The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

In this era, humans burned wood to heat water: commoners used firewood, nobles used charcoal, and there were no records of coal use—coal was likely not a product of dragons, as it is neither a metal nor a gemstone. It seemed that no humans knew about this mineral called coal, at least not in the Duchy of Sapphire.

There were also no records of other fossil fuels like oil or natural gas.

According to Liszt’s speculation, given the existence of saltpeter mines and the fact that volcanoes could erupt basalt, it didn’t make sense that coal, oil, and natural gas didn’t exist.

But that was also uncertain.

After all, all metal ores originated from dragons, and there were no naturally formed metal ores; therefore, the absence of naturally formed coal and oil wasn’t surprising.

In short, firewood and charcoal were the primary sources of fuel.

Firewood consisted of dry tree branches and straw, while charcoal was made by incompletely burning wood, removing moisture and impurities, leaving a solid fuel. Burning firewood caused smoke due to moisture, and it couldn’t burn completely; charcoal, however, was smokeless, burned completely, and was lighter.

But firewood was cheap, and charcoal was expensive.

After Fresh Flower Town cut down the trees at Thorn Ridge, they stockpiled a large amount of timber. Besides the wood used for construction, many of the inferior pieces were turned into charcoal for exclusive use by the castle. The commoners picked up a lot of dry wood to take home and store for cooking fires. Since the bathhouse was aimed at commoners, they certainly couldn’t afford charcoal.

So, with no other choice available, they had to burn firewood, but heating a large pool of hot water and maintaining its temperature would consume an enormous amount of firewood.

It was labor-intensive, a waste of resources, and environmentally damaging.

After Liszt obtained the Magic Little Fire Dragon, he decided to take things to the next level and build a “Magic Bathhouse.” Natural and pollution-free, it didn’t consume energy and saved labor, providing round-the-clock service.

The design of the men’s bath was primarily in the shape of a hot pot—the center was fenced off for the Magic Little Fire Dragon to heat the water, with the surrounding area as a pool for soaking.

With Douson’s stone columns, building the bath wasn’t difficult.

They dug pits, laid down stones, and secured wooden planks for waterproofing, quickly constructing the bathing pools. Next, they filled them with water, and Liszt personally released the Magic Little Fire Dragon, continuously adjusting the amount of magic power. Eventually, they determined that a bucket-sized Magic Little Fire Dragon was needed to heat the water in a pool to forty degrees Celsius.

With that accomplished,

they built wooden structures around the pools, and the construction of the two bathhouses was completed.

The entire process took no more than five days. On December 16, they officially opened for trial operation—free of charge every day from six in the evening until midnight, with a five-minute bathing time limit. From eight in the morning until six in the evening, it was open for a fee, costing one copper coin per person, with no time limit.

Liszt had his own bathtub hot spring, so naturally, he didn’t care for the public bathhouse.

But Goltai and others had been eyeing the bathhouse early on. Such bathhouses for bathing were only found in large cities. Coral City barely counted as a big city, but it was far from being metropolitan, so it didn’t have any bathhouses—ordinary bathhouses that used firewood for heating were extraordinarily expensive.

“Mmm, comfortable, so comfortable it reaches the bones.” Goltai sat in the hot pot bath, soaked by the warm water, moaning in comfort, almost wanting to shout out loud.

Bathing in warm water on a cold day was indeed a supreme luxury.

The men’s bathhouse was located in the commercial district, with a conspicuous sign—Fresh Flower Town Public Men’s Bathhouse.

The women’s bathhouse was situated between the common residential area and the office district, also bearing a conspicuous sign—Fresh Flower Town Public Women’s Bathhouse. Karl also specifically recruited a few female patrol members to be responsible for the bathhouse’s security maintenance, to prevent peeping toms from spying on the bathing commoner women.

At this moment, Paris was lying in the bath with her sister Maggie, enjoying the soaking in warm water.

“It’s so comfortable, sister.”

