The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Just Liszt’s own food and drink expenses were such that a month would hardly pass without spending several tens of gold coins.

The various exotic foods were cheap, the cost of ingredients and labor were very affordable. What was expensive was the magical beast meat, he had become a carnivore who could not do without magical beast meat at every meal—if it weren’t for the domain being able to produce magic potions on its own, his personal consumption would be even more terrifying.

Domain development was even more expensive.

If Black Horse Island were to be fully developed, it would inevitably become a huge money sink, and it would be difficult to see any returns within at least a year or two; the development of Fresh Flower Town was basically on the right track, but the investment in it was by no means small.

It might seem bustling with nearly nine months of development, but Liszt had poured at least a thousand gold coins in it before and after.

If it weren’t for the Smoke Mission, he didn’t dare to imagine how little he could achieve.

Therefore.

This time, Liszt would have to rely on the rewards from the Smoke Mission again to cover the shortfall of five hundred gold coins. After thinking it over, he decided to visit the earl tomorrow and exchange some mithril for a batch of gold coins.

…

The next day dawned.

The sun failed to rise promptly, so it seemed a bit gloomy.

The earl was already up, feverishly writing at his desk in his study—these past few days he had been very busy, needing to sort out the distribution of the spoils of war.

“Liszt, you’re up early,” the earl indicated for Liszt to find a chair to sit, “Levis didn’t keep you up, talking about war stories all night?”

“Actually, brother’s eloquence still needs work, he’s far from being able to talk nonstop for a whole day and night.”

“Alright, he indeed doesn’t have the talent of a diplomatic. Would you like something to drink? Wine or coffee?” Speaking with his son felt stiff without something to drink.

A father-son relationship could never reach the level of heartfelt communication that existed between mother and daughter.

“Do you have milk? I don’t want to drink wine or coffee this early in the morning.” Liszt could not do without milk, with Dragon Breed Cow’s milk temporarily unavailable, he could only drink regular milk.

When a servant brought over freshly brewed milk, Liszt could clearly sense that the quality of the milk from Tulip Castle’s cows was far inferior to that from the cows in Fresh Flower Town.

Even if the cows from the dairy farm weren’t turned into Dragon Breed Cows, they had definitely undergone some mutation.

“These last few days, I’ve been bathing with Fresh Flower Soap, and it truly is very nice to use. This industry should bring you quite a profit,” the earl said.

“One or two gold coins a day, about the same as the initial seafood business, but now the seafood trade is almost halted, the profits are not as good as before. Fresh Flower Soap, hindered by limited production, can’t expand to other islands for the time being, which keeps my funds in a very tight state.”

“The development of Fresh Flower Town has surprised many, including me, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

Pressure.

There was no such thing as pressure.

Liszt felt that his daily life really did not have any pressure, indulging in eating and drinking, practicing martial arts and writing, horseback riding, walking dogs, playing with Little Minor Elves, and overseeing the domain. Occasionally, if he had an inspiration, he would have the serfs implement it, otherwise, he would follow up on the Smoke Mission.

Apart from enjoying himself, he was still enjoying himself.

Of course, a life of such decadence needed to be kept low-key. So he joked, “There’s still pressure. To achieve my desire to ride a dragon before the age of thirty, I need to work tirelessly at all times.”

“Hmm.”

The Earl momentarily failed to adjust to the humor, “Don’t aim too high and miss.”

Liszt nodded, “Actually, I wish to become a Sky Knight soon. Hearing from my brother about your battle with Count Figo, I am greatly yearning for it.”

This ambition was much more realistic, and the Earl easily accepted it, “I hope that all four of you siblings can aim to become Sky Knights. The Tulip Family strives for progress in every generation. The knight’s spirit of enterprise can never come to a halt; use pressure as a driving force for effort.”

“I understand. Now that I am of age, things that were once unclear to me are now fully understood,” said Liszt, suddenly remembering something. “That’s right, Father Lord, apart from bringing some specialties and delicacies from Fresh Flower Town to Tulip Castle, I also prepared a special gift for you and my brother.”

“Oh, what gift?”

“A telescope.”

Liszt took out a beautifully crafted retractable monocular telescope from his pocket and handed it to the Earl, showing him how to use it, “This is a retractable monocular telescope. Place this small eyepiece before your eye, yes, just like that, then point the larger objective lens towards the window.”

After the Earl did as instructed, he was startled at the first glance, “Oh my, the tulip flower sea appears to be right before my eyes!”

“You can pull the telescope’s objective lens tube further out, yes, like that, it can extend even longer.”

“They’re getting closer. Do they move, or is this magic?” The Earl, holding the telescope, excitedly watched the distant scenes, “I can see Silva, he’s got a cigarette in his hand, and is looking for a place to smoke – a hand-rolled cigarette using fire grass, not a flame striker.”

With the telescope in hand, the Earl began spying, while outside the castle, deputy butler Silva had no idea that his minor act of smoking had been caught by the Earl.

The excited Earl couldn’t stop for quite some time.

Liszt was very satisfied with the effect of the telescope, but Silva’s smoking habit suddenly sparked a thought – should he invent matches?

The fire-making tools in this world consisted of “fire grass,” which could be rubbed together to create fire, and “flame strikers,” made from fire grass material—neither as convenient as matches.

Lighters are more advanced, more convenient.

But Liszt didn’t think he could invent a lighter, it was too technologically advanced.

As for matches, there was no technical challenge, the only problem being that match heads are made with phosphorus as the igniter. If he remembered correctly, they used red phosphorus, coating it on both the match head and the striking surface of the matchbox separately.

Strike them together when needed, keep them apart when not, dubbed safety matches.

“Phosphorus… I do have quite an understanding of it,” Liszt thought silently.

Firstly, in rural farming, a fertilizer called phosphate fertilizer is indispensable; secondly, it’s said that the discovery of the phosphorus element came from alchemy, when a guy dreaming of alchemy accidentally produced phosphorus from urine; thirdly, he had learned in his middle school geography class about a country named Nauru, where bird droppings accumulated, creating phosphate mines.

Lastly, the legendary will-o’-the-wisp is said to be bone phosphorus burning in the air.

“So, to get phosphorus, I have to deal with excrement?” Liszt was rather helpless. He did not want to be like TFBOYS, “It’d be best to find bird droppings, perhaps on an island with many sea birds, there might be a phosphate mine… Even if I can’t extract phosphorus, I can use it as fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer.”

After carefully recalling his knowledge about phosphorus twice, the Earl finally put down the telescope, still in awe, and said, “Liszt, where did you get such a telescope?”