Chapter: 16
Baron Foreman startled himself the moment the words left his mouth.
They hadn’t come from his head, but from his heart.
Just as he was scrambling to somehow take them back, a maid suddenly shouted.
“How dare you!”
The maid who had been clearing the dishes grabbed Baron Foreman by the collar.
“My lady, I’ll take care of this before the tableware. You went to such trouble to feed him, yet this ignorant, ungrateful lowborn doesn’t know his place and dares to spout such nonsense!”
“To think he would say something so ill-bred, rootless, and absurd to our lady!”
A knight who had been guarding the kitchen rushed over as well and shouted solemnly.
“My lady, shall we behead him and wipe out his entire clan for this crime?”
—Wait. Weren’t these the northern mercenaries Alphius had brought?
Why were they talking just like the maids?
“For the crime of daring to covet my lady, we cannot simply let this go!”
I didn’t covet her!
Baron Foreman stood there, flustered, his mouth opening and closing, when Brisa spoke with elegant calm.
“Indeed, Philip. We can’t simply let him go.”
The young girl’s expression never wavered.
“It wouldn’t do to send off a guest empty-handed. Tell the kitchen to pack some potatoes and radish sprouts for his journey.”
Unbelievable.
The moment he heard that, another sentence escaped Baron Foreman’s mouth without passing through his brain.
“Please, allow me to become your granddaughter-in-law!”
At that, the maid and the knight stopped being angry.
They exchanged a quick glance, then immediately stepped back. When he was finally escorted out, they even wrapped up potatoes, radish sprouts, and eggs for him. At the door, they quietly said:
“Our lady is kind to madmen. Now I understand why she took you in and fed you.”
“She must have recognized at first glance that he’d lost his mind… Ah, our poor lady.”
Baron Foreman blinked slowly.
Then it dawned on him.
They were treating him as a lunatic.
He slapped his knee and burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! You’re quite good at jokes!”
But he was the only one laughing.
“Hahaha… huh?”
He laughed again, but the maid and knight remained deadly serious.
“…Huh?”
As Baron Foreman blinked awkwardly, the maid let out a weary sigh.
The burly knight called Philip sighed as well and spoke.
“In this estate, we don’t joke about being crazy. Keep that in mind.”
Baron Foreman frowned.
So… was he really crazy right now?
Philip lowered his voice and whispered.
“At the very least, if you say that in front of my lady…”
Baron Foreman clutched the basket of potatoes, radish sprouts, and eggs tightly, his body tensing as he waited for the rest.
“…you won’t get potatoes.”
Good heavens.
Baron Foreman shuddered once.
‘She has a cruel side I didn’t expect.’
He now knew exactly how terrifying that punishment was.
Meanwhile, the maid and knight were chatting among themselves.
“But still… wouldn’t grain be nice?”
“Yeah. I want bread.”
“They say my lady will have wheat soon… but I have no idea how she plans to get it.”
Baron Foreman’s ears perked up.
“Exactly. You can’t even grow wheat right now. There’s probably not a single grain left in the central region. But if it’s my lady, she’ll manage somehow, right?”
“Of course. She’s the last bloodline of Liente, speaks five languages, and graduated second in her class at the Academy. She’ll definitely pull it off.”
Even ten languages wouldn’t make that possible.
Baron Foreman frowned and tilted his head. Setting everything else aside, wheat was impossible.
And yet…
For some reason, that calm young girl seemed like she just might manage it anyway.
‘Soon?’
He swallowed without realizing it.
Fresh, warm bread made from wheat—something he’d been longing for far too much.
Ten days later.
Potatoes came into full season. Large, plump tubers were unearthed one after another.
“Wow… these are as big as my fist!”
They harvested potatoes every day.
There was enough to feed not only the marquisate household, but also the people of the territory for the next month.
‘Thank goodness.’
Brisa let out a sigh of relief. Truth be told, even the people of the Sears March had not been eating well until now.
