if she's a maid, she's one of the few head maids that could actually meet the emperor'
Her skill is what allowed her to obtain her position and Rexford was not going to let it go to waste.
After all, she was the person who made Rexford's dreams achieve even a tiny bit of success.
It wasn't like the prince learned in agriculture, civil engineering or town management.
The village that was built under his name was not even proposed by him! All he did was create the idea of "building a utopia", but he can't approach his father with such half hearted plans carried only by ideals.
Anne was the one who took his desires, reforged it into something "possible" and proposed it to the emperor and that was how the village was established.
Even the initial recruitment of the village was done by Anne!
Majority of the villagers were refugee's, prisoners of war (POW) or rescued slaves. These people were carefully found, recruited, rehabilitated and trained by Anne and her people. Rexford? The biggest contribution he had to the village population was the group of "lovers" that made quite a name for themselves through their connection to the third prince.
If that weren't enough, the management of the village was entirely under Anne's control, all Rexford did was ask her what the village needed, push for what he wanted and voice out his opinions and everything would be filtered and remade to become a viable action or project.
Now though, Rexford had suddenly used his authority to start a project.
No one complained and everyone simply followed his orders but Anne felt a headache as she watched a hastily planned structure rapidly materializing.
"I understand that but what is this building for?"
Anne, fully aware of the project's various problems, didn't really complain about it. What she really wanted to complain about was the sudden construction!
Rexford disappeared for a moment, indeed it was her fault for getting flustered but!
After he disappeared, he suddenly came out of nowhere with a huge bucket of seeds.
The sweet smell from the bucket made her grasp what was inside but she also was keenly aware of the various goods that went around the village.
She knew of a certain dwarf working on a new crop, it was a recent discovery and research on its viability for wine production, tea production and even sweets were being done.
Despite the small yield from the fruit itself, if it could be made into a usable product, the research could move forward to selective breeding, either increasing the fruit's edible mass or reducing the size of the seeds.
There were already a few elves working on that aspect but what Anne didn't expect was to see Rexford carrying a bucket of seeds for who knows what!
Yet, before she could even voice out her opinion, the Third Prince immediately saw the group of dwarves gathered in the village center.
With that, he immediately led the dwarves away, the personnel who she selected to be responsible for "building sets".
They were selected for their ability and knowledge on "rapid construction". They were POW's from the southern theatre, but due to the prolonged war they were turned to slaves and were bought out by Anne to work as construction workers for the village.
Now, they were being given another job, their skill in rapidly building fortifications is what dragged these dwarves who only knew how to build things into battle and now, she was going to use them to build a castle and other structures for the story the prince created.
But… Instead of a castle, the prince dragged the dwarves to build a weird square structure, it looked like a warehouse but inside it were a plethora of weird tools.
There was no sleeping space, nothing that would make the area suitable for living or storing food.
"It's for coffee!"
Yet the Third Prince only declared proudly about his plans using a word that Anne was unaware of.
"Just wait and see~"
Seeing Anne's skeptical look, Rexford didn't try to push too much and instead chose to prove himself through his actions and results.
The dwarves were indeed capable, they used Earth magic to turn soil into stone, produced water using water magic, fire using fire magic…
The others were building the tools that Rexford only gave a vague explanation of, tools that were manual versions of what he could recall was being used in large scale factories to make coffee.
Made of metal, the tools were made of iron that the dwarves obtained from a nearby warehouse filled with iron ingots.
Rexford didn't even need to teach them about steel, the dwarves were creating something much more durable and long lasting using alchemy.
All they needed was a few specifications, they would craft it within minutes and after a few miniature trials that were overseen by Rexford and some more experienced dwarves, the final products' large scale versions were decided within an hour and the dwarves were already busy building it all.
The most amazing thing of all though was the fact that the dwarves had already considered a lot of things that Rexford didn't even bother to think about or was completely unaware of!
Plumbing, power… many of the things he wouldn't know were taken care of by the dwarves.
It was like playing a game and deciding to build something and it just happens!
Yet Rexford didn't let himself be solely reliant on the dwarves, while they were hard at work building the facility.
The third prince was also busy, the seeds that were separated from the fruity flesh was not completely "dry".
There were still bits and pieces of fruit on the beans but Rexford didn't try to "wash them off". He worried that it might break the fragile seeds so he immediately went to work on properly "drying" the seeds.
Using heat to dry coffee beans was a "no go", it would harm the flavor and may even lead to a product that was not what he wanted.
Yet, His memories unfortunately only recalled - separate, air dry, roast, use.
The separation was already done and air drying was basically just letting the movement of air separate as much moisture from the seeds before they are roasted.
But the limit of air drying was something that could be surpassed in this world!
While it would have taken days, maybe even weeks, Rexford didn't know, but he did know that drying organic products took a long time.
He tried it once and the simple task of drying cut up fruit without heat was already something that his patience could not endure!
But magic was a truly amazing thing!
