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Once he confirmed that Ach had made it back to the seaside, Liszt headed straight to the castle to tally up how many Gold Coins he had. The result was that without selling off fixed assets, he could only muster about a hundred Gold Coins—the market for Fresh Flower Brew hadn’t fully opened up yet, making it difficult to gather a substantial amount of money quickly.

“This amount of money is simply not enough to buy a medium-sized sailing ship. I need to prepare at least five hundred Gold Coins.”

Before the Duchy of Sapphire was founded by the first Sapphire Duke, Anderson Sapphire, humans living on the continent had not yet entered the Age of Sail.

Ships were primarily powered by oars, poles, and sculls, navigating inland lakes and rivers, and rarely appearing even in coastal waters.

It wasn’t clear when exactly sails were invented, but if one were to trace its history, it would likely lead back to the Moon Empire—all cultural origins in this world could somehow be linked to the Moon Empire.

But it was definitely the Duchy of Sapphire that popularized sailing ships because it was the first human nation established on islands.

The islands were lacking in serfs, food, and minerals.

Everything had to be seized from the mainland.

Oar-propelled boats, the kind used on inland waters, simply couldn’t withstand the assault of wind and waves. Sailing ships thus became the main force in seafaring, and under the impetus of warfare, they rapidly developed among the archipelagos within the Grand Duchy of Sapphire.

At this point, oar-propelled boats were essentially phased out.

Only sailing ships were being constructed and sold.

There were currently three classes of sailing ships—small sailing vessels with one mast, medium sailing vessels with two masts, and large sailing vessels with three masts.

The sails were all square sails. Of course, in an era before fore-and-aft sails were invented, they were all simply referred to as sails; only Liszt would differentiate them as square sails.

The sail of a one-masted vessel, more accurately called a square sail, was somewhat similar to the kind used by Viking pirates, featuring one massive square sail.

The sails on a two-masted vessel consisted of a series of smaller square sails, and it was the same for the three-masted vessels.

These three classes of sailing ships were further divided into three types: cargo ships, ordinary ships, and fast ships. Cargo ships were spacious with vast cargo holds but moved very slowly; fast ships were sleek with small cargo holds but traveled at very high speeds; ordinary ships were a combination of the two, neither large nor small, neither fast nor slow.

The Fresh Flower Vessel was a two-masted ordinary sailing ship.

Going by the general price of ships:

A one-masted ordinary sailing vessel cost between 50 and 200 Gold Coins; a one-masted cargo vessel cost between 100 and 300 Gold Coins; a one-masted fast sailing vessel cost between 200 and 400 Gold Coins.

A two-masted ordinary sailing vessel cost between 500 and 1000 Gold Coins, with the Fresh Flower Vessel being worth at least 500 Gold Coins; a two-masted cargo vessel cost between 800 and 1200 Gold Coins; a two-masted fast sailing vessel cost between 1000 and 1500 Gold Coins.

A three-masted ordinary sailing vessel cost between 2000 and 3000 Gold Coins; a three-masted cargo vessel cost between 2500 and 4000 Gold Coins; a three-masted fast sailing vessel cost at least between 5000 and 6000 Gold Coins.

Currently, only the Sapphire Family could manufacture three-masted fast sailing ships, and they were not sold but used as warships. Only a small number were given as gifts—Marquis Merlin Taro, after his retirement, was gifted three three-masted fast sailing ships by the Grand Duke as a reward for his contributions to the Grand Duchy.

“The mission requires a medium-sized sailing vessel, and the cheapest would be five hundred Gold Coins. Either I sell everything I own, or I borrow money,” Liszt stroked his chin, feeling that there was nothing he was willing to sell.

Moreover, it was only a temporary shortage of funds.

He could still earn a few hundred Gold Coins a month from selling Fresh Flower Brew. He might as well use the future profits from Fresh Flower Brew to get an advance on the coming weeks’ earnings from Tulip Castle.

With that thought:

He immediately picked up his pen to write a letter to Levis, and had Consultant Gao Ertai take the letter to Tulip Castle, “Consultant Gao Ertai, I hope you can accompany the trading caravan and select a suitable two-masted ordinary sailing ship. Don’t let the price be too high; we only sail between Black Horse Island and Fresh Flower Town.”

“Sir, do you plan to commission a shipyard to build a new ship, or will you purchase a medium-sized sailing ship directly?” Goltai took the letter and asked.

“Of course, I…” Liszt originally wanted to say that he would certainly buy a new ship.

But he suddenly remembered that the Smoke Mission only asked him to purchase another medium-sized sea vessel, without specifying that the ship must be newly constructed or whether it should be a cargo ship or a regular ship.

If that was the case, why not buy an old ship?

The Fresh Flower Vessel was an old ship, even one that had been patched up, but it still sailed smoothly on the sea with no issues at all. Especially since it had recently been treated with rubber water to fill the gaps in the planks, making the Fresh Flower Vessel even more durable and steady, with no signs of leaking. It could sail for at least another ten years without any problems.

Buying an old ship and patching it up with some rubber water could make it effectively serve as a new ship.

Therefore, he changed his mind on the spot, “Then buy an old ship, keep the price within five hundred Gold Coins.”

Goltai smiled and said, “Sir, it just so happens that I’ve heard news that the Tulip Castle’s trading fleet is planning to replace some of their old ships with new ones, which is actually related to the special product of Fresh Flower Town, Fresh Flower Brew. Mr. Frank mentioned to me that Sir Levis is preparing to form a specialized fleet for transporting wine and wants to buy fast sailboats to replace several cargo ships.”

The value of spirits is high, and using fast sailboats can reduce the sailing time, lowering the transportation risk.

“Is that so? Since that’s the case, pick a relatively better one from this batch of cargo ships and purchase it.”

“As you wish, Sir.”

…

Goltai went to buy the ship.

This would probably take a few days, and during these days, the castle will be preparing to dismantle the Shell Wood Tower and restore it to its original state. As for Liszt, he rarely stayed in the castle, as the news of the slaying of the Six-Headed King Serpent had spread, bringing nobles from North Valley City to pay visits one after another.

He was quite impatient with entertaining these nobles, as beyond dining, there was nothing in common to talk about.

So he delegated all reception duties to Zambrotta—the only one in Fresh Flower Town with good diplomatic skills, other than Goltai.

As a noble whose title had been stripped away at one point, Zambrotta was not adept at practical work but was very skillful in ceremonial duties.

He also had another important task, which was to reject all requests to buy Intermediate Sea Monster materials; all of the materials from the Six-Headed King Serpent were not for sale.

Free from the annoyance of paperwork, Liszt focused on crafting the seaside villa for hiding away his sweethearts.

On the sandy beach exposed after the tide receded, a large pit of about five hundred square meters was dug, filled with a large amount of rocks and sand, and then mixed with rubber water for stirring.

The Sun baked down.

The solidification was fast, and in just a few hours, a platform akin to a concrete base was constructed.

The sandy beach was soft, and the foundation not deep, but the platform was large and strong enough, so it remained extremely stable and unaffected by the surging tide following high tide.

On the platform, a layer of stone house continued to be built.

This stone house would be submerged by seawater at high tide, allowing Ach free access, while on the upper level of the stone house, a wooden house continued to be constructed for Liszt to dwell in. Ach could also come up the steps to read books and study Magic.

Chew on medicines, practice Dou Qi, listen to the Sea Serpent’s songs.

Facing the sea, with spring blossoms.