I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 35

Chapter 35

A few months earlier.

“……I heard this mushroom only grows after enduring extreme environments. That’s why the places where it can grow are very limited.”

Maybe because Slan came from one of the western border minorities who wandered from place to place, he had seen and heard an incredible amount.

He even said he’d occasionally met people from other continents.

Apparently, this was something he had heard from them too.

“Really? So that’s why you were looking at it so curiously!”

“Yes. I didn’t know this mushroom grew in the North. I thought it only grew in foreign countries.”

“Hm.”

“And of course, I definitely didn’t expect it to become harvestable because the North…… warmed up.”

The boy held the yellow-brown mushroom in one hand.

The moment I saw his profile—

something jolted through my head.

……Huh? Wait.

A forgotten memory suddenly surfaced.

“Extreme…… environments? Limited regions?”

A single line from an agricultural bulletin I had read in my previous life flashed through my mind.

Specifically……

a bulletin that wouldn’t be published until three years from now.

First Diplomatic Relations with the Kingdom of Jetan — Could This Solve the Empire’s Food Crisis?

The eastern crop disease had spread uncontrollably.

The food shortage grew worse and worse.

In the end, the imperial family decided to import food from foreign countries.

And among the first imported products was—

A mysterious mushroom possessing healing properties

Why had I forgotten this?

I was sure it had said—

When this mushroom senses danger, it secretes detoxifying substances to protect itself.
The harsher the environment it survives, the greater the amount of detoxifying substances it appears to produce……
(omitted)
Imperial experts are currently researching the healing properties of this newly imported mushroom.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jetan lies on the continent of Ites beyond the southern sea and is known for its mysterious flora.
(continued)

The bulletin hadn’t included a single illustration.

Only the mushroom’s name.

Healing properties! Detoxifying substances!

It was an incredibly important mushroom.

So why hadn’t I realized that this mushroom was the Pig-Nose Mushroom?

Because…… it had a different name!

Official import name: Golden Button Mushroom.
Due to possible confusion with the domestic Golden Button-Pattern Mushroom, the imperial family and agricultural scholars are considering a new name.

They were the same thing!!!!

Later, I ran away from home and met the Fourth Prince.

Even when he showed me this mushroom during that runaway trip, I never once imagined—

Golden Button Mushroom = Pig-Nose Mushroom.

I just thought it was some new mushroom I didn’t know!

I’d never seen a picture.

And the names were different.

So I only knew what the prince told me—that it tasted like meat when cooked. I thought it had no special effect at all!

Of course, later issues of the bulletin probably included a proper illustration and a corrected name.

But by then, my core-deficiency disease had worsened, and I could no longer properly read things like agricultural bulletins.

Besides, there’s a good chance they never published the fact that it was the main ingredient of the soil treatment.

They would have kept that secret.

Because if the Kingdom of Jetan found out, they might raise the mushroom’s price.

Either way—

right now, nobody knew that yet.

My heart started pounding wildly.

“Gasp! Wait, was that why?”

The God of the Forest had been sending me mushroom-gathering errands almost every day……!

I had always thought they were unusually generous because the reward was 50 Divine Power Stickers despite the low gathering difficulty.

Could it be…… that it wasn’t simply a mushroom-gathering quest, but an errand to gather the main ingredient for the soil contamination treatment?

This was insane.

I immediately ran to His Grace.

“Your Grace! This mushroom might work on the soil contamination in the East!”

“What?”

He was pulling weeds when I rushed over and explained.

Naturally, I glossed over the previous-life memories by making it sound like I had received some kind of revelation in a dream.

“This mushroom’s real property is healing?”

“Yes! The harsher the environment it survives, the more detoxifying substances it produces! Of course, we’ll have to process it properly!”

“……Extreme environments.”

“Thump-thump!”

“This thing survived both the North’s insane cold and the contamination.”

“Exactly! It should have really, really powerful detoxifying substances!!”

We immediately asked Noah to experiment with it.

Noah spent the entire summer buried in experiments.

And after countless rounds of trial and error—

he finally developed the treatment.

<Success.>

<Ah, life really is all about one big score~ Let’s goooo~!>

It had been one incredible summer.

Now all that’s left is selling the treatment properly!

