Her Beasts Volume Four

Official Trade Route Part Two

"What sort of recipes would you be teaching the males exactly?"

Iris smiled as she replied to Princess Viola's question.

"Well, like I said, the consumable ones. As I'm sure you already know, the boxes with beauty products have things like herbal lotions, liquid soap, bar soap, body scrubs, and bone combs. The body scrubs are a bit newer, but that is the basics of what tends to be included. I would teach the males all the basics of how to make those recipes, except the bone comb.

What I mean by that is we will show them how to make the soaps and such, but we won't be giving them all the details on every scent variation. They can experiment around with it and make their own variations and we will make our own variations. This way any future competition is fair and we don't have to worry about a source of income for our city being ruined.

In addition to teaching them those specific beauty product recipes, I am willing to teach them how to make animal fat based candles and some basic cooking recipes. Fair warning, though, animal fat based candles tend to have an unpleasant smell, but they are a great option as a light source. I realize some tribes have night vision, but not all of them do. So, this should provide a good, relatively resource-friendly option."

Princess Viola wasn't sure if she should be excited yet as she questioned

"Wouldn't we have to worry about the fire, though? I don't know how much of an issue it is for you all since your homes are built from stone, but our city is almost entirely built from wood."

Basil gave a business smile as he easily took over

"It isn't like it is impossible for our homes to catch fire either. The main thing is that you have to enforce fire safety measures and have a plan for what to do when a fire does occur. We have already taught the males who are currently with us the fire safety measures we use. The males who return with you all now can help you build special buildings for cooking and make alterations to your homes to make fire less of an issue. I would recommend having a male with water or ice elemental abilities on call for any issues that might pop up, though, if possible."

Prince Ash nodded, looking unbothered as he explained

"While we do have some males who are under five stars who were either born in the city or have skills that allowed them to be made an exception for, most are a high enough level that we have a good number of those with elemental abilities. I'll ensure eldest brother and our parents are informed of the matter when we return.

I have to ask, though, do you have one of these candles so I can get an idea of just how bad the smell would be?"

Iris looked to the side awkwardly before explaining

"Well, we don't have any candles here yet. It's actually one of the newer projects I was planning on working on after things settled down. It has taken a lot of time and work to make the festival this week a success. So, we haven't exactly had time to make any new products. Basically, though, you just make a wooden wick and a stone cup that you fill with animal fat with the wick in the middle. Then you set the wooden wick on fire, which burns the animal fat. I can certainly say that animal fat does not smell good when it burns, but other types of candles aren't really feasible for you to make in your city.

We are trying to domesticate bees here so that we can have a regular source of beeswax to make nicer candles. We also have a source of oil, which is usually used for cooking, so we can make oil-based candles as well. Those types don't have much scent without infusing herbs or flower scents into the wax or oil first, but they just aren't a realistic option for your city."

Prince Ares frowned at this information. However, before anyone else could say anything more about the matter, Fern offered

"I'll just go get some of the wooden bark we use for tinder and some animal fat and we can show them."