“Cecily! Why did you bring Oliver, Shirley, and Sarah?!”
“It’s not like that, little brother!”
Oh no… I’ve been scolded…
Little brother respects big brother to the point of reverence, but didn’t big brother say, “Maintain flexibility” and “Don’t be trapped by the old ways”?
“Wasn’t it promised that this ‘cornfield and potato field’ would be a secret?! What’s different?! Say something, Cecily!”
Little brother is furious.
But as the eldest daughter of the Rayvan family, I have something to say too!
“Little brother! Even though it’s a secret, didn’t big brother say that its existence would eventually be revealed to the people?”
“But that doesn’t have to be now, does it?! I understand that we’re short on hands in the field! Me at eight years old, you at seven, and our siblings at six, five, five, and four years old—seven of us! It’s not enough!”
“Then!”
“But I’m also slowly building trustworthy connections in the village, and recently, the five siblings from Miss Ada’s family have come to help, haven’t they?”
“That’s not enough! Besides, we’re still children! Shouldn’t we seek the help of adults?!”
“But!”
“Little brother! Let’s think flexibly, shall we? Right now, big brother’s magical power is making the harvest and preservation go well, but from the year after next, big brother will be going to the academy in the capital, won’t he?”
“…”
“Once big brother goes to the capital, he won’t return to this territory. When that time comes, the lord will be you, Sirius, right?”
“Ah, yes, that’s true. I got a bit heated, sorry.”
Phew…
Little brother gets very passionate when it comes to big brother…
But it’s true that he listens if you talk to him calmly.
“Na, na, na…?! Please wait!!!”
Oh?
Steward Oliver has started making a fuss.
“What is this field, and why is Sirius the next lord?!”
Huh?
“Of course. Big brother, such a wonderful magician, Exus… He wouldn’t inherit such a rural territory with nothing in it.”
“But, as a noble tradition…”
“Then let me ask you, big brother, recognized so much by the prestigious magician family ‘Gardner,’ with a recommendation letter to the academy in the capital and even a scholarship for admission… It’s only natural for him to thrive in the capital, right?”
“Yes, that’s already…”
“Then, he’ll catch the eye of higher nobles or perhaps even royalty, won’t he? When that happens, would the country leave such a talented young magician in a dead-end rural area with nothing?”
“That is…”
“I’ll tell you, that will never happen. The important people in the capital will find some reason to keep big brother there.”
Even if I were big brother, I wouldn’t want to return here from the capital.
Why would I be happy to be tied to this poor territory where we can barely eat bread?
“But, Exus’s will…!”
“Big brother wants that too. He hates the idea of ending his life in the countryside. First of all, he’s not meant for that. We might be ordinary people, but not him.”
If he’s a genius like big brother, it’s only natural.
This territory is ‘suitable’ for ordinary people like us, powerless children.
“Are you going to explain that to the lord as well?”
Huh…?
“Father? Ah, yes, he exists.”
I’ve completely forgotten about him since we don’t see each other.
But well…
“Father doesn’t have the capacity to think that far. For now, let him play at being the nominal lord, swinging a stick around in the name of knight training.”
“What insolence…!”
Oliver kneels and looks down.
I lift Oliver’s chin and make him face me.
“Listen, Oliver… Stick with us.”
“Is that, betraying the lord?”
“Oh dear, how dangerous. I’m not saying that much. Just, when something happens, I want you to side with us rather than father. And to make sure father doesn’t do anything foolish.”
“I, I am…”
“Oliver… How’s your son?”
I hear Oliver gasp.
Hehe, I know…
“Poor thing… Your son. The older one is already seventeen and can’t get a bride, right? The younger one will become a tenant farmer? It’s not surprising, being the child of a steward from a foreign lord, not getting any land.”
“Ah, ah…”
“Ah, how strange? There’s an unmanaged field here?”
I point to the field exaggeratedly.
“Hehehe… You haven’t seen it, have you? This is corn, a crop from far away. It grows well even in poor soil and can replace grains.”
“Corn… field…”
“And since this is a completely new grain not yet discovered by the country, there’s no tax on it. With this much cornfield, the people won’t starve, will they…?”
“Please, Lady Cecily! Give my sons, give my sons a field!”
“Yes, yes, of course! We don’t betray our loyal subordinates!”
Alright, and…
“You too, Shirley, Sarah. If you don’t want your beloved children to end their titles as ‘children of a servant of a foreign country knight,’ follow us.”
“We will obey!”
Good!
Nice children!
****************************
Excerpt from the Biography of Great People of the Viltoria Kingdom
Baroness Cecily von Müller
The eldest daughter of the Rayvan Knight family, which produced the “Demon” Exus.
From a young age, she received an education far superior to the general standard under the guidance of her eldest brother, Exus.
Her achievements include popularizing the cultivation methods of the “potato” and “corn,” which are emergency crops collected by Exus, as well as the widespread dissemination of beekeeping techniques. As a result, she was granted the title of baroness. It was quite an unusual event for a woman to be granted a title during a period when male superiority was prevalent.
Also, the Rayvan region, now one of the largest granary areas in the country, was actually an undeveloped area known as the “Forest of Demons” at the time, a fact not widely known.
