Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 44

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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 44
“…….”
A hazy memory.
It felt as though he’d been caught in an extraordinarily long dream.
But upon waking, nothing remained.
He swept back his long silver hair. Soft bedding slid down his muscular, well-defined chest.
He steadied his ragged breathing with effort.
‘What on earth was I dreaming about?’
“-pa!”
He tried again to recall the dream’s contents, but found only a milky haze, as though something blocked the way.
His faded eyes stared blankly into empty space.
Once his mind had fully awakened, he noticed something strange: his body felt light.
The sharp pain in his right arm and the stabbing ache in his left eye — afflictions that had tormented him for so long — had eased considerably.
‘Did changing the Purification Medicine actually work?’
His gaze shifted to a box resting on the nightstand beside the bed.
A red scarf lay slightly askew inside, its edges just visible.
Now that he thought about it, when he’d held this scarf yesterday, there had seemed to be some strange energy radiating from it.
“……What was that.”
……But when he touched it again, he felt nothing.
Whoosh—
The light that had been watching over Dandelion all through his sleep quietly vanished.
A small, transparent sticker-like sprout mark appeared and disappeared on the back of his hand, but he noticed nothing.
“…….”
Normally, he never accepted such personal gifts…….
But somehow he couldn’t bring himself to discard this one.
In the end, he retrieved an elegant box from deep within a drawer.
Inside lay a single, worn cloth doll.
It was a child’s cloth doll he’d discovered when he visited Zone Z. Beneath it rested a scrap of torn paper.
He laid the scarf gently in one corner of the box.
Unaware of his own gesture, his hands moved with the careful tenderness one reserves for something precious.
“…….”
After gazing at the box’s contents for a moment, he slowly dressed and left the bedroom.
Having recently returned to active duty, he’d filed a report with the Holy Temple regarding the Eastern Region incident and returned to the mansion.
As he prepared to carry out his usual tightly-scheduled day, he recalled one thing he still needed to do.
‘I should offer the prayer I was asked to make.’
He carefully placed a barley stalk in a small box.
‘Barley……’
As he gazed at the barley stalk, a sharp glint flickered in his eyes.
He performed his dawn prayers in the mansion’s Prayer Chamber and finished a light training session.
It was an unremarkable day, and yet…… his body felt strangely weightless.
‘The Holy Power Contamination……’
Had it improved, even slightly?
Had the Almighty finally answered his prayers?
And yet, strange as it was, even as his Holy Power recovered, something felt hollow.
“Master, good morning.”
At that moment, the head butler of the Klein Duchy bowed respectfully.
“Are you heading to the Holy Temple?”
“Yes. There is something I need to attend to.”
Before mounting his horse, Dandelion found himself staring absently at the grand estate gardens, when unexpectedly his lips moved of their own accord.
“Does the mansion perhaps have a place where clover grows?”
“I beg your pardon?”
The butler seemed taken aback by the unexpected question. But he soon answered courteously.
“That could hardly be the case.”
“…….”
“We remove all clover. It may be valued in the countryside, but…….”
The butler smiled faintly.
“After all, it’s nothing but a weed. It has no place in a Klein garden.”
His voice carried no particular inflection.
Dandelion urged his horse forward.
For once, his mind felt clear and sharp.
‘I can’t fathom how I’ve been moving all this time.’
Since last spring, the Holy Power Contamination had spiraled into something close to catastrophe.
What drove him was not thought or reason, but some deeper instinct—the instinct of a Holy Knight to obey only the Temple’s commands.
And now.
He thought with a clarity he hadn’t possessed in some time.
‘I need to verify the truth about Northern Barley.’
A conversation with Rowin—one he’d nearly forgotten—surfaced in his mind.
Specifically, something they’d discussed as their meeting drew to a close.
“More importantly, Duke Rowin, I hear Northern Barley has appeared on the Eastern market. Have you looked into it?”
At that moment, Rowin had smiled as he always did and replied.
“Yes, I’m still gathering details.”
“Do you need assistance with the investigation?”
“Oh, no.”
……
“The quantity is so small that its credibility is questionable anyway. I can’t trouble such valuable hands. I’ll handle it myself.”
Thinking back on it now, he’d seemed rather eager to brush the matter aside.
‘That’s unlike Rowin.’
Few nobles refused the aid of the Holy Knight Order. And he was a man who prioritized his territory’s welfare above all else.
‘He’s hiding something.’
Something connected to the North.
……
He turned his thoughts back to Northern Barley.
Last spring, he’d heard the absurd pairing of “North” and “farming,” but he’d never truly believed it could become feasible so quickly.
