@SakuraShower

Common Sense of a Duke's Daughter is one of the ones that uses it, but there are a number of others.



That's what I mean about these settings often being pretty schizophrenic on their tech level and what eras of history they're drawing from. Judging by fashion and architecture (and sometimes by the social rules), most of the shoujo/otome game isekai settings are somewhere around 1700-1800s Europe, well after double-entry accounting was invented and in widespread use.

Part of the reason I prefer time-travel 'isekai' like Nobunaga No Chef, Jin, or Thermae Romae, is because their authors usually bother to do the research, instead of coming up with off-kilter mismash settings with bizarrely varying tech levels in different respects.

@EaterOfBooks I think the prince just went along with her because she did just save a bunch of people from a mysterious disease. Furthermore, she told them about the treason plot. They probably think they might as well go with it since there's not really much harm in it and well, she did save a bunch of people from a mysterious disease.

Also, is the series you mentioned Common Sense of a Duke's Daughter? I don't really know much about history but I always had the impression that series took place in medieval times.

@ValKnight Yeah.

Wow, the super educated noble daughter doesn't know about seasonal epidemics that ravage the lands twice a year. The "pinnacle" is pretty low.

I was excited for epidemics, but these are rather disappointingly bland diseases, unless our MC misdiagnosed them.

For one of those symptom sets, I instantly thought "oh god, it's cholera - this is actually gonna be a challenge", and instead it's... seasonal food poisoning? What?

@SakuraShower

What bugs me is that when they make them a weird mix of too advanced and too backwards at once.

For instance, double-entry accounting was invented in the Renaissance in our world, for chrissakes, and it's very difficult to support a bunch of nobles in outfits looking like they could walk into the court of Louis XIV (the "Sun King") without the tax officials and merchants in the society already using that system. I'm not even going to name names on series that use that one as the "holy shit, what is this magic from the future?" the reincarnator brings, despite the world looking like one that couldn't exist without it, because the list would be too long.

Honestly, I'm actually a bit surprised the prince is just going along with her, since germ theory obviously isn't a thing here, and handwashing wasn't even accepted as necessary to prevent infection in a hospital setting, let alone daily life, until the late 1800s. Everybody should be staring at the MC like she's grown two heads when she suggests you can prevent disease by washing up.

@omnilynx

So here's a really interesting factoid: there was a period of time in England where they had a really high soap tax, making it a luxury only the upper classes could afford . Tax officials would even be present to ensure that industrial-scale soap boilers were locked up when they weren't around to monitor how much soap was being made, so the soapmakers couldn't sell it on the sly. I'm not even joking.

I'm not sure whether that has anything to do with the situation in this manga (it probably doesn't), but there have been points at technological levels near what we see here where bathing was generally infrequent at best, and/or only the upper crust could afford soap (and you'd get fucked for trying to make it yourself).

Why would soap be expensive? It's literally just fat/oil and ashes. You could say poor people can't afford meat, but you don't need edible-quality fat. You can skim the fat from boiled offal, or use used vegetable/cooking oils. Basic soap wouldn't be cheap enough that starving homeless people can buy it, but it should be cheap enough that noble-funded charities can give appreciable amounts away.

I honestly hated shoujo for the longest time. But since Shonen has gotten so samey this is a nice breath of fresh air to me.

@Kevadu Next she'll somehow find out how to gild things, grow sugar, etc. The worst one I saw was that people didn't eat rice because it was "animal feed" so the MC saved them from famine... It's like the mangakas/authors have never been hungry before and don't realize that humans have eaten literally anything and everything to survive lol.

@SakuraShower was that heibon desu iya??

@Kevadu Yeah. I had a distinct sense of relief when I read that. They always make the societies too backward. Like, I once dropped a manga because apparently dresses did not have frills or any decorations until the reincarnator came along.

This story at least gets some points for not pretending that soap didn't exist and having the reincarnator invent it...

Thank you for this new chapter! I'm looking forward to see how they will spread the habit of washing hands widely in the country ^^

That's completely backwards though, poverty is a result of overpopulation. Too many mouths to feed, not enough resources. There's no denying that great eras of prosperity occurred after pandemics and bloody wars reduced populations. Also before soap work on plumbing and running water but that's expensive and complicated.

C-civil war?!

this bitch cant catch a break mang

Horse bro...

Hope the prince wises up, either that or he has his name changed like in Shield Hero.
I don't want to share a name with typical otome isekai idiot fiancee #85

Hopefully first prince will reassess his lot in life; there are definitely worse cases I’ve seen in these types of stories

it is maou-sama's retry.

Poor horse. xD