Chapter 0003 The Servants in the Castle

Thomas left the study with a heavy heart. As he descended the stairs, he paused at the landing, intending to light a cigarette, but then he realized he had hidden his tobacco under his pillow.

Mr. Carter, the butler, strictly forbid the servants from smoking within the castle.

"Thomas, what are you loitering here for?" A maid in her thirties, dressed in a black and white uniform and carrying a mop and bucket, ascended the stairs from below.

"Nothing."

"Has the master still not allowed you to attend him personally?"

Thomas, annoyed, slapped the wall, "Maisie, tell me, why doesn't the master like me? Although I've never been a personal valet before, I've served as the first manservant for Viscount Roosevelt. I'm capable of doing the job."

"How would I know? I'm not a maid from Tulip Castle. I've never met the master before."

"I'm just asking if there's anything I'm not doing well enough."

"You should be asking Mr. Carter or Mrs. Morson about that... And I don't think you have anything to worry about. The master only has three manservants, Jessie is an assistant, Tom is clumsy, and honestly can't attend to the master. Maybe that's just how the master is. There's no one in this town better suited to be a personal valet than you."

Thomas felt a bit heartened, "Yeah, I heard that the master isn't highly regarded at Tulip Castle and might remain the Baron of Fresh Flower Town, living in this poor countryside for the rest of his life."

"Perhaps."

"Maisie, do you regret following the master here?"

"I don't care. Life in the castle, no matter how bad, is still better than going back to the farm to starve to death. I've already sold myself to the master. There's no use in having regrets."

Just as Thomas was about to respond, he was abruptly interrupted, "Don't you both have work to do? Thomas, Maisie, mind your behavior. No whispering outside your chambers and the kitchen!" Coming up the stairs, it was Butler Carter who managed this humble little castle.

He was carrying a string of keys and a bottle of red wine, inspecting the entire castle.

"Right away, Mr. Carter. I'll get back to work," Thomas and Maisie scurried off, each to their own tasks.

If small nobility serves the higher nobility, then manservants and maids are indeed the servants of butlers. The system of nobility has always had such distinct stratification.

The castle might be small, but there was no shortage of work.

Even with only one noble like Baron Liszt to serve, the daily workload was immense. Take cleaning, for instance: every morning and evening the whole place needed to be scrubbed down. And there were clothes to wash, hot water to heat, food to prepare, toilets to clean—a majority of these tasks fell on the manservants and maids.

But this didn't mean Carter was without work. On the contrary, in addition to managing the servants, he was also responsible for greeting guests, pouring wine, supervising the serving of meals, receiving and sending correspondence, safeguarding high-end tableware, managing the wine cellar, and looking after the most important guests.

Old Carter was fifty years old this year. In an era where the average lifespan was barely fifty-five, he was already well advanced in years.

Dong dong dong.

He knocked on the door of the study.

"Come in," replied Baron Liszt from inside, his voice gentle and carrying the fashionable "Steel Ridge accent" so esteemed by countless nobles in the Kingdom of Steel Ridge and its client states.

Old Carter took a deep breath.

During his time at Tulip Castle, he had little to do with Baron Liszt, mainly looking after an earl's lodge. At the recent coming-of-age ceremony for Liszt, the earl assigned him to serve as Liszt's butler. It was a promotion in terms of position—after all, the role of butler is the ultimate goal for all servants.

But the benefits had certainly diminished.

However, Carter harbored no complaints. Since selling himself into the Tulip Family's service at fifteen, thirty-five years had passed without marriage or family—Carter had long since considered himself part of the Tulip Family.

If he could spend his final years with Baron Liszt, a descendant of the Tulip bloodline, it would be a happy ending indeed.

"My lord, reading at night is damaging to the eyes. Remember to take care. No amount of candlelight can compare to the sun's light during the day."

Liszt gave a slight smile, his eyes shifting away from the thick parchment book on the table to look at the somewhat elderly butler, "Mr. Carter, have you checked all the rooms?"

"Except for the servants' rooms that still need work, all other rooms have been locked."

"Very well, then, let's have a drink together." Liszt had already noticed the red wine in Carter's hand. Nobles were as fond of wine as life itself, creating an informal custom that the lord of a castle would have a few drinks with the butler before going to bed at night, discussing the matters of the castle.

Liszt didn't like to drink, but his predecessor did, so much so that his body required alcohol.

However, the alcohol content here was very low; unless he drank it like beer, it was hard for him to get drunk.

One glass of red wine each.

They touched their glasses gently.

Swirling his glass, Liszt took a small sip, "Can the castle's expenses last until this year's taxes?"

"I'm afraid it's going to be difficult. You didn't bring much wine or flour from Tulip Castle, and Fresh Flower Town is very remote with no caravans willing to come here. Even if we have gold coins, it's hard to buy wheat and wine. But the good news is, there's plenty of wild fruit on Thorn Ridge, so we don't have to worry about running out of fruit."

Liszt wasn't highly regarded by the Earl, and of course, he received very little when he became independent.

According to his memory, when his sister Li Vera became independent, her carriage was filled thirty times over, but he… didn't even have a single carriage, just some horses and a group of porters with some luggage.

The difference in treatment was like heaven and earth.

His predecessor had harbored too much resentment, but for him, it wasn't much of an issue, since he wasn't the Earl's true son. At most, it would be awkward when meeting with his father and trying to express closeness.

"We can't do without wheat," Liszt put down his wine glass and declared with undeniable certainty, "Fresh Flower Town must develop quickly, the trade route has to be opened!"

Bread was the staple food here.

Without the wheat for white bread, they could only eat the rough and hard-to-swallow black bread made from rye and oats. Liszt already couldn't have his favorite hometown dishes; if he also couldn't have the soft white bread, he would starve to death.

"Opening trade routes is not an easy task. Thorn Ridge is too dangerous."

"Don't worry about that, I'll solve it. The future of Fresh Flower Town won't be limited by poverty, nor will the castle remain this crude, without even a name," Liszt said earnestly.

Only a magnificent castle could have a name. Given the simplicity of Liszt's castle, to call it a castle was an overstatement, and naming it would be subject to the ridicule of other nobles.

"Have the Elf Bugs been well taken care of?"

"Very well, milord."

"Good."

They finished their wine.

Old Carter, recognizing it was time to leave, took his leave, "Milord, please rest early, I wish you a good night."

"Good night to you too, Mr. Carter."

After Carter left, Liszt spent some time looking at the thick parchment book about the culture and customs of the Duchy of Sapphire; the book was as thick as a dictionary. Its content, however, was sparse—true to its name, the thickness of one page of parchment was almost that of pigskin.

"How was paper invented?" Liszt wondered. He was pleased to find his memory quite sharp, remembering the papermaking process he had seen online, "Once I have the time, I must also invent paper... An industrial revolution seems unlikely, but there are still many ways to get rich."

In a trance, he zoned out again.

Sure enough, the Serpent Script formed by smoke appeared before him again.

"Quest: As a landlord, you need to understand everything about your land. Please inspect Fresh Flower Town to understand the crisis of your territory, and prepare for future development. Reward: The sublimation of Dou Qi."