BXBX NOVEL Chapter 100: The Development of New Bread
In the bakery, Liszt saw the plump Reynard.
Without showing much concern for his serfs or adopting a friendly demeanor, he went straight to the point, “Reynard, how long have you been baking bread?”
“I started baking bread as soon as I arrived at Fresh Flower Farm, Lord Landlord, It’s been eighteen years,” Reynard said respectfully, “My mother was once a kitchen maid at Tulip Castle, and she taught me the skill of bread-making. I followed her here when Coral Island’s Earl started the Fresh Flower Farm in Fresh Flower Town.”
The developmental history of Coral Island is hard to trace, with claims that people were already living on the island even before the Sapphire Duke came overseas to establish the kingdom.
Later, the Sapphire Duke declared Coral Island property of the kingdom and sent officials to govern it.
By the time Li Weiliam Tulip was granted the title of Earl of Coral Island for his military service twenty years ago, Levis was just two years old, and both Li Vera and Liszt had not been born yet. In those years, the Earl massively purchased serfs to populate and cultivate the wastelands of Coral Island.
Eighteen years ago, new Tulips were discovered in Fresh Flower Town, prompting the Earl to cultivate Fresh Flower Farm there.
At its height, the Tulips reached two hundred acres in size, and the small castle was also constructed during that time.
The following year, which is seventeen years ago, as increasingly more serfs gathered at Fresh Flower Farm, Fresh Flower Town was built. Reynard, transitioning from a baker who made bread exclusively for Fresh Flower Farm, became the town baker and settled down here. Life in the small town was hard, but Reynard quite enjoyed it.
In a blink, eighteen years passed.
He had become the wealthiest commoner in Fresh Flower Town.
Liszt then asked, “Have you always made black bread?”
“Occasionally, I also make white bread, especially during festivals, and, well, when commoners get married, they also order some white bread from me.”
“How is your skill in making white bread?”
“I… I don’t know, Lord Landlord,” Reynard said, a bit embarrassed and with his head bowed, “But, Mrs. Abbie from the castle has tasted my white bread, and she said it was delicious.”
Aside, Reynard’s wife suddenly interjected, “Lord Landlord, Mrs. Abbie also said she wanted to collaborate with Reynard on researching milky bread, which she mentioned you’re quite fond of.”
“The Lord Landlord didn’t ask you a question, who gave you permission to speak!” Reynard glared at his wife and then quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, Lord Landlord, Rebecca is a foolish woman, she meant no disrespect to your authority.”
Liszt didn’t mind.
He wasn’t the kind of noble prickly to the touch, unable to accept the slightest offense—besides, he didn’t feel that Rebecca’s interjection was an affront at all.
On the contrary, he was pleased that Abbie seemingly was collaborating with Reynard about creating milky bread.
He always supported culinary research, so he smiled and said, “Reynard, the castle needs bread with better taste. Since you and Mrs. Abbie are communicating, that’s good, create more bread with different flavors. Don’t worry about not being able to sell them, as long as they’re tasty, the castle will purchase them in large quantities.”
Reynard was overjoyed.
This was exactly what he wanted, and he immediately accepted the order, “Please rest assured, Lord Landlord, I will surely work with Mrs. Abbie to develop milky bread and many more wonderfully flavored new breads.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Liszt stood up, adding another suggestion, “I like adding a bit of meat to the bread, but roasted meat is too dry and hard, which doesn’t go well with bread. Maybe you could try to make the meat very tender, almost as if it were mixed with the bread, that might taste good.”
“Reynard will remember that!”
Reynard and Mrs. Abbie would likely need at least ten days to half a month to bake meat floss bread or any other new type of bread. There was no way they would finish this task before Liszt attended Levis’s birthday party.
The date was rapidly approaching August 16th.
Only three days were left until Levis’s birthday, after which he would turn twenty-three. By that age, the Earl and Melissa had already conceived Li Vera. However, Levis still hadn’t found a suitable match for marriage and remained single.
Honored Knight Layden from Tulip Castle had sent the invitation for Levis’s birthday party.
Upon receiving the invitation, Butler Carter got busy with the preparations for the gift, “My lord, are we really just going to use seafood as the birthday gift?”
He asked with some uncertainty, as Liszt had instructed him that giving some seafood as a gift would suffice.
But seafood was the cheapest food in Fresh Flower Town, cheaper even than black bread — it was found everywhere on the East Coast, not only collected by fishermen but even serfs would pick up some shells to eat.
Liszt, engrossed in his book, didn’t even lift his head, “Mr. Carter, besides seafood, what else do we have in Fresh Flower Town that’s worth offering as a specialty?”
This rhetorical question left Carter speechless.
The remote little town truly had no special produce worth boasting about, but he still tried to think of something, “My lord, perhaps we could send some wild fruits from Thorn Ridge.”
“No, no, no, I have been poisoned by wild fruits before. Although I am now able to differentiate between the types of wild fruits, there is still a risk.”
“I apologize, my lord, it was thoughtless of me.”
“That’s nothing. After all, the castle picks a lot of wild fruits every day, we’re used to it. I just feel that gifting wild fruits isn’t a good sign.”
Liszt had occupied his predecessor’s body and memories because of wild fruits, so of course, he wouldn’t disregard them.
He had ordered people to pick and test all the wild fruits from Thorn Ridge and eventually identified two poisonous kinds — including the Black Date Fruit that had poisoned his predecessor, a fist-sized, slightly purplish-black fruit.
All other wild fruits were edible.
However, whether there were more poisonous wild fruits deep within Thorn Ridge was not something he could guarantee. Those fruits were picked by the braver serfs from the edge of Thorn Ridge.
The small town also had some fruit trees, but not many, with just a few fruits scattered here and there.
Liszt had already ordered the collection of various wild fruit seeds, planning to plant them en masse come spring next year, but regrettably, he couldn’t ensure a high germination rate. Without the Elf Bug, the growth of wild fruit trees was bound to be a challenge; the serfs had thought of planting them but couldn’t make them thrive.
The castle’s wild fruits could only be picked from Thorn Ridge for the time being.
With wild fruits ruled out as a birthday gift, Carter didn’t know what else to give, something more appropriate than seafood.
But then Liszt remembered, ordinary wild fruits from Thorn Ridge might not be suitable, but there were plenty of Fragrant Coconut Fruits on the East Coast, “Calculating the time, the Fragrant Coconut Fruits should also be ripe by now. Mr. Carter, contact the fruit farmers and pick a bag of Fragrant Coconut Fruits. We’ll pair them with the seafood as our gift.”
“Yes, my lord.”
August 19th.
Early in the morning, Liszt dressed in leather armor and strapped on the Crimson Blood Sword, setting off with his retainer knights just as the sun began to rise, facing the gentle breeze.
Heading to Tulip Castle.