Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 25

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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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Chapter 25
“Inquire among the villagers. Investigate together whether anyone has gone missing from among them.”
According to that investigation…….
Paul was the first to bring the Northern Migration Promotional Materials to the Z-Zone. So they sent a search request to the Northern Region first.
The problem was that after that, traces of their deaths by misstepping were discovered in a canyon near the Z-Zone.
Mark’s expression grew confused.
“But this Paul fellow is dead, isn’t he? He fell from the cliff…….”
“No.”
Dantelion shook his head matter-of-factly.
“That canyon is where bodies are disposed of. I cannot guarantee those remains are theirs. The corpses were too badly decomposed.”
“I suppose that’s possible, but…….”
Mark muttered with evident reluctance.
“Then you’re saying they took the child with them into that harsh Northern Region? If it were me, I’d have hidden toward the south or west…….”
“If he’d been interested in the north beforehand, the likelihood of fleeing there in an emergency would be high. Besides.”
A strange light flickered across his violet eyes.
“There is no place better than the north for concealment and cover-up.”
…….
“It is the only land in the empire where neither the Imperial Palace nor the Temple’s reach extends.”
They came out slowly into the open air.
Dantelion’s other aide was waiting there, holding his white horse.
“Understood. Then I shall report on news from the north as soon as I——”
In that instant, Dantelion leaped up onto the horse.
“Commander? Where are you going?”
Mark asked in alarm.
“Surely you’re not heading to the north right away?!”
Dantelion fastened the Silver Gauntlets absently as he murmured.
“The Grand Duke seems far too busy to even write a reply.”
…….
“I have no choice but to verify this myself.”
“Ah, Commander!”
Whinnnnny!
The horse cried out loudly.
Mark hastily mounted the horse tied beside him and pursued Dantelion.
Dantelion gripped the reins tightly.
He knew it too—this was not like himself.
And yet…….
He could not sit idle for some reason.
‘I will find them without fail.’
An inexplicable resolve flickered across his violet eyes.
Whenever he recalled that day in the Z-Zone, an odd unease clung to him.
As if there were someone he absolutely had to meet that day……yet had failed to.
‘Perhaps it was because I let those connected to heresy slip away.’
He recalled one of the old Holy Knights’ maxims.
Those who turn their backs on the Holy Sword are traitors to God.
‘Those two fled the moment they saw the Holy Knight Order appear in the Z-Zone.’
There must be a reason for it.
‘Either they are connected to this matter.’
Or else……there was some other reason equally compelling.
Whatever it was, it was clear they harbored guilt. That was why he could not let go of this obsession.
For one who served God, this pursuit was only natural.
Even if it meant…….
Seizing a small child.
‘If those two are people who defy the Temple’s teachings.’
…….
He gripped the Holy Sword firmly.
“You must also assess the situation in the east on the way! You understand, don’t you, Commander!”
Mark’s cry faded into the distance.
Ch. 6 Someone Arrives
March.
Basili thrust the spade down with force.
‘This is the last plot we’re cultivating this year.’
More than a month had already passed since he’d begun earnest preparations for farming.
In the distance, people were leveling the overturned earth, and little by little it was beginning to look properly like a field.
The barley seeds were being stored well enough, crisp and dry.
In a few days he’d be able to proceed smoothly with sowing
(planting seeds in a field)
without trouble.
‘Haniel’s plot was from here to here, if I recall.’
Basili gazed across the parceled land.
About one-fifth of the total cultivated area was entirely Haniel’s share.
In truth, since Basili had agreed to share the harvest with the others, dividing the land mattered little—it only meant more work for him. But he stubbornly marked out a perfect plot for her: closest to the village, best drainage, finest sunlight—a hundred-point parcel—and drove a stake with her name into the earth. For later.
Land could always be expanded, but location belonged to whoever got there first and claimed it.
When sowing time came, he’d have to select the very finest seeds for her.
He’d show the little creature what a true harvest felt like. Hah.
He quietly stole a shovel of his neighbor’s fertilizer and finished spreading it.
By now he had steadily grown into Bethel Village’s preeminent farmer.
The villagers had been horrified at first to see the Duke working with his own hands, but by now they regarded him as simply part of the landscape—a fixture as ordinary as a plow.
After finishing the first phase of work: turning the earth and adjusting the soil’s acidity.
He’d labored alongside the residents, digging trenches to channel water.
He’d carved irrigation channels from the small stream that cut through the village—a tributary of the Bail River—and secured proper drainage. In farming, water is everything.
Then came endless hoeing to level the soil, and the creation of rows and furrows.
And for the final task…….
“Everyone! You know what comes next, don’t you? The really, truly important work!”
Haniel’s bright voice suddenly drifted past his ear.
The child distributed wooden buckets among Basili and the knights, beaming.
“You understand, yes? From now on, you’ll need to collect plenty of this!”
“……? Collect what, exactly?”
“The one thing that makes crops grow splendidly—the cheapest yet most effective essential ingredient in all of farming!”
“There’s something like that?”
Haniel squeezed her small fists together tightly.
“Of course! Everyone has it! Put your strength into it!”
“……?”
“It’s none other than your own——”
Basili immediately clamped his hand over Haniel’s mouth and ordered her to buy several sacks of manure with what remained of their funds.
‘No…… I know how important this is.’
It was as though he’d nearly lost something irreplaceable here, something he absolutely couldn’t afford to lose. Both her and him…….
In any case, the acrid manure was spread thoroughly across the farmland.
Now all that remained was to sow the seeds.
‘More than that.’
Basili turned his head and gazed toward the distant horizon.
Thinking of Haniel stirred a conversation from days earlier, surfacing unbidden.
‘Ah…… this is difficult.’
“Even if it became known that you possessed Holy Power, if I claimed you as mine…… no temple, however prestigious, would dare take you away lightly.”
‘Family, though…… that’s pushing it.’
The child had clearly not fully let go of her longing for her father.
“But…… Father is…… only one person.”
His muttering had escaped his lips before he’d realized it.
‘What kind of man was little creature’s father…… for her to miss him so?’
If he’d lived to meet him, Basili would have washed his socks without complaint.
Basili roughly ruffled his own hair.
Her expression had been so troubled at the time that he’d hastened to smooth things over.
“……What I mean is, we’ll arrange things so you appear to be someone close to me. Outwardly.”
Once spoken, the words struck him as perfectly sensible.
‘Me, becoming family. That’s absurd.’
It made no sense.
Because he had no idea what family truly was.
Yet the child had become a resident of this domain—his people. So he meant to protect her by whatever means necessary.
For her sake, he was willing to play at being true family or false family, it hardly mattered which.
Though he couldn’t quite say he understood precisely how one went about this ‘family act.’

‘When I was just hunting monsters for their parts, I never worried about things like this.’
You have to know what it’s like to have a family before you can say that.
“Your Highness! Disaster has struck!”
That was when Kamila came running up.
“What is it?”
“Haniel…….”
Basili dropped his shovel the moment he heard that much.
“She’s been hurt in the village!”

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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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