The Defeated Dragon Chapter 161-162

Chapter 161 – The Apple Table Meeting

Liszt took two of the finished crystal lamps.

Back at the castle, Liszt ordered his servants to install the crystal lamps in his study. The lamps made of white crystals emit a mild white light, much like natural light, although not as strong as sunlight. A single crystal lamp gives out light comparable to that of ten candles.

“This looks like 50 watts of incandescent light, which is not strong enough. It is best to install two more."

In a typical household, three crystal lamps are most suitable, not too harsh on the eyes, but isn't dim at all. Also, the crystal lamps can operate for years. It could've been designed to switch on and off on its own, but that would require another level of technical design and also wasn't cost-effective.

 Crystals have a high value but not high enough to an unacceptable level.

On Tulip Castle, with its hundreds of crystal lamps ,it never falls into darkness. Many aristocrats liked to use crystal-carved cutlery, and after his exile from the castle, Liszt was given a fine crystal cutlery set.  Although its magic was already exhausted, it still stood out and entertained guests.

"The bedroom will need crystal lamps and nightlights. In that way, the crystal lamp can be turned off and it won't be as dark since nightlights give a sort of dim light." He was used to sleeping in the dark, and he could not sleep with the lights on.

Liszt was ordering sefs to correct the crystal lamps' position in the rooms.

At Glanny's speed, it would take about three to five days before ten crystal lamps are ready. Ten crystal lamps are only food for five rooms but he is not planning to add any more. He wasn't trying to show off by taking too many crystal lamps at once. 

Besides, the ten lamps were enough for three study rooms , two living rooms, two dining rooms,  two for a bedroom, and one bathroom.

Carter came over and said, “Sir Baron, Mr. Marcus is here waiting for you in the living room.” 

“Did Mr. Marcus say anything?”

“He said he came to report on the knight training of serf children.”

Liszt thought for a moment, and said, "Have Karl Eisenhammer and Romm Winebarrel come in here along with my knight's squad.  We will have a meeting. "

Downstairs, Liszt and Marcus came across each other.

"This one greets you, Sir."

"Good day,” Liszt said while letting Thomas tie his bow tie. “Mr. Marcus, let's talk under the apple tree. I also invited the others to discuss the knight training.”

The apple tree he was referring to was a wild fruit tree not far from the castle gate.

There are stone benches and wooden tables under the tree, and Liszt often reads books or thinks about problems under the tree. Unfortunately, this season, the apples have been ripened. So he couldn't learn like Newton, hit his head by an apple, and then formulate the laws of the epoch-making nature of gravity.

By next year, when apples will begin blooming on the tree again , he will have the chance to think about the laws of astronomy and physics.

“Apples are good things. As simple as three apples can change the world.” Liszt sat down and pointed at the apple tree with a smile.

Marcus didn't understand,  “Apples are delicious, but how can it change the world?”

“Do you know how humans came to be in this world?”

“We are the rulers of nature, born at the same time as this continent, my lord.”

Liszt found Marcus's serious answer to be boring so he said, “There's a myth that the first two people ate apples and created the human race.”

Marcus asked, “So how would three apples change the world?”

Stealing forbidden fruits, gravitation, Apple phones … Liszt regretted starting the topic, and had to talk nonsense, “Some people ate apples to cultivate their qi, and some people ate apples to create magic. Of course, these are legends. Writers of  Knight Novels have really good imagination."

“Those mages? They can't change the world, the world belongs to the knights!”

“…”

There was silence between them.

Later on, Karl and Romm arrived, and the knights from the Knight's Squad also circled under the apple tree.

Looking at Marcus, Karl, Romm and the others sitting upright, Liszt suddenly thought of King Arthur and his round table. The fictional King of Ancient Britain liked to meet with his knights around a round table. Europeans write a lot about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Liszt's thoughts were wandering,”If I would become king in the future, will this table under the apple tree be called the Apple Table and therefore be referred to by future generations as the Apple Table meeting? Will Marcus, Karl, and Romm be called the Apple Knights by their descendants? Maybe the Apple Riders? “

Instead, he said, "Marcus, are you done segregating the serf children?"

