Chapter 31
Fertilizer is important in farming.
For crops to grow really, really well without pests or disease, fertilizer was absolutely necessary. But simply dumping fertilizer on the fields didn’t guarantee success either.
“W-What? Fallen leaves and grasshoppers… I can understand that much, but a-animal droppings?”
Cedric staggered backward, his face drained of color.
When he heard that I hadn’t left during the “Day of the Rift,” he’d been so surprised he practically jumped for joy. And when I casually told him to bring back some Black Hawks and fertilizer while he was at it, he’d nodded without hesitation.
“Why? You said you’d get fertilizer.”
“No, it’s not that. Is animal waste really… absolutely necessary for fertilizer?”
“No. Not necessarily.”
Cedric let out a deep sigh of relief, his face screaming thank goodness. He scratched at the corner of his upturned mouth with his index finger and said,
“Whew. That’s a relief. Then we can leave out the droppings—”
“I just said it doesn’t have to be animal waste. Human waste works too.”
“……!”
In a flash—
He retreated far into the distance.
Like a pitiful man who’d just been told his beloved was terminally ill, Cedric shrieked in a shrill voice, his face pale as paper.
“Hiiiiiik!”
“C-Cillia. Th-That’s a joke, right?”
He forced an awkward laugh and continued,
“You’re an adult now, but you still love playing jokes.”
It wasn’t a joke, though.
With a flat expression, I gave him the correct answer.
“If you don’t like human poop, then bring animal poop.”
“C-Cillia! Such vulgar language—!”
“What’s vulgar about it? Our Axion loves that word. Babies naturally— ah.”
“Axion…?”
Cedric tilted his head.
“Who’s Axion?”
True to his reputation as the brains, the moment curiosity struck, Cedric revived with an eager expression and strode straight toward me. I pressed my palm against his pale face—now so close our noses might touch—and shoved him away.
“Ow ow ow!”
“You curious? Do you really want to know?”
Seeing me crack my knuckles—crack, crack—Cedric took a step back.
He waved his hands rapidly, smooth and practiced, as if he’d been through situations like this with me many times before.
“N-No, no, no! I just heard a name I’d never heard before and wondered who it was, that’s all! Ha! Ha!”
“Really? Too bad. I was hoping you’d be curious.”
There was a reason I’d been hiding Axion’s existence from Cedric—and Kall’s advice played a big role in that.
“Ahem. Wouldn’t it be better to tell Lord Cedric after some time has passed?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Considering the feelings between the two of you, that would be… Hmm? Why are you looking at me like that? I know there’s nothing between you two. I was just joking. Ho ho ho.”
“……”
“More importantly, Lady Sylvestine, the head of the family, is still absent. And the family hasn’t officially announced Lord Axion’s adoption yet.”
In short—
If someone like me, already dragging the worst reputation imaginable, suddenly appeared with a child in tow, all kinds of nasty rumors would spread. So until the adoption was officially announced, we should keep things quiet.
‘But Dazar and Elstern already know.’
Those two weren’t the type to spread gossip, so it should be fine—
‘No. Wait. Elstern is a bit suspicious.’
Dazar had even told me to keep it secret that I wasn’t affected by the barrier.
‘Should I silence them soon?’
As I cracked my neck in deep contemplation, Cedric—apparently misinterpreting my actions—nodded rapidly with a frightened look.
“A-Ahaha! Funny how I’m not curious at all! Such a shame, but it can’t be helped! I’ll go fetch animal poop right away!”
“Good.”
Whether he realized he’d just used the very word he’d called vulgar or not, Cedric was already far away, waving enthusiastically.
I waved back—then suddenly remembered something.
“Come to think of it, do you already know the Black Hawks?”
They’d be spending the whole day together gathering fertilizer.
Well… he is the imperial chancellor. He probably knows them.
Shrugging, I returned to my room.
“Don’t you think he’s been sleeping more lately?”
“Children tend to sleep at all hours. Perhaps he’s preparing to grow even more.”
Is that so?
I gazed down at Axion, sleeping peacefully with soft, adorable breaths.
He was still small.
And still lovely.
Lightly brushing his pale cheek, I murmured,
“I hope you grow big and strong soon.”
