I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Basil’s face went pale.

“Brat!”

“Huh?”

My head spun.

As Haniel staggered, Basil hurriedly caught her.

“What’s wrong with you? Why are you—”

“No, I’m, I’m fi—cough!”

“Damn it. Camilla!”

“Yes, yes! Let’s get down quickly!”

Basil practically flew down the mountain.

Through her flickering vision, Haniel stared at the man’s tightly clenched jaw.

She had finally managed to be useful……

Someone else’s face overlapped with his.

I hate this.

Haniel roughly wiped beneath her nose.

Me getting sick, and Dad getting scared.

In the end, I just become a bad child who makes everyone around me worry……

I really, really hate that.

But……

Without realizing it, Haniel tightly grabbed the front of Basil’s clothes.

His huge body flinched.

Rubbing her face against his chest, Haniel thought,

……Still……

Dad’s arms are warm……

And just like that, she drifted off to sleep.

“It seems to be mild exhaustion.”

“Exhaustion?”

Basil’s eyebrows immediately twisted at Camilla’s words.

“What kind of exhaustion makes someone bleed that much from the nose? Did she take a trip to the afterlife and come back? Did she go there asking for a house and land too, only to get kicked out at the door?”

“Whaaaat? They give houses and land in the afterlife too?!”

Ow, my ears.

Without thinking, Basil held the brat a little farther away.

“When did you wake up?”

“Just now! Hello!”

“……Haaah.”

Haniel was wide awake in his arms, staring at him with bright eyes.

The moment Basil saw those pink eyes, the heart that had dropped into his stomach finally seemed to return to its proper place.

Camilla carefully examined the child.

There was no physician here, but Camilla had basic medical knowledge and could handle emergency treatment.

Fortunately, the child seemed fine.

Perhaps brief exposure to the Mad Dragon’s evil energy had temporarily disturbed the flow of her blood and energy.

Ruuuumble. Boom. Rumble!

Large and small tremors continued outside the manor.

It was probably the effect of the sealed dragon veins reopening.

Despite all the chaos, it still wasn’t even midnight.

“……”

Basil stared out through the dark window and clenched his fist.

Was this……

actually real?

Not only was frozen Bethel Village warming up, but as the purified energy flowed through the dragon veins, the various patches of contamination scattered throughout the territory were being cleansed as well.

There was no other word for it.

It was a miracle.

And Luden’s confession was still making his head hurt.

“……I’m sorry, Your Grace. The truth is, I never went south. I picked up some cheap supplies from the nearby northwest, and I sold all the Crystal Portal Passes!”

“……What?”

“That child figured it out, so in exchange for keeping quiet, I took her to the northern mountain…… I-I really didn’t know it would turn out like this……”

Basil had heard the whole story on the way down from the mountain.

He let out a low sigh.

Truthfully, he had already suspected Luden was deceiving him.

“That’s enough. You know that, right?”

The reaction he had felt when he placed a hand on Luden’s shoulder in the warehouse.

The trembling in his body.

Those were the signs of a liar.

But he had not wanted to so easily distrust a companion who had crossed countless life-and-death situations with him and survived this far.

Still, I knew I’d have to deal with it eventually……

He just hadn’t expected that tiny brat to beat him to it.

Basil stared at Haniel reflected in the black window.

The child was drinking warm water from Camilla like a baby bird.

……

He couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Brat. I’d like to let you rest, but……”

He rubbed his face with one large hand, suppressing the sharp energy rising inside him.

“Yees?”

“This mister’s mental state is kind of falling apart right now.”

He turned toward Haniel.

“The purification. How did you do it?”

Haniel gulped down some water, then immediately answered as though she had been waiting for that question.

“Actually, I can collect divine power! That’s what I used to purify it!”

“You can ‘collect’ divine power?”

“Yes. I don’t really know why either…… I couldn’t use divine power at all before.”

At least, not in her previous life.

“But after I came to the North, I suddenly became able to use it!”

“……”

Basil exchanged a look with Camilla.

That……

No matter how you looked at it……

She awakened divine power on the way to the North.

For a moment, Basil and Camilla both went blank.

Luden had already been warned to keep quiet and sent away, so only the three of them remained in the bedroom.

Camilla looked at the child’s round profile and thought,

……According to imperial law, if you discover a child who has awakened divine power, you’re required to report them to the Temple.

People with divine power were rare.

So any child who awakened it had to be handed over to the Temple.

Naturally, the person who turned the child in received an enormous reward.

With a Temple reward…… it would definitely help our finances a lot.

Camilla suddenly became conscious of her back pocket.

Inside it was an unsent letter.

Commander of the Second Holy Knight Order, Dantelion Klein.

She still had not sent him a reply.

