Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 34

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

Episode 34
* * *
The Northern Crystal Portal.
A massive gate set with enormous crystals on either side blazed with brilliant light.
Duke Loewen and his aides materialized before it.
Beneath his dignified bearing burned eyes of singular intensity.
Loewen was a high noble of great pride, who had steadfastly guarded the Eastern Territory for centuries.
Because of his gentle appearance, some mistook him for a benevolent old gentleman—but he was a tiger with fangs hidden.
A man possessed of relentless ambition when his domain’s interests hung in the balance.
A schemer of a thousand stratagems, all concealed behind that amiable mask.
A nobleman among noblemen, bound together by pride and self-regard.
That was Duke Loewen of the Eastern Territory.
“Forward!”
He drove his horse hard toward the gate.
The Northern air bit colder than the Eastern, and as that chill struck his cheeks, cool reason returned to him.
‘Wait. Hold on.’
Doubt crept in unbidden.
He’d ridden here in haste, but now……
‘Does this cure truly exist?’
His eyes narrowed.
‘The Imperial Court and the mages both failed to develop a Land Purification Cure. How could a Grand Duke shuttered away in the North come by it?’
What if……
‘He’s deceiving me with something worthless, or worse, something with only negligible effect?’
It had been two years since the Grand Duke withdrew.
By now, even the North was reaching the limits of what it could endure.
Perhaps he meant to sell something resembling a cure, pocket a tidy sum, and then……
Later claim ‘it worked for us. A new Mutant Strain must have emerged on your side’ and wash his hands of it.
It was precisely what the letters from the Imperial Court had warned of.
‘I must stay calm. He might be exploiting my desperation.’
After clouding his mind with that strange dream-like talk of some northern grain, the Grand Duke might be muddying his judgment by hammering him twice over with talk of ‘Land Purification Cure.’
‘……Here, I must be cautious.’
The Duke straightened his posture.
Though his heart raced at the thought of the Eastern crops withered black, he—as lord—had to keep his wits sharp now of all times.
‘If, by some chance, a real cure does exist……’
He turned over every possibility.
‘The Grand Duke will demand an exorbitant price. I cannot give in.’
Duke Loewen was a rational and pragmatic man.
Moreover, he was a seasoned nobleman—fundamentally different from the Grand Duke, who had spent his life doing nothing but swordplay.
‘In any transaction, the hurried one always loses.’
Clop, clop, clop!
At last he reached the gate.
As the Duke surveyed the area before the gate, a smile played at his lips.
‘Just as I thought.’
In the distance, he spotted a knight pacing anxiously, waiting.
‘I’m not the only one in haste, then.’
That he’d sent an escort to receive him.
The eagerness of Basilii to sell the cure seemed to emanate from this very place.
“I am the Duke of the Eastern Territory, Loewen. I have come to meet with the Grand Duke. Open the gate, if you will.”
The Duke’s aide approached the knight and announced their identity.
And as they moved to pass through the gate……
“My apologies, my lord, but I’m afraid you cannot pass through at this moment.”
“……?”
What did he say?
The aide stepped forward again.
“What do you mean? Our lord surely sent a Letter of Notice announcing his visit today.”
“He did, so I was told to inform you that a meeting cannot take place right now. I trust you received the Reply Letter……?”
“……Ah.”
Duke Loewen’s brow furrowed as understanding dawned.
“The reply……I never checked it.”
In his haste to ride here……
He swallowed the last words with difficulty.
The burly knight didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“I see. In any case, it is the Grand Duke’s command. Your Grace cannot enter the Northern Domain just yet.”
“Hah!”
“Please return in the late afternoon.”
The knight shouldering the hammer bowed politely.
The Duke was somewhat taken aback.
Certainly he’d been wrong to come without checking the Reply Letter first, but wasn’t the Grand Duke equally disappointed?
‘Or… wasn’t he?’
Could it be only he felt thwarted?
An uneasy premonition crept over him—something wasn’t proceeding as expected.
“……Very well, I understand. I’ll wait in a nearby village. But…… answer me this one thing.”
“Please ask.”
“Does the Grand Duke truly possess the Land Purification Cure?”
“Yes.”
“……!”
“Our Grand Duke would never fabricate what he does not have.”
His tone carried an unshakeable certainty.
At that answer, utterly without hesitation, the Duke was rare in having nothing to say—when something caught his eye.
‘Wait.’
Something peculiar snagged his attention.
‘What are all these wheel tracks?’
Numerous wheel marks littered the area before the gate.
Looking closer, they all seemed to lead inward……
‘Traces of carriages entering the Northern Territory. And quite a great many of them.’
The Duke grew somewhat urgent.
“Surely the Grand Duke didn’t inform other territories of this news as well?”
“I wouldn’t know, I’m afraid.”
“Then tell me—has any other noble passed through this gate?”
“I… I’m not sure about that either. I’ve only just become a gate knight, you see…… it’s hardly a post suited to someone introverted like myself. Truth be told, I’d have preferred clerical work inside the stronghold…….”
‘He’s got his mouth sealed tight.’
