Chapter 69: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Saltpeter Mine

Translator: 549690339

Sea Festival.

Li Si Te had almost forgotten about it.

In the Duchy of Sapphire, the two most important festivals were the New Year Festival and the Sea Festival.

The New Year Festival is a customary celebration of the entire continent, marking the end of one year and the beginning of another. Almost every country’s nobles and commoners alike would celebrate the New Year.

The Sea Festival, however, is unique to the Duchy of Sapphire, celebrating the first sea voyage of the Sapphire Family—after the failure of the Dragon Slaying Battle, the Sapphire Family was forced to migrate to the archipelago to establish their own nation. To gloss over the background of failure, the day of sailing was proclaimed as a day of great embarkation in pursuit of dreams.

Commoners might prefer the New Year, a festival passed down through countless generations. But the Sea Festival was an annual celebration that the nobles of the island nations had to partake in.

“Thank you, Sir Layden, for the effort in delivering the message.”

“It’s my duty, Baron.”

“How are my grandmother, my father, as well as my brother, sister, lady, and Lidun doing?”

“All is well.”

“That’s good to hear.”

After chatting with Layden about the recent circumstances of Tulip Castle, Liszt inquired about the return of the Tulip Fleet and, without realizing it, had already returned to the castle.

Layden and his party had not yet had lunch, so he immediately instructed the kitchen to prepare a meal and entertain them.

“Baron, is Fresh Flower Town planning to clear all the trees of Thorn Ridge?” Layden asked, puzzled by the extensive logging he had witnessed these past two days.

“The plan is to clear them all, to eliminate the Magical Beasts’ habitats. However, we currently lack sufficient manpower. For now, we can only clear the trees on both sides of the road, creating open areas to reduce the risk of Magical Beast attacks.”

“That’s indeed a good strategy. The Magical Beasts in the forest are terrible, but those in the open fields are just slightly stronger wild animals.”

For knights with horses, open areas prevent surprise attacks by Magical Beasts, and even magic can be avoided. Moreover, horses can run so fast that Magical Beasts may not be able to catch up. Knights could launch a charge in open fields, merging with their horses to employ various Dou Qi Manuscripts.

Maintaining the etiquette and courtesies between nobles.

After lunch, Layden and his party took their leave.

Liszt then needed to make arrangements: “Mr. Carter, in three days, the Tulip Family will come to the castle to celebrate the Sea Festival with me. I’m not very fond of such noisy occasions, so I’ll leave the arrangements to you.”

“Rest assured, sir. I attended many Sea Festivals at Tulip Castle in my youth. The scenes of Butler Louis hosting the festival banquets are deeply etched in my memory. Now, with an abundance of seafood and Magical Beast Meat in the castle, we can hold a perfect banquet, despite slightly lacking in beverages.”

“I remember among the new serfs, there is a brewer?”

“Yes, his name is Frank Dregs. However, he can only brew fruit wines and doesn’t know how to make white wine, red wine, or beer. Moreover, we don’t have any hops.”

Liszt frowned, “We don’t have any beer with hops at all?”

“There’s half a barrel in the cellar. It’s your lordship’s only little indulgence, and I’m somewhat reluctant to take it out,” Carter said regretfully, as Liszt had become the most important figure in his heart.

“Then don’t take it out,” Liszt blinked.

Carter responded with a knowing smile, “I thought so too.”

“It’s a pity I forgot to have Layden convey a few messages to Levis when he left, asking Levis to help me purchase some wines and ingredients… In the end, the root cause is still the obstructed roads. Otherwise, the castle’s Gold Coins should be spent, not left to mold.”

“Perhaps you could instruct Mr. Marcus to deliver the message?”

“No, Teacher Marcus has more important matters at hand; the Lumberjack Team needs his supervision, and the Knight Squad needs his training. If the Sea Festival is modest, then let it be modest. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for Father Lord to see Fresh Flower Town’s poverty.” A crying baby gets the milk.

If the Earl sees that Fresh Flower Town doesn’t even have hops beer, would his conscience not ache?

Carter laughed, “My lord, you’re becoming more open-minded.”

Liszt smiled faintly, “I’ve recently read a knight’s novel, which contains a little poem—When life deceives you, do not feel sad, do not be in a hurry! In gloomy days, one needs to be calm; believe, joyful days will come! The heart forever longs for the future; yet now is often melancholic…”

Everything is but a moment, everything will pass.

And what has passed will become fond memories.

The Earl did not place much importance on his third son, Liszt; it was hardly a significant issue. Thus, although life could sometimes be modest and strained, the current Liszt remained optimistic. Compared to most commoners and minor nobles, Fresh Flower Town’s living conditions were already quite perfect.

Being able to eat white bread every day was a dream beyond reach for many.

In the following days, the town was still buzzing with construction—building roads, cutting wood, and building houses in Oyster Village. The serfs, with the copper coins paid by Liszt, worked enthusiastically even in the hot weather, which couldn’t dampen their spirits.

The castle was just as bustling, with Butler Carter busy directing the servants to clean inside and out and to decorate the castle. Cook Abbie Spoon, with her mighty voice, had Eileen and Little Lily, the two kitchen maids, spinning around, bustling between various ingredients.

Marcus led the Knight Squad in protecting the Lumberjack Team and practicing the basics of Dou Qi.

Goltai, Isaiah, and Blair were also working diligently.

Only Liszt was somewhat troubled—he couldn’t find where the tiny Saltpeter Mine was!

The mission was already completed, but the reward of the Saltpeter Mine had yet to be discovered. No one reported to him the finding of any unusual stones, nor was there any abnormal situation that warranted his attention. For three consecutive days with no clues, Liszt was quite vexed.

It was not that the Saltpeter Mine was of great value.

Apart from using it for making ice, he didn’t know what else saltpeter could be used for at the moment.

It was the situation that was not optimistic, making him worry whether there was a problem with the Smoke Mission. The rewards for previous missions nearly always reached him on the same day.

“Could it be that my ‘golden finger’ is about to leave me?” At night, lying in bed looking at the Mushroom Hamlet mission still pending, he was truly worried.

Thankfully.

The worry only lasted until the fourth day.

That day, after Goltai led the Lumberjack Team into Thorn Ridge to work, another team followed them—the rubble transport team, responsible for breaking down the stones of Thorn Ridge and moving them to the sides of the road for paving.

While constantly searching for stones to smash, they suddenly discovered a pile of stones embedded on the earth’s surface, accompanied by a large amount of white crystalline substance. At first, they thought it was salt, which is very important in daily life, so the serfs were very happy finding something good meant the Lord Landlord would reward them.

However, after a simple taste test, they realized the white substance had not the slightest saltiness, but instead, a bitterness.

Despite this, they still scraped off a lot of the white material and presented it to Goltai for verification. Unable to identify it, Goltai reported the situation to Liszt.

Looking at the white crystalline powder in his hand, Liszt honestly couldn’t tell whether it was saltpeter, but he knew an experiment would reveal the truth.