The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Chapter 152: The Conscience Represented by Mung Bean Soup

“My lord, why are you in such a hurry to have the four workshops built?”

“I want to see results sooner.”

On the empty lot of the workshop area, Liszt led Douson while inspecting the construction of the workshops.

Consultant Goltai, who was in charge of the construction, was somewhat baffled. Just this morning, Liszt issued a new order demanding that the four workshops be completely built within five days. Because of this, he had to gather even more serfs to participate in the construction.

The whole construction site was bustling with activity.

It was now autumn, and the temperature was gradually becoming less hot than in the summer, but they were still sweating profusely while working.

“Tell the workers building the workshops that if they finish within five days, their salary will be doubled, and if they finish within four days, their salary will be tripled,” Liszt said, unconcerned by a few more copper coins. He cared only about whether he could complete the task ahead of schedule.

“Oh lord, the serfs will go mad,” exclaimed Goltai, before spreading his hands, “But it’s impossible to build the workshops in four days. Workshops aren’t wooden huts; they need skilled people to construct them.”

Liszt indifferently said, “Then make them more crudely, as long as they can produce, that’s enough. I don’t expect the workshops to bring me much income, as long as they can assure the supply to the castle, that would be considered good.”

One must not overestimate the skills of the serfs.

But neither should one underestimate their pursuit of money.

When they are driven, they can work night and day to cobble together the four workshops—the quality might not be guaranteed, but Liszt was not pursuing quality at the moment, only speed.

Even if the workshops turned out to be defective, it didn’t matter. The goal was just to complete the task.

Compared to the evolution of the Thorn Bugs, these were secondary concerns.

Goltai didn’t understand Liszt’s thinking, but he was just a consultant. All the power of the land was bestowed by Liszt, so he could only accept, “I will properly motivate these serfs. I dare not guarantee four days, but within five days, there will definitely be four workshops appearing in the workshop area.”

“Complete this task, Consultant Goltai, and I will reward you with a few bottles of juniper wine, a cellar-aged vintage purchased directly from Tulip Castle.”

“Oh lord, cellar-aged juniper wine, that is utterly tantalizing. I haven’t had juniper wine from Tulip Castle’s cellar in years! Ha-ha, I will supervise the construction of the workshops day and night for the next few days. Please rest assured, my lord!”

He straightened out the attitudes of the officials and workers.

Only then did Liszt lead Douson back the way they came.

Halfway there, he directly mounted Douson’s back, using it as a mount—Douson had been rapidly growing recently, already weighing over a ton. Tigers, in front of Douson, could only be considered slightly larger cats. The explosive power contained within its body could tear tigers and leopards apart.

Even without using magic, it could stand at the top of Coral Island’s food chain.

At first.

Liszt riding it made it somewhat unwilling, but after a beating, it obediently served as a mount. Carrying a person hardly affected its movements

Upon reaching Douson Avenue,

Liszt gave the command: “Douson, multiple stone spikes!”

Douson opened its mouth wide, let out a roar, and then, on the sections of the road that had been planned but not yet constructed, seven thick stone spikes burst forth with a ‘pfft, pfft’ sound.

“Good boy!”

Patting Douson’s large head, Liszt was very satisfied and continued with the commands: “Keep it up, Douson, multiple stone spikes!”

‘Pfft, pfft!’

Another six stone spikes broke through the ground.

“Well done, little guy. Come on, stone spikes!”

Pfft!

With just a single Rock Spike thrusting out, Douson had already grasped the difference between a Rock Spike and Multiple Stone Spikes.

A piece of jerky as a reward.

Liszt rubbed Douson’s chubby neck and continued the training, “Douson, bigger, make it bigger, Rock Spike!”

Pfft!

A Rock Spike emerged.

“Bigger, Rock Spike!”

Pfft!

Another Rock Spike appeared.

“Not good enough, Douson, no jerky reward. Bigger, only then comes the jerky, understand?” Liszt teased Douson by waving the jerky in front of it, but didn’t let it eat, making clear that its performance wasn’t up to par.

He trained it bit by bit like this.

Only when the Rock Spike became thicker did Liszt stuff the jerky into its mouth, repeating the command, “Bigger, Rock Spike,” to indicate that only a larger Rock Spike would earn a reward. Douson was smart, but since they didn’t speak the same language, he could only use conditioning to make it understand various commands.

Such training was repetitive and tedious.

But when Douson mastered a new command, Liszt felt a great sense of accomplishment because his ultimate goal was to train Douson to cast a greater variety of magic.

“Douson is definitely an Intermediate Magical Beast, but it still falls short of a Purple Sand Crocodile. As a postnatal evolved Intermediate Magical Beast, its aptitude is certainly inferior to that of innate ones. How to compensate depends on how I, as its master, train it and use techniques to offset its lack of natural talent.”

He reveled in personally training a powerful Intermediate Magical Beast.

However, the Roadwork Team following behind wasn’t as thrilled. As Douson’s Magic Power soared and it produced a large number of Rock Spikes, the team’s workload greatly increased.

Hammers pounded continuously, smashing the Rock Spikes to pieces and spreading them out on Douson Avenue—an incredibly strenuous task, since Liszt demanded that each piece of rock shouldn’t be bigger than a wine bottle cap. The serfs responsible for breaking the rock had to hammer constantly, even reducing the stones to dust.

Only in this way could the road they built be smooth.

Seeing the sweaty, dust-covered serfs of the Roadwork Team, Liszt felt somewhat sentimental—he had it far too easy compared to them.

Reincarnation was a skill, and evidently, he had done it quite well.

“Have Mrs. Abbie prepare some mung bean soup and send it to the serfs of the Roadwork Team, a bowl for each,” Liszt instructed as Butler Carter approached.

“Your mercy will astonish them.”

“As long as they work hard for me, I’m never stingy with rewards and benefits. In Fresh Flower Town, I want everyone to be able to earn their living through work, have enough to eat, stay warm, and live healthily even when winter comes,” Liszt proclaimed with high-sounding words, his vision ahead of the times.

Merely exploiting serfs is a very low-level form of exploitation.

Motivating the serfs’ productivity is what truly maximizes the exploitation of laborers to gain more surplus value. He was a man who had read through Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital”.

As for the conscience of a capitalist—hadn’t he already given them mung bean soup? What more could they want!

So many people building one road, the wages paid on time, and only twelve hours of work a day, that was already quite kind. Any other Landlord might make the serfs learn from Xu Sanduo; not spending a copper coin, picking up rocks to build the road themselves.

Riding on Douson.

Liszt continued training, depleting all of Douson’s Magic Power to create a large batch of Rock Spikes to be used as materials for the road. Only then did he leave the construction site, heading straight to where the Earth Matron was imprisoned—as a reward for Douson.