RTGDB 07

Chapter 7

And I was spectacularly defeated.

“Farming?”

I could vividly remember Basil scoffing lightly at my suggestion.

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

“Waaaah!”

“Camilla, deal with this.”

The Grand Duke, who had apparently decided I was frail, effortlessly peeled me off with his muscular arms. Then he left the room without a hint of hesitation.

‘Why!’

Had I rushed things too much?

‘Maybe….’

A little kid he had never seen before suddenly babbling about farming and whatnot. I couldn’t exactly blame him for dismissing it as the nonsense of someone who knew nothing about the world.

But I was in a hurry too!

‘Because you keep trying to kick me out!’

I even had Uncle Paul waiting outside(?)!

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

I glanced sideways.

As if it had been waiting for this moment, white letters popped into view.

‘It’s here!’

An errand. And not just any errand—it was an absolutely enormous one!

[The Earth God’s Errand has arrived!]

[Checking the details of the errand…….]

Poof!

[Challenge! Hoeing! (0/5)]

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

What was so amazing about hoeing a patch of dirt?

‘Heh.’

Once you saw this, you’d change your mind!

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

‘Gasp!’

Even seeing it again made my breath catch.

Not two.

Not twenty.

Two hundred!

Twooooo huuuundred—!

How could I possibly pass that up?!

At the same time, though, I was a little puzzled.

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

After thinking about it carefully, I came to a conclusion.

A reward this enormous could only mean that hoeing in this ‘North’ was going to be far from easy.

Just in case, I sat down on the floor and tried mimicking hoeing with a fork, stabbing it into the ground over and over.

But, as expected, it was completely useless.

The only thing I accomplished was earning a round of applause from Butler Camilla, who was sitting beside me.

‘Could this possibly mean…….’

I glared at the white letters.

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

‘Does this mean that if I farm here, I can earn a huge amount of Holy Power?’

My heart began to pound.

I desperately wanted to rush outside and try hoeing again.

‘But before that…….’

I moved my cheeks as I chewed.

“That’s right. Eat up.”

I had to finish my stew first!

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

I had somehow become Butler Camilla’s personal stew disposal unit.

To be fair, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten a thing since yesterday.

I gulped down the stew, then launched into a deep bow from where I sat.

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

“Oh, hush, hush. Here, ah—”

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

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

Chew, chew.

I was a perfectly capable child who could easily eat stew by myself, but for some reason, the butler refused to give up the spoon.

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

Well, she looked happy, so maybe I could put my magnificent independence on hold for a moment.

I diligently accepted each spoonful while surveying the room with my eyes.

It was a clean, neatly organized bedroom.

Judging by its structure, this seemed to be a rather decent two-story house, but still. It certainly wasn’t the sort of residence I would have expected for the Northern Grand Duke, a hero of the war.

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

“Hmm.”

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

“The Grand Duke’s Castle has not yet been completely repaired. Most of the servants were dismissed recently.”

“What?”

“We are at a point where we have to reduce labor costs. The only ones remaining are the knights.”

I blinked.

It seemed the situation was even worse than I had imagined.

‘I remember him receiving quite a bit of money as a reward for the victory.’

Where had all that money gone? Had he spent it all on managing the territory over the past two years?

But Butler Camilla didn’t seem inclined to explain any further. She merely patted my cheek twice.

“More importantly, how do you like the soup?”

“Yes! The potatoes are so fluffy, and the potatoes are really soft, and, um, the potatoes are incredibly savory too!”

“Hehe. I’m sorry. Potatoes were the only thing left in the storeroom. If you had come around next week, you could have had meat pie.”

I shot upright again.

“Th-that means! Does that mean you’re subtly telling me I can come back here next week?”

“No. I meant it literally. It’s regret and disappointment over something that isn’t going to happen. Something like that.”

“Of course it does…….”

Poof.

My body slumped back down.

“Butler. Can’t I just keep living here? You can give me a house! And land! That’s the only reason I came all the way here!”

I pulled the Northern Immigration promotional pamphlet from my pocket.

Butler Camilla vigorously ruffled my hair.

“Well, if it were up to me, I’d certainly like to let you.”

“……!”

“But despite appearances, he is my only master. And I have no intention of disobeying His Grace’s orders.”

“Aw…….”

Seeing my disappointed face, the butler gently poked my cheek.

“Your puffed-up cheeks are rather dirty, but they’re adorable. Anyway, don’t be too upset. I don’t know where you found that promotional material we had already discarded…… but you’re not the only one we’re refusing.”

“Huh?”

“For the past few months, everyone who comes here has been politely turned away.”

“Why?!”

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

It was an incredibly straightforward answer.

“Monsters appear, the land is cold and barren. There are mines, rivers, and forests, yes, but…… well. The pollution is so severe that even approaching them is difficult. Under these circumstances, increasing the population would be reckless, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Is the pollution really that bad?”

At my question, the butler gazed out the window.

My eyes followed hers.

In the distance, I could see the towering snow-covered mountains of the North.

And along with them……

‘Gasp. That’s scary.’

A gigantic, dark-red peak.

I swallowed hard.

“Quite enormous, isn’t it? That’s the corpse of the Mad Dragon.”

“Yes…….”

That’s right.

That wasn’t a mountain peak at all.

It was the corpse of a Mad Dragon that had died halfway up the mountain.

It was simply so enormous that it looked as though an entirely new peak had risen from the earth.

It had been a five-hundred-year-old dragon, so I wondered if it would take five hundred years for the corpse to completely decay…… no, perhaps even longer.

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

Crackle, crackle—

Black smoke writhed upward from the peak, rising into the sky.

The heat and poison emanating from the corpse were tremendous.

That was why the Mad Dragon had remained a problem for humanity even after its death.

But……

‘……Wow. Whoa!’

The black smoke couldn’t spread any farther and quickly dissipated.

It was all thanks to the white sealing pillars installed around the area.

‘Those are the pillars Dad made!’

I searched through my memories.

Back when no one had been able to withstand the miasma of the dead Mad Dragon—

It had been the holy knight Dantellion who had erected six pillars with an immense amount of Holy Power and created a barrier.

He had appeared out of nowhere all by himself……

and, in a single night, just like that, he had completed it.

Thanks to him, the North had at least become a place where people could live.

It was exactly 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.’

And Dad’s Holy Power, because of me……

“……Gaya? Sweetie?”

“Y-yes?”

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

“Ah!”

I began moving my cheeks again.

“Nope!”

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

Butler Camilla continued speaking.

“The poison coming from that corpse is being contained quite well, but there was nothing we could do about the pollution that had already spread. Aside from this village and a few major routes, hardly any of the land 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. ……Those damn people in the Imperial Family. They promised us they would build one, only to deceive us……”

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

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

Holy knights and priests were always in short supply, so they were inevitably sent to places deemed more urgent.

And I knew that the people who decided which places were ‘urgent’ were always adults, whose personal circumstances and interests inevitably influenced their judgment.

‘The situation in the North must be even worse than I thought.’

Chew, chew.

‘That must be why His Grace the Grand Duke is living down here in the village like this, too.’

This won’t do.

I have to do something quickly!

Then maybe they’ll think I’m such a good, useful child that they’ll let me stay here!

I quietly stared straight ahead and blinked once.

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