“Indeed, it’s very comfortable. I never thought that in such a small rural town, we could bathe in such comfortable hot water,” she said contentedly as she scrubbed the dirt off her body, having not taken a serious bath during her long travels, “Eating delicious food every day, working so easily, and being able to soak in hot water, living in a clean and tidy house, Maggie, your sister has fallen in love with this place.”

“Yeah, Maggie loves Fresh Flower Town too,” Maggie paddled around in the pool trying to swim, then ran back to help her sister scrub her back, all the while chanting, “Praise the Lord, praise the noble Lord Landlord of Fresh Flower Town!”

They enjoyed the pleasure of having their backs scrubbed.

“`

Paris squinted her eyes, feeling so comfortable that she wanted to sleep, and couldn’t help but express her agreement, “Baron, Baron is truly extraordinary.”

With Liszt’s deliberate concealment, nobody asked exactly how such a large pool of water was heated.

On the first trial business day, during the daytime, not many people came to bathe.

Because commoners had already gotten used to not bathing, some even didn’t take a single bath throughout the entire winter. Moreover, bathing cost a copper coin, and they weren’t foolish. With that money, it was better to heat water at home for a body wipe and save enough to buy four large black loaves of bread to eat for several days.

However, after six o’clock in the evening, the number of people coming to bathe swelled substantially.

Civilians returning from work at construction sites and wastelands formed long queues, not wanting to miss out on anything free. Luckily the pool was large, and the allotted time was only five minutes, which was just enough for everyone to bathe. After just one round, the water in the pool turned black, with a thick layer of mud and grime floating on top.

The serfs didn’t mind and enjoyed the hot water soaking with giggles and laughter.

Bathhouse workers shouted loudly, “This is the great Lord Landlord’s benefit for the common people. The happiness you are enjoying is all thanks to the Lord Landlord!”

Thus, the serfs responded loudly and in turns, “Praise to the Lord Landlord!”

After washing up, there were workers loudly proclaiming, “The great Lord Landlord has bestowed upon you hot water!”

“Praise to the Lord Landlord!”

“Lord Landlord is so great.”

“Great Lord Landlord, great Fresh Flower Town.”

All sorts of slogans relentlessly poured from the serfs’ mouths, including those new serfs who stumbled through the Serpent Script, “Praise to the Lord Landlord.”

This was Goltai’s idea, a rather forceful propaganda-like brainwashing tactic.

Liszt didn’t oppose it—he believed that the common people should naturally be grateful to him, as Fresh Flower Town was the only place in Coral Island with a bathhouse open to freemen and serfs.

Although his original intention for establishing the bathhouse was to complete the Smoke Mission, he thought good deeds should be praised and extolled.

Right?

…

At the banquet, after having bathed and coming over to freeload a meal, the buoyant Paris couldn’t help but praise, “The public bathhouse of Fresh Flower Town is a noteworthy achievement, Baron,”

Liszt, cutting his steak, responded indifferently, “I bestow upon my subjects food, cotton clothes, copper coins, and jobs, and even hot water for bathing. No one is more suited to be a landlord than I am.”

Goltai immediately stood up, raising his glass high and shouted, “To the hot baths, to Fresh Flower Town, a toast to the great Baron Liszt!”

“A toast to the great Baron Liszt!”

Seeing everyone lifting their glasses, Paris couldn’t continue to eat and drink in peace and followed suit, lifting her glass, “A toast to the great Baron Liszt.”

Liszt raised his glass towards his followers and subordinates, smiling in acknowledgment, “I stand with you all.”

Every time such a situation arose at a party, it left him thoroughly pleased. It was also the reason he favored Goltai as an advisor for the town, as at least in the aspect of leading the flattery, Goltai’s performance deserved extra points.

But getting too full of oneself wasn’t good.

After all, as a rational adult with just a hint of wine on his lips, he thought to himself, “I need a Loyal Minister.”

————

With burst releases at five in the morning for ten consecutive days, Old White hasn’t asked for votes in a long time. Now, with the new book’s monthly vote rankings being unstable, I ask everyone who has votes to cast them for Old White to solidify a position in the top ten of the monthly votes!