Chapter: 15
“Wow! Potatoes, potatoes! Today we can eat our fill!”
The knights grinned from ear to ear as they scooped the dirt-covered potatoes into their baskets.
“Again… now.”
And at that moment, I knew the magical phrase that could instantly boost their morale to the highest level.
“In two days, we’ll also eat a chicken.”
The chicks that had arrived at our marquisate a month and a half ago had now grown into young chickens.
Anyway, it would take five months for them to lay eggs. So it was reasonable to eat them as soon as they were big enough.
Since we had raised so many chicks, their numbers had grown too large.
Moreover, new chicks continued to hatch from fertile eggs. We also had to manage the stock of wheat bran and rice bran used as feed.
“Whaaaah!”
Of course, our rate of eating chickens would be much faster than the rate they multiplied, but we only had to endure for another month and a half, so it was fine.
“So, in two days…”
I declared solemnly.
“To commemorate the first chicken we catch, we will hold a banquet.”
It was the evening I had invited Baron Foreman.
“Let’s use all our ingredients.”
Besides chicken, eggs, potatoes, and lettuce, we had plenty of other food. We planned to use everything available.
“Whaaaaaaah!”
Everyone cheered except Wendy.
She was absent not only from the potato harvest but from other labor as well.
“Uh, milady…”
A knight who had been standing watch in the distance ran over.
“The elderly gentleman you mentioned has crossed the boundaries of the territory!”
As expected.
Baron Foreman had arrived.
‘He probably wanted to see if he could get a meal first. How considerate of him.’
I had already told the knights what Baron Foreman looked like and instructed them not to stop him if he appeared, but to quietly let him do as he pleased and then report back to me.
The former intelligence agent had everything under my observation.
“Very well.”
I said casually.
“Don’t restrain him—let him enjoy the sight to his heart’s content.”
Baron Foreman easily crossed the territory’s borders. Realistically, the knights couldn’t guard every boundary.
‘Is it really okay to accept the invitation to the banquet? At a time when generosity is scarce…’
He sighed to himself, thinking of the atmosphere in the Marquisate of Harwin.
People had become irritable because food was scarce.
These days, no one in Harwin ate three full meals a day.
Baron Foreman assumed it would be no different in Sears, or perhaps even worse if conditions were harsher.
He wandered near the villages and soon noticed a child carrying a basket by the riverbank.
“Hm? What’s that…”
The child had gathered a large amount of mushrooms from logs by the river.
Come to think of it, decaying logs were lined along the riverbank.
“Child, what is that?”
Baron Foreman asked.
The child answered casually.
“Mushrooms. About a month and a half ago, milady told the knights to grow them like this.”
After gathering the mushrooms, the child began cutting water parsley by the river and placing it into the basket.
“And that?”
“Water parsley. Milady said to cut the stems and plant them, and now there’s this much.”
Next to the patch of water parsley, the child pulled out a small trap filled with tiny fish.
“Fish lay eggs on the parsley stems. That’s how the number of fish has grown. We catch this much every day.”
Baron Foreman’s mouth fell open.
‘Of course, being by the river is a huge advantage, but can they really produce food so efficiently?’
The child’s expression, calmness, and composure—none of it could be seen in Harwin’s territory.
“So you live just on fish, mushrooms, and water parsley?”
“There’s more. Milady taught us more than ten different things.”
The lively child looked Baron Foreman straight in the eye, shrugged, and said:
“Grandpa, are you from Harwin’s marquisate?”
The child took a handful of mushrooms from the basket and handed them to Baron Foreman.
“Take these and eat them. It’s fine to give these for free.”
Baron Foreman stared at the oyster mushrooms the child had offered.
With the explanation, he understood.
It was completely different from the riverside he had seen recently. Everything was organized to continuously produce food efficiently.
He recalled Brisa Sears, who had gracefully handed out the invitation.
In this peaceful riverside village, it was as if a perfectly dressed girl with impeccable manners had dropped straight from the city center.
‘All of this… was done by a twelve-year-old girl?’
The child looked at him pityingly and said:
“Next time, bring something proper and trade it for eggs.”
Apparently, only Baron Foreman didn’t know, but the locals had figured it out through word of mouth.
“The eggs from Sears have thick yolks and are delicious. People in Harwin’s territory love them.”
So a few days later, Baron Foreman, disguised again, visited the Sears territory.
He waited with a pounding heart, and soon the marquisate’s gates opened.
A maid, who didn’t look hungry at all, greeted him with poise.
‘If I pretend to be a clueless old man from the countryside, it’ll be natural to eat hastily like I don’t know proper etiquette.’
He thought, tugging at his worn, fuzzy vest.
‘He eats well.’
I watched Baron Foreman eat potatoes, lotus root, and water parsley.
Normally, leaving a little food is considered polite in the West, but Baron Foreman ended up scraping his plate clean.
“You eat lotus root even now?”
“It’s normally in season in the fall, but it’s fine to eat now. Less starch, but tender.”
Lotus root was a good carbohydrate source to increase plant numbers. You could cut existing roots and replant them.
This process, called vegetative propagation, had been done extensively a month ago.
“What about salt…?”
He hesitated to ask, and the maid scolded him:
“Does our milady kindly answer every question from an ordinary man? Do you think you’ve got a teacher? Don’t bother her meal—ask questions properly!”
Baron Foreman flinched.
Well, salt…
‘People in Harwin’s territory had given water, so in exchange we received plenty of salt.’
The greatest portion of goods from bartering had been salt.
Hearing that Harwin had a lot of salt, I no longer worried about it.
Bartering didn’t stop just because someone of higher rank forbade it.
‘Even if they had lived as neighbors until recently.’
Baron Foreman devoured the mushrooms, lettuce, and sprout salad.
Soon, the main dish arrived.
“Roast chicken leg with fish side dish. Eat with perilla sauce.”
Perilla seeds also came from Harwin’s marquisate. They had taken Beron’s fields, which were perilla farms.
Perilla wasn’t a common crop in the Empire, and Beron’s fields were special.
Because the land was narrow and trade well-developed in central regions, it was better to grow small amounts of unique crops—a frustrating insight from my father.
Thus, after salt, the people of Harwin brought perilla seeds.
Perilla residue was also given to the chickens, which helped them lay more eggs.
I watched Baron Foreman lick the fork reluctantly and asked:
“Would you like more fried fish?”
“Yes! But… what about the sprouts and lettuce…”
“Villagers usually grow autumn radishes and save the seeds. Want more potatoes?”
“Yes!”
No wonder he kept saying he wanted more.
When I served egg pudding with plums for dessert, Baron Foreman looked almost in tears.
“Plums? They’re so fresh…”
“They grow by the river.”
Some early summer fruits grew by the river.
Fruit wasn’t very productive, but we treasured it instead of cutting it down, adding it sparingly to meals to save sugar.
Watching Baron Foreman scrape the dessert plate, I asked one last question:
“…Want more?”
Baron Foreman answered:
“Milady, would you marry my grandson? That’s the best I can offer as thanks.”
