"Have you lost your mind? Your offer is way too exorbitant." Levis raised his voice in dissatisfaction.

"Please calm down, brother."

"All right, I'm listening. What makes you think that I would accept such absurd terms? Liszt, my dear brother, you should know that while the black tulip is important for the family, it is not irreplaceable. We have another three varieties of tulip magic medicines."

"I'm well aware of that, but I also know that the black tulip is better than the other three varieties. It will serve better as the pillar of the family."

Magic medicines were marvelous and troublesome. They had to be sowed with sprites, or they would gradually retrograde into common plants.

However, their value was not affected.

Magic potions, magic gear, and cultivation of spells and combat aura all depended on magic medicines. When earth knights hit a bottleneck in their cultivation, they had to break it with powerful magic medicines to become sky knights.

Every sky knight was a tank of medicines that had taken too many pills before they earned advanced combat aura.

Without the tulip magic medicines of the family, Leewilliam couldn't have become one of the few sky knights of Archduchy Sapphire so easily.

So, Liszt knew that magic medicines were priceless, and that his brother, a talented earth knight, wouldn't miss the black tulip for the world.

Pausing for a moment, Liszt said unhurriedly, "I'm too untalented to become a sky knight, but you are as gifted as our father, brother. I think your path to sky knighthood will be easier with incessant magic medicines."

He then looked at Lvera. "Same goes for you, sister. I believe that sky knighthood is more important than a thousand gold coins, right? I truly hope that you can support the Tulip family as sky knights, brother and sister. As for me, I only want to earn more money and make my life better."

When sky knights were mentioned, Levis breathed heavily.

He became an earth knight at 13, and he was 21 now. Everybody said that he would be the next sky knight of the Tulip family, but he knew the enormity of the chasm between earth knight and sky knight, which he might not be able to cross with all the family resources.

To make things worse, Lytton Tulip, his younger brother, was also talented.

Lytton's mother was only a small noble, but her pillow talk was certainly effective. Almost half of the resources in Tulip Castle were given to Lytton. Levis's heart bled every time he thought of that.

Shouldn't the family dedicate all the resources to him so that he could make a breakthrough?

Squinting, he said solemnly, "Liszt, if you truly support me, you shouldn't have proposed such harsh terms."

"Let me put it in a different way. What if we keep the business regarding the black tulip amongst ourssprites? I don't think our lord father cares so much about a single black tulip." Liszt implied that they could shun Lytton.

Liszt's half-brother had always been condescending to him.

Liszt did not hesitate at all to keep him out of the deal.

Thinking for a moment, Levis asked, "Do you want to be part of this, Lvera?"

"I didn't plan to, but since Liszt has invited me, why not?" Lvera was not as gifted as Levis, but she also craved to be a sky knight. "Don't forget that I have sprites, too."

"Fine, let's talk about the ratio of benefits."

..

After negotiations and compromises, the siblings hashed out a deal.

When the black tulip had seeds, the Greater Tulip Sprite would plant them near Coral City. After a new batch of seeds was harvested, they would be grown extensively in Coral City, Falcon Town, and Flower Town.

In the first three years, Levis would take care of all the black tulips, and Liszt would claim thirty percent of the revenues according to market price while his sister got twenty percent of it.

Three years later, the black tulips of Falcon Town would be run by Lvera in person, and twenty-five percent of the revenues would go to Liszt.

Ten years later, Liszt would stop claiming dividends from them.

The annual profit of the golden tulip of the family is around five thousand gold coins. The black tulip should be better than that. Assuming that the profit is seven thousand gold coins, I will earn around two thousand gold coins every year. That's much better than only a thousand gold coins.

Liszt thought to himself after they signed the agreement.

He originally planned to claim twenty percent of profits, but since Levis tried to take advantage of his ignorance and buy out the black tulip with a thousand gold coins, he raised it to thirty percent in retaliation.

There was no family in business. Besides, Liszt didn't feel that they were family. They were not connected to him except by blood.

After the deal was made, the siblings seemed friendlier with each other.

Outside of the castle, the farmers were still busy reclaiming the desolate land.

"Are you planning to plant crops outside of your castle?" Lvera looked out of the window.

"Clovers. I'll raise horses here."

Levis joined them. "Horses? You're going to build your own cavalry?"

"I want to establish an order of knights. The monsters of Thorn Hill are a big threat. Many people die because of them every winter. Nobody in town is capable of combat aura.. Brother, can I talk to you in private?" Liszt suddenly remembered something.

They entered an empty room.

"What's the matter? You're acting mysterious."

"I remember that Coral Island did not have a lot of people when we were little. Our father shipped in immigrants from other islands to increase the population, didn't he?"

"That's right. Coral Island had only several thousand natives when our father became an earl. Most of the population was sold to this place. Why else do you think ninety percent of them are serfs?"

"Have you considered continuing the population trade, brother?"

"What do you mean?" Levis observed Liszt. "Can Flower Town support more people? I doubt that this shabby town can support even you, and you are hoping to support more people? Or do you have a different destination for your trade?"

Slave trade was not an honorable thing, but a large population was always needed to open up desolate lands.

Most nobles were more or less involved in human trafficking.

"Flower Town is indeed small, so I'm planning to develop Thorn Hill, which requires a lot of hands. I believe that the income from the black tulip can support me long enough to build Thorn Hill into something as good as my sister's Falcon Town," Liszt said, not entirely meaning it.

He'd better keep his real policy to himself.