More than fifty peasant households, over one hundred and sixty people working diligently, and on top of that, the owner of the estate was a foolish young man very good at throwing money around. After only a few days, Corion Estate could be described as springing up from its deathbed, bursting with life as though celebrating the New Year.
The houses had been renovated until they looked brand-new. The main building had two floors, five suites, seven bathrooms, an integrated balcony, and arched loggias. There were three fireplaces, a formal dining room combined with a bar, and a luxurious kitchen that led to the underground wine cellar.
The courtyard garden had only just begun planting, so its beauty was not yet visible. However, the stables, barns, warehouses, and winemaking facilities had all been prepared, along with the infrastructure needed to support large-scale operation, workers' housing, pens for pigs and cattle, a water pump connected to Lac Celavy, and so on.
...
At first, Victor thought that taking over a vineyard estate meant throwing money around, then signing for the land deed and property deed. The facts proved he had been too naive.
Royal steward Sebastian and duchy treasurer Rafael de Surmann visited the estate together. Accompanying them was Vivienne de Tabris, who had come as Duchess Anna's representative to supervise the process. Serving as guards were Horace Furness, deputy commander of the duchy guard, and twenty of his men.
In addition, quite a few nobles had come to observe the ceremony. Among them, the two closer friends were naturally the knights Milton de Peyrac-Peyran and Baron Palmerin de Launfal, as well as Palmerin's uninvited nephew, Guillaume.
The process of taking over the vineyard began. First, the treasurer handed the land deed and property deed to Victor for signing and receipt. This was the most basic part.
Next came the true main event, the handover of the winery documents. Their contents included rainfall records since the winery's founding, changes in the soil, and sweetness indicators for different grape varieties planted there. There were also several relatively mature wine formulas that Corion Estate had successfully developed in the past, among them Sansretour Reverie, which was worth a baron's title.
In addition, when wine-tasting masters or winemaking masters had been invited in the past, their written evaluations of the winery's wines were also part of a vineyard's foundation. Without these documents, people would not acknowledge you as a winery with history, and Corion Estate's value would evaporate by half on the spot!
Each item received was crossed off the list. After finally completing the handover of these documents from Treasurer Rafael, royal steward Sebastian made his appearance. He was responsible for transporting the other half of Corion Estate's value intact into the wine cellar.
Two full oak barrels of wine, these were sample wines of Sansretour Reverie that Corion Estate had entrusted to the duchy for storage before it was closed, officially certified by the ducal house as the original flavor. After all, the taste of wine in the mouth was not something written descriptions could fully express. Even the vintage had an enormous impact. Only by tasting and comparing against the original brew could the formula be truly restored.
It was through such multiple safeguards that the intellectual property of red wine was protected. Victor deeply admired this system. Sure enough, wherever there was profit, there was endless wisdom.
At the same time, this also greatly increased the difficulty of seizing things by force or trickery. If a crisis occurred, whether the wine cellar was smashed or the formulas were burned, the winery's value would plummet! It might even become impossible to restore.
In short, everything proceeded according to Toussaint tradition.
With Vivienne, the duchess's representative, witnessing the entire process, Victor first signed for the documents from the treasurer, and registered the Corion family crest, the red-and-white crossed Umbrella, then received the sample wines from the royal steward, officially completing the vineyard handover procedures.
When the entire process was finally complete, Vivienne de Tabris came to the witcher's side, her blond hair falling naturally over her shoulders. Today, she wore a conservative high-collared long dress of green and white, and her green eyes shimmered like rippling water.
"Mr. Victor, congratulations on becoming the owner of Corion Winery. Her Grace asked me to convey that she has high expectations for you. She hopes production can be restored as soon as possible, and looks forward to tasting a newly brewed Sansretour Reverie at next year's wine tasting!"
Having been promoted to estate owner, Victor was in a cheerful mood and replied with a smile, "Why wait until next year? Miss de Tabris, please tell Her Enlightened Lady that at next month's wine tasting, I will bring Corion Estate's new product for presentation. Please let her look forward to my performance!"
Hearing the witcher's words, Vivienne immediately furrowed her brows slightly, feeling that the future prospects of this winery were not promising. Since she had been sent to serve as witness, though she was not an expert, she at least had basic common sense.
After most red wines finished fermenting, they would undergo aging in oak barrels, at least one year, and several years if longer. Having a new product by next month meant it would not undergo aging. Though there were quite a few types of wine that did not require aging, Corion Estate had no such historical foundation.
For a newly arrived operator who had just taken over, reproducing the old formula was already rather difficult, much less creating a new flavor.
