I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Chapter 3 — Purification

“La-la-la-la~”

One of my strengths was that I gave up quickly on things that clearly seemed impossible.

For example, extending my lifespan.

Or meeting Dad again.

But that also meant something else.

If something looked possible—

I would somehow make it happen!

“Na-na-na-na~”

I desperately resisted the urge to clap my feet together in excitement and tried to walk as calmly as possible.

But I couldn’t stop myself from humming!

My clothes were light.

But I wasn’t cold!

When I lifted my head, I could see a clear blue sky.

It had been two years since the Mad Dragon died.

For all that time, thick dark clouds had covered the North.

But now, they had finally cleared away, and the sun had shown its face.

Ssssss—!

Heat shimmered faintly above the ground.

The frozen earth had thawed, turning muddy and wet in places.

But I didn’t care.

Because now I could finally do it!

Hoe five times!

I puffed out my chest as I looked at the fully thawed farmland.

I was just about to head down when—

“Kid. It’s slippery.”

Someone grabbed me firmly by the back of my collar.

“Sir Luden!”

“……”

The stern-looking knight with dark blue hair glanced at me.

Still dangling by the back of my neck, I gave him a polite little bow.

“Hellooo?”

“Hello……”

His eyes looked complicated.

Apparently, becoming my accomplice in this whole mess was weighing on him.

That was right.

Sir Luden and I were partners in crime today.

More precisely, we had formed an alliance based on mutual necessity.

Because last night, I went to see Sir Luden.

Grand Duke Basil had packed me seven whole pieces of bread from the food warehouse.

And that was it.

For someone with such a huge bread storage, his heart was surprisingly narrow.

Would it kill him to take me to the northern mountain?

But I didn’t get discouraged.

Because I had another way!

Last night—

I pretended to be asleep, then carefully slipped out of the manor.

The Grand Duke and Butler Camilla were doing something on the second floor, so I was able to sneak out from the first floor without anyone noticing.

Knock knock! Knock knock knock!

I secretly knocked on the door of Sir Luden’s house, which I had memorized during my tour of the village.

A familiar face appeared.

“Sir Luden! Hello!”

“……? You’re……?”

“Hyup.”

I immediately squeezed myself between the door and his leg.

“I’ll be coming in for just a little biiit.”

If Grand Duke Basil caught me, there was a one-hundred-percent chance I’d be launched out of the North like a slingshot!

Hide!

Hide!

“What? No, wait, what? No……”

Sir Luden looked completely flustered, but he still let me inside.

I looked up at his bewildered face and held out my hand.

“Sir! I’ll get straight to the point! Would you like to form an alliance with me?”

“……What?”

“If you ally with me, then…… I won’t tell His Grace the Grand Duke your secret!”

“My…… secret?”

“Yeees.”

I covered my mouth with one hand and whispered.

“You lied to His Grace today, didn’t you?”

Sir Luden’s eyes widened.

“What exactly are you—”

“What exactly am I talking abooout~?”

I struggled to pull a salt container out of my bag and held it up.

It was the same salt Basil had complained about when he was eating stew—the one mixed with sand.

After meeting Sir Luden at the warehouse, I had investigated it just in case.

And sure enough……

“The goods you bought this time, including this salt.”

My voice came out clear and deliberate.

“They’re not from the South at all!”

“……!”

Clatter!

Sir Luden instinctively grabbed the hilt of his sword.

I watched him and smiled.

Luden Price.

Owner of the Price Grand Merchant Guild.

A man who became enormously wealthy after succeeding in a certain investment.

A devout believer in the idea that money was both faith and conviction.

……Well, that was before the regression.

Only a handful of people knew that the future master of the Price Merchant Guild had once been a knight of the North.

He had occasionally come to the Klein Ducal Estate for business.

He had always looked cold and unapproachable, so I had never spoken to him.

Dad said he probably left the North voluntarily.

Somehow……

I had a feeling this incident had something to do with why he turned his back on the North.

Whatever the reason, I can’t let the future king of rich people slip away!

Even if he weren’t going to become rich someday, I absolutely couldn’t let him go now.

Because he had everything I currently needed.

Transportation to get me all the way to the northern mountain.

Supplies that could help with my first attempt at farming.

Everything!

The problem is, Sir Luden never moves unless there’s something in it for him.

But I had a pretty good card to play.

My memories and knowledge from my previous life.

“……The goods aren’t from the South? What kind of nonsense is that?”

