100 – Developing a New Kind of Bread
In the bakery, Liszt saw the plump Renal.
Without any false pretenses, Liszt got straight to the point: “Renal, how long have you been making bread?”
“Ever since I came to the flower farm eighteen years ago, Sir Lord.” Renal continued respectfully, “My mother used to be a kitchen maid in the Tulip Castle and was the one who taught me the craft of bread-making. I came once Sir Count established the flower farm in the Flower Town.”
There was no way to figure out the history of the Coral Island"s development. But reportedly, people had already been living on the Coral Island before the grand duke went oversees to establish a state.
Later, the Sapphire Grand Duke declared the Coral Island to be part of his state and sent officials to manage it.
Twenty years ago, because of outstanding military merit, Leewilliam Tulip was enfeoffed as the Coral Island"s count. As that time, Levis was just two years old, while Lvera and Liszt had yet to be born. The following few years, the count purchased serfs without restraint to enrich the Coral Island and clear uncultivated land.
Eighteen years ago, a new type of tulip was discovered in the Flower Town, which was why the count reclaimed the flower farm.
At its prime, the tulips in the flower farm had reached a surface area of more than two hundred mu (mu = 666.7 m2). It was at that time that the small castle was built.
The following year, or in other words, seventeen years ago, following the increase of serfs in the flower farm, the Flower Town was established. Renal, who had previously been a baker in the flower farm, moved to the town and settled down. Life in the town had been quite hard, but Renal still rather enjoyed it.
Eighteen years had pa.s.sed in a flash and he had become the Flower Town"s richest commoner.
Liszt continued inquiring: “Do you only make black bread?”
“Occasionally, I would also make a bit of white bread, especially when it was time for the New Year Festival. When marrying, the commoners would also order a bit of white bread.”
“How is your white bread handicraft?”
“I… I don"t know, Sir Lord.” Renal was a little embarra.s.sed. He bowed his head, continuing, “However, Mrs. Abby had tasted my white bread and according to her, the white bread I make is quite good.”
Renal"s wife, who was beside him, suddenly interjected: “Sir Lord, Mrs. Abby also said that she would research the milk bread with Renal. According to her, Sir Lord, you really like milk bread.”
“Sir Lord didn"t ask you, who told you to speak!?” Renal glared at his wife and then hurriedly apologized. “I"m sorry, Sir Lord, Rebecca is a foolish woman. Please forgive her for this offense.”
Liszt didn"t care about it, he wasn"t a p.r.i.c.kly aristocrat who couldn"t tolerate the slightest offense. Besides, he wasn"t offended by Rebecca"s interjection.
On the contrary, he was very happy that Abby was already cooperating with Renal in order to reproduce the milk bread.
He was supportive when it came to the research on food. Therefore, he said with a smile: “Renal, the castle is in need of better tasting bread. I"m glad to see that you have entered in contact with Mrs. Abby and hope that you manage to come up with a few types of different-tasting bread. Fear not, the castle will purchase it in large quant.i.ties as long as it is tasty.”
Renal was overcome with joy as this was exactly what he wanted to hear. He agreed at once: “Sir Lord, please rest a.s.sured, I and Mrs. Abby, we will definitely replicate the milk bread and come up with more types of delicious bread.”
“I am looking forward to it.”
Liszt got up and added: “I like to have a bit of meat added into the bread. However, roasted meat is too dry and too hard; it is not suitable to be matched with bread. Perhaps you could try to make the meat very soft and then mix it with bread. The taste might not be bad.”
“I will bear this in mind!”
……
Renal and Abby would probably have to spend at least ten to fifteen days in order to figure out the meat floss bread or another type of bread. Therefore, the current mission would not be finished at least before Liszt attended Levis" birthday party.
Before long, it was August 16th. In other words, there were three days left until Levis" birthday, until he became twenty three years old. At this age, the count and Melissa were already pregnant with Lvera. Levis, however, hadn"t even found a suitable mate yet, still remaining single.
Chevalier Lähden came from the Tulip Castle to deliver Levis" birthday invitation.
After receiving the invitation, the butler Carter started to get busy with the gift preparation: “Master, are we really just going to use seafood as the birthday gift?” Caster inquired with some uncertainty as Liszt had instructed him to just use seafood as the gift.
However, in the Flower Town, seafood was the most inexpensive foodstuff, which was even cheaper than black bread. Not just fishermen, but also serfs would go to the East Coast, which was full of seafood, to pick some to take back home to eat.
Liszt was looking at a book. Without lifting his head, he replied: “Mr. Carter, besides seafood, is there any other presentable specialty product in the Flower Town?”
Carter was left speechless by this question.
This extremely remote town had no commendable specialty product, yet he still tried to come up with something: “Master, what about the Thorns Ridge"s wild fruit?”
“No, no, no. I was previously poisoned by eating wild fruit. Although we already can distinguished the edible types of wild fruit, yet it is still not without risk.”
“I"m sorry, Master, I was rash.”
“It"s nothing. After all, the castle plucks wild fruit every day. We are used to it. Just that, I thing that giving wild fruit as a gift would not be a good omen.”
It was because of wild fruit that Liszt had taken possession of his predecessor"s body and memories, so naturally, he would not overlook wild fruit.
He had ordered for the Thorns Ridge"s wild fruit to be tested one by one before finally discovering two types of poisonous fruit. One was the black date that poisoned his predecessor to death, the other was a fist sized, slightly purple, black fruit.
Although the rest was edible, but there still might be other poisonous fruit in the depths of the Thorns Ridge. He could not guaranty that there would not be some serfs daring enough to venture that deep to pluck the wild fruit.
There were also some fruit trees in the town, but not many and they could not bear much fruit.
Liszt had already ordered some serfs to gather the seeds of a variety of wild fruit in order to plant them at the beginning of next year"s spring. But unfortunately, there was no way to guaranty the rate at which the seeds would germinate. Without sprite worms, cultivating wild fruit trees was doomed to be a difficult undertaking. It was not that serfs hand"t thought of cultivating wild fruit trees before, just that, their attempts were not fruitful.
For the time being, the castle"s wild fruit could only be plucked from the Thorns Ridge.
With wild fruit being rejected as a birthday present, Carter couldn"t come up with anything else that would be more suitable than seafood as the gift.
Although Thorns Ridge"s common wild fruit was not proper, but Liszt recalled that there were still many fragrant coconuts in the East Coast: “I reckon that there should already be some ripe fragrant coconuts. Mr. Carter, contact the fruit farmers – they are to pluck a sack worth of fragrant coconuts. Seafood paired with fragrant coconuts shall serve as the gift.”
“Yes, Master!”
……
August 19th.
Early in the morning, Liszt put on a leather armor and wore the Redblood Sword. Just as the sun started to rise, he took his retainer knights and left for the Tulip Castle – they were greeted by a warm breeze.