Chapter 10 

As soon as I entered the Evanroar Viscounty estate, I called out loudly.

“Grandpa Carl!”

Carl must have been waiting. He rushed out immediately.

“Lady Scylia! Sniff sniff. To think you would visit another noble’s residence like this… This old man can die without regrets now…”

He was holding a half-empty bottle of carp-extract tonic, looking emotional.

Seriously? How about putting down that nasty carp juice before saying dramatic things?

That carp extract was something I made myself—Carl had been losing weight from overwork raising Axyon, so I made a batch for him. It fixed him right up, and ever since then he’s been obsessed and brews barrels of it himself. Now the mansion is full of the stuff.

I shook my head cheerfully.

“What nonsense. Before you die, you still need to look after Axyon’s children too, Grandpa.”

“What a cruel thing to say…”

Carl stared at me with a stiff face.

But I was in a good mood today, so I brushed it off with a grin and hovered around him.

“That aside, Carl—the rice stalks I cut and dried before… they’re still in the storage, right?”

Carl sighed.

“Yes, they’re there. We don’t have any use for them, after all.”

“Hehe. Well, Carl, it looks like we’ll have some financial relief soon.”

At my suspicious smile, Carl instinctively stepped back.

After a moment, he suddenly lunged forward, grabbed my hands tightly, and said earnestly,

“There are many paths in life, but you must walk the righteous one if you don’t want to regret things before you die. Even if you were raised in farming fields, you cannot sell your soul to the devil, Lady Scylia. Do you understand?”

Carl kept muttering strange warnings.

“Even though you eat manners for breakfast and live a rather inhuman life, Lady Scylia—I did not raise you to live like that!”

His eyes were even shimmering with tears.

… Is he trying to pick a fight?

I coldly glanced at the carp extract dripping between our clasped hands.

The stickiness reminded me of Dazar’s stupid “friend the goldfish” remark.

I crushed the carp-extract bottle in one hand.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to earn money in a completely fair and proper way. Plus, I think Axyon’s education problem will be solved too!”

“R-Really?”

“Yep. As part of that plan, I’m going back to the Siastar Ducal estate tomorrow. So we need to finish threshing and milling today. Help me, Carl.”

“… Excuse me?”

Carl blinked.

Thirty minutes later, his blinking turned into full-on crying.

“Lady Scyliaaa! This is too harrrrd!”

“Just hold on a bit longer!”

Ugh. Without proper tools, threshing really was hard work.

Carl and I were stripping grains from rice stalks by hand, rubbing them down with gloved palms.

If only we had something like a proper threshing tool… But of course, that didn’t exist here.

Thank you, Grandma, for forcing me to help with rice farming in my past life.

Back then, I helped every harvest season because there weren’t enough hands. I even considered farming full-time. My parents strongly opposed it, so I ended up taking a corporate job instead.

Carl looked like he was about to collapse.

“We have to do all this?”

“If I give him just one bowl of rice, it’ll look cheap. I need enough to fill at least a rice cooker.”

“What…?”

After encouraging Carl several more times, we finally harvested a decent amount of rice grains. I gathered them into a big basket and stood up.

“The hardest part is next, Carl. You can’t give up now! Think of our cute Axyon!”

“A-Axyon… sob…”

I dragged the wheezing Carl to a corner of the storage room.

There, the servants had placed a large wooden salad bowl from the kitchen—thick, sturdy, and perfect to use as a makeshift mortar.

There was even a wooden rolling pin with a rounded end. That would be my pestle.

With my farming-talent body powering up, I rolled up my sleeves.

“When I give the signal, pour in the grains. We need to mill them as much as possible into white rice.”

“Y-Yes…”

THUD. THUD. THUD.

“Ack—!”

The bowl was sturdy but shallow, so rice grains kept bouncing out and flying into my mouth. Worse—some bounced into my eyes, making tears come out.

Well, it’s originally a salad bowl… What can you do?

Once I officially start rice farming, I’ll need to make proper tools.

By the time Carl collapsed dramatically onto the floor, the milling was done.

I wiped sweat from my forehead and looked out the storage window. Night had fallen, and a white moon hung in the sky.

“That carp extract paid off, right, Carl?”

“……”

Carl lay spread-eagle, not answering.

My body was exhausted too, but the thought of surprising that crazy future in-law tomorrow made me feel triumphant.

Now all that was left was to cook fresh rice for him tomorrow.

***

The Next Day

After struggling to soothe Axyon, who refused to let go of me, I headed to the Siastar estate.

With Elstern gone today, Dazar dropped his noble façade immediately.

“Didn’t think you’d actually come.”

Gone was the elegant Duke of yesterday. He had worn a perfect three-piece coat and vest then. Today, he was in a loose white shirt with two or three buttons undone, revealing a sharp collarbone.

His neatly combed hair was now tousled like a wild stallion’s.

And he had a bird on his shoulder—a small, fierce-looking red bird I’d never seen before.

Ignoring his appearance, I raised my chin.

“Did you think I’d run away?”

Dazar just snorted.

“So, did you bring the food?”

“Of course. Now, take me to the kitchen.”

“The kitchen? Why?”

“Because I need to cook the rice.”

He stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

“Cook… rice?”

“Yes. Ask your questions later. Just taste it first.”

Dazar gestured to the servant behind him—the same one who guided Elstern and me yesterday.

“Show her.”

“Yes, sir.”

In the kitchen, with the servants’ help, I found a pot suitable for rice.

I washed the rice carefully and began cooking it. All you need is water, fire, and a pot. Simple.

To them, though, a noble lady rolling up her sleeves and cooking in the servants’ kitchen was shocking.

Let them stare. It’s not like I care about my image here.

After a while, a warm, nutty, slightly sweet smell began spreading from the pot.

“What’s that smell?”

“I don’t know, but it’s making me hungry.”

“Same. Smells delicious!”

When I stirred the rice with a wooden spatula, the servants hovered around me like curious cats.

I tasted a few grains.

Not bad.

Though…

It’s a little disappointing.

We Koreans… are picky with rice.

When chicken gets pricier, we nod sympathetically. When pork belly becomes expensive, we grumble but accept it.

But when a bowl of rice jumps from 1,000 won to 2,000 won?

Revolution.

Anyway—point is, we are a people of rice. So my standard for rice is naturally high.

This rice was decent, but not perfect. The fragrance and stickiness were lacking because the grains had been stored for so long and processed by hand in a hurry.

Still, not bad.

I stirred it a few more times, then carried the pot straight to where Dazar was.

He was in his office.

“…What is that?”

“What else? The food I told you about.”

“Oh?”

He stood up immediately. The red bird on his shoulder had disappeared somewhere.

I placed the steaming pot on a side table, and he glanced at it.

“As expected. The strength you used to shove me yesterday wasn’t normal.”

“Thank you. I know.”

I scooped the rice into a bowl with the wooden spatula I carved myself and handed it to him with a spoon.

“Eat.”