So the words Victor asked her to pass along sounded like an amateur's absurd fantasy. Could it be that he thought he was some legendary, peerless master winemaker?
Looking at the witcher's strange mutated eyes, Vivienne opened her mouth, but in the end said nothing more. Presumably, once he truly threw himself into winemaking work, he would understand the cruelty of reality! In her heart, she decided that when reporting to the duchess, she would explain his bold claim about the new product as a joke, helping Victor preserve his dignity.
After nodding in farewell, she took her leave. Recently, her body had felt a little unwell, and some minor abnormalities had appeared. She was troubled over whether she should ask the Honourable Lady for help.
...
The School of the Wolf medallion, which had been trembling faintly at a speed of 0.1, returned to calm after Vivienne de Tabris left. Victor rubbed his chin. A girl in the bloom of youth who had just turned fifteen! Such a faint magical reaction meant the curse was still in its latent stage?
Although he did have the will to help her in advance, the objective circumstances were not yet ripe. Suddenly declaring that Vivienne was cursed would seem both abrupt and rude. One must remember that she was a court attendant, walking before Fringilla in daily life. If there was a problem, naturally the sorceress would solve it. Helping someone did not necessarily require receiving gratitude, but one absolutely could not end up being blamed instead.
More importantly, the method Geralt used to lift the curse, I cannot do that! He had not seen that spell in the books at Kaer Morhen. It might have been the White Wolf's experience from wandering all over the world, or a technique passed down orally among witchers, or knowledge shared with him by his girlfriends.
Although it would be very convenient to discuss it with Fringilla, Victor did not want to get involved with a sorceress. As a local of Toussaint, Vivienne should be Fringilla's responsibility.
From afar, Guillaume de Launfal knocked his breastplate in salute toward Victor, then eagerly followed to escort Vivienne and her party back to the city.
Watching his lovestruck nephew go off into the distance, Knight Palmerin shook his head and sighed. He had originally planned to introduce Guillaume to Victor. In his view, the witcher was highly skilled and had a promising future, a friend worth making. That was why he had specially called his nephew over today. Who would have thought that the moment Guillaume saw Vivienne, he would run after the girl after only saying hello?
Knight Milton had no such sentiments. He approached and joked, "A new product next month? You really are going all out... Are you truly confident you can do it, or are you planning to make white wine?"
The reason he said this was that, generally speaking, white wine did not require aging time as much as red wine did. Short-term fermentation could also produce fine wines with rich fruity aromas.
Victor shook his head with full confidence. "No! What I am making is red wine. I will obtain my title in an open and upright manner!" To a foolish landlord newly taking office, in this game of seizing a title, the result he brought out would be meaningless if it was not a red wine that left everyone speechless.
Palmerin came to the side and added to Milton, "Do not doubt him! Victor is very serious. Before coming here, I took a detour to the orchard and saw that all the workers he had hired were rushing to harvest the grapes. Even workers from other estates who had stopped working were borrowed by him. Judging from the situation, they should finish picking everything within these two days."
"More or less by tomorrow night, the harvest will be finished. Then comes crushing, pressing, fermenting, and next month, the finished product will be presented at the wine tasting. A duke's title may not be certain, but obtaining a red wine viscountcy should be no problem!"
Victor boasted confidently and did not deliberately lower his voice, so someone approaching nearby disagreed with his words and spoke with ridicule.
That man had a tall and powerful build, wore gorgeous and noble clothing, and had a beard that was half black and half white. "What a regrettable reality! The new owner of Corion Estate is actually an outsider to winemaking. The grapes being harvested must surely weep in the night!"
"Forgive my ignorance, but who is this ill-mannered idiot who stands on someone else's land and insults its owner?" Victor shrugged and controlled his volume just right, ensuring only the three people closest to him could hear.
Milton immediately burst into laughter. Even the more old-fashioned Palmerin could not hold back and let out a soft "pfft" of laughter, while the idiot Victor had accused darkened in expression.
"Commoner, you should maintain sufficient respect! You stand before the owner of Belgaard Estate, Count Vladimir Crespi! Especially since you may not know this, but I have quite a few friends in the Cooper's Guild."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk! So it is my good neighbor, the operator of two star vineyards, Belgaard and Corvo Bianco, the honorable former knight, Count Crespi."
The words "operator" and "honorable" that Victor used here were equally sarcastic, because this count actually had a terrible reputation. He had once been a formal knight sworn to the duchy and had won the annual Tourney several times.
