The Elf Bug hadn't been born yet, and Liszt couldn't just stand around waiting for it. After arranging for someone to keep watch, he returned to the castle. Flower Town had only one road connecting it to the outside world, and it ran through Thorn Ridge. Few people came and went.
Only when the count came to collect taxes did a merchant caravan follow the knights into town.
Now that Flower Town was part of Liszt's domain, no one would come to collect taxes. The merchants probably wouldn't bother coming either. So there was no chance anyone would try to steal the Elf Bug.
As for Flower Town's residents, none of them would dare try to steal it, either.
Elf Bugs were nature's darlings. They only formed master-servant contracts with humans who possessed magic power—perhaps magical beasts could form them too, but magical beasts had no interest in doing so.
Magic power referred to battle aura and magic. They manifested differently, but were essentially the same.
The only people in Flower Town who possessed magic power were Liszt, Marcus, and Gortai. Marcus and Gortai were well-known on Coral Island, so even if they stole the Elf Bug, they wouldn't be able to escape. On Coral Island, no one dared touch anything belonging to the Tulip Family, and Liszt was a member of that family.
So there was no need to worry about the Peanut Elf Bug's safety.
He went to his study and closed the door. After gathering his thoughts for a moment, he waited for the smoke to appear. After repeated experimentation, he had completely figured out its pattern. All he had to do was calm his mind, and he would be able to see it.
Sure enough.
A minute later.
Distorted Snake Script appeared before his eyes.
"Mission complete. Reward: one Peanut Elf Bug."
"Just as I thought, the Peanut Sprite was the reward for the previous mission... This Smoke Mission, which appeared out of nowhere, doesn't seem able to conjure rewards from thin air. The rewards are things that already exist in the real world, or things that are about to happen... Sublimation of Battle Aura was probably the result of my long accumulation finally paying off, and the Peanut Bug was something that was bound to appear."
Still, without the Smoke Mission, those rewards would probably have gone to waste.
He figured he would still be an Apprentice Knight, and the Peanut Bug would have quietly died.
By then, new content had appeared in the distorted Smoke Serpent Script.
"Mission: How can a domain's lord not even know how many people live in his domain? Conduct a census of the domain and learn the basic circumstances of its residents. Reward: a new variety of tulip."
"A census? Isn't that exactly what I was planning to do? It seems the Smoke Mission updates according to my actual circumstances... A new variety of tulip. What does that mean? Is it going to give me a magical herb?" Liszt guessed.
The Tulip Family had grown powerful because of tulips.
Tulips were not only flowers, but also magical herbs—plants imbued with magic power. Magical herbs were important ingredients that aided the cultivation of magic and battle aura. According to Liszt's memories, the most valuable tulip could fetch the astronomical price of ten gold coins.
If the new variety of tulip turned out to be a magical herb, it would be a powerful boon for the economy.
Even if it wasn't a magical herb, presenting it to Tulip Castle and letting the Tulip Great Sprite assimilate it would still contribute to the Great Sprite's evolution and increase its potential.
"Then the next step is to push hard for the census! How difficult can it be to count the population of a little town with at most one or two thousand people? Gortai has really disappointed me. If it comes to it, I'll supervise it myself."
One or two thousand people was about the same size as a school in Liszt's hometown. As a former student council president, he had plenty of confidence in his own abilities.
But for Gortai, this was an impossibly difficult task.
During the handover, he had asked the previous administrator—a knight sent by the count—about his duties. The knight had done only one thing in Flower Town: collect taxes.
He had ignored everything else. In fact, the knight himself had hardly ever come to Flower Town. He had left a Retainer Knight in charge on his behalf.
The Retainer Knight had only done one thing there as well: collect taxes. He had ignored everything else.
Flower Town's taxes included peanuts, milk, wheat, barley, oats, tomatoes, and tulips. The Earl of Coral Island collected taxes every three months, taking most of the crops from Flower Town, which produced very little to begin with. Once the knights had collected the taxes, they no longer bothered with the town.
Why bother with a poor backwater when Coral City was so lively and prosperous?
So Gortai sat in the dilapidated office in the town and looked at his four clerks and six patrolmen. He felt that completing a census was an impossible task.
"Has none of you ever read a book or learned a single letter? Is there not a single educated person in the whole town?"
One of the clerks said awkwardly, "My lord, there's no school in town, and we've never left it..."
A patrolman with a bright-red, bulbous nose said, "Maybe the old cobbler can read. He came from another island. I saw a book at his house, a book this thick." He held his hands far apart. "I even flipped through it. It had little pictures of people inside. But the old cobbler beat me up. He's blind, and he makes leather shoes especially sturdy. He's good at beating people, too."
A blind man? Gortai didn't give it a second thought and dismissed the old cobbler from consideration.
"If no one can read, you can at least count, can't you? Each of you go to a hamlet and count how many households and people there are!"
It should have been a simple task, but when the clerks and patrolmen returned to report the next day, Gortai nearly lost his mind.
He shouted, "What? Peanut Hamlet has eighteen households and fifty-six people? Mr. Teacup, are you trying to make me laugh?"
Mr. Teacup's full name was David Teacup, and he was one of the clerks. He looked thoroughly troubled. "My lord, I'm not making it up. I counted several times, but I don't know if I got it right. I got a different number every time."
Peanut Hamlet had twenty-three households and ninety-two people. Those were the figures Gortai himself had recorded when Liszt had helped the peanut fields.
He couldn't understand how David Teacup had come up with eighteen households and fifty-six people.
There was no need to ask.
The household and population figures for the other hamlets were surely made up too.
At the thought, Gortai waved a hand helplessly. "All right, stop reporting. Keep those numbers and play with them yourselves. Bring my horse over. I'm going to see Baron Liszt at the castle."
He rode to the castle and complained to Liszt with exaggerated misery. "You have no idea. Those clerks and patrolmen can't even count from one to ten properly! There's no way I can rely on them to complete the census. Liszt, I've already written a letter and am just waiting to send it. Maybe we can conduct the census once they arrive."
"How long would we have to wait?"
"Don't worry, Liszt. We have plenty of time, don't we?"
"I can't wait." Liszt tapped his fingers on the table. "Mr. Carter, who in the castle can read and write?"
Carter bowed slightly. "My lord, I can write letters and read books. Thomas can too, and, well, Mrs. Morson probably can as well."
"Then please ask Mrs. Morson and Thomas to come over. Also, call for my teacher, Marcus, and my four Retainer Knights. I remember they can all write."
Once everyone had gathered, Liszt announced, "Now, let's set aside our own work for a while and help me conduct a census of Flower Town. The town, Mushroom Hamlet, Peanut Hamlet, Tomato Hamlet, Barley Hamlet, Wheat Hamlet, Flower Farm, and Dairy Farm—each person will be responsible for one location."