I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 33

Chapter 33

“Meee!”

I shot my hand into the air.

“Yes, yes. Of course our baby gets one first~”

Fresh bread straight from the new communal oven!

It landed right in my hands.

“Wow…… Wooooow!”

I immediately took a bite.

Hoo, hoo—it was hot, but……

“It’s so goooooood!”

It was insanely delicious!

Soft, nutty, and so, so chewy!

Grand Duke Basil and I each carried a loaf of barley bread as we left the communal oven.

He had a huge sickle slung over his back.

He had just swept through the wheat fields with his absurd labor power.

“Our babies should be selling well by now, right?”

“Probably. But…… are you sure that price is right?”

Grand Duke Basil sounded deliberately dissatisfied.

“Of course! We can’t sell wheat and barley to ordinary people at ridiculous prices.”

“Hmm.”

“And anyway, we don’t have enough barley to meet everyone’s demand…… Raising food prices at a time like this would be mean.”

I stared at the bread I had been nibbling.

Back in the slums, even getting a single loaf like this had been incredibly difficult.

Honestly, after I returned to the Klein Ducal House, I never knew hunger again.

Even when the Empire suffered a “food crisis” around this time in my previous life, I never really felt it.

The ducal estate was always overflowing with good food and abundance.

Suffering always reached the darkest and loneliest places first.

So if something terrible happened, it would be kids like the old me in the slums who went hungry.

Actually, every territory still has food reserves right now, and the imperial family has stores too, so this isn’t a true famine yet.

In other words, what was controlling people right now was fear of a food crisis that might come later.

And ironically—

that fear would make our northern crops shine even brighter.

It’s not like crops from farmland this small can feed the whole Empire anyway.

So……

“What we need this time isn’t profit. It’s reputation! ‘Northern crops you can trust!’ ‘Ah, the North is actually livable now~!’ That kind of thing!”

“Hmmm…… and what good does that do?”

A confused voice came from beside us.

Lady Aisha had joined us at some point.

“We get more people!”

Which meant more opportunities to earn divine power too!

Once we open the river, we’ll need people to fish!

I giggled.

The Grand Duke ruffled my hair.

“You…… somehow got even smarter.”

“I know……”

“Tsk. What the hell am I supposed to feed you to raise this?”

Lady Aisha, who had been trying hard to follow the conversation, frowned.

“No, no, wait. Then does that mean…… we won’t make much money this year? Oh my God! I was supposed to buy an encyclopedia of common knowledge!”

“Buy it. Please buy it.”

Grand Duke Basil replied.

“And as for money……”

A slightly wicked smile appeared on his face.

“We’re making that somewhere else.”

I took another huge bite of bread and chewed thoroughly.

“It’s always more satisfying to squeeze money out of bastards who already have it.”

“Your Graaaace……”

Far in the distance, Count Ledermeck was kneeling in front of the Grand Duke’s residence, crying like a puppy that desperately needed to pee.

He had been sitting there all day, sobbing.

“Your Grace! Your Grace! Please, I’m begging you! Sell me even a single grain of barley! Please!”

“You lost weight, Count. Congratulations.”

“Your Graaaace!”

“Oh, are you here to collect my debt? I did wreck quite a lot of your territory, didn’t I?”

“N-no, that’s not it……!”

“Wait a little. My men will be back soon carrying money bags.”

“No! No, no! I was wrong! Debt? What debt?! I’m not here to collect anything!”

“Then what do you want, mister?”

“Please sell me uncontaminated seed grain! At this rate, I’ll have nothing to plant next year! I’m going to be completely ruined!”

A failed harvest didn’t only mean food shortages.

Because this wasn’t an ordinary bad harvest.

Soil contamination.

And the resulting crop contamination.

Which meant—

they couldn’t secure seed for the following year.

Of course, even healthy seed wouldn’t help if they planted it in contaminated soil, so developing a proper soil treatment was the more urgent problem……

but apparently, that wasn’t the count’s only issue.

“I-it’s just that…… I secretly expanded farmland belonging to His Grace Duke Rowain without permission……”

“……”

“A-and I used up all the preserved barley and wheat seed too…… The budget was actually supposed to go somewhere else, but I spent it on expanding farmland…… I-I truly didn’t know this would happen……”

“……”

“Duke Rowain is going to kill me! I’m serious! M-my uncle is terrifying!!”

Oh dear……

How pitiful.

I watched the sniffling count.

Then took a looooong bite of bread and thought—

So what can we squeeze out of him now?

Hmm……

I leaned closer and whispered to Grand Duke Basil.

“Um…… lately, I’ve really wanted to raise something……”

“……?”

“Chicks and calves……”

Duke Rowain covered his face.

“What are we supposed to do?”

An unprecedentedly disastrous harvest.

Deep lines formed between his brows.

“This year’s yield is less than ten percent of normal. Even what survived is in terrible condition.”

His aide reported,

“We may somehow survive this year by releasing the food reserves…… but the real problem is next year. Securing enough seed to plant is becoming uncertain……”

“This is grave.”

A defining trait of the crop disease spreading this year—

fully ripened grains turned black as though contaminated.

Seeds taken from them had no ability to germinate whatsoever.

“Hah…… So this is what it truly means for the seed itself to disappear……”

The duke let out a heavy sigh.

“We need healthy, uncontaminated seed.”

“But…… would any territory still have such a thing? Everyone is suffering right now.”

Then something suddenly flashed through his mind.

“Ah! Count Ledermeck! That bastard should still have seed!”

“Pardon?”

“I entrusted him with managing my preserved seed this year! I specifically told him not to expand farmland carelessly because his land has weak soil fertility. Contact him immediately!”

“Ah, yes!”

The duke patted his chest in relief.

Right.

It wasn’t as though fate had abandoned them completely.

“I even gave him a large budget this year so he could purchase plenty of magical tools for seed preservation. Unless that fool has some hidden talent for embezzlement, we should be able to solve at least part of this!”

And a short while later—

“He planted all of it……”

“What?”

“He planted all of it, and the entire crop failed……”

The real crisis arrived.

Unfortunately, his nephew possessed considerable talent for embezzlement and breach of trust.

The duke shouted urgently,

“What about the imperial family?! Is there still no word on a new soil treatment?! No, first contact the nearby territories and find out how much seed they still have—”

“Your Grace!”

“What is it?”

“Th-there’s…… healthy barley in the market!”

“What?”

“Barley from the North has been released!”

“What in the world are you talking about?!”

At that exact moment, another servant came rushing in.

“Your Grace! A-a letter has arrived!”

“If it isn’t urgent, get rid of—”

“It’s from the North! From H-His Grace, Grand Duke Basil Vertus……!”

“……!”

The duke’s eyes opened as wide as they possibly could.

Wait.

Northern barley?

And then……

a letter arrived for him at exactly this moment?

He hurriedly unfolded it.

The handwriting was so roughly scrawled that it was hard to believe it came from a noble at all.

I’ll get straight to the point.

An inexplicable pressure radiated from the words.

The duke swallowed.

How much are you willing to pay?
Write your price and send it back.

He wants to sell me barley, then?

Ah, the item for sale is this.

The duke bit his lip and turned the page.

The true treatment for the eastern soil contamination—

……

The real cure.

What?

The duke shot to his feet and immediately rushed toward the northern gate.