Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 57

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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 57
Pop!
[If you’d like to use multiple Stickers at once, try the Synthesis function!]
‘Yes!’
A Grand Sprout Sticker larger than my own face tumbled onto my outstretched palm.
[A Sticker infused with condensed Divine Power from the Divine Realm (x1,000)]
– Big. Cute. XL size.
– Easy to stick, but the presence is unforgettable!
– Press firmly at the edges so they don’t peel off.
A sacred aura swirled thickly through the air around me.
I’d felt it before when I used Divine Power on the scarf I was sending to Father, but this was truly overwhelming.
I stepped toward a pillar that caught my eye.
‘Before, I needed to stick Divine Power Stickers on my own body to add vitality, but now I don’t need to do that anymore!’
The Grand Duke was saying something from behind me, but somewhere along the way my ears had gone deaf and my vision had narrowed, as if I were enchanted by something.
Whoooosh—
A faint breeze stirred.
‘…The Grand Duke said I don’t need to do anything at all, that he’d treasure me even so.’
I clamped my lips shut.
‘Still, I like being able to do things like this with my own strength.’
Everything that had happened so far flashed through my mind.
Coming to the Northern Region, meeting the Grand Duke, attempting to hoe and failing, purifying pillars, farming barley, building the village.
It was something my past self could never have imagined.
‘So I’ll do everything I can with all my effort.’
Fear still lingered in my heart.
Would it really be okay to become something like family with the Grand Duke?
What if, when he learns that I’ll die someday, the Grand Duke makes a choice like Father did?
What if a day comes when my Divine Power no longer helps? What if I’m abandoned? What if people grow tired of me like in my past life?
Such fears don’t vanish all at once.
But I don’t want to shrink back and do nothing again.
So….
I decided not to think too deeply and simply do what I could right now.
Not just to avoid being abandoned.
‘But to make the people I hold dear happy with my own strength!’
When I think like that, the fear fades a little. Add +1 courage topping and push forward!
“Here goes!”
I pressed the enormous Sticker firmly against the pillar.
Holy light flashed brilliantly.
“…!”
The sealing formula Father had inscribed vanished at once.
Because of that, black Miasma erupted from part of the sealed Light Dragon’s corpse.
It was a process I’d already experienced. And yet, before such an overwhelming force, instinctive revulsion and terror crashed down on me.
Normally, I would have squeezed my eyes shut and told myself I wasn’t afraid….
But then it came to me.
‘You said you’d be behind me, didn’t you?’
I spun around quickly.
Toward where the Grand Duke was!
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
An enormous roar immediately engulfed everything around us.
* * *
Meanwhile, Basil watched Haniel’s every fidgeting movement intently.
The moment he saw any sign of danger, he was ready to snatch it away.
“….”
Then, light suddenly flashed from the child’s body.
A shining object tumbled into her small palm.
On the surface, it was just an adorable children’s Sticker. But… judging by that extraordinary aura radiating and spilling out into the surroundings.
‘…This is obviously a priceless Sacred Object, no matter who you ask.’
The child was holding the Sacred Object like a toy, her eyes gleaming.
Basil’s jaw tightened.
How could a child with no Core in her body wield such power?
By her own account, she collects Divine Power in an imaginary thing called a “Sticker Book,” accumulating Sacred Power there as the Northern Region develops.
Strength, by its nature, grows through overcoming adversity and limitation. Whether Mana or Sacred Power, the principle is the same.
Haniel seemed to grow stronger with each achievement, great or small.
Basil found himself thinking.
‘…It’s as if the Sticker Book serves as a Sacred Power Core outside her body.’
He couldn’t fathom why such a thing appeared in a child. Even Haniel admitted she couldn’t fully explain it.
In any case, if this was how the girl grew, Basil was resolved to support her ascent with everything he had.
‘When you think about it, it’s all gain for me.’
The development of his domain and protecting the child were one and the same.
At any rate.
The conclusion.
‘I’ll keep working like hell.’
Retiring as a farmer be damned.
For the sake of this child, he’d become a farmer, a fisherman, a miner, a housewife, a merchant—whatever was needed.
Sigh…
‘It’s been a long time since I saw someone use Sacred Power.’
A small head and long silver hair.
The face of someone flashed to mind.
‘Now that I think about it, does she resemble that one a bit?’
That person he’d met last night.
‘No, what am I even thinking?’
Haniel resembling him? Not a chance.