Earth magic could turn soil into stone, water magic could generate and manipulate water so it should also be able to "remove water" right?
Using that thought as a basis, Rexford began the process of "magic drying" the seeds and the results…
"Success"
The dried seeds were now spread apart on a drying bed used for wheat, one he got from the warehouse.
After he dried the seeds, Rexford immediately transferred it into a roasting machine.
He was no coffee roasting expert but he knew that roasting the beans by baking them or making them contact fire was more likely to char them than to roast the beans.
The tool he had made was something that coffee roasters would call a drum roaster. It was a copper drum that had short steel paddles lining its inner walls.
Before putting any of the dried seeds in, Rexford first heated the drum as he got an automatic motor made using a "thunder crystal" and copper.
A few of the dwarves were intrigued with the mechanism that functions not on gravity, tension or water. Despite the development of clocks, most used these spring loaded mechanisms to function.
To Rexford it was an engineering masterpiece, but to the dwarves, Rexford's creation of an electric motor was more intriguing.
Of course, Rexford didn't really know how magnetic fields worked. All he did was copy what he remembered a disassembled electric motor looked like. He let the thunder crystal power the spools of copper wires.
Normally, it would have taken weeks or even months to make the motor but the dwarves had a relatively easy time creating "copper threads".
Now, some of the dwarves involved with making the electric motor were experimenting on a second motor that they made themselves.
Rexford didn't really force them to stop, the speed at which things were happening was fast enough. Moreover, he was also experimenting with the creation of coffee.
Unfortunately, Rexford didn't know how to make thermometers, all he knew was that some rather ancient versions used mercury.
This was one of the limits of a man who grew up in the digital age.
As amazing as being a "digital native" was, the moment he lost the "digital ecosystem" the majority of his skills were basically gone.
The only reason he could even emulate some of the mechanisms from his past life was due in part to his upbringing.
Despite being a digital native, his past life's experience was one where he was forced by his dad to work on "dirty" and "hard" jobs.
It was only now that he found the knowledge he obtained from that experience as extremely useful.
With the drum spinning, due to the copper being highly conductive to heat, a piece of knowledge known by many yet not all, the drum had quickly reached a relatively "hot" temperature.
Rexford quickly poured in half of the beans and then proceeded to use a combination of fire and wind magic to pour in hot air while the beans were roasting.
Vents were opened and the roasting was finally beginning.
Rexford didn't just fuel in hot air blindly, he also watched the beans and used the smell to gauge the current state of the roast.
He timed it and after five minutes he checked the beans, the current color of the beans was a brown tan but Rexford knew that this was the moment to stop.
Years of living alone made him quite perceptive to these, what the beans were experiencing was something similar to a maillard reaction, the same one that gives meat and eggs a delicious flavor when they are lightly browned.
He cut off the heat, stopped the drum from spinning and transferred the beans to a metal cooling drum.
When all the beans were transferred, he didn't blast them with cool air to hasten the cooling process, instead he just stirred the beans constantly as the white smoke rose from the drum.
The pleasant aroma of coffee had long surrounded Rexford and quite a number of people had surrounded him.
Despite the heat of the midday sun and the heat from the roasting drum and the cooling drum, the distinct aroma of roasting coffee was not something that many could resist.
Even if they weren't aware of such a scent before, it was still something that grabbed attention.
Rexford didn't know but the coffee he made was of a medium roast, the aroma he was familiar with was just that.
A lighter roast would have a floral, fruity almost tea like aroma but the medium roast is where the "classical coffee smell" would start to pop out.
It was a caramel, musky, nutty, chocolatey aroma that had a subtle sweetness to it.
Once it hit the nostrils of the people whose scent glands were more familiar with strong overpowering scents the complex and unfamiliar aroma of coffee truly did catch attention.
"What is the Third Prince making?"
"I don't know but it smells amazing!"
"It looks like brown… seeds?"
Many of the people who crowded around began whispering among themselves, trying to make sense of what the prince was making.
Rexford was aware of the growing crowd but that did not cause him to panic, instead, it stimulated him even more.
'This is perfect!'
While Rexford was making his coffee beans, Anne was also starting to understand what her master was planning.
The miniature tools that he was making the dwarves scale up to fill the stone structure was making more sense.
Soon, the coffee beans have already cooled and Rexford transferred them to a glass container filling it up to the brim.
He then carried the container over to a table that seemed to have been specifically prepared for a demonstration.
Initially he planned to have Anne prepare a crowd to watch him brew but the roasting process was a perfect marketing stunt to get people involved.
The crowd parted and Rexford felt like he was Moses as he passed in between his people. Reaching the table, he set down the container of coffee and didn't immediately start brewing, instead, he faced everyone and declared.
"Now, let me introduce you to the beverage that would make this village's name resound throughout the whole Empire!"
Rexford declared, garnering various reactions from the crowd. Yet none of the villagers knew that Rexford…
'What is the village's name again?'
Had forgotten the name of this very village.