Chapter 12
The Marquis of Reholas was generous in the extreme.
The moment he agreed to wager 3 billion marks, he immediately transferred the money in cash.
The villagers, seeing carts overflowing with glittering gold coins and jewels, burst into tears of emotion.
“Did our lady really earn all this?”
“My goodness. To think she extracted this much from the terrifying Marquis of Reholas!”
“As expected of our lady! She’s truly incredible!”
“She’s not even an adult yet, but how can she be so smart and capable? It seems the gods haven’t abandoned our ducal house yet.”
I also went out holding Rus’s hand and stared at the mountain of gold coins.
“Rus! All of this is ours!”
At my words, Rus shook his head vigorously.
Ah, right.
The Balfruga family belongs to you, so it’s yours.
How smart of our Rus.
“No, it’s all yours, sister!”
But contrary to my thoughts, Rus firmly insisted otherwise.
“Everything was earned by you, so it’s all yours!”
Aww, how adorable.
Yes, since I earned it all, you’re not allowed to pretend you don’t know later, got it?
The two of us held hands and spun around in circles.
Seeing money piled up like a mountain made me want to dance on its own.
“How can the two of them be so close?”
“What an adorable pair they are.”
The maids watched us warmly.
After dancing around in excitement, I eventually felt a little embarrassed and let go of Rus’s hand.
Rus went off to the study to do his lessons for the day, and I headed to the office for work.
Thanks to the firewood we burned, even walking through the hallway no longer made my breath visible.
Rus blew out a puff of air and smiled.
“I can’t see my breath anymore.”
“Do you like it?”
“Yeah! My hands used to feel like they were freezing off, but now they don’t even get cold anymore.”
Rus stretched out his bare hands—he wasn’t even wearing gloves—and wiggled his small fingers.
“It’ll keep being like this from now on.”
I’ll make sure you can keep living in a warm house like this.
As I silently made that vow, Rus grabbed my hand.
“Still, holding your hand is the warmest.”
“Huh?”
“When I hold your hand…”
Rus pressed his other hand against his chest.
“It gets warm all the way here too.”
Saying that, he didn’t let go of my hand until we reached the study.
Once I sat down at the desk in my office, Naol reported while counting the money sent from the marquis’s house.
“It’s exactly 3 billion marks. Depending on how much we sell the jewels for, it might vary a bit, but we might get more—not less.”
“As long as they didn’t short us and embarrass themselves, that’s enough. But just because they paid doesn’t mean I’m letting this go.”
Getting the money didn’t erase the grudge.
I needed to remember this clearly.
And there might still be schemes from the marquis that I hadn’t noticed yet, so I had to stay alert.
“Did the Fox Merchant Union get taken away by the people from Marquis Reholas’s house?”
“Yes. They were begging until the very end to be spared.”
They were probably not going to survive.
But if we hadn’t discovered the Fox Merchant Union’s plan, we would have been the ones to die instead.
A cold sensation made me unconsciously touch my neck.
“As for the jewels recovered from Frug… I’m thinking of selling most of them except a few valuable ones. If we sell them in a hurry, we won’t get a good price, so it’s better to sell them in advance.”
“Yeah. Do that.”
“Then we’ll sell everything except these.”
Naol placed a jewelry box on my desk.
It was slightly larger than the size of my two palms.
“How much would this be worth?”
“About 500 million marks.”
This tiny thing was worth 500 million marks.
Even though I was the one who earned it, it still felt unreal.
“Then let’s use the money from selling the jewels to pay off urgent debts. We can’t clear everything, but I don’t want random creditors showing up like last time.”
Just thinking about it gave me chills.
While talking about this, I almost felt like another debt collector might appear again.
Naol seemed to think the same and kept glancing nervously at the door.
Then someone knocked.
Naol and I both flinched and looked at each other.
“C-come in…!”
Bella entered with a tray holding teacups and looked at us strangely.
“What are you two doing?”
“A debt collector…?”
“A what?”
At Bella’s confused question, we both sighed in relief.
“…Nothing.”
“Nothing at all.”
Relaxing, I leaned back in my chair.
The aroma of tea Bella brewed for fatigue recovery filled the office.
Tapping my pen on a sheet of white paper, I began thinking about what I needed to do.
‘First priority is making money.’
The money taken from Marquis Reholas was a large sum, but it was still nowhere near enough to support the household.
