102 – The Wildhop Family’s fatty
The count and Madam Marie had left the Coral Island for the Blue Dragon Island, and Madam Penélope had not come to the Tulip Castle, just sending her well wishes.
Thus, without the constraints of the lord and the old madam, the atmosphere of the Tulip Castle’s luncheon was fairly hearty, particularly when it came to the young aristocrats, who had a blast socializing.
Liszt was also inevitably implicated.
A lot of aristocrats were aware that the count didn’t care much about this fairly untalented son of his. However, no matter what, Liszt was still of a noble lineage – count lineage from his father’s side and marquis lineage from his mother’s side – of whom he was a direct second-generation descendant.
“Liszt, I haven’t seen you in quite a while. Now that the road through the Thorns Ridge had been cleared, how about paying my Claytiles Town a visit?”
“Brook, I will find some time to visit your Claytiles Town. It only takes two hours from the Flower Town to the Claytiles Town. Moreover, you can also come pay me a visit at the Flower Town. I will entertain you with the best seafood there is.”
“I will definitely go. I like seafood, especially oysters.”
“Certainly, everyone likes oysters.”
“Haha.”
After the sumptuous meal, came the dessert – ice cream. The Tulip Castle had eight flavors, four more than that of Liszt’s fief.
Ice cream had yet to gain traction.
Thus, although the dessert had amazed many aristocrats, yet, as ice wasn’t something that lesser aristocrats could afford, not many people inquired about its recipe. Only the sons of the two viscounts, whose families could afford it, offered to purchase the recipe from Liszt.
Liszt was not courteous, directly citing a price to Brandon Gravel, the son of the viscount of the Gravel City: “Three hundred catty (catty=0,5 Kg) of pig iron and the recipe is yours.” Compared with his sister Lvera, the price was doubled. He didn’t give discounts to outsiders.
Brandon clenched his teeth: “Deal!”
Next, Liszt cited a price to Aubrey Wildhop, the son of the viscount of the Beer Island: “One hundred and fifty barrels of hops beer.”
The rich and overbearing successor to the Wildhop Family didn’t hesitate at all: “No problem. Once I return, I will send a fleet with the more than fifty barrels of beer and you send your caravan, the transaction shall be carried out in the Coral City.”
“Great.” Liszt was quite happy with successfully exchanging this showy but unsubstantial recipe for a lot of stuff. In the next moment, however, his complexion nearly changed.
Aubrey suddenly said: “That’s right, Liszt, I am going to catch seafood on the Beer Island’s shore and then sell it outside, what do you think about it?”
Still with a smile on his face, Liszt inquired indifferently, all the while wishing he could kill Aubrey: “Seafood? Why would the Wildhop Family be interested in seafood? Haven’t hops brought enough riches to the Wildhop Family?”
“There are never too many gold coins, right?” Aubrey was very fat, his belly bulging alike that of a tenth month pregnant woman. It could be seen at a glance that he was well fed since little, “Seafood is good stuff, especially oysters, what a bliss. The flower Town’s seafood trade makes me envious.”
At present, only the Flower Town was catching seafood on the Coral Island on a large-scale and selling it outside.
The profits were huge, nearly one gold coin per day. Just a few days ago, Liszt bought three carriages, adding up to a total of nine carriages, all selling seafood.
Currently, the caravan had divided into three, with Old Grandet frequently leading a team to and fro the Coral City and the Tulip Castle, Harpagon leading a team in the direction of the Whitebirch City, and Shylock leading a team in the direction of the Snakefang City. With the current trend, the income reaching two to three gold coins per day in the future would not be an issue.
He was preparing to unify the Coral Island’s seafood market, yet unexpectedly, his plans were about to be foiled midway by Aubrey, who wanted to intervene in the seafood trade.
If it was just a lesser aristocrat like a common baron intervening in the seafood trade, then Liszt wouldn’t mind to complain to the count to have the other party realize that they could not afford to offend the Coral Island’s most noble lineage. But the Wildhop Family was different. The viscount of the Beer Island was one of the count’s earliest followers, having distinguished himself with toilsome labor and great merits. It would be very difficult to coerce him.
If he was the count’s successor, then the Wildhop Family would certainly mind not to overreach. The crucial point was that he was just the baron of the Flower Town.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
As he contemplated the many copping methods, Liszt’s expression was still as unperturbed as ever: “Is that so? It seems that the Coral Island’s seafood market will be much livelier hence forth.”
Aubrey laughed out loud: “Liszt, sorry for making you misunderstand, but I don’t intend to sell seafood on the Coral Island. That is your turf. For the sake of our friendship, I don’t want to encroach.”
This switch of gears was a bit too abrupt for Liszt.
There was no friendship between the both of them. Aubrey was twenty seven or twenty eight years old and was one of Levis’ buddies. Yet surprisingly, Aubrey didn’t intend to intervene in the Coral Island’s seafood market.
“You’re not going to sell seafood on the Coral Island, what are you up to then?”
“Our family has several good trade channels. You were the one to first discover the seafood market. Thus, naturally, the Coral Island is your turf. I don’t wan’t to be in a hostile competition with a fried.” Aubrey sounded quite frank. If Liszt was lacking experience, then he might be moved and led astray.
No wonder the Wildhop Family could monopolize the hops trade. Adaptable and insightful as they were, it would be hard for them not to succeed.
He picked up and raised his glass of red wine: “Let’s toast for our friendship.”
“Of course, cheers.”
……
Although the seafood trade was a false alarm, yet Liszt was not reassured. Today, Aubrey’s friendly reminder made him realize what it meant – wealth begets envy.
At the beginning, seafood was just a rare curiosity for the aristocrats. Now, however, the profits of the seafood trade, one gold coin per day and even more in the future, might have already caught their attention. Thinking about it, one gold coin per day was equivalent to more than three hundred gold coins per year, and if the profits were to reach three gold coins per day, then that would be more than one thousand gold coins per year.
Wasn’t it the same as snatching money from under the aristocrats’ noses?! The revenue would be nearly as great as the taxes collected from a small city for half a year.
If it could be said that the lesser aristocrats still took Liszt’s lineage into consideration, not daring to be presumptuous, then his sister Lvera might have already started to come up with ways to snatch this trade from him. Liszt was quite clear that his sister was not a goodhearted person who cared about her brother as snatching Liszt’s toys was her favorite pastime since she was little.
Besides, Lytton and Madam Marie were also eyeing covetously from behind.
There was no difficulty involved in catching seafood.
“That won’t do, I can’t be careless!” At the end of the luncheon, Liszt was still deep in thought, “Perhaps I should enter into a partnership with Levis.”
Levis, Lvera, Lytton, and Madam Marie were not goodhearted people.
When all was said and done, Levis was still the count’s successor and Liszt’s future lord. He could safeguard the trade by roping Levis in.
“I can give Levis some shares and directly cooperate with him instead of cooperating with the Tulip Castle. I think that he would be willing. Levis must be distressed as half of the Tulip Castle’s resources are given to Lytton. Therefore, he would not miss a trade from which Lytton would be excluded.”