TMLHGCFTV 35

Chapter 35

“Saltvale was originally a stopping point along the salt trade route. Salt and spices brought up from the south passed through here before being sold in the north. Thanks to that, the marketplace flourished quite a bit. That’s where the name Saltvale came from, too.”

The warehouse keeper looked around the storage room with a bitter expression.

“But everything changed when the monsters appeared. These were the last shipments to arrive around that time. Before long, the northern road was blocked first, and with nowhere left to sell the goods, they ended up sitting in this warehouse. It’s been a long time since even the merchant caravans from the south stopped coming.”

“So that’s why all of this has been sitting here.”

The warehouse keeper gave a self-deprecating laugh.

“You can’t exactly eat salt. And it’s not as though you can mix pepper into water and drink it. Everyone here is practically starving while sitting on top of all this.”

Something clicked into place in my head.

Wait a second.

What exactly was salt used for again?

Preserving meat.

“Are there any good hunting grounds around here?”

“There are mountains everywhere. Deer, wild boar… Now that people have stopped going into the mountains, their numbers have actually increased. But why do you ask…?”

“Then why don’t you hunt them?”

A bitter look crossed the warehouse keeper’s face.

“Hunters haven’t been able to enter the mountains since the monsters appeared. After several people went in and never came back, no one was willing to volunteer anymore.”

Suddenly, I could see a path forward.

The villagers couldn’t enter the mountains.

But we had armed knights and soldiers.

With salt and spices, we could make excellent jerky.

What if the expedition hunted the game and the villagers processed the meat?

Then we could use all the excess salt and spices sitting around in Saltvale to make preserved food.

The expedition would gain a source of food, while Saltvale could finally put its useless stock of salt and spices to work.

And any excess jerky could be stored as winter provisions for the village.

The calculations began racing through my head.

I was running toward the house where Kael was staying when I heard voices from a distance.

“Why can’t I go inside?”

It was Mirelle.

She was raising her voice at the two guards standing in front of the house.

“I am the daughter of this land’s lord. I have something I need to give His Highness personally! By what right are you stopping me?”

I clicked my tongue and slowed my pace.

Perhaps unable to tolerate the commotion any longer, Kael came outside with a cold expression.

“What is going on?”

“Your Highness!”

Mirelle’s voice instantly changed.

“Please take me with you on the expedition.”

“…Hah.”

If I were Kael, I’d be exhausted too.

I shook my head slightly, but Mirelle’s voice became even more desperate.

“I want to go too, Your Highness.”

“What use could a young lady possibly be to our expedition? Can you even wield a sword?”

“I-I’ll take care of Your Highness!”

Mirelle clenched her fists and shouted.

Her face turned bright red, as though she was finally beginning to realize how humiliating this was.

She blinked rapidly.

“I can treat your injuries, too! I can at least do that!”

Why was she making such a fuss when everyone else was desperate to stay away from the expedition?

Saltvale bordered Greystone, so it had been exempt from the current conscription.

Kael gave her a sharp, mocking look.

“I don’t need your help to take care of myself. Go back. If you continue being stubborn, I’ll have to hold your father responsible as well.”

Kael’s voice was quiet.

Mirelle burst into tears when she met the contempt in his eyes.

Then she abruptly turned around—and spotted me.

She clenched her teeth and glared at me.

Then, apparently needing somewhere to direct the humiliation she’d just suffered, she turned it toward me instead.

“…You’re the young lady they call the Duke’s daughter, aren’t you? The maids heard about you from the knights.”

“Yes.”

“You seem perfectly fine walking around looking like that.”

I had plenty I could have said in response.

But at that moment, all I could think about was the mountain of sacks of salt piled all the way to the ceiling.

Her words didn’t register at all.

“Yes. I’m fine.”

I shrugged.

She seemed to say something behind me, but I didn’t hear it properly.

Kael, who was standing by the door, stared at me with a crooked expression.

