Evil dragon has a warm heart

Chapter 56 - 56 56 Gum Blood

?Chapter 56: Chapter 56 Gum Blood Chapter 56: Chapter 56 Gum Blood On the day of the birthday party,
Lady Ingrid sponsored Lord Russell with one hundred gold coins for the improvement of reading glasses, so Russell planned to complete this task as soon as possible.

After inspecting the Windmill Mill, he dispatched a Knight Attendant to invite the lamp store’s gem craftsman, who just happened to be brought over.

“Mondis sends his greetings to you, Lord Russell,” the gem craftsman’s legs were somewhat shaking, as he had been brought over on horseback, experiencing for the first time the bumpiness of sitting on a horse.

“Hello, Mondis,” Russell said gently,”Do you know why I’ve called you over?”

“Please command me, Lord Russell.”

“It’s about the two pieces of clear crystal that I had you grind before. After they were made into single-vision reading glasses, my grandmother liked them very much.”

“Ah, Lady Ingrid liked them? That, that is indeed my honor!” Mondis was very excited.

“But those two pairs of single-vision glasses inevitably had some discrepancies, so now I want to make glasses more suited to presbyopia,” Russell said,”I am very satisfied with your craftsmanship, so I plan to entrust you with the task of grinding the lenses.”

In fact, Russell would have preferred to recruit Mondis to work exclusively for him.

He had ambitious plans to research glassmaking to produce more, richer, and more exquisite glassware.

However, reality did not allow it.

It was not a matter of funding or technical issues, but an energy problem.

As everyone knows, metals and gems come from dragons, bipedal flying dragons, but in fact, energy also comes from bipedal flying dragons. The coal and oil that are burned are mineral products bred by bipedal flying dragons which need to be transported from foreign lands to ensure supply to the Glowing Valley.

Every year, Baron Roman cleared the snowfield trade routes to facilitate the transportation of large quantities of coal from foreign lands.

Regrettably, the firing of clay into ceramics required a tremendous amount of coal.

Therefore, Russell could not expect to get any surplus coal, but without coal, how could he make glass? This was a deadlock.

It was impossible to cut down all the trees in the territory and then burn them into charcoal.

Unable to make glass on his own, he could only import substandard glass from foreign lands, with lots of impurities and bubbles, using this inferior glass to create the desired glass products.

Not to mention the cost issue, the constraints of trade routes alone were enough to abort the plan.

“The most critical issue is patent protection, this world does not have patent protection… I toil away to create glasses, telescopes, microscopes, only for others to easily imitate… Only if I could make glass myself would I have the right to compete,” he thought.

So,
unless he stumbled upon a bipedal flying dragon that could produce coal and the like, he had no plans to delve deeply into glass products.

Inviting Mondis over for some extra money, to help create a few pairs of reading glasses suitable for his grandmother, successfully settling the research funding, would suffice.

“Buy more clear crystals, spend about thirty gold coins, and I should be able to make a suitable pair of reading glasses for my grandmother… As for the remaining seventy gold coins, let’s consider it as my grandmother’s sponsorship for the scientific cause,” Russell thought.

It must be said that Lady Ingrid was quite generous; with a wave of her hand, she provided a hundred gold coins.

This amount was equivalent to several years of crop production from Wuyao Snake Manor—excluding Magic Potion.

After Russell was enfeoffed, the gold coins bestowed to him by Fluorescent Castle amounted to only fifty, which already signified the extreme generosity of the baron and his wife.

A peasant family of three living as serfs might only need ten silver coins for a year’s worth of living expenses.

In the Shadowflame Grand Duchy, one gold coin was fixed at a conversion to one hundred silver coins, and one silver coin was fixed at conversion to one hundred copper coins—metals are born from dragons, so there’s no need to worry about bad money driving out good money; the currency system had been running smoothly for thousands of years.

In any case,
Mondis gladly accepted Russell’s commission and used the lamp store’s spare time to craft new reading glasses for Russell.

“Once I have purchased enough white crystals, you will fashion them into rough lenses, and then accompany me to Great Wind Manor. There, we will personally measure and calibrate them before polishing them on the spot,” Russell had everything arranged.

A pair of reading glasses was simple, requiring no special technology, just the craftsmanship of a jeweler.

“As you wish, Lord Russell.”

“Then it’s settled.”

…

After sending Mondis away.

By evening time, the manor’s guesthouse welcomed an unexpected visitor.

“Katie pays her respects to Sir,” said the visitor, the elder sister among the cat sisters, still dressed in her usual black bodysuit.

“There’s no need for formality, have a cup of hot tea first.” Russell had been maintaining contact with the cat sisters, with Kevin the Gold and Silver Wolfhound passing messages in between. However, as a fantasy beast, he couldn’t convey overly complex information.

After taking a sip of hot water, Katie reported, “Catherine and I have successfully joined Lone Wolf Lisbon’s team.”

“Good, he hasn’t grown suspicious, has he?”

“No, that person has… become oblivious, Sir,” Katie shook her head and continued, “His actions in Echo Water River Cavern have grown more and more audacious, even causing friction with the Wild Man Cave and resulting in a few fatalities.”

The Wild Man Cave was a cavern in Curved Blade Mountain inhabited by several hundred freemen.

“When the Great Dragon plans to destroy a man, it first drives him mad,” Russell paraphrased a saying from Earth.

“Yes,” Katie agreed, then added, “There’s more good news, Sir. Lisbon’s possession of a mushroom worm has been confirmed, it’s true!”

“Oh, which mushroom worm?”

“The Bloodfang Fungi.”

“Bloodfang Fungi?” Russell had never heard of it.

“Indeed, that’s what Lisbon calls the mushrooms he grows. He crushes these Bloodfang Fungi and makes them into a blood-pasty salve called ‘Gum Blood.’ After Catherine and I joined him, we received a share of this ‘Gum Blood.'”
Pausing for a moment, Katie said, “But I do not know where the Bloodfang Fungi are grown; it seems only Lisbon knows. Even the name ‘Bloodfang Fungi’ slipped out from his lips by accident.”

Russell nodded.

He was determined to obtain the Bloodfang Fungi and Gum Blood.

After a moment’s thought, he instructed, “Katie, you and Catherine continue to follow Lisbon. Draw him out as soon as possible… Of course, you sisters must also be careful and cautious. Once we’ve killed Lisbon and taken control of Echo Water River Cavern, you’ll be free to move openly in the manor.”

“My sister and I are looking forward to that day all the time, Sir,” Katie smiled faintly, her eyes brimming with anticipation.

“Aside from his recent trouble with the Wild Man Cave, has Lisbon taken any other actions?” Charles asked from the side. “Does he have any comments on how easily Sir eliminated those Snow Ghosts, or how does he regard Sir?”

“It seems that Lisbon is deliberately ignoring Sir, but occasionally when I bring up Sir deliberately, I can see jealousy in Lisbon’s eyes.”

“Jealous of Sir, that’s quite normal,” Charles laughed. “Sir is young and handsome, a dashing noble, while he is just a bloated old rat struggling in a cave, lucky to have gotten a mushroom worm by a momentary oversight of the Great Dragon, destined to return to Sir’s hands sooner or later.”

Katie echoed, “That’s indeed the case.”

Russell spoke with a calm smile, “While that is true, we still must take Lisbon seriously. Katie, I want your sisters’ plotting to be even more cautious. Compared to the small profits from Echo Water River Cavern, you sisters are more important to me.”

“Sir!” Katie’s eyes misted up. Even though she knew Russell was just saying flattering words, she was still deeply touched.

After all.

Kind words warm for three winter months.