The Defeated Dragon Chapter 41

41 – Building a Road Is the First Step to Getting Rich

Looking at the issue calmly and objectively, Liszt extricated himself from his unrealistic fantasies regarding the dragon, thinking that the so-called information about the invisible dragon might not be a good reward.

In light of the previous deductions.

One, the smoke mission was just imparting knowledge to him. However, this should not be the case, A cheat should not be this boring.

Two, there was an invisible dragon nearby that could be captured. If that was true, then it would be amazing news. However, Liszt lacked the power to capture a dragon. The states with dragons, quite a lot of them had captured the young dragons, as adult dragons were too overwhelming. However, even if it was a young dragon, all of the Coral Island's knights still would not be its match.

Three, the invisible dragon was coming from distant lands to deliver a piece of equipment. Liszt did not think that his fate with dragons was this good.

Four, the invisible dragon might be launching an attack on the Flower Town.

The fourth deduction was undoubtedly the most likely, as dragons attacking human settlements was nothing new. Otherwise, an occupation like ‘dragon slayer' would not had come into being. In the majority of knight novels, dragon slayers were popular protagonist, only second to dragon knights.

Basically, in a standard knight novel, the protagonist would either become a dragon knight or would slay a dragon, following by taking a pretty princes as their wife.

“In other words, the rewards of these two missions mean to tell me that I have to oppose a dragon, strive to a.s.sume the role of a knight novel's protagonist… Dragon Slayer Liszt?”

Liszt looked into a mirror and chuckled: “So, defeated the dragon, where is the princes?” (‘大龙挂了，公主在哪' – ‘defeated the dragon, where is the princes', is a line of 鲁班七号 – 电玩小子, a character from the video game 王者荣耀. The first part, ‘大龙挂了', is also the t.i.tle of this novel, ‘The Defeated Dragon'.

He was in a bit complicated mood, both worried that his speculation might come true and thinking that it was impossible to come true. After thinking it over and again, he felt that there was no need to worry about things that might not occur. He would first complete the missions, look at the clues given by the mission rewards, and then finally make a decision.

If an invisible dragon was really going to invade and he could not withstand it, that did not mean that he could not go ask for help.

Once this information was given to the Sapphire Family, then it would not be difficult to exchange it for the t.i.tle of marquis, which was the highest t.i.tle that could be enfeoffed in a duchy.

After calling Gort over, he immediately left the mission to him: “It is unlikely that this maize gra.s.s had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It must have been carried over by either birds or wind. Teacher Gort, mobilize all the idle serfs to search each settlement. We have to find more maize gra.s.s.”

Gort did not quite understood the mission: “Liszt, is this maize gra.s.s important?”

“Of course it is. It is a very nutritious and valuable fodder, and even more fitting for the horse and dairy farms than alfalfa… Anyway, the more varied is the fodder, the faster will the livestock grow.”

“Since it is so valuable, then I will immediately arrange for people to go look for it. Every nook and cranny will be searched.”

In the middle of the other's speech, Liszt suddenly saw a group of people outside of the castle, marching from the gate towards the south of the Thorns Ridge.

“Teacher Gort, is that the new patrol?”

“It is. Your retainer knights were of great help. Those patrol scoundrels at first refused to comply with my orders as an administrative officer, but after a few beatings, their bad temper was quickly curbed.”

“Well done. Discipline is a patrol's top priority, Teacher Gort. The supervision of the patrol has to be reinforced. I have a few ideas that need to be realized… The patrol has to take on the administration of public security of the town and the settlements. Their remuneration shall be paid by the town. Also, they shall wear uniform clothing and follow a uniform code of conduct.”

Liszt stated some general concepts. His plan was to turn the patrol into police, for them to temporarily to be only in charge of public security. In the future, they would also be in charge of domicile management.

In this way, everything about the town could be thoroughly understood, and anyone suspicious would have no ground to stand in the Flower Town.

“But the town does not have more than a few Naldas (gold coins). Isaiah has already complained to me more than once that he cannot do anything without Naldas.”

The castle also did not have many gold coins. Previously, the butler had reported that there were roughly 150 left.

However, the castle was now quite ‘fat'. Just Liszt's Redblood Sword was worth one or two thousand gold coins, and there was still the yearly profits from the Black Tulips as well as the great amount of supplies previously exchanged for the right of a.s.similation.

“I will allocate 50 gold coins from the castle to maintain the development of the town. The gold shall be deducted from the annual taxes retained by the town.”

“50 Naldas, that's too much. Liszt, I have checked, the town retains each year only some miserly 15 Naldas each year in taxes.”

“50 is not too much. Teacher Gort, tell Isaiah and Blair that the Flower Town is about to enter a busy period. They have to be prepared.”

“As you wish!”

……

Regarding the Flower Town's development, it was not just talk the talk.

Liszt was already working on a map, a very crude topographic map, of the town. The Flower Town was represented through a right-angled triangle.

The two sides represented the Thorns Ridge and the hypotenuse represented the East Coast.

The town was located in the center of the triangle, the castle was located near the right angle, and the dairy farm and barley settlement occupied the other two corners.

“Building a road is the first step to getting rich.” With the quill pen in hand, he drew the dirt road from the Thorns Ridge to the town, “This road has to be made into a gravel road. Although there is no cement, but there is a lot of sand. The sand pave the road can be extracted from the East Coast.”

Then, there was the mud road between the settlements, which could also be paved with sand.

However, sand paving alone was not a good choice as it would be difficult for water to drain, and the acc.u.mulated water and sand would get into the shoes. Just that, it was a pity that there were not many stones near the Flower Town, so it was not possible to use a mixture of sand and stone. Only sand roads could be constructed. But it was still way better than mud roads, which were difficult to cross after the rain.

Road construction was a major mater, while farming was another major matter.

Sprites could influence the growth of crops, yet they could not be relied on exclusively. Previously, although the Flower Town had no sprites, but the town's serfs still could farm.

“At present, barely the first step of the scientific farming – informing the residents that fertilizer had to be applied to the crops – was completed. But this is not enough, I still need to forge a batch of farming tools to increase the serf's productivity, so that more uncultivated land can be cleared for cultivation. There is the iron exchanged from the Tulip Castle and the Falcon Town. The blacksmith shop should be contacted.”

These two matters were urgent, but their results could not be perceived short-term.

There was one other matter, which could quickly bear fruit – beachcombing.

Atop Firedragon, Liszt facing the endless sea and looked into the distance. A distinctive salty, fishy smell mixed into the sea water a.s.saulted his nostrils. The wave spray hitting the beach matching with the sunshine momentarily filed his vision with tiny stars.

Thomas puling Tremblingwoods let it let loose on the beach.

Tremblingwoods grew very quickly, growing bigger with each day. It was already as big as an average dog. It was unknown whether it was because of the food it ate was that good, but the fellow already had traces of magic power circulating about its body. It might be capable of releasing magic before reaching adulthood.

Liszt was ready to properly train it so to prevent its wild nature from being too p.r.o.nounced and it hurting people.

“Sir, does the East Coast has anything of worth to pay attention? It is not suitable for a wharf as there are no deep water gulfs.” Marcus looked at the waves, still not thinking that there was any wealth in the sea.

Liszt pointed to a reef which could be seen from time to time from under the waves: “Teacher Marcus, do you see the reef? It has food. When the tide is low, the serfs shall go down and pick up the food… It is called seafood and is comparable to the fresh-water fish that we usually eat.”