Chapter 11
Chapter 11
"Summer's almost here anyway. Monsters don't appear in the summer. At worst, you only have to hold out for three months. In exchange for Erenta, we'll give you corn."
That was how I picked up one piece of information.
Right now, the most heavily stocked food at Hawin Baronial Residence was corn.
"I don't know, Dalia."
I shrugged.
"However isolated things are, would you really hand over Erenta, where you can fish, for nothing but corn?"
At that, Dalia smirked.
"The Marang Fish won't be in season anyway. They don't come back until winter. So you'd just scrape by for a month eating little fish?"
The Erenta River had one fatal weakness. Jion Grass, which fish did not much like, grew there.
So even though it was a river, ordinarily only small fish lived there.
But because Marang Fish laid their eggs among the Jion Grass, the territory's people did not cut the grass. Over the course of a year, that brought in more income.
In other words, it meant we couldn't get by on fishing alone.
"Brisa, are you planning to starve all your territory's people to death? You can't live by tearing up and eating your pretty dresses."
I shrugged.
"I don't know. When you took Jejel Street and Beron Plain, you took the territory's people with them. We don't have many left. About fifty households fishing at Erenta?"
Ordinarily, as long as nothing unusual happened, territory residents simply accepted a change of lord. After all, only the person above them collecting taxes changed.
My father had not even been the sort of lord who communicated with his people.
"You grabbed everything at my father's funeral, thinking it was your chance, and now you pretend to worry. That doesn't make sense. Ah, no. Actually, I suppose it could."
"Right. The past is the past, and the present is the present...."
"You were never very bright to begin with, Dalia. I suppose saying things that don't add up comes naturally to you."
It took Dalia a moment to understand what I meant.
After a brief silence, Dalia grew angry.
"You... what is that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're the ones who'll be more desperate to feed all those extra residents."
I deliberately let the moment hang, then tilted my head and asked,
"When we're both in difficult positions, why should I cooperate with you?"
There was a reason I was bothering to deal with them like this when I could simply have thrown them out.
It was because I couldn't figure out why they had suddenly come at all.
'They came straight here saying they want Erenta? Something's strange.'
Sure enough, the moment I let it show that I held the upper hand, Dalia took the bait.
She swaggered and boasted.
"Baron Forman is staying at our baronial residence right now."
That was unexpected.
"......You mean Baron Forman of the west?"
"Yes. He came to see an acquaintance and got stranded because of the Warp. He's too old to risk an unstable Warp, so apparently he's quite flustered right now."
This was something I hadn't known.
The west should have been far too busy dealing with its own Monster Wave to spare a moment.
What's more, Baron Forman had been one of the Grand Duke of Nozen's agents, working as his informant. He had already retired, though.
So why was he here?
'And... Baron Forman is Leopold Nozen's maternal grandfather.'
In other words, he was also family by marriage to the Grand Duke of Nozen.
The difference in their houses' standing was considerable, and they were even in a lord-and-vassal relationship, but Leopold's parents had married for love, something extremely rare among noble families.
Though both had passed away in the Monster Wave ten years ago.
Which meant Leopold had become an orphan at four years old.
'Leopold Nozen....'
Before I knew it, I found myself picturing a tall boy with jet-black hair and golden eyes.
'Since I know the future, I don't need to worry about whether Leopold lives or dies.'
Leopold would return from this Monster Wave alive and well.
That, at least, was a relief.
I swallowed a sigh as I remembered the bouquet that had come to me on the day I handled the broken engagement.
It had been sent anonymously, but I could guess who had sent it.
I had thought we would have no particular reason to be entangled from now on, but his maternal grandfather was in the central region.
Dalia lifted her chin and went on.
"This is our chance to become vassals of His Highness the Grand Duke of Nozen—if we show him we can overcome this crisis."
Oh, Uncle.... You dream big....
Now I understood why he had sent Dalia to me.
Right now, Baron Hawin was too busy clinging to Baron Forman and fawning over him to have time for this.
"We're going to overcome this crisis wisely, Brisa. Right where His Highness the Grand Duke of Nozen can see."
Dalia spoke with pride, as though House Hawin had already become a vassal house of House Nozen.
"It's tremendous... truly tremendous luck. That our excellence can be reported to the grand ducal house at every turn."
"Have you considered that your shortcomings might also be reported at every turn?"
"As if. You know horse prices are soaring right now because the Warp is causing trouble, right?"
Baron Hawin was a man who had earned military merit. Which meant that, unlike us, he had possessed a knight order from the start.
Moreover, the barony he had been granted had originally raised horses on a small scale.
"We're going to sell the horses and trade them for dairy cows. Then we'll get milk, and we'll be able to make butter and cheese. If you take note, it might help you...."
Dalia looked at me and smiled broadly. Then she added dramatically,
"That's right, you don't have horses, do you? Since you have no knight order."
It seemed Dalia still didn't know that Alpheus's knight order had been formed.
I didn't bother to correct her.
"Anyway, what I'm saying is that we're in a different league from you now."
Dalia raised an eyebrow.
"So I'm giving you the first chance. You're a long way from being able to support yourselves, aren't you? So hand over Erenta. I'll give you a good price. We're blood, after all, and neighbors, aren't we?"
"Right. Blood and neighbors. That's true."
I nodded, then said calmly,
"When you're struggling to support yourselves too, hand over Jejel Street. I'll give you a good price, even though it was originally ours."
"Originally ours?"
Dalia shot back coldly.
She had already realized the negotiation had failed, but the word "originally" I had let slip seemed to have thoroughly soured her mood.
She glared at me and said,
"Your father took everything from our father for the sole reason that he was born the eldest son."
"So that's how people phrase following imperial inheritance law these days."
"Shut up. People who act arrogant without any ability always collapse like vermin before long."
"Really? Then Hawin's collapse should be quite a sight, so I'll be sure to come watch."
In the end, Dalia shot to her feet.
"Haughty to the very end, Brisa."
Her sky-blue eyes glared at me fiercely.
"And you're rude to the very end, Dalia."
I shrugged without rising from my seat.
"I noticed earlier that the tea in your cup was sloshing far too much when you lifted it. You should practice a bit more. Especially in front of Baron Forman."
At my remark, Dalia drew a sharp breath.
The maids, as if seizing their moment, let out little "ahem, ahem" coughs to stifle their laughter. By their standards, "she can't hold a teacup properly" was the greatest insult in that entire conversation.
A brief stillness fell.
"I too...."
After the silence, Dalia glared at me.
"If I'd had a mother who was a princess too, I would have held a teacup far better. Don't act so superior. The residence Baron Forman decided to stay at belongs to Hawin, not Sears."
"You should draw out the 'For' sound a little longer. Proper nouns from the western region are pronounced a bit more like the ancient language."
"I said stop swaggering! If I'd gone to Capital Academy too, I would have known that!"
"Ah."
Now it felt like every riddle had been solved.
Good heavens, even the maids were right sometimes. This time, they had been.
"You were envious of me, weren't you, Dalia. So that's why you were jealous."
At that, Dalia shot me a glare, then spun around and left the drawing room. It was obvious she would run straight to her parents at the Hawin residence and throw a fit.
I let out a deep, weary sigh.
Why envy something like that? What on earth was so special about holding a teacup without letting the tea slosh?
I didn't need a mother of royal princess descent, nor Capital Academy.
'What I need is....'
Simply parents I could go back to and tell, "This happened today."
An adult who could recognize danger and somehow find out why the Warp wasn't working.
Why did people criticize me as though I alone had been born with so much?
When she herself had possessed from the very beginning the thing I had always longed for.