Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 26

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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 26
“What in the world is going on here?”
At the Grand Duke’s troubled question, the villagers shrank back.
In the town square, freshly restored after repairs.
Two young men stood there, veins bulging in their necks as they quarreled.
“The thing is, this idiot keeps backseat driving while I’m trying to work!”
“No! Why do you keep digging the drainage ditch wider?! Do you want my field to turn into a mudpit?!”
“Then the water won’t drain!”
“That’s exactly it! You have to dig it properly! If it rains, everything will overflow!”
Basilii sighed.
He pressed his temples.
Barley rots quickly if water pools around its roots. That was why drainage mattered.
But dig the drainage ditches carelessly, and rain could flood neighboring fields. That was why the farmers were so on edge.
Whether or not they settled it, what was getting under Basilii’s skin just now was something else entirely.
“Whimper?”
Basilii scooped up Haniel, who’d been sitting on a sack of compost.
A Royal Band-aid stuck to her knee.
Seriously, a scratch on my knee like this? What on earth is this.
“Why did you run off to break up their fight?”
“But… fighting is bad…”
“I suppose it must look frightening to you,”
“but we need to plant seeds soon, and if this precious labor disappears—!”
“Do you see us as human farming tools?”
The ruthless landlord(?) chuckled, his laugh easing out.
Only her knee seemed scraped; she didn’t appear to be hurt anywhere else.
Basilii finally exhaled with relief.
“I’m telling you I’m right!”
“No! I’m the one who’s right!”
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from the potato fields of Alpens!”
In the meantime, the two men’s argument had regressed to the level of an eight-year-old’s squabble.
“Please, both of you, stop this!”
Someone who couldn’t bear it any longer stepped forward.
More residents was good, certainly.
But lately these conflicts had been cropping up fairly often. Perhaps it was because they’d all gathered here—people with a bit of farming experience under their belts.
They bickered with each other over petty matters, each convinced they were right.
“Your Grace! Surely I’m correct, am I not?”
“No! My way is far better! Isn’t it?”
The quarreling pair finally turned to Basilii. He drew himself up with the dignity befitting a Grand Duke, a lord.
“Very well. I shall render judgment.”
“…!”
“Simply exchange a punch or two each…”
“and call it settled—wouldn’t that work, Your Grace?”
Camilla rebuked him quietly.
“…”
That always worked when dealing with mercenaries.
Just then, Haniel, cradled in his arms, spoke up softly.
“What if you bent the drainage ditch a bit more in that direction? The uncultivated zone beyond Kolson’s field—if you dug carefully, the water should flow straight into the river.”
“Oh… that could work…”
“Why didn’t I think of the uncultivated zone? I still have much to learn. Forgive me, Haniel.”
“No! Well, then… shouldn’t you all be getting back to work?”
“…!”
“The earth is calling for you…”
“Let’s go! Come on, let’s get moving!”
Basilii glanced down at the silver crown of her head.
‘She’s better at this than I am…?’
Basilii watched as the child cheerfully exchanged words with the villagers.
‘She might not want to be family with someone like me after all.’
It was difficult, truly difficult…
Raising a child.
Building up the territory too.
I thought that if I just purified Gwang Ryong, a broad path would unfold before me.
But life truly never goes according to plan.
And Basilii’s words proved prophetic.
The very next day.
Something unexpected unfolded once more.
“Your Highness, we have a crisis!”
Camilla came running. Basilii immediately threw down his shovel.
“What is it now? Who’s been messing with our kid’s knees again……?”
“It’s not that—someone sent a messenger bird from the border checkpoint!”
Basilii’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
A messenger bird from the checkpoint…….
“A visitor?”
* * *
My eyes rolled wide.
‘It’s really happening…….’
Something was coming.
I finally stepped out from behind Grand Duke Basilii’s legs where I’d been hiding.
I was shocked when they suddenly announced a visitor.
‘I was worried it might be from the Temple.’
Fortunately, the crest on the distant carriage looked familiar.
“Why is that coming here now?”
Grand Duke Basilii muttered irritably to himself.
I stood beside the Grand Duke and watched the carriage rumble and bounce toward us.
The roads still weren’t fully maintained, so the carriage shook terribly.
From inside came sounds of—retch! Retch!——which suggested…….
“Quite the severe case of motion sickness, it seems?”
“I concur.”
The visitor was a nobleman.
‘The crest carved on the side of the carriage is…… definitely…….’
Count Redermic of the Eastern Territory.
‘Wasn’t he supposed to be the closest noble domain to the Northern Territory?’
But why on earth was he here?
Could rumors about the Northern Territory warming up have already spread?
“Looks like he’s come to spout some nonsense.”
Grand Duke Basilii murmured coolly. He seemed to have a vague sense of what the Count’s visit was about.
