76 – The Fief"s Three Merchants
The castle restored its calm when the convoy left the Flower Town. Although there were a lot of plates, cups, and other tableware left to be tidied up and the small garden outside the castle was ruined from being stepped on by knights, but Carter could organize the servants to slowly take care of all this.
The castle had fifteen servants, which was enough to tackle this.
“Teacher Gort, the festival will soon be over. As such, we have to extricate ourselves from the festive atmosphere. The fief"s construction progress cannot be halted. Continue to expand the scope of the logging and gravel transport operations. Also, there is still the palisade construction operation. Make an all out effort to clear the road earlier.”
“As you wish.” Replied Gort. Inside, however, he longed for more.
At the banquet, he was like a duck to water when he talked with the count animatedly. It had been ages since the last time he had so much fun.
“The Flower Town stole the show.” This was how he described today"s lunch banquet that featured a superb array of seafood as well as the soothing and tantalizing to the taste buds ice cream.
Liszt, however, had another thing on his mind.
In the evening, he drank a cup of red wine with Carter: ”Mr. Carter, I originally intended to show the impoverished side of the Flower Town in hopes of getting a.s.sistance from the Tulip Castle, yet accidentally, a grand banquet was thrown. With seafood, ice cream, and magic beast meat, there were no grounds to complain about poverty.”
Carter smiled and said: “Master, you revealed your graceful bearing. Your display in the banquet was captivating. If I was a knight, then I would quite likely stay in the Flower Town and follow you.”
Aristocrats ‘flaunted their wealth" as a show of strength to attract followers.
Viscount Trix Wildhop was attracted by the count"s display of charisma and became his follower, helping the Tulip Family partic.i.p.ate in the grand duchy"s campaigns and ultimatively establish the great foundation of the count of Coral Island.
“However, no knights have stayed behind, haven"t they?”
“I believe that the seeds have already been sown. Perhaps one day, they will suddenly sprout and bloom.”
“Those words are quite philosophic, Mr. Carter. Let"s drink on them.”
“Master, cheers.”
After moistening his throat with a mouthful of red wine, Liszt asked: “How much food did my father brought today?”
“There was a lot of food. However, most of it was used during the banquet. What remained is mainly beer and fine wheat flour as well as some spices like anise, ginger, pepper, liquorice, salt, and sugar.”
“How much wheat flour and beer is there?”
“There are about five hundred catties of fine wheat flour and thirty barrels of beer.”
The fine wheat flour was obviously meant for Liszt to eat white bread. He was lost in thought, he could tell that the count still cared about his son.
Some details were telltales.
For instance, coming to the Flower Town to celebrate the festival was a display of affection. If he really didn"t care about Liszt, then there was no reason for him to come to this desolate small fief to celebrate the festival. Also, deliberately not caring about saltpeter at the banquet might be his way protecting Liszt, especially after Madam Marie intentionally mentioned that the saltpeter deposit was worth developing.
He had further brought a lot of food and gave it to Liszt.
“Could it be that the count is a tsundere? This is a bit troublesome.” He felt a bit uneasy. If the count and the others paid him no heed, then he could easily follow the principle of ‘a hedge between keeps friendship green" and leisurely live his life.
What he feared the most were entanglements of familial love.
According to his current status, he didn"t know how he should act, should he blend into the familial love or should he keep his individuality and continue to keep his distance.
“Is this the restraint of familial love? So long as one is a person, they cannot escape this net.”
He finished the cup of red wine and decided not to think about this troublesome matter, to wait it out and let nature take its course. After throwing those thoughts to the back of his mind, he asked: “Mr. Carter, was seafood food sent to the Tulip Castle as a return gift?”
“I gave Mr. Silva first-rate dried seafood.”
“Very good. Courtesy demands reciprocity.”
He put down the wine cup.
Carter had also finished drinking. He collected the two cups and bowed slightly in salute: “Master, rest early. I wish you a good night. I will take my leave first.”
“Good night, Mr. Carter. Pleasant dreams.”
……
The following few days were uneventful.
In addition to the supervision of the logging work, Liszt still paid attention to another matter – the training of fruit stealing monkeys.
Originally, seven not heavily injured fruit stealing monkeys were caught alive. They all recovered. However, two ended up with lame legs and had difficulty climbing trees.
The remaining five were handed over to the fief"s hunters to be trained.
With ropes, whips, and fruit employed together, the cruel and obstinate fruit stealing monkeys were quickly sorted out and turned obedient, climbing trees and entering cages when instructed.
“Three female and four male monkeys, I think that there will be ten fruit stealing monkeys half a year later.” Monkeys usually gave birth twice a year with one infant per birth.
Looking at the more and more obedient fruit stealing monkeys, Liszt was very satisfied: “Without the havoc from the fruit stealing monkeys, fragrant coconuts can ripe this year. I think that the fresh and sweet coconut juice can be drunk in two months time.” There was no season for the fragrant coconuts. Except for winter, the fruit would be constantly borne throughout the year.
“The Coral City does not seem to have fragrant coconuts for sale, so perhaps they could be developed into a specialty product of the Flower Town. A pity that there is no fragrant coconut sprite worm.”
When he was outlining the future for the fragrant coconut trees, the hunters had begun training the fruit stealing monkeys to pick fruit.
They had tied fake fruit to branches and let the fruit stealing monkeys pick it; the monkeys were rewarded with a peanut when they did as they were told and with a whip when they didn"t. The fruit stealing monkeys couldn"t run because of the ropes around their necks. If they tried to run, they would be dragged back and whipped.
“Bear in mind, animals also get angry and hold grudges. You must not arbitrarily whip them so long as they work earnestly. If I ever find out that you strike the fruit stealing monkeys without cause or reason, then you will be struck back by me.” Stressed Liszt with a serious expression. He didn"t want for there to come a day where the fruit stealing monkeys rebelled and killed a few fruit farmers.
“Sir Lord, please rest a.s.sured, we would never dare to forget your instructions.” The part-time hunters were clear that hence forth they were fruit farmers instead of peasants and that they had to use the fruit stealing monkeys to work. They were elated.
If it was not for the sake of training, they really couldn"t bear to whip them. To them, in other words, to fruit farmers, fruit stealing monkeys were as vital as mounts to knights.
Liszt returned to the castle after taking a look at the fruit stealing monkeys before calling for the few merchants among the new serfs.
“Old Grandet, Shylock, Harpagon, you three were merchants on the Small Kerchief Island?” Inquired Liszt again.
“That"s right, Sir Lord.”
“Was there a merchant called Plushkin on the Small Kerchief Island?” (Grandet, Shylock, Harpagon, and Plushkin are characters from different novels collectively known in China as the Four Famous Misers)
Old Grandet replied: “Sir Lord, on the Small Kerchief Island, only we three specialized and engaged in peddling of small goods. Besides, I can name everyone in the city and I am sure that there was no one called Plushkin.”
“Alright, it was just a random question.” Liszt gave Old Grandet an appreciative look. The other had said ‘I can name everyone in the city", indicating that he was outstanding, “The reason I called you today is that I want establish a caravan belonging to the castle and I wish to put the three of you in charge of it.”