I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 2 — The Northern Territory of Vertus

Saaaa— tap!

“Wow.”

It’s shaped like a footprint!

I stared excitedly at the sticker that had fallen into my hand.

The sparkling sticker soon vanished with a pop into my sticker book.

I got a footprint sticker because I arrived in the North!

Until now, all the stickers had been shaped like thumbs-ups!

Is it because the requester was the God of Travel……?

Maybe the sticker’s shape changed depending on which god assigned the errand.

The divine power inside seemed to be the same, though.

Hmm. When I studied scripture, I learned that the supreme deity, the “Goddess of Fate,” has several gods beneath her.

Because it was difficult for the Goddess to manage the complicated mortal world alone, she divided her power into twelve parts and created subordinate gods to govern the laws of the world.

Of course, the chief deity worshipped by the Temple was still the Goddess I had met in heaven.

Whoever you are, please keep giving Hani lots and lots of divine power from now on! Thank you in advance!

Prayer finished!

Then, while I’m at it……

I rustled around inside my bag and pulled out a sheet of paper.

Should I learn a little more about the North—my new home?

~Today’s Frontier, Tomorrow’s Center! Your New Life Begins in NEW Vertus!~

Sitting inside the public carriage, I buried my nose in the northern relocation brochure.

□ Blessed natural environment!
An eco-friendly healing destination untouched by human hands for five hundred years!
(Monsters may have touched it, though.)

□ Unprecedented development opportunities!
Fishing available, mining available, gathering available!
(Purification of contamination required.)

□ A first-class transportation hub!
One minute to the capital, thirty seconds to the Northern Crystal Warp Portal!
(Based on a Ninth-Circle Mage.)

□ A warm, family-like territory!
Full community facilities provided, plus a ♡Welcome Kit♡ upon move-in!
(This one is actually true.)

Hmm…… I feel like I can’t really see the tiny print very well.

Well, it probably wasn’t anything important!

The Grand Duchy of Vertus.

For a long time, it had been demon territory, and people had only started moving there about two years ago.

Why?

Because two years ago, Grand Duke Basil defeated the five-hundred-year-old Mad Dragon of the northern Kartus region!

The Emperor had been delighted.

He held a grand victory banquet, declaring that the Empire had finally reclaimed the “Lost North” after five hundred years.

Kartus was reborn under the new name Vertus, and Basil was appointed as the lord responsible for governing it.

Along with the title of Grand Duke.

“Let the hero Basil take the name Vertus and assume responsibility for the North. The rise and fall of the northern territory shall rest in your hands.”

Basil’s reaction was supposedly this:

“F***……”

Hmm, I wonder what exactly he said?

Dad had been the one to tell me about it, so I didn’t know the details either.

“You’re dumping the land I personally turned into a wasteland after spending two years ripping a dragon’s head off…… onto me? A land still crawling with monsters and not even fully purified?”

“H-haha…… It seems His Grace the Grand Duke has been possessed by the Mad Dragon’s spirit! An exorcism!”

“Grand Duke, my ass. Give me the gold and treasure you promised. Hand over some prime land—agh!”

In the end, Basil spent a month in prison for insulting the imperial family.

He only received leniency because a physician certified that the Mad Dragon’s demonic energy still lingered inside him, making him unusually aggressive and mentally unstable.

But because of that, he ended up designated a Level-0 Dangerous Individual. They said he had a high risk of going berserk……

Although, technically, the person with the greatest risk of going berserk in the Empire was probably my dad……

Anyway, that was how Basil became lord of the North.

And they tried to recruit residents too.

As you can see—

it was a complete disaster.

Because……

I stared hard at one sentence on the brochure.

Mister Paul, sitting beside me, mumbled in his sleep.

□ Unprecedented development opportunities! Fishing available, mining available, gathering available!

No matter where I looked—

“There’s nothing about farming……”

The Empire’s foundation was agriculture.

Yet even this suspicious advertisement had enough conscience not to mention farming.

Of course it didn’t.

Why?

Because it was the North.

Because it’s cold!!

Honestly, the contamination problem came second.

If it’s cold, crops won’t grow!

Or only an extremely limited number of crops would.

I had lived as a noble young lady in my previous life too, and even then, I had never once heard of produce grown in Vertus.

There was clearly a reason the territory had a 0% occupancy rate and 100% vacancy rate……

Hing. I don’t want to starve anymore.

At the very least, I wanted to be able to provide myself with three pieces of bread a day.

“To do that……”

I neatly folded the brochure.

W-well, there is a way!

They say even when the sky falls, there’s always a hole to escape through.

And the North had an escape route too.

I knew what it was.

But first, I shouldn’t show off. I should observe the atmosphere!