“Yes Sir, there are 354 young children, excluding 26 who were deformed or unable to train, we have 328 remaining, 169 boys and 159 girls. As suggested, I divided the girls and boys into groups, those that passed and those that failed.”

“The girls' group is to be given to Romm for training.” Liszt made the right decision. “The purpose of training is to keep them physically fit and therefore fit for future work. If there are good seedlings, they can cultivate their qi and be arranged for other purposes.”

Rom immediately stood up and saluted: “As you wish Sir, I will strictly train these girls!”

Women cultivating their qi was uncommon. Most lords when they choose knights almost always choose boys. However, this is not fixed, and there are still many lords training female knights. His sister, Lvera trained a group of girls to form a female knight's squad, but she trained boys as well.

However, Liszt didn't want to train girls for a female knight's squad.

Instead, he hoped that the women will increase their strength and do some heavy work in the future to free up male labor work by taking over the job of planting in the fields. Men will then go to workshops to be hired as workers, do road repair, bridge repair, shipbuilding and other harder physical work.

More importantly, with strong-bodied women, childbirth won't be as difficult, and the survival rate of babies will be greatly improved.

On another note, if some talented female knights do emerge, they will be appointed as knight warriors, while those that are fair and good-looking will be reassigned as personal guards.

“The failed group will be given to Karl for training. “

Karl stood up and said,  “As you wish, Sir !”

“Finally, the passing group will be given to Marcus for training. They are the candidates for the Knight's Squad in the future. Philip and Xavier, you will join Marcus in rotation to train the passing group … I think we should further segregate the passing group. They will be trained separately according to age level. “

Marcus nodded: “It can be divided into groups composed of children less than six years old, mainly etiquette training and basic skills; a group for those between six to eight years old, mainly to improve qi and morale; and a group for those eight years old and above, mainly to develop courage and be taught to ride.”

Chapter 162 – Elkson, The Falconer

As the meeting progressed, the number of participants gradually expanded to Gort, Isaiah, Blair, as well as Old Grandet and Kosto.

The agenda composed of  serf children training to planning the future of Flower Town.

By midday, the Apple table meeting was adjourned.

The meeting approved the formation of the Knights College of Flower Town, but since it was  only a small town, the Knights College is kept a secret. The college was just an internal title, not a permanent establishment. Anyone involved in the training of the serf children will be considered a part-time instructor and will receive a daily salary of two copper coins.

 The list of the first eight instructors is as follows.

Ceremonial Instructor-Gort Mast, responsible for training young serfs to be loyal to their lords.

Knights Instructor-Marcus Wheels, responsible for training the young knights selection, that is, the young serfs in the passing group.

The Patrol Instructor – Karl Eisenhammer, responsible for training patrol candidates, the young serfs who failed the group.

Instructor of the Insect Squad- Romm Winebarrel, responsible for training the selection of the Insect Squad, which are the young serfs of the girls group.

Administrative Instructor-Isaiah Moss, assigned to teach administrative skills to young serfs.

Snake Instructor-Blair Steelnail, responsible for teaching young serfs to read and write in Snake Language.

Wind Language Instructor- Old Grandet Shortbench, responsible for teaching young serfs to read and write in Wind Language.

Nautical Instructor-Kosto Footprints, responsible for teaching young serfs to sail.

——

At the same time, the meeting also readjusted the division of labor among the officials of the Flower Town Administrative Office, as well as the salary rules. As agreed upon, 20 copper coins are to be given daily for consultants, 10 copper coins for officers and 5 copper coins for officers.

The list is as follows.

Flower Town Consultant and Diplomat – Gort Mast, Overseer of Flower Town and its Foreign Affairs.

Magistrate and Legal Officer – Isaiah Moss, responsible for the administrative affairs of Flower Town as well as legal affairs.

Assistant to the Magistrate – Auden Insole.

Finance Officer – Blair Steelnails, responsible for the town's finances.

Assistant Treasurer – Gerry Sickle.

Defense Officer – Karl Eisenhammer, in charge of patrol affairs.

Insect Officer – Rom Barrel, responsible for the insect protection team.

Marine Officer – Kosto Footprints, responsible for navigation.

