Chapter 239 The Count’s New Toy

Gold coins.

Liszt didn't have much of this stuff. His current liquid capital was only about a hundred gold coins. The territory indeed made a lot of money from the Flower Caravan's business, and taxes were increasing day by day. But the expenses of the territory were also growing every day.

Just for Liszt's own living expenses, it would cost dozens of gold coins a month.

Those exotic delicacies weren't expensive; the materials and labor costs were quite cheap. What was valuable was the meat of magical beasts, and he had become a carnivore who couldn't go a meal without it. If the territory couldn't produce magic potions on its own, his personal consumption would be even more terrifying.

The construction of the territory was even more costly.

If Black Horse Island were to be developed on a large scale, it would certainly be a huge black hole, and it would be difficult to see returns for at least one or two years; the development of Flower Town had basically entered a regular phase, but the investment was certainly not small.

Despite the seemingly bustling development over nearly nine months, Liszt had spent at least a thousand gold coins in total.

Without the Fog Task, it was hard to imagine how many things could have been accomplished.

So.

This time, to make up for the shortfall of five hundred gold coins, Liszt still needed to rely on the reward from the Fog Task. After some thought, he decided to visit the Earl the next day to exchange mithril for a batch of gold coins.

...

The next morning.

The sun didn't rise on time, so it seemed rather gloomy.

The Earl had already gotten up and was writing diligently at his desk. He had been very busy these past few days, organizing the distribution of war spoils.

"Liszt, you're up early," the Earl gestured for Liszt to find a chair and sit down. "Levis didn't keep you up all night talking about war stories?"

"Actually, my brother's eloquence still needs work; he's far from being able to talk non-stop for a whole day and night."

"Alright, he indeed lacks the talent of a diplomat. What would you like to drink, red wine, or coffee?" Chatting with his son always felt a bit stiff without something to drink.

The relationship between father and son would never reach the level of intimacy that exists between mother and daughter.

"Do you have milk? I don't want to drink alcohol or coffee this early in the morning." Liszt had become dependent on milk, and since he couldn't get the milk from his own dragon-bred cows, he had to settle for ordinary milk.

When the servant brought in freshly brewed milk, Liszt could clearly feel that the quality of the milk from Tulip Castle's dairy cows was far inferior to that of the cows in Flower Town.

Even if those cows at the dairy farm hadn't become dragon-bred, they had definitely undergone some mutation.

"These past few days, I've been using the Flower Soap for bathing, and it's really very good. This industry should bring you considerable income," the Earl said.

"A couple of gold coins a day, similar to the seafood business back then, but now the seafood business is almost at a standstill, and the income is much less than before. The production of Flower Soap is limited, so it can't expand to other islands yet, which keeps my finances tight."

"The development of Flower Town has already surprised many people, including me, so don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Pressure.

There was no real pressure.

Liszt felt that his daily life was truly free of stress—eating, drinking, practicing martial arts, writing, riding horses, walking dogs, playing with little elves, and patrolling the territory. Occasionally, when inspiration struck, he would have the serfs implement his ideas, or else he would follow up on the Fog Task.

Apart from feeling content, there was nothing but more contentment.

Of course, such a decadent and corrupt lifestyle should be kept low-key, so he said jokingly, "There is some pressure. To fulfill my wish of riding a dragon before I turn thirty, I need to work tirelessly."

"Uh."

The Earl was momentarily taken aback by this joke: "Don't aim too high."

Liszt nodded: "Actually, I want to become a Sky Knight as soon as possible. Hearing my brother talk about your battle with Earl Figo, I am deeply inspired."

This goal was much more realistic, and the Earl easily accepted it: "I hope all four of you siblings will aim to become Sky Knights. The Tulip family has always pursued progress in every generation. A knight's ambition must never wane, and strive to turn pressure into motivation."

"I understand. Now that I'm an adult, I see things clearly that used to confuse me," Liszt said, suddenly remembering something. "By the way, Father, besides bringing a batch of specialties and delicacies from Flower Town to Tulip Castle, I also prepared a gift for you and my brother."

"Oh, what gift?"

"A telescope."

Liszt took out a fairly well-crafted monocular telescope from his pocket, handed it to the Earl, and showed him how to use it: "This is a telescopic monocular. Place the small eyepiece in front of your eye, yes, just like that, and then point the larger objective lens out the window."

When the Earl did as instructed, he was startled at the first glance: "Oh, my God, the sea of tulips seems to be right in front of me!"

"You can pull the objective lens out further, yes, it can extend longer."

"It's getting closer. Are they moving? Is this magic?" The Earl held the telescope and kept looking at distant objects, very excited. "I see Silva, he's holding a cigarette, looking for a place to smoke a hand-rolled cigarette made of fire grass, not a fire flint."

Holding the telescope, the Earl started snooping around, while the deputy steward Silva outside the castle had no idea that his act of smoking had been caught by the Earl.

The excited Earl couldn't stop for a moment.

Liszt was very satisfied with the effect of the telescope, but the sight of Silva smoking made him suddenly wonder if he should invent matches?

In this world, the tools for starting fires were "fire grass," which could be rubbed together, and "fire flints" made from fire grass, both of which were far less convenient than matches.

Lighters were even more advanced and convenient, but Liszt didn't think he could invent a lighter; the technology was too complex.

As for matches, there wasn't much technical content involved. The only challenge was that the match heads used phosphorus as the igniting material. If he remembered correctly, red phosphorus was used, and it was coated on the match head and the striking surface of the matchbox separately.

When in use, they were rubbed together, and when not in use, they were separated, known as safety matches.

"Phosphorus... I do know quite a bit about phosphorus," Liszt thought to himself.

First, rural farming couldn't do without phosphate fertilizer; second, phosphorus was discovered through alchemy, where a man dreaming of alchemy accidentally extracted phosphorus from urine; third, in middle school geography, he learned that Nauru, a country, had phosphorus mines formed from bird droppings.

Finally, the legendary ghost fire is said to be formed by the phosphorus in human bones burning in the air.

"So, to get phosphorus, I have to deal with feces and urine?" Liszt was quite helpless; he certainly didn't want to become a member of TFBOYS. "It's best to look for bird droppings. Find an island with many seabirds, and there might be phosphate deposits... Even if we can't extract phosphorus, it can still be used as fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer."

After he carefully recalled the information about phosphorus twice, the Earl finally put down the telescope with lingering interest and exclaimed, "Liszt, where did you get this telescope from?"