I Raised the Northern Grand Duke as a Farmer Behind My Father’s Back Chapter 8

Chapter 8

[Haniel’s Sticker Book (For Children)]

• Divine Power Stickers in Storage: 16

• Collected Sticker Types: Thumbs-Up, Stomp! Footprint, (Not Obtained), (Not Obtained), (Not Obtained) ……

• Children express themselves actively by sticking stickers wherever they like!

• Collect more stickers and you may be able to create a special collection!

That was all the divine power I had collected on the way to the North.

The ten stickers I got when I arrived in the North were the biggest reward. The rest all came from tiny errands like climbing one step of a carriage staircase, sleeping under a blanket, or brushing my teeth for three minutes.

But if I completed this errand, I’d get a whopping two hundred Divine Power Stickers!

If I got those, maybe I could actually help the North.

Then even the Grand Duke, whose defenses were thicker than an iron wall, might finally let me keep living here!

My eyes blazed with determination.

Using the spoon Butler Camilla had given me, I vigorously shoveled stew into my mouth.

“Haah! Hap!”

Stew disposal complete!

“Butler, is there any farmland around here?”

“Farmland? Probably?”

Ding.

What was with that not-my-problem attitude?!

Seeing my blank expression, Butler Camilla laughed.

“Little one. Don’t tell me you really came here planning to farm. In this North, where it either snows or looks like it’s about to snow for three hundred and sixty days out of the year?”

“I—”

“Give it up. You’d be more productive collecting monster dung.”

“B-but I still want to at least take a look……”

“Hmm. The snow has stopped for once today. I was planning to put you outside after feeding you stew anyway. What should I do?”

I tightly grabbed the hem of her clothes.

“His Grace said I could stay until the day after tomorrow!”

“Hm? When?”

“Earlier, he said I’d die around the day after tomorrow!”

“A brat like you would last about…… two days? Maybe three?”

“D-doesn’t that mean I’m allowed to stay alive here until then?”

“Does…… that really follow?”

I swung my arms wildly.

“It does! It totally, totally does!”

It was absolute sophistry, but for some reason, Butler Camilla looked down at me and twitched an eyebrow.

“……You really are adorable. Enough to tug at the heartstrings. Being just the right amount of filthy makes you look like a freshly dug potato.”

A potato?!

“It’s an honor!”

Butler Camilla scooped me up.

I tried my hardest to make the most appetizing potato-like expression possible.

The moment our eyes met, her eyebrow twitched again.

“……Dirty. Cute. Hah, whatever. Let’s go.”

“Yeeeees!”

Wrapped tightly in a huge blanket because there were no children’s clothes, I went outside.

With a hoe borrowed from the butler clutched firmly in my hands.

A short while later—

Haniel suffered another glorious defeat at hoeing.

“It’s hard!”

Convincing Camilla to take me somewhere that looked like farmland had gone perfectly well.

But—

Klang!

The entire ground was frozen solid.

It was so hard that a pathetic amount of child-strength couldn’t make the hoe blade sink into the soil at all.

And the giant hoe was so heavy!

If Camilla hadn’t secretly helped from behind, Haniel probably wouldn’t even have been able to lift it properly.

“Children these days really do enjoy strange games. Hard to keep up with the trends……”

“I won’t loseeee!”

Hng! Klang! Hng! Klang!

Haniel worked hard, lifting the hoe and striking the ground again and again.

But—

[Challenge! Hoeing! (0/5)]

Why isn’t it going up?!

Sure, the hoe blade wasn’t actually digging into any soil!

And sure, it didn’t feel like I was fulfilling the fundamental purpose of hoeing, which was to turn over the ground!

But still! But still!!

Hng! Klang! Hng! Klang!

I am hoeing! This is totally hoeing! I might even be pretty high-ranking among six-year-olds!

Haniel desperately shouted inside her head.

Then the letters floating in front of her flickered uncertainly for a moment.

[Challenge! Hoeing!……]

Pop!

[Challenge! Hoeing! (0.00000001/5)]

Oh, so that was just a pity point?!

And they were stingy about it too!

“Oh my. Very good. Out of all the six-year-olds I know, you’re the best at…… hammering?”

“Urk.”

It’s hoeing……!

Haniel looked down at the ground she had been tormenting.

