Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 46

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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 46
* * *
Slelan fled the Library as though his heels were on fire.
His fists clenched hard, his jaw locked shut.
“There are baby pigs too! They’re really, really cute!”
“Hmm?”
Why did she smile like that……?
‘So openly and genuinely?’
No one had ever smiled at him that way before.
When he saw that guileless, pure smile without a trace of scheming, his chest twisted as if wrung out.
Slelan had decided to call this feeling……’displeasure.’
‘She reminds me of that girl in the dream, and that’s why my mood gets strange when she smiles like that.’
After all, that girl in the dream was practically his enemy.
Though it didn’t quite feel like displeasure—his gaze kept drifting to those round, puffed-out cheeks, and heat pooled at his ears.
‘……Is the Grand Duchess really that girl from the dream?’
For now, he knew nothing for certain.
Because since arriving in the Northern Region, he hadn’t dreamed that dream again.
Perhaps that was why.
Slelan often found himself forgetting his goal—to find evidence that the world was regressing—and instead sinking into life here.
His vigilance had dulled.
Even his goal of grasping the cause of regression, establishing a ‘merit,’ and winning the Emperor’s recognition had begun to blur…… at times.
Especially when that girl Haniel was near him.
When he’d first met Haniel.
He’d thought she was the girl from his dream.
Her hair, silver-bright like silk thread……
“If you wrap this mushroom in damp leaves and roast it gently, it tastes like meat, you know?”
The fact that she knew the recipe for the Pig-Nose Mushroom, still unknown to the world, seemed to confirm it.
“……How did you know that?”
“Huh? Well, I tried cooking it this way and that way myself! I just happened to stumble on it that way!”
“I see…….”
But that hypothesis had lost weight as time passed.
‘……She could have simply thought through various cooking methods over time.’
And so now he couldn’t be certain anymore.
Besides, before the regression, there had been no connection between them at all.
She was the Grand Duchess of the Northern Region.
He was a discarded prince of the Central Territory.
The odds of meeting her on some street outside the Central Territory, like in the previous life, approached zero.
Yet something nagged at him, so he decided to observe her for a while.
Haniel was a remarkable child.
Beyond her considerable knowledge of agriculture, she’d collaborated with the Grand Duke and swiftly produced the Land Treatment Method for the Eastern Region.
‘The true effects of that mushroom—even I, a regressor, didn’t know them…….’
In fact, he’d entertained the thought, for about one second, of taking the completed Land Treatment Method to the Emperor.
But……
“Slelan! What are you doing?”
Whenever he saw those gleaming, rose-pink eyes, all his thoughts scattered.
‘……She’s so small.’
She was practically a baby. Her white, soft-looking cheeks, her plump little hands—everything about her was tiny.
He was an adult who remembered his previous life.
His last memory cut off around his mid-teens, so compared to her, he was genuinely much older.
‘It wouldn’t be right to steal her accomplishment.’
Slelan’s face remained impassive as he reasoned coolly.
In any case……
‘I need to keep watching her carefully.’
Whether she was that girl from the dream or not.
‘I won’t let myself get close to her.’
With a heart that was objective, rational, and coldly detached, he would observe her alone.
Look at now.
‘I refused her invitation to share bread together.’
Even in retrospect, it was ruthless.
The boy, convinced he’d done the right thing, quickened his pace down the corridor.
It happened right then.
“Fire! Fire!!”
“……!”
A scream tore through the air.
Slelan’s head snapped up.
Black smoke billowed into the pale blue sky.
That direction was…… the Grain Storage.
“Wow. Slelan! Look, our grain storage is bursting! It used to be completely empty…… Hey, we really did well keeping up with it! Right?”
A face that had beamed as if it possessed the whole world flashed before his eyes.
“No.”
He bolted toward the Grain Storage, his face drained of color.
* * *
“Oh, I’m sorry. Koni, you should apologize too!”
A four-year-old boy peeking out from behind his mother poked his head out further.
“I’m sowwy…….”
