The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

“Is this the Fresh Flower Brew?” the Earl tasted it and nodded, “You have made me see you in a new light, Liszt. The liquor trade is more profitable than the Magic Potion business; it’s a lucrative industry.”

“The Fresh Flower Brew business still needs the protection of Father.”

“Of course, I am your father… Fresh Flower Brew has shown me many possibilities. Perhaps it will become the greatest aid for the Tulip Family to climb the ladder of power.” The Earl clearly saw the hidden profits behind the liquor business, “Levis, Li Vera, you, and Lidun are all blood of our family.”

It felt like the Earl’s next words were leaning towards splitting the liquor profits equally.

Liszt interjected directly, “Father, I thought my brother had already reported to you about the collaboration model for Fresh Flower Brew.” He glanced at Levis, who stood beside him, as he spoke.

“Of course I reported it, how could Fresh Flower Brew smoothly launch on Coral Island without Father’s approval?” Levis quickly said, “The result of my discussions with Father was that I would give twenty percent of the profits to the Tulip Family as a fee for using the channels, with the remaining split between the two of us brothers.”

Out of the total profits, Liszt was to take forty percent, with the remaining sixty percent for Levis.

Now it seemed that Levis also held only forty percent, handing over twenty percent to Tulip Castle.

From Levis’s attitude.

Liszt roughly understood and smoothly said, “I also think such profit distribution is reasonable, although as the heir to Tulip Castle, my brother can use the channels freely, we still haven’t split our estates with Lidun, so we should take care of our brother and leave twenty percent for Tulip Castle.”

“Just like you said, Liszt, Lidun is also my brother. How could I not take care of him? Twenty percent of the profits are for Father to cultivate Lidun, I won’t have any complaints.”

The two brothers.

One by one, they confirmed the profit distribution, blocking any space for the Earl to interject.

Perhaps, as a father, he felt the Fresh Flower Brew was too valuable and that a larger share of the profits should be redistributed. But to Levis and Liszt, this was out of the question.

Even Li Vera and the others were not willing to share it, let alone Lidun, their half-brother from another mother.

On this point, the brothers were resolute.

The Earl sat behind his desk, looked at Levis, then at Liszt, and saw that both appeared calm as if nothing had happened.

A look of gloom appeared on his face.

He drank the Fresh Flower Brew in his cup in one gulp.

Then, placing the cup down with force, he said, “Should I feel proud and gratified at your shrewdness? From minor nobles to major Nobles in just twenty years. Have you really inherited the ambition I hoped for? Why has Tulip Castle, like all great Nobles, begun to exude a scent of decay?”

“Father, I am diligently practicing every moment, looking forward to earning my merits on the battlefield just like you,” Levis said solemnly, with his left hand on his chest.

Liszt had no desire to explain.

He didn’t need to explain anything. The development of Fresh Flower Town was proof enough.

He even had the mood to jest, “Like wine that improves with age, perhaps decay is just an exquisite presentation of nobility.”

“Liszt, I am not joking with you,” the Earl said, looking at his increasingly blurry second son. Suddenly, he felt his paternal authority was faltering, “The old you wouldn’t joke either. I’m comforted by your growth, but I do not wish for it to make you lose some… familial love.”

The young Liszt used to be very afraid of his father.

But the current Liszt treated the Earl more as an equal — between father and son, no matter how much they argued or created a ruckus, there was nothing to fear, as the Earl could not possibly break his own son’s legs.

Therefore.

He expressed his view directly, “Father, you might see sharing between siblings as familial love, but I think holding an invincible Sword in my hand to protect my siblings is also a kind of familial love.”

“I think Liszt makes a lot of sense,” Levis agreed deeply.

The Earl fell silent for a moment.

He poured another glass of Fresh Flower Brew for himself and one for both Levis and Liszt. Lifting his glass, he offered a slight toast, “I hope you both remember what was said today. Furthermore, decay is not a trait befitting a Noble!”

The atmosphere relaxed.

Liszt picked up his glass.

He pretended to drink it down with gusto, but he really didn’t like drinking clear spirits.

After finishing his drink, Levis suddenly said, “Father, what about the top-grade Fresh Flower Brew for the Grand Duke’s tribute?”

“I will need to enter The Court for a spring session in a few days. I will bring along the… Century Aged Tulip you’ve concocted.”

And so,

the brief confrontation in the study came to an end, with the brothers preserving their interests.

Walking along the corridor, Levis heaved a long sigh of relief, “You don’t live in Tulip Castle, so you might not be aware. After Fresh Flower Brew came out, Lady Marie acted crazily, performing several crying dramas in front of father, and I almost couldn’t hold on. Thankfully, what you said today convinced father.”

“The influence of pillow talk is indeed tricky to handle, I understand.”

The master of Tulip Castle was Li Weiliam Tulip.

Levis was just the heir.

But Lady Marie and Lidun held special positions; they were destined never to become masters of the Castle. Therefore, they had to find ways to gain more advantages before Levis could inherit the Castle.

Selfishness is the way of the world.

While it’s not right to think too ill of others, it’s also unwise to regard them as saints. How Lady Marie conducted her pillow talk behind the scenes was unknown to Liszt. He only needed to know one thing, to defend his own interests—if he gave in today, he might give in even more tomorrow.

The once meek and bullyable Liszt.

Now, he had to adopt a new image, to show everyone that Liszt was not one to be trifled with. If pushed too far, he would unleash Douson and stir up a great commotion.

Apart from the Earl, perhaps no one on Coral Island could stop Douson.

Therefore,

“I can swagger around Coral Island, and that’s no jest.”

…

The famous Fresh Flower Brew,

finally hit the market before March, sans the queues for purchase that were not a fad here just yet.

The pre-ordered lists have already been placed on the desk in Levis’s study.

All Liszt had to do was pull over the Fresh Flower Brew, then bottle it by type before handing it over to Levis—he didn’t even need to know who bought the Brew, just count the number of bottles, and his share of the profit was secured.

Of course, he calculated using the wholesale price.

The freight cost differed from region to region, altering the retail price, but that was none of Liszt’s concern. He simply handed over to Levis at the rate of five silver coins for a wooden bottle, fifty silver coins for a ceramic bottle, and ten gold coins for a Jade Bottle.

Just this batch,

sold a total of two hundred and ten wooden bottles, twenty-six ceramic bottles and eight Jade Bottles—the Shattered Stone Castle and Beer Castle each purchased four Jade Bottle Fresh Flower Brews.

The total value exceeded one hundred and three gold coins, roughly enough for the island’s Nobles to drink for a week.

“It’s a pity that the Earl forced the Fresh Flower Brew to be sold to Tulip Castle at cost before departing for Blue Dragon Island. Otherwise, Tulip Castle’s consumption of liquor could have matched the total sales of all the minor Nobles combined,” Liszt reflected with slight disappointment as he pocketed his forty gold coins share.

This was just the sales from Coral Island.

The next target was to distribute to Red Crab Island.