If I Were Reborn, I Wouldn’t Marry You - Chapter 89

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 89

So this happened about a year ago, before Lester’s birthday.

It was a time when we had discovered the existence of groundwater but had temporarily postponed construction for practical reasons while worrying about securing food supplies.

We had sufficient funds.

As Lady Roderick, I had more personal wealth than most heads of count families.

‘There were abundant harvests with surplus food until the great famine in the South.’

However, stockpiling enough grain for all the southern people to survive for three months without justifiable reason would be perfect grounds for suspicion of treason.

Thanks to that, Leonhardt and I racked our brains again trying to find an excuse to stockpile food.

“Should we also create a trading guild?”

I asked while rolling around on Leonhardt’s bed, hugging ‘Tosuni’.

The staple food of the Empire’s commoners was rye bread, and the South’s rye production accounted for nearly 70% of the entire Empire’s output.

Even when planting the same variety of rye seeds on the same size land on the same date, the growth rate of southern wheat was remarkably superior.

‘The yield was nearly double too.’

As a result, even considering transportation costs, it was more profitable for the Western, Northern, and Central regions to buy and consume rye from the southern regions.

‘The South also had no particular resources, so agriculture was the main industry.’

The biggest reason Viscount Perington could hoard rye was because he originally had a trading guild that sold rye produced in the South to the Western, Northern, and Central regions.

This symbiotic relationship had continued for hundreds of years based on mutual benefit.

Until the great famine struck this year, when not a single drop of rain fell for nearly two months starting from spring, compounded by pest damage.

With production at less than 30% of normal levels, the entire Empire was short of half the food it needed.

The rye that was harvested early when drought damage was less severe was sold to other regions as usual, but Viscount Perington monopolized a significant portion of this supply.

Thanks to this, compared to the Eastern region which could be food self-sufficient, and the Western, Northern, and Central regions which could survive a year by combining their own food production, supplies bought from the South, and stockpiled disaster reserves, the South suffered devastating damage.

Even after that, it didn’t rain for several more months, ruining even the relief crop farming, resulting in tens of thousands of starvation deaths by the next harvest season.

‘Viscount Perington died too peacefully compared to what he did.’

He hanged himself, probably not wanting to be executed as a spectacle in the middle of the street…

I wasn’t planning to sit idle regarding the hoarding, the tens of thousands of starvation deaths it caused, or the other crimes.

For now, I neatly folded away my anger toward Viscount Perington and set it aside temporarily.

We needed to survive three months somehow by digging wells and resuming farming until crops like beans, turnips, potatoes, and buckwheat could be harvested.

Securing food to survive these three months came first.

However, the method was the problem.

“The Empire’s grain merchants are closer to transport companies, so it would be difficult to stockpile food.”

Leonhardt, who was busy tidying the blankets I had wrinkled while rolling around, answered.

“We have money, so why can’t we buy it?”

When I grumbled while roughly combing my disheveled hair with my fingers, Leonhardt smiled a little.

“More precisely, we can buy it but can’t keep it, right? In case it looks suspicious.”

Leonhardt’s casually thrown remark became a big hint.

It felt like my eyes were sparkling.

“That’s… no, that’s not it?”

I jumped up from the bed and bounced excitedly.

“Instead of selling grain, we need a trading guild that sells something else made from grain as raw material!”

I said almost shouting and busily racked my brain.

“What uses grain as raw material? Preferably something that requires massive quantities…!”

Immediately, trivia like needing seven bunches of grapes to make one bottle of wine came to mind.

“Alcohol. Alcohol!”

I was convinced there couldn’t be a better alternative than this.

Excited, I stretched out my hand vigorously as if holding an invisible wine glass and proposing a toast.

“Wow, don’t I seem like a genius today?”

When I boasted proudly, Leonhardt smiled kindly.

“You do. You’ve always seemed like a genius, but today you seem even more genius-like.”

The tone felt a bit like treating a child, which was slightly annoying, but I let it slide for now.

I was in a very good mood.

“We should start a brewery business! And make it really big!”

But Leonhardt’s reaction made me fall into contemplation.

“Would that work?”

Leonhardt pointed back and forth between himself and me.

As if asking whether we’d forgotten how old we were.

‘Right…’

But somehow it would work out.

So…

Lester’s twelfth birthday gift included a large brewery, or more precisely, a brewery that would be built within the next two years.

‘The situation was better than seven-year-old and five-year-old us doing it.’

Many noble families have their children try simple businesses once they turn ten.

‘Of course, it’s closer to an experience with advisors attached all around.’

We encouraged Lester to choose the brewery business.

‘We emphasized the correlation between swords and beer, saying that stories about wandering knights and mercenaries always include scenes of drinking beer in taverns.’

It was actually logic bordering on coercion, but Lester, who wasn’t particularly interested in business and was easily swayed, nodded saying it sounded good since he was too lazy to think about it anyway.

Even our parents, whom we considered the biggest obstacle, laughed at us for doing something silly but didn’t oppose it.

The family’s standard of ‘Lester might do that…’ was much more lenient than I thought.

‘It was a perfect plan.’

After plenty of self-praise, I bought large quantities of rye as a gift to commemorate Lester’s first business venture.

‘Even though beer uses more barley or wheat, and the brewery wasn’t even built yet.’

Lester happily received what seemed like a foolish gift to others and stored those large quantities of rye well in a temporary warehouse built on the newly purchased brewery site.

‘He said he would definitely make his first beer with the rye I gave him.’

Thanks to that, I ended up being treated similarly to Lester…

But anyway, we solved the problem of stockpiling three months’ worth of food to distribute to the southern people.

After that, we often used Lester.

It was really nice being at an age where we had grown enough not to have our opinions completely ignored but weren’t old enough to bear responsibility for anything.

Combined with Lester’s characteristically bright personality, the synergy exploded.

‘This birthday gift includes estates in the South.’

This estate was the place Father received when he became Leonhardt’s guardian.

It seemed like our whispering to our parents, who were pondering birthday gifts, that it was famous for livestock farming and would be a perfect gift for horse-loving Lester, made a big contribution.

Although I had earnestly run simulations, I needed a place to secretly conduct preliminary experiments in preparation for contingencies.

‘I couldn’t just visit any estate and suddenly say I’d build wells because drought was coming.’

The information itself about massive amounts of groundwater beneath the southern bedrock was buried.

‘Well, it was unnecessary information since the South hadn’t experienced drought for hundreds of years.’

There was no reason to dig up the ground and break through thick bedrock to draw up groundwater when rainwater collection sufficed.

Originally, large-scale explosives would have been needed to penetrate the thick bedrock layer, making it even more so.

“Wow! How nice!”

I pretended to be very envious to make Lester feel good.

Excited Lester boastfully suggested.

“I’ll let you come visit anytime!”

That was exactly the reaction I wanted.

“Then, can I go this winter?”

Since Academy vacation starts in November.

“Of course!”

Lester nodded readily.

“My friends too? Caspian, Merlin, and Leon!”

It was a selection full of intention, but Lester cheerfully agreed this time too.

“If they’re Miela’s friends, they’re all my friends!”

How cute.

“Wow, Lester is the best!”

“Right? Oppa is the best, isn’t he?”

“Yes!”

Thanks to his regression, I smiled contentedly as I thoroughly took advantage of my oppa, whose mental age was about ten years younger than mine.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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