The Abandoned Duchess Seems to Want a Peaceful Life - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Light

"Hee hee hee, hee hee hee."

In the dining hall adjoining the kitchen of the lord's manor, at the sight of the huge pile of gold coins heaped on the table, Melfina's face stayed melted into a grin and would not go back to normal for the longest time.

As a noble young lady, zero points. Her former tutor, who had once wept with emotion that she had become a perfectly mannered lady, would have been tempted to renounce the world if she could see this.

"Lady Melfina, you look so happy."

August, who had brought the gold coins with a large escort, was a little taken aback himself. She knew it, and still the corners of her mouth would not stop rising.

"I may not have felt this happy since the day Marie said she would become my secretary."

"That was fairly recent, Lady Melfina."

Marie said so calmly, but a smile floated at the corner of her mouth. For Marie, whose expression rarely changed, it amounted to a beaming smile.

Three thousand gold coins. In Japanese yen, a total income of 600 million. And this was only the down payment; further increases in income were expected.

With this, the money invested from Melfina's private funds was fully in the black. Even if the market price would fall, the thought that this would continue next year and the year after was enough to put her in a good mood.

"How could I not be pleased? If I share the profits with the farmers, we can buy materials for winter preparations, call in craftsmen and add on to the houses in the village. We can increase the livestock and the dogs, and renew the farm tools, too."

"Um, Lady Melfina, you're not short of money or anything, are you?" August asked timidly, and she told him firmly that she was fine. Perhaps they had suspected a little, given how giddily she had been rejoicing, dazzled by the gold, because Marie and Cedric looked visibly relieved.

"I have a fair amount in private funds, and I receive dividends from my dowry, so if I wanted to, I could pay out of pocket. But running a territory on my own private funds is not what you would call sound finances. I have to till the fields, sell goods, turn a profit, and enrich the land further."

"But Lady Melfina, you have a budget from the ducal house, too, don't you? A considerable amount should be allotted to you."

"Hmm, I've never heard of it, so I wouldn't know."

It was Cedric, standing behind her, who let out an "Eh?" August, across the table, simply had his mouth hanging open.

"Well, I'm not managing the ducal manor as the Duchess, and I'm not socializing in the royal capital to build connections, so I suppose I have no right to receive it."

"You do! If you haven't been receiving the budget, that means it has been sitting somewhere and piling up!"

"Neither His Grace nor the butler has said anything to me, and I don't need it either. Isn't that fine?"

Given how Melfina had lived in luxury in the game, it was not hard to guess that the budget had gone to the town house in the royal capital. In any case, once it became the Alexis route she would divorce and leave the ducal house, so there was no need to build up a record as a wife for no reason.

The only money she would take was the parting payment at the time of divorce, and that would be enough.

On the other hand, in the event of divorce, things like the mine and the land rights that made up her dowry would return to the House of Marquis Crawford. They were hardly likely to want back a Melfina whom they had driven out the moment she reached marriageable age.

In other words, this gold was the dazzling light illuminating Melfina's path after the divorce.

*—And the brighter the light, the better!*

"Lady Melfina, you really do dislike His Grace the Duke, don't you?"

"Hey, August!"

"There's nothing about him to like. Oh, that's right, Eli, there's something I'd like to talk to you about."

"Yes, Lady Melfina."

Eli, who had been directing the unloading of the assorted equipment purchased at the same time as the delivery of the corn payment, approached with light steps.

In these four months she had filled out a little, and her complexion and the sheen of her skin had improved.

"The serfs now in the Enkar region have all worked very hard. As their reward, I am releasing every one of them from serfdom and raising them to freemen."

"Eh?!" Not only Eli but Marie, August, Cedric, Rad, Cliff and Ed all cried out together.

She had decided it the moment she saw the corn fields growing green and lush.

Without the serfs' devoted work, they could never have expanded the fields so much or brought about such a good harvest.

If there was a profit, it should be shared with the people who had labored.

"L-Lady Melfina. Does that mean you no longer need us?!"

"Eh?"

"We will keep working hard from now on! If it's Lady Melfina's order, we'll do any work! So please, please don't abandon us!"

"Wait! I'm not abandoning you, how did you get that idea?!"

She had been thoroughly flustered and raised her voice, but relief settled into Eli's eyes, which were brimming with tears about to spill over.

"That's not it. If you stay serfs, no matter how much land you clear you can't own any of it, and you can't accumulate property, can you? Half of the land opened this year will be the lord's direct holdings, but I will divide the rest among the serf families by head, and I permit each of you to own your share as settlers."

Serfs were a status who had sold away their own persons, and they were not permitted to own property or move their residence. They were a rank below even tenant farmers, who farm rented land.

Called out to this field or that whenever needed, paid a pittance, spending it on food for themselves and their families, they were left with almost nothing in hand.

Even though they could buy back their persons for three gold coins, they could hardly afford to save that much. On top of that, the child of a serf was born a serf.

"Of course, we will keep on with the land clearing, and I intend to push forward various businesses that bring in income. I want you all to help with that as freemen."

Once they were freemen, they could choose work other than tilling fields. They could become apprentices to craftsmen or merchants, or even take the path of engineers working in the mines.

This land could not hold only happy memories for them. It was lonely to think of it, but they were also free to sell their allotted land to Melfina or to others and move away from the Enkar region with their families.

"Madam, are you serious?"

