91 – Can’t Open the Bottle
The metallic bottle looked a bit like a high-end spirit container, very unique.
Although it was of a golden color, which was similar to that of gold coins, but it was a bit browner. It was engraved with patterns, which formed a complex design resembling an abstract picture of a sun and a big tree, a bow and arrow, some kind of string instrument, as well as a bear and a soaring eagle.
Overall, the metallic bottle resembled a prized piece of art part of an aristocrat’s collections.
Knock knock knock.
He tapped the metallic bottle with his fingers. The resulting sound was peculiar. Different from the sound that should come from a metal, it was instead a bit similar to the sound that came from plastic. Appearance wise, however, it was quite clear that this brown-yellow bottle was a metallic product. It also felt like a metal to the touch.
“Teacher Gort, do you know what metal this is made from?” Liszt shook the bottle.
It should be empty inside as there was no sound or motion.
Gort spread his hands: “Gold, silver, copper, iron, this metal doesn’t look like anything I have ever seen. Please forgive me for not knowing what it is.”
“It doesn’t have an opening?”
“It looks like a whole. I carefully checked the place where there should be an opening, but there were no cracks. Twisting the bottleneck also had no effect.”
Liszt tried himself and it indeed didn’t budge. It seemed like there was really no cap and the bottle was a whole: “What do you think is inside?”
“Fine wine?”
“Teacher Gort, dreams don’t always come true. I don’t think that there is liquid inside.”
Gort laughed heartily: “Haha, I can always fantasize, before it gets opened, that is.”
Liszt handed Carter the bottle, telling the other put the bottle in the study: “Put it away first. Later, I’ll slowly ponder over how to open it.”
“Yes, Master.”
When Carter left, Liszt gestured for Gort to take a sit.
Liszt inquired: “How is the trade of the caravan?”
“Everything is going well. Ever since you started developing the Flower Town, you have provided a variety of paying work, so the residents have gradually accumulated some extra money and can purchase a few small goods at the caravan’s stalls. Nearly half of the caravan’s goods have been sold and there were even a few copper coins thrown on the stage.”
In general, so as to attract customers, a caravan’s merchants would chip in and hire performers to perform skits free of charge.
Only when the spectators were very cheerful would they throw some coins onto the stage to reward the clowns who worked hard to perform their skits. The Flower Town was poor, so even if the residents held their stomachs from laughing, they still would be reluctant to throw a copper coin on the stage. He didn’t expect that there would be people rewarding the clowns.
“Who were the people that threw copper coins?”
“I only saw a single person throwing a copper coin. It was your kitchen maid Irene Fourfingers.”
Irene Fourfingers?
Liszt didn’t had much contact with this kitchen maid. On the whole, they couldn’t see each other even once a day. Kitchen maids were very low is status. They were forbidden to go upstairs, appear in the hall, and even wander in front of their master. Only by listening to the butler Carter did he had a rough understanding of Irene – a frank and straightforward young girl.
“Youngsters are always very generous.” Commented Liszt.
Gort wanted to say ‘you are also a youngster of only sixteen years of age and the young girl is even older than you’, yet he didn’t. The current Liszt was as mature and steady as a middle-aged person and the way he dealt with others made them nearly overlook his slightly conspicuous young and tender face.
“Perhaps it is the result of being of noble lineage.” Gort often had this thought.
At first, he followed Liszt to the Flower Town just to idle and freeload as an adviser. At his age, he no longer hoped to revitalize his family and restore its aristocratic glory. But unexpectedly, Liszt changed the Flower Town as well as changed his mind.
Freya’s pregnancy was just a lead-in, Gort was quite clear about it.
Ultimately, it was Liszt's will that determined the behavior of the people around him. Otherwise, a bastard was just that and in fact, there was no need to pay any attention. Which aristocrat didn’t had a few bastards? But for the sake of harmony in the family, many bastards of aristocrats could only live their lives as serfs.
“Teacher Gort.” Seeing that Gort was a little distracted, Liszt couldn’t help but call for his attention.
Gort immediately sat up straight: “Yes.”
“Officials have to supervise every trade the caravan makes. The merchants are not allowed to take advantage of the people and the patrol and clerks are also not allowed to seize the property of the caravan.”
“Please rest assured, I have emphasized this point.”
“It must be well publicized that the Flower Town welcomes foreigners to settle down and that the taxation here is the most favorable. Also, inform the people from the caravan about the next step of Flower Town’s development and show them the plan for the commercial, workshop, and residential areas to let them have a sense of the Flower Town’s bright future.”
“As you wish!”
……
After seeing Gort off, Liszt didn’t immediately took his lunchtime break and instead went to the study to fiddle with the metallic bottle, which was placed on the desk. The message in a bottle picked his interest.
He focused for a moment and summoned the smoke mission.
“Mission completed. Reward: a message in a bottle.”
“Mission: because of a gap in knowledge, the bottle can’t be opened and the symbols can’t be understood, but it doesn’t mean that there is no solution. The leathersmith shop’s [1] blind Old Leathersmith [2] feels his body getting worse and worse. Give him a son and he might be willing to give you a certain book in exchange. Reward: an unknown book.”
As expected, the metallic bottle the fishermen picked up was a smoke mission reward.
The caravan’s three gold coins turnover mission was completed early.
However, when Liszt saw the new mission, an expression that was neither that of humor nor annoyance crept onto his face: “The bottle can’t be opened – does it refer to the message in a bottle that I can’t open? The symbols can’t be understood – does it mean that there is a piece of paper inside, possibly written with symbols of a foreign language? However, what is it with that strange later part of the mission content – to give Old Leathersmith a son?”
If the other had a pretty and charming wife who was in her prime.
Then Liszt wouldn’t mind giving the other a son and a hat (in china, wearing a green hat has the connotation of being cuckolded).
However, after he conducted the census, he had carefully read the information regarding the town’s craftsmen. The old leathersmith had given him the impression of a widower without any relatives. Ten years ago, he arrived at the Flower Town through begging and settled down. Then he picked up the handicraft of a leathersmith.
How was he going to give such a person a son?
“Give a son… Perhaps I’m a bit off-track, so its better to have Old Leathersmith investigated first.” He rang a bell, calling Carter.
“Master.”
“Mr. Carter, send someone to give Teacher Gort a message – I want him to investigate the town’s old leathersmith. The information has to be detailed. If the other has any difficulties, then help him if its not a bother.”
After hearing that, Carter said: “Master, maybe you should ask Jesse, he is quite familiar with Old Leathersmith.”
“Jesse?”
Jesse Ricewater was previously an assistant servingman. He had been promoted to a servingman and was mainly responsible for running errands outside the castle.
A moment later, Jesse, who had been enjoying himself in the town, was called back.
“Master, you were looking for me?” Even though he became a servingman, but when faced with Liszt, he still felt a bit ill at ease, not knowing where to put his hands.
Liszt asked directly: “You are quite familiar with Old Leathersmith? Tell me about him.”
“Do you mean Uncle Phil? I met Uncle Phil when I went to the leathersmith shop to repair my shoes. He is blind, which is very inconvenient when he works. Currently, his body has been getting worse and worse, so I’ve been visiting him often to help him out.”
“I heard that Old Leathersmith wants a son?”
[1], [2] – cobbler shop and Old Cobbler were changed to leathersmith shop and Old Leathersmith respectively