“It’s fine, Koni!”
“Forgive him, Haniel. I had no idea Koni had taken your scarf……..”
Haniel waved her hand dismissively.
“Oh no, Koni didn’t take it! I gave it to him!”
“Well, Koni must have begged for it. Thank you for sharing with our little one, kind Haniel.”
“Hehe……. Koni’s so cute anyway. And I got it back, so it’s all right!”
Basil regarded the small silver-haired boy’s back with displeasure.
The four-year-old called Koni nestled into his mother’s arms.
A family of four who had settled here together with Slelan last summer. They had a four-year-old boy and a one-year-old infant.
Haniel turned around awkwardly and came pattering over to Basil.
“Koni didn’t mean to throw away the scarf! He was just playing with it, and somehow it ended up in the trash…….”
“…….”
“……Are you upset?”
“Tremendously.”
“Oh…….”
Basil scooped Haniel into one arm.
Truth be told, he wasn’t actually upset.
Just a touch displeased.
It was Haniel’s attitude.
‘Why does she give away everything of hers like that?’
It had been the same at the harvest festival.
Haniel had received a Bread-Shaped Pin from Brad that day. It was clearly a gift any child would treasure.
But when little Koni showed he wanted it……..
“This is for Koni!”
“Yes! Koni’s!”
She handed it over in a second.
Other small trinkets met the same fate.
“This is for Koni too!”
“Yes! This is Koni’s!”
“All of it is for Koni!”
“Yes! All of it is Koni’s!”
“……Do you enjoy being taken advantage of?”
Even Slelan, known for his sparse words, had spoken up about it.
Basil had watched from a distance and felt something unfathomable stir within him—not quite resentment toward Koni, not quite dislike.
Basil remembered the hesitation in Haniel’s fingertips when she handed over the Bread-Shaped Pin.
‘If you didn’t want to, you should have shown it on your face.’
Good Haniel.
Haniel who smiled readily.
Haniel who never complained.
Haniel who concealed her displeasure even when she felt it.
Haniel who never crossed a line, who never troubled the adults……..
On the other hand, he sometimes thought: ‘Isn’t a good child supposed to be good?’ Everyone in the village praised Haniel for being kind and gentle—perhaps he was overthinking it.
But.
Still, the displeasure remained.
The fear that he might miss something she was hiding behind that smile.
So she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to protect the child.
“Hush, hush, come now, settle down, hush, hush—”
Haniel grasped Basil’s collar with a slightly anxious expression.
“I’m sorry. It was a gift the Grand Duke gave me…….”
“…….”
“I’ll cherish it properly from now on! The truth is, I was planning to take it back quickly once Koni got tired of playing with the scarf. Really……!”
“That’s not why I’m upset…….”
Basil ran a hand through his own hair, disheveling it.
“Little one.”
“Y-yes……?”
“Don’t go giving away your things so carelessly. You’ll make it a habit.”
“……?”
“If something annoys you or you don’t like it, just cry about it right away. And kick a little too.”
“No, don’t……. Koni’s more precious to me than things…….”
“That’s exactly why I’ll come running and raise hell over it. Got it? You understand, or you don’t.”
“Mm, yes.”
Basil sighed as he watched Haniel say “yes” without understanding a thing.
Most children her age would covet not just their own belongings but others’ things as well.
Haniel wasn’t without possessiveness—the problem was that the moment someone coveted something of hers, she’d abandon it without a shred of hesitation.
‘How on earth did she grow up this way.’
A six-year-old who learned to give things up first.
It ached more than it frustrated him.
But……he thought he could teach her slowly.
That no one could treat her carelessly or take what was hers.
That simply giving everything away wasn’t what made someone truly good.
It was at that very moment Basil made this vow.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!!!!
A great bell tolled.
“……!”
“Fire!!! The Grain Storage is burning!!!!”
What?
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
Basil’s and Haniel’s eyes met in an instant.
“Your Grace!!”
“Damn it!”
Basil bolted forward like a whirlwind.

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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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