RGDNF 07

Chapter 7

And I was spectacularly defeated.

“Farming?”

I could still vividly remember Vasily’s expression as he gave a dismissive snort at my suggestion.

“You’re too physically weak to do something like that. You’d get yourself into serious trouble.”

“Waaaah!”

“Camilla, deal with her.”

The supposedly “frail” Grand Duke effortlessly peeled me off with an arm packed with muscle.

Then he left the room without a hint of hesitation.

‘Why?!’

Had I rushed things too much?

‘Maybe…’

A complete stranger’s kid suddenly showing up and talking about farming and whatnot…

I couldn’t blame him for dismissing it as the nonsense of a child who knew nothing about the world.

But I was desperate too!

‘Because he kept trying to kick me out!’

And I had Uncle Paul waiting for me outside!

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

Because…

I glanced sideways.

As if it had been waiting for this exact moment, white letters popped into existence before my eyes.

‘Because I’m here!’

An errand.

And not just any errand.

[An errand from the God of Earth has arrived!]

[Checking the contents of the errand…]

POP!

[Challenge! Hoeing! (0/5)]

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

You might be wondering what was so amazing about simply hoeing the ground.

‘Heh.’

Once you saw the reward, you’d change your mind!

[Errand Reward: 200 Pure, Pollution-Free Divine Power Stickers]

‘Gasp!’

Even looking at it again made me hold my breath.

Not two.

Not twenty.

Two hundred!

How could I possibly pass that up?!

Still, I was a little puzzled.

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

After thinking it over carefully, I reached a conclusion.

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

Just in case, I sat down on the floor and stabbed at it repeatedly with a fork, pretending to hoe the soil.

But, as expected, it did absolutely nothing.

The only thing I got out of it was some applause from Butler Camilla, who happened to be nearby.

‘Maybe this means…’

I stared at the white letters.

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

‘If I farm here, does that mean I can earn a huge amount of divine power?’

My heart began pounding.

I desperately wanted to run outside and attempt the hoeing challenge again.

‘But before that…’

I moved my cheeks as I chewed.

“That’s it. Good girl, eat up.”

First, I needed to eat some stew!

The moment I opened my mouth, a huge spoonful went right in.

By now, I had become Butler Camilla’s official stew disposal squad.

To be honest, I’d been starving since yesterday.

I swallowed the stew with a gulp and gave her a deep little bow.

“Lady Butler! Thank you so much for letting me use warm water, sharing your stew with me, and taking care of me while I was sick…!”

“Of course, of course. Ahhh—”

“So, about that… could I perhaps have a hoe—Aaaah.”

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

Nom nom.

I was a perfectly capable, wonderful child who could easily eat stew by myself.

But for some reason, Butler Camilla refused to surrender the spoon to me.

“Hmm. I feel like it’s been about three thousand years since I’ve seen such a cute little creature…”

Well, she seemed happy, so perhaps I could put my impressive independence on hold for a moment.

I continued accepting food while surveying my surroundings with my eyes.

It was a clean, neatly organized bedroom.

Judging from the layout, it seemed to be a fairly decent two-story house.

But still…

It wasn’t exactly the kind of house where the Grand Duke of the North, a war hero, ought to be living.

“But… Butler, why is His Grace the Grand Duke staying here? I naturally assumed he’d be in the Grand Duke’s Castle.”

“Hmm.”

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

“The Grand Duke’s Castle hasn’t finished being repaired yet. Most of the servants were dismissed recently.”

“What?”

“We’ve reached the point where we need to reduce labor costs. Only the knights remain.”

I blinked.

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

‘I remember he received quite a bit of money as a reward for his victory.’

Where had it all gone?

Had he spent all of it on managing the territory over the past two years?

But Butler Camilla didn’t seem interested in explaining further.

She merely patted my cheeks twice.

“More importantly, do you like the soup?”

“Yes! The potatoes are so fluffy, and the potatoes are super soft, and, um, the potatoes are really delicious!”

