78 – The Fief's Real Estate Plan

“Mission completed. Reward: a new type of mushrooms.”

“Mission: as a knight, you not only require courage and wisdom, but also ample survivability. Only then can you get the most out of your life. Please learn Marcus' full set of archery. Reward: a black pearl from the deep sea.”

The smoke mission was promptly updated once the logging work along the road through the Thorns Ridge was completed.

The new type of mushrooms growing somewhere in the s.h.i.+take settlement was about to be discovered, so Liszt was not in a hurry.

“A black pearl from the deep sea, what's that about?” He had a bit of a guess. Pearls were not cheap, they were fairly popular ornaments in the aristocratic circle. The black pearl, on the other hand, should be even more expensive. It should be capable of fetching a high price.

Recently, he was getting poorer and poorer, to the point of almost not being capable of affording to pay the commoners their wages. He was in a great need of money.

“Learning archery from Marcus was something that I had wanted to do since quite a while ago. Then starting tomorrow, I shall formally learn archery… However, it looks like tomorrow won't do. That is when Marcus is going to the Coral City to bring back his family. Then be it the day after tomorrow. For now, I should send the caravan to the Tulip Castle to purchase bow and arrow on my behalf.”

On the Coral Island, only a few aristocratic families were allowed to sell weapons.

Liszt, however, didn't had to bother with that, he could directly go to the Tulip Castle to buy them. After all, he was a member of the Tulip Family.

Early the next morning.

The newly established caravan comprised of three merchants, six coachmen, and seven young fellows, while being pulled by the six horses, set out towards the Coral City. The horses had a few bundles of seafood, a few pots, and some firewood hanging from their backs. Those were meant to cook the seafood on site.

Marcus rode his yellow-grey horse and set out together with the caravan, guarding it.

The knight squad's training was temporarily handed to the retainer knight Karl Eisenhammer. Among the four retainer knights, he was the only one who could perceive qi and was on the verge of attaining it.

The other three retainer knights so far exhibited no signs of qi.

As for the knight squad, the youngsters, who had been eating their fill and training relentlessly, had their muscles starting to bulge. Philip Wool and Xavier Oxdung, who had the best physical const.i.tutions and met the standard criteria of the knight college, already started to perceive qi and could cultivate it at any time.

Blair also followed the caravan as he also wanted to bring his family back to the Flower Town.

Isaiah and Gort, whose families were either unwilling to come or it was inconvenient for them to come, continued to maintain the fief's administrative operations. There was still a lot of work to do – the road construction was still in progress, the oyster settlement's houses were still being built, uncultivated land was still being cleared, and there was still another major task, to start the planing.

“Teacher Gort, Isaiah, the fief needs to be re-planned. The families of Teacher Marcus and Blair should arrive tomorrow. I want you to arrange their housing as soon as possible. As influential families, they cannot just live in the administrative office.”

“Sir, please rest a.s.sured. I have considered this last night and have already rented two houses next to the administrative office for the families of Marcus and Blair to temporarily stay.” Gort's tone was getting more and more respectful. For the sake of his soon to be born b.a.s.t.a.r.d child, he had resolved himself to follow Liszt.

Following meant that he became a subject of Liszt's.

The relations.h.i.+p was no longer that between equals, between a t.i.tled aristocrat and a teacher.

“I am very glad that you thought of this ahead of me.” Liszt was pleased with Gort's current att.i.tude, “Then continuing with the fief's planning. About three months later, there will be five hundred serfs and freedmen coming to settle in the Flower Town. Therefore, more houses have to be built in each settlement and the town even more needs to be expanded.”

Gort had long since known that Liszt wanted to buy slaves, so he immediately inquired: “How are these commoners to be distributed? How many of them will the serfs?”

“If everything goes according to plan, then there will be four hundred serfs, which are to supplement the settlements. The remaining one hundred people will be freedmen, mostly craftsmen. Therefore, at your discretion, plan some workshop lots into the town's plan.”

Liszt spread the crude map of the town.

Liszt used his finger to make a cross with the town's only street before saying: “We shall build another street, making the town's layout cross-shaped.”

“This is not a small project, three month's time might be not enough to execute it.”

“Let's first start it, the rest can be discussed later.” Liszt was by no means a specialist. Therefore, he could not make accurate judgments regarding budget or long-term planning. Most of the time, he did things that came to mind, “The streets must be s.p.a.cious, dividing the town into four areas – east, south, west, and north. The west side shall be planned as a commercial area. In the future, I want a trading post and a food market built there.”

The development of this world's social system seriously lagged behind, with the cities and towns looking more like dense cl.u.s.ters of houses. There was no concept of planning areas.

However, Liszt didn't want to do things this way: “The south side shall be planned as a workshop area. In the future, the mill, slaughterhouse, blacksmith shop, and the like must be moved to this area. The north side shall be planned as the serf residential area and the east side shall be planned as the freedmen residential area. Additionally, to the west of the commercial area, that is, near the castle, that tract of land shall be planned as the aristocratic residential area.”

It was quite immoral to divide people into ranks and grades.

But that was part of the social system. Aristocrats could not live with commoners, while freedmen were also not on the same boat a serfs.

Carefully thinking about Liszt's words, Gort couldn't help but to sigh in admiration a moment later: “Sir, your idea is really unique, it is an eye-opener. So cities and towns could be constructed in such a fas.h.i.+on. If arranged this way, then it would attract merchants from far a wide.”

Isaiah was a little slower, but after hearing Gort's explanation, he also understood the benefits of urban planning: “It is indeed an eye-opener! The Flower Town is bound to become the Coral Island's jewel!”

Liszt smiled lightly: “The most important point, though, is that more toilets must be built! I don't want to see anyone urinating nor defecating anywhere in the town! Not even three-year-olds!”

He immediately added: “Hang up conspicuous signs in each store, each toilet, and even at the entrance of the roads. No matter who comes to the Flower Town in the future, they must comply with the rule of not urinating nor defecating anywhere except in the toilets!”

He felt strongly about this.

Because a few days prior, on the Going-out-to-the-sea Festival, there were more than ten of the count's knights defecating in the surroundings of his castle in the afternoon!

It was normal for many knights to defecate whenever and wherever they felt like.

But Liszt was against it, he didn't want to accidentally step on a piece of feces when strolling across his horse field.

As an aboriginal, Gort and Isaiah did not care about this, they were used to having urine and feces everywhere.

However, now that Liszt gave his order, they nodded, replying: “Sir, please rest a.s.sured. We shall place the fief's hygiene as the top priority.”

Liszt suddenly recalled another matter: “Oh, Isaiah, by the way, the youngsters in my knight squad don't know how to read. I would like to hire you as a teacher for the knight squad to teach them some common symbols so that they could read at least.” There was no knight college in the Flower Town. Therefore, he could only hire a teacher.

Isaiah didn't hesitate: “I, Isaiah, am at your service.”