Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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I calmly bit into a sandwich and thought.
'I hadn't intended to bring Beron along.'
Originally, I had only wanted to take Jejel Street.
Jejel Street, with its shops stocked here and there with all sorts of things, was useful. Two months wasn't yet enough time for them to have gobbled up everything, edible or not.
But Beron was nothing but perilla fields.
It was a textbook case of failed territory management.
"The land is small and distribution is easy...... so why not grow a food crop that isn't widely cultivated on the continent!"
So the crop my father had chosen was perilla.
But there was a reason perilla wasn't widely cultivated on the continent. People simply didn't seek it out much.
'Beron is also a place with a large elderly population. I have to feed all those territory residents too.'
If it bore the name Hawin, that would be one thing, but if it bore the name Sears, I could never let them starve.
'Still, I had no choice.'
That day at the port, Wendy had been the first to knock Baron Hawin unconscious after she was freed.
After boarding the Warp, the intruders had said this.
"Can't we just kill this bastard right here?"
"My lady, if we don't, we're the ones who'll die."
It was only natural. A lord who had tried to sell off his territory's people, and the territory's people who had beaten that lord down, could not live under the same sky.
"You're all from Jejel Street, right? Then by tomorrow you'll be coming under my protection."
If I brought Jejel Street into my territory, they would now become my territory's people.
I intended to punish them myself for the crime of abducting their lord's uncle. For example, forcing them to spread potato salad on freshly baked bread and eat it.......
If that seemed insufficient, I would also give them mushroom salad, and in any case I had planned to settle the matter that way.......
"I, I live in Beron."
"The young one lives in Beron too?"
"I, I'm looking after my mother......."
Of all things, one of them lived in Beron. In that case, I had to take Beron as well.
At the very least, they were intruders who had acted because they trusted me, so I had to take responsibility for them.
'It can't be helped. I brought plenty of wheat too, and if we all work harder.......'
For now, the situation called for plowing under all of Beron's perilla fields and planting other crops.
'If I search the shops on Jejel Street, I'm sure I'll find seeds....... Find them, plant them.......'
The land where I had dug up the potatoes was also lying idle. I needed to obtain suitable seeds and plant again.
'I've roughly thought about what to plant.'
Of course, the Warp would reopen in a month, but still, we had to keep eating and living from now on, didn't we?
'Probably...... Alpheus will come back without receiving any reward money.'
This was still the early part of the original novel.
That meant the protagonist was still being put through the wringer.
The Second Imperial Prince died, and in the end his military achievements were not recognized. The story had him returning to his territory to find his younger sister and subordinates all gone, with only his uncle remaining, but.......
'I wonder if he got through the crisis with the Awakening Herb?'
If I had fully accepted back then that I was crazy, I would have told him something more helpful.
Whether he got through the crisis or not, the Warp wouldn't work for another month. That meant it would be quite a while before we saw each other again.
'But at least now he'll have a place to come back to.'
In any case, we were still going to be poor a month from now. We wouldn't be able to buy western grain cheaply like before.
At that thought, my appetite dropped sharply.
Dalia, who had been biting her nails, spoke.
"I'll give you just Beron."
For her, it seemed to be quite a big decision.
"Give up on Jejel Street."
Of course, no matter how big a decision she made, there was no one who would listen to her.
"Then you're giving up on your father's life too."
I said calmly.
"You don't seem to have a good grasp of the situation, but we have nothing to lose. Oh, I'm not surprised. You never were very bright, Dalia."
Dalia couldn't hold back her anger and fumed.
My aunt firmly grasped Dalia's twitching hand.
Then my aunt asked composedly.
"......Then how about ten sacks of wheat?"
Before I knew it, Dalia was also gripping my aunt's hand tightly.
"I'll give you both Beron and Jejel Street, so ten sacks of wheat. How about it, isn't that fine?"
I stared at those hands.
The two remaining family members clasped hands desperately to save one of their own.
My uncle must have swindled my father for the sake of those two. He must have sold me in the original novel for the sake of those two.
I lost even more of my appetite for the sandwich.
"It's not fine."
I said flatly.
"Goodbye."
And I sprang to my feet.
My aunt grabbed my arm.
"I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give them!"
"Mom!"
"I'll give them, I'll give them! I'll give you both! So give me five sacks of wheat. Hm?"
At the same time, Dalia cried out in horror.
"Mom, are you crazy?"
It was something I had never once been able to say to my own mother in my entire life.
"Why are you listening to her? It's a ridiculous deal! Absolutely not!"
"We lived perfectly well without those two lands before, Dalia. Everything will be fine as long as your father is here. We'll live well again."
My aunt soothed Dalia.
"We're the ones who are desperate, Dalia. Isn't Brisa the only one here who has wheat?"
Then she asked me hurriedly.
"I can sign as proxy, right? Since the lord is currently missing."
Territory transactions were conducted through the 'Territory Contract' distributed by the Magic Tower. If the lord was absent from the territory, a proxy could automatically sign.
And the moment one signed the 'Territory Contract,' a record remained at the Magic Tower, making it impossible to deny later.
"Now, I can sign right now, right? Hm?"
It was only natural. Literally, I had nothing to lose.
When I gestured elegantly to a maid, a 'Territory Contract' was soon placed before us.
And so, by that afternoon, Jejel Street and Beron had become part of the Sears Marquisate once more.
"Now."
After giving orders to a group of knights, I spoke to the shopkeepers of Jejel Street.
"Anyone who has seeds stored in a warehouse or the like, bring them all. It doesn't matter if they're out of season or in small quantities."
The people of Jejel Street, who had become part of the Sears Marquisate again after nearly two months, offered no resistance.
"I'll trade you for wheat or potatoes."
Rather, they reacted to my words like this.
"Waaaaaaaah!"
It was gratifying to see people so pleased.
I used that happiness to push aside my distracting thoughts.
"We lived perfectly well without those two lands."
I couldn't live well without land.
I was in a position where I had to worry about my own food right now.
No, in truth, even black mages backed by Sebon were after my life, and there was nothing I could do to prepare. Nothing except hiding quietly within my own territory.
I even found myself thinking it was fortunate the Warp wasn't working. For now, outsiders couldn't come in.
An Illegal Warp couldn't be opened without mutual cooperation. That meant at least no Illegal Warp would appear in my territory.
I was actually frightened enough to welcome even that simple isolation. And yet I.......
"Everything will be fine as long as your father is here."
There was no one I could openly lean on in this situation.
I was the only one in the Empire with Liente blood.
I didn't want to tell the maids or the knights. It wasn't because I didn't want to burden them. Honestly, it was because I was scared.
"Ah, they're going to...... kill all the Liente bloodline? Then our lives are in danger too?"
"We are honored to have the privilege of serving the last descendant of the Liente royal family, but, well, we don't want to die......."
What if the maids left?
In the original novel, the maids had actually followed me without knowing anything and all died.
If they had known the ending, would they still have followed me?
"What? Sebon and black mages are after the young lady?"
"Then what did we do wrong? Especially since our lord has nothing to do with Liente."
"Aren't they practically strangers to each other anyway? Wouldn't it be better to just hand her over and be done with it? The territory is already struggling......."
Even if the knights followed me, wasn't it all because of Alpheus's orders?
Alpheus wouldn't want to be put in a difficult position because of me.
'I'm scared.'
I bit down hard on my lower lip.
I didn't know how to share my fear.