Remilia Oxton was crying again today as she looked at the paper that had been returned to her.
"Ugh... I was sure I had prepared it well."
[A Research Report on Monster Breeding and Its Byproducts.]
As she wandered through the Monster Research Society clutching the paper to her chest as though it were her own child, someone approached her.
"Remilia."
"M-Master?"
Bagion was Remilia’s mentor and one of the evaluators at the Monster Research Society.
"How long do you intend to cling to that useless paper?"
"I-I, but..."
"Come back to my side. If you do, I will personally correct the flaws in that paper. Now..."
"Urk!"
Remilia tried to refuse the hand reaching for her paper, but the gazes around her stung too sharply.
Bagion felt it as well. Pressuring Remilia any further here would do him no good.
"If you change your mind, come to my laboratory anytime. Understood?"
Pat.
Remilia bit her lip as she watched Bagion walk away after lightly patting her shoulder. Bagion’s connections to the Imperial Family gave him immense influence within the Society, so no matter how often she continued submitting her paper, it was obvious that he would never allow it to pass.
The greedy man wanted to claim Remilia’s research for himself.
After the endless coaxing and threats, Remilia felt like giving up on everything now.
"Sigh."
Wondering whether she should give it all up, return to her hometown, and take up farming instead, she returned to her laboratory.
"Ah, you’ve returned."
"Eeeek!!!"
A handsome man was sitting there, waiting for her.
"W-Who are you?"
"Ah, my apologies. I was late in introducing myself."
The handsome black-haired, red-eyed man rose from his seat and offered Remilia his hand.
"I am Viktor Walterheim. I came here because I would like to sponsor your research, Lady Remilia."
"Ah... y-yes... Pardon? Sponsor it?!"
"Yes. Sponsor it."
Remilia stared at Viktor’s smiling hand, then quickly seized it.
"A-Ah! Um... where have you come from? M-May I offer you tea... no, I do not have any tea. Then perhaps some cold water..."
"Now, now, calm down. Let us sit and discuss it first."
"Yes!"
Once she sat down, Remilia hugged the paper in her arms—the one she cherished like her own child—tightly to herself.
Ah... at last, a sponsor who will properly look at my research.
"There are conditions to my sponsorship and support of your research, however."
"Yes! Please tell me! I will do anything you ask!"
"Hahaha... anything?"
**
"...Never use the word ‘anything’ so carelessly again..."
Philgot tilted his head and whispered to me as he watched Remilia muttering behind us.
"Grand Chieftain... did you perhaps kidnap her?"
"Of course not. Do I look like someone who would do something so barbaric?"
"Hmm. Then that is a relief."
Another successful buy at the bottom.
Remilia Oxton. In the novel, Remilia ultimately never managed to present the paper she cherished like her child to the world, and died from overwork. Meanwhile, the heroine, who had visited the Society to solve the orcs’ food problem, heard the cry of Remilia’s soul and used the documents she discovered to successfully breed monsters, thereby resolving Remilia Oxton’s lingering resentment.
But the heroine will never have a reason to come into contact with Remilia, since she did not take the orc tribe under her wing.
So I was the one who gobbled this opportunity up. I would save a person and solve the orcs’ food problem at the same time. Was that not killing two birds with one stone?
"Umm... Sponsor, but this is the North."
"Yes."
"Did the Northern Grand Duke permit this?"
"...?"
"???"
At Remilia’s question, both Philgot and I had hooks hanging over our faces.
"Lady Remilia? Do you not know who I am?"
"Um... you are the sponsor who is funding and supporting my research..."
"Before that, I told you my name."
"Ah, Viktor Walter...heim."
The moment Remilia spoke my name aloud, her expression rapidly stiffened.
"Walterheim... then are you the Northern Grand Duke?"
"Yes."
"Ah!"
After a moment of silence, Remilia broke into a bright smile and turned in the exact opposite direction from me.
"I shall be going now!"
"Hahaha. What a funny joke."
Thump!
When Remilia saw the orcs surrounding her, she began to tear up.
"W-Waaah!! P-Please spare me!"
"Excuse me?"
"I-I did not do anything in the Imperial Capital, you know?! I am just an ordinary researcher! So..."
"..."
"So please do not kill me... no, do not throw me to the orcs!!"
"Sigh."
"What on earth is that..."
I sent the orcs around Remilia back, then approached her.
"Lady Remilia, please calm down."
"Hic..."
"I do not know what you have heard in the Imperial Capital, but..."
"Th-They said that any Imperial citizen who offends the Northern Grand Duke is summarily executed on the spot."
"Do I look like some deranged murderer to you?"
"No."
After seating the somewhat calmer Remilia at the negotiating table, I continued.
"As I told you at the Monster Research Society, I need your knowledge regarding monster breeding, Lady Remilia."
"Pardon?"
"And I would like to begin domesticating monsters here, in the orc settlement of the North."
According to the novel, monsters produced byproducts far superior to those of ordinary livestock. However, because of the toxins and demonic energy they consumed in the wild, no race except for the orcs, with their robust stomachs, ate monster meat.
Yet our brilliant heroine inherited Remilia’s research and finally succeeded, supplying not only the orcs but everyone on the continent with enough meat to eat their fill.