Despite all that commotion, there wasn’t even a tiny scratch.

I guess…… it really does look that way.

I had no choice but to admit it.

Hoeing frozen ground is meaningless.

In other words, I needed real hoeing that actually worked.

Simply performing the action wasn’t enough.

I had to fulfill the purpose and meaning behind the action too.

So what now?

Hoeing = the beginning of farming = need thawed ground = to thaw the ground……?

Haniel blinked.

Then she suddenly turned toward Camilla.

“Where is His Grace the Grand Duke?”

Basil strolled lazily through the village.

Suddenly, he found the whole situation absurd.

That brat. Fearless little thing.

What kind of place did she think this was, coming here all excited?

And what was that sudden nonsense about farming?

She really was a ridiculous child.

Basil clenched his fist as though trying to erase the lingering sensation of the child from his hand.

He had always hated young, weak things.

Children?

Of course he didn’t like them.

Sure, the little brat had been round and sturdy-looking enough to be somewhat cute.

But that was all.

He had left her in the care of Camilla, the merciless deputy knight commander once known as the Knight of Ice.

By now, the kid was probably being marched out of the territory without even daring to make a sound.

Goodbye, baby hippo.

“Hmph.”

He gave a short snort.

While thinking this and that, he realized he had already arrived at the village warehouse.

“What? There was sand mixed into the salt?”

“Yeah.”

Basil nodded lazily.

Even sitting carelessly on a wooden crate in the warehouse, the man somehow looked like a painting.

A somewhat……

savage and terrifying painting, perhaps.

The supply officer who had returned that morning looked troubled.

“The sacks they showed us as samples were perfectly fine, so I thought there’d be no issue. What in the world is this?”

“Take all of it back and return it. If you feel like it, punch them in the gut while you’re there.”

“……Punching them is a bit…… It’s not like money comes out when you hit them.”

The man in charge of the merchant caravan that had just returned from the South—

Luden, one of Basil’s knights—

let out a long sigh.

“Times have changed.”

“Then what do people fight with now?”

“Instead of fists, apparently they throw lawsuits at each other. Elegant, long, and expensive battles.”

“What a boring era. ……Well, nothing to be done about it now.”

After the war ended, the members of Basil’s mercenary group each took on roles necessary to operate the Vertus territory.

Luden had been a supply officer on the battlefield.

So here, too, he handled similar work.

The only difference was that the goods he dealt with had changed from weapons to daily necessities.

A little……

No.

Quite a lot.

“In any case, my apologies, Your Grace. I can’t believe I made a mistake like this.”

Luden bowed while wiping his glasses.

“It’s not your fault the southern bastards are slippery.”

Basil dismissed it while looking at Luden and his subordinates.

“You should still have some uses left for the Northern Crystal Portal. Go and come back.”

“Ah. About that.”

Luden scratched the back of his head.

“We used up all of our portal passes this time.”

“What?”

“On the way back, I noticed we were short on sugar and cotton cloth too, so we made a few extra trips and ended up using them all.”

“……”

Basil fell silent.

A Crystal Portal Pass was the item that allowed someone to use a teleportation portal.

The crystal-shaped magical tool, about the size of a finger, was outrageously expensive.

So wasting one was considered practically taboo.

And if Basil remembered correctly, the ones Luden had were probably the last.

“Luden. You—”

“Um…… Your Grace.”

At that moment, Luden spoke blankly.

“Did you perhaps get married while I was away?”

“What?”

“If not…… it seems you’ve somehow become an unmarried father with a child.”

What the hell are you talking about?

Basil whipped around, following Luden’s gaze.

Then he was left speechless.

Because he had spotted what looked like a giant drawing of a potato.

“Gasp!”

Below the window.

A pair of pink eyes peeking over the ledge widened slightly.

“Hm?”

The brat watched Basil’s reaction for a moment, then looked down at her sketchbook.

Then—

“Gasp! Wrong page!”

She hurriedly flipped to the next one……

What is that kid doing?

Looking more carefully, it was a bundle of old newsletters tied together and reused as scrap paper like a sketchbook.

She held it up like a protest sign.

Apparently too short to reach properly, the child could only barely peek over the bottom of the window.

She watched Basil’s expression nervously and hurriedly flipped through the pages while muttering,

“Next, next!”