The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

The conference at Juniper Castle lasted a full two days.

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During these two days, the knights from various domains had gradually left, and the knights from Coral Island also left Juniper Castle on July 12, by order of the Earl.

"Levis, you lead the Knight Order back to Bull Horn City first and meet up with the fleet of our family. Once the meetings here are over, I will head directly to Bull Horn City," he ordered.

"Yes, Father."

After the Earl left the Knight Order and returned to Juniper Castle, Liszt chased after him and asked a question, "Father, there shouldn’t be any major problems if I look for a few craftsmen in the cities along the way and take them with me, right?"

"The Knight Order of the Grand Duke has already taken over the major cities, so don’t do that… We are currently discussing military exploits, and it would be best to follow the rules. It’s not worth spoiling the glory that should be yours over some trivialities," the Earl advised. "Your Viscount title can be secured through this battle; that’s what matters most."

Theoretically, as a land-owning Earl, William could grant anyone the title of Viscount.

However, in practice, he only held the rights to divide his own lands and to suggest and make deals for the ennoblement of new territories—officially speaking, this means that if he were to carve out a piece of land from Coral Island to grant a title to a follower, The Court would not interfere at all, even if he created ten Viscounts, as long as there was land to be divided.

But Coral Island is only so large; accommodating two Viscounts has already required carving out a lot of land, and sectioning off an entire city would destabilize Tulip Castle’s finances.

At this point, it would be necessary to trade for new territories from the Grand Duchy to grant titles to followers.

The compensation needed for such a trade is military exploits.

The Court reserves the right to inspect and review the ennoblement of knights, and if a knight doesn’t meet The Court’s criteria for ennoblement, The Court has the right to refuse new land trades. Followers’ military exploits can be accumulated as material rewards, or as a tally of exploits.

Wait for an appropriate method to cash in on those military exploits.

William hadn’t increased the size of his domains in years, compensating for military exploits with material rewards because the demands for new territories were high.

Unless he could accumulate enough military exploits to be promoted to Marquis and obtain a larger island as a domain, using exploits to exchange for a new small island would be neither worthwhile nor meaningful.

"Are my military exploits sufficient?"

"They are sufficient. The First Prince is very satisfied with the performance of the Long Taro Family and the Tulip Family, and he had many good words to say, including about you. If you are willing, you could even become a follower of the First Prince, but I know, you’re developing a new island?" William revealed.

Indeed, he had already learned about Liszt’s project on Black Horse Island.

Liszt nodded, without denying, "I want Black Horse Island as my fief. The island is roughly two thousand square kilometers, which is about the same as the territory of a small city."

"Black Horse Island, eh? It will soon become reality."

"By the way, Father, can I keep Fresh Flower Town for a long time? It’s just a small town, and I can offer the family additional compensation as if it were a long-term lease," he ventured.

William took a moment to consider, "That’s possible, we’ll discuss this later, I have to get back to the meeting."

After the Earl left.

Liszt was still contemplating the details of his ennoblement.

He had studied the knightly ennoblement system quite thoroughly. In this knight-dominated world, the ennoblement systems of different countries are essentially similar in nature—they are all inherited from the Moon Empire’s system, where landlords have complete ownership of their lands.

But there are many differences in form.

The ennoblement system of the Duchy of Sapphire differs from the vassal Kingdom of the Steel Ridge Kingdom—the Steel Ridge Kingdom’s feudal system is one of overlapping domains, while the Duchy of Sapphire utilizes an island exchange feudal system.

...

Fiefdom overlap.

This refers to the ability to continuously acquire territories and stack them together.

For example, a knight, after becoming an Honored Knight, receives a small village as his fiefdom, and then, after achieving military distinction, is promoted to Baron and receives a small town as his fiefdom. Hence, his titles would be "Baron of Some Town" plus "Honored Knight of Some Village," possessing two separate lands.

In this way, his eldest son could inherit the title of Baron of Some Town, while his second son might be able to inherit the title of Honored Knight of Some Village.

Of course, most of the time the eldest son gets all the titles, and the second son goes off to fight wars, write novels, play the piano, court noble ladies—the misfortunes of the younger son are probably one of the reasons why monogamy is practiced among the nobility. Having too many wives means there would be more younger sons, and the imbalance of fief distribution would intensify conflicts, leading to the collapse of the knight system.

...

Island exchange.

This is a special feudal policy of the Duchy of Sapphire, meaning that a noble can only own one island or one city; territories do not stack.

For example, a knight, after becoming an Honored Knight, receives a small village as his fiefdom, and then, after achieving military distinction, is promoted to Baron and receives a small town as his fiefdom. However, he can only choose the town as his fiefdom and must give up the original village fiefdom, retaining only the highest title of "Baron of Some Town."

But there’s a considerate strategy to ensure that the benefits of the territory are not compromised—the original fiefdom can be retained for a harvest period of three to five years, to transfer wealth such as elves and population from the territory.

When the Tulip Family still bore the name Wafers, Liszt’s grandfather, Greg Wafers, was the Viscount of Tahiti City on an island near Blue Dragon Island.

After Li Weiliam inherited the Viscount title, he distinguished himself and became an Earl, choosing Coral Island and retaining the three-year harvesting period of Tahiti City by paying taxes.

After transferring the family’s assets, three years later, Tahiti City was reclaimed by The Court.

This system was adopted because the Duchy of Sapphire is an archipelago nation. With many islands, limited land, and difficult maritime transportation, it would cost nobles a fortune to connect two fiefdoms far from each other, so they might as well focus on a single island.

Thus, the island exchange system was born out of necessity.

However, systems are static, but people are dynamic.

Liszt wants to lease Fresh Flower Town long-term, and as long as he pays, there is no reason for Li Weiliam and Levis to disagree—after all, they’re family.

"Fresh Flower Town is where my career began, and most of the rewards from the Smoke Mission originate from there, it may have special significance, I cannot bear to give it up."

Fresh Flower Town is his land of dragon prosperity.

Even though this world does not pay much attention to the concept of lands of dragon prosperity, Liszt is still somewhat influenced by geomancy and has a preference for such places. Even without considering the land’s auspiciousness, Fresh Flower Town also holds the majority of his hard-earned achievements, making it difficult to let go so easily.

Most importantly, the Formless Dragon has graced this town.

This is one of the Dragon’s clues, and perhaps one day the Formless Dragon will visit the town again, then Liszt could have a proper encounter with it, striving to ride it one day and become a Dragon Knight.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful!

...

Li Si Te landed on Iron Hoof Island, Bull Horn City, on June 11th, and returned to Bull Horn City on July 14th. The Iron Hoof Island campaign, which took an entire month, finally came to an end.

Liszt could relax and lie in bed, enjoying the post-war tranquility.

Once the Earl arrives, he could begin the journey home.