The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

In the castle’s study at night.

Liszt and Butler Carter each held a glass of red wine, savoring it slowly while casually discussing the past, present, and the future.

Carter’s hair had turned even whiter, but his spirit was much better than when he first arrived in Fresh Flower Town: “Lord, isn’t it a bit too soon to engage in cross-sea trade?”

“For now, we are just utilizing the external trade channels of Tulip Castle and Beer Castle, while simultaneously building our own channels for Fresh Flower Town. It’s not an urgent quest to take over these channels,” Liszt replied with a slight smile. “Fresh Flower Town is only temporary. In the near future, I will have my own city or island.”

He took a sip of his red wine and continued, “I can’t always be under the protection of the family wings. My father may not mind, but Levis, Lidun, they will always have something to say.”

“So your sight is set on much more, my lord. Please forgive my shortsightedness.”

“Looking ahead is one aspect, but doing well in the present is also important. I need you to remind me of this often, Mr. Carter.”

The master and servant flattered each other in a harmonious atmosphere.

After a while, the conversation turned to Fresh Flower Soap.

Carter expressed his amazement: “I was very surprised to hear your conversation with Mr. Abagon; I didn’t expect Fresh Flower Soap to be so popular and capture such a vast market.”

“Its popularity is not surprising,” Liszt responded calmly.

In truth, the technical content of Fresh Flower Soap was not that high, and its cleaning capability wasn’t extraordinary. However, adding certain substances from pig pancreas and wood ash indeed gave the Fresh Flower Soap many appealing qualities—smoothness, lather, and a tightening effect on the skin. It was enough to outshine ordinary soaps with mediocre cleaning effects.

Those accustomed to ordinary soap would find a huge contrast when they switched to Fresh Flower Soap. Cleaned well, one’s whole being would naturally shine anew.

For the nobles, this was enough reason to ditch their regular soap for Fresh Flower Soap.

As for the fact that using Fresh Flower Soap also stirred their husbands’ desires, apart from Lady Gelta, others probably didn’t realize it.

Naturally.

Under deliberate promotion by the Fresh Flower Caravan, the reputation of Fresh Flower Soap began to spread from North Valley City to the entirety of Coral Island. Coral City, always the barometer of fashion, was particularly influential.

The cost to produce Fresh Flower Soap wasn’t low; it wasn’t feasible to give a bar to every noble for a trial. Abagon hadn’t adopted Sherlock’s strategy of casting a wide net but instead targeted his approach precisely.

…

“Miss Sherry, this is a gift from Baron Liszt, my lord, for you—two bars of Fresh Flower Soap made in Fresh Flower Town. It surpasses normal soap and suits your stunning beauty and noble temperament perfectly,” said the gift bearer.

“Ah, is it from Brother Liszt? Thank you!” Sherry exclaimed joyfully as she accepted the gift and noticed an accompanying sheet of thick paper.

On the thick paper was written in Serpent Script by Liszt himself.

“Dear little Sherry, I am busy with many affairs in Fresh Flower Town and cannot come to see you in Coral City. Thus, I send you these two bars of special Fresh Flower Soap, wishing beauty to always be by your side—yours, Brother Liszt.”

…

“Esteemed madam,” Abagon greeted Lady Penelope respectfully.

“Abagon, the leader of the Fresh Flower Caravan, right? Did Liszt send you?” Lady Penelope said as she met with Abagon.

“Baron Liszt misses you greatly, and he sent me to bring you two bars of Fresh Flower Town’s special Fresh Flower Soap, hoping you would like it,” Abagon said respectfully. “The Baron mentioned that if you enjoy it, you need only send word to the caravan, and we will provide Fresh Flower Soap for you free of charge.”

“Special Fresh Flower Soap? Just a kind of soap?” Lady Penelope wasn’t like the young girl Sherry; a flicker in her eye and she understood everything. “That boy is getting shrewder, no wonder he looks like Melissa, that woman. Such cunning truly befits the grandson of Marquis Merlin.”

Abagon gave an awkward smile without responding. It wasn’t his place to comment on a noble, especially his own lord.

Lady Penelope said, “Alright, I’ve accepted the gifts. If they truly are good, I’ll speak well of him. At the very least, this old face of mine still knows many people.”

“Once again, I bid you farewell, Abagon takes his leave.”

…

The Fresh Flower Soap was undoubtedly completing its assault on the soap market.

For Sherlock and Abagon, it was a matter of great importance, but for Liszt, it was just another way to make money. He simply gave some instructions to his subordinates and then put it out of his mind.

Now, he had a new task.

This very afternoon, the smoke had changed. “Complete the mission, reward: five decayed bones.”

Without guessing, it was clear that Marcus and his people on Black Horse Island had finished building a temporary stronghold and had settled in a hundred serfs.

A new task was immediately born.

“Mission: To feed the herd of horses, a large number and variety of grasses are needed. Black Horse Island is currently not suitable for planting more grass, so why not cultivate Corn Grass in Fresh Flower Town to increase nutrients for the Black Blood Treasured Horse herd? Please cultivate 100 acres of Corn Grass. Reward: one Elf Bug.”

A mission rewarding an Elf Bug was definitely one to be completed, as each Elf Bug was a treasure.

But upon seeing the content of the mission, Liszt frowned deeply and called over the steward of Barley Hamlet, “Gejir, how many acres of Corn Grass do we have planted in Barley Hamlet right now?”

“Lord Landlord, we have a total of thirty acres of Corn Grass,” he replied.

“If Corn Grass is planted now, can it sprout and safely overwinter?”

“This…” Gejir hesitated a bit, “Lord Landlord, Gejir has not taken care of Corn Grass during the winter and does not know if it can overwinter.”

“Then how many Corn Grass seeds have you harvested?”

“The seeds have all been handed over to the administration, probably several hundred pounds. A lot of the Corn Grass was directly cut down for grazing, and only a small part was used for seed saving.”

Liszt looked at the weather outside. It was nearly late autumn, and the weather was no longer warm.

Such climate was not suitable for planting crops, but with the Smoke Mission at hand, it could not be ignored. Otherwise, it would be hard to ensure the birth of an Elf Bug—he was certain in his heart that this was a Corn Grass Elf Bug, but whether it could be cultivated was hard to say and depended on the progress of the mission.

No matter how difficult, he had to force the duck onto the perch and continue.

He immediately ordered, “Immediately plough seventy acres of land, expand the Corn Grass fields to a hundred acres, Gejir, hurry.”

“Yes, Lord Landlord, Gejir will arrange for everyone to start ploughing the new fields right away,” he responded.

The task began here.

Meanwhile, Liszt also took the time to inspect the Corn Grass fields of Barley Hamlet, constantly using his Eye of Magic, trying to find signs of an Elf Bug being nurtured.

As long as he found signs of the Elf Bug, even if the mission failed, he was confident he could nurture the Elf Bug into existence.

Unfortunately, he saw no signs of magic, this Corn Grass field was just ordinary Corn Grass, without a single plant appearing special in any way.

He sighed and consoled himself, “I just hope that in this weather, the Corn Grass can sprout and let me complete the mission.”

…

The next day, the Fresh Flower Vessel returned home.

Marcus brought him a new piece of news concerning the rewards for the missions.

After sending the servants away and closing the doors of the study, he spoke gravely, “Baron, we found the remains of an unknown animal in a valley on the island. Most of the bones had shattered, but five large bones remained. Each as thick as a person’s height and half-buried in the rocks in the ground.”