His face was as cold and unreadable as ever, but for some reason, I wasn’t frightened by him at all.

“Your Highness, I have something to tell you.”

Kael tilted his chin.

“Do you ever go hunting?”

I’d once been stranded in the mountains for several months in my previous life.

It had been an uninhabited place where there wasn’t a single sign of civilization, so my companions and I had survived by eating whatever we could find in the mountains.

Hunting had practically been a survival strategy.

Kael’s eyebrow twitched.

“My lady, what are you talking about?”

“I’m pretty good at it.”

I flashed him a grin.

Then I pointed toward the mountains with my fingertip.

“Want to have a contest and see who can catch more?”

I shrugged and added,

“It looks like it’ll take a while for the adhesive to finish.”

They were currently boiling the extracted substance with water and reducing it until it became thick enough to process into glue.

The village women were helping, along with Vanessa and the children.

And the shoes coated with the extract were already lined up to dry.

Which meant I had nothing to do.

“We have some time to spare, so why don’t we enjoy a little entertainment?”

Kael let out a disbelieving laugh.

Then he slowly rubbed the space between his brows.

“What are you scheming, Rosana?”

“That…”

“Come inside.”

I followed him through the door he opened himself.

I glanced at Mirelle, who was glaring at me so intensely from a distance that her eyes looked ready to fall out.

Looks like I’ve really gotten on her bad side.

Hmm.

Maybe it’s better for her to have a conflict with me than with Seraphine.

If that’s a strategy, then this is a strategy too.

I looked at Kael and grinned.

Our male lead and female lead should just focus on having a beautiful romance.

“…Why are you smiling like that? It’s unsettling.”

“It’s nothing, Your Highness. Oh, Sir Register. You’re here. I actually have something to tell you!”

I naturally followed them inside and explained my plan to make jerky and trade it for grain.

The salt and spices here were practically worth only a third of the price of grain, so this was—

“…This is insane…”

Register muttered without realizing it, then quickly covered his mouth.

I smiled at him.

Yes.

This was going to be huge.

Mirelle knew which house the Crown Prince was staying in.

It was a two-story house standing slightly away from the center of the village, with a roof that was still intact.

Apparently, it had originally been where the head of a merchant caravan stayed whenever he came to town.

Ugh. Why couldn’t he just stay at the castle?

Mirelle clicked her nails together.

No matter how hard she tried to approach the Crown Prince, it was difficult.

There were always people around Kael.

Mirelle had always believed that she was not someone who belonged in a place like this.

With her looks, she was confident she could establish herself even in the capital.

Mirelle had decided that she would become the Crown Prince’s woman.

‘Mirelle, listen carefully to what your mother tells you.’

Her mother, who had died of pneumonia in this rural village, had repeatedly impressed one thing upon her.

‘A woman’s fate depends on the man she marries. You saw how I was forced to die miserably in this countryside. You must never end up like me. You have to go to the capital and find a wealthy man with a respectable status. You can do that. You can, because you’re just like me!’

Her father and mother had been completely different people.

Mirelle took after her mother.

That was why she was constantly at odds with her father, but so what?

She would be leaving this place soon anyway.

Mirelle was on her way back after being rejected by the Crown Prince when she spotted someone.

It’s that woman.

The woman she’d seen by the river earlier.

The woman covered from head to toe in mud and black blood.

She’d heard that she was a young lady of noble birth.

It was hard to believe someone from such a prestigious family could look so wretched.

And she looked no better now.

Mirelle had said a few words to her, but the woman had simply smiled and walked past her.

Mirelle had assumed the Crown Prince would reject that woman as well.

How could someone who looked like that possibly stand beside the Crown Prince?

But after exchanging a few words with her, Kael had actually taken the woman inside.

A moment later, the window briefly darkened, as though someone had trimmed the lamp’s wick, before brightening again.

Beyond the window, the shadows of the two people overlapped.

The bell announcing midnight rang.

And even then, the door did not open.