The irony was masterfully delivered.
This hammer knight’s notoriety was well-known.
They called him a northern monster—said dozens of creatures’ heads evaporated with a single swing of his hammer.
With that build and that face, standing at the gate alone would send any riffraff fleeing with their tails between their legs.
‘This is… this is serious.’
Anxiety suddenly gripped him.
While the Eastern Territory had suffered the worst from Land Contamination, neighboring territories too had been hit. With such high contagion, the blight would only spread further.
‘If the Grand Duke wrote to those lords as well?’
If they’d all rushed here wild-eyed?
If the Grand Duke was occupied entertaining them, and had delayed his own visit?
‘Will there even be enough cure left for me?’
Duke Loewen bit his lip hard.
That’s when it happened.
Creak—the firmly closed gate swung open.
And from beyond the gate……
Clatter-clatter-clatter-clatter—
A carriage came rolling through.
Duke Loewen’s eyes flew wide open.
“That…… that is……!!!”
* * *
“Slan!”
I bent at the waist to meet the boy’s eyes.
His stolid gaze rolled toward me.
“What? What are you doing?”
“Just…… something.”
Slan shook himself off with quick pats—he’d been washing his hands in the Village stream.
I broke into a broad smile.
“Just something! Marvelous! What is it?”
“Water, sir. You told me to bring some.”
“Water! Splendid! And next to it?”
“Straw.”
“Straw! How charming! And next to that?”
“Just a pocket…….”
Slan stared at me, then tilted his head.
“Why are you so excited?”
“Because it’s thanks to you!”
“……?”
I hurried over to him with my hands clasped behind my back, then pulled out a handful of Pig-Nose Mushrooms I’d stuffed into my bag.
“You told me about it!”
“…….”
“The ‘real’ properties of these mushrooms!”
“Ah.”
Slan’s expression turned as if to say, not this again.
“I only said that the mushroom grows in extreme environments. To be honest, it was the Grand Duke’s daughter who developed the cure.”
His beautiful sea-blue eyes fixed on me intently.
“The Grand Duke’s daughter.”
“……I’m not the Grand Duke’s daughter, though.”
I scratched my head.
“Why do you keep calling me that? And you’re speaking formally again.”
“You live in the Grand Duke’s House.”
In that moment, Slan closed the distance between us with a sudden movement and reached out his hand.
I flinched reflexively, and he plucked a fallen leaf from my hair.
“And you command the Grand Duke with your fingertips.”
“Huh.”
“Who would see that any other way? Of course they’d think you were listed in the Grand Duke’s House genealogy as an adopted daughter.”
‘Oh…….’
Goodness!
I glanced sideways at the boy looking down at me so intently.
Slan was a truly strange child.
Even though we’d seen each other’s faces all summer long, he kept building walls, never letting me feel close to him…….
‘But then sometimes he just closes the distance like this!’
He’s annoyingly handsome, with destructive power multiplied two-fold, no—two-thousand-fold!!
Save my heart!
More than that…….
“The Grand Duke’s House genealogy……?”
There’s no way such a thing exists.
‘I doubt His Highness the Grand Duke has even inked his name on a genealogy—he’s too busy making farming plans instead of family plans…….’
The image of the Grand Duke studying genealogy with a stern expression struck me as amusing, and I burst out laughing.
“…….”
At that moment, Slan, who had been gazing at my face, trembled slightly and stepped back.
“You know, Slan, you’re the sort of person who most thoroughly upholds the one thing that’s most meaningless in this village!”
“What’s that?”
“Social status……?”
“…….”
The Grand Duke worked the fields with his own hands, mingling without formality among the people of his domain.
Status and authority had long since melted away.
Of course, there might come a time later when status and dignity became necessary.
‘But when you’re starving to death, does status feed you? Honest labor and cooperation with neighbors—that’s what feeds you!’
Because farming cannot be done alone, ever!
“……I suppose I did think it was already chaos.”
Slan let out a sigh unbecoming of a child.
“What? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“No, just be comfortable being yourself! Anyway, Slan.”
I stuck close beside him as he began to walk, breaking into a grin.
“Thanks to you, I can sell the Land Purification Cure. Thank you, truly!”
“No, I really…….”
The boy added with a sigh.
“……I really didn’t know the mushroom had such properties.”
“Even so, you gave me the thread I needed!”
‘Thanks to you, I remembered something I’d forgotten!’
Of course, I couldn’t say the next part aloud.
Truth be told, this year’s farming goals had been modest.
Once we harvested the crops, we’d stockpile some for food and sell the rest to promote the idea that “farming is possible even in the North!” And naturally, we’d use the money from the sales to prepare winter supplies.
‘But then… once I started developing the cure, everything changed.’
Before I knew it, we’d arrived at Noah’s Hut.
Stepping inside, I saw a massive furnace.
Atop it sat a steel cauldron, its contents churning and bubbling—a thick liquid the color of opal.
The Land Purification Cure for the Eastern Territory’s contamination.
……With Pig-Nose Mushroom extract in it.
‘I never imagined I’d discover the mushroom’s true properties this way!’
The turning point had been a single remark from Slan when he arrived that summer.

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