I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The Grand Duke drew in a deep breath, just about to say something—

“Your Graaaaaace—!”

A booming shout rang out from outside the manor.

“Your Graaaaaace—!”

I blinked in front of the Grand Duke’s residence.

About six people were sprinting toward us from the distance like their lives depended on it.

So the people Sir Brad went to meet were…… the servants who used to work at the old manor!

They were the last remaining servants Basil had been forced to dismiss because he couldn’t afford their wages.

Butler Camilla, who had approached at some point, shrugged.

“I wasn’t able to tell Your Grace, but they’ve been sending me letters this entire time. They kept asking to be allowed back. I’m glad you’re finally accepting them.”

“……Idiots.”

The Grand Duke let out a deep sigh.

Didn’t they say these people offered to work for free, but he forced them to leave anyway?

Well……

I could understand His Grace’s feelings.

Still, that was some incredible loyalty.

I heard every one of them had their lives saved by His Grace on the battlefield.

If that were me, I’d probably want to come back and serve him too.

“Once autumn passes, we should be able to pay them wages again. Fortunately.”

As she said that, Butler Camilla patted my head.

I smiled brightly.

More immigrants, and now this too! Double celebration!!

New labor force—

very welcome!

“Your Grace, we have returned!”

“H-how has the territory changed this much?”

“Your Grace, please don’t cast us out again! We told you we would serve you to the end no matter what happened!”

The people, their faces covered in tear tracks, knelt before Basil.

As always, the Grand Duke’s expression remained blunt.

But I definitely saw the faint upward curve at the corner of his mouth.

“……You’re all damn stubborn.”

“Didn’t we learn it from Your Grace?”

They spent quite a while catching up in front of the manor.

Then, naturally, the servants’ attention shifted toward me.

“But…… who is this child?”

Yes!

I’d been waiting for this!

“Hello! I’m Haniel! I’m six years old!”

I immediately folded myself into a deep bow.

Pop!

[Errand completed!]

[Reputation Is My Strength! Greet Your New Neighbors (+6) (6/6)]

[Reward: 20 Pure, Pollution-Free Divine Power Stickers]

Hehe, finished all at once!

Then did this mean the village population had increased again?

How many people were there now?

[Help: Number of neighbors greeted so far: 28]

Wow! We already have twenty-eight residents!

I smiled even more brightly.

“Y-Your Grace? She’s…… cute?”

“Well…… something like that happened.”

“What do you mean, ‘something like that’?! What noble family is she from?! Your Grace?!”

Hmm……

The maids and servants of the Grand Duke’s residence had really, really loud voices.

“Ah, no, it’s nothing like that. She’s, well……”

Basil looked down at me as though suddenly at a loss for words.

“She’s……”

His brow furrowed deeply.

“……the actual owner of the land I’m working?”

“……?”

“My…… whip?”

The servants bit their fists.

“You finally sold off the territory, Your Graaaaaace?!”

Basil covered his ears.

“Ah. Been a while since my ears started bleeding.”

After the servants vanished into the manor with great enthusiasm, declaring they would clean every inch of it—

Basil finally introduced me to Brad.

“Ah, Brad. There’s someone who’s been desperately waiting for you.”

“Me? Someone waiting for ordinary old me?”

“……”

A body the size of a bear.

A gigantic hammer strapped across his back.

A face that looked like he’d already survived thirty different tragic life stories.

……The most extraordinary thing about him was probably the fact that someone who looked like that genuinely thought he was ordinary.

Basil extended Haniel toward the knight who possessed absolutely no self-awareness.

For some reason, the brat had been glued behind Basil’s leg this whole time.

“Brat. This is Sir Brad, the one you’ve been waiting for.”

“Hk.”

Hk?

“H-hello. I’m Haniel.”

“……? Y-yeah…… hello…… I’ve heard a lot about you……”

“I-I also saw the Northern Relocation Flyer…… It was truly very impressive. Thanks to it, I’d say I reached a major turning point in learning to live my own life independently……”

“I-is that so……? I see……”

“Yes……”

“Right……”

An awkward silence.

Basil tilted his chin.

This is……

A much weaker reaction than expected.

He had imagined something more like—

“Sir Brad? You’re Sir Brad?! I’m so, so happy to meet you! Thanks to you, I came all the way to the North! Your flyer is the best! Exaggerated advertising is the best! Sir Bread is the best! From now on, you’re officially my favorite!”

“Good heavens! What a joyous day!”

Something like that.

She’d been singing Brad’s praises nonstop, so Basil had expected them to become friends immediately.

Why was she acting so uncomfortable?

Strange……

And don’t kids that age usually like this type?

A warm, grandfatherly figure.

Brad—still an active and outstanding knight at fifty-nine—awkwardly tapped the ground with the tip of his foot while looking at the child.

Dinner was fairly extravagant.

Objectively, it wasn’t exactly luxurious, since their food supply was still limited.

But—

“Everyone, welcome back! I’m so happy to see you again!”

Now that the maids and servants who used to run the manor had returned, the quality of the food had improved drastically despite the limited ingredients.

It looked like Butler Camilla had also returned to her original position as Deputy Knight Commander.

“And welcome back to our knights too~! The reward money from the subjugation was pretty substantial. Very well done.”

“I’m glad I returned safely too! But is gold normally salty?”

