Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 63

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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 63
“Hmm.”
Camila shrugged her shoulders.
“You’re to report directly to His Imperial Majesty on the necessity of these seeds.”
……
Squirm.
“In person. Here.”
……
Squirm, squirm.
“It’s an Autumn Founding Banquet Invitation.”
“……Hama. Cover your ears.”
“Yes, sir.”
Click.
The grievance-launching timer had reset once more.
Crack—Basil’s fist clenched hard.
He was in a truly foul mood.
‘Not content to covet my farming capital, he summons me at will?’
And to what end?
To attend some aristocratic soirée?
The Emperor’s scheme was transparent enough.
He wanted to flaunt his dominion over Basil before the other nobles. Best of all if I bowed my head to him. The Emperor would be thrilled enough merely to show that the Northern Region—that mad monster of a Grand Duke—bent the knee to him.
Just displaying his power over the North would satisfy him.
‘But how did the Emperor find out?’
His eyes narrowed.
Whoever knew the Rye Seeds were coming to the Northern Region while hoping the North would be destroyed……
“It’s Count Redermic.”
Haniel bobbed their head vigorously, having arrived at the same conclusion.
He issued the command coldly.
“Send word to the Marquis of the West. Tell him if he doesn’t properly exterminate the vermin in his own house, we’ll cut off all mushroom supplies.”
Camila nodded.
“I’ll send it at once. But what of the summons?”
“That’s simple enough…….”
I won’t go.
I absolutely don’t want to go.
But…….
‘……Can I actually not go?’
His cheeks had been burning intensely for a while now.
He slowly turned his gaze.
“Ah, startled me.”
Glimmer, glimmer, glimmer, glimmer.
A pair of translucent pink eyes, bright as glass marbles, were pressed right against his nose.
Haniel’s face filled his entire field of vision.
“I told you to warn me before flashing those big innocent eyes.”
“Your Highness…….”
Haniel, who had somehow climbed onto his thigh, spoke wistfully, even patting his shoulder gently with their small hands.
“Do go there with care…… and be cautious of carriages in the Imperial Capital.”
……
“When you cross streets, raise your hand, and if a stranger tries to lure you away with a hoe, don’t follow them, and watch out for seed subscription scams, and be careful, so careful…… and……!”
“Didn’t I already send you off?”
Haniel blinked their large eyes.
“……? Surely you’re not thinking of not going?”
He gently retied the loosened hair and offered a small protest.
“……How can I abandon my fief—a rabbit of a Territory—and this hippopotamus of a child to leave?”
“But, but!”
Haniel’s hips bounced with agitation.
“The weather is growing colder by the day. We must sow the seeds by mid-October at the latest! The longer we delay, the worse it is for all of us.”
That was true enough.
Farming is a matter of timing.
More than half the harvest was secured simply by sowing seeds at the proper moment and providing adequate water.
“Even if we scrambled now to source Rye Seeds elsewhere, it’s far too late…….”
That was true too.
“And if His Majesty the Emperor himself has stepped in, it might not end with simply ‘failing to obtain Rye Seeds’……”
That was also right.
“What if he just gets bitter and attacks the Northern Region? This land I’ve barely built up!”
That too…… yeah.
The thought of the fields he’d painstakingly cultivated turned to wasteland made his hands tremble.
“Sigh……”
Damn it.
‘The kid just keeps saying the right things, doesn’t he.’
Basil ran his hand roughly through his hair.
Rye farming? Sure, it mattered. That’s how he’d secure food supplies.
But it meant more than just food to him.
‘I need to earn Divine Power for my kid.’
That was it.
Haniel would accumulate Divine Power if he farmed or developed his Territory, they’d said.
Hadn’t it been just days ago that he’d sworn to work his ass off for a child without a Core?
‘The Rye Seeds I got a while back, I just gave them to the Territory Residents’ families with children to plant first.’
Then Haniel paused, thinking for a moment, before chirping like a chick.
“And! And!”
“What else?”
“Maybe this is actually a good thing.”
“……?”
“I’ve been wondering how to make a connection all this time……”
A bright voice suddenly poured out.
“The Marquis of the West!”
“The Marquis of the West?”
Why’s he coming up now.
“Think about it, think about it!”
“……”
“Soon the fish are going to swim upstream past the waterfall, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Where are those fish coming from?”
“…… Radgale Lake? …… Ah.”
Basil made a small sound as if remembering something.
“That lake…… is in the Western Region.”
“Yes!”
The Western Region’s primary industry wasn’t fishing. But……
“It’s funny how something that’s worthless to you suddenly feels valuable when someone else covets it, isn’t it?”
In other words — if the Northern Region started catching fish, the Western Region, stimulated by jealousy, might develop an interest in fishing too.
