TMDWS 13

Chapter: 13

In the end, he had no choice but to reveal his identity and go to Baron Harwin’s estate. At least he was the lord of a wealthy domain in this area.

He was on the brink of a life of uncertain wandering, but he couldn’t go to Sears, where a twelve-year-old child was acting as the lord.

As expected, Baron Harwin greeted him warmly.

“You made an excellent choice not going to Sears! They’re barely able to feed themselves there right now.”

Baron Forman knew nothing about farming, but he answered cautiously.

“Still, with Erenta, you could at least catch some fish, right? I heard they also planted potatoes on the plains.”

Baron Harwin and his daughter Dalia responded immediately.

“That land isn’t very productive. We’ve grown olive trees for hundreds of years, but we’ve rarely profited from them. Whatever you plant there probably won’t grow well.”
“Erenta is no different. That river only has small fish. You can’t live on just that and potatoes, can you?”

The following statements were mostly pessimistic.

“Even if you try planting something new, you won’t have extra seeds. People near Erenta usually grow fall radishes, but it’s spring now. If you try something else, there won’t be many seeds. Other crops are only grown in small quantities by households for fun.”

Listening to all this, Baron Forman realized just how dire the situation in the Marquisate of Sears was. That was why, unable to bear the curiosity, he had disguised himself as a fisherman.

It was during his patrol of the estate that he ran into Brisa.

“Hm?”

Baron Forman blinked slowly.

“Patrolling the estate at this hour… the young lady herself?”

On impulse, he spoke, mentioning that the fish weren’t biting. He feared she might take offense. But surprisingly, she looked at him with an almost pitying gaze.

Though she said nothing aloud, her expression clearly showed concern.

“So, she’s a noble who actually cares about commoners,” he thought.

But she gave no sign of it.

Baron Forman studied Brisa carefully. Indeed, she was beautiful, like a porcelain doll.

“Wasn’t she personally educated by the last princess of Liente from a young age?”

He had heard she was a renowned prodigy in the central region.

Yet even the most gifted person couldn’t shine in a situation like this. Knowledge of ancient texts wouldn’t put food on the table.

It seemed likely he would soon see this girl at Baron Harwin’s estate—pleading for even a single sack of flour…

Then it happened.

Brisa whispered something to a maid. The maid was startled but didn’t refuse; she rummaged through her pocket and handed something to Brisa.

“…Paper? Or is it a card?”

Brisa took a pen from the maid and quickly wrote on the card-like object, then handed it to Baron Forman.

Startled, he accepted it.

[Invitation]

It was an exquisitely old-fashioned, high-class invitation, the kind one might have used fifty years ago.

“Typical Liente style,” he thought.

He had heard that in Liente, maids carried invitations so that when their mistress wished to socialize with someone, she could hand it over immediately.

The card read:

[To Oliver Hanson,

We wish to host you at a dinner in the hall of the Marquis of Sears, steeped in the fragrance of time.

Under the soft glow of candlelight and the melodies of strings,

as the solemn bell tolls thrice and the doors open,

we hope that your esteemed presence will complete the final touch of elegance.]

Inside the parentheses, Brisa’s neat handwriting filled the space.

Baron Forman felt as if he had traveled back in time. Even in the western regions, where aristocratic culture was most refined, this style of invitation had long gone out of fashion.

Checking the date, he frowned.

“One and a half months from now?”

Even if he emptied the storerooms of the estate, it would be hard to survive a month.

“Normally, they’d wait for a reply…”

Brisa asked gracefully,

“Is it alright to answer now? Given the circumstances, I cannot guarantee that mail will even function.”

“I—I’ll come!”

Baron Forman blurted out, genuinely flustered.

“I’ll visit at the scheduled time. It’s truly an honor.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Brisa nodded lightly and, after gathering her maids, turned away.

Baron Forman blinked, holding the invitation.

“What is this…?”

He couldn’t guess her intentions at all.

“At that time, they’ll probably be very hungry. If the old man starves, it’ll be tough…”

I thought to myself, keeping Baron Forman in mind.

“Yes, he’s traveling from afar and struggling. At least I can serve a proper meal in the central region.”

He would likely go hungry if he stayed at the Barony.

“Selling horses to buy dairy cows…”

I swallowed a sigh.

“He probably sold me and the maids too. If he hadn’t done that, he could have managed longer.”

In reality, whether he did or not didn’t affect me.

But what surprisingly moved me was the man’s sense of duty.

“Th-thank you. Thank you, milady.”

He wasn’t fishing. He was on duty.

Even at that age, he was following the orders of Duke Nozen to make a living.

A month and a half later, the Harwin estate would face a food shortage as well.

“Seeing him appear in the original story later, he’ll probably return safely to the West, but at least he deserves a proper meal.”

I owed Leopold a psychological debt.

He may have already forgotten, but I would never be able to forget it in my lifetime. So I could at least serve Baron Forman a proper meal.

We would likely be well-stocked by then, and…

“After all, he is Leopold’s maternal grandfather.”

Considering that, two meals wouldn’t have been unreasonable.

When we arrived at the estate, Masa, whom I had sent to Jezel Street that morning, had returned.

I met her in the backyard.

“Milady! I bought everything you ordered. As you said, prices have dropped significantly.”

Masa didn’t look particularly happy.

“But orders were issued in Jezel Street: do not trade with people from Sears…”

I expected as much.

Jezel Street, with its cluster of shops, was no longer part of the Marquisate of Sears. Baron Harwin’s first move to tighten the noose on Sears was precisely this.

“It doesn’t matter.”

I said casually.

“It’s only a matter of time before their food stocks run out anyway.”

Before I knew it, knights had crowded into the backyard to see what Masa had brought.

“Of course, I thought you’d plant these seed potatoes in the backyard and garden…”

“The backyard has other uses.”

The master of the backyard, as I had planned, was…

“Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cluck-cluck-cluck…”
“Cheep-cheep!”

The knights gasped.

“How cute!”
“My, look at how shiny their feathers are.”

I crouched down quietly, stroking the chicks that had come with the hens. Looking at the hens with eyes full of affection, I said,

“They’re our protein source.”

Raising chickens requires land.

But in the central region, land wasn’t abundant, so the area developed distribution instead of poultry farming.

Chickens were just raised in small numbers in yards. The market chickens weren’t originally meant for Sears; they had to be sold elsewhere after passing through Sears.

But with no buyers able to come, the price naturally dropped.

Buying more chickens for private households was burdensome.

Chickens don’t grow for free.

“What do we feed them, then?”

Rangsi, who had come to see the chicks, worried fiercely.

“Well, each of them eats as much as a knight, huh? If they grow well, they’ll protect the estate properly…”

I reassured him.

“There’s dried rice bran and wheat bran in the storeroom. Start by spreading that.”

“If we also get the bran left in the guild’s warehouse, we can collect roots for them too.”

Rice and wheat bran were practically trash to the grain merchants, yet I asked for them—all that remained in the storeroom.

And so, a month and a half passed.