Even while I spent my days being busy with Axion’s childcare, I tried to find a way to prevent Axion from being assimilated with the Demon Dragon.
‘Oh? Come to think of it….’
At that time, the contents of the original novel came to mind.
‘I think the necklace Vanilla later gains weakens the Demon Dragon’s power.’
Around when Axion, who bullied Vanilla in the name of love, came to truly love her through an incident, and Vanilla also falls in love with him…..
‘About that time, the necklace will temporarily cut off the Demon Dragon’s power.’
However, in the original novel, which aims to be the height of melodramatic tragedy, misunderstandings spring up in their relationship again, and the necklace is shattered.
‘So, Vanilla is the key to cutting off the Demon Dragon’s power.’
And one of the reasons Vanilla was attracted to Axion: the vast knowledge he acquired from a young age to survive while rolling in the muck.
When she realized that she was like a frog raised beautifully in a well, her curiosity about him sprouted.
‘However…..’
Now Axion has no reason to roll in the muck, right? I’m planning on raising him like he’s a treasure to avoid going down that terrible route!
‘It can’t be like this. It can’t…..’
Even if Axion avoids the terrible event that will occur when he is around 7 years old, if we can’t resolve the Demon Dragon, his life will ultimately be limited.
‘Axion, who holds the Demon Dragon’s dragon heart may seem like a normal child from the outside, but he is retaining all of his current memories as he is growing up.’
Then, if I start accumulating knowledge from now on, naturally I would accumulate a lot more knowledge than Vanilla, right?
‘Let’s at least give it a try.’
The next day, I, who had just returned from my early morning Mom Cafe meeting, headed to Axion’s playroom as usual.
While I played with Axion for a while, Carl took a seat next to me and did his hobby, sewing.
I looked at him and hinted:
“Carl. Let’s also find a family tutor.”
“Sorry? Did you say, family tutor? Do you finally feel like you want to get a proper education?”
“Huh?”
Carl put down what he was sewing and looked at me with wide eyes.
From what I remember, although Celia is a farming fanatic, she is a talented person who graduated from the Academy with distinction.
What is he saying?
“Me? What education are you talking about?”
“Etiquette education! When you were young you had Angela, a famous etiquette teacher, but didn’t she get sick of Lady and leave the mansion? After that, all the teachers the master brought in also ran out crying. You couldn’t have forgotten it already, right?”
“……..”
Looking back on my memories, there was a time like that.
Why on earth is this body so unique?
I sighed deeply and shook my head.
“I remember. Anyway, not my etiquette training. I’m talking about Axion, Axion!”
“….. Master Axion?”
Carl tilted his head and looked at Axion, who was in my arms.
Axion, who had been giggling and fidgeting with my hair, was now fast asleep.
“Master Axion is already perfect; what family tutor. Lady. Haha. You can really tell a joke.”
It’s clearly a compliment about my child, but why does it feel like he’s turning it around to criticize me?
I pursed my lips and slumped my shoulders.
“I heard other families have already invited home tutors for their kids, sigh. I’m worried that Axion will fall behind like this.”
To be exact, to the female lead Vanilla!
At my sighed words, Carl seemed to be seriously considering my thoughts. He said “Hmmm” with a pained expression.
“If he meets his peers later and gets ignored….. My heart will be ripped to shreds in pain.”
“Ignored. How could they ignore the cute Axion?!”
Carl shouted, holding tightly onto the piece of cloth he was sewing.
I deliberately had an ‘Aigoo. How could you not know about the ways of the world.’ facial expression and clicked my tongue.
“Are you asking how scary the kids are these days? Didn’t you see what was in the newspaper the other day? Those kids who were just about to enter the Academy secretly drove their parent’s carriage and caused an accident!”
“My world. Really?”
It’s a lie.
“Indeed, indeed! Kids are so scary these days. Moreover, how cruel can they be when amongst their peers? Animal Kingdom, that’s what it is.”
“…….Animal kingdom? In which country was that?”
Carl blinked, looking very innocent.
Grandpa Carl, how could you believe another person’s words like this? I’m quite concerned about how you’ll fare outside the residence.
“That isn’t important right now. Axion’s home tutor. That’s what’s important.”
“Umm. After listening, it does seem important.”
Looking at Carl who was finally nodding his head, I inwardly said in please: Good. He fell for it.
“Right. So let’s hire a tutor.”
I’m the owner of the estate while my brother, Viscount Evanror is away; but in reality, the actual management is done by Carl.
Probably my brother didn’t trust his farming-fanatic younger sister, so he entrusted it to Carl.
Of course, even if he is managing, I have the decision-making power, so all I have to do is give him a command.
But Celia was like family to him, and I also didn’t want to do that to him, who is as old as my grandfather.
“……Right. But there is a problem. Miss.”
Carl had a little bit of a dark expression on his face and looked at me blankly.
“Problem? What problem?
He hesitated for a while, then sighed softly and said:
“We don’t have money.”
“….What?”
“We don’t have enough money to hire a home tutor. After we take care of all the people in our mansion, there isn’t any money left.”
What?
I almost jumped up without even realizing it. I strengthened the arm holding Axion and sweated profusely.
“One moment. Why don’t we have money? The farmland is that big, and we have a large territory, right?”
“…..That was purchased with an inheritance left by the old master. Since Lady is not doing any profitable activities, of course we have no external income. We barely make a living from taxes collected from the land.”
