Chapter 010
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I had been at the potato field since dawn when a kitchen maid came running toward me.
“My Lady, what should we do?”
She blinked, her voice trembling with exaggerated alarm.
“I went to the greengrocer on Jezel Street, and the prices of ingredients are outrageous! They suddenly quoted five times yesterday’s price for strawberries! Strawberries are expensive enough as it is!”
Instability in the Warp gate meant an immediate instability in the distribution network. Furthermore, it wasn’t just the Warp; soon, monsters would begin appearing at the fief’s borders as well. Therefore, a skyrocketing surge in food prices was a foregone conclusion.
‘It’s starting…’
Fortunately, I had purchased the seed potatoes as early as possible.
‘In a month and a half, the young potatoes can be harvested.’
Potatoes would serve as a source of carbohydrates and Vitamin C. I emptied my last emergency fund, pressed it into her hand, and spoke.
“Martha, there is something you must go and buy right now.”
I had been waiting for this moment when the distribution network began to wobble. There was something I could purchase now by slashing the price.
‘I’ve already received enough grain from the merchant. Even with the increased headcount, we can hold out for a month.’
It was just after I had finished giving Martha her instructions.
“My Lady!”
The gatekeeper rushed over in a flurry.
“Lady Dalia has arrived and is asking to see you, My Lady!”
At the name ‘Dalia,’ the maids’ faces turned stony. The knights planting seed potatoes all had expressions that said, ‘Who is that?’
I narrowed my eyes.
“…Dalia? Now?”
Dalia Sayers Harwin.
She was my cousin, who shared the Sayers surname. My father had a younger brother—my uncle. That uncle had performed military service and received the Harwin estate, starting a new branch as Baron Harwin. Despite this, he couldn’t let go of the name ‘Sayers’ and kept it as a middle name. Though he was publicly mocked behind his back because middle names were typically reserved for high nobility or royalty, the Harwin Barony was…
‘They took most of our Marquisate lands.’
On the day of my father’s funeral, thanks to a contract my father had signed while thoughtlessly trusting blood ties, the Veron estate and Jezel Street had passed to the Harwin Barony. My father had made such an absurd contract with his own brother.
‘Brothers who were born and raised together in this fief.’
That was likely why they were able to pick and take the choice lands—Jezel Street and the Veron Plains—from the Sayers Marquisate. Above all, losing Jezel Street, the central distribution hub and market center of the Central region, was a catastrophic blunder. It likely housed various shops with useful seeds and preserved foods that would have been a great help in an isolation scenario.
Baron Harwin hadn’t even comforted me at my father’s funeral. He had merely sought out Alpheus and pressured him to fulfill the contract. Alpheus probably didn’t even realize the man was his uncle; he likely thought of him as just another debt collector.
But for the daughter to show up instead of the uncle…
‘Why is she here?’
In the original story, Dalia does come to see me. However, that was supposed to happen about a month from now. She usually visits when the maids and I are exhausted from hunger.
‘I heard Alpheus even kicked out your butler? Heavens, if you stay there, those knights won’t look after you. You’ll be the first to starve to death. Hurry and come to our house. Even that butler is staying with us.’
Since she was a cousin and not a stranger, I would follow her along with the maids… and then be loaded onto an illegal human trafficking ship.
‘Goodbye, Brisa.’
Dalia had said this as she personally pushed me onto the ship.
‘I really hated you.’
It was an unexpected statement. I hadn’t even reached the level of liking or hating her… we barely had any interaction? Behind her, Baron Harwin was receiving sacks of wheat as my ransom. They, too, were suffering due to the isolation of the distribution network.
But the situation was different now. The full-scale famine hadn’t even begun yet.
“Let’s go for now.”
I stood up, accompanied by my maids. The maids grumbled, each throwing in a word from behind.
“I hate that girl.”
“Hmph, she’s clearly jealous of our Lady Brisa’s noble bloodline.”
“The Princess educated her personally and she even went to the Capital Academy. Of course she’d be jealous.”
Dalia and I didn’t have much in common. Until I left for the Academy at age ten, I stayed at the fief, but I usually spent my time with my mother. My mother was my teacher in every subject.
‘You can catch up on two years’ worth. You are my daughter, after all. Let’s aim for early admission.’
When I took the top spot in the entrance exam for the Capital Academy at age ten—an exam others take at twelve—I went to my mother’s grave and laid down my acceptance certificate. My mother had passed away while I was in the capital taking that exam.
‘Do not contact Brisa. It might interfere with her exam.’
‘You… you are truly insane.’
‘Don’t make me laugh. I am not insane.’
Those were my mother’s last words, and my father, who had been the last to call her insane, accepted those words anyway and did not contact me. Thus, I couldn’t even attend my mother’s funeral. Having lived like that, there was no time to socialize with Dalia.
But seeing as she said ‘I’ve always hated you’… the maids might actually be right.
When I arrived at the drawing room, Dalia, with her brown hair and sky-blue eyes, was sitting there.
“Brisa, it’s been a long time.”
She, who hadn’t even come to the funeral, spoke with a bright smile.
“I heard the news that you’re no longer the heir to the Marquisate. What a pity. I heard your engagement was annulled too.”
I furrowed my brows.
“Is it true? Wow, you really never know what life will bring.”
The last time we met was two years ago. Dalia had never once picked a fight with me so openly like this. Only then did I realize that I had now become someone she could ‘look down on.’ And that Dalia had been waiting for this moment all along.
“You know Ruman of the Count Yoahim family, right? Unless something happens, I think I’ll be getting engaged to him. My father visited the Count’s house yesterday and I think he received the proposal then.”
“Ah, Ruman Yoahim. I always thought he was the most unsightly among the Central nobles,” I replied nonchalantly. “But starting today, it looks like I’ll have to pity him. Wow, you really never know what life will bring. Just like you said.”
I could easily shrug off this level of provocation. I nodded slowly and continued.
“The Harwin Barony must be flourishing lately with all that added land. To think the Yoahim family, who never accepts even the slightest loss, has finally started considering you as a fiancée candidate.”
“What?”
“At this rate, shouldn’t you invite my late father’s ghost to the engagement ceremony? He’s the biggest contributor, after all. If it were me, I would have asked him for a congratulatory speech.”
“Don’t act so arrogant.”
Dalia glared at me, huffing.
“Even so, you’re just someone living off a Marquis with commoner blood.”
She gnashed her teeth and fired back with all her might.
“I’m so curious to see where your half-brother will sell you off to?”
“Then you’d better stay on my good side.”
I spoke elegantly while lifting my teacup.
“Because if I tell my brother to sell me to Ruman of the Count Yoahim family, then a very significant ‘something’ will happen to your precious engagement.”
I had never lost in this kind of psychological warfare. However, feeling a bit bored, I took a sip of tea and got straight to the point.
“Why are you here?”
“…The Warp has been a mess since yesterday.”
If I hadn’t known the original story, it was a fact I would have learned late thanks to the knight from yesterday. Dalia continued pertly.
“My father quickly looked into the situation here and there. The Magic Tower announced it won’t be easily resolved since it’s due to a Monster Wave.”
Dalia took a sip of tea, following my lead, perhaps wanting to build suspense. Then she gave a wide smirk and said:
“You guys don’t have much food left, do you? Hand the Erenta region over to us.”
As expected.
The Union Head of the Western Grain Merchants hadn’t specifically mentioned the Erenta region for no reason. Baron Harwin must have prodded them first. Offering to pay a high price if they could seize the fishing rights of Erenta from Sayers. The Union Head, desperate for money, had jumped at the chance.
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