“……If we ever get rich, I swear I’m buying Sir Shasha an encyclopedia of common knowledge.”

“Hehe. Thank you, Sir Camilla…… I’ve always wanted to join Camilla’s team. By the way, does Camilla’s team even still exist?”

<Anyone want to make a bet with a mage?>

“Captain Brad…… want to trade names with me?”

“Hm? Felix, why would you want a perfectly ordinary name like mine?”

“……Wow. People who have everything really are the worst. This sense of relative deprivation……”

“Now, everyone! Don’t forget we have to eat lightly and go work again tomorrow!”

“Why is Sir Luden like this now……”

For the first time in a while, the manor dining room was noisy and lively.

I sat by myself at a child-sized table far away.

Thank you, Sir Brad……

and stuffed dinner into my mouth.

I blinked as I watched the knights in the distance fight over a single bottle of alcohol.

So Sir Brad was older than I expected……

Thinking about it, it wasn’t really strange.

Butler Camilla is still active too.

Honestly, I’d been a little flustered earlier.

Had I been rude to him?

Sir Brad is…… Mister Paul’s benefactor and mine too. I wanted to get along with him.

I had always wanted to thank Sir Brad properly.

He was the number-one reason I had been able to come to the North.

The creator of the Northern Relocation Flyer.

Even his name sounded delicious.

But……

For a moment, I thought he looked like Grandpa……

My real grandfather.

“My adorable granddaughter is here! Come here, come quickly!”

Naturally, Dad wasn’t the only family member I had.

One of them was my grandfather.

Yulios Klein.

A retired paladin.

An honorary cardinal of the Temple.

The Empire’s renowned sage.

And……

once upon a time, a famous grandfather who absolutely doted on his granddaughter.

Before the regression, that is.

But for some reason, whenever I stood in front of Grandpa, I always became nervous.

Seeing Sir Brad must have suddenly reminded me of that.

“Brat. Why are you sitting here like this?”

At that moment, Basil approached.

He casually dropped down beside me like some neighborhood loafer and glanced over.

“……Are you scared of Brad?”

“Huh? No!”

Scared?

Of course not!

“Then why are you shrinking like that?”

“I-it’s just…… he was a little different from what I imagined.”

“He’s probably the strangest one out of that whole group, but he’s not a bad guy. Don’t be scared.”

Pat.

A large hand roughly stroked my head.

Strangely, the nervous pounding in my chest began to settle beneath that coarse touch.

Maybe it’s because he treats everything so casually and never makes things feel too serious?

When I was beside Grand Duke Basil, everything somehow felt like it would be okay.

Maybe because he treated nearly everything as though it weren’t a big deal.

“Oh, right. About what I didn’t get to finish saying earlier.”

“Huh? Ah, when we were having lunch?”

“Yeah.”

He spoke quietly.

“Now that more people are coming into the territory…… I think it’s about time you prepared yourself.”

“For whaaat?”

“The rumors that are going to spread.”

“……?”

“Whether we like it or not, word that the Mad Dragon’s corpse is being purified will eventually spread outside the North.”

“Ah……”

“So sooner or later, attention is going to turn toward this place. Then…… the imperial family or Temple priests might come here to investigate.”

I lowered the bread I was holding.

Just as I had expected.

Dad and Grand Duke Basil were like oil and water, and Dad normally wouldn’t even look in the North’s direction……

But Dad is a holy knight who protects the Empire, and he’s also suuuuper kind.

If something happened to one of the sealing pillars he had created……

and that potentially endangered the Empire—

of course he would want to check it.

Even if Dad didn’t come, there was still a chance one or two Temple priests would.

I had vaguely expected this.

“Of course, I hate both the imperial family and the Temple, so I’m planning to reject every single request they make to visit. But you never know.”

I nodded.

Opening the North meant Basil could no longer physically control every single person entering and leaving.

What if someone disguised themselves as an ordinary immigrant?

What if they secretly came in pretending to be merchants selling goods?

What if they simply forced their way inside, even if it meant violence?

That would be even worse.

“Rather than just sitting around and letting those bastards storm in while we’re completely unprepared, I think we need some sort of plan.”

“A plan?”

“Yeah. A plan for you, brat.”

“……”

“We need to hide you, don’t we, you holy little brat?”

Only then did I understand what he meant.

“Yes! If someone comes, I’ll hide really, really well!”

“……Yeah, well…… technically.”

……Why did that answer sound so unenthusiastic?

I jumped up and hurried over to the Grand Duke, who was sitting carelessly on an old chest.

I pressed myself against his side and bounced anxiously on my feet.

“You’ll say the purification was done using the holy relic from beneath the Grand Duke’s castle, right? Nobody’s ever gone inside the castle anyway! And it’s still blocked off! You…… you’re not going to send me to the Temple, right?”

My words grew longer and faster with anxiety.

“I told you I’m not sending you.”

Basil answered casually and lifted me onto his lap.

Then he pulled my little table closer and handed me the bread I had been eating.

“If anything, you’re my benefactor. Why would I send you away?”

“Right~?”

“Yeah. So what I’m trying to say is……”

“Yes!”

The silence stretched.

For some reason, the Grand Duke awkwardly wet his lips before finally speaking.

“Hani.”

“Yees?”

“You……”

He paused.

“Want to call me Dad?”