The first virtue of living independently:

When moving somewhere new, get along with the neighbors!

Don’t draw attention to yourself and get bullied by the locals.

It was best to quietly blend in until nobody even noticed you had ever been an outsider!

……At least, that was what Mister Paul had said.

You can do it!

Are we almost there?

I peeked out through the carriage window.

And then—

“Huh? Huuuh?”

The horses suddenly whinnied loudly.

Jolt!

The carriage stopped.

People began murmuring.

“W-what is it? Are we there?”

Mister Paul rubbed his eyes awake and immediately checked on me.

Then my eyes widened as I looked out the window.

“Huh? That……”

And then Mister Paul screamed in horror behind me.

“Hani! Baby—!!!”

My body suddenly lifted into the air.

……

Huh?

Why……

am I flying?

The North.

The Grand Duchy of Vertus.

Inside a dark room.

The man looked perfectly suited to lounging carelessly.

Even the way he toyed with a finely sharpened dagger as though it were some cheap plaything suited him.

Whirl, whirl.

Pitch-black hair.

Red eyes that looked as though blood had seeped into them.

His body, hardened through endless battle, gave off overwhelming pressure simply by existing.

Whirl—tap!

The man tossed the blue-edged dagger into the air, caught it, and spoke darkly.

“Again.”

“Pardon?”

“Read it again.”

The owner of this land—

Basil Vertus.

His deep voice disturbed the stillness of the snowy day.

“……‘For the reasons stated above, we request permission to conduct a search throughout the northern region for the fugitive. Respectfully, Dantelion Klein, Commander of the Second Holy Knight Order.’”

“What a load of crap……”

“What shall I write in reply?”

“Give it here. I’ll write it myself.”

The man abruptly stood.

Then he picked up a pen and elegantly scribbled:

Get lost.

“Oh dear.”

The butler pressed a hand to his forehead.

“It is certainly direct and easy to understand, but you are no longer a mercenary. Please make the reply a little longer and more dignified. Like a noble.”

Basil raised one dark eyebrow.

“Easy.”

Kindly get lost.

“……”

“Want it longer?”

Unless you’re going to purify the contamination in my territory, kindly get the hell out, Dantelion.

The butler shrugged.

“Another person will now believe the rumors that the Grand Duke of the North has gone mad. I recommend simply ignoring the letter.”

“Whatever.”

Basil answered indifferently.

The territory was practically sealed off anyway.

The Grand Duke had already been living in seclusion for two years.

Ignoring a single letter shouldn’t cause much trouble.

“Where are you going?”

“To twist some chicken heads off.”

Basil casually picked up his large coat and sword.

The butler’s eyes immediately lit up.

“There are…… chickens left?”

“Plenty in the Fog Zone.”

“Ah. Then just say you’re going to hunt monsters. You got me excited for a second……”

He lazily waved a hand at Camilla, his former mercenary companion, then headed outside.

Cold.

The blizzard had calmed down somewhat, but the air was still bitterly chilly.

He strode forward, then looked toward the snow-covered mountain in the distance.

One dark red peak rose far higher than the others.

Its unnatural shape made it look almost like an enormous tumor.

“Always getting in the way.”

Basil muttered harshly.

Then he mounted his horse and headed toward the Fog Zone south of the territory.

The Fog Zone marked the beginning of the northern Vertus territory.

Demonic energy still lingered heavily there, so monsters appeared everywhere except along a few passageways the priests had purified.

There’s a limit to how much money I can make by running mercenary groups for bounties or selling monster materials……

It was cold.

The land was heavily contaminated.

Ordinary living creatures could barely survive there.

It had already been nearly two years since he had settled in this place.

There had never been proper residents to begin with.

The only humans were his former mercenary companions who had settled there with him, along with drifters, sick people, fugitives, and other outcasts discarded by society.

A few settlers had moved in at first.

But as poverty worsened, every one of them eventually left.

At this rate, we’ll either all die together…… or abandon this land entirely.

Then again—

the Emperor probably knew that perfectly well when he dumped him in this garbage heap.

He wanted Basil to die.

Slowly.

Quietly.

Conveniently.

Perhaps it had only taken a moment for the weapon the Emperor had once used however he pleased to start looking like a blade pointed at his own throat.

Then—

“……?”

Basil tilted his head slightly.

What was that?

Some kind of mutant?

“I’ve never seen a monster shaped like this before.”

A round silver head.

Short little arms and legs spread flat against the ground.

“Hnnng……”

A new type of baby monster?

It looked bite-sized.

Basil picked up the completely unconscious child with one hand and narrowed his eyes.

A sticker attached to the child’s forehead weakly fluttered loose.