RNFB 7

Chapter 7

And I was spectacularly defeated.

“Farming?”

The way Vasily lightly scoffed at my suggestion was still vivid in my mind.

“You’re too frail for something like that. You’ll get yourself into trouble.”

“Uwaaah!”

“Camilla, deal with this.”

The supposedly frail grand duke easily peeled me off with his muscular arms. Then he left the room without a second thought.

‘Why?!’

Did I rush things too much?

‘Maybe…’

A complete stranger of a kid suddenly talking about farming and whatnot. I couldn’t exactly blame him for dismissing it as the nonsense of a clueless child.

But I was in a hurry too!

‘Because he kept trying to kick me out!’

And I still had Mister Paul waiting outside!

Besides, I couldn’t just sit around doing nothing anymore. Because…

I glanced sideways. As if it had been waiting for the moment, white letters popped into view.

‘It came!’

An errand. And a truly incredible one at that!

[An Errand from the God of Earth Has Arrived!]

[Checking Errand Contents…]

Poof!

[Challenge! Hoeing! (0/5)]

[“The first step toward self-sufficiency. Farming is the foundation of all things.”]

You might be wondering what’s so incredible about simply hoeing five times.

‘Heh.’

You’ll change your mind when you see this!

[Errand Reward: 200 Pure, Unpolluted Divine Power Stickers]

‘Gasp!’

Even looking at it again was enough to take my breath away.

Not two stickers, not even twenty!

Two hundred-!

How could I pass this up?!

At the same time, I was a little puzzled.

‘Is hoeing really that difficult? And I only have to do it five times.’

After thinking it over, I came to a conclusion.

A reward this huge must mean that hoeing in the ‘north’ wasn’t going to be easy.

Just in case, I sat on the floor and mimicked hoeing by stabbing the ground with a fork, but it was just as useless as expected. All I got was a round of applause from Housekeeper Camilla beside me.

‘Maybe this means…’

I stared at the white letters.

[“Farming is the foundation of all things.”]

‘Does this mean I can earn a ton of divine power by farming here?’

My heart pounded.

I was dying to get outside and try hoeing again.

‘But first…’

I moved my cheeks as I chewed.

“That’s right, eat up.”

I had to eat some stew first!

No sooner had I opened my mouth than a huge spoonful went in.

By now, I’d become Housekeeper Camilla’s dedicated stew disposal unit.

In fact, I’d been starving since yesterday and was absolutely famished.

I gulped down the stew, then gave her a deep bow from my seat.

“Housekeeper! Thank you so much for letting me use warm water, sharing your stew with me, taking care of me, and everything else…!”

“Of course, of course. Ah-”

“So, I was wondering if I could maybe have a hoe-aaaah!”

The moment I opened my mouth, another spoonful went straight in.

Munch, munch.

I was a wonderful child who could easily eat stew all by myself, but for some reason, the housekeeper wouldn’t let me have the spoon.

“Hmm, I think this is the first time I’ve seen such a cute little creature in about three thousand years…”

Well, she seemed happy, so maybe I’ll put my wonderful independence on hold for a moment.

I diligently ate my food while surveying the room.

It was a clean and well-kept bedroom.

Judging by the layout, it seemed to be a rather respectable two-story mansion, but still. It wasn’t exactly the kind of house I’d expect the grand duke of the north, a war hero, to live in.

“But… Housekeeper, why is His Highness the grand duke staying here? I naturally thought he’d be at the grand ducal castle.”

“Hmm.”

“And there don’t seem to be… many people around either.”

“The grand ducal castle hasn’t been fully repaired yet. Most of the servants were dismissed a while ago.”

“What?”

“We’re at a point where we need to cut labor costs. The only ones remaining are the knights.”

I blinked. Things seemed to be in worse shape than I’d imagined.

‘I remember he got quite a bit of money as a victory reward, though.’

Where did it all go? Did he spend it all on territory expenses over the past two years?

But Housekeeper Camilla didn’t seem interested in explaining any further. She merely patted my cheeks a couple of times.

“More importantly, do you like the soup?”

“Yes! The potatoes are all fluffy, and the potatoes are super soft, and, um, the potatoes are really nutty too!”

