Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 11
Ch. 3 Purification
“Nana-nana-nah~”
My greatest strength? I give up fast on things that seem impossible.
For example, lengthening my own lifespan. Or meeting Father again.
But that means, in other words?
I pull through on things that seem doable, no matter what it takes!
“Nana-nana-nah~”
I suppressed the urge to skip and moved forward as carefully as I could.
But I couldn’t help humming along!
The clothes were light. But it wasn’t cold!
I lifted my head and saw the blue sky.
Two years since Gwang Ryong died.
The thick dark clouds that had hung overhead all this time finally lifted, and the sun revealed its face at last.
Hiss—! Heat waves shimmered up from the ground, the thawed earth continued to soften, and everything turned to mush. But I didn’t care.
Now I could do it!
‘Five rounds of hoeing!’
I gazed out at the fully thawed fields, my chest swelling with anticipation. I was about to head down when—
“Little one. It’s slippery.”
Someone beside me suddenly seized the scruff of my neck.
“Lord Ruden!”
“…….”
A sharp-eyed knight with dark blue hair glanced down at me.
I bowed while dangling from the back of my neck.
“Hello there?”
“Hello…….”
Something troubled flickered in his eyes. It seemed he was deeply uncomfortable about becoming my accomplice in today’s scheme.
That’s right.
Lord Ruden and I were accomplices in today’s plans.
More precisely, you might call it an alliance born of mutual necessity.
‘Last night, I went to find Lord Ruden.’
Grand Duke Basili had given me seven loaves of bread from the food storage, but that was all. You could say the bread storage was spacious, but the man himself was incredibly narrow-minded.
‘If you’d just take me to the Northern mountains, wouldn’t that be nice?’
But I didn’t lose heart.
There was always a way!
The previous evening.
I slipped out of the manor while feigning sleep, moving with utmost care.
Since the Grand Duke and Camilla were busy with something on the second floor, I, alone on the first floor, could avoid being noticed by anyone.
Tap-tap! Tap-tap-tap!
Lord Ruden’s house—I’d learned its location when I toured the village earlier.
When I knocked on the gate in secret, a familiar face appeared.
“Lord Ruden! Hello!”
“……? You are……?”
“Oops.”
I squeezed my body through the gap between the door and Ruden’s legs.
“Sorry, I’m just going to slip inside for a moment.”
If the Grand Duke found out, there’s a 100% chance I’d be catapulted straight out of the Northern Region! Hide, quick!
“What? No, wait, what? No…….”
Lord Ruden, bewildered, let me inside anyway.
Watching the confused knight’s expression, I thrust out my hand.
“Sir! Let me get straight to the point! Will you make an alliance with me?”
“……What?”
“If you ally with me, then I won’t tell His Grace the Grand Duke about your secret!”
“My secret……?”
“Yes-huh.”
I covered my mouth with my hand and whispered.
“You lied to His Grace today, didn’t you?”
Lord Ruden’s eyes widened.
“That is, exactly, wh…….”
“What I mean is~”
I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a container of salt, extending it toward him. It was the very same salt he’d complained about earlier, muttering that sand had gotten mixed in with his stew.
After meeting Ruden at the warehouse, I’d investigated it on a hunch—and my suspicion proved correct. This was….
“This salt, along with all the other items Ruden purchased this time.”
My voice came out measured and distinct.
“None of it comes from Southern Salt Mountain!”
“……!”
Clang! Ruden’s hand flew reflexively to his sword hilt.
I watched him and let out a quiet laugh.
* * *
Ruden Fryce.
Master of the Fryce Merchant Guild.
A man who’d grown wealthy through a successful investment.
Someone for whom gold was both creed and gospel—a true believer in Monetarism.
‘Though that’s all before the Regression.’
The fact that the head of the Fryce Merchant Guild had once been a knight of the Northern Region was something only a select few knew.
He’d come frequently to the Klein Duchy Residence on business. His expression was cold enough that I’d never struck up a conversation with him.
‘Father said he probably left the North of his own accord.’
Somehow, I had a feeling that turning his back on the North wasn’t unrelated to what was happening now.
‘But regardless, I can’t let the future rich man slip through my fingers like this!’
Of course, even if he weren’t destined to become wealthy, I absolutely couldn’t let him go here.
Because he possessed everything I needed right now.
The mobility to take me all the way to the Northern mountains, and supplies that would help with my first harvest!
‘The problem is that Ruden won’t lift a finger unless there’s profit in it for him.’
But I had a rather good card to play.
Memories and knowledge from my past life.
