The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 14
- The Finest Dinner Banquet
‘Good grief, good grief.’
Baron Forman felt as though he were sitting on pins and needles.
‘Oh, dear…’
His worst fears had materialized.
The warp gates had stopped working completely.
The Central region was a basin surrounded by towering mountain ranges, and monsters were now surfacing on every mountain.
The same held true for the hills carving out the borders of the fief.
Even if one managed to slay a monster, its meat was completely inedible.
With monsters roaming about, venturing into the mountains was out of the question. Even wild edible greens turned poisonous if brushed by a monster’s saliva.
Above all, running into a monster meant risking one’s life.
‘If only he hadn’t traded the horses for dairy cows, things wouldn’t be this bad… Ah.’
A month and a half ago.
Baron Hawin had ordered every horse driven to the border of the West to be exchanged for dairy cows.
At first, everyone had rejoiced.
“We can make porridge with the milk and churn butter! Old cows can be slaughtered for meat, too!”
Yet problems arose almost immediately.
Dairy cows drank an extraordinary amount of water. Just two cows drank more water than ten grown men.
The wells of the Hawin Fief quickly began running dry.
On top of that, they consumed vastly more hay than horses ever did. Baron Hawin had been completely ignorant of that fact.
He ordered his people to fetch river water from Erenta, but the knights of Sears barred their way.
“Your side was the one that severed trade on Jejel Street first.”
Worse still, dairy cows were exceedingly sensitive to changes in their environment and feed, yielding scarcely any milk in the beginning.
“With horses, at least you could make them haul cargo. But with these… it just takes more hands to shovel manure and milk them… And if they eat even a fraction less feed, the milk dries right up.”
The laborers who had once managed horse ranches grumbled with bitter discontent.
The cattle devoured a full month’s supply of horse hay in less than half that time. Before long, people were forced to surrender their own food to feed the beasts.
“Feed them the dried corn! It’s what we have the most of!”
The cows ate the corn ravenously.
In fact, they gorged themselves on it.
Before long, however, the cattle collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. The high sugar content in the corn had induced acidosis.
Naturally, milk production plummeted even further. Through it all, the beasts guzzled down even more water.
‘In the end, this will just finish with slaughtering those cows for meat.’
Even that thought proved to be wishful thinking.
A physician warned that eating meat from cattle that died of acidosis could cause severe food poisoning. In the end, they could not even be consumed as meat.
Under such dire circumstances, relying on the baron for every meal was sheer agony for Baron Forman.
Even those meals were turning pitifully meager by the day…
‘Another mouth to feed is a terrifying burden indeed.’
Baron Forman couldn’t help but wonder.
By now, he was not getting enough to eat either.
‘How are things in Sears? They shouldn’t even have any salt over there, right?’
Because knights strictly patrolled the territory’s borders, Baron Hawin’s retainers could not even approach.
‘It’s still too early to dig up potatoes, and the fish haven’t been biting well either. Besides, shouldn’t their grain have run out long ago?’
“W-well, I heard they bought up chickens from Jejel Street at the very end. A massive flock, too. They bought out every single chicken sold in all those shops.”
When the merchant from Jejel Street reported this, Baron Hawin snapped irritably.
“What a foolish choice. Where on earth do they plan to find food for all those chickens?”
“Well, but they do lay eggs every day.”
“Then give some salt to the commoners in our fief and bring back chickens. We ought to raise some in the baron’s manor, too.”
“Um, every household already has plenty of salt… I’m not sure they’ll agree to part with their chickens…”
“Just force the trade, no matter what!”
Because the chickens were noisy, they were locked away inside a storehouse for the time being.
Contrary to expectations, however, the chickens did not lay eggs every day. Fed nothing but barley hulls, they lost weight and stopped laying altogether.
“Why aren’t the chickens laying eggs?”
“W-well, sir… When we fed them proper feed at home, they laid an egg every day without fail.”
“Then where is this feed?”
“We bought it from the merchants, so we’ve run out. With the warp gates down, there’s no way to get more…”
‘Then the chickens over in that fief must be in the exact same state!’
Amidst this turmoil, Baron Forman quietly stared down at his invitation.
The date of the dinner banquet was rapidly approaching.
‘If I go, won’t I just be an unwelcome burden?’
Since when had Baron Forman fallen so low as to walk on eggshells over a single meal…?
My maternal grandson is the heir to the Grand Duchy of Nogen, of all things…
Reduced to eating the bread of charity in his twilight years, the old man sank into despair.
‘Should I just not go?’
Yet, having received a formal invitation, failing to show up would be a gross breach of etiquette.
