RGDNF 10

Chapter 10

‘That little brat…… She didn’t notice anything, did she?’

Luden pushed his glasses up and stiffened his lips.

‘……I’m just being paranoid. What could a mere six-year-old possibly know?’

He then crushed the straw stuck to the hem of his trousers with his fingers. A few light grains of wheat came away with it, but they too simply crumbled into dust.

‘I’m doing all of this for the Duke.’

Vasily had changed after becoming the Grand Duke.

All the freedom and daring with which he had once rampaged across the battlefield had disappeared.

“What a boring era. ……Well, I suppose it can’t be helped anymore.”

Now, he was merely wearing the hollow crown of a Grand Duke, slowly dying in his grave.

‘In the end, you’ll thank me.’

Therefore…… he would forgive no one who stood in his way.

Even if that person was a six-year-old child.

Luden’s eyes sank into darkness.

“Graaand Duke…….”

Haniel clung to Vasily’s trouser leg, dragging along behind him.

“Rejected. Something else.”

“An examination of a dragon’s corpse…….”

“Rejected.”

“Going to see the mad dragon…….”

“Rejected.”

“Paying respects at the dragon’s grave…….”

“Rejected!”

“Whine! You said you’d listen to everything!”

Haniel shouted indignantly.

Vasily, who had been walking after leaving the warehouse, let out a sigh.

“What on earth are you going to do after looking at a completely dead dragon corpse?”

“Hoeing!”

“What?”

Oops.

Haniel calmly gathered her thoughts before speaking again.

“You said I’d teach you how to farm in the North!”

“What does that have to do with the Mad Dragon? ……Ah, don’t tell me.”

Vasily, who had been walking along with steady footsteps, suddenly stopped.

Haniel went patapatapat! and ran forward, closing the distance between them.

One of Vasily’s steps was equivalent to about five of Haniel’s, so she kept falling behind.

“You keep talking about farming. Are you saying you intend to make use of the Mad Dragon’s evil energy?”

“Yeees!”

Haniel nodded vigorously.

“Because…… I heard that the North wasn’t this cold when the Mad Dragon was alive!”

“…….”

“Because of the suuuper-hooot magic power the Mad Dragon possessed.”

Haniel’s tiny finger pointed all the way toward the Northern Mountains.

More precisely, toward the peak where the Mad Dragon’s corpse lay.

What she said was true.

For the past five hundred years—

That is, during the time when the Mad Dragon had still been alive, the North had actually not been this cold.

It was thanks to the Mad Dragon’s power, which emitted a heat comparable to several active volcanoes combined.

However, the moment the Mad Dragon died and that energy was sealed away, everything froze.

Haniel was saying that she wanted to reverse that.

“Even now, an enormous amount of heat is coming out of the corpse, right? What if we don’t block it and instead let it seep into the earth?”

A glossy light shone in her pink eyes.

“We can use the corpse itself as an energy source!”

The child waved her arms around, moving her lips like a little chick.

“If we melt the ground, we can farm! If we grow wheat?? We can become bread millionaires! And if word gets around that we can become rich??? People will come flocking here!”

“…….”

“Then Your Grace can fix up the Grand Duke’s castle in no time???? And live like a rich man, making it go ka-ching, ka-ching?!”

“You mean live in luxury.”

“We can make one big bread haul!”

“You mean one big payday.”

Actually, there wasn’t a single thing the little brat was saying that was wrong.

The reason people didn’t settle in the North was because there was no proper way to make a living there.

Farming?

If they could farm, that would be the best possible solution.

If they could create a stable source of income through agriculture, they might even be able to build a temple in the North.

Or secretly hire a priest.

‘I bet the Emperor’s face would be worth seeing.’

Then they could purify the pollution in other regions as well…… and if that happened, the amount of land available for development would increase.

More people would move in, and capital would begin circulating.

It was the ideal process for developing a territory.

But—

“……I wondered what you were going on about. Hey, brat.”

“Not ‘brat.’ I’m Haniel…… Gyaa!”