“Hoho, I’m sorry. There was nothing left in the pantry except potatoes. If you’d come next week, you could’ve had meat pie.”

I suddenly sprang to my feet again.

“D-does that mean you were subtly saying I can come back here next week?”

“No. I meant exactly what I said. Regret and disappointment over something that won’t happen. Something like that.”

“Of course…”

Poof. My body sank back down.

“Housekeeper. Can’t I just keep living here? You said you’d give me a house! And land! That’s the only reason I came here!”

I pulled the northern relocation pamphlet from my pocket. Housekeeper Camilla ruffled my hair.

“Well, if it were up to me, I’d tell you to go ahead.”

“…!”

“But as he may seem, he’s my only superior. I have no particular desire to disobey His Highness’s orders.”

“Hmph.”

Seeing my disappointed face, the housekeeper poked my cheek.

“Your puffed-up cheeks are grubby and cute too. Anyway, don’t feel too wronged. I don’t know where you found one of those discarded pamphlets, but… you’re not the only one we won’t accept.”

“Huh?”

“For the past few months, we’ve been politely turning away everyone who comes here.”

“Why?!”

“Because there’s no way to make a living here.”

It was an answer as straightforward as could be.

“Monsters appear, the land is cold and barren. There are mines, rivers, and forests, but… the contamination is so severe that even approaching them is difficult. Wouldn’t increasing the population under these circumstances be reckless?”

“Is the contamination really that bad?”

At my question, the housekeeper gazed out the window.

My gaze followed hers.

In the distance, I could see the towering snowy mountains of the north.

And along with them…

‘Gasp, that’s scary.’

A gigantic, dark-red peak.

I swallowed hard.

“It’s bigger than you expected, isn’t it? That’s the corpse of the mad dragon.”

“Yes…”

That’s right. That wasn’t a mountain peak, but the corpse of a mad dragon that had died halfway up the mountain.

It was simply so enormous that it looked like a new peak had risen.

It was a five-hundred-year-old dragon, so it’d probably take five hundred years… no, even longer for the corpse to completely decay.

‘How did the grand duke of the north defeat a monster like that? Just how strong is he?’

Crackle, crackle…

Black smoke billowed from the peak and rose into the sky.

The heat and poisonous energy emanating from the corpse were tremendous. That’s why the mad dragon had become a nuisance to humanity even after its death.

But…

‘…Wow, whoa!’

The black smoke couldn’t spread any farther and quickly dissipated. That was thanks to the white sealing pillars installed all around it.

‘Those are the pillars Dad made!’

I searched my memories.

Back when no one could withstand the evil energy of the dead mad dragon.

It was the holy knight Dantalion who had built a barrier by erecting six pillars with an enormous amount of divine power.

He had appeared alone out of nowhere… and put it all together in a single night.

Thanks to him, the north had at least become a place where people could live. It was truly the kind of legendary feat worthy of a holy knight who would be remembered in the history books for generations.

‘He was such an incredible holy knight.’

Dad’s divine power, because of me…

“…Ga. Little one?”

“Hm? Yes?”

“Your cheeks stopped moving. Ah, is that mountain frightening you?”

“Ah!”

I started chewing again.

“Nope!”

“Now, where were we? Ah, yes. The contamination.”

Housekeeper Camilla continued.

“The poison coming from that corpse is being kept at bay, but there was nothing we could do about the contamination that had already spread. Apart from this village and a few roads, almost nowhere has been purified.”

“I see…”

“If there were even a temple in the north, things might be different, but there isn’t one here yet. …Damn imperial bastards. They lied about building us a temple…”

Housekeeper Camilla’s voice gradually grew more ominous…

‘In other words, there’s no one to regularly purify the various parts of the territory.’

There simply weren’t enough holy knights or priests, so they were always sent wherever the need was considered most urgent.

And I knew that deciding where that urgency lay was always a subjective judgment heavily influenced by adults’ own circumstances.

‘The north is in worse shape than I thought.’

Munch, munch.

‘That’s probably why His Highness the grand duke is living down here in the village too.’

This won’t do. I need to do something, and fast!

Maybe if I prove how useful I am, he’ll let me live here!

I quietly stared ahead, then blinked once.

As if it had been waiting for me, white letters appeared before my eyes.