What if Remilia does it rather than Angelia, the heroine—and I support her?
It would be possible to unlock, early in the story, the tech tree that the heroine only developed midway through the novel.
I can use the dowry received from House Roienthal for the budget. And as for the important monsters to breed...
"Grand Chieftain! We caught monsters!"
I waved at Gartan, who was bringing back around fifteen bison-like monsters from the grasslands.
"B-Bloody Horns!! My heavens, such healthy Bloody Horns... huff... huff."
Grin.
Just as expected of someone who had been wasting away in a laboratory, seeing nothing but dying monsters. Naturally, the blood of a researcher would boil at the sight of such healthy specimens.
"Huff... huff."
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Remilia looked at me with a calm expression.
"Will you truly... support me?"
"Yes."
"Why...?"
"I need food. The orcs who will settle here cannot endure for long with the methods currently available to us. But..."
Swish!
I spread Remilia’s paper across the table. I did not know its contents or its principles, but I could speak of the future that the heroine had succeeded in creating.
"Imagine it. A future where monster domestication succeeds, and high-quality meat spreads across the continent. In that future, you would be praised as the researcher who supplied the continent with high-quality meat..."
Like a devil offering a sweet proposal to a human, I whispered into Remilia’s ear.
"Dr. Remilia Oxton... imagine yourself..."
"Woooah!!! Just trust me!! Everyone, orcs!!! Let us begin by breeding the Bloody Horns!!! There are only males, you say! Then let us go catch some females, yahoo!!!"
"Oh! What intense eyes!"
"She is not a warrior, but she is fierce! I will follow her!"
"Take this, woman! Drink it, and strength will surge through you!"
Watching Remilia race off with the orcs while drinking the caffeinated beverage whose proportions I had adjusted, I grinned.
Slave Number One secured successfully.
**
"Mmm~"
As the morning sunlight tickled her face, Cecilia stretched and rose from her chair.
"It is morning already."
After staying up for several nights reading all manner of documents regarding the distribution of iron ore in the North, Cecilia was finally able to end her long battle by putting a mark on the final document.
"Mmm... I cannot eat any more... ngh."
"Pfft."
Cecilia gently tapped Ran on the shoulder, waking the girl who was dozing beside her with drool at the corner of her mouth.
"Ehe... huh?! Lady Cecilia!"
"Hehe. Did you sleep well?"
"I am sorry! I accidentally fell asle..."
For someone who had merely dozed off, the birdsong outside the window was far too clear and lovely.
"Hehe. It is all right. I fell asleep too, and only just woke up. Could you prepare a light breakfast... or lunch, perhaps?"
"Yes, Lady Cecilia!"
After Ran burst out through the door, Cecilia began reading the materials she had organized on the desk.
...To move so quickly after the previous Northern Grand Duke, Grand Duke Proud Walterheim, died...
Crunch.
Cecilia bit her lip. She had believed herself accustomed to the Imperial Family’s cunning after so many years, but they had reached into the North with such meticulous planning—and without House Roienthal or any other force noticing.
Once they have put a leash around the North, where will they turn next? The West, or the East? No... perhaps the Empire’s prestigious houses that they have allowed to remain free until now?
All manner of schemes and conspiracies filled her mind.
Perhaps...
The thought that Crown Prince Baron’s act of casting aside his strongest ally might have been a political performance carried out because preparations to subdue the ducal house were already complete made Cecilia let out a hollow laugh.
"How futile. Truly..."
Their relationship had not merely been empty. From the beginning, it had been a relationship calculated down to the last detail.
"I should be grateful that I cut it off before I became attached..."
"Lady Cecilia!! I brought it!"
Ran flung the door open and came in energetically, carrying a plate with a sandwich prepared by the chef of Walterheim Estate.
Apparently, the moment he heard that Cecilia would be eating it, he took out fresh ingredients and created a masterpiece he was especially proud of.
"It is delicious."
When she took a bite with her small mouth, the harmony of fresh vegetables and the chef’s specialty ham delighted her palate.
"Ah, the maids asked me to ask whether there is anything making you uncomfortable, Lady Cecilia. And Father... no, the butler also asked me to check whether you need any more documents..."
The people of Walterheim Estate did not push away an outsider like her. They were surprised by, smiled at, and tried to help someone who had made even the slightest effort to get closer to them.
To call such good people northern barbarians or evil spirits...
Compared to the authoritarian, two-faced nobles she had seen in the Imperial Capital and the Imperial Family, Cecilia found these people, who were honest before her, utterly lovable. Yet there was one exception.
"Ran, has His Grace returned?"
"I heard he stopped by briefly, then went out again."
"I see."
Viktor Walterheim. A relationship bound by contract. He treated her coldly, yet when she entered his sphere, he spoke to her warmly.
...Does he treat me coldly precisely because he has so many enemies...? But... no... perhaps he is simply honoring the contract?
Cecilia had met, analyzed, and judged all kinds of people until now, but Viktor was different.
Beyond those cold, still red eyes, what was he thinking?
Honestly. If I delve too deeply, it is obvious that I will make him uncomfortable.
Cecilia shook her head and rose from her seat. This was merely an analysis for the sake of the contract. Thinking so, she looked at Ran and spoke.
"Let us go see His Grace."
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