That is.
“There could be a competition over the rights.”
Camila summed it up neatly. Haniel bobbed his head enthusiastically.
“He might try to block the path where the fish come!”
The Western Region was a Territory where magic was advanced — they might use methods unknown to others.
“So why don’t you go negotiate with the Marquis of the West about this, meet him quick and smooth, then resolve it just like that!”
“You don’t know who the Marquis of the West is. You think that sinister sorcerer’s going to listen to me willingly?”
“He will, though?”
An innocent voice.
Haniel leaned in close, whispering.
“If we help the Western Region this winter……”
“……”
“-then he’ll listen!”
Basil’s red eyes widened greatly.
“……”
“……”
This was…..
Didn’t seem like a bad idea either.
“Sigh…… I suppose I have no choice.”
Basil’s chest expanded greatly, then settled.
The Autumn Founding Banquet Invitation came with a Crystal Gem the size of a finger. It was a Portal usage right.
Then there’d be almost no travel time, so he could return within five days at the latest.
What really troubled him, though, was…
“Uing?”
This child.
Basil manipulated the child’s arms and legs this way and that.
“Come on, curl up like this for me.”
“But why?”
“Just do it.”
Haniel wrapped both arms around his knees and folded into himself like a baby shrimp.
“I’m curled up now!”
“Hmm, the angles still aren’t right… no, wait. Sit like this instead and grab your ankles.”
“…?”
This time Haniel stretched both legs out and gripped his ankles with both hands. His body folded in half.
“Got it! I’m flat bread now, see?”
The child was surprisingly flexible.
“No, that’s not the point.”
Basil fell into contemplation.
“The thing is, he still won’t fit in my pocket.”
Only then did Haniel grasp the full meaning of these stretches, and he cried out in exasperation.
“Of course I won’t fit!”
What was he trying to accomplish?
Just then, Aisha kicked the door wide open and strode in.
“Your Highness! I was listening from outside!”
“Oh. Bold of you.”
“So I brought a really big box! We could put Haniel in it and bring it along, right?”
……
“We seal it shut with tape on top!”
Silence fell over the room.
“Looking at it, we’d all look like the masterminds of a child abduction.”
They’d be arrested the moment they arrived in the Imperial Capital.
Basil, already worn by countless ordeals, let out a sigh.
He tapped the child’s round nose.
“Damn it. I’m stuck leaving this little brat alone in the territory.”
“I’ll be fine!”
And he wouldn’t be alone, either.
Haniel puffed out his chest, his eyebrows forming a V. He was so small and cute that it only made the situation more troublesome.
Of course, Basil had never intended to take Haniel to the Imperial Capital in the first place.
‘Who knows what would happen to him there.’
In the Imperial Capital, where clergy and holy knights swarmed everywhere, if the child’s existence were discovered for even a moment, it would spell disaster.
Besides, Haniel himself clearly intended to stay.
‘But that leaves the problem of who guards the little brat while I’m gone.’
He couldn’t know what traps the Emperor had laid, so he had to bring some knights with him.
The thought of dividing an already sparse force twisted his stomach.
‘And besides… there’s something in the village that’s been bothering me.’
His gaze grew distant as he looked out the window.
“Ugh. My head’s splitting. Camila, at least call your squad members in.”
“Should I?”
At his offhand remark, Haniel’s eyes went wide.
“There’s a Camila Squad?”
“There was, anyway.”
Camila murmured the words.
Haniel dashed forward with a patter of footsteps.
“Wow! What kind of unit? What are your roles?”
“Information gathering… intelligence work?”
“Ooh!”
That sounded impressive.
“And assassination, poisoning, ruthless killing on the side.”
“Oh. Oh…?”
It did seem like the main job and side job had gotten a bit reversed.
In any case.
‘How remarkable!’
Supply management under Luden Squad, combat operations under Brad Squad, and intelligence under Camila Squad!
Positions divided with perfect clarity!
“But where are they all now? I feel like I’ve never seen them.”
“…….”
“No word from them, and not a single letter all this time… Oh.”
Haniel had been chattering away, but his voice trailed off by degrees.
A flash—the lightning of sudden understanding struck.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t have asked……!’
It was something he should have realized, had he thought about it clearly.
‘The fact that they haven’t appeared until now…….’
All of them.
They must have passed on……!
‘To heaven……!’
Haniel’s eyes began to glisten.
As expected, Camila gazed toward the distant mountains and murmured softly.
“By now… they’re lying in shrouds.”
“Please… stay strong….”
“They abandoned their squad leader,”
In that moment, fire flashed in Camila’s eyes.
“and all went down into the darkness.”
“They’ll be happy there, won’t they?”

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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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