“Ah… well…”
Just as Dawi stammered and opened his mouth,
“I will grant you permission.”
“Pardon?”
The butler held out a sheet of paper before Dawi.
“This is a document designating the lake located halfway up the rear side of the rocky mountain in the Alos Mountains, along with its surroundings, as ranch land, and granting permission for ownership and operation of that ranch.”
“Pardon? You mean…”
“Would you please write your name and signature in these blank spaces? Surely… you don’t have any difficulty reading or writing, do you?”
Dawi examined the paper. Thanks to the forced infusion of language knowledge from the Archmage, he was able to read.
Dawi wrote his name in the Imperial language, and in the signature field, he wrote “Park Dawi” in Korean.
Watching him, the Baroness thought,
‘As expected, he can read and write. His name is… Dawi Baroque? I’ve never heard of the family name Baroque… He must have earned merit as a mage and been granted a surname. And… he uses quite a geometric pattern as his signature. Is it some sort of magical formula only he knows?’
“Good. That document bears the lord’s official seal. Keep it safe. And you’ll know once you read the detailed clauses, but… there are quite a lot of wild animals there, aren’t there? So it also contains permission to arm yourself in order to protect the ranch. Since ownership has been transferred to you outright, you may operate it freely.”
“Ah… thank you, Baroness.”
Dawi, who had thought his ranch would be taken from him, was bewildered to have his ownership fully recognized instead.
“Now, the matter of taxes remains, doesn’t it?”
“Ah, taxes…”
“I asked the knights, and it seems you intend to sell corn. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“As you already know, when the Empire collapsed, the Empire’s monetary system collapsed as well. In our territory too, things like gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins were all melted down long ago and used for other purposes. In the end, you’ll have to barter in the marketplace… but right now, the market is barely functioning.”
After the ships that came in through the North Sea stopped completely, the civilian economy of the Snowhill territory had effectively come to a halt.
Most commoners farmed potatoes, and fishermen who had even a small boat caught fish. Snowhill’s civilian economy amounted to individuals exchanging potatoes and fish.
“That is why, apart from fish and potatoes, most things are produced here in the lord’s castle.”
At the lord’s castle smithy, iron goods such as farming tools, armor, and swords were made. The only shipyard in the territory also belonged to the Baron, so repairing and producing fishing boats was likewise the lord’s responsibility.
“The same goes for other crops. They can’t withstand winter, so they only grow in the gardens here at the lord’s castle. Ah, except for bilberries.”
Corn and other fruits, even wheat and rice.
They were produced only in small quantities in the garden, which took up the largest area of the lord’s castle.
“So… in exchange for tax exemption, how about trading every item produced on your ranch exclusively with our Baron family?”
“Mm… only with the Baron family?”
In truth, though it was called tax exemption, if the Baron family set the exchange rate, the condition was practically no different from taxation. The problem was,
‘There’s nowhere to trade with anyway except the Baron family.’
Unless he intended to buy only potatoes and fish.
Of course, he might be able to trade for salty seafood, but…
‘I can’t spend my whole life trading nothing but corn and fish.’
Dawi had a dream. To become a splendid cowboy running a ranch.
A little corn patch alone could not be called a ranch. He had to raise livestock… and the only place to buy or sell that livestock was the Baron family.
In truth, even if this was called a “baron’s territory,” the Empire above it had collapsed.
In a feudal system, the disappearance of the upper ranks was effectively no different from becoming a king.
This small barony was now a complete absolute monarchy, and there was no way he could operate a ranch while being disliked by such a Baron family.
‘But I can’t go off somewhere with no people at all and run a ranch there.’
That would not be a ranch, but just a survival base.
Raising livestock and crops, buying and selling them, and enjoying a pastoral life—that was a ranch. Living like it was the Stone Age, making every tool like knives and axes by hand, was not what Dawi wanted.
In the end, the Baron family was the best option.
“Understood. I will trade only with the Baron family.”
“Good. Butler?”
The butler immediately held out a document. Since this was a transaction between the Baron family and Dawi, it did not bear the lord’s seal, but the crest of the Baron family. To Dawi, it was a similar design depicting snow and berries, but the details were different.
“Please write your name there and sign it.”
Dawi wrote his name and signed it the same way as before.
“Now then, the only thing you have to trade today is corn, correct? First, you should see what we have as well… follow me. I’ll show you the garden.”
Dawi walked after the Baroness as she guided him. He had imagined a “garden” as an open area where various plants grew, but…
The Baroness stopped in front of a place surrounded by a small castle wall and opened the gate with a key.
Clack! Creeak—
‘This is a garden…?’
“Come in.”
“Pardon? Ah, yes!”
Once he stepped inside the garden, he felt air that was definitely warmer than outside.
“What on earth is this…”
“It is a glass greenhouse built by the previous Baron. There was a time when bilberry wine became highly fashionable throughout the Empire. He used the money earned then to build this large greenhouse.”
The place enclosed by the small wall had its top completely covered with a glass ceiling. The entire building was not made of glass, but the ceiling was definitely glass, so sunlight came in well.
“To withstand the weight of snow in winter, the glass had to be made thick, so the light refraction is a little severe.”
Just as she said, there were places where the light gathered and places where it scattered.
Even in a world with magic, with medieval technology it was difficult to make perfectly flat panes of glass.
“In winter, the gardeners clear the snow from the glass ceiling every day and tend the fires in the fireplaces. In summer, they open the doors to let air circulate.”
