Chapter: 17
I knew this would happen.
I looked at the servants of Baron Harwin who had gathered in the potato field.
They stood there holding torches, their faces filled with embarrassment and frustration.
“Are you planning to throw those torches into the potato field?”
I asked calmly.
“Don’t throw them. Instead, I’ll let you use them to roast potatoes there.”
The servants’ breathing grew rough.
“Either way, even if you throw them, you’re already surrounded, and the fire will be put out immediately.”
Around me were buckets filled with water. I had drawn water from the river in advance.
“Well, even so, you might ruin a few potatoes. But the conclusion is already decided, and you just have to choose.”
I spoke evenly.
“Either you ruin them, or you eat them. We’ve already decided that we’ll take that much of a loss anyway, so the process doesn’t matter to us.”
To be honest, I had thought the potato field would be in danger. Judging by Baron Harwin’s character, there was no way he would leave it alone.
So every night, I had people fill buckets with water and place them all around the potato field.
“Either way, it’s water we’d give to the potatoes the next day, so it’s not a waste of labor.”
Labor had to be conserved. It was strength that came from food.
I also increased the number of knights on night patrol. That way, if an arsonist appeared, they were to immediately surround them while showing the buckets of water and then contact me.
Tonight, the report finally came, and I was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.
Standing in front of the servants with hollowed cheeks, I nodded my chin toward my maid.
The maid briskly held out several plates.
“The salt is here, and we’ve also prepared chilled tea made by simmering lotus root.”
The starving intruders surrendered almost immediately.
“W-We’ll eat!”
“We’ll eat!”
I knew it. They were human, after all.
We gave each of them three large potatoes.
Watching them roast the potatoes over their torches made us feel hungry too, so we each roasted one as a late-night snack.
The warm, fluffy potatoes dipped in salt, eaten together with cold lotus-root tea, were excellent.
Of course, Wendy couldn’t eat.
I had brought several escort knights with me, and Wendy was one of them.
She wasn’t starving. She just couldn’t eat potatoes. But under the current circumstances of our territory, that meant she couldn’t eat the staple food. And not being able to eat when everyone else was eating was especially painful.
“Good heavens, it’s really fluffy and delicious. Wendy, this is so good.”
“It’s warm and soft. How long has it been since I tasted something this tender? Wendy, you’ll have to wait even longer.”
To make matters worse, the knights enjoyed teasing her by eating potatoes right in front of her.
“Wendy, try to have a kinder heart. It’s because of your character that you can’t eat such delicious potatoes.”
“That’s right. You should eat dried fish and eggs instead. It’ll help develop your character.”
At this point, it was hard to tell whether the knights had good personalities or bad ones.
Anyway, Wendy was always suffering. A few days ago, she even knelt in front of me and begged for forgiveness.
But I didn’t lift the potato ban.
“Alright, then.”
When the late-night snack was over, I signaled to the knights.
“We should take you to Baron Harwin.”
The knights immediately tied up the intruders with rope.
The intruders blinked blankly and muttered,
“Huh? W-We can go on our own…”
“Do you think I’m crazy enough to just let criminals go?”
I said indifferently.
“Baron Harwin needs to pay the price.”
“…What?”
“Let’s go.”
With Wendy and a group of knights, I headed toward Baron Harwin’s residence.
It was the dead of night, with no moon in the sky.
“U-Um, miss.”
One of the intruders, now docile after being fed potatoes, spoke up.
In fact, until not long ago, they had been people of the territory who thought of Sears as their lord.
“But there’s really nothing left in our territory. How are you going to collect a debt…?”
“There are probably only a few ears of corn left in the baron’s residence, too. And our baron isn’t the type to hand things over willingly…”
“He definitely won’t admit he gave the order. He’ll pin everything on us!”
At that, Philip shouted angrily from behind me.
“How dare you thieves speak to the lady!”
I hadn’t brought a maid with me on the way to the baron’s residence, but it almost felt like I had one.
“She is a noble so exalted that the likes of you can’t even look at her properly!”
Philip glared fiercely as he threatened them.
“Lower your heads! Walk properly! If even a speck of dirt gets on the lady’s skirt because of you, remember this will be the day your blood stains my sword!”
The intruders quickly lowered their heads. It seemed they were more frightened by Philip’s size than by his tone.
Then Philip approached me and whispered proudly,
“This is how nobles do it, right, miss? I’m doing well now, aren’t I?”
In truth, it was the maids of Riente who were excessive; even the nobles of the capital didn’t act like that.
Philip had learned the wrong thing.
“You’re doing well.”
Still, by Riente’s standards, it counted as doing well. The problem was that Riente had fallen.
I answered loftily.
“Record it in the history books.”
For the first time, Philip looked satisfied with that remark.
‘What in the world is going on?!’
Baron Foreman thought as he returned once again to Baron Harwin’s residence.
‘To end up coming back again!’
The elderly informant’s joints ached from moving around in secret.
In the middle of the night, Brisa stormed into Baron Harwin’s room with the intruders in tow.
With well-fed knights accompanying her, no one dared to stop her.
“Hm.”
After hearing the complaint about the intruders, Baron Harwin stroked his mustache and said,
“I know nothing about this, Brisa. Why would I ruin my niece’s field?”
As expected, he played dumb.
Brisa questioned him sharply.
“Then why would they come in the middle of the night, wasting their labor, to set fire to our field, which is heavily guarded by knights, if it wasn’t on your orders, Uncle?”
Baron Harwin dodged the issue and replied,
“Well, it’s a bit delicate to say this in such hard times… but it seems they were simply jealous of you.”
“You should have been careful with such words.”
Brisa shrugged.
“Their expressions don’t look good.”
Indeed, the intruders tied up with ropes were glaring at Baron Harwin as if they wanted to kill him. It was expected, but they resented a master who cut off his own tail.
“Brisa, for your sake, let me give you a piece of advice. Don’t take it the wrong way,”
“That’s something you say when you know it’ll sound offensive the moment it’s said.”
“You’re truly rude to your elders. Is that how your mother taught you? To come to an elder’s house in the middle of the night and interrogate him so impolitely?”
“As expected. I was right. I’m offended.”
“I remember clearly—three or four years ago, the last time I saw your mother…”
“Saying ‘three or four years’ doesn’t mean you remember clearly. That’s inaccurate, so I won’t listen.”
Brisa spoke loftily with her arms crossed.
“More importantly, I’d like you to take responsibility for this matter.”
“Responsibility? Why should I?”
Baron Harwin practically had a fit at the word “responsibility.”
“A lord can’t possibly manage every single person in his territory, can he?”
“Then what should we do about their punishment? May I handle it myself?”
“Well…”
As Brisa pressed him with questions, Baron Harwin rolled his eyes in confusion.
“Still… they’re my people. The final authority should rest with me. That’s the principle, isn’t it?”
By principle, the authority to punish people of a territory lay with the lord. No matter how much Brisa protested, there was nothing she could do about that.
Then Brisa asked calmly,
“Then how about selling them?”
At that moment, Baron Foreman—the aged informant eavesdropping outside the door—nearly fainted.
Selling… them?
What in the world did she mean by that?
