I Became the Teacher of the Imperial Family’s Bastard

099. Harvesting (2)

To be honest, the Grand Duke’s condition was so bad that it couldn’t even be joked about.

His speech was slurred from the start.

His mouth was so torn up that proper speech was impossible.

Even so, the Grand Duke explained as clearly as he could.

Whether it was out of spite, or just his nature.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

With that short answer, I too turned my eyes away from him.

Thus, I played with the homunculus, and except for the beeping sounds, silence roamed the space in that moment.

“…Thank you.”

The guy expressed his gratitude.

I replied while feeding a cheeseburger to the homunculus.

“For what.”

“For bringing the master. For stopping me. And for preventing what I did. All of it.”

“I didn’t do it to get your thanks.”

“Anyway, I owe you.”

His decisive demeanor was the complete opposite of his mother’s.

But if you strip that away and think about it, well.

“I don’t need your thanks. I don’t intend to get close to you.”

He’s not necessary for what I have to do.

Personal feelings are no longer needed now that everything is settled, so we’re strangers. Isn’t that enough?

Perhaps he was quick-witted, as he read my intentions and shut his mouth.

Silence again, and then beep beep.

When is Historia planning to come? This atmosphere was starting to get awkward.

With that in mind, I tapped the head of the guy who was beeping for no reason.

Then the homunculus rolled around, whining.

Seeing that reminded me of something.

“…Why were you getting hit?”

“Pardon?”

“You could have really died just now. If you knew the duke didn’t mean it, you could have asked him to stop at least once.”

It was a light curiosity.

But the answer that came back was not light.

“My mother has never laid a hand on me. If I hadn’t done what I did, she probably never would have in her life.”

“So you got hit just this once?”

“No, I felt sorry for making her regret.”

He exhaled and added.

“She will blame herself. She’s a responsible person, so she would have tried to shoulder my sins too. That she didn’t educate me properly. That she didn’t give me enough love. Rather than letting her hurt herself, isn’t it right for her to hurt me more?”

“Hmm.”

I couldn’t empathize with his words.

“I don’t know what it’s like not having a mother.”

“She was there. She just passed away early.”

“Anyway, she’s not in my memory.”

If I had to find something similar, it might be like the sense of debt I feel towards my sister.

I answered while thinking such thoughts.

“Anyway, since you’re alive, behave yourself. Don’t cause any more trouble.”

He smiled bitterly.

“I will reflect. I lost too much due to my childish judgment.”

“Don’t pretend to be mature.”

The words slipped out.

His gaze turned towards me at those words.

I frowned.

How should I put it, pretending to be mature and enlightened just looked annoying.

The signs of reflection were clear, but that was dangerous.

The desire to improve can sometimes become poison and consume a person.

“What’s lost is lost. It’s good to take it as a lesson, but guys like you always go to extremes and make the same mistake twice. Saying you’ll make up for it somehow… it’s obvious even without seeing it.”

“…Then what should I do?”

“I told you. Live quietly.”

I felt that no matter what I said, he wouldn’t understand well.

A breed similar to me. A breed that goes mad, unable to bear the guilt.

If it were me right after the regression, I would have told him to repay the debt somehow.

I would have told him to protect Heiron with his life.

But now, thinking about it, it’s different.

When you become someone who sacrifices to protect something, you see things differently.

“Think about what that old man was trying to save by sacrificing his own life.”

He said he was a brilliant talent.

So he asked to save and forgive him.

But really.

Was that the only reason?

“He saved you because it was you. Forget about being an heir or whatever, just because it was you.”

I stood up.

The homunculus, which had been beeping, waddled up and stood up after me.

“If you really want to atone, think of that old man. Try to protect what he wanted.”

It was a short meeting, but he was an impressive old man.

As a teacher, he was truly close to an ideal, and having such a person call me the teacher of the empire made me think a lot.

“It’s better to be healthy than great. At least that old man would have thought so.”

The look in his eyes trembled.

The eyes that had been filled with confusion soon held moisture.

I don’t have the personality to watch those tears any longer.

“Sigh, why am I doing this? Since I’m up, I’m leaving. If the saintess comes, tell her I left because of urgent business.”

I waved my hand and left the room.

The homunculus followed me closely.

“But why do you keep following me?”

“Beep!”

Does it want a cheeseburger?

I had heard it had the memory of a goldfish, but maybe that wasn’t the case.

* * *

The cold wave has ended.

The cold this winter also caused quite a few victims, but according to the grand duke, the damage was quite minor compared to previous years.

It’s fortunate, but to me, the cold wave itself is like that.

‘It seems like this happened because we built something on the land where the spirits are.’

It was a thought I had since the war before the regression.

In fact, wouldn’t it have been better not to build anything on this land?

Wouldn’t building a wall in front of the snowfield have had a similar effect?

But now that I think about it, it’s like this.

After hearing various stories about Pharos and the founding period, and meeting the spirits directly, I realized something.

‘To preserve the rank, a spirit that reached divinity was needed. The founding family of Heyron was placed here to protect the land where the spirits are.’

Doesn’t it make sense?

Especially when I think about what Heyron always said.

A family that received the most barren land despite being a founding family.

That disgrace carried with it the most important honor and responsibility.