“……The goods aren’t from Southern Salt Mountain? What in the world kind of nonsense is that?”
I watched Ruden’s fearsome glare and suddenly dropped into a squat on the floor.
“You know what, Ruden?”
Then I overturned the salt container I’d been holding.
Pour—coarse salt spilled everywhere in a torrent.
“Where I used to live, in the slums, we always received salt rationed with sand mixed in!”
“……What?”
“I heard the adults talking there—if you look carefully at the impurities mixed in the salt, you can roughly tell what mountain it came from! Like this, see!”
I sifted gently through the pile of salt and felt foreign particles with a different texture catch between my fingers.
I pressed one with my fingernail. The grain of sand split open with a crunch, revealing a pale yellow cross-section.
“But wait…… something’s wrong. The adults said the sand from the South was white and had a hard texture…… so why is this sand yellow and crumbly?”
“……!”
“It’s just like the impurities from the salt mines of the Western Region!”
“……!!”
Ruden’s visible composure cracked.
“How in blazes did you—!”
Truth be told, the bit about the slum adults discussing sand was a half-lie.
‘This knowledge came from reading encyclopedias in my past life.’
The part about sand-mixed salt arriving in the slums was real enough—one of the daily tasks for Z District residents was filtering impurities out of salt.
But when I was taken by Father to the Klein Duchy Residence for the first time.
I was watching the kitchen cooks make bread and got a shock.
“Wait! Why aren’t you filtering the salt? There’s sand mixed in—if you eat it straight, you might get a stomach ache!”
“Pardon me?”
The handmaids and servants giggled before explaining.
“Miss, that cheap rock salt is what the lower classes eat.”
“……?”
“Here at the Klein Duchy, we use only the finest sea salt from the South. And of course, we filter out one hundred percent of the impurities before it arrives.”
“Oh…….”
“As if anyone would dare tamper with the provisions of a noble house! This isn’t some beggar’s table. How unseemly.”
“I, I see…….”
For some reason, my cheeks flushed hot.
I made a resolve to study salt thoroughly once I returned to my room.
Though I hadn’t yet mastered all the letters, I decided not to ask questions carelessly about things I didn’t know, but to search out the books myself.
“Dear me. Our young lady spent six years in the slums, it seems—still so much to learn. I thought we’d washed away all the gutter stains by now…… whatever shall we do?”
“…….”
“When you visit Grandfather, I’d love it if you’d simply smile for us. Don’t worry! We’ll help you every step of the way, our sweet young lady!”
“Mm……!”
The maids patted me with cheerful, beaming faces. Their touch was so tender and gentle that I couldn’t help but smile along with them.
‘Strange.’
Something felt off.
I was only recalling the maids who had always been kind and affectionate toward me.
Yet my mood had plummeted without warning, and I couldn’t fathom why.
‘Don’t think about it anymore.’
I shook my head firmly.
At that same moment, Ruden’s voice cut through.
“Just from that……? You figured out I never went south?”
His clenched fist trembled visibly.
I tilted my head as I studied him.
‘Now that I think about it……’
The current Ruden still seemed somewhat rough around the edges, befitting his youth.
‘The Grand Duke Ruden I remember from my past was far more meticulous.’
It seemed that after leaving the Northern Region, he’d truly begun walking the path of a cold-blooded monetarist.
So I decided to press my advantage.
“Of course, the spice pouch was suspicious too, wasn’t it?”
“……!”
“You see, I actually changed carriages an absolutely enormous number of times getting here!”
“What does that have to do with anything!”
“The traveling merchants I met along the way said something. They told me the Western Region had recently succeeded in synthesizing new spices, and they’re slowly being distributed. They said the price of Southern Salt Mountain spices will plummet before long!”
In other words, the spices Ruden had brought back were now the kind of goods anyone could easily obtain.
If I used this cleverly……I could easily pass off Western goods as Southern Salt Mountain goods.
I smiled broadly.
“The Northern Region is an isolated domain, so this kind of cutting-edge information wouldn’t have reached there, would it?”
“You, you…….”
“Oh, but wait! There’s one more question I have!”
Before he could lash out, I dashed forward and clung to his sleeve.
Then I spoke calmly.
“I never said you ‘didn’t go south,’ you know.”
“……!!”
“I only said ‘the goods aren’t from Southern Salt Mountain.’……”
“…….”
“You didn’t buy Western goods by mistake in the South. You never went there at all……? So then……”
Thump-thump-thump-thump. I could almost hear his heartbeat from here.
“What did you do with the Crystal Portal Usage Pass—something so terribly expensive?”
“……!!”

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