The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

They followed their Lord into battle, only for the Lord to die on the battlefield. The fief lacked an heir and was directly annexed by the superior Lord. However, the superior Lord refused to recognize the landed rights of this group of followers of the deceased Lord. Consequently, their lands were stripped away, leaving them with nothing but an empty noble title.

And there was a group of impostors.

What they were best at was forging their own noble identities, such as a bankrupt Honored Knight, a Baron’s follower whose Lord had died, or a Viscount wrongfully deprived of his lands. In short, they possessed so-called noble statuses, fabricating all sorts of fallen backgrounds.

The state’s vast territory and backward transportation made it very difficult for ordinary nobles to verify these impostors upon encounter.

Thus, when dealing with such “nobles,” their approach was to extend a courteous reception once or twice but never to truly acknowledge the other’s noble status.

Charles Trap was one such noble.

Originally a follower of Count Feirolan, who fell on the battleground of the Eagle Kingdom seven years ago, leaving no offspring to inherit the title, his Lord, Marquis Wallace Pineapple Green, reclaimed the fief according to the laws of the Grand Duchy.

He refused to recognize the legitimate rights of Count Feirolan’s followers to the land.

Marquis Wallace believed that it was the failure of his followers that led to Count Feirolan’s death, and thus, he stripped them of all their lands.

Charles was deprived of his lands, and he harbored resentment, thinking Marquis Wallace too greedy.

He left Pineapple Green Family’s domain of Deep Throat Island and wandered to Coral Island.

Li Weiliam Tulip did not take Charles’s word for it—he was not familiar with Feirolan, and even less about his followers.

Therefore, on Coral Island, Charles became a marginalized man. He could join the battlefield, might be inducted into a mixed Knight Order, but even after fighting desperately, he still couldn’t earn much merit.

The Earl simply didn’t care about such an Elite Earth Knight; his elite Knight Order was made up of Elite Earth Knights. The two Viscounts were also unwilling to share their merits, much less with an outsider, a knight – and possibly an impostor. As a result, Charles wasted seven years and gained nothing.

He began to set his sights on Fresh Flower Town.

Initially, he wrote to Goltai, recounting old times, after all, they were both dispossessed nobility.

Now, he simply came in person to Fresh Flower Town, making his intentions clear as day. Yet, Liszt did not see him and only arranged for Zambrotta to receive him—Lord Landlord of Fresh Flower Town, too, was cautious, fearing that if the other party were truly an impostor, his lifetime reputation could be ruined in an instant.

Dealing with a knight of unknown origin required caution.

In his former life, Liszt had heard of many high provincial officials who were deceived by imposters, shaming themselves all the way to their grandmother’s house.

When the time for the banquet came, he kept Zambrotta back.

He inquired about the reception of Charles, “What do you think of Charles?”

“My Lord, from what I know of Charles, his strength is indeed formidable, but as for his identity… Many strong knights prefer to take shortcuts. If they can impersonate nobles and attain glory without fighting on the battlefield, why would they risk their lives there? As you know, not every Elite Earth Knight can obtain a noble status,” replied Zambrotta.

“I need some more objective information,” said Liszt.

Zambrotta was indeed worldly-wise and had a knack for amusing conversation; however, he had one bad habit—he liked to talk broadly about theories without getting involved in practical matters.

Good at abstract ideas, but lacking in practicality.

After clearing his throat, Zambrotta answered, “I’ve heard that he used to fight quite bravely in the battlefield a few years ago, but in the last two years, his performance started to become mediocre. He tries too hard to fit into the circle of nobility, often overexerting and appearing too deliberate. When I received him today, I could feel that he was too anxious.”

“Too anxious?”

“Yes, he kept bringing up Lord Landlord yourself during our conversation, which made me feel that his intentions were too strong, and he was always trying to hide something,” Zambrotta tried to sound more earnest. “We can clearly see the purpose of his visit to Fresh Flower Town, but he seems to think that we can’t.”

To put it crudely, it’s as if “he wants to play the harlot but also erect a memorial archway.”

Liszt understood and responded, “Then continue hosting him without agreeing to anything. Let him hang for a while to see clearly what he needs to do, and then I’ll meet with him again.”

First, dismantle the other party’s facade.

Then, engage in an honest meeting to discuss the intertwined interests of following and being followed.

…

In the following days, Liszt became very busy, as he went to Black Horse Island.

The sparks of inspiration from the inventor surged, prompting him to order others to carry Jomaya Bangtu on a stretcher, personally overseeing the construction of the kiln at the Fire Dragon Brick Factory.

“I brought you here, not just to have you guide the stonemasons in building the brick factory’s kiln but also to hope you will learn about the help rubber water provides to construction,” he said to Jomaya.

Then he entered a simply constructed kiln, took out a Fire Dragon Jar filled with Fire Dragon Magic Power, and released the magic power.

After several adjustments, he successfully confined the activity range of the Magic Little Fire Dragon within the calcination space of the kiln. He then instructed the stonemasons to use rubber water to bond a stone wheeled cart together, testing the push and pull effect. He personally led people to find the right brown-red soil and yellow clay soil on Black Horse Island, mixing them into a clay material.

Using a wooden brick mold filled with the mixed clay, a rectangle of brick blank was formed with the press of a wooden board.

The hundreds of serfs might have been somewhat dull, but they followed orders unconditionally, without needing to ask why, and went straight to work.

So the pace was quick. A cart of brick blanks was already stacked up.

“One, two, three!”

Chanting the count, the serfs exerted their strength together and pushed the stone wheeled cart into the kiln, starting the calcination.

This would take some time.

Liszt then went to the other side where Jomaya was observing the serfs mix rubber water with the beach’s sand and stones, then pile up a new brick factory’s kiln.

“What do you see?”

“Lord Landlord, this rubber water is really incredible. It’s faster than glutinous rice juice which needs at least one day to solidify and a week to be completely firm. You asked me to build a lighthouse, and I originally estimated it would take a month to complete. Now it seems, maybe it will only take a few days!” Jomaya exclaimed.

Building a lighthouse was no easy task.

It first required choosing a perilously high location, usually atop cliffs or reefs, involving not just the transport of materials but also significant danger. The stone construction would also need to solidify for a long time, and building a large lighthouse was even more challenging.

But with the fast-setting effect of rubber water, the construction time would be reduced significantly, and it was no difficult task to build a lighthouse in a short time with massive accumulation of manpower and materials.

Liszt didn’t plan on building a large lighthouse. He only intended to build a small ten-meter-tall lighthouse on the nearby Rocky Beach of Black Horse Port.

Once equipped with a Crystal Lamp, a range of two or three kilometers would be sufficient.

Moreover, the lighthouse would only be lit when the Fresh Flower Vessel navigated at night—although Black Horse Island was not on a sailing route and was only discovered by the Rats by accident, if one or two ships happened to pass by, a lighthouse shining all night would undoubtedly expose Black Horse Island’s coordinates.

Now was not the time to expose Black Horse Island.

But even if it were exposed, Liszt wasn’t particularly concerned—The Earl was on the rise, and the Grand Duke, even if aware, would not rashly assign Black Horse Island and annoy his own “groomsman”; Liszt himself was also on the rise, and as long as he kept the secret of the Black Blood Treasured Horse, the Earl would not vex his own son.

In the meantime,

The first batch of bricks had been fired.