Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 15

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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 15
“Please…… Sniffle, I’m begging you…….”
“All right. I understand. That’s enough now.”
“Really?”
Haniel’s eyes brightened as she lifted her head.
‘Well, after a few days of struggling, she might ask to leave on her own.’
Besides, she’d said she’d go to the Temple on her own once she turned sixteen—surely that was acceptable?
As time passed, this unstable power of hers would stabilize too.
‘But why is her body so hot?’
The small hand gripping him felt uncomfortably warm.
A knock sounded at the door.
“Your Highness, it’s Luden.”
Luden’s boots were damp as he stepped inside.
He had just completed a circuit around the village on Basilii’s orders.
“The Ley Line near Bedel Village has awakened. Thanks to that, Bedel and the remaining Contamination around the village have been purified…… and most importantly, the frozen earth is thawing.”
His expression was one of profound fascination.
“At this rate…… the climate will change. Just like the other territories.”
The room fell into silence.
Only Haniel blinked calmly.
‘So one Pillar alone can only warm Bedel Village, the closest one. That’s all it does.’
A bit disappointing…….
But the adults seemed astounded by even that much.
Luden especially had lost all composure. He rambled like a man possessed.
“……Perhaps the Wasteland could be cultivated after all…… just like other lands…… We, we might actually be able to produce something…….”
“You mean we could actually farm?”
Camilla’s expression was not much different from Luden’s.
“Did you hear? Did you hear?”
Haniel seized the moment, bouncing eagerly to draw attention to herself.
“If you keep me here, I’ll gather lots of Spirit Power and purify the other Pillars too! Yes? I will!”
Those crimson eyes swept over her completely. Her face pleading, Haniel clung to him desperately.
“I’ll work hard. So very hard! So please don’t send me away. Yes? I came here to eat well and live well…… I’ll start hoeing tomorrow! I know how to farm! So……!”
“You. Calm down a little.”
Basilii could bear it no longer and pressed a finger to Haniel’s lips.
“I already said I understand.”
“Mm…….”
That warmth again. He’d been right.
“Camilla, she’s burning up. She’s burning.”
“She seems to have a fever. Rest now, child.”
Camilla lifted Haniel onto the bed.
“Settle yourself. Land that’s only just beginning to thaw can’t have crops planted immediately. First we need to drain the water and adjust the Soil Acidity.”
Blink, blink.
Ah, was that too complex a subject for a child?
“In other words…… for now, we’ll need a great many Agricultural Tools and Fertilizer for preparation. Sourcing those from outside would take at least several weeks—”
“But wouldn’t Lord Luden have all of that?”
“……?”
“……?”
“Isn’t that right, Lord Luden?”
All eyes turned his way.
“You bought all the farming tools, didn’t you!!”
Haniel grinned brightly at Luden.
Luden pushed his glasses up with composure.
But he could not stop his fingers from trembling slightly.
* * *
Luden hesitantly confessed the truth.
“Actually…… I was trying to lease farmland from a nearby Earldom using the money I’d…… diverted.”
“…….”
“I heard they were leasing newly expanded land cheaply to outsiders…… and honestly…… I thought it was an opportunity.”
Luden trembled as he bowed deeply to Basilii.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness! I’ll accept whatever punishment you see fit for deceiving you!”
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“……The Northern Territory is a land without hope. Monster Subjugation alone won’t……I thought we couldn’t sustain ourselves long-term. So even if it bruised my pride a little, establishing a stable foundation elsewhere seemed……like it would be for the best.”
“…….”
“If we work hard and can purchase Purification Agent ourselves, and hire a Temple priest, then there must be a way to revive the Northern Territory, I thought……!”
The voice trailed off into an indistinct murmur.
‘But that land Luden was trying to rent—it turned out to be a fraudulent listing.’
I couldn’t quite recall the exact location…….
‘I heard Luden’s first business venture was an utter failure.’
Haniel thought this over, drifting in and out of sleep. The voice that had faintly echoed through the corridor had fallen silent.
‘So in my past life, Luden became consumed with guilt and abandoned the Northern Territory entirely…….’
Because of this incident, he darkened completely, spending his life chasing only money. He became wealthy in the end, but was he truly happy?
Remembering how Luden in that life always wore such a dark, cold expression……perhaps his happiness never lay in wealth at all.
In any case, in this life, Luden doesn’t have to abandon the Northern Territory.
‘I can just farm away with Haniel here, bit by bit!’
Thank goodness I’d only prepared the Agricultural Tools so far and hadn’t yet signed the rental contract!
Ahem, ahem…….
Haniel laughed, clutching her blanket around herself.
Then she tumbled straight into sleep.
