Chapter 31: 30

Chapter 30: Local Love Bursts Forth

　With my family's full support, I left the royal capital the day after my social debut for the villa in the Viscount Clay estate.
　The five-day carriage ride went smoothly. When I arrived at the Clay residence, I was greeted by everyone who guarded the house, including James, the family retainer.

“Miss Rebecca, Mr. David, welcome home!”
「「「「Welcome back! 」」」」

　James' words signaled the servants to bow to me in unison.

“Thank you. I'm back.”

　I smiled and thanked them for welcoming me, but then I realized that this was a serious problem.

　Although my father, Viscount Clay, had entrusted me with the management of the estate, David would be the future heir to the title of viscount. And yet, the people in the house are clearly giving me priority.
　I had not noticed this because David and I had never been together before. I must do something about it as soon as possible…

　Emma notices my subtle expression and took the initiative.

“The young lady is in charge of the Viscount Clay estate. The people who work here are sworn to the Viscount's family, which means that she is the master of all us servants.
　For your information, I have the Master's approval on this matter, so please give it up, My Lady."

　What, ......?　Isn't it strange?
　How is it that you would rather have me as master than Father, the current Viscount, or David, the next Viscount?

　I stared at James with suspicion as he looked back with soft eyes.
　This grand old family man enjoys coaxing me into things. He is undoubtedly the one who has been getting strange approval from Father.

　James is not enjoying the thrill of having a nobleman's daughter chew sand*. It was educational guidance backed by tough love.
　I have learned a lot from James's suggestions, and I am grateful for them, but I also appreciate his hobbies and interests.

　Although I am grateful to him, I feel that his guidance, which I can only assume is a combination of his hobby and practical use, has become more and more unsavory over the years.
　Moreover, he is very careful these days to crush my escape routes and counterarguments in advance.

　Even though I am aware that the people in the mansion favor me, I did not expect that James, who is particularly fussy about distinctions in status, would place me ahead of the rightful successor, David.
　It was a complete defeat for me, as I had made the first move, but it didn't make sense that he even had Father's approval.
　If David had objected, I would have still had a chance, but even he was convinced. In this situation, it seemed that I had no choice but to give in.


　When I visited the territory, I always made a point of looking around the territory and its people, not just checking on the paperwork.
　Conversely, Viscount Clay's domain is large enough to look around.

　I invited David to join me for a visit, and he was very eager to go with me.
　David was also curious about the state of Viscount Clay, which he had not visited in a long time.


　As a daughter of a noble family, I use a horse-drawn carriage in the capital, but when I go out to the countryside, I ride a horse by myself.
　I can ride in my riding clothes, of course, but I can also ride gracefully sideways in my dress.
　I have trained myself to be able to ride at a very high speed even when riding sideways, so I can rest assured that I will be able to do so even in the event of an emergency---which, if I had to guess, is simply because of my usual competitive spirit.

　My attire for the day was a dress, as the territory south of the Viscount's residence has well-marked roads. For some reason, the people in my domain tend to like me in a dress.
　As I lined up my horse and rode along, I called out to David.

“David, dear, what is your schedule for the rest of the day? It's going to take us five days to get to the Royal Capital, and we can't get too hectic at the last minute, can we?"

　I was actually thinking of a thank-you gift for him for accompanying me this far, but depending on my return schedule, I may have to move that up.
　I asked him about it, thinking that if I couldn't make it in time, I would send it at a later date, but he gave me a surprising answer.

“I will be staying here for four more days. Is that too much trouble?"

　I raised my eyebrows at my brother's blunt answer.

"It's no trouble at all. Don't tell me you are planning to return home alone?
　I'm glad you came all the way here with me, but you are a legitimate son of the Howard Marquess family. If you intend to be that reckless, I, as your sister, will not overlook it."

　As expected, David seemed to have thought that much through. They arranged for the wagon to go ahead with an empty load, and David and his escorts to meet up with them in a town along the way.
　The departure date was the morning of the fifth day, which gave me more than enough time to prepare his thank-you gift.

　Viscount Clay's estate is doing very well.
　Although it is not a large territory, it is not prone to disasters and the land is fertile. The harvests and tax revenues are stable, and many of the residents can afford to live on their own.