For farming to become possible in the North, the climate would have to change.
To change the climate… the Grand Duke would necessarily have had to lay hands on the Light Dragon’s Pillar.
Basili is a formidable man. But……
‘Is he strong enough to tamper with the sealing pillar I erected so casually?’
No. He doesn’t possess that kind of power.
Of course.
‘The Grand Duke might have discovered hidden Sacred Relics or some unknown magic.’
Others would have grasped at that possibility first and foremost.
But Dandelion had never stopped being aware of something else.
He alone had never ceased his search.
The Fugitive from Zone Z.
That lingering unease from that day.
That sense of having failed to meet someone he ought to have encountered.
He thought it through once more.
Until now, he’d vaguely suspected that the people who’d fled Zone Z were connected to Heretical Magic.
‘There might be some form of Heretical Magic that changes the climate—something unknown to the common world.’
That alone was reason enough to pursue the trail.
But what if……
‘There were someone capable of purification?’
What if Basili had lured that person out and hidden them away?
Then……
‘Northern Barley could be cultivated.’
His eyes gleamed with sudden clarity.
“That’s it!”
He felt as though he’d found a sharper justification for searching the North.
And there was one thing more.
“The Crown Prince……?”
The search for the missing Crown Prince—now weighted toward recovery of remains.
His sharpened mind cast up a conjecture: why had he forgotten this until now?
‘If that magic from the West……’
It was possible.
A moment later.
“Mark.”
A upright Holy Knight with long silver hair strode toward him purposefully.
“Ah, Commander! Monsters have appeared at the Western border, they say! Shall I assemble a subjugation—”
“How about we take leave together instead.”
“……Yes?”
Mark blinked. Fear swiftly flooded his face.
“……Me?”
“Yes.”
“Both of us……together?”
“Yes.”
“……Why?”
Dandelion clenched his fists tight.
It was time to end the long hunt.
* * *
The last week of September.
Basili (age twenty-seven, farmer and Grand Duke), tying straw bundles in the fields with his usual diligence.
A letter arrived for him.
“Your Grace, a carrier pigeon has arrived.”
“A letter? Hmm. I’m getting tired of these.”
The Grand Duke opened it with a somewhat arrogant air.
“Eleven this time.”
These were sent from the gate by people who wished to become new residents.
Because of this, Brad had been staying at the gate for days.
In the meantime, Bedel Village had grown in dribs and drabs. Three people, four, two…….
This batch was the largest yet.
Once he greeted the new residents, Haniel would probably see it like this.
[Notification: The total number of residents you have greeted so far is 51!]
Fifty-one residents in total.
The village had grown considerably.
Yet it was nowhere near catching up to other territories.
Most large-scale territories had villages where a single settlement housed hundreds of people.
Even in the Rowin Duchy, one of the villages under direct ducal control boasted a population of a thousand.
By comparison, Bedel Village was still in its infancy.
“Considering how much our barley has become a topic, the population hasn’t grown as much as I’d expected.”
Camilla’s remark drew a light response from Basili.
“Well, that makes sense. The amount of Northern Barley released was so small.”
Perhaps it had caused a small stir in the Eastern Region alone.
He could roughly imagine how the rumors must have spread in other areas.
“What? Northern Barley?”
“Really! I heard it was released in the Eastern market……!”
“Who told you that?”
“Well, my neighbor’s…….”
“What?!”
“-cousin’s brother’s acquaintance’s upstairs neighbor?”
“Sounds like a dream.”
Something along those lines, surely.
Well, it always took time to overturn long-established prejudices.
And with the image of “the land where the Light Dragon once lived,” convincing people to actually move here would be even harder.
‘Those with no other choice will come here.’
As if answering that thought, Camilla spoke.
“I hear many of those who moved in this time were farmers working newly cleared land in Redermick County.”
As expected.
“That land proved unsuitable for farming, so they were all forced out—bitter medicine to swallow, as they say.”
“The Count of Redermick is taking his frustrations out on innocent people.”
Basili let out a soft laugh.
In any case, thanks to this, the Northern Region had done well in gaining new residents.
There was much work to be done in welcoming them.
The villagers were busily refurbishing the abandoned hovels that had been left standing. Fortunately, it looked as though the existing cottages would be sufficient to house the new arrivals.
‘I’ll need to develop more of the surrounding land so we can expand the residential area.’
Basili straightened his back.
“Any word from the Holy Temple or the Imperial Palace?”
“Not yet. They’re likely still investigating the truth of the rumors.”
“If those bastards show up anyway, don’t let them through under any circumstances. Report directly to me.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, where’s the little one?”
Basili gazed across the empty field and asked a question.

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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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