I looked at Sir Luden glaring terrifyingly at me, then plopped down into a squat on the floor.

“Sir Ludeeen, did you know?”

Then I turned the salt container upside down.

Rattle-rattle-rattle!

Coarse grains of salt spilled everywhere.

“In the slums where I used to live, we always got salt mixed with sand as part of our rations!”

“……What?”

“I heard the adults there say that if you look carefully at the impurities in salt, you can roughly tell where it came from! Um, like this!”

I gently sifted through the pile of salt and found foreign particles with a different texture.

Then I pressed one beneath the tip of my fingernail.

Crack.

The grain broke apart, revealing a pale yellow interior.

“But…… huh? That’s strange. The adults said sand from the South is white and hard…… so why does this one crumble yellow?”

“……!”

“Almost like the impurities found in the western salt mines!”

“……!!”

Sir Luden visibly faltered.

“H-how the hell do you know that?!”

Actually, the part about adults in the slums teaching me about sand was only half true.

I learned this from reading an encyclopedia in my previous life.

It was true that salt mixed with sand had been delivered to the slums.

Filtering impurities from salt was one of the daily tasks of District Z’s residents.

Then, after Dad took me to the Klein Ducal House—

I was once watching the cooks bake bread in the kitchen when I suddenly panicked.

“Gasp! Why aren’t you filtering the salt? There’s sand mixed into it! Won’t your stomach hurt if you eat it like that?”

“Pardon? Oh my.”

The maids and attendants burst into laughter.

“My Lady, only commoners eat cheap rock salt like that.”

“……?”

“At the Klein Ducal House, we only use the finest southern sea salt. Of course, all impurities are completely filtered out before it arrives.”

“Ah……”

“Who would dare tamper with ingredients meant for a sacred noble household? This isn’t some beggar’s table. How undignified.”

“I-I see……”

For some reason, my cheeks burned hot.

I remembered deciding that as soon as I returned to my room, I would study everything there was to know about salt.

I still hadn’t fully learned to read, but I also decided that instead of carelessly asking people whenever I didn’t know something, I should look things up in books by myself.

“Oh dear. Our young lady spent six years in the slums, so I suppose there’s still plenty for her to learn. We already scrubbed all the grime off her body ages ago, but…… what are we going to do?”

“……”

“When you go to meet the Elder, it would probably be best if you just smiled. Don’t worry! We’ll stay beside you and help you, our sweet little lady!”

“Mm……!”

The maids smiled brightly as they patted me.

Their hands were so gentle and kind that I couldn’t help smiling along with them.

Huh?

Strange.

I had only remembered the maids who were always kind and affectionate toward me.

So why did my mood suddenly sink?

Don’t think about it anymore.

I shook my head.

At the same time, Sir Luden’s voice cut in.

“You figured out I never went to the South…… from just that?”

His tightly clenched fist trembled.

I tilted my head as I looked at him.

Hmm. I’ve actually been thinking this for a while.

Sir Luden was still young right now.

And maybe because of that……

he seemed just a little sloppy.

The insanely rich Sir Luden I remember was much more thorough.

Maybe after leaving the North, he had truly begun walking the path of a cold-blooded money fanatic.

So I decided to charge straight ahead while he was still like this.

“Of course the spice bags were strange too, right?”

“……!”

“Actually, I had to switch carriages a looooooot of times to get all the way here!”

“What does that have to do with anything?!”

“The traveling merchants I met told me something. Apparently, the West recently succeeded in synthesizing a new spice! It’s slowly entering circulation, so southern spices are about to drop sharply in price!”

In other words, the spices Sir Luden had brought back were about to become easy to obtain almost anywhere.

And if someone took advantage of that……

they could easily disguise western goods as southern goods.

I smiled sweetly.

“The North is such an isolated territory that the latest information doesn’t reach here very quickly, right?”

“Y-you……”

“Oh! But, but! I have a question!”

Before he could snap at me, I hurried over and grabbed his sleeve tightly.

Then I spoke as casually as possible.

“I never actually said that Sir Luden ‘didn’t go to the South.’”

“……!!”

“I only said that the goods ‘weren’t from the South’……”

“……”

“So you didn’t accidentally buy western goods while you were in the South.”

I tilted my head.

“You never went there at all……? Then……”

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

I could almost hear his heartbeat from where I stood.

“What did you do with those suuuper expensive Crystal Portal Passes?”

“……!!”