However, as he grew older, he abandoned the knightly duties he had sworn to uphold and turned instead to operating wine estates like a merchant. Palmerin had once commented in private that, by rights, after swearing loyalty, one should serve for life. Crespi called himself a knight, yet he had insulted the spirit of knighthood.
Being mocked again, Count Crespi's eyes turned cold, but he did not strike back in anger. Instead, he drew a handkerchief from his chest and wiped the skin between his nose and upper lip, then raised his voice and said, "Very good! Young people are young people, full of vigor. I, Count Crespi, bless you. May you truly be able to produce excellent red wine, shine brightly at next month's wine tasting, and add a red wine viscount to Toussaint."
After speaking, he did not wait for Victor's response and turned to leave directly.
Seeing this, Milton de Peyrac-Peyran put away his smile and looked at Victor with concern. At first, when they had not known the man's identity, there had been nothing much to saying a few words in return. The baron had planned to laugh and then step forward to smooth things over, and the matter could have been passed over.
After all, he had worked with the man when they were young, so there was at least some old affection between them.
However, the situation had changed too quickly. In just a few sentences, completely unlike his usual modest and restrained sense of interpersonal propriety, Victor had shown no mercy at all and humiliated Count Crespi from head to toe.
And the consequences of this matter could be quite serious. One did not need to be an expert to know that the secret behind Toussaint wine's deliciousness did not come from the vines on the slopes, but from the oak trees in the woods.
The barrels made from these oak trees were simply too important. They added unique aroma and flavor to red wine. One could say that without oak barrels, there was no Toussaint red wine. That was why the Festival of the Vat was Toussaint's most important festival.
And just as the count's threatening words implied, he did indeed have several friends in the Cooper's Guild. If he exerted influence and made it so Victor could not buy oak barrels, or could only buy inferior ones, then not only would Corion Winery's noble prospects collapse, it might even become difficult to produce passable red wine.
As for the way he had deliberately announced loudly before leaving that Corion Winery was about to produce a new red wine, clearly, he intended to wait until next month's wine tasting, when Victor either failed to keep his word or produced inferior wine, so he could thoroughly ruin his reputation.
Precisely because he had once worked with Crespi, Milton knew very clearly that the man's character and his martial skill were two different things. He rubbed his bald head and sighed. "Sigh... You really should not have said that just now. Though he is a bastard, the influence he has woven together is absolutely real!"
"Victor, from now on, you must be more vigilant! I hear Count Crespi is unpopular in the wine merchant world because he is famous for playing petty tricks. There are even rumors that he will secretly sabotage his rivals' vineyards." Also sensing that something was wrong, Palmerin spoke up in warning.
Reaching out and grabbing the witcher's arm, Baron de Peyrac-Peyran offered a suggestion. "How about this? I will carry a message to Her Enlightened Lady for you and cancel your promise about the new red wine. Without that promise, even if you spend several years restoring Sansretour Reverie, no one really has any reason to accuse you! After all, you only just joined this trade. Once you have accumulated a few years of experience, he naturally will not be able to keep suppressing you."
The two knightly friends spoke almost in unison, helping him think of a solution. Victor felt touched, but what they did not know was that the monster invasion tunnels beneath Corion Estate could directly reach the vicinity of Belgaard Vineyard, which in recent years had enjoyed favorable weather and no disease or disaster.
Moreover, Angoulême had learned something from a court lady-in-waiting. It was said that Count Crespi had originally proposed to the duchess that he purchase the abandoned Hortense Vineyard at a low price, but because the witcher had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, his calculations had gone down the drain.
It was precisely because of these two matters, which others did not know, that Victor had shown no courtesy at all toward Vladimir Crespi's probing! This scum was already suspected of letting monsters loose to harm people, and combined with the irreconcilable conflict of coveting his territory, there was no need to deal with him hypocritically.
Besides, Crespi taking the initiative to help with publicity and raise awareness was even a good thing. It could save quite a lot in advertising costs. Perhaps by evening, town crier Herold would receive a big order and spend the next month continuously advertising that the new product from Corion Vineyard would soon be released.
Victor reached out and gently smoothed his exquisite clothing, flattening the wrinkles on it. Calm and composed, he instead reassured his two friends. "Do not worry. Everything is under control. Even without the Cooper's Guild's help, the release of the new red wine was already in the plan. It cannot be stopped!"
"All right, as long as you are confident. Do not tell me you have even thought of the new red wine's name..."
Victor smiled faintly. "You even guessed that. That's right! Because it is produced on the little hill of Corion Estate, this bottle of red wine will be named Lafite!"
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