The Defeated Dragon

When the feast was over.

Liszt brought up work: “I am going to build a new settlement on the East Coast to house some serfs to do beachcombing.”

Serfs were quite busy during planting season, but they would become quite idle once the crops were planted.

Liszt thought that this distribution of human resources was unreasonable. It was better to move a part of the farmers to the coast and develop offsh.o.r.e fishing, no, coastal fishing.

He currently had no ships, so going into the sea to fish was out of question.

“We really should catch more of this delicious seafood. However, Liszt, the Flower Town's population is to small. It is less than 2,000 people. The agricultural production of each settlement is inseparable from the serfs.”

“I will think of a way to solve the issue of population.” Liszt did not say much.

In fact, he had already negotiated with Levis. By using the the Black Tulips' cut as remuneration, he would purchase serfs from Levis. The next time the count's fleet returned from going into the sea to trade, it would be loaded by many serfs. The serfs would come from war-torn islands or even the continent.

Gort seemed to understand: “Since you say so, then I will immediately start planning the new settlement.”

“Sir Baron, what should the new settlement be called?” Asked Isaiah.

“Just call it… oyster settlement.”

Liszt had great expectations towards the oyster settlement. Once the settlement was established, he hoped to turn a group of serfs into fishermen to have a steady flow of seafood to supply the Flower Town with food and provide material basis for future constructions. Every winter, the Flower Towns' residents would hide in their homes and sleep a lot so to reduce food consumption.

But with food aplenty, the cold winter was nothing.

A lot of constructions could start in the winter.

In the evening, Gort came to the castle again: “Liszt, we found maize gra.s.s! The patrol finally did something right. Southwest of the town, at the edge of the Thorns Ridge, they found fodder that looks like the maize gra.s.s.”

“Take me to take a look.”

Before nightfall, Liszt saw a large tract of maize gra.s.s mixed with other weeds. Perhaps because of malnutrition, but this maize gra.s.s looked quite shorter than three stalks of wild maize in the wheat settlement.

Liszt was a bit disappointed after taking a look around.

This place was probably the origin of the maize gra.s.s. However, there were no signs of a sprite worm being born. It would be quite difficult to develop the maize gra.s.s without a sprite worm.

Moreover, it was not possible to slowly breed maize with ears without the support from sprite worms.

“Look after them. Collect the seeds, then choose a suitable place in the town to clear a field and sow the seeds. They will serve as a new type of fodder for the horse field and the dairy farm.”

……

At night, Liszt was reading in the study after taking a bath.

Smoke Serpentines gathered before him: “Mission completed. Reward: new information about the invisible dragon.”

In a flash, the smoke twisted and issued a new mission: “Mission: fishing has been put on the lord's agenda, and a group of serfs is about to be relocated to the sh.o.r.e. People management is a necessary skill of a lord, but sustainable development is of more importance. Please update the fishermen's equipment. Reward: a large tract of smoke gra.s.s.”

“A large tract of smoke gra.s.s. Is it tobacco?”

The update the fishermen's equipment mission was quite simple. Even if this smoke mission had not been issued, he would still do it. There were no tools meant for beachcombing. The fishermen could not be always using their hands.

The rocks revealed after the ebbing of the tide were very sharp, they were capable of cutting the fingers of those not careful enough.

The mission reward was no longer information about the invisible dragon, which somewhat rea.s.sured Liszt. He started to look forward to the smoke gra.s.s.

Smoking was popular among aristocrats. The Tulip Family had planted a lot of tobacco; the family also had a tobacco lesser sprite.

“Therefore, the smoke gra.s.s should not be tobacco. Tobacco seeds are among the seeds obtained in the transaction with the Tulip Castle. I can sow them at anytime.”

Liszt no longer mulled over it. Sooner or later, he would learn what the smoke gra.s.s was.

He waved his hand to scatter the smoke Serpentines before continuing to read. The count honored his words, sending Liszt off along with a carriage full of books.

He was currently reading an autobiographic novel called [Earth Knight-Errant Griff's Travel Notes].

In the first person, the novel introduced an Earth Knight called Griff and his experience traveling the Maple Leaf Grand Duchy. The story was very interesting, and although it had a lot of content, it was pure fiction in Liszt's view – having a love affair with a madam countess, eloping with a young lady marquis, having jovial chatter with the Maple Leaf Grand Duke, and the like.

This was not a treatment that a dest.i.tute aristocrat who was not even a chevalier would enjoy.

However, the author of the novel must have been a very experienced person as they introduced many local customs and practiced different from those of Coral Island, the decadent lives of some aristocrats, and quite a lot of hearsay.

Quite interesting.

Liszt liked novels that were informative in addition to being entertaining.

“Hmm?”

As he read, the story abruptly jumped to a part about a dragon slaying battle, saying that Griff traveled to a town being invaded by an invisible creature. The town's lord had already fled, while the people were powerless to resist, this was when Griff had decided to save the suffering people.

After some observations, he came to the conclusion that it was an invisible dragon. The novel did not mention how he came to that conclusion.

“The invisible dragon was a mystical dragon hiding in another world that only the most courageous and honest knights could see. I was still not courageous enough! If I wanted to see it, I had to muster my courage! I had to find it, confront it, and then find its weaknesses!”

Thus, Griff was seeking death by facing the invisible dragon. He spat blood from a signle strike of the invisible dragon, but it was also because of this that he finally saw the invisible dragon.

“Ah, what a beautiful dragon it was. It was like a liquid crystal, colorless and transparent. The blood I spat unexpectedly pa.s.sed through its body. That's right, I could not touch it. I was very dismayed because I might never be able to ride it.”

Liszt was quite admiring of Griff's gull. He was about to be beaten to death by the invisible dragon, yet he still regretted not being capable of riding the dragon.

Fortunately, Griff was still self-aware.

“I knew it was going to kill me. Although I could not see its eyes – I could only see a vague ma.s.s of water – but I knew that it was going to kill me as I could feel its mood. I no longer thought about survival. In this final moment, I just wanted to draw two puffs. Oh, sorry, I did not have any tobacco leaves. I carelessly grabbed a piece of gra.s.s beside me and chewed on it to resist my vice.”

Liszt's eyebrows rose at this point.

Continuing to read.

“I later learned that the gra.s.s I grabbed was called smoke gra.s.s, a kind of plant very similar to tobacco. However, its unique flavor tasted like my unwashed socks worn for sixteen or twenty days. I quickly vomited. That's right, at this moment, I successfully quit smoking. I vowed to stop smoking!”

“I have been smoking for seventeen years. When I was little, my father liked to smoke his rolled leaf tobacco. He would ask me ‘hey, Griff, do you want to have a puff…'”

The later part of the story largely comprised of his memories of his father teaching him to smoke.

Liszt got a headache from reading: “A bunch of nonsense! I want to read about how you slayed the dragon!”