Meanwhile, Basilii sat in the reception room Luden had left, staring into empty air.
His mind was as turbulent as the aftershocks still rattling outside.
“This is maddening. If that was the case, why didn’t you report it to me sooner?”
Luden’s parting words still echoed in his ears.
“……Would Your Highness have permitted it?”
“…….”
“Why did you purchase Portal Permits—ones that didn’t even suit our means—and send us to the distant Southern Region? To gather information? Because you’d been trading with a merchant house there all along? No…….”
“…….”
“You actually hoped we wouldn’t come back from there, didn’t you?”
Basilii’s hands clenched into fists.
“You were giving up on us implicitly! That’s why you sent away all the servants who didn’t even demand wages……and you meant to send us away too!”
“…….”
“I’m sorry, my lord! I’m going to stay right here and watch you—no, the Grand Duke—live well and prosper!”
Had he seemed that way?
Like he’d given up?
‘……When did he see through me.’
Truth was, he’d stopped thinking about the future at some point.
He’d lost all drive to live, and let go of every hope.
And why wouldn’t he?
This place was the Empire’s grave.
A land of wretches driven to the very edge of a tilting world.
No matter how he tried, despair and resentment accumulated, bit by bit.
He’d been born a bastard of some nameless noble house and cast into a gutter. With nothing but a will to survive, he’d clawed his way to a sword.
Then he drifted through mercenary alleys, and at twelve, he killed his first Monster on the battlefield.
For the fifteen years since, he’d never stopped fighting.
He’d poured endless victories into the Empire’s glory.
His reason for fighting with his life on the line was simple: he wanted to prove himself.
If he accumulated enough merit.
If he accumulated more and more.
Then this life born in a gutter could be fully recompensed. He thought a brilliant, dazzling future was waiting for him.
But the Empire he’d given everything to fight for abandoned him, and it abandoned his comrades.
Leaving only a tarnished crown in their hands.
Ah, the helplessness of that moment.
It felt like the last candle of hope snuffed out with a snap.
Luden was right. Perhaps he’d already reached his limit long ago.
In a life without hope, the easiest thing to learn was powerlessness.
‘But…….’
He carefully grasped the door handle. He found himself at the bedroom door where Haniel slept.
The door creaked open, and he could hear the soft, rhythmic breathing of the sleeping child.
Basilii gently pressed his hand to Haniel’s forehead. It was warm. Seeing her whimper in discomfort stirred something in his chest.
He carefully placed a Wet Cloth on her forehead and thought.
‘If she doesn’t wish it……then not sending her is the right choice.’
The Empire’s laws could go to hell.
‘…How did I end up in a place like this?’
A small spark, drifting on the wind by chance, had lit his candle. It was as if hope—invisible until that moment—was finally beginning to take shape.
“A house? Sure. Land? Sure.”
“I came here because I want to live well and eat well!”
He sat at an angle, chin propped on his hand, studying Haniel.
‘Young. Disgustingly fragile.’
He disliked children.
Loud. Tiresome.
The kind who smiled easily and brightly? He despised them even more.
Because with children like that, you had to account for where and when they’d hide to cry.
But…….
“Ah, what a nuisance. Really.”
He surrendered.
“You should give up now. Weren’t you already won over from the start? I could tell from when you showed me around the village.”
Camilla’s voice drifted through the room.
“There’s no need for you to turn this child away for fear she’ll freeze to death in the Northern Territory. At least now, she won’t perish from cold in just any fashion.”
If this small tempest insisted on coming to my Wasteland and settling here, I ought to make it at least somewhat habitable.
Basilii’s fist clenched firmly.
“Mmm, yum…….”
Just then, sleeping Haniel flopped her body to the side.
When he pulled back the blanket slightly, her spindly limbs were crossed so violently she looked ready to bolt upright at any moment.
“What’s this…… Does she want to run while sleeping, or what?”
Skin and bones, the lot.
‘……Still though…….’
She looked a bit cute, actually.
Basilii let out a short laugh.
Spirit Power and all that nonsense.
First, I need to fatten up this little thing.
‘When she wakes, I’ll feed her stew…….’
Given how ill she’d been, I should forbid her from going outside for a while.
‘Seems her habit is running off on her own whims.’
Not on my watch. Not within my domain.
Besides, if Bedel Village truly has grown warmer, there’s much to repair everywhere, and if this little pea of a thing gets hurt wandering about…….
‘Ah, what a bother. Really.’
Even as he grumbled, Basilii checked his plans meticulously.
The long night passed that way.
And then, the next day.
Basilii, who’d caught a brief nap on the sofa and opened his eyes, stared blankly at the Sketchbook lying before him and blinked slowly.

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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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