nChapter 51: Mard Is Flying

nBasically, Duwei had passed the Soccer Gambling business to Mard…although he was free, he was grounded because of the order from his father. He had no way to manage his business as he was not allowed to leave the castle.

nBut, Mard, who was the former horse groom, had a complete change in his status now! Originally, this follower and the disgraced master were sent to Territory of Rolands Family together but now he became the “General Director”, most of the people knew that he was a groom before. The old housekeeper was the highest leader of the servers in this Family. Although to outsider Mard got the highest title, he was just a dummy leader.

nBut now was totally different! He was Duwei’s General Director! He was the person-in-charge for the soccer gambling business over the Rolands Plains and half of the Cote Province!

nNow, if Mard had to go out, the bosses of those large casinoswould send people to welcome this General Director. Wherever Mard went, there would be a group of people, who were engaged in the gambling industry, following him.

nThis group of people were all waiting and hoping that they could gain some benefit from Mard when he was happy. So, if Mard was eating the meat, they would still go and get some soup for him to eat..

nUnder the authorization of Duwei, Mard has pretended that he accidentally disclosed the betting oddsof several soccer matches, the bosses who operated the illegal soccer gambling really earned some great money from that.

nDuwei understood the human behavior all too well. Although there was the exclusive operation right that officially let Duwei to be the monopoly in this industry, unofficially, there were still many people operating in this.

nEven in his previous life, the underground soccer gambling could not be stopped.

nDuwei just didn’t wanted to be the first one for promoting the Gambling over the Rolands Plain. As long as it could not be blocked, then it’s better to guide it!

nDuwei just thought for a few seconds and come up with this decision! From now on, all the soccer gambling in the cities nearby had to be closed! Duwei needed to fix it!

nDuwei just spoke it out and Mard would execute what Duwei ordered.

nDuwei had offered an urgent intensive 3-day training for Mard, no matter how much this former groom understood, Duwei continued to give him many materials for study.

nIf there was anything that Mard didn’t understand, he could only self-study on the journey.

nFirst, as Duwei said, Soccer Gambling, the word “Gambling” could not be spoken! The Little master had created a weird thing, which would be sold openly before each match. Although it could predict the same match result, it’s a little bit different.

n“From now on, we are not the banker of the betting! We are the store selling a product! The things we will sell are called…Soccer Lottery!” Duwei looked serious when he was saying that, it’s kind of a holy feeling. After a while, this little master explained a bit, “From now on, “gambling” should not be spoken! We are not a gambling hub, we are….legal betting!”

nHow legal is it., Duwei had made a very simple definition: Ten percent of the revenue would be donated to the government authority!

nOK!

nNo matter how much Mard understood, he now could just sit in the carriage with a few servants heading to different towns over the Rolands Plain, and ready for the trading of “Soccer Lottery” as Duwei said.

nBy the way, before departure, Mard could not help to ask one more question, “Little master, if we are planning to open a store for trading…so, our store should be named.”

n“Soccer Lottery Center!” Duwei answered immediately.

nSo, our Mr. General Director Mard, in the foreseeable future, he got a new title in his mind: Director of the Soccer Lottery Center!

nThe second thing Duwei wanted Mard to do was…Duwei was ready to have a significant amendment on the current “League”!

nUp till now, in the league system, all the teams and team members were coming from the troop of the castle nearby. Now, the recovery period of the soldiers was almost ended.

nIf these soldiers kept on playing soccer and stopped the military training, Duwei worried that the old housekeeper would probably report it by writing the letter to the Imperial City.

nSo…Duwei was preparing to establish the real league!

nNow, every troop could only have a team in the system. Duwei requested Mard to go to few cities and establish one team in one city! Now that soccer was very popular over the Rolands Plain, it’s was not difficult to find ten to twenty good soccer players in every town.

nAfter that, team from each place could start their league competition…this idea made Mard very excited!

nDuwei listed out all the thing, seems like this league competition could bring lots of revenue…Firstly, soccer players from Roland Plains, they didn’t request for high joining fee and high salary. Most of them were farmers, craftsmen, carpenters, blacksmiths, miner, even the barbers. They were happy playing the soccer occasionally. One to two golden coins as rewards were already sufficient for them to play in the competition passionately.

nThe expected high revenue from the soccer lottery was sufficient to pay for these soccer players.

nBut Duwei didn’t give up the target of getting maximum benefit…he even let Mard to go to find the biggest leather merchant in the city nearby…That merchant had been providing different kind of leather products to the Rolands Family for a long time.

nDuwei promised, in the future “Soccer League”, when the soccer players were in the competition, they would wear uniform…the name of the merchant’s shop would be written on the uniforms!

nConsidering the popularity of this game was still high. Every time when there was a match, there were still many people centralizing in the City Square….this kind of popularity…

nThis merchants had given five hundred golden coins to Duwei generously as the “Naming Right” fee for the future one year.

nSo, the team in this city would be named as “Rolands Plain Jade Town Old Clone Leather Store Soccer Team”!

nDuwei sold the naming right for the first soccer team in the league in front of Mard. Then next, Mard was responsible for selling the naming right of the twelve teams to the local rich merchants.