I still hadn’t figured out exactly why Axion wasn’t growing.
I’d discovered Ruben—the being that fed on misfortune—but that was all.
The book was obscured in places, as if someone had spilled ink over it, making most of it unreadable. Only this much remained intact:
[If you encounter Ruben and wish to live, flee immediately. But fleeing will be useless. Once you have faced Ruben, that world is already walking the path of destruction. You will soon become his prey.]
Dazar, Elstern, and even Retsi seemed to know about Ruben, yet none of them intended to tell me anything.
That alone made it clear—Ruben was information forbidden to ordinary people.
‘Of course. If people knew a being capable of destroying the world existed among them, they’d be terrified.’
The empire would fall into chaos.
Even the “Day of the Rift,” which happened only once a year, wasn’t disclosed to the general public—so a being like that would be hidden even more carefully.
As that thought crossed my mind, another followed immediately, and I shook my head hard.
The idea that Axion himself might be Ruben.
‘There’s no way Axion is Ruben.’
A being that brings about the world’s destruction.
A being that grows by consuming misfortune.
Ruben and the original novel’s Axion shared many similarities.
‘But the original story never mentioned Ruben at all.’
No matter how hard I searched my memory, nothing surfaced.
Yet strangely, the name felt familiar—likely because of Cillia’s memories. She must have encountered Ruben somewhere before, if only briefly.
Where, I didn’t know.
‘Maybe because the original story was set twenty years in the past.’
The original plot offered little help now. And even that story was changing, all because I hadn’t cast Axion aside.
If Cedric ever took an MBTI test, he’d undoubtedly come out as an extreme extrovert.
“Hahaha! Brothers, let’s go together!”
In the brief time it took to climb the mountain, his skin had either been burned by the sun—or he was drunk. With a flushed face, Cedric was already calling the Black Hawks “brothers.”
“Welcome, little brother! Let us walk the path of gastronomy together!”
“Sounds great! I’m in!”
Each Black Hawk carried a sack stuffed full of fertilizer on his back, arms slung over one another’s shoulders.
And yes—Cedric was part of that “one another.”
Whether Leon knew or didn’t know that the man he was hugging tightly was the imperial chancellor, he enthusiastically preached about the beauty of garaetteok, spraying saliva as he spoke.
“You have to try rice cakes! Seriously! Way better than lamb skewers!”
Then Leon’s eyes landed on me.
“Oh! Big sis!”
At the same time, all the Black Hawks turned toward me and shouted in booming voices,
“BIIIG SIIIIS! DID EVERYTHING GO WELL?”
The sudden roar made Cedric hiccup.
“Did you bring the fertilizer?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Ignoring their military-style response, I checked the sacks they’d set down.
More than expected… ahem, results were neatly piled up.
“Good. Put all of this into the pit we dug next to the fields.”
The fertilizer needed to ferment properly over winter.
“Yes, ma’am!!”
As the Black Hawks shouted once more, Cedric—who had been glancing back and forth between them and me—sparkled with excitement.
It was an oddly intense look.
‘As expected, Cillia is amazing!’
After sending the Black Hawks and Cedric away, I suffered for quite some time from Cedric’s voice echoing in my ears.
‘To command such incredible men as her subordinates! She hasn’t wasted her time at all! They’re way better than the lackeys she had back at the academy!’
I had no idea what “I” had been doing at the academy, but seeing Cedric’s reverent gaze was painful enough that I hurriedly sent him off.
‘I’ll work harder too, Cillia!’
Work harder at what, exactly? I had no clue.
Shaking Cedric’s admiring stare from my mind, I walked briskly toward my destination.
The library.
‘Come to think of it, I never checked who the author of that book was.’
I planned to look at that book again.
Even if the contents were stained with ink, the cover would still list the author.
And if I knew the author, I could search for other books they’d written.
I headed quickly to the library—the same one where I’d found the book about Ruben.
“Misfortune, misfortune, misfortune… ah, here it is.”
Just like before, I found it quickly on the shelf dedicated to books about misfortune.
I pulled it out in a hurry and checked the cover.
My eyes widened. My mouth fell open.
[Author: Sylvie]
The pen name was far too familiar.
It was a name from Cillia’s memories.
No—one I recognized as well.