“No, what has Sylvesterin been doing all this time? Isn’t there money that Sylvesterin earned? He’s nominally a professor at the Imperial Academy, but he still makes a lot of money, right?”
Sylvesterin is the name of this body’s older brother.
I don’t remember what the name of his major was, but he was a professor in the Imperial Academy. He is fit to be the head of the Evanror viscounty, a family of scholars for generations.
He is currently away; he said he is doing some type of research.
Carl sighed deeply.
“Of course we can’t spend that money.”
“What? Why?”
“When Master Sylvesterin left the mansion, he made a special request.”
“……What?”
Then Carl secretly looked away.
“Don’t let Miss Celia touch anything other than the property assigned to her.”
“……”
“It’s probably because in the past Miss. Celia used the family money to buy all kinds of crop seeds. I heard the damage at that time was enormous.”
How- how could that be?
“Therefore, if we hire a tutor with Miss. Celia’s money, the household account balance will go into a negative from that point on. As is, the price of powdered milk and diapers for Master Axion is no joke.”
He cast his gaze into the distance with an exhausted expression.
The fabric in his hand suddenly caught my eye.
Uh, since when did Carl have the hobby of sewing…..?
“I’ve been holding back because I didn’t want to worry Lady, but I guess I can’t help it. Sigh.”
“Ugh…..”
Looking at Carl’s face which shows his lifetime of hard work, I was tormented by a tingling sensation in my heart.
“What of the rice we harvested last time? Was that not profitable at all?”
“Huh? Is that unidentified yellow thing growing in the field over there a plant called rice?”
What?
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t know. It’s been 2 years since Miss suddenly said there is a new seed you were going to research. Aren’t you still agonizing over where to use it?”
What. What is this I’m hearing?
“But it’s really amazing. In the first year, even though you worked really hard to grow it, looking at a book that you brought from somewhere, you almost killed them all. The next year, as if the person has suddenly changed, didn’t you easily grow that plant called rice?”
“…….”
I was dumbfounded as I watched Carl nodding his head as if he was really fascinated.
Wait, that next year was when I transmigrated into this body.
So, until then, Celia didn’t know how to grow rice?
“Then, I grew it right?”
“Huh?”
“Uh, nothing.”
Perhaps because I received continuous shocks before, my posture must have been uncomfortable.
“Mmm.”
Axion wiggled his body and started to whine.
“Let’s talk about it later.”
“All right.”
After quickly soothing the child and putting him to bed, I also lay down on the bed next to him.
Carl went to his room, saying that he would finish sewing.
I blinked my eyes while lying on the bed.
“So……”
Celia gained knowledge about rice farming by reading books, and I grew up in a place where rice is the staple food and had experience helping my grandmother with rice farming.
“In the end, we two came together to produce this result.”
However, the harvested rice was just piled up in the warehouse. It’s clear that they still don’t know what to do with the rice.
“I can make money with this, right?”
I lay on the bed and muttered.
Then I can call a tutor, and Axion won’t be disregarded by the female lead Vanilla.
If that happens, there won’t be a reason to go down that terrible route. Moreover, by now it would be the same as described in the original novel. If I time it well, it’ll be a hit.
Yes, it was the perfect plan.
* * *
However, contrary to my expectations, finding someone to buy the rice was harder than I expected.
“This makes very good food.”
“So, why would you eat something you’ve never seen before? What would you do if something happened to you after eating it?”
Elston, who was enraptured watching Axion toddle around, responded to my words uninterestedly.
“Ugh.”
I was thinking I would at least be able to sell it to the Wizardry Tower.
Elston had the same reaction as other food businesses.
I can’t just blindly buy something I’m seeing for the first time. What did you trust in to take on such a challenge?
They all answered like that and didn’t even look at it, even though I praised it.
‘Obviously, in <Axion> it was said that there was a food shortage in the past.’
The staple food here is called miar. Miar, which has a similar appearance and characteristic to wheat, was a crop that grew well wherever it was sown.
Thanks to this, the empire enjoyed abundant foodstuffs and developed.
Then one day, a problem suddenly arose with the miar harvest. That was the beginning of the famine.
In the original novel, it was also the setting in which Axion experienced all types of hardships from when he was very young. At that time, anywhere he went, the public sentiment was hard-hearted.
‘Is it not that time yet?’
I was sullen, wondering if I had gotten the wrong time when Elston glanced at me and said, rolling his eyes:
“Come to think of it, I stopped by the Shiaster duchy, right?”
Ah, right.
I told him to come and tell me about the subjects and the teachers Vanilla is learning from.
What’s the point of finding out? Our Axion wouldn’t even be able to learn anyway. Sniffle sniffle.
Elston looked flustered after my shoulders dropped even more and he saw my gloomy expression.
Then he quickly said:
“Duke Dazar disclosed his concerns. He needs food. New food.”
“…..What?”
“Since you asked if perhaps you could develop a new food for the Wizardry Tower, and I said I would think about it…..”
As expected!
That’s right! According to my memory, it’s around now.
“Elston!”
I ran to him step by step, my eyes shining brightly as if I were looking at my lifesaver.
I grabbed his two thin hands that were placed carelessly and shouted:
“Introduce me to the Duke!”
“Eek. L-lady. It hurts. Hurts!”
It feels like my hands are going to crumble…..
Elston’s voice gradually became quieter, and he soon collapsed.
This weak guy……
Did he faint? Lol.