He was curious about the state of Sears, and worried as well…
‘Yes, let’s inspect their fief first before making up my mind. Whether I should go, or whether I shouldn’t.’
Ultimately, he began disguising himself once more.
‘They’re only restricting travel for the people of the Hawin Fief. I can just present my forged identification from the West!’
Rolling up his sleeves, Baron Forman quietly slipped out of Baron Hawin’s manor.
“Whoa.”
As Philip brushed away the soil with trembling hands, plump, round potatoes were laid bare.
A month and a half had passed since planting the seed potatoes. It was the absolute minimum growing period required to harvest young, edible potatoes.
Looking at the dirt-covered potatoes, the corners of my mouth curled up on their own.
‘It’s a success.’
Though barely the size of fingers for now, they were plentiful. Given a little more time, they would undoubtedly grow thick and hearty. The lush, healthy leaves and firm tubers heralded a bountiful harvest.
“Be sure to peel them and cook them thoroughly.”
Just in case, I stressed this to the head chef.
“Since these were harvested early. Dig up only what we need for today’s meals, including the portions for the fief’s residents. Tell them tomorrow’s potatoes will be harvested tomorrow.”
Even for early-harvest varieties, potatoes normally take two months to fully mature. However, potatoes fit to be called ‘edible’ could be harvested starting right about now.
It had been a month and a half since the territory was cut off. All we had possessed from the start was a single month’s worth of grain.
“We have to hold out for a month and a half with this. Let’s ration it carefully.”
I had instructed the kitchen staff early on.
“In return, we’ll have eggs, and before long, we’ll be able to eat chicken meat as well.”
I had bought a massive flock of chickens from the very beginning.
I instructed them to mix rice bran and wheat bran with crushed river clamshells. That was our chicken feed.
“Why are we mixing in clamshells?”
“Because they need calcium. Once we start getting eggshells, we’ll crush those and mix them in, too.”
During the day, I had the knights let the chickens roam free in the potato fields and along the riverbanks.
The chickens pecked away at grubs on their own, securing their source of protein.
Under normal circumstances, we would have relied on commercial feed, but this was the best we could manage for now.
Yet, because their essential nutritional needs were steadily met, the chickens laid an egg every single day like clockwork.
“I’ll supply other ingredients, too.”
A lettuce patch had been established across the rooftop of the marquis’s manor.
‘No land should ever sit idle.’
There had been one household that gathered lettuce seeds in early spring. Lettuce was the most common crop grown in the small plots of the riverside fief.
Lettuce grew fast and was effortless to cultivate. Best of all, it could be harvested continuously by plucking the leaves.
Aside from that, other goods were trickling in. Namely…
“My Lady! They say salt made up the largest haul again today!”
“Another basket of perilla seeds has arrived!”
These were provisions smuggled in secretly from the Hawin Fief.
The moment I heard that Dahlia had ‘decided to raise dairy cows,’ I foresaw this exact turn of events.
‘Dairy cows drink massive amounts of water.’
On top of that, dairy cows are sensitive to environmental shifts.
They were hardly the kind of livestock people with zero experience could easily bring in and manage.
‘Milk production is bound to dry up, and they will run short on water.’
Humans cannot survive when water runs out.
What was more, both Jejel Street and the Beron region had belonged to the Sears Marquisate until just a month and a half ago. It was obvious they would shamelessly attempt to fetch water from the river in Erenta.
‘That’s why I stationed the knights. To strictly prevent them from taking any water.’
Of course, I had no intention of truly cutting off their water. It was merely banned by official decree.
“Officially, it will be forbidden. But turning a blind eye to what’s done in secret is fine. Just attach a condition.”
I had gathered all fifty households of the fief’s residents and given them their orders.
Though currently divided, they were all folks who had lived as close neighbors for years.
“Tell them they must bring something to bribe the knights. And this must never, under any circumstances, reach Baron Hawin’s ears.”
Since there were only around fifty households, keeping them organized was simple.
“Listen closely to how things are going in their fief, too. Even if it belongs to another lord now, no one should be left to starve to death.”
When word reached me that the dairy cows had collapsed after eating corn, I deliberately made sure word was passed to their local physician.
“Never eat the meat of dairy cows that died of acidosis. It causes severe food poisoning.”
Dairy cattle had a long history as domestic animals. A wealth of research and records existed about them.
Moreover, the dairy cows in this world were far more prone to acidosis than those on Earth in my past life.
I was not generous enough to go out of my way to tell Dahlia, ‘Dairy cows won’t work.’ But neither did I wish to see innocent people lose their lives.
