Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Chapter 12. The Leholas Marquess was also big-hearted. As soon as he decided to pay 3 billion marks, he immediately shot the money in cash.

The territory people who saw the sparkling gold coins and jewels filling the carts shed tears of emotion.

“Did our Madam earn all this?”

“My goodness. To receive this much against that scary Leholas Marquess!”

“As expected our Madam! She's an amazing person!”

“Ayu, she hasn't even become an adult yet, how is she so smart and intelligent. God hasn't abandoned our ducal house yet.”

I also came out holding Lus's hand tightly and looked at the pile of gold coins.

“Lus! This is all ours!”

At my words, Lus shook his head boing boing.

Ah, right.

The Valfruga family is yours, so it's yours.

Our Lus is smart.

“No, it's all older sister's!”

But Lus asserted firmly differently from my thought.

“It's all what older sister earned, so it's all older sister's!”

Aigo, how admirable.

Right, older sister earned it all so later don't pretend not to know, okay?

We two held hands and spun round and round together.

Seeing the money piled like a mountain, dance came naturally.

“How are the two of you so close.”

“Really a cute pair.”

The maids looked at the appearance of us two contentedly.

I who was dancing frantically became a little embarrassed and let go of Lus's hand.

Lus went to the study to do the studies he had to do today, and I decided to go to the office to work.

Thanks to burning firewood, now even walking the hallway, no breath came out.

Lus blew hoo wind with his mouth and smiled shyly.

“Now no breath comes out.”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah! It was so cold that my hands seemed to freeze solid, but now even like this my hands don't hurt from cold.”

Lus stretched his bare hands without gloves forward and wiggled his small hands.

“It will continue like this from now on.”

I'll make it so that we can keep living in a warm house.

While resolving that, Lus came and held my hand.

“Still, holding older sister's hand is the warmest after all.”

“Yes?”

“When I hold older sister's hand, not only the hands become warm.”

Lus pressed his chest tightly with the other hand.

“Up to here becomes warm.”

Saying that, Lus didn't let go of my tightly held hand until arriving at the study.* * *When I sat in front of the office desk, Naul who counted the money sent from the Marquess house reported.

“Exactly 3 billion marks. It will differ a bit depending on how much the jewels are sold for, but it seems we can receive more but there won't be a case of shortage.”

“It's better not to give short and lose face. But just because they gave well, I have no intention of letting them off.”

Receiving the money didn't make the resentment disappear.

This matter has to be remembered clearly.

Perhaps there might still be the Marquess's scheme that I haven't noticed, so I have to be wary too.

“Did the people from the Leholas Marquess house take the Fox Merchant Union?”

“Yes. Until the end they clung begging to please spare them.”

Probably it will be hard to save their lives.

But if we hadn't found out the Fox Merchant Union's plan, the ones dying would have been us.

At the cool sensation, I needlessly groped my neck.

“Including what was recovered from Frug, for the jewels, leave only a few precious ones and dispose of the rest, is that okay? If disposed urgently, it's hard to receive the proper price so it seems better to sell in advance.”

“Yeah. Do that.”

“Then excluding only these jewels, I'll sell the rest.”

Naul put the jewel box on my desk.

The jewel box was a size a bit larger than my two palms combined.

“About how much would this be?”

“Probably about 500 million marks.”

This small thing is 500 million marks.

It's money I earned, but seeing it like this, there was no sense of reality again.

“Then the money from selling the jewels, let's use it first to repay the urgent debts. Repaying everything is unreasonable, but I decline another unknown creditor coming like last time.”

Just thinking makes goosebumps rise.

Talking about such things, I was scared if another creditor would come.

Naul seemed to have the same thought and needlessly glanced at the door.

Then, someone knocked on the office door.

Naul and I were surprised enough to be noticeable and turned to each other.

“C-come in...!”

Bella holding a tray with a teacup placed entered inside, and seeing us, made a puzzled face.

“What are you two doing?”

“Creditor...?”

“Yes? Creditor?”

At Bella asking back with a still incomprehensible face, Naul and I let out a sigh of relief.

“It's nothing.”

“It's nothing.”

With the tension released, I leaned my body on the chair.

The scent of the tea Bella brews saying it's good for recovering from fatigue spread inside the office.

I tapped the pen on the white paper and thought about the things to do from now on.‘The first thing to do is earn money.’The money received from the Leholas Marquess is a large amount, but infinitely insufficient to maintain the family.‘Without a stable income source, it will just return to the beginning.’The place where the Valfruga ducal territory is located is a winter land where snow can fall even in midsummer.

On such land, things like fruits that need a lot of sunlight can't even be dreamed of.

