Raising the Grand Duke of the North as a Farmer Behind Dad’s Back - Chapter 66

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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 66
The man made a quiet shushing gesture.
Having grown familiar with him over time, wariness gave way to welcome in the child’s innocent, clear eyes.
“Uncle…? Yawn. But this is your house, isn’t it…?”
The half-awake child rubbed his eyes with small fists and yawned softly.
“And it’s bedtime now……”
“I know. But the thing is, Uncle actually has an errand from the Grand Duke.”
“……Yawn, what?”
“Do you happen to know where the Grand Duke’s vault room is?”
“What, yawn, an errand…?”
“If something bad happens to the village… I’m supposed to take a special item from that vault and protect the village……”
“Yaaaaaawn.”
“……that’s what he said. Are you listening?”
“No…… The Grand Duke said……. what?”
“So the location of the vault……”
“Yaaawn. What?”
……
Just as irritation began to rise.
Haniel, rubbing his eyes, murmured.
“Hmm. Why don’t you just ask him directly?”
“……?”
What?
Before he could even process the words, the child’s eyes suddenly gleamed, and he called out into empty air.
“A vault robber’s here! Grand Duke!”
“What?”
The Grand Duke?
A chill ran down his spine.
The frozen man turned his head slowly,
“Move again, and your head comes off.”
A scorching sensation blazed across his neck.
Along with the feeling of hot blood flowing, a sharp chill seized him. Only then did he realize a gleaming blade had been suspended at his throat all along.
“……!!”
This presence was unmistakably……!
“Ba, Ba, Ba,”
“Yeah. I’m Basil.”
“……Gasp!”
“Who are you?”
It was a trap after all.
A drowsy voice drifted down.
“I figured you’d need me gone to move, but attacking the henhouse—that’s crossing a line, don’t you think?”
An enormous pressure crushed down on his body, choking the breath from his lungs.
“You.”
“……!”
“Redermic sent you.”
Boom, boom-boom-boom!
In an instant, the room blazed bright as noon. Someone had lit the lamps all at once.
“Bark.”
The blue-haired man’s eyes snapped wide open.
“H-h-how……?”
Bark trembled violently.
“No, wait. Not Bark……”
Crimson eyes flickered with killing intent.
“Should I address you as a convict from the Bellotte Facility?”
“……!!”
Bark’s eyes widened enormously.
“I hear Redermic has connections at that place. So naturally—he’d have no trouble acquiring an inmate or two to suit his purposes.”
How could he possibly……
Though Bark didn’t speak aloud, Basil seemed to read the thought and smiled.
“I have connections there too.”
Bark’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.
That’s impossible.
‘My identity was flawlessly disguised!’
“W-what are you saying! I’m not a criminal!”
He denied it outright.
“I was just… worried the children had been frightened by monsters, so I came to check… b-besides!”
Bark’s eyes darted around.
“You confirmed my identity certificate yourself!”
“Ah… that identity certificate for ‘Bark the herb gatherer,’ issued from some southern barony?”
Basil let out a scornful laugh.
“That must have been a fake identity certificate that Redermic prepared for you. What a document.”
Then it happened.
A rustling, rustling sound came from below, as if something were wriggling—
“You’re different after all!”
A bright, clear voice rang out.
When he glanced down, Haniel—sleep already vanished from her eyes—was crouching there, staring intently at something.
Bark’s shoes, to be exact.
“The thickness of your ankles, sir!”
“…!”
“One of them is much thinner! Like….”
The child spoke with innocent wonder.
“Like it had been bound in shackles for a long time!”
A few days earlier.
When Haniel had bent down to pick up a chick.
“Hmm?”
She had clearly seen it.
The right ankle of Bark’s shoe, loose and ill-fitting in a way the left one was not.
“Nonsense!”
Bark shouted fiercely.
Haniel scurried over and hid behind Basil’s back.
“Have you lost your mind? Why are you yelling?”
“Your Highness! This is… t-this has been like this since birth! W-what kind of ridiculous talk is this!”
“….”
“B-besides, thanks to me you safely found moss in the mountains! If I were fake, how could that have happened?”
“But… at the Bellotte Facility, prisoners do labor in the mountains….”
Haniel peeked out again, murmuring without backing down.
Bark deliberately raised his voice louder. He dropped to his knees.
“It’s not!”
“But….”
Then Haniel peeked out once more and murmured again.
“Real herb gatherers don’t talk like that….”
“…What in the world—!!!”
The child drew in a sharp breath and cried out.
“Snake!!!”
“…?”
“That kind of thing.”
What was she—
“You, sir.”
Clear pink eyes bore into Bark’s face.
“Do you know? The baker in our village never turns his bowls upside down….”
“What do you mean—!”
“Farmers don’t hang their tools upside down, and fishermen are careful never to wear red underwear when they go out to sea! Because if the sea god saw the red and got angry and stirred up a storm, it would be terrible!”
Haniel spoke brightly.
“So that means… every profession has its own ‘rules’ that everyone strictly keeps!”
Certain professions carried superstitions and unspoken codes known only to their members. And the more one’s livelihood depended on facing nature’s wrath, the more scrupulously those customs were observed.
“What is the herb gatherer’s rule?”
Bark couldn’t speak at all.
Haniel giggled from behind Basil’s back.
“As far as I know… it’s ‘never to call them by name.'”
“What on earth—”
“Snake. Tiger. Bear. Lion!”
The child’s voice rang out.
“When you call like this directly from the mountain… they come find you!”
“……”
“The ‘elders’ do!”
Bark’s hand went limp, dropping to the ground.
“So I thought, if Bark can break the herb gatherer’s rules so casually, what if he’s been lying all along?”
Of course, Haniel had cross-checked the facts with Felix.
Bark claimed he’d been howling in the mountains while catching a huge snake.
“A snake! Be careful! There might be a snake den nearby! Oh, that was the tiger’s……”
Too glaring to write off as a mistake.
Likely he’d embellished it further to prove his usefulness.
Only it had backfired.
Bark gnashed his teeth.
‘Damn it. Who cares about rules like that anyway?’
Honestly, who would even notice!
Bark clenched his jaw. Slick—a small blade hidden up his sleeve slid down his arm. Bark lunged, gripping it secretly,
“You insolent brat—!”
Thwack!
Crack.
He lost consciousness instantly.
Naturally, Basil’s blade had been faster.
“……You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“Hit him with the pommel.”
Sigh.
Haniel gazed down at the man, now unconscious and foaming at the mouth, with weary eyes.
“……But truly, genuine herb gatherers never treat animals carelessly.”
He even beat the snake to death brutally.
Killed a chicken without cause.
A real herb gatherer would never have chosen such methods.
Basil scooped Haniel up into his arms.
“How do you know all this, anyway?”
Well, it was a combination of knowledge from his past life.
“I saw it in a book! In ‘The Wonderful World of Professions,’ there’s an interview section with twenty-five different occupations……”
Hmm.
Since it was content found even in children’s library books, it wasn’t a lie!
‘So he really was a relic thief?’
It made sense—the Grand Duke kept poking around and asking the villagers odd questions about the pillars.
The moment Haniel grew suspicious of Bark, he’d reported it straight to Basil.
“Your Highness! There’s a liar in the village!”
But merely concealing his identity wasn’t enough grounds to arrest Bark.
And they didn’t have time for a slow interrogation, since Basil had to leave for the capital soon anyway.
So they deliberately made a show of departing early. If anyone had ill intent, this would give them freedom to act.

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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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