Our little girl was adorable, lovely, precious, charming, and a peerless genius without equal, and so forth and so on (and other things besides)—in short, she was extraordinary.
That holy knight didn’t come close to the dirt under Haniel’s fingernails. His only redeeming quality was his looks.
To think of pairing that man with our child—what a foolish notion. Ptui.
‘More importantly, she’s awfully quiet. What’s she doing over there….’
“Your Highness!”
At that, Camilla’s voice rang out, and his eyes widened.
…Gone?
The silver-haired head had vanished.
More precisely, she was engulfed in a corona of white light so brilliant that her form was invisible.
Startled beyond measure, he was reaching reflexively for his sword when—
“Yap!”
Snap.
“Done!”
The light dispersed with those three crisp syllables.
“All finished! And it was kinda scary!”
Haniel spun from the pillar and came pitter-pattering toward him.
Basil spread both arms wide at once, even as his eyes darted swiftly across the space around them.
“What now.”
That’s it?
“What changed—”
The moment he spoke.
Clang! Whirrrrrrr!
The massive chains binding the Light Dragon’s forelegs retracted in a single violent motion.
Then—whoooosh! The beast’s black Miasma, freed from restraint, erupted like madness itself.
Basil’s eyes went wide. His jaw clenched on pure instinct—
Screeeee!
The Miasma spreading from the pillar was engulfed by Sacred Power emanating from it, purifying at tremendous speed.
It was the same process as the first pillar.
The difference was that as the purification took hold, a violent gust blew back like a shockwave.
And with it, Haniel’s small body, rushing toward him, was sent billowing upward like a leaf.
“Whooooah! I’m floating!”
“Damn it!”
He snatched her out of the air without thinking.
“Noooooooo! I’m ascending to heaven!”
“You are not!”
He hauled her close and threw his full weight to the ground.
The moment he pressed flat against the earth, a savage wind tore across the space.
The gust subsided almost at once.
Then came the sound of impact—thud, thud!
An enormous tremor pulsed beneath the ground, its rhythm climbing steadily.
The earth’s breath, writhing and alive.
The sensation of something long sealed, suddenly breaking through.
……
Basil and Haniel, pressed to the floor, locked eyes.
The second Dragon Vein had opened.
* * *
“Heave! Heave-ho!”
The current ran fierce.
“Bind it tighter over there!”
“If it washes away, we’re done for!”
The village men shouted as they fished out rotting root tangles, boulders, and logs that came sweeping downstream.
The river and the earth around it had thawed.
With that, the ancient tree blocking one side of the channel became far easier to move.
They bound a sturdy rope around the massive trunk and pulled it with two oxen; the thick log scraped and groaned as it was hauled free.
Whoosh! The water surged forward in a torrent.
“Hurry!”
“Mind it doesn’t sweep you away!”
The men tethered to the posts with life ropes worked ceaselessly, clearing the channel so nothing would clog it.
The current was swift—as though the river had swollen suddenly under a downpour.
It was the river, frozen for so long, fighting to find its voice again.
At such moments, large debris had to be cleared at once, lest the water overflow its banks, drown the fields, and swamp the homes.
“The Veil River really has been purified!”
“The weather’s turned clear as day!”
“They said the Dragon Vein or something activated… Heavens, that’s remarkable!”
“So did our Lord really find another sacred object in the Grand Duke’s Castle? How in the world does he navigate that cursed place?”
“Who knows! Only our Grand Duke could manage it! Wait—the earth’s shaking again!”
“Lower your stance!”
Faint tremors continued to ripple through the ground.
The men crouched low to keep their footing.
“Another log! Coming down!”
“I’ve got it!”
“But what happens when the Veil River basin activates, anyway?”
“We can fish! Finally!”
“We could plant fruit trees on those slopes.”
“Water mills—we could grind grain by the hundredweight!”
“Yes! People could actually settle along the river. Though we’ll need to repair the bridge first.”
Sweat beaded on their foreheads, yet their faces were bright.
One villager spoke up suddenly.
“But the river’s nearly empty. Can we really catch fish?”
After so long choked by corruption and cold, the Veil River bore scarcely a single blade of waterweed.
“True. The river’s vegetation will need time to recover.”
They nodded at one another, exchanging wry, uncertain smiles.
“The catch will be meager this year, won’t it?”
* * *
‘No way!’
I wandered the corridor, humming a tune.
‘I’m going to catch fish this year, I just know it!’

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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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