12 – Flower Town"s Census
The sprite worm had yet to be truly born. Liszt could not stay there, waiting foolishly; therefore, before returning to the castle, he had arranged for people to keep watch. Flower Town"s only contact with the outside world was via the Thorns Ridge"s road, with very few people coming and going.
Only when the count came to collect taxes, would there be caravans coming over by following the procession of knights.
Now that Flower Town had become Liszt"s territory, there would be no one coming over to collect taxes; therefore, the caravans would also not be willing to come over. As such, there would be no one entertaining ideas regarding the sprite worm.
As for Flower Town"s inhabitants, no one dared to entertain any ideas regarding the sprite worm.
Sprite worms were the darlings of nature, they could only establish master-slave contracts with humans who possessed magic power; magic beasts were also a possibility, but they lacked such practice.
Magic power referred to qi and magic; although they differed in manifestation, yet were the same in essence.
In Flower Town, there were only three people with magic power – Liszt, Marcus, and Gort. Marcus and Gort were well-known in Coral Island. Even if they where to steal the sprite worm, they would have nowhere to run to. In Coral Island, no one dared to touch things that belonged to Tulip Family, and Liszt was a member of Tulip Family.
Therefore, there was no need to fret about the safety of the peanut sprite worm.
He arrived at his study, closed the door, and then focused for a moment, waiting for the smoke to appear. Following repeated trial and errors, he had already grasped the rules behind the appearance of the smoke. He just had to calm down, and then he could see it.
Just as expected.
One minute later.
Twisting Serpentines appeared before his eyes.
“Mission completed. Reward: one peanut sprite worm.”
“As I thought, the peanut sprite worm was the reward for this times mission… I do not know how the smoke missions appear. It does not seem like the rewards come out of thin air, but rather, have a basis in reality, or possibly were things on the verge of happening… The advancement in battle qi took place probably because of my acc.u.mulations, and the peanut sprite worm had emerged because it was supposed to.
However, without the smoke missions, these rewards would probably have been wasted.
He would probably still be an Apprentice Knight and the peanut sprite worm would have secretly died.
At this moment, the smoke Serpentines had already twisted into new content.
“Mission: How can the lord of a territory not even know the number of residents residing in their territory? Please carry out a census of your territory, and figure out the basic circ.u.mstances of the residents. Reward: a new type of tulips.”
“Census? Is this not exactly what I am planning to do? It seems like the content of the smoke missions is updated according to my real-life circ.u.mstances… What is the deal with this new type of tulips, is it a magic ingredient?” Liszt guessed.
The rise of Tulip Family was hinged on tulips.
Tulips were not only a kind of flower, but also a kind of magic ingredient, an ingredient with magic power. Magic ingredients were important auxiliary materials capable of aiding in cultivation of magic and qi. According to Liszt"s memory, tulip magic ingredients could reach a sky high selling price of 10 gold coins.
In case the new type of tulips was a magic ingredient, then it would be a great trump card for invigorating a territory"s economy.
And even if it was not a magic ingredient, it could still contribute to Tulip Castle. Letting the family"s tulip greater sprite a.s.similate it would increase the greater sprite"s evolution and growth potential.
“Then, the next step is to urge on the census! Is there anything tricky about a small village with a population of one or two thousand people? Gort has disappointed me. While I have no time to supervise it myself.”
On Liszt"s birthplace, one or two thousand people was about the size of a school. As someone who had been the student body president of a school, he was quite confident in his supervising capability.
……
But it was an extremely tricky task when it came to Gort.
At the time of transfer of power, he had questioned the former administrative officer, who had been a knight dispatched by the sir count. This knight had only done a single thing in Flower Town, which was, collecting taxes.
Anything else, the knight did not care about. The knight was almost never in Flower Town, letting a retainer knight of his to supervise the town on his behalf.
The retainer knight had also only done a single thing, which was, collecting taxes, not caring about anything else.
The taxation of Flower Town comprised of peanuts, milk, wheat, barley, oats, tomatoes, and tulips. The Count of Coral Island would collect taxes every three months, taking away most of the crops that Flower Town produced. After collecting taxes, the knight stopped concerning himself about Flower Town.
This backwards place lacked the amenities of Coral City.
Therefore, Gort had to sit in the dilapidated administrative office of the small town and look at the four clerks and the six rangers under his administration, feeling like the census was a task impossible to accomplish.
“None of you have ever read a book, nor do you know how to read? Is there not a single person in this town who can read?”
A clerk said in embarra.s.sment: “Sir, there is no school in this small town, nor had we ever left this small town…”
A ranger with a red nose said: “Old Cobbler might know how to read. He has come from another island. I had once seen a book in his home, it was this thick. While flipping through the pages, I had seen small drawings of people. However, Old Cobbler had roughed me up. Though he is blind, but his leather shoe is particularly effective, quite good for beating up people.”
A blind person, without even thinking about it, Gort ignored Old Cobbler.
Since there were no literate people, he had no choice but to say: “Each person shall go to a settlement to count the total number of households and people!”
It should have been a simple a.s.signment, but when the clerks and rangers returned with their reports a day later, Gort felt like he was going insane.
He berated loudly: “What? Peanut settlement has 18 households and 56 people? Mr. Teacup, are you kidding me!”
Mr. Teacup, a clerk, whose full name was Davy Teacup, had an indecisive expression on his face: “Sir, I am not. I have counted them several times, but each time, the numbers were different…”
The peanut settlement had 23 households and 92 people, Gort had personally counted them when Liszt was occupied with the peanut fields.
He could not figure out why Davy Teacup would come up with 18 households and 56 people.
There was no point to think about it.
The numbers the others came up with were definitely also not reliable.
Thinking until this point, Gort waved his hand weakly: “Alright, stop reporting, keep the numbers to yourselves. Get me my horse, I am going to the castle to have an audience with Baron Liszt.”
After hurrying over on horseback, Gort complained exaggeratedly to Liszt: “You have no idea, these clerks and rangers cannot even count from one to ten! There is no way we can rely on them to accomplish the census. Liszt, I have already written the letters, I just need to send them out. How about we wait until they arrive and then do the census?”
“How long will it take?”
“There is no need to worry. Liszt, we have enough time, do we not?”
“I cannot wait.” Liszt tapped his fingers on the the table, “Mr. Carter, is there anyone in the castle who can read?”
Carter bowed faintly, saying: “My Lord, I can write and read, Thomas can also do it… right, Mrs. Mawson should be able to.”
“Then I will have to trouble you to ask Mrs. Mawson and Thomas to come over. Also, go tell Teacher Marcus and my four retainer knights to come over; I recall them also to be capable of writing and reading.”
When everyone had gathered, Liszt declared: “Now, drop everything you are doing, and help me accomplish Flower Town"s census. The town, mushroom settlement, peanut settlement, tomato settlement, barley settlement, wheat settlement, flower farm, and dairy farm, each person is responsible for a settlement.”