It was Cedric who asked. He wore a complicated expression, many emotions mixed together.

"Serfs are an important labor force on a frontier. There is no precedent for making every one of them a freeman."

"Then let this be the first example."

"It is not that simple."

"I think you're overthinking it, Cedric. Even if knights don't work for the sake of rewards, wouldn't you be disappointed in a lord who gave no commendation to a knight who had served admirably? If you work hard, good things come of it. That kind of hope matters, I think."

Perhaps those were words put in her mouth by the Melfina of the game, who, however much she had tried to become a perfect noble young lady, had never in the end been rewarded.

She wanted hope that if she made an effort, it would be answered. Precisely because she had learned that not everything in the world was made to be so kind, she found herself wishing for it.

"That is... no, you are right."

He had begun to argue, then swallowed his words, and Cedric placed a hand on his chest and bowed his head deeply.

It was a knight's formal salute.

"I think it is Madam's wise decision. I am, well, I am deeply impressed."

When he raised his head, the conflict that had been on Cedric's face a moment ago had vanished, and only a bright expression remained.

"When I first came to the Enkar region, I did not understand what you were thinking. I looked down on you as a noble young lady who knew nothing, and the way you went to dangerous places without a care and behaved so defencelessly even irritated me."

"Well, yes, I suppose that's only natural..."

It had been glossed over by the matter of Marie's change of job, but Cedric, too, had changed a little since that day.

He no longer interfered with what Melfina did, and as long as she was in his sight, he sometimes helped with simple tasks. She had certainly felt him trying to meet her halfway.

"When you burned the wasteland, and when you gathered straw and mixed something in it to make I knew not what, I was sick with worry about what would become of you. But you brought blessings to this land, all across it. You were a light to everyone living in the Enkar region."

Cedric's way of putting it was grandiose, and there was considerable exaggeration in it.

This was knowledge she had because she had completed all of Maria of the Kingdom of Hearts, a game known as a trivia-type game, and the ones who had actually worked were Marie, the three former porters, everyone in the serf settlement, and the people of Enkar Village who had followed the new system.

"The answer to the choice you gave me, to return to the ducal territory or to obey in silence, I give you now. I will work hard under you, together with the people of Enkar Village and the settlement."

"—Thank you, Cedric."

"It is I who thank you for showing me the way. —Lady Melfina."

It was a radiant smile, fitting for a radiant day. For some reason Marie began to clap, and Rad, Ed, Cliff, Eli, and others who had been carrying loads joined in one after another, as if swept along.

"This is rather embarrassing. It's as if I'm being congratulated."

"A celebration, why not? A celebration that the crops we all grew sold, a celebration that everyone became freemen, and a celebration that Sir Cedric has fallen."

"What do you mean, fallen, Marie?"

"I mean your current state."

Muttering that he did not understand, Cedric joined the applause with a look that was not entirely displeased. At this rate Melfina alone would look like the guest of honor at a birthday party. Unable to bear the embarrassment, she clapped her own hands, pang!

"All right, then, once we finish the last harvest and the shipping is done, let's hold a festival."

"A festival?"

"Yes. To commemorate the good harvest, I'd been thinking of holding a harvest festival. Everyone gathers, makes sandwiches out of flatbread with whatever fillings they like, toasts with ale and wine, and then we sing and dance."

"That sounds like fun!"

"I'll tell Nid and everyone!"

The embarrassed air was swallowed up in no time by cheerful plans, and Melfina was relieved.

It had come out of a passing thought, but it was bound to become a festival, and it gave her the feeling that it would be a wonderful day.

"A festival, how nice. Can I take part, too?"

"August, you're His Grace's aide and bodyguard knight, aren't you? If you hang around the Enkar region this often, won't people start saying you've been demoted?"

"When it counts I do the work of three, so I think I deserve three times the holidays."

"Then if three times the holidays are formally approved, you may take part."

At August's pitiful "Aw, come on," everyone's laughter rang out brightly, and then everyone naturally went back to their own tasks.

"Before winter comes, let's start on extending the manor and building a dormitory for the servants. I'd be uneasy with so much cash on hand, so I want to spend it early."

"I'll place the order with the Building Guild in the ducal capital. And the purchase of furniture, too—"

While she was working out plans for before winter with Marie, the atmosphere had already returned to its usual self.

\* \* \*

August stepped away from Melfina and the others, who had gone into work mode, and looked up at the sky.

Guarding three thousand gold coins had been nerve-racking enough, but now he felt more like he had been knocked flat.

Melfina's foresight, her consideration and compassion for those beneath her, and her ambition to further develop the territory.

All of it resonated painfully in the heart of August, who had chosen the life of a knight who devotes his sword to his lord.

Even that stiff Cedric could not help but bow his head to Melfina's talent.

And August had, unguardedly, found himself deeply envious of that position.

After the two had been married, it had been August who guarded Alexis as he went to Melfina, who had not yet changed out of her dress. He knew that Alexis refused both to love and to be loved. He had thought it cruel toward a bride who had only just arrived, but at that time there had been nothing for him to respect other than his lord's will.

If only, that day, Alexis had not rejected Melfina.

If only, from that day, Melfina had become the mistress of the House of Oldrand.

A picture of a future that could never be came and went in the knight's heart.

"This might truly have been a very big fish that got away, Your Grace."

August's murmur melted softly into the cool wind of approaching autumn and vanished without reaching anyone's ears.