“Hehe. I’m sorry. The only thing left in the pantry was potatoes. If you’d arrived next week, you could have had meat pie.”

I sprang to my feet again.

“Th-that means! Were you subtly saying that I’m allowed to come back here next week?”

“No. I meant exactly what I said. Regret and disappointment over something that isn’t going to happen. That sort of thing.”

“I knew it…”

Pffft.

My body slumped back down.

“Butler, can’t I just keep living here? You provide a house! You provide land! That’s the whole reason I came here!”

I pulled the northern immigration brochure out of my pocket.

Butler Camilla ruffled my hair vigorously.

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

“……!”

“But despite appearances, he is my only superior. And I don’t particularly intend to disobey His Grace’s orders.”

“Aw…”

Seeing my disappointed face, she gently poked my cheek.

“Your chubby cheeks are so adorably grubby. Anyway, don’t feel too upset. I don’t know where you even found one of those brochures—we threw them all away—but it’s not just you that we’re refusing.”

“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 incredibly simple answer.

“Monsters appear, the land is cold and barren. There are mines, rivers, and forests, but… well. The pollution is so severe that even approaching them is difficult. In a situation like this, wouldn’t increasing the number of residents be reckless?”

“Is the pollution really that bad?”

At my question, Butler Camilla gazed out the window.

My eyes followed hers.

In the distance stood the towering snow-covered mountains of the North.

And along with them…

‘Gasp. That’s scary.’

A gigantic dark-red peak.

I swallowed nervously.

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

“Yes…”

That’s right.

It wasn’t actually a mountain peak.

It was the corpse of the Mining Dragon, which had died halfway up the mountain.

It was simply so enormous that it looked as though a new mountain peak had risen there.

It had been a five-hundred-year-old dragon.

Wouldn’t it take five hundred years for that corpse to completely decay?

No…

Probably even longer.

‘How did the Grand Duke Vasily defeat a monster like that…? Just how strong is he?’

Crackle… hissssss—

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

The heat and poisonous energy radiating from the corpse were tremendous.

That was why the Mining Dragon had become a nuisance to humanity even after its death.

But…

‘…Wow. Whoa!’

The black smoke couldn’t spread any farther.

It quickly dissipated.

Thanks to the white sealing pillars installed all around the area.

‘Those are Dad’s pillars!’

I searched through my memories.

Back when nobody could withstand the evil energy of the dead Mining Dragon…

It had been the Holy Knight Dantellion who had erected six pillars using an enormous amount of divine power and created a barrier.

He had appeared all by himself…

And, in a single night, bam—it was done.

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 whose name would be remembered in the history books for generations.

‘He was such an incredible Holy Knight.’

But Dad’s divine power…

Because of me…

“…Hani? Sweetie?”

“Hm? Yees?”

“Your cheeks stopped moving. Ah, are you frightened by that mountain?”

“Ah!”

I started moving my cheeks again.

“Nope!”

“Where was I? Ah, yes. The pollution.”

Butler Camilla continued.

“The poisonous energy coming from that corpse is being contained fairly well, but there was nothing we could do about the pollution that had already spread. Other than this village and a few roads, almost none of the area has been purified.”

“I see…”

“If there were even a temple in the North, perhaps things would be different. But there isn’t even a temple here yet…”

She clicked her tongue.

“…Those damn imperial bastards. They promised they’d build us a temple…”

Butler Camilla’s voice gradually became more and more ominous…

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

There weren’t enough Holy Knights or priests to go around, so they were always sent wherever the situation seemed most urgent.

And I knew that deciding which situation was “most urgent” always involved a great deal of subjective judgment mixed with the circumstances of the adults making the decisions.

‘The North is in even worse shape than I thought.’

Nom nom.

‘That’s probably why His Grace the Grand Duke is living down here in the village, too.’

This wouldn’t do.

I had to do something quickly!

If I did something useful, maybe they’d let me stay here after all!

I quietly stared ahead.

Then I blinked once.

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