Chapter 335 Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms

They arrived at Flower Harbor in the evening.

After confirming that Acheronides had returned to the shore, Levis immediately returned to the castle and began calculating how many gold coins he had. He found that without selling off any property, he only had about a hundred gold coins—the Flowers Brew market had not fully opened yet, and it would be difficult to raise a significant amount of gold in a short period.

"This isn't nearly enough to buy a medium-sized ship; I need at least 500 gold coins for that."

Before the founding of the Sapphire Duchy by the first Duke Andrew Sapphire, humans on the continent had not yet entered the Age of Sail.

Ships were mostly powered by oars, poles, and sculls, navigating the inland lakes and rivers, rarely venturing into the near seas.

It’s unclear when sails were first invented, but if traced back, it would likely lead to the Moon Empire—the cultural origin of this world, with everything somehow related to the Moon Empire.

However, it was the Sapphire Duchy that certainly popularized sailboats, as it was the first nation established on an island.

The island lacked serfs, food, and minerals.

Everything had to be seized from the continent.

Inland boats powered by oars and sculls could not withstand the assault of wind and waves, so sailboats became the mainstay of maritime travel. Under the impetus of war, they rapidly developed among the archipelagos of the Sapphire Duchy.

Basically, oar-and-scull boats have been phased out here.

Only sailboats are built and sold now.

Currently, there are three grades of sailboats—small single-masted boats, medium double-masted boats, and large three-masted boats.

The sails are all square-rigged; of course, in the era before lateen sails were invented, they were all simply called sails, only Levis distinguished them by calling them square-rigged sails.

The sail of a single-masted boat, more accurately called a square-rigged sail, is somewhat similar to the ships used by Viking pirates, with a huge square sail.

The sails of double-masted boats are composed of smaller square-rigged sails, and the sails of three-masted boats are the same.

Each of these three classes of ships comes in three types: cargo, standard, and fast. Cargo ships are spacious with huge holds but sail very slowly; fast ships are narrow with small holds but travel at high speed; standard ships are a balance between the two, neither too big nor too slow.

The *Flowers* is a double-masted standard ship.

According to general shipbuilding costs:

Single-masted standard ships range from 50 to 200 gold coins; single-masted cargo ships range from 100 to 300 gold coins; single-masted fast ships range from 200 to 400 gold coins.

Double-masted standard ships range from 500 to 1000 gold coins—the *Flowers* is worth at least 500 gold coins; double-masted cargo ships range from 800 to 1200 gold coins; double-masted fast ships range from 1000 to 1500 gold coins.

Three-masted standard ships range from 2000 to 3000 gold coins; three-masted cargo ships range from 2500 to 4000 gold coins; three-masted fast ships range from 5000 to 6000 gold coins.

Currently, only the Sapphire family can build three-masted fast ships, and they are not sold to the public, being used as warships. Only a few are given as gifts—Marquis Merlin Longtaro, after retiring, was gifted three three-masted fast ships by the Duke of Sapphire for his contributions to the duchy.

"The task requires a medium-sized boat, and the cheapest one costs 500 gold coins; I’ll either have to sell everything or borrow money." Levis rubbed his chin, feeling that there was nothing he was willing to sell.

Besides, it was just a temporary shortage of funds.

The Flowers Brew could still earn a few hundred gold coins every month. It would be better to advance the next few weeks' earnings from Tulip Castle using the Flowers Brew's revenue.

With that in mind,

He immediately penned a letter and had Gort take it to Tulip Castle: "Gort, my advisor, I hope you can follow the merchant caravan and select a suitable double-masted standard ship. Don’t spend too much; we’ll only be sailing between Black Horse Island and Flower Town."

"My lord, are you planning to build a new ship or buy a medium-sized one?" Gort asked.

"Of course, I should buy a new ship," Levis replied.

But he suddenly remembered that the smoke mission task only required him to buy another medium-sized sea vessel. It didn’t specify whether the ship had to be newly built or whether it needed to be a cargo ship or a regular vessel.

So, why not just buy an old ship?

The Flowers was an old ship, a patched-up one, but it still sailed smoothly without any problems. Especially after recently applying rubber water to the gaps in the planks, the Flowers had become even more solid and stable, showing no signs of leaks. It could easily last another decade without any issues.

With a little patching and some rubber water, an old ship could be as good as new.

So he changed his plan on the spot: "Then let's buy an old ship, keeping the price within 500 gold coins."

"My lord, it's quite a coincidence," Gort said with a smile. "I recently heard some news that the Tulip Castle's merchant fleet is preparing to replace a batch of new ships. It's related to the specialty flower wine of Flower Town. Mr. Frank told me that Levis is planning to form a dedicated wine transport fleet, intending to purchase fast ships to replace some cargo vessels."

Since the wine was valuable, using faster ships would reduce travel time and minimize risks.

"Is that so? In that case, pick out a relatively good one from this batch of cargo ships and buy it."

"As you wish, my lord."

...

Gort went to buy the ship.

This would probably take a few days. During this time, the castle was preparing to demolish the Shell Wooden Building and restore it to its original state. As for Liszt, he rarely stayed in the castle because the news of slaying the six-headed king sea serpent had spread, and nobles from North Valley City were coming to visit one after another.

He found hosting these nobles incredibly tedious, having nothing in common to talk about except eating and drinking.

So he delegated all hosting tasks to Zanbuluota—apart from Gort, Zanbuluota was the only one in Flower Town with good diplomatic skills.

Having once been stripped of his title, Zanbuluota wasn’t suited for practical tasks but excelled at diplomacy.

He also had an important task: to reject all requests to purchase materials from the six-headed king sea serpent, as all materials were non-saleable.

Free from paperwork, Liszt was peacefully building his seaside villa for keeping his beloved.

On the beach after the tide receded, a large pit of 500 square meters was dug, filled with a large number of rocks and sea sand, then mixed with rubber water.

Exposed to the sun.

The solidification process was quick, and within a few hours, a platform similar to a cement stage was constructed.

The sand was soft, and the foundation wasn't deep, but the platform was large and sturdy enough to remain very stable, unaffected by the sea water after high tide.

On top of the platform, a layer of stone house was built.

This stone house would be submerged during high tide, allowing Acheronides to freely enter and exit. A wooden house was built on the upper level for Liszt to live in, and Acheronides could also come up the stairs to read and study magic.

Take some potions, practice magic, and listen to the mermaids sing.

Facing the sea, with spring flowers blooming.