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　In such a situation, bad people are bound to pop up, and if it is only crop thieves, they are little trouble. The worst kind are the merchants who offer to trade in the future.

　I hate to say it, but the literacy rate of those who are involved in the primary industry in this world, in other words, farmers, is not very high. They are not good at precise calculations, and they are not very good at making a living.

　What would happen to them if a shrewd merchant caught their eye and signed a contract that they could not even read? Unfortunately, they would lose money in nine out of ten cases.
　If you have a written contract, there is no way you can win, even if you later make a fuss about the difference in the story.
　The merchants would also not engage in exorbitant transactions; they would instead find the kind of farmers who would cry themselves to sleep, saying that they were too embarrassed to admit that they had been cheated and that the loss was not enough to sue, so the damage was even greater.

　I realized this in my second year of being entrusted by Father with the management of the Viscount's estate.
　That summer, the weather had not been good, and the harvest had been hit hard. A shortage of product would drive up prices. The fluctuations in market prices should have balanced out the income of the growers, but the people of the estate were acting strangely.


　When I realized what was happening, I took action to increase the literacy rate.

　Getting rid of people with bad intentions would only temporarily help. Since decent people would also come to buy, the presence or absence of malicious intent would eventually be determined by a mismatch between verbal explanations and documents.
　It was then most constructive to learn the means of self-preservation.

　There was some opposition from adults who did not want to lack man-power during the busy season, and they said it was pointless.
　So we opened a temporary school during the off-season using lunch as bait, and we caught a lot of children. In addition, adults were also caught. In this way, the importance of letters and the usefulness of study were imprinted on the children, arithmetic was taught to the boys, and embroidery was taught to the girls as well as letter practice.

　Although it is not possible to achieve an education that can be used for documents overnight, the people of the region recognized the importance of letters, and they were not so easily fooled. That alone was a great achievement.


　Several years have passed since then. Viscount Clay's domain is now surrounded by abundant harvests and smiles on the faces of its people.
　Even in Marquess Howard's Domain, where Father runs a good government, it is rare to find people who smile so cheerfully at the rulers.
　David seemed to be completely unaware of this kind of current situation and was surprised by the unusually positive attitude of the locals- young and old- who were working on the farm.

　When I see the fullness of life and smiles on the faces of the people, I think that these non-numeric aspects are important.
　James frowned that it was a matter of degrees and that it was difficult to find closure, but David's astonishment filled me with a great deal of local love.


　In the middle of my visit, I was approached by a little girl holding a bouquet of wildflowers.

"Good morning, Rebecca!"

　As I took it and patted her head, I heard David's squeezed-out groan.

　As a society of status, too low a barrier is also a problem.
　I was afraid that he would hear that the girl had called me by name, but he didn't seem to care.

“How are the locals closer to my sister than I am?”

　The points of interest in adolescent boys is a real mystery.

　I think our sister-brother relationship, which has been somewhat awkward over the past few years, has improved greatly during the few days we spent together.
　The next day, we toured the territory north of the Viscount's residence and visited the workshop where Howard Brand cushions were manufactured.
　When I expressed my concern over the commercialization of "Bear Repellent" leading to being used for military purposes, he advised me to just apply for a patent first.

　I teased him that he would be a good advisor to His Highness Garrett, but to my surprise, he said he was not interested.

“I was with him because I thought he was my future brother-in-law, but if he wants me to be his adviser, there must be someone else who would be more suitable.”

　His smiling face reminded me of our Father's. Apparently, he was upset about the series of events leading up to the dissolution of the engagement. Although I was happy to feel the love of family, I also felt a little uneasy about whether I could make such a decision about my future.


　Five days later, on the day of David's departure.
　I handed him a checkered patchwork pillow with the Howard family crest in a single point. My brother thought it would be too embarrassing for a boy his age to have his name on it.

“Take care on your way home. This is just a small token of my appreciation, but it's a pillow for a good night's sleep. You can use it if you like.”

　It's filled with my specialized magic beads. I added a relaxing effect, so he would wake up refreshed in the morning.

　After thanking me in a whisper, David spurred his horse and left the Viscount Clay residence in a flash.
　His slightly reddened ears and unnaturally tearful eyes were awfully cute.
 

*Means to have a difficult time with something, shares a similarity with "Bite/ing the dust"

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