At that moment, Vasily grabbed Haniel by the side from behind and lifted her into the air.

Her field of vision suddenly shot upward, and Haniel kicked and flailed her short arms and legs.

‘No wonder she’s obsessed with bread.’

Vasily frowned at how light the child was—lighter than a feather.

He deliberately tore his gaze away from the round back of her head and jerked his chin toward the front.

“Look over there. What color is the smoke rising from the peak?”

“B-black?”

“Does it look good for your body, or bad?”

“B-bad……?”

“Correct.”

“…….”

“You think I haven’t considered using the Mad Dragon’s corpse as a heat source to warm the North again?”

“…….”

“The problem is the miasma. That crazy dragon doesn’t just spew heat. It releases rotten air as a two-for-one special. That’s why we have no choice but to seal the whole thing.”

“Then just pull out the poison and purify it!”

“Even the great Dantellion Klein couldn’t—”

“Hic!”

Suddenly, Haniel’s body trembled.

Vasily loosened his grip.

The sudden hiccuping seemed to mean he’d been holding the child’s side too tightly.

“—purify all of it, so he simply sealed it up?”

Peeking from behind, he could see Haniel’s pale cheeks puffed out in a sulky pout.

“Do you understand? That’s a barrel full of rotten sardines. If you open it carelessly, the surrounding area will be devastated. Huh? We’re already having enough trouble with the pollution. If we let even more of it—”

“That’s whyyy.”

Haniel muttered dejectedly.

Then she began wildly waving her arms and legs in the air as she dangled from Vasily’s hand.

“We can block the pollution and just let the heat flow through, right? Like a strainer!”

“You seem to think purification is something that goes poof! like that. It’s not that simple.”

“I…… might be able to do it, though.”

Haniel muttered something incomprehensible.

Vasily set the child down on the ground.

Then he spoke firmly.

“Enough. Just look around the village for a while before you leave. Here. I’ll give you those southern goods from earlier…… and some of that bread you love so much.”

“Urgh.”

Haniel lightly kicked the ground.

This was already the second time today that she’d been turned down.

For some reason, it didn’t sit right with him, but there was nothing he could do.

‘If she had divine power, she would’ve obviously been raised in a temple, cherished like a princess. And judging by how little magical power I can sense from her, she seems to have been born physically weak.’

Rather than believe the words of such a little brat, he’d rather wash Dantellion’s socks.

Besides, if he let her get too close to the Mad Dragon’s corpse for no reason…… there was no telling what kind of effect it might have on the child’s body.

‘Young, and ridiculously weak.’

Ah, what a nuisance.

In the end, Vasily gave Haniel a quick tour of the village.

There wasn’t much to see in Bedel Village.

Recently, a large number of the early settlers, including the mansion’s servants, had left.

Vasily simply stopped by the food warehouse and filled a small bag to the brim with bread.

It was dry and coarse rye bread, but the little brat’s eyes sparkled and her nostrils flared.

She was obviously one hundred percent satisfied.

The bags of sugar and spices seemed too heavy for her, so he left those with Camilla for the time being.

Before he knew it, evening had arrived.

Going out into the Foglands on a night like this would make it easy for a monster to make a meal out of her.

And considering what he’d said earlier, he decided to let the child sleep in the mansion for just one more night and send her away the following day.

And so the night passed.

……For someone, it was a very, very long night.

And then.

The next morning.

“Ah…….”

Vasily stood blankly in front of the mansion.

A vicious laugh escaped his lips.

“Fucking…….”

Was this actually real?

His red eyes slowly took in his territory.

The scorching sun beating down from above.

Drip, drip.

The sound of water falling from the roof.

Beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck.

Camilla’s bewildered expression as she took off her outer garment.

“Your Highness, what on earth is…….”

Suddenly, the events of the previous night flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern.

So, what exactly had happened was……

No.

That wasn’t important right now.

“……Brat.”

“Yes?”

“Where did that little brat go?!”

In just one night.

The North had been transformed.

[Map 002]