nWith all these things…Mard almost started to admire this little master who was raised up by himself.

nWho said our little master was an idiot?

nHave you seen any idiot who could earn hundreds of thousands of gold coins?

nMard was so tired. He was busy with going to different cities and towns, from south to north, east to west in the Rolands Plain, he had gone to more than ten cities and towns! The twelve soccer teams were finally established and all the naming rights had been sold out.

nDuwei didn’t care how weird the names were…He was satisfied with the thousands of gold coins brought by Mard. He earned total five thousand gold coins from these twelve teams.

n“This is just the first year, my dear Mard. If we organized the league competition well, you wouldn’t be busy with selling the naming right in the future. Those merchants will beg you with the boxes of coins! At that time, I am afraid only few thousand will not be enough for buying the naming right for one team!” Duwei looked at this loyal servant, he felt touched. So, he decided to give more rewards to this loyal servant.

n“My dear Mard…are you interested in being the first president of Rolands Plain Soccer Association?”

nSo, apart from the title of “General director” and “Director of the Soccer Lottery centre”, Mard got another amazing title: President of the Soccer Association!

nAlthough he still didn’t understand what this title meant, Mard was impressed as this little master esteemed him most, he accepted Duwei’s suggestion happily.

nDuwei was very happy.

nIt was because the coins brought by Mard could help him enormously.

nThe soccer league was not started yet, the revenue from the soccer lottery was still zero, these five thousands golden coins from the naming fee was the only liquidity for Duwei.

nGod damn it…Solsjaer still didn’t have any progress even after he spent thousand and thousand of gold coins.

nWith the money brought by Mard, Duwei could relax a little bit. With the happiness, Duwei brought our President of the Soccer Association to see his new invention.

nAt the place, where Duwei had his firework research at the back of the castle, Mard admired his little master much again.

nAlthough he still didn’t know what this little master invented.

nThe thing in front of him was like a huge basket.

nRight, this was a huge basket. It was even large enough to let three to five people to stand inside. The fringe of the basket was high that was about the human’s waist. When people stood inside, it’s like sitting in the carriage with open-top.

nAbove it….was a gigantic spherical thing that was sewn with a dozen of leather, gently floating above the baskets!

nRight, it’s was gigantic hot air balloon!

nUnder it was a stove, which was heating up the balloon, heating up the air inside the balloon.

nThe color of the flame was very bright. Duwei had used some magic in this step…that’s the fire magic he just learnt. Solskjaer made something that could help in strengthening the burning effect of the sulphur.

n”This thing is called Hot Air Balloon! My dear Mard.” Duwei was very happy.

nThis was the result after one month of effort! Although within this period, nearly fifty high-quality leather was destroyed…these leather were bought from the merchant, who was the first one to buy the naming right of the soccer team, at a very low price.

nDuwei ignored the blankly Mard and briefly introduced his new invention.

nMr. Mard, who was the former groom, the current General Director, the General Director of the Soccer Betting Center and the President of the Soccer Association, was fainted. He looked at this little master and stammered, “Little master…you, you said this thing can fly? You said ‘Fly’? Right?”

n”Yes, you are right, my dear Mard!” Duwei smiled, “So, I offer you an honor! Have a trial flight with me! This is the historical moment! You will be the first human who can fly into the sky without any magic help!”

nAfter that, it was like a dream for the Old Mard!

nDuwei cut the rope tied on the basket, the buoyancy of the hot air balloon brought the basket with Duwei and Mard up!

nWhen the basket was a little bit off the ground and getting higher and higher…every person stopped breathing without making any sound. They stared at Duwei and Mard flying into the sky. They were shocked…

nThere were even some people who forgot to clean up their saliva!

nFor those people, who were living in the age without any flying tools, this scenery was too….magnificent!

nUntil the hot air balloon, where Duwei and Mard were inside, reached the highest point of the castle, the craftsmen on the ground started to scream and cheer! Everyone kneeled down on the floor and praised the great god…

nCompared with the cheerful people on the ground, Mard felt that he could not stand up with his legs!

nThis was the first time for him to fly into the sky, Mard kept shaking since he was off from the ground. He looked pale and the eyes were getting as big as the bovines, his teeth made some weird sound, he kept on clutching the edge of the basket tightly…

n”How is it? My dear Mard…” Duwei looked down…the hot air balloon was floating slowly. From this angle, he could see the scenery around the castle, the mountains far away, the forest close by!

n”Is this scenery unforgettable….” Duwei was enjoying.

n”Little master…” Mard tried to swallow his saliva and asked carefully, “This…I am speechless now…this is so amazing…but, I would like to ask…now that we are flying so high…but, how can we land off?”

n”….” Duwei looked pale too, he looked at Mard and said, “Shit…I only know how to fly…but I don’t know how to land off.”

nMatt said, “Little master….you are the most talented genius I have ever seen….. ％※％×；※……×；（……※”

nDuwei said, “Mard! You spit on me!”

nThe people on the ground started looking at each other after the excitement, “When will they land off? It’s almost dinner time?”

nUnder the sunset, the hot air balloon was floating higher and higher, further and further under the infinite glow…

nHow amazing the world was! Right?

n