The importance of Little Elf is self-evident; even in Tulip Castle, acquiring a Little Elf is a cause for great celebration.
Therefore, after the Thorn Sprite were born, Liszt quickly summoned officials such as Gortai.
A meeting was held inside the castle.
"Whoa!"
"Whoa!"
"Whoa!"
The Thorn Sprite flying around the living room undoubtedly attracted everyone's attention. They were very bold and not afraid of people at all. With Liszt's indulgence, they wanted to search the entire castle, inside and out, to check their home. And this little guy was quite fierce.
Thomas, who had been serving tea, blocked its way, and the little guy immediately bared its teeth at Thomas and waved its paws, seemingly preparing to slap him.
Give Thomas a good slap across the face.
Although Thomas dodged in time and the slap didn't land, it still held its head high and barked at Thomas for a while.
It's as if it's saying, "This is my territory, I'm in charge! You lowly slaves, open your dog eyes!"
Indeed, that was pretty much the case. Liszt could sense its thoughts; the Thorn Sprite was indeed expressing its dissatisfaction with Thomas. Because of its contract with Liszt, it treated the castle as its own home. Everyone except Liszt was unwelcome.
These unpopular people, lacking any self-awareness, lavishly praised the Thorn Sprite in the living room.
"Its beauty is like the stars in the sky; I can't think of a better word to describe it!" Gortai exclaimed, gesturing wildly. "Its arrival proves what I said before: Flower Town is not only a place favored by the Knight's Glory, but also the birthplace of that Knight's Glory!"
"It is not only a Little Elf, but also a Little Elf that brings endless wealth. Under its care, the Fast-Growing Iron Thorns and Fast-Growing Magic Thorns will become trees laden with gold coins."
Marcus's words were as concise as ever. " The Thorn Sprite will carry the adults on their path to glory!"
Praise was endless.
The Thorn Sprite truly deserves such praise—it can cultivate a magical potion and a type of wood, making it almost as strategically valuable as the Little Elf that cultivate food crops.
Waving.
The Thorn Sprite had been flying all over the ground immediately landed obediently on Liszt's shoulder, yawning, "Whoa." They were probably tired from playing.
Liszt glanced at his sycophantic followers and slowly said, "There will be plenty of time to offer praise later. What I want to know now is how to hold a celebration."
"My lord, please entrust me with the task of hosting the celebration. This is what I'm best at," Gortai said without hesitation.
"So tell me, how do you plan to celebrate?"
"Every time Tulip Castle acquires a Little Elf, it invites the nobles who follow it to a banquet. As the Baron of Flower Town and a member of the Tulip Family, you can invite the nobles of North Valley City. Furthermore, your relatives in Tulip Castle, as well as the Baron of Falcon Town, should also be invited."
Gortai first determined who should be invited.
He then said, "To celebrate the Thorn Sprite, all the commoners in the territory should participate. I think we should have a day off... Hmm, never mind, we shouldn't have a day off. It's harvest season now, and we're short-handed for all kinds of projects. Giving lazy serfs a day off would be unforgivable."
And so, the ordinary people's holiday passed by in a flash.
Just work and celebrate at the same time.
Upon hearing this, Blair added, "Perhaps we should give each serf a Copper Coin as a sign of the lord's concern."
"Is it really necessary to treat serfs like this?" Gortai disagreed, as he had always looked down on the common people.
Liszt made the final decision. "It's decided then. Each serf will receive one Copper Coin, free citizens will have a day off, and as for you all, your wages will be doubled on the day of celebration."
"Double the salary, hmm, that's a good idea," Gortai quickly nodded in approval.
"Thank you for your generosity, sir!" Karl, Rom, and the others quickly expressed their gratitude. They liked the lord they followed, for he was a generous and magnanimous lord.
With a slight smile, Liszt was satisfied with his subordinates' reaction.
His act of handing out money wasn't just a pretense of generosity; on a deeper level, he was stimulating the flow of goods in Flower Town through the distribution of funds.
As a modern person of the 21st century, he has more or less learned a lot about economic theories.
After all, we feel inflation every day, with rising prices, devaluation of the RMB, and wages increasing, yet we find that being able to afford a house is getting further and further away. It is through these direct experiences that we gradually come to understand and care about the country's economic policies and learn what it means to stimulate consumption.
The purpose of stimulating consumption is not consumption itself, but to stimulate demand. Once demand is generated, it can drive the development of various industries.
As the saying goes, money only has real value when it circulates.
If Liszt had followed the example of other lords and hoarded all his gold coins in his own warehouses, his territory would have remained forever in a primitive agricultural stage. His people would have been neither well-fed nor starving, let alone able to buy goods or even start a small business or engage in any side hustles.
When you have money in your hands, you have the desire to consume, and only then can your territory come alive.
Ultimately, the transition from primitive agriculture to handicrafts and processing industries brought a continuous stream of wealth—but there were certainly negative impacts as well; once the people had money, they became restless and greedy.
They're not so blindly loyal anymore.
But Liszt believed that as long as he firmly controlled the War Machine Knights and periodically harvested a batch of rich pigs, his territory would not be able to cause any trouble—after all, this was a world ruled by personal strength, and wealth only had meaning when protected by strength.
"Advisor Gortai, please continue."
"As you wish, my lord." Gortai suppressed his excitement, trying to appear less greedy for money. "The final and most important point of the celebration, my lord, is that you should announce the recruitment of followers during the celebration!"
Liszt raised an eyebrow, chewing on his words: "Recruit followers?"
"Yes, everyone knows how important elves are to nobles. Having Little Elf means you, sir, will surely advance further and achieve even greater glory. Now is the perfect time to recruit followers. There are always people like me, Marcus, Blair, and Isaiah who are willing to follow in your footsteps!"
Why celebrate getting Little Elf?
On the one hand, they were naturally happy; on the other hand, they wanted to show off, to demonstrate the lord's powerful strength, and to attract knight vassals. In this world, the noble and free classes produced many Earth Knight, but only a small number of them were able to obtain fiefs and titles. The rest were all tirelessly seeking opportunities to become nobles.
"With the Thorn Sprite by my side, I am the opportunity for these Earth Knight." Liszt suddenly realized that with the birth of the Thorn Sprite, his prestige would surely rise.
He rose from a country Baron to the future viscount of the city!
Viscounts, who either own their own islands or cities, have become high-ranking members of the nobility.