The Lord Wants to Build New Settlements

The banquet concluded.

Liszt brought up the business at hand: "I intend to establish a new hamlet on the east coast to settle a portion of the serfs, who will serve as fishermen to harvest the sea."

Farmers are kept very busy during the planting season, but once the crops are sown, they become quite idle.

Liszt felt this was an inefficient allocation of human resources; it would be better to free up a segment of the farmers to specialize in coastal fishing—no, maritime fishing.

Currently, there were no ships, so even if he wanted to fish the offshore waters, he could not.

"Such delicacies are indeed worth catching in greater quantities, but Liszt, the town's population is too small. We don't even have two thousand people. The agricultural production of each hamlet cannot function without the labor of the serfs."

"I will find a way to handle the population." Liszt did not elaborate.

In truth, he had already discussed the matter with Levis. Using the dividends from the Black Tulip as payment, he would purchase serfs from Levis—the Count's fleet traded overseas, and upon their return, they could transport a significant number of serfs. These serfs might come from war-torn islands or from the mainland.

Gortai seemed to understand: "Since you say so, I will begin planning the new hamlet immediately."

"My Lord Baron, what shall the new hamlet be named?" Isaiah asked.

"Let us call it... Oyster Hamlet."

Liszt held high expectations for Oyster Hamlet. He hoped that once the hamlet was established, it would convert a batch of serfs into fishermen, providing a steady stream of seafood to supply Flower Town with food and provide a material foundation for future construction—every winter, the residents of Flower Town would hide in their homes to sleep, minimizing food consumption.

With food, the cold of winter would be nothing to fear.

Large-scale construction could commence throughout the winter.

By evening, Gortai returned to the castle: "Liszt, the Corn Grass has been found! The patrol finally did something useful; they discovered a patch of grass identical to the Corn Grass on the edge of Thorn Ridge, in the southwest corner of the town."

"Take me to see it."

Before nightfall, Liszt saw the large expanse of Corn Grass with his own eyes, intermingled with other wild weeds. Compared to the three stalks of wild corn in Wheat Hamlet, these Corn Grass plants appeared much shorter, likely due to malnutrition.

Liszt walked a circle around them, feeling somewhat disappointed.

This was likely the true origin of the Corn Grass, but there were no signs of an Elf Bug breeding—without an Elf Bug, the development of the Corn Grass would struggle to flourish.

Furthermore, he could not utilize an Elf Bug to gradually improve the breed and bring it closer to actual corn cobs.

"Guard this area. The seeds must be carefully collected. Later, we will select a suitable location in the town's cultivated fields to plant a batch, providing a new variety of forage for the horse farm and the Dairy Farm."

At night, after bathing, Liszt read in his study.

The Smoke Serpent Script coalesced before his eyes: "Task completed. Reward: new information regarding the Invisible Dragon."

A moment later, the smoke twisted, and a new task was issued: "Task: The fishing industry has been placed on the Lord's agenda, and a group of serfs is about to be driven into the sea by you. Driving the commoners is a necessary skill for a Lord, but sustainable development is more important. Please upgrade the equipment for the fishermen. Reward: A large patch of Smoke-Cured Grass."

"A large patch of Smoke-Cured Grass—what is that? Tobacco?"

Upgrading equipment for the fishermen was a simple task; even if the smoke hadn't issued the mission, he would have done it anyway. One couldn't expect fishermen to harvest the sea by hand without tools.

The rocks after low tide were incredibly sharp; one careless move could easily slice a finger.

The reward was no longer information about the Invisible Dragon, which gave Liszt a sense of relief, and he began to look forward to what the Smoke-Cured Grass might be.

Smoking was popular among the nobility; the Tulip Family grew plenty of tobacco and even possessed a tobacco Little Elf.

"So, the Smoke-Cured Grass shouldn't be tobacco. Among the seeds traded from Tulip Castle, there were tobacco seeds; if I wanted to grow it, I could do so at any time."

Liszt stopped dwelling on it; sooner or later, he would find out exactly what kind of grass the Smoke-Cured Grass was.

He waved his hand to disperse the Smoke Serpent Script and continued reading. The Count had kept his word; when Liszt returned, he had sent him a carriage full of books.

He was currently reading an autobiographical novel titled Travels of Earth Ranger Griff.

The book was written in the first person, introducing the experiences of an Earth Knight named Griff as he traveled through the Maple Grand Duchy. The story was quite entertaining, though much of the content, in Liszt's view, was pure fantasy—such as having affairs with countesses, eloping with marquise daughters, and chatting and laughing with the Grand Duke of Maple.

This was simply not the kind of treatment a down-and-out descendant of a minor noble, who wasn't even a Baronet Knight, could enjoy.

However, the author of the book must have been a person of rich experience, as it introduced many customs and traditions vastly different from those of Coral Island, as well as the decadent lives of some nobles and many hearsay anecdotes.

It was quite interesting.

Liszt enjoyed novels that allowed him to both read a story and gain knowledge.

"Hmm?"

As he was reading, the story suddenly jumped to a chapter about a dragon-slaying battle, claiming that Griff had traveled to a town suffering from an invasion by an invisible creature. The town's lord had already fled, and the residents were powerless to resist, so Griff decided to save the suffering people.

Through observation, he concluded that it was an Invisible Dragon—the book did not explain how he observed and reached this conclusion.

"The Invisible Dragon is a magical dragon hidden in another world; only the most courageous and upright knights can see it. I am not yet courageous enough. If I am to see it, I must summon my courage! I must find it, then face it, and discover its weakness!"

Griff then successfully courted death, arriving before the Invisible Dragon and being beaten to the point of vomiting blood, but it was precisely because of this that he saw the Invisible Dragon.

"Ah, what a beautiful dragon it was. It was like a mass of flowing crystal, colorless and entirely transparent. I spat out a mouthful of blood, and the blood actually passed through its body. Yes, I could not touch it. I was deeply frustrated, for I might never be able to ride it."

Liszt admired Griff's thick-headedness; he was nearly beaten to death by an Invisible Dragon, yet he was still lamenting his inability to ride it.

Fortunately, Griff still possessed some self-awareness.

"I knew it wanted to kill me. I couldn't see its eyes, only a blurry mass of water, but I knew it wanted to kill me; I felt its mood. I had forgotten about life and death, wanting only to smoke two more cigarettes in this final moment. Oh, apologies, I had no tobacco leaves, so I had to grab a handful of grass nearby and chew it to satisfy my nicotine craving."

Seeing this, Liszt's brow twitched.

He continued reading.

"Only later did I learn that the grass I grabbed was called Smoke-Cured Grass, a type of grass very similar to tobacco, but with a unique flavor, much like my socks that I hadn't washed in sixteen or twenty-six days. I nearly vomited. Yes, at that moment, I successfully kicked my smoking habit. I swear I will never smoke again!"

"I had a seventeen-year smoking habit. When I was a child, my father liked to smoke tobacco he rolled himself, and he would ask me, 'Hey, Griff, do you want a smoke...'"

The following long passage was all memories of his father teaching him how to smoke.

Liszt felt his scalp tingle: "What a load of nonsense! I want to see how you slay the dragon, for heaven's sake!"