140 – The Ox Horn College and Little Sulli

“Grandmother, your eyes can see through anything.” Said Liszt with a smile.

His deal with Levis wasn't particularly concealed and it wasn't difficult to uncover it. At least, the count was sure to know about the slave trade between the two parties. On the Coral Island, so long as the count wanted to uncover something, he could do it at anytime.

Lvera looked at the increasingly popular Liszt in dissatisfaction: “Liszt, the Flower Caravan's seafood trade has reached my Falcon Town!”

“Congratulations, Sister, the Falcon Town's residents can eat delicious seafood.”

“I'll organize my people to salvage their own seafood. Although you and Levis monopolized the seafood market, but the other lords will also dispatch their people to salvage their own seafood. Your trade won't last long!”

Liszt sat on a chair, not minding Lvera's childish provocation: “The towns by the seaside, of course, can salvage seafood by themselves. It's feasible for them. But Coral Island is so big, not every town is located close to the sea. Also, not every beach is rich in seafood.”

In fact, the Flower Caravan no longer tried to catch seafood.

Working directly with the lords of the towns by the seaside and letting them catch the seafood, the Flower Caravan would purchase the seafood from them and then sell it to the cities. With the seafood specialties of each town being different, the Flower Caravan would grasp the most complete variety of seafood, which could be purchased at a low price and sold at a high price.

Once the aristocrats and commoners of the Coral Island got used to seafood on the table, the income would rise from the initially estimated 3 gold coins per day to 4 gold coins per day.

After accounting for the expenses and Levis' share as well as the caravan's consumption, Liszt would still make a profit of over 3 gold coins per day. With the seafood market, Liszt could rise to the ranks of the Coral Island's richest people.

This windfall was beyond enviable.

Although Lvera was envious, but she also understood why Liszt was so confident – he had Levis in his corner. On the Coral Island, the two people with the greatest authority were the count and Levis. As Levis' father, the count obviously wouldn't meddle in his son's business. Having acquired a stake in it, Levis issued the seafood license.

Now, no one could vie over this windfall with Liszt.

She was forced to stiffly change the topic: “Why did you come so early in the morning?”

“I came here to give Grandmother a flower.” Liszt smiled and said to his gentleman's valet Thomas, “Go fetch the potted plant from the carriage.”

“Yes, Master.”

Shortly after, Thomas returned with a potted black nightshade in his hands.

“So it's a black nightshade.” Madam Penélope suddenly realized. “This is the black nightshade I gave you. Have you nursed it back to health? No, it's not the same black nightshade I gave you… Is the black nightshade dead? What a pity, it still couldn't avoid wilting and dying?”

“Grandmother, you don't have to be sad, the black nightshade is still alive and well. Moreover it's very healthy, far healthier than ordinary black nightshades.”

“What do you mean?” Madam Penélope gestured for her servant to put the black nightshade on the balcony before continuing, “If you have anything to say, just say it. Liszt, don't talk to me in such a tone of voice. It reminds me of Melissa. Despite that face of Melissa, I've already convinced myself that you have taken after your father.”

The resentment Madam Penélope felt for Melissa still ran deep.

Liszt had no memory of his mother, nor did he know what her tone of voice was like, but he guessed that it was due to him being ‘deliberately mystifying' or his insufficiently intimate manner. The later couldn't be helped. After all, he wasn't the original Liszt and he couldn't be too emotionally-invested.

Therefore, he kept on smiling: “The black nightshade that you gave me wasn't sick, but rather, was pregnant with a sprite worm. The black nightshade sprite has already been born.”

The news of the sprite worm shocked Madam Penélope and Lvera.

Madam Penélope was genuinely happy. She already forgot about her dissatisfaction with Liszt's deliberately mystifying tone of voice, and she praised her grandson: “Liszt, you are favored by the glory of knights, you are the luckiest one of the Tulip Family. Take care of the black nightshade, treat it as a gift from me.”

“I'm very grateful, Grandmother. I'll meticulously prepare a present for you on your birthday this year.” Stated Liszt.

Seeing that Lvera also wanted to say something, Liszt, who wasn't interested in talking with this childish girl, got up: “Grandmother, I have an appointment with Mr. Frank, I can't stay here any longer. I hope to have a luncheon in the castle at noon.”

“Go, lucky fellow, I'll have the kitchen do the omelet you love.”

……

“Mr. Frank.”

“Baron Liszt, you look more mature, but still as handsome as ever.” Frank had a rather receding hairline and an ugly, red nose, “My Sulli has graduated from the Ox Horn College and has already returned. Upon return, she said that she wanted to see Brother Liszt.”

“Little Sulli is back?” Liszt thought for a while before recalling that Little Sulli was Frank's daughter.

In his childhood memories, Little Sulli was his little follower. They played together as they were only 1 year apart. However, Liszt later went to the Knight College and Little Sulli was sent to the Ox Horn College by Frank. They hadn't seen each other since then.

As for the Ox Horn College, it was located on the Iron Hoof Island.

The Iron Hoof Island was the fief of Marquis Bull, who was of the Sapphire lineage. His ancestor was the favorite son of Grand Duke Sapphire. Upon coming of age, his ancestor was granted the t.i.tle of count, Count Bull. After the establishment of the Sapphire Grand Duchy, his ancestor was enfeoffed with Iron Hoof Island and had his t.i.tle promoted to marquis.

Originally, the Marquis Bull Family established the Ox Horn College in order to groom maids for the court.

Gradually, aristocrats also started to send their daughters to the Ox Horn College to study. Aristocratic gentlewomen who underwent the Ox Horn College's formation were very popular as marriage partners, they were thought to be civilized after learning etiquette, needlecraft, housekeeping, music, reading, writing, and the like.

Of course, not all aristocratic gentlewomen went to the Ox Horn College to study. Lvera hadn't gone.

Not sure whether it was a misconception of his, but Liszt felt like Frank was selling Little Sully to him, as the other party kept mentioning her.

“It's probably because I've become a hot commodity on the island as a young bachelor aristocrat.” Though Liszt. However, he was not the least bit interested in Little Sulli. The Little Sulli in his memories was chubby.

After a while, seeing that Liszt wasn't enthusiastic, Frank gradually returned to the main topic.

“Your officials and servants are making inventory.”

500 serfs were gathered in threes and twos on an open s.p.a.ce not far from the harbor. From their appearances, most of them looked sick. It was unknown whether they were genuinely sick or just seasick.

Gort and the others led clerks to make inventory of the serfs, calculating the ratio of men and women as well as the number of craftsmen. They soon returned with a rough statistic.

“Sir, there's a total of 476 serfs…”

Frank casually explained: “The serfs were s.h.i.+pped back from far away. Along the way, it was inevitable that some of them would fall ill or not acclimatize themselves. The fleet purchased 510 serfs and from among them, 34 people were lost.”

Liszt sighed inside and nodded in acknowledgement. He knew very well that the sale of serfs would inevitably be accompanied by death.

“Teacher Gort, have the Flower Caravan transport these serfs to the Flower Town as soon as possible.”