79 – Crookedneck Bob"s Mistake
It was not until the following afternoon that the caravan returned.
Of the six carriages, two were filled with goods and the other four carried the families of Marcus and Blair. The six horses were weary as the carriages were a bit overloaded.
“Sir!”
Marcus dismounted his horse and saluted. Very quickly, a large group of people alighted the carriages behind him.
“Teacher Marcus, if I remember correctly, your family doesn"t have that many people, right?” Liszt counted carefully. Just Marcus" family had 22 people.
“My two sisters and their families were willing to follow me back to the Flower Town.” Replied Marcus, “They lived in poverty in the Coral City mainly because they had too many children. Even though I often helped them out, but it was still quite difficult for them to lead a good life.”
Liszt nodded, he was always welcoming to an increase in population.
Next, Blair"s family also saluted him. Blair"s family was not numerous, only comprised of his wife and four children. The eldest son had just married not too long ago and still had no children.
After letting Gort settle down the two families.
Liszt began to inquire about the caravan"s venture.
Old Grandet replied a bit nervously: “Sir, we didn"t sell much seafood. Half of what we had was given away to the Coral City"s residents to sample. In fact, many people who sampled seafood said that it to be delicious. However, one person had gotten red spots all over their body from eating seafood. The person also vomited and had diarrhea. This incident caused the people to fear seafood.”
Harpagon added: “If it was not for the patrol realizing that the caravan belonged to you, Sir Lord, then we would probably have our goods confiscated there and then.”
Allergic to seafood?
Liszt pondered. Some people were indeed allergic to seafood. However, the fact that no one in the Flower Town had gotten sick because of eating seafood made him think that in this world, no one was allergic to it.
He hadn"t antic.i.p.ated that there would actually be people allergic to seafood.
“It is indeed quite unexpected, but you needn"t take it to heart. Very few people would feel unwell after eating seafood. Yet once someone felt unwell, they would have to immediately stop. They would very quickly feel better. Remember to make this point clear the next time you sell seafood.”
“Yes, Sir Lord.”
“Were the things that I asked procured?”
“Thick bast paper, powdered milk, hops beer, red wine… have been purchased. Pig pancreas, however, we were not able to buy. There are only a few slaughterhouses in the Coral City and none keep pig pancreas. I have already contacted them, asking to keep as much pig pancreas as possible. We will purchase it the next time we go there.”
Pig pancreas was used to make pancreas soap.
Currently, honey locust powder, which was a powder ground from honey locusts" fruit, was used in the castle. Among the new serfs, there was a soap maker who, by adding flower petals, could make flower-scented soap from honey locust powder.
However, soap making was quite complicated. As the soap maker Burnell didn"t had the appropriate facilities, he had yet to make soap.
Therefore, Liszt wanted to make pancreas soap first.
After giving his report, Old Grandet wanted to give Liszt the money that remained. Liszt, however, would not receive it himself, that would be beneath him. He picked up a cup from the table and said indifferently: “Mr. Carter, take the money from Old Grande. Next time the castle is in need of purchasing anything, you and Old Grandet will be in charge.”
“As you wish, Master.” Carter a.s.sumed the responsibility.
……
Regarding the matter of settling down the families of Marcus and Blair, after handing this responsibility to Gort, Liszt didn"t had to inquire about it any longer during dinner.
As the lord, his most important task was to enjoy life.
“Master, there is a small issue in the shiitake settlement. I don"t know whether you are interested to hear about it.” Said Mrs. Mawson to Liszt, who was reading a knight novel to pa.s.s the time, when she brought Maisie to clean the study.
Shiitake settlement?
Liszt instantly a.s.sociated it with his mission reward – a new type of mushrooms: “What happened in the shiitake settlement?”
“The shiitake used in the castle mostly come from Crookedneck Bob household as they are the most tender. However, in the past few days, Bob had been worried. In the shed where he cultivated shiitake, a bright red shiitake keeps sprouting even though he tried to remove it a few times.”
Not waiting for her to finish.
Liszt stood up from the chair and went out of the study without looking back. When he reached the stairs, he shouted: “Thomas, prepare my horse!”
Thomas, who was about to fall asleep, ran out of his room in a flurry. He went to hurriedly prepare the horse.
Carter also quickly came over: “Master, is there something important that requires you to go out at night?”
“There is indeed something very important. I have to make a trip to the shiitake settlement. Send someone to notify Teacher Gort.” He suddenly remembered something, then turned to the housekeeper, who was still in the study, and said. “Mrs. Mawson, come with me, lead the way to the Crookedneck Bob household.”
A short moment later.
Thomas had prepared his horse.
With torch light and moonlight illuminating the way, they headed towards the shiitake settlement.
The servingmen, Jesse, went to the town on horseback to tell Gort and Liszt"s four retainer knights to go meet Liszt in the shiitake settlement.
There was a commotion in the shiitake settlement.
Crookedneck Bob was very nervous when Mrs. Mason knocked on his door and told him that the sir lord wanted to go to his house hold"s shiitake shed. He thought that the sir lord had come to hold him accountable because of the problem with his household"s shiitakes. As a serf, it was his responsible to cultivate for the lord. However, if he did a poor job, then the whip would be meted out.
“Bob, don"t be nervous, Master is benevolent. You have not deliberately made a mistake, so he won"t easily punish you.”
“Mrs. Mawson, are you sure? Please ask Sir Lord for mercy on my behalf, I implore you!” Bob was still nervous.
Liszt had already entered his household"s shiitake shed.
With a torch in hand, Thomas followed closely behind him.
“Master, what are you looking for?”
“I already found what I was looking for.” Liszt"s irises spun alike whirlpools, with specks of starlight, which resembled stars in the boundless universe, flickering inside. In his field of vision, atop the rotten wood where several shiitake grew, there were traces of light red magic power drawing the outline of mushrooms.
After dispelling the Magic Eyes, under the torchlight, he saw that what emitted the magic power were bright red mushrooms.
They looked a bit like b.l.o.o.d.y brittlegills as they grew among a large number of shiitake. Obviously, the surrounding shiitake had wilted, with only the red mushrooms looking quite fresh and bright.
“Sure enough, it is a magic ingredient mushrooms.” As the mushrooms" magic power looked red, which was the color of fire-attributed magic power, Liszt really wanted to have a hearty laugh, “My qi is also of the fire attribute. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, this red mushroom is a great supplement!”
Sky Knights were basically medicinal pots. Without using a lot of magic ingredients, it would be quite difficult for them to charge towards higher boundaries of qi.
“Thomas, tell Mrs. Mawson to bring Bob.”
When the restless Bob appeared before him, he said with a smile: “Are you Bob? Don"t be nervous.”
Bob was so frightened that he knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly: “Sir Lord, I, I made a mistake, I messed up the shiitake"s recipe, I… Sir Lord, please forgive me!”
“Bob, please get up, I will not only not punish you, but will even reward you.”