134 – The Flower Town"s Adviser Takes Office
The Sapphire Grand Duchy followed the system of the Steel Ridge Kingdom – knights were headed by the knight captain and officials were headed by the adviser.
As Liszt"s household teacher, Gort was appointed by the count to follow Liszt to the Flower Town after his enfeoffment. He wanted the post of adviser.
After all, no matter how eloquent a household teacher was, they still wouldn"t be able to change the fact that they were someone else"s servant. This was Marcus" case. Despite being a household teacher, he was still a retainer knight, a servant. Tough he was a lowest-ranked chevalier, but even Gort was an aristocrat. Marcus, on the other hand, wasn"t even that. He was better suited to mingle with commoners.
“Sir, you want to confer me the post of the Flower Town"s adviser?” Gort was still a bit disbelieving. Through the past half a year, Liszt never mentioned the post of adviser. He had nearly given up on it.
The unexpected, heaven-sent appointment caught him off guard.
“What"s wrong, Teacher Gort? Could it be that you"re unwilling to hold the post?”
“I"m willing, of course I"m willing, how could I not be willing. Haha.” Br.i.m.m.i.n.g with excitement, Gort was all smiles, “I"m ready to serve Sir anytime, anywhere, and to manage the Flower Town in earnest. I"ll live up to the post of adviser and I"ll never slack off.”
Liszt said: “I"ve noticed your recent att.i.tude towards work. Besides, you are my household teacher and I trust you. The Flower Town is my sole fief as well as the foundation of my future glory. It"s importance goes without saying. I hope that you"ll take it seriously.”
Gort restrained his bright smile, put his left hand on his chest, and solemnly performed a knight salute: “As you wish!”
“You are it charge of the Flower Town, my adviser.”
“I"m willing to serve Sir!”
There was no grand appointment ceremony. The Flower Town was just a countryside town. Thus, the adviser, which was equivalent to the town"s head, was selected in this simple fashion.
Strictly speaking, although adviser had a bit nicer ring to it than administrative officer, but Gort"s actual authority hadn"t increased much. Although as an adviser, he could appoint the town"s officials, which sounded quite imposing, but with the castle next door, no appointment could be carried out behind Liszt"s back.
However, the income had a substantial increase.
His original salary of 10 copper coins per day was increased to 20 per day. With the higher income, he could purchase a lot of extra wine, or purchase some furniture for his and Freya"s household.
“Sir Adviser, congratulations!” Isaiah and others successively congratulated Gort.
Gort was all smiles: “For Sir Baron Liszt, for the glory of knights, and for our own future, let"s build a more prosperous Flower Town together!”
Everyone was in high spirits.
As an adviser, Gort devoted himself to his work with great enthusiasm for the next two days. In addition to managing specific affairs, he didn"t forgot the task regarding the comprehensive plan for the future of the Flower Town that Liszt handed to him. For this reason, he made a request at the banquet.
“Sir, I"m going to conduct another census in the town, no, it should be called a resource census. Firstly, the farmland and its makeup should be clearly figured out and planned respectively, so that once the 500 serfs arrive, they can be quickly a.s.signed to fields. Secondly, we should inquire the caravans about the sale of goods and arrange the craftsmen to run the shops accordingly.”
Failing to attend to the aristocratic etiquette, Gort waved a dessert fork around as he continued pa.s.sionately: “The Flower Caravan and Thorns Caravan will be able to peddle more of the town"s products! Soon, our commercial area will prosper and bring the castle a lot of gold coins!”
“Excellent idea, Adviser Gort. Draw a more detailed plan, and then give it to me to take a look.”
“Yes, Sir.”
……
Outside of the town"s administrative office.
Kosto paced back and forth. From time to time, he would come across pa.s.serby who would greet him and whom he would greet back. Kosto was now famous in the town, not because he was the captain of the Flower Town"s first ship, the Flower, but because of his tireless search.
By now, he had tried to rope in the young sons of nearly every household: “Youngster, you look quite outstanding, how about learning sailing from me?”
He even tried to rope in young bachelors: “There are more men than women in the Flower Town, which is why you can"t take a wife. It"s better to learn sailing from me. There are countless women in the world. After a trip, you"ll be able to take a hard-working and capable woman with a big but as a wife and have many sons.”
Most people, however, scoffed at Kosto"s attempts to rope them in.
The ‘continent complex" brought by the aristocrats bore a natural fear for and ignorance about the sea in the minds of the narrow-minded commoners.
Therefore, after numerous dead-ends, Kosto only managed to rope in 10 bachelors and 12 youngsters to learn sailing and become apprentice sailors. And that was him offering free teaching. If he charged a tuition fee, then he might have failed to rope in a single person. He even had to give them a lunch allowance.
If it wasn"t for the salary the sir lord paid him for teaching his knight squad, he wouldn"t be able to recruit a single apprentice.
Due to his yearning for the sea, Kosto wasn"t discouraged. He still enthusiastically trained these apprentice sailors of different ages.
But for the last two days, none of his apprentice sailors had shown up.
Kosto was getting impatient.
Tabdakdak.
Horseshoes stepped on the gravel road and made crisp sounds.
He immediately went to greet the town"s adviser, who came back: “Sir Adviser!”
“If it isn"t Captain Kosto, is something the matter?” Gort looked travel-worn and his face was a little purple from the sun.
“All my apprentices went to cut down trees. Sir Adviser, they need to learn sailing, and not to be transferred and do something as insignificant as cutting down trees.”
“I"m sorry, Kosto, but cutting down trees is not something insignificant Sir Lord personally instructed it. It"s related to the future development of the entire Flower Town. Your sailing undertaking can wait a few days. And in any case, you don"t need to go out into sea. It"s like you"re taking a vacation. I would like to take a vacation, but I don"t have the time for it.”
Gort didn"t care about Kosto, he just wanted to send the other party away. With the town"s fields still being cultivated, there was no time to slack off and do sailing.
However, he underestimated Kosto"s determination. The later kept saying that ‘Sir Lord wants to develop the sailing undertaking". Kosto spent his time following Gort around, he even followed him back home. Grudgingly, Gort was forced to acquiesce.
“I can transfer your 12 youngster apprentice sailors to let them continue to learn sailing from you. But the adult apprentices, they have to cut trees.”
“Alright!” Kosto hurriedly agreed. Getting the 12 youngster apprentices was already good enough.
“And by the way, the youngsters have earned 1 copper coin for two days of helping out at the logging site. You"ll have to make up for their loss out of your own pocket.”
“Oh heavens, I can"t afford that!”
“Are going to let the youngsters lose money? Otherwise, their parents will teach you how to behave, Kosto.”
“The sailing undertaking is for the sake of Sir Lord"s glory. Is the town going to just watch with folded hands? The money should come out of the town"s pocket!”
After another wrangle with the scoundrel, Gort finally acquiesced. During the period of the logging a.s.sembly, the town would subsidize the apprentices" lost wages.
Kosto was quite content after boarding the Flower.
He faced the 12 apprentices and shouted: “When the tide rises, the Flower will sail to the site of the future dock! We will spend the next few days around the dock!”