Coral City's Shit Road

The past between Melissa and Lady Penelope was already an old, dusty tale within the castle.

Lady Penelope often criticized Melissa, convinced that Melissa simply could not tolerate her. With a Marquis as her backing, Melissa was untouchable, leaving Lady Penelope with no choice but to move out of Tulip Castle.

Liszt, however, felt that Lady Penelope was the one who was truly petty—it had been over a decade, yet she was still incessantly complaining.

Moreover, in those ten-plus years, even after Melissa had passed away, Lady Penelope still hadn't managed to move back in, because she had fallen out with the new Countess, her daughter-in-law.

"You are lucky to be back today; the Baron's daughter is not in the castle, otherwise I would have turned around and left the moment I arrived. That woman carries a scent that makes me uncomfortable; only your father could tolerate her. Now the entire castle reeks of her, and I feel wretched the moment I stay for even a second."

Lvera sat right next to Lady Penelope, clinging to her arm. Shedding her usual assertive demeanor, she said in a coaxing tone, "Grandmother, if you don't like Tulip Castle, you can come to my Falcon Town. I have a beautiful manor there, and a hot spring you would surely love."

"My little girl, as a noble lady, you must mind your posture. Look at you, nineteen years old this year and still haven't found a suitable partner—it's because you aren't ladylike enough."

"Grandmother is right, Lvera. You should learn to be a lady instead of mounting horses and wielding spears like us," Levis teased, then added to Lady Penelope, "Grandmother, if you find the castle's scent unpleasant, I can have more air freshener placed around."

"This isn't something air freshener can solve. Having two women enter this house in succession has already exhausted me; I wouldn't come to this castle at all if it weren't necessary." Lady Penelope said this, then turned her head toward Louis, the butler standing by to serve them. "Louis, you will help me pass these words on to the Baron's daughter, won't you?"

It was a highly provocative remark.

Louis offered a gentle smile. "My Lady, you know that I prefer to keep my lips sealed."

"Boring Louis. From your youth to your old age, you have always been this dull."

Ever since Lady Penelope entered the castle, the entire conversation had revolved around her; naturally, eighty percent of the talking was done by her as well.

Liszt merely offered an awkward yet polite smile.

It wasn't until the Count returned from outside and announced that the evening banquet could begin that Liszt was finally liberated from this atmosphere that made him feel so incredibly uncomfortable.

The banquet at Tulip Castle was clearly incomparable to the ones held at the small castle in Flower Town.

The number of attendees alone was on a different scale.

At tonight's banquet, almost all the nobles in the castle were seated, including the Count's family, the tutors, the captain of the knights, and several of the Count's followers who were guests at the castle. There were sixteen nobles in total, ranging from Baronet Knights and Barons to Viscounts and the Count himself—a full assembly.

With Lady Penelope at the banquet, there was naturally no risk of the mood turning cold; she kept the conversation flowing at every moment.

Liszt focused on enjoying his food. Although he had never quite grown accustomed to the Western style of dining, compared to the coarse fare in Flower Town, the food here could be considered delicious. He didn't participate much in the conversation, and few people sought him out to talk, leaving him to be the same "invisible man" in the castle that he was in his predecessor's memories.

However, in the past, he had wanted to interject but couldn't find an opening.

Now, he simply had no desire to join in. After all, he was just a transmigrator inhabiting a dead body; he couldn't truly integrate himself into the Tulip Family. He could only view everything coldly like a bystander, keeping a low profile while doing things appropriate for the era, and burying his head in development—perhaps there would come a day when he would no longer need to be low-key and could do as he pleased.

The day after the banquet ended, Liszt rose early, as the three siblings had to follow the fleet to depart for Red Crab Island to visit their ailing grandfather, Marquis Merlin Long-Yam.

"Give him my sincere regards." The Count had also risen early to share breakfast with his three children.

As a son-in-law, he should have gone to visit in person, but his current status was that of a former son-in-law, and his relationship with the Long-Yam family had grown distant, making it inconvenient for him to visit.

Lady Penelope had returned from her walk, her tone despondent. "Levis, Lvera, Liszt, please convey my greetings to Marquis Merlin as well. In my memory, he was a handsome and dashing noble, strong and outstanding. I never expected that after a few years, he would be so ill he can no longer work, and has even stepped down from his post as captain of the royal fleet."

"Birth, aging, sickness, and death are the rules of the world's operation; you need not take it to heart, Mother."

"Are you trying to tell me that I am also a dying old hag?"

"Why would you think that? I am hoping you will live past a hundred."

"Judging by the two women you've married, it's clear you've long been hoping I would die so you could have some peace. No one would be around to bother you while you do whatever you want on Coral Island."

The Count could only offer an awkward yet polite smile.

Liszt took Marcus with him, followed by a castle manservant responsible for carrying his luggage. After saying their goodbyes, the three siblings walked onto the pier together. The pier was part of Coral City. Calling it a city, Liszt preferred to call it a "giant latrine," as the streets and alleys were filled with the sour stench of fermenting excrement.

Precisely because of this, a type of tulip with a rich, heavy fragrance produced by the Tulip Family was widely popular among the citizens.

Citizens going out would pin a tulip to their chests to dilute the nauseating odor of the streets.

Setting aside the smell of feces.

A large city like Coral City was not as magnificent as even a small county town in Liszt's hometown.

There were no high-rises or mansions, only scattered wooden houses huddled against stone houses, extending into the distance along streets of varying widths. There were various shops along the streets, and hurried pedestrians inevitably stepped on all sorts of excrement—the citizens always liked to dump their waste onto the road.

If it were a single pile of dog feces, one could, of course, choose to avoid it.

But if an entire street was covered in it, frowning and stepping right into it was the only correct way to proceed.

Thus, layer upon layer of feces, through constant trampling, merged with the road surface, creating the city's unique "dung roads," naturally carrying a foul stench.

Why was the hygiene so poor?

Because the commoners were too busy struggling for survival to care about hygiene, and the nobles lived in castles on the outskirts of the city, indifferent to the filth within.

The only thing to be thankful for was that Coral City was just a city on an island with a limited population, so the scale of the waste produced could still be tolerated under the constant weathering of nature.

If it were a larger city, the waste would likely drown it.

"Could it be that the limitations of the Elven abilities have restricted their vision, preventing them from thinking of using feces to farm?" Liszt's imagination ran wild as he gazed at Coral City. "Perhaps I could collect the island's waste, haul it all to Flower Town, and build a few biogas digesters on the outskirts of the town..."

He understood the principles of a biogas digester, though using biogas for lighting and cooking would be a bit difficult.

Using it as fertilizer after simple fermentation was the fastest method, and the barren soil of Flower Town, which rivaled the yellow earth of the north, was indeed in urgent need of fertilizer.

"It's just that transportation is inconvenient; the cost of a carriage hauling a load of waste would be worth more than the waste itself... Forget it, better not pollute my Flower Town. Let the town's waste be produced and consumed locally."