It was agreed that a separate legal officer in charge of legal punishment and a diplomat in charge of foreign affairs will be established separately, although there were no suitable officials for the time being.

Both Old Grandet and Captain Kosto were serfs acting as officials. They needed more credit  to have Liszt grant them out of serfdom and into a full-time officer. As a result, they were still treated like serfs, much lower than that of appointed officials.

Even so, the two men were still more than delighted to kneel on the ground and kiss Liszt's shoes.

For them, it was Liszt who gave them a chance to rewrite their destiny, and gave them a window into a nobles' life. And as long as their lord continue to gain glory in the future, they would have their followers be rewarded as officials. If it does not happen, their future generations will still have a higher status, fighting for the glory of the nobles.

“May the glory of the knights greatly favor Flower Town, its Lord, and all of us.” Gort was very excited at the luncheon.

The more prosperous Flower Town become, the more important he was as an adviser, and the more power he had.

He was not worried about competition or anyone shaking his position, a consultant has always been a noble, and in Flower Town he was the only nobleman other than Liszt.

There was no chance of it changing, at least for a hundred years.

He was so excited and drunk from the beer that his farts were getting louder, “Under the leadership of Lord Liszt, the prosperity of Flower Town is just around the corner, so let's raise a glass and toast for Lord Liszt!”

“Cheers to Sir Baron!”

Despite having gone through a difficult start, Flower Town is now growing rapidly aided by the smoke missions, something that Mr. Gort and the others couldn't have guessed.

After lunch, the officials returned to their posts.

Liszt and Kosto were the ones remaining when Liszt asked,  “Captain Kosto, how's the sailors' training?”

“Soon to be completed. I have already started a trial voyage and we're just waiting for a heavy rain at sea to test the sailors' ability to respond, and then I can sail to Black Horse Island!” Mr. Kosto answered with excitement.

“Do not share the matters of Black Horse Island to the others in training, treat this with complete confidentiality."

“Sir  Baron, rest assured, I have not mentioned a word about Black Horse Island in front of the sailors.”

“Good job, keep working.”

“Yes, Sir Baron!”

————-

The sun was already tilting west.

Time flew and another afternoon passed.

Liszt just returned from his visit of the thorn sprite worms.

Tom, the valet, who came to find him and said, “My Lord, the Flower Caravan merchants has brought with them a mage named Elkson Truth and is waiting for you in the castle.”

“Thank you for letting me know.”

This was the falconer Glanny Truth invited.

When Liszt arrived at the castle gate, he saw a person with the iconic black mage cape completely covering his body – in truth, Liszt has always been curious why mages liked to wear the black cape. He himself owned a black cape, but he also had a red, gray and blue one.

“Sir Liszt, I am Elkson Truth, this one is delighted to see you.” Mr. Elkson was more polite than Mr. Glanny, and he even slightly bowed.

Liszt responded, “Mr. Elkson, welcome to Flower Town.”

“The town is beautiful, quiet and peaceful. I would be happy to work here. By the way, I am here because I have received an invitation from the great mage Glanny Truth.”

“He's here making crystal lamps.”

Inside the castle, the servant brought their tea, and Liszt asked directly, “I heard you can tame magical beast falcons, that is why I asked Mr. Glanny to invite you. I was hoping you would help me train a magical beast, a falcon. It's time for it to hunt, but it doesn't release the magical Wind Blade power.”

Elkson said calmly,  “First of all, I have never trained a  magical falcon. I've only trained a regular Falcon. It's hard to guarantee that I can do the same thing to your beast as well.”

“If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter. That Mr. Glanny wants to turn the magical beast into a magical equipment. If the training is successful, I'll give you two gold coins in return, and even if you fail, I'll still award you one gold coin.”

“You are too generous.” Elkson was pleased with the price. “I must do my best.”

Compared to Glanny, a bad-tempered and rigid-headed mage , Elkson was very good at chatting. His rich knowledge, interesting demeanor, slightly respectful tone, and forceful accent all made Liszt feel good about him. The accent that he used was popular in the upper classes and is, in truth, much better than the lame language of Coral Island.

While chatting, Liszt regretted not having asked Elkon to come instead of Glanny in regard to the black pearl business.

Chapter end