The Defeated Dragon

At the banquet.

It seemed like a banquet was held everyday at the castle. For aristocrats, wining and dining was an ordinary occurrence.

“The Small Kerchief Island encountered pirates. Teacher Marcus, is piracy popular in the Sapphire Grand Duchy?” Inquired Liszt as he ate a piece of roasted meat.

Marcus replied: “If only going by the modus operandi of pirates, then many small islands have suffered from the baptism of pirates. However, there may be another reason.”

“What reason?”

“These pirates were quite likely fake. Not every aristocratic family can run profitable estates. On the verge of bankruptcy, taking risks out of desperation could become a shortcut to their self-redemption. Particularly if there was hatred between aristocrats, they would go as far as borrow the ident.i.ty of pirates to loot the riches of the other party

Listening to this gory information.

If it was his predecessor, a 16-year-old youngster, then it was very likely that he would take issue with it – aristocrats took pride of their n.o.ble bloodline and their countless aristocratic qualities, for them to actually concurrently stoop into piracy, this was inconceivable.

However, the current Liszt just slightly creased his eyebrows before quickly relaxing them: “Fortunately, there is a strong knight order on the Coral Island, so for the time being, there is no danger of the Flower Town suffering an attack from pirates. However, we cannot be complacent. Teacher Marcus, the knight squad must be trained well.”

“Sir, please rest a.s.sured. I will pull no stops in the training of the knight squad. I will train every one of them into knights qualified for the battlefield.”

Next, Liszt turned to Gort: “Teacher Gort, give me the report on the new serfs. I think that it is best to talk about official maters during the meal.”

“If you like, then we can do it now.” Gort signaled for a servant to bring his coat before taking out a piece of thick bast paper from inside a pocket and unrolling it, “There is a total of 50 new serfs. In fact, they were all freedmen originally. After the pirate attack, they very cleverly chose to escape.”

On the Small Kerchief Island lay the Small Kerchief City; the fifty people were residents of and had their estates in the city.

The relationship between freedmen and their lord was more like the relationship between a tenant and their landlord. Serfs, on the other hand, were cla.s.sified as slaves. For aristocrats, serfs were ‘comrades' while freedmen were ‘outsiders'. Once a conflict between lords escalated, lords would choose to protect their serfs as they were part of their riches.

Freedmen could not get such a protection, not to mention that lords would earn a bit of extra income should they die.

Therefore, the ident.i.ty of freedmen had advantages as well as disadvantages. Not everyone wanted to become a freedman.

Seeing that Viscount Smallkerchief was defeated and that they could be killed by the ‘pirates' at any time while their belongings were pillaged, some of the Small Kerchief Island's freedmen hurriedly fled. They cleverly chose to capture a sailboat while the pirates were still fighting in the castle.

Unfortunately, although there was a captain to stir but there were no skilled crew to man the vessel, which eventually led to them loosing control in the storm.

“So they are craftsmen and not farmers.” Liszt was very satisfied. For the development of his fief, craftsmen were more important than simple farmers.

Farmers and other slaves could be procured as much as needed in the future, yet craftsmen were hard to come by.

“There is a blacksmith, a cooper, an embroiderer, a tailor, a baker, a winemaker, a shoemaker, a carpenter, a dyer, a soap maker, a tanner, a sugar worker, a salt worker, a locksmith, and a cook as well as their families. Oh, there is still an innkeeper, a coper, and a few peddlers.”

“What is Burnell's craft?” Liszt recalled the old man who spoke to him during the day.

“He is a soap maker who can produce a variety of flower scented soap.”

“Very well, I'm already fed up with the honey locust powder. It is best to let him make the honey locust powder into soap as soon as possible.” As someone who liked to bath everyday, Liszt had a great demand for soap, yet there was not that much soap in the castle; there was just some honey locust powder, which was a powder ground from honey locusts' fruit.

The honey locust powder could be used in baths, but it was very troublesome and did not feel good when bathing.

In fact, Liszt had knowledge of an even simpler cleaning item – pancreas soap.

Pancreas soap was a kind of soap, a blend of pings' pancreas and plant ash. It was quite easy to make. The most basic pancreas soap could be produced by mixing and stirring mashed pig pancreas and plant ash; just that no one in the Flower Town raised pigs…

He cut a piece of roasted meat, lifted it with a fork, and dipped it in a bit of tomato sauce.

Roasted meat tasted pretty good with tomato sauce.

After swallowing the piece of roasted meat, he drank a mouthful of seafood soup, and then wiped his mouth with a napkin: “Teacher Gort, Mr. Carter, come up with the appropriate work arrangements for the new serfs. Those that are suitable can be arranged to the town. Help them establish their shops. They are to especially cater to the castle's needs.”

There were too few residents in the fief and there was not much demand, so as the lord, it was his obligation to enjoy everything.

Only in this way could these craftsmen have a role to play in the short time.

Carter bowed, saying: “Yes, Master. I will ask Mr. Gort for guidance.”

After the matter regarding the new serfs was settled.

Liszt brought up another official matter: “The efficiency of the logging team has to be improved. However, new issues are arising and there will be often other matters drawing I and Teacher Marcus away. At such times, the logging teams' defensive strength will be as good as nonexistent. This is very dangerous.”

“But we really can't come up with more man power to go protect the logging team from the Thorns Ridge's magic beast.”

“Therefore, I think that we need to find a way for the logging team to have the ability to protect themselves even if they encounter magic beast.” Said Liszt indifferently.

No one answered immediately, pondering.

Liszt was not in a hurry, so he continued to eat his dinner.

In fact, he was testing the few people sitting beside him. He had already thought of a method that was highly likely of dealing with the magic beasts.

This method originated from a smoke mission.

He had completed a mission after rescuing the sailboat in the morning.

“Mission completed. Reward: 50 people.”

“Mission: the dangers in the depths of the Thorns Ridge may erupt at any time, to which the logging team is vulnerable. As a lord who owns a tract of smoke gra.s.s, you should reasonably exploit your resources to guaranty the safety of your subjects. Please withstand an offensive from magic beasts. Reward: an extremely small ore deposit.”

The mission pointed out quite clearly that smoke gra.s.s could be used to resist the magic beasts.

Liszt had quite the deep understanding of the smoke gra.s.s' smell. Magic beasts might really not be capable of standing it, specially some magic beasts with particularly sensitive noses.

Therefore, he intended to use the smoke gra.s.s to make a simple ‘magic beast repellent', which would be ignited once magic beasts appeared.

He was determined to get the ‘extremely-small ore deposits'.

However, he had not mentioned the plan outright, instead hoping that someone would come up with it by themselves. Otherwise, he would feel like he was raising a group of good-for-nothing freeloaders

After a while, no one had thought of a good method.

This made Liszt very disappointed. When he was about to announce his plan, Isaiah suddenly said: “Sir Baron, maybe we can use fire! Beasts fear fire. Pine trees, which burn quite easily, are among the cut down trees. We could cut down the branches and leaves of pine trees and burn them. Like this, magic beasts would be afraid of approaching!”