Aside from Russell's Rain Dragon Cigars, which earned Count Merlin's loud praise and the applause of the entire hall, the gifts sent by everyone else were rather unremarkable.
It was not that the gifts were not valuable enough, but that they lacked originality. They were always the same few types.
Either jeweled accessories, metal armor, or Phantom Beast specialties—mostly magical creations.
With the wealth of the Monochoria Family, what did a few magical creations amount to? In Count Merlin's eyes, those gifts might not even have been as valuable as the original manuscript notes from the author of Snowflake Rhapsody that Roland had sent.
That was precisely why Russell's cigars stood out all the more as such a precious gift.
During the banquet that followed, the guests clinked and clattered over their food while loudly discussing what it felt like to smoke cigars.
Several lords seated near Russell even directly placed orders with him for a batch of Rain Dragon Cigars.
No price was mentioned.
But everyone knew that Rain Dragon Cigars, which were handmade, painstakingly selected from countless inferior products to find a single good cigar, and personally named and praised by Count Merlin, would definitely not be cheap. They might even cost more than the finest tobacco.
But so what? As nobles, they ought to enjoy such luxuries.
Otherwise, would they not be no different from serfs in the fields, clutching large pipes all day and smoking cheap tobacco?
"You're going to make a fortune!" His elder brother Roland sat beside Russell, tilting his head toward him with eyes full of envy.
"I didn't mean to. I never expected everyone to like Rain Dragon Cigars so much."
"They're doing it to flatter Grandfather..." Roland spoke a blunt truth, but the matter was already settled, and this flattery was