The carriage lurched to a halt with a screech.
“What in the world……?”
The Count emerged.
Count Redermic was a well-fed, stout middle-aged nobleman with an imposing presence. He stepped down from the carriage with a dumbfounded expression.
Though his face was pale from nausea, what seemed to surprise him even more was that Bedel had grown warm.
“……So what the tavern keeper in Norstan said was true? That settlers had moved in?”
He muttered this to himself, then noticed Grand Duke Basilii.
“Ah! Your Highness! It has been far too long.”
The Count approached with an exaggerated smile. The shock faded from his expression in an instant—a truly aristocratic composure.
“I do apologize for arriving so abruptly!”
“I can see that.”
Unable to restrain my concern for you, Your Highness, I found myself compelled to make this journey. I humbly beg your generous forgiveness. Have you been well in the meantime?”
“See?”
The Grand Duke looked down at me, his lips curling into a smile.
“Bark-bark-bark, right?”
I smacked that capricious Grand Duke’s thigh with a sharp slap.
‘How rude!’
And this is the ducal territory’s first guest, no less!
Fortunately, the Count seemed too busy observing his surroundings to notice.
“My goodness. The town really has become warm as spring. Oh, Divine One. It seems blessing has finally come to the Northern Territory. What joy this is!”
Just then, the carriage door opened once more.
“Ugh, it smells like poop!”
A child’s voice blurted out abruptly.
‘What’s this? He didn’t come alone?’
Now that I thought about it, the boy had arrived draped in honor guards and protective magic tools.
A well-dressed young man descended the platform with his nose pinched shut.
“Father, this territory smells like feces! The roads are strange too…… I want to go back!”
He looked to be about ten years old.
“Lister, conduct yourself with dignity.”
“But……!”
“Now, now. Who was it that said he wanted to see Father at work?”
“It was me…….”
“Then you’ll sit still, won’t you? If you act like a spoiled child like this, I told you that you’ll grow up to be someone who does work like that, didn’t I?”
He pointed toward workers spreading manure across distant fields. It was remarkably rude.
“More importantly, go pay your respects to the Grand Duke.”
The boy’s gaze fixed on the Grand Duke.
He immediately went pale.
“……H-h-hello, sir. I’m, I mean, I’m Lister Rede…….”
The boy named Lister couldn’t get the words out straight at the sight of the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke’s height and aura were evidently terrifying to him.
“C-clearing my throat! My apologies. The boy is still young…….”
“He looks just like the Count.”
The Grand Duke made a cold assessment.
Lister, who’d been whining, eventually returned to the carriage with an attendant, and the two men headed for the manor.
The Count paid me no attention whatsoever.
He probably thought I was just a village child lingering nearby. Well, he wasn’t wrong.
“You go play now.”
The Grand Duke spoke to me just before entering the manor.
“Why not? Can’t I come along too?”
“From here on, we adults are going to have a long and tedious conversation. Go to the fields and crack the whip over your ants or something.”
“Okay.”
I answered for now.
Watching his receding back, I thought.
‘Count Redermic.’
He was a vassal of the Eastern Territory Lowan ducal house.
True to the Eastern Territory’s status as a granary, the Count’s primary crop was wheat.
But what he was more famous for were the dairy products—milk and cheese—obtained from cattle, goats, and sheep raised in his vast pastures.
“That sounds nice. I want to raise some too. Goats and sheep.”
Cattle and chickens and pigs and horses and chicks and dogs and cats and fish……. Sigh.
‘But why did he come all of a sudden? Before the regression, Count Redermic was…… hmm…….’
In that moment, something flashed through my mind.
Why he had come here.
And what would happen next.
Because I felt like I could dimly recall it.
‘I’d better find out!’
I crept toward the manor.
As a maid carried in a tea set, the parlor door shut. I squatted outside the parlor door and pressed my ear against it.
All the other servants were out in the fields at this hour, so there was no risk of being discovered.
Muffled voices echoed through.
“Hmm. Ahem. I’m relieved to see you still looking so robust. But…… I never thought you’d be living in a place like this. In a hovel hardly fit for commoners…… dear me, and this teacup is just some nameless mass-produced thing.”
Count Redermic clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“How on earth are the servants treating Your Grace in such a manner? The moment I return to my manor, I’ll have a proper tea set……!”
“Get to the point.”
Grand Duke Basilii lifted the teacup with a clink.
“Ahem! Well, I wouldn’t dream of taking up any more of Your Grace’s precious time…….”
Count Redermic cleared his throat.
“I’ve come to humbly ask that you settle the remaining compensation debt.”
“…….”
Huh?
Debt? So that means…….
‘He, he has a debt?!’
My ears perked up even more.

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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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