Camilla stepped closer to Basil and asked quietly,

“……What shall we do, Your Grace? A child who has awakened divine power……”

She stopped.

Because when she glanced at the Grand Duke’s eyes—

“……”

—they were openly gleaming with madness.

“……Your Grace?”

Basil dropped his head.

Soon, his shoulders began trembling.

“Heh…… hehehe……”

A villain-like laugh filled the bedroom.

“Y-Your Grace?”

“Ah……”

Basil roughly rubbed at the corner of his mouth.

But he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

“So I can hit them back like this too.”

God.

Are you there?

If you are, you’re doing a damn fine job.

He stared at Haniel.

A blessing, dropped right into my lap this openly.

A child with divine power.

Such children were rare.

Even among the few holy knight families in the Empire, they appeared only once in a blue moon.

Their power was special.

They were fundamentally different from ordinary priests who only acquired faint divine power after years of training.

That was why such children were often called blessings sent by God and expected to become future high-ranking priests or first-class holy knights.

And if those people found out……

that he had one?

How furious would they be?

“Hehehehe…… They wouldn’t even give me one proper priest.”

A strange sense of revenge filled his entire body.

Ah, the Emperor’s insomnia is going to flare up if he finds out.

It had been a while since he’d wanted to see that bastard’s face……

“Butler, I think His Grace’s eyes have gone a little bad……”

“They were always a little bad, dear. Give him a moment and he’ll become socialized again.”

“Okay.”

Camilla, who had moved closer to Haniel at some point, patted the child’s round head and thought,

As expected.

There’s no way he’ll send the child to the Temple.

Basil harbored enormous resentment toward the imperial family and the Temple that had abandoned him.

There was no chance he would do anything that benefited them.

“Okay.”

Basil inhaled deeply and exhaled.

Then he said,

“Thrill time over. Now then…… Camilla.”

“Yes.”

“Send a letter to Dantelion Klein.”

“……Pardon?”

“Tell him there’s a baby here with divine power, so come take her.”

“……Pardooooon?!”

“What? Why?”

“Weren’t you just losing your mind with joy at the idea of keeping the child in the North?”

Basil looked at his butler as though she had started speaking nonsense.

“Yeah. That’s why I said thrill time is over. She needs to go to the Temple.”

“……”

“This kid’s life is about to turn around. She can go to the Temple and live in luxury, so why the hell would she stay here and suffer?”

“……”

“I can’t deprive her of the chance to eat well and live well just because I like having her here.”

“Y-you can deprive me!”

Haniel immediately interrupted.

“Please deprive me!!”

“What?”

Dad’s name had suddenly come up, and things had gone completely differently from what she expected.

Haniel’s expression became desperate.

He hates the imperial family and the Temple so much that I thought if I proved my power, he’d definitely accept me!!

Why did things go this way?!

Why is he being awkwardly kind?!

Haniel grabbed Basil and clung to him.

“I…… I want to live here! I hate the Temple!”

“No……”

“They-they make child priests train super harshly there!”

Haniel blurted out whatever came to mind.

“They lock them in rooms! They scold them to awaken more power! They say mean things!”

“The Temple? There’s no way.”

“I-it’s true…… And I use divine power in this weird, messed-up way.”

Haniel’s eyes grew watery.

“They’ll treat me like I’m defective, and I’ll 100% become the Temple’s problem child! Do you want me to become a burden to the Temple?!”

Is that…… actually possible?

Basil narrowed his eyes.

Come to think of it—

he had never heard of someone collecting divine power and manifesting it that way.

And in truth, he knew very little about the inner workings of the Temple.

It was an extremely closed institution.

How exactly they trained priests……

how they treated unusual cases like Haniel……

They wouldn’t treat her like some kind of heretic, would they?

It was no longer an era obsessed with purging heresy like in the past, but still.

There was no guarantee.

While Basil hesitated, Haniel fidgeted with her fingers and spoke quietly.

“If breaking imperial law makes you uncomfortable, I’ll go to the Temple on my own when I’m ready.”

“……”

“……When I turn sixteen.”

Haniel murmured.

“When I’m sixteen, I’ll go to the Temple and train as a priest……”

“……”

Haniel’s lifespan was sixteen years.

By then, whether she liked it or not, she would have to leave this place.

“So please! Just let me stay here until then! Please?”

Seriously……

Why was she so desperate?

She usually looked like she only knew how to smile, but now her eyes were filled with tears.

For some reason, Basil’s mood sank.

Does going to the Temple really mean suffering that much?

He had no way of knowing.

And if, just if, they really treated that tiny thing like a heretic……

bullied her……

made her endure it all alone……

worked her like a dog……

“Your Grace?”

For an entirely different reason—

Basil felt his vision begin to turn red.

To be continued...