Well, I don’t know the truth either.

Besides, what’s the point of talking about the past?

What’s important is now.

“Goodbye to the North.”

The Crown Prince said.

He had just given a speech before the opening of the Heyron Festival.

We packed our bags and left immediately.

Staying here to enjoy the festival… isn’t that right?

Everyone is busy.

Especially our Saintess.

“Can’t we just look around for one day? Just one day…”

She pleaded with a trembling voice, but what could I do?

“Then another day’s worth of petitions will come up. Don’t you remember how much the Holy See pressured the Grand Duke?”

“Ugh…!”

Her lips pressed tightly together, and her cheeks puffed out slightly.

Her eyes showed a hint of resentment, but what could I do?

The Holy See, where the final decision-maker had made a clean getaway, was now almost paralyzed.

The middle managers were handling everything they could… but wasn’t that place originally where all the authority was concentrated in the Saint and Saintess?

“Should we cause more trouble?”

“Really…!”

She whimpered and trembled, making me wonder how much work she had been doing.

Of course, that didn’t mean I would do the work for her.

“Let’s go. We’ve packed everything.”

At my words, the sulking Historia trudged up to the carriage.

Beatrice was already inside, asleep.

As I was about to get in, the Crown Prince asked.

“Why do you have so much luggage?”

“This? It’s all food supplies.”

We rented another carriage.

While the Crown Prince was giving his speech, the ingredients were brought in from the northern market.

There are so many things I want to make with these.

“There’s a lot of good meat and cheese in the north, isn’t there? Dairy farming is quite developed.”

People who don’t know might wonder how there could be dairy farming in a land where not a single blade of grass grows, but the livestock that survive here are practically half-monsters.

Their breeds are incomparable to those from other regions, and the cheese made from their milk has a flavor that explodes like a bomb.

When I explained this, the Crown Prince’s eyes lit up as he asked,

“A new burger recipe?”

That’s one thing, but I’m going to make something else first.

“There’s something called pizza. I’m thinking of making one.”

“Pizza? Never heard of it.”

“You’ll understand once you taste it.”

While a cheeseburger could be considered the best recipe, if you asked me what the most memorable food was, I would say it was pizza.

‘It was really delicious.’

One day, the Crown Prince, who had achieved a great feat, brought a chunk of cheese from the Imperial Army headquarters.

He went straight to Hannah and made the ridiculous request to melt it all into a cheeseburger, and that’s when Hannah said,

―With this amount, we could make a pizza! Would you like to try?

I remember Hannah being unusually excited while making it.

The Crown Prince, well, he was thrilled to have Hannah cook, and the result was a cheese pizza topped with leftover meat.

―This is insane. Really.

―Delicious, right?

―Why didn’t you teach me this earlier? Do you want to die?

―Hi, Hic?! Lieutenant?!

The taste was pure emotion.

Do you understand how I could have roamed the barbarian supply routes alone for a while just to taste that flavor again?

I would get chunks of cheese and ask Hannah to make pizza, and whenever I brought cheese, Hannah would always be sweating in front of the oven.

The Crown Prince… still preferred cheeseburgers.

The reason was that they had more meat.

Anyway, Hannah once said,

The better the cheese, the better the pizza.

That thought suddenly came to mind while I was at the market.

Why, wouldn’t it be delicious to mix cheese from the northern mountains and cheese from the islands and bake it on the dough?

That’s why I bought a lot.

I had a promise with Aria too.

‘Well, northern cheese is a specialty in its own right.’

If you don’t like the pizza, I can make you a cheeseburger with this.

A rather satisfying harvest.

It was the moment when I finished loading the luggage and preparing.

“You’re leaving now.”

The duke came out to see me off.

The duke’s son was still bedridden, so he greeted me in advance.

“Yes, I had a good rest.”

“Rest? I feel like I only made you suffer, sorry.”

“It’s fine. More importantly, take care of the territory.”

“Hmm.”

The duke was silent for a moment.

Then he smiled strangely and hugged me.

“Always be careful. You survived this time, but who knows about the next.”

With a worried look, I answered firmly.

“I can’t promise to be careful, but I’ll try to survive.”

“I’m always worried about you.”

“There will be nothing to worry about.”

Only then did the duke let me go.

I got on the carriage, greeted him, and saw the duke gradually receding through the carriage window.

Finally, I’m going home.

As I thought the long journey was over, I slowly relaxed.

It was the moment I was about to close my eyes.

“Beep!”

“?

“Beep!”

“What is this?”

No. 1 was inside the carriage.

To be precise, it was waving its hands wildly from within Historia’s arms, who was muttering gloomily.

“Why is it here?”

“Huh? Didn’t you bring it? It was here before me.”

“?”

In a situation that made no sense, I looked at No. 1. It slipped out of Historia’s arms, sat next to me, and raised its hand.

“Beep!”

Is it saying it wants to come along?

I thought about sending it back, but there was no reason to force it to leave if it wanted to come.

I immediately knew how to handle it.

‘Will Aria like it…?’

I could just say it’s a local specialty and give it to her.

After all, the only person who can create a homunculus is Superd, so this could be considered a specialty in its own right.

I leaned back against the seat, letting it go.

The carriage thus drew closer to the capital.