Instead, they mainly earned money by selling hides and meat of animals or monsters.

Of course, the money the territory people earned by running around on foot themselves wasn't that much, but Valfruga had a larger income separately.

That is the money torn from the center.

The Valfruga ducal house started from helping the first Emperor of the Empire defeat the Demon King about a thousand years ago.

After defeating the Demon King, the Emperor greatly cherished the first Duke Valfruga and wished for him to stay by his side.

However, the first Duke Valfruga said this.

“I am only grateful for Your Majesty's grace toward me. But Your Majesty, I am your sword. I exist to cut your enemies, and I exist to protect you. Please let me fulfill my use until the end.”

Thus the Duke remained in the cold winter land.

Beyond the white castle walls, a place with only the Demon King's corpse and demonic beasts purely.

The reaction when I first heard this touching story that was even made into a fairy tale book dozens of years ago could be summarized in exactly one sentence.‘Crazy.’No, if you're a founding contributor, you should think of eating solidly!

If it was me, I would have unconditionally asked for the best territory.

There's something like the southern granary area where whatever you plant grows well.

Such a place is hard to collapse even if you try to collapse.

Because one ancestor chose wrong for nothing, what hardship is this even for our Lus?

Anyway, even though all the colleagues who defeated the Demon King together left, the first Duke Valfruga remained alone and defeated the demonic beasts crossing the castle walls.

Even though the Demon King died, that corpse still emitted demonic energy and created demonic beasts.

Demonic beasts of bizarre shapes endlessly tried to cross the white castle walls.

Cutting that, and cutting, and cutting, and cutting again.

The demonic beasts tried to cross the castle walls, and Valfruga blocked them.

And based on this, they advanced into central politics and accumulated greater wealth and power.‘But the previous methods can no longer be used. Hunting and advancing into the center ultimately require a strong army, and to raise that strong army, a lot of money is needed!’It's not even which came first, the chicken or the egg.

On land where it's hard to raise even one apple tree, a new way to earn money had to be found.‘In the future I saw in the original, boating became popular and tourist spots using that also appeared, shall I try that first?’I pondered for about 10 seconds, but recalling the northern sea with thin ice, it seemed only debt would increase.

Recalling the content seen in the original, the item that can be tried in the current situation was only one.

“Naul. There's a place responsible for the territory's farming, right?”

“Do you mean the agricultural department managers? I'll call them now.”

“No, I'll go. It seems better to see how they work this time too.”

“If so...”

When heading to the room Naul guided, a sound of arguing loudly enough to be heard from afar was heard.

While Naul watched my mood, I just opened the door and entered.

A bear-like man and a skinny man, not knowing we entered, shouted with veins standing.

“Ah, really acting frustratingly! Didn't I say this time we have to plant the Badam tree! This year is warm so the Badam tree will grow well!”

“If it's cold? If it's cold what will you do saying that! Don't you remember that the year before last, listening to your words and planting the Badam tree, the farming was completely ruined because of frost? This year will also be cold so my claim is that we have to plant the Lelong flower!”

“Hmph! Where did you snatch that claim from!”

“What did you just say? Snatch?”

At the argument gradually intensifying, Naul clapped and intervened between the two people.

“Come, come! Both of you calm down!”

At the sound Naul made, the two people who turned their gazes then discovered me.

“Just in time! Since Madam who is the most intelligent in our castle has come, how about asking Madam! Talking with a person like you will only waste time!”

“What? That's what this side has to say! I can't talk more with a chaff like you because I'm boiling! Right, rather let's entrust it once to our lucky charm Madam!”

“Madam! What does Madam think! Is it the Lelong flower, or the Badam tree!”

I asked back to the two looking at me burdensomely.

“...

So what are you two talking about now?”

So summarizing the two people's words was like this.

The agricultural department managers of the territory are only two, and they are Ron and George who were fighting hard in front of me.

The two usually clashed over every little thing due to differences of opinion on grain or crop farming, and as winter ends and spring approaches, according to Naul's words, the 653rd argument ended up occurring.

The topic of the argument is exactly what crop to plant this year!

Tears came anew.

If it was the warm south where whatever you plant grows well, there would be no need for such worries.

Still, originally for a Valfruga territory level, it would have been okay to plant this and that and try all.

Even if this crop fails, if that crop lives, it's somewhat successful farming.

But the Valfruga family had a lot of debt, and the territory held as collateral also transferred a lot to other families.

That is, a state where only one crop can barely be planted!

The two people in charge of the territory's agriculture talked about what to plant this year and had an argument, and to the two people fighting hard, I crawled in on my own feet.

“So what does Madam think? Does this year's weather seem like it will be cold?”