The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

"What is this?"

"Corn."

"Is there an elf for corn?"

"Mickey."

On the stones used to mark boundaries in the fields, a group of serfs dressed in patched clothes gathered together, drinking water, eating bread, and dipping it in peanut butter.

Mark, a clerk without patched clothes, was holding a stick, pointing at the corn seeds on the ground, and asking the group of serfs.

This was a time for field teaching.

Since most of the new serfs were from the Eagle Kingdom and only spoke Wind Language but not Serpent Script, to increase the sense of belonging and facilitate communication, Lord Landlord decreed that the official language of the territory would be Serpent Script, and everyone must learn the Serpent Script for daily communication—only the Knight Class needed to learn both Serpent Script and Wind Language.

Mark's Wind Language was not good; he only knew a few words, and he had learned those from Mr. Grantaire.

In fact, his Serpent Script wasn't much better; he could read and speak but not write. However, his level was barely sufficient to teach the serfs the everyday language they needed to know.

Now it was the spring plowing season.

The serfs couldn't possibly have a fixed time to learn Serpent Script, so Mr. Grantaire proposed to Lord Landlord to make use of the serfs' rest time for organized teaching. Lord Landlord agreed, and thus, the clerks responsible for teaching had to run to the fields every day, to join the serfs in working the land.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Many clerks sighed in exasperation. They had managed to get into the office work with great difficulty, but still couldn't get away from the muddy fields.

But Mark did not complain.

Because he was ambitious.

"Remember, Mickey is the third Little Minor Elf of Lord Landlord, the Corn Minor Elf!" Mark shouted loudly; otherwise, the serfs wouldn't concentrate or listen to what he was saying, "Now tell me, what is Lord Landlord's name!"

"Tulip!"

"Black Horse Island!"

"Sky Knight!"

"The great offspring of the Tulip Family, the ruler over all, Viscount Black Horse Island, the Sky Knight, Liszt Tulip!" the serfs recited the standard Serpent Script fluently.

This was the Serpent Script they had been taught since they had first arrived at Black Horse Island.

At that time, there wasn't the "Sky Knight" part, but after they learned of Liszt's promotion, the officials immediately added this title to Lord Landlord's name.

Undoubtedly, this method of teaching was brute, inferior, simplistic, and awkward propaganda. Every day, the serfs were repeatedly reminded of these slogans by the teaching clerks. At first, it might not be effective or might even cause resentment.

But after thousands and tens of thousands of times, these contents would be deeply etched into everyone's brain, becoming indisputable.

Actually, Liszt was not very willing to use this method of propaganda; he knew that strength was the primary condition for ensuring loyalty to the territory. But since the officials were willing to flatter him and brainwash the populace in this way, he had no reason to stop it, since it would be contrary to undermine his own rule.

As a modern man, he was very aware of the significance of public opinion.

Seeing the serfs chanting in unison made Mark very satisfied; it was the result of his teaching efforts over time. He had been assigned to a farming area in Grain Town to be responsible for teaching Serpent Script to the serfs who worked the land in this field. Unlike the other clerks who slacked off and played tricks, he took every teaching moment seriously.

He didn't even let up during meal times.

At this moment, seeing that the serfs he taught clearly had better pronunciation in Serpent Script and knew more vocabulary than those taught by others.

He was filled with anticipation, "Lord Landlord will commend the officials who worked hard during the spring plowing season... I've been so diligent, I am certain to receive an award. After the plowing ends, I will surely get a promotion, from an ordinary Clerk to a Cultural Scribe... Perhaps a Manager will take notice and choose me to be an Assistant directly!"

The official hierarchy in Black Horse Island was Liszt's newly reformed system, which largely followed the previous administrative model, but had become more segmented and clear.

Compared to the past system, which had only a few Managers and a multitude of Clerks in a chaotic and crude structure.

The current hierarchy of officials was very clear.

Take the town hall for example, the lowest level was like a career position for a "Clerk," responsible for various errands and miscellaneous tasks; moving up a level were the regular "Department Clerks," who were primarily in charge of the specific affairs of each department; further up were "Manager Assistants," who were akin to candidate officials.

These three levels all belonged to the "Clerk" class.

The real "officials" were the town's "Department Managers," also known as "Affairs Officers." The number and functions of Affairs Officers varied according to the development directions of each town.

Affairs Officers generally comprised Administrative Officers, Finance Officers, Defense Officers, Legal Officers, Cultural Affairs Officers, and Diplomats, which are the standard positions in other lords' territories.

In Black Horse Island, additional Affairs Officers were established, including Worm Affairs Officers, Marine Affairs Officers, Traffic Affairs Officers, Construction Affairs Officers, and Fishery Affairs Officers.

All Affairs Officers needed to report to the town's advisors.

However, once the future harbor town is upgraded to a harbor city, a new set of city officials will be established to manage all the towns. The city's Affairs Officers, along with the town's advisors, would jointly oversee the work of the town's Affairs Officers. This was meant to avoid having a single advisor's monopoly and to balance the power of officials.

Mark dared not hope to become an Affairs Officer, as this position required one to be an Apprentice Knight, and he was just a civilian who had never practiced Dou Qi.

His greatest wish was to become an Assistant to an Affairs Officer and then marry a beautiful wife.

As he fantasized about his successful future while teaching Serpent Script, a procession suddenly approached along the field path on horseback. As they drew closer, Mark realized in astonishment that it was Mr. Grantaire, the Cultural Affairs Officer from the port town who was highly regarded by Lord Landlord and who had been leading the teaching of Serpent Script and Wind Language throughout the territory.

He hastily stepped forward to pay respects, "Clerk Mark, greets the Cultural Affairs Officer!"

"Mark, I remember you, you were quite attentive during my lectures," Grantaire said as he dismounted, scrutinizing as though he recognized Mark.

Mark trembled with excitement, "To be remembered by the Cultural Affairs Officer is an immense honor for Mark!"

Grantaire nodded, though in fact, he didn't actually remember who Mark was. Back when Black Horse Island was under construction, the administration had urgently recruited a large number of Clerks for pre-job training—it must have been several hundred people, "I'm here to inspect the teaching progress of you Clerks, Mark, have all the civilians ready."

"Yes, Cultural Affairs Officer!"

...

The spring plowing work, he delegated.

Liszt stopped paying much attention after that. Continue reading stories on empire

He returned to Fresh Flower Town the next day because the Magic Potion had all been consumed by the Little Fire Dragon, forcing him to resort to purchasing a new batch through Tulip Castle's channels.

This was going to cost him upward of a thousand Gold Coins.

And what was even more troubling was that the Little Fire Dragon clearly was not going to be satisfied so easily; upon waking on his chest, it started clamoring for more food and drink. To grow, it needed to consume more resources, with Magic Potions being just one of them. The cost of a few thousand Gold Coins in Magic Potions per month was likely to be insufficient.

And then there was Liszt, as a Sky Knight, who also spent no small sum daily on potions and food for himself.

"Relying solely on Black Horse Island's output is too arduous. If it weren't for the profitable trade in spirits and glass, I might not even be able to sustain my own training... I truly hope the Pioneer Mandate arrives sooner. I need to quickly earn military merits, plunder more spoils of war, and subsidize the consumption," he thought.

At this stage, he could only scrimp and scrape by.

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