Fortunately, there was no problem securing the main ingredient, Pig-Nose Mushrooms.

The North’s contamination and cold had only been the conditions necessary for the mushrooms to first grow.

After that, because mushrooms reproduced through spores, those same mushrooms continued growing even after Bethel Village’s environment improved.

Oh-ho. We might make way more money this year than I expected.

I covered my mouth and giggled.

“That weird laugh again……”

Slan shook his head while organizing things.

“More importantly…… wagons have been coming in nonstop for a while now. What are all those?”

He glanced out the window.

“Hm?”

Pulled out of my memories, I followed Slan’s gaze.

My eyes curved automatically.

“Special livestock hay from Count Ledermeck, and lumber for building the new barns!”

“Ah. You said you were going to receive livestock from Ledermeck too, right?”

“Yup!”

I grinned.

“A looooot!”

Wagons rolled in one after another, kicking up dust and leaving countless wheel tracks in the ground.

Count Ledermeck himself is awful, but the livestock raised on his lands are famous for their excellent bloodlines!

I had already wanted to start using oxen for farming next year, so this worked out perfectly.

“Please! Sell me barley seed! Even just ten sacks!! If anyone finds out I don’t have a single grain of preserved seed left…… I-I could be in serious trouble. My family might be ruined……”

I remembered Count Ledermeck desperately clutching the Grand Duke’s trouser leg.

Every territory in the Empire kept preserved seed in case the regular seed became diseased.

Even without epidemics, monsters sometimes attack and contaminate crops.

And he had used all of it.

Good grief.

Utterly pathetic.

Well, His Grace had looked extremely pleased about it.

“Count, thank you.”

“Pardon?”

“Thank you for being so selfish and stupid. Thanks to that…… are you going to meet every condition I ask for?”

“Sob, of course! I’ll do anything! J-just…… please don’t tell my uncle—D-Duke Rowain—about this……”

The count seemed completely consumed by the need to clean up his mess without Duke Rowain finding out.

Basil thought for a moment.

Then the corners of his mouth curled upward like a demon’s.

“Fine.”

“No compensation debt, a steady supply of livestock, a new barn…… How much special feed for the cattle did you get?”

Slan asked.

I confidently raised two fingers in a V.

“……Two months?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Don’t tell me…… two years?”

Nod!

Slan let out a short breath.

“Hah.”

“You squeezed all that out of him for a few sacks of barley seed……”

Then his expression suddenly turned cold.

“But I’m surprised His Grace agreed to give him any seed at all. Even if it’s only a small amount, that’s barley you all worked hard to grow, and he’s the same bastard who demanded compensation after His Grace saved his territory from monsters.”

“Oh, it’s fine!”

I smiled brightly.

Slan tilted his head slightly.

“Count Ledermeck isn’t going to get that seed anyway!”

“……?”

Far in the distance, Count Ledermeck’s carriage could be seen leaving.

We had deliberately dragged things out for several days before finally sending him on his way.

I watched the carriage disappear with satisfaction, then turned.

“Gasp! More importantly, it’s already this late. Slan, let’s go!!”

I set down the pouch of Pig-Nose Mushrooms inside the cottage and turned around.

“Where?”

His deep-sea-colored eyes followed me.

“To see the square! They’re putting up the harvest festival decorations soon!”

The village square was currently incredibly lively.

They had stacked wood and bundles of straw together to build a huge decoration in the center!

“We have to pray to the God of Earth and say, ‘Please give us another bumper crop next year!’”

“Ah, if that’s what it is, I’m fine—”

“And Aunt Helen said she’s making us red scarves! To celebrate the North earning its first income!”

In the Empire, there was a custom that when someone received their first salary or earned their first income, they gave a red-colored gift to someone precious to them.

Apparently it helps you earn even more money, or something like that?

They also said it brought luck and happiness to the person who received it.

“Scarves~ Scarves~ Slan, come get one too!”

Slan looked thoroughly uninterested.

“Come oooooon! Okay?”

Completely excited, I reached for his arm.

But at that moment—

Tap!

He lightly stepped backward.

The atmosphere around us instantly turned cold.

The blue gaze fixed on me contained unmistakable hostility.

“Don’t.”

“……”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t touch me without permission.”