The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 737: Chapter 0734: Flame Territory (Second Update)
 

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While the meeting was ostensibly to discuss Liszt’s new title, the Duke had, in fact, already prepared a plan—Iron Hoof City and Coral Island were to be merged into a new territory, which would serve as Liszt’s Marquisate, a place for him to prepare for the nation-building period.

Liszt accepted the Duke’s kindness.

The Duke, First Prince, and others all secretly breathed a sigh of relief; they were now worried that Liszt’s ambitions would be too great to satisfy. Therefore, with a beaming smile, the Duke said, “Lord Liszt, please give this territory a new name, and I will immediately arrange for the Court to prepare the ennoblement ceremony.”@@novelbin@@

Even though it was a transitional territory, Liszt still took a moment to thoughtfully consider before replying, “Let’s call it Flame Territory.”

He was a Fire Dragon Knight, and the Fire Dragon was an embodiment of flame. The territory would be symbolized by the Fire Dragon and thus called the Flame Territory, constantly reminding others that this was the domain of a Fire Dragon Knight.

“Good, I hereby confer upon you the title of Marquis of Flames, with absolute jurisdiction over the territory,” the Duke declared with a grand wave of his hand, making the decision.

In name, the Marquis of Flames was a subordinate noble of the Sapphire, but in reality, Liszt would sign a mutual defense alliance contract with the Duke, making their relationship one of equals.

With the title set, the Nobles came forward one by one to offer their congratulations.

“Two Marquises from the Tulip Family, congratulations!”

“Marquis of Flames, Marquis of Bull Tail, congratulations, congratulations!”

“The glory of knighthood favors you, the Tulip Family is destined to thrive and prosper endlessly.”

Liszt smiled and thanked each one, not showing too much arrogance, for he was always a composed person. Perhaps nobles were divided into ranks and degrees, but in his eyes, nobles and commoners were equal—no more than ants, so where was the distinction to be made.

Beneath the Dragon Knight, all were but ants, and Liszt had indeed been rather inflated these past few days.

Great power often could cloud one’s mind, like when Levis became a Sky Knight and was very arrogant, very proud. If it hadn’t been for Liszt’s unexpected entry as a Dragon Knight that poured cold water on him, who knows how wild he would have become. But Liszt had no one to cool his head; he needed time to calm down himself.

Fortunately, the worldview of a mature soul had enough self-control to overcome the inflated ego.

Having no time to chat further with the nobles, upon returning to the Nameless Castle, Liszt said directly to Marquis of Bull Tail, “Father, the elevation of the Flame Territory and the material support negotiations with the Duke need you to take a more active role.”

Li Weiliam responded casually, “Don’t worry, I’ve got everything under control here.”

“Then I’ll leave it in your capable hands, Father.”

“You are the pride of the Tulip Family, focus on your Dragon Knight training, increase your strength, and leave these other trivial matters to me. I will ensure the greatest benefits for you.”

“Understood.”

It must be said, having the support of his family made things much easier for Liszt. An individual could hardly manage alone, and even as a Dragon Knight, he still needed trustworthy people to help him build his household—currently, he had two dragons to provide for, especially the Light Green Gemstone Dragon, which needed time to recover and would likely require a vast amount of resources.

The Light Green Gemstone Mine wasn’t ready for development yet; mining would have to wait two years, and only after the repercussions of the current dragon slaying campaign had passed could they proceed.

So he had to think of other ways.

He had his brother, Levis, call over their uncle Mesiro for a brief family meeting.

“Father, Uncle, I need to raise dragons, and the resource gap is huge. We cannot rely on the nation’s support to raise dragons, nor can dragons reciprocate with a large amount of resources, so at this stage, we must accumulate resources through business.”

Regarding this.

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Li Weiliam and Mesiro were well aware that Leo was an Elemental Dragon, not a Gemstone Dragon nor a Metal Dragon.

On the spot, Mesiro expressed, “Liszt, if needed, the Long Taro Family will be your solid backing. I can provide part of the resources to support you.”

“Thank you for the offer, uncle, but it’s not necessary for now. I have several profitable industries, paper and glass, those are hugely profitable industries. I plan to expand the production scale and then use the channels of the Tulip Family and the Long Taro Family to sell to the continents.”

“That’s no problem. The benefits of paper and glass, I believe the nobles of the continent simply can’t resist.”

“Besides paper and glass, I am also exploring other profitable industries. Basically, I have come to understand a few, and they include perfume, porcelain, and sea salt.”

“Sea salt?” Mesiro raised an eyebrow and asked.

“Yes, seawater contains salt that requires special technology to refine. I have basically mastered it and can produce high-quality sea salt in large quantities, which is of higher quality than well salt and pond salt.” Liszt said proudly, even for an archipelago nation, the Duchy of Sapphire still lacked salt.

Because the majority of salts currently available were mined salt, pond salt, and well salt, which all come from land sources, and people did not know yet to take salt from the sea.

There was a salt mine on Coral Island, so they were not short on salt, which is why Liszt had not paid attention to this before. It was only after he started developing his domain that he started researching the production of salt from seawater – in fact, the technology is very simple, and with magicians cooperating in the research, they quickly produced edible sea salt.

The coasts of Black Horse Island are not very suitable for salt production, hence, it can’t be popularized.

However, the Bull Tail Domain of the Marquis of Bull Tail has many flat areas with plenty of sunlight by the seaside, ideal for developing into salterns. Naturally, Red Crab Island will also have suitable salterns.

Once high-quality sea salt is produced, it will certainly quickly impact the salt market on the continent, bringing Liszt huge profits – to know that in ancient China, the salt merchants were all prominent and wealthy traders, even warmly hosting the emperor on his southern tours.

This shows how profitable the salt industry can be.

Road robbery is by no means as profitable as doing business.

According to Liszt’s estimates, if sea salt were produced and sold on a large scale, the profit from just monopolizing the coastal salt market of the Steel Ridge Kingdom might be comparable to the annual revenue of the Duchy of Sapphire – of course, it’s not a given that the Steel Ridge Kingdom would open up its salt market to Liszt.

Cooperating with the Kingdom’s great nobles is a more likely possibility.

Regardless, with multiple sources of income like paper, glass, porcelain, perfume, and sea salt, the money would never run out. Even if the technology were exposed in a few years, Liszt estimated that he would have developed by then. At that point, if anyone dared to block his path to making money, he’d just ride three to five dragons straight to their door!

He was very confident in his heart, “With the techniques from the Smoke Mission, riding three to five dragons in a few years should not be difficult.”

After all, he had already ridden two dragons and had three Bewildering Dragon Mind Fruits in reserve.

The production of sea salt made Li Weiliam and Mesiro see a golden path of money, hence their enthusiasm was high. Even Levis came forward with a cheeky ask, “Liszt, if Loria and I can borrow the channel of the Golden Wheat Sheaf Family, can we also join your trade plan?”

“If the channel is firmly in your and your wife’s hands, rather than being covertly controlled by the Golden Wheat Sheaf Family, I don’t mind you joining in the money-making,” replied Liszt.

The market on the continent is vast, so there’s no need to worry about having too many people sharing the pie.

After all, no matter who participates in the trade plan, they would only be acting as agents, essentially helping Liszt make money, as he held all the technological ownership.

Even if the Grand Duke wanted to get involved in the future, Liszt would welcome it.

Of course, steps must be taken one at a time. At the current stage, Liszt still preferred to have the family maintain control of the channel, and would make further judgments based on the profit feedback from the market.