But once potatoes became a regular part of their meals, everything changed. At the very least, no one would go hungry.
News of the bumper potato harvest inevitably reached the Barony of Harwin.
The people of Harwin began secretly exchanging goods with the Erenta people remaining in Sears, trading whatever they could for potatoes.
Gradually, the people of Harwin grew envious of those Erenta folk who had stayed behind in Sears.
“All of this… Lady Brisa taught them how to do it?”
“Yeah. And the chickens there lay eggs every single day.”
Isolated without any means of production for two months, the people of Harwin were now stripping bark off trees to eat.
In the midst of that, dark mages from the Kingdom of Sebon across the sea installed an illegal warp gate—one that led directly to a port. They offered sacks of wheat in exchange for people.
“Madmen… absolute madmen.”
Baron Foreman clicked his tongue.
“With the Mage Tower’s surveillance gone, the dark mages are running wild. Exploiting hunger to pull something like this?”
But Baron Harwin thought differently.
Without informing the outsider, Baron Foreman, he had already decided to sell the orphans of his territory to the dark mages.
His precious daughter, Dahlia, was growing thinner by the day.
“Father…”
Dahlia murmured weakly.
“I’m tired of dried corn… I want fresh vegetables or meat…”
“Yes, yes. I’ll take some from the people. Salt will be enough to trade. Just wait.”
Baron Harwin looted the territory’s storehouses. The food merchants on Jejel Street had maintained sizable reserves of preserved goods.
But after two months, even those supplies were nearly gone.
The corn stored in the baronial granary was also almost depleted—largely because the dairy cows had devoured it earlier.
He knew that if they could just hold on for one more month, the warp network would be restored.
Still, the fear of the very next meal loomed over him.
‘There’s no other way.’
Though the relatively prosperous County of Joachim lay nearby, monsters infested the mountains and hills along the territorial border.
Contact with them was impossible.
That left only one place to reach out to.
“Go to Sears and steal from them.”
Upon hearing of the potato harvest, Baron Harwin—his nerves frayed from poor meals—gave the order.
“Dig up a few sacks, quietly!”
But the attempt failed before it even began. Knights were guarding the potato fields.
When the servants returned empty-handed, Baron Harwin roared:
“…Then at least ruin them!”
“T-the knights are guarding the fields—”
“It can’t be helped.”
Baron Harwin panted.
“Set them on fire. Even if you can’t pull the potatoes out, you can do that much and run, can’t you?”
That night—
Several people from Harwin slipped into the potato fields under cover of darkness.
‘Good heavens…’
Baron Foreman heard the news too late and sprang to his feet.
‘Are these people even human?’
He wasn’t staying here because he liked Baron Harwin. He was only a guest because Harwin was older than the lord of Sears.
But still…
Did that mean he had to remain in the estate of such a despicable man?
‘He must know the people of his own territory are surviving by smuggling potatoes!’
Burning those fields meant destroying the very food source of land that could still trade.
‘…This man cannot be allowed.’
He hadn’t intended to interfere in central affairs—
But Baron Foreman’s eyes flashed coldly.
Then the light faded. All his influence and connections were in the western region.
‘Just wait a month. Once the warp is restored…’
For now, he was nothing more than one aging body.
Baron Foreman changed into shabby clothes, pulled a hat low over his face, and bent his back skillfully.
Then he ran toward the potato fields, desperate to warn them somehow.
But no matter how hard he ran, an old man’s body was slow.
It seemed far too late to catch up with Baron Harwin’s servants carrying torches.
Worse still, to avoid being seen, he had to take secret paths, making the journey even longer.
‘No… no!’
The moment he arrived at the fields, gasping for breath—
In the pitch-black night, the potato fields, which should have been dark, were lit by flickering torches. And among those flames stood a cool, composed face.
‘…Brisa Sears?’
Baron Foreman came to an abrupt halt.
‘Just how… is this possible?’