Dawi looked at the fireplace installed on one side. Firewood was blazing inside it.
“The previous Baron, who loved flowers very much, had it made to grow southern plants. If only he had paid more taxes with that money instead, he would have been promoted to viscount… Of course, now that the Empire has collapsed, this greenhouse garden is more valuable than the title of viscount. Thanks to it, we can grow at least a little of various crops.”
“Ah…”
“Not everything grown here is consumed only in the lord’s castle. We save it up and release some to the people of the territory during festivals, so they can enjoy at least a little. The people need small pleasures like that to endure.”
“I see…”
‘By letting them taste bread and other foods besides potatoes, she gives them hope that someday they’ll be able to eat such things easily.’
People, their lives, and even a territory can endure only when there is hope that things can get better.
Dawi nodded inwardly.
‘Because they’re isolated in a basin, control and quarantine must have been easier too.’
The reason they maintained and repaired a merchant ship larger than a fishing boat and kept it afloat at the harbor was likely to show it to the people of the territory. A signal that someday that merchant ship would move again and bring goods from the south—that the world had not ended completely.
“Is there any crop you want?”
The Baroness’s question broke Dawi out of his thoughts.
Dawi looked around at the crops planted in the greenhouse. But it was difficult to tell exactly what was what just from their stems.
“Ah, um… I’d like to get some garlic…”
“Garlic… Fortunately, there is a variety being carefully cultivated in this greenhouse. Then will you exchange all of your corn for garlic?”
“Ah, not that… The truth is, there are quite a few things I need. I don’t have any tools to build a ranch, nor tableware… I also need clothes.”
The Baroness smiled faintly.
“I thought that might be the case. We have prepared a box of nails, an axe, a saw, a plow, a shovel, an iron pot, and wooden tableware. As for clothes…”
The Baroness looked over Dawi’s attire once before continuing.
“Would you stay here for one day? I’ll have clothes made for you from the leathers you’re wearing and the leathers you used to wrap the corn. Ah, your horse’s saddle was torn as well, so we’ll make you a new one. And saddlebags that can be attached to it, too.”
“Uh… I’m truly grateful, but can I obtain all of that with my corn? Then how much garlic…”
“The garlic… since we grow it only in the garden, there isn’t much. I think we can give you one pouch. Mm, I’ll give you a few seeds as well. Since you managed to grow corn, perhaps you can grow garlic too.”
“Thank you very much!”
Dawi bowed deeply in gratitude.
With the Baroness’s help, he obtained the tools and tableware needed to build a ranch, and at last, he could get proper clothes instead of leather rags.
‘Now it really begins…!’
He would build the ranch during the winter, and when spring came, he would bring in various livestock.
Dawi was filled with hopeful thoughts.
“By the way, do you not need salt? The salinity of the North Sea is not high, but we can still obtain a certain amount of salt by boiling seawater. Of course, that salt is also produced entirely by the Baron family.”
‘Ah! I absolutely need salt!’
“I do need it. But I’m not sure if I can receive salt as well…”
Dawi knew that in the medieval era, salt was a very precious resource.
Of course, the sea was nearby, but this was an age without solar salt field technology.
There probably was not much salt obtained by boiling seawater.
“I’ll give you one pouch of salt as well.”
“Ah…! Thank you very much!”
Dawi bowed his head once more and expressed his gratitude.
Watching him, the Baroness thought,
‘This should be enough to earn his favor, right? And… now he is officially one of our “territorial subjects.”’
What the Baroness sought in her transaction with Dawi was not profit.
There was the purpose of earning the favor of Dawi, who was mentally strange but wielded quite powerful magic, but more than that, her objective was to have Dawi sign the documents.
Dawi, who had come to own and operate a ranch with the lord’s permission.
That permission document was the tool that officially established Dawi as a subject of Snowhill.
And the exclusive trade treaty made with Dawi’s ranch.
Its main purpose was likewise not the livestock or crops produced through the ranch.
Every time Dawi traded, he would personally come to the lord’s castle. To outsiders, the sight of Dawi and the Baron family trading would appear as though Dawi were offering tribute and receiving bestowed goods.
In other words, it would look as if they had a retired war mage as a vassal.
Then who were these “outsiders” to whom such a sight would be shown?
For one thing, it was not the people of the territory. The Baron family’s rule over this small territory was firm. Especially after the zombie incident, the people of the territory had become even more dependent on the Baron family, and their authority had grown that much stronger.
Of course, the economy, population, and military strength of the entire territory had fallen by more than half… but their authority within the territory had risen.
So to the Baron family, the “outsiders” were…
‘The dwarves.’
A small dwarf tribe that lived by digging tunnels into the rocky mountain.
They had felt considerable fear at the sound of thunder coming from the mountain’s rear side.
But on that rear side was a mage who wielded that thunder, and that mage had become a vassal of the Baron family.
Dawi would even continue operating his ranch there.
As he lived there, hunted animals, and drove away animals that came to the ranch, the sound of thunder would continue to be heard.
The dwarves would fear the mage who wielded thunder, and they would fear the Baron family that had that mage as a vassal.
‘That’s why I guided him to keep operating his ranch in that location… and it was a success.’
The Baroness’s support had such a purpose behind it.
‘Next time we trade with the dwarves, we’ll be able to squeeze more iron ore out of them.’
The corners of the Baroness’s mouth lifted slightly as she looked at Dawi.