‘Without a stable income source, we’ll just end up back at the beginning.’
The territory of House Balfruga was a land where it could snow even in midsummer.
In such a place, crops that required strong sunlight were impossible.
Instead, most income came from animal hides and monster meat.
Of course, the income from the villagers’ labor wasn’t that large, but Balfruga had another major source of income.
Money extracted from the capital.
House Balfruga began about a thousand years ago when the first emperor of the empire, with their help, defeated the Demon King.
After the Demon King was slain, the emperor greatly valued the first Duke of Balfruga and wanted him to stay by his side.
But the first Duke of Balfruga said:
“I am grateful for Your Majesty’s grace. However, Your Majesty, I am your sword. I exist to cut down your enemies and protect you. Please allow me to fulfill my purpose until the very end.”
And so, the Duke remained in the cold northern land.
Beyond the white fortress walls lay only the Demon King’s corpse and monsters.
It was said that this touching story was once even turned into a children’s book decades ago.
My reaction when I first heard it could be summed up in one word:
‘What an idiot.’
Seriously—if you’re a founding contributor, you should be securing the best possible reward!
If it were me, I would’ve demanded the most fertile land.
Like the southern grain belt where anything grows easily.
Places like that are practically impossible to ruin even if you try.
Because of some ancestor’s bad decision, why is Rus suffering like this too?
Anyway, even after all their allies left, the first Duke of Balfruga stayed alone and continued fighting monsters crossing the walls.
Even though the Demon King was dead, its corpse still emitted miasma and produced monsters.
Those grotesque creatures endlessly tried to cross the white fortress walls.
He cut them down, and cut them down, and cut them down again.
The monsters tried to cross; Balfruga stopped them.
Based on this, the family later entered central politics and accumulated greater wealth and power.
‘But that old method can’t work anymore.’
Whether it’s hunting or entering the capital, you need a strong army.
And to raise a strong army, you need a lot of money!
It wasn’t even a chicken-or-egg problem.
We had to find new ways to earn money in a land where even growing a single apple tree was difficult.
‘In the original story’s future, boating became popular and tourism spots developed… should I try that?’
After about ten seconds of thinking, I pictured the icy northern sea and decided it would only lead to debt.
From what I remember in the original story, there was only one viable option right now.
“Naol. There’s a department in charge of agriculture in the territory, right?”
“You mean the Agricultural Office? I’ll call them immediately.”
“No, I’ll go myself. It would be good to see how they work anyway.”
“If you insist…”
Following Naol’s guidance, I headed to the room—and even from afar, I could hear loud arguing.
While Naol watched my reaction carefully, I simply opened the door and walked in.
A bear-like man and a thin, gaunt man were shouting at each other, not even noticing we had entered.
“You’re being ridiculous! I said we should plant the badam tree this time! This year is warm, so it will grow well!”
“What if it gets cold? What then? Did you forget how we planted badam trees two years ago and lost everything to frost? We should plant rellong flowers because it will be cold this year!”
“Ha! Where did you pull that nonsense from?”
“What did you just say? Nonsense?”
Their argument escalated further until Naol clapped his hands and stepped between them.
“Alright, alright! Calm down, both of you!”
Only then did they turn and notice me.
“Perfect timing! Since the lady of this estate—known as the smartest person here—has arrived, let’s ask her! Talking to you is a waste of time anyway!”
“What? That’s exactly what I was going to say! I can’t stand arguing with someone like you either! Fine, let’s ask our lucky lady!”
“Lady! What do you think? Rellong flowers or badam trees?”
I looked at the two of them staring at me with pressure and asked back:
“…So what exactly are you two talking about?”
To summarize:
The territory’s agricultural department had only two people—Ron and George, the two men arguing in front of me.
They constantly clashed over farming opinions.
And as winter ended and spring approached, according to Naol, this became their 653rd dispute.
The topic: what crops should be planted this year.
Tears welled up in my eyes again.
If this were a warm southern land where anything grew easily, I wouldn’t have to worry about this at all.
In a normal territory like Balfruga, you could plant everything and anything.
Even if one crop failed, another would survive.
But the Balfruga family was deeply in debt, and much of their land had already been taken as collateral by other families.
Meaning we could barely plant even a single crop.
The two agricultural managers had been arguing about this when I accidentally walked right into the middle of it.
“So, what do you think, my lady? Do you think this year will be cold?”
