The banquet ended.
Liszt brought up the matter at hand. "I plan to build a new hamlet on the East Coast to house some serfs and have them work as fishermen, gathering seafood along the shore."
The farmers were busy during planting season, but once the crops were sown, they had little to do.
Liszt thought this was an inefficient allocation of labor. It would be better to free up some farmers to develop coastal fishing full-time—not offshore fishing, but fishing along the coast.
There were no boats yet, so they couldn't go offshore to fish even if they wanted to.
"Such delicious food certainly deserves to be caught in greater quantities. But Liszt, our town's population is too small. We don't even have two thousand people. The hamlets' agricultural production depends on the labor of the serfs."
"I'll find a way to get more people." Liszt said no more.
In fact, he had already discussed it with Levis. He planned to pay for serfs with a share of the Black Tulips. The count's fleet sailed overseas to trade, and could bring back plenty of serfs on its return. They might come from islands ravaged by war, or from the mainland.
Gortai seemed to understand. "Since you say so, I'll start planning the new hamlet at once."
"Baron, what will the new hamlet be called?" Isaiah asked.
"Let's call it... Oyster Hamlet."
Liszt had high hopes for Oyster Hamlet. Once it was built, he wanted to turn some of the serfs into fishermen, who would bring in a steady supply of seafood to feed Flower Town and provide the material foundation for future development. Every winter, Flower Town's residents stayed home and slept to conserve food.
With enough food, the winter cold wouldn't matter at all.
Large-scale construction could continue through the winter.
By evening, Gortai returned to the castle. "Liszt, we found Corn Grass! The patrol finally did something useful. They found a patch of pasture grass like Corn Grass near the edge of Thorn Ridge, southwest of town."
"Take me to see it."
Before nightfall, Liszt saw the vast stretch of Corn Grass with his own eyes. It was mixed in with other wild grasses and was much shorter than the three Wild Corn plants in Wheat Hamlet, likely due to poor nutrition.
Liszt walked around the area, somewhat disappointed.
This was probably the place where Corn Grass originated, but there were no signs of an Elf Bug breeding there. Without an Elf Bug, it would be difficult for the Corn Grass to flourish.
Nor could an Elf Bug gradually improve the variety and bring it closer to corn cobs.
"Have it guarded, and make sure the seeds are collected properly. Later, we'll choose a suitable spot in the fields being cleared in town and plant a batch there. It'll provide a new variety of pasture grass for the horse ranch and the Dairy Farm."
That night, after bathing, Liszt read in his study.
The Smoke Serpent Script condensed before his eyes: "Mission complete. Reward: new information about the Invisible Dragon."
A moment later, the smoke twisted and a new mission appeared: "Mission: Fishing has been added to the lord's agenda, and a group of serfs will soon be driven out to sea. Making the people work is an essential skill for a lord, but sustainable development is even more important. Please provide the fishermen with new equipment. Reward: a large patch of Smoke-Cured Grass."
"A large patch of Smoke-Cured Grass. What's that? Tobacco?"
Providing the fishermen with new equipment was easy. Even without the Smoke Mission, he would have done it. They couldn't go gathering seafood without tools; he couldn't expect them to use their bare hands.
Rocks exposed by the receding tide could be very sharp. One careless move could slice a finger open.
The reward was no longer information about the Invisible Dragon, which was somewhat reassuring to Liszt. He was beginning to wonder what Smoke-Cured Grass was.
Smoking was popular among the nobility. The Tulip Family grew plenty of Tobacco and even had a Tobacco Sprite.
"So Smoke-Cured Grass probably isn't Tobacco. The seeds I traded for from Tulip Castle included Tobacco seeds, so I can plant those whenever I want."
Liszt stopped dwelling on it. Sooner or later, he would find out what Smoke-Cured Grass was.
He waved away the Smoke Serpent Script and continued reading. The count had kept his word and sent him a carriage full of books when Liszt returned.
He was now reading a novel written in the form of an autobiography, titled Travels of Earth Ranger Griff.
Written from the first-person perspective, it recounted the travels of an Earth Knight named Griff through the Maple Grand Duchy. The story was entertaining, though Liszt thought much of it was pure fantasy—such as having an affair with a countess, eloping with a marquis's daughter, and chatting amiably with the Grand Duke of Maple Leaf.
A fallen noble's descendant who wasn't even a Baronet Knight could never have enjoyed such privileges.
Still, the author had clearly seen a lot of the world. He described customs and traditions that differed greatly from those on Coral Island, the decadent lives of nobles, and plenty of little stories he'd heard secondhand.
It was quite interesting.
Liszt liked novels that told a good story while teaching him something.
"Hm?"
As he read, the story abruptly jumped to a chapter about a dragon-slaying battle. Griff had apparently traveled to a hamlet under attack by an invisible creature. The hamlet's lord had fled, and the residents were powerless to fight back. At that point, Griff decided to rescue the suffering people.
After observing the creature, he concluded it was an Invisible Dragon—the book didn't explain how he had observed it or reached that conclusion.
"The Invisible Dragon is a wondrous giant dragon hidden in another world. Only the bravest and most upright knights can see him. I'm not brave enough yet. If I want to see him, I have to summon my courage! I have to find him, face him, and discover his weakness!"
Griff then managed to get himself killed. He went up to the Invisible Dragon and was beaten until he vomited blood, but that was also how he managed to see it.
"Ah, what a beautiful dragon it was! It was like a flowing crystal, colorless and completely transparent. I spat out blood, and it went right through its body. Yes, I couldn't touch it. I was terribly disappointed, because I might never get to ride it."
Liszt admired Griff's nerve. He was nearly beaten to death by the Invisible Dragon, yet he was still lamenting that he couldn't ride it.
Fortunately, Griff still had some self-awareness.
"I knew it wanted to kill me. I couldn't see its eyes, only a vague mass of water, but I knew it wanted to kill me. I could feel how it felt. I'd forgotten all about life and death. All I wanted in that final moment was to take two more puffs of my cigarette. Oh, sorry, I was out of tobacco, so I grabbed a handful of grass beside me and chewed it to curb my craving."
Liszt's brows twitched when he read this.
He kept reading.
"Later, I learned that the grass I'd grabbed was called Smoke-Cured Grass. It was very similar to Tobacco, but had a unique taste, like a pair of socks I'd worn for sixteen or maybe twenty-six days without washing. I nearly threw up. Yes, that was the moment I successfully kicked my smoking habit. I swore I'd never smoke again!"
"I'd been addicted to smoking for seventeen years. When I was little, my father liked rolling his own cigarettes. He'd ask me, 'Hey, Griff, do you smoke...'"
The long passage that followed was all about his memories of his father teaching him to smoke.
Liszt's scalp prickled as he read. "What a load of nonsense! I want to know how you slay the dragon!"