CH 281

After finishing Floren’s inspection, I will go north and see the mines in various places. Various mines such as limestone, iron ore, and coal are very important. Coal has not yet been put to practical use, but it has already started to be supplied to some. We are using this coal for steel production.

We will also inspect Hexennacht, visit a white porcelain kiln, greet Ehren, and visit Anneliese’s Botanical Research Institute. These are not dramatic changes. The Botanical Research Institute has achieved various results, but it is a field where it is difficult to obtain visible and easy-to-understand results. Even with white porcelain, products don’t change suddenly, and on the contrary, it might be better as a tradition not to change the processes.

Well, the two of them are doing their best in various ways, so I don’t have anything to say. I do give requests and advise Anneliese, but… ceramics is not my area of expertise, so it’s difficult to go beyond the initial advice.

After inspecting various places, I came to Cien Villa. Do you think I am wasting my time going back and forth to the same place over and over again? I think so too.

At first, I arranged to go around in order so that it wouldn’t be a hassle going back again, but due to an unexpected change in Mother’s departure, it became such a troublesome inspection schedule. It’s not that my parents are malicious and I’m not complaining, but I think that if everything had gone according to the original plan, we wouldn’t have had to move so much.

“Ha~, we’ve finally arrived!” Mikoto cried.

“Didn’t you and the others say you’d be fine waiting?” I said.

For some reason, the wives are following along. Anyway, there are many places where only I can enter even if I say it’s an inspection with all of us, and I think they’ve just got free time by following after me…

“You’re always coming with Katharina, right?” Claudia asked. “It’s not fair if we’re the only ones left at home.”

“But even if you had followed me, nothing would have happened, would it?” I replied. “You just end up exhausted and with your butt hurting.”

Even if we can talk, we’re moving by carriage. Even so, I can’t do it all the time because I’m working, receiving reports, and having meetings. Even when I’m inspecting, all I do is listen to the explanations of the staff at the destinations, and there are many cases where I go alone… I feel like there’s no point in following me, though…

“Flora, you don’t understand a maiden’s heart!” Alexandra yelled.

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“That’s right… Everyone wants to be together for a little while, you know?” Louisa said.

“Uuu…” I whined.

If these two say it, I can’t refute it.

“Sorry……”

“It’s okay if you understand! Come on! Let’s go in!” Mikoto said.

And with that, Mikoto leads everyone into Cien Villa. What even is my place here…?

Just because I got to the villa doesn’t mean my work is over. I work out a plan while filing away the documents. I went to inspections today and found most of the problems. Today we will stay at Cien Villa, and the next morning we will go to inspect Lubek by boat, and after that, we will go up the river to Carruzan.

In Carruzan, I plan to go back to my hometown and my parent’s house for a little while, and then go on an inspection and spearhead the construction of the canal. Once I go to inspect the construction site, the tour will end there. After that, I plan to concentrate on on-site inspection and kickstarting the building for the next few days.

Sometimes you have to prepare faster than that. None of the problems found during today’s inspection can be solved overnight. Even if you start right away, it will take a long time to see results. I’ll start with the easiest part first.

Recruit veteran workers and reliable superiors from Caan Territory, Carruthers Territory, and farms and ranches near the capital to create farms and ranches in the Caan Knights Nation. Also, we plan to grow rice on the farm, so we need someone who can do rice planting.

In addition, a beet sugar factory and a dairy processing plant will be built for local production. There are many trade secrets here, so you need to choose someone you can trust. I have to raise a local successor, but I have to investigate it carefully. No one is better than an existing laborer on a farm or ranch.

Farms produce rice and sugar beets in addition to normal crops such as wheat. The sugar beets are squeezed to make beet sugar, and the pomace is used as feed for livestock on the ranch. Let’s make sake from rice. That’s why I’m building a sake brewery in the Caan Knights Nation.

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Dairy products and eggs are produced on the ranch in addition to beef and pork. Some of the feed for livestock is made from squeezed beet sugar, so it can be used without waste. Bran can also be used as feed… let’s let livestock eat what they can eat so we minimize waste as much as possible.

If you throw down the specific construction site and construction method, the laborers will do it for you. All I have to do is give general instructions to the relevant departments. It would be easier to throw the entire process down the line than for someone who’s outside of the site to say unnecessary things.

Regarding the import of wood, I’m thinking of importing it from the Caan Knights Nation. Since the territory is vast, it should be able to withstand some logging. After that, we should limit the number of trees planted without letting them cut down unplanned. If it’s still not enough, the worst would be to import from the Caanza Alliance or Carruthers Territory.

The army is rapidly expanding in both land and sea, but it’s still not enough… we can’t just blindly increase the number of people we can’t trust, and all this will take time. We just have to wait and see as it expands.

Investigating the ore deposits of the Caan Knights Nation, building a governing structure, building an army…, err, rather…

“Miss Flora, why don’t you take a little rest?” Katharina said as she came in.

“… That’s right. Shall I take a short break?” I said, stopping.

I have Katharina send the completed documents and newly written plans. This will set the farm/ranch and timber arrangements in motion.

“Hmm…”

I rotate my neck and shoulders. I’m not that particular about it… this body is wonderful.

“Would you like some tea?” Isabella says in place of Katharina, as she’s out delivering.

That’s right…

“I agree… even if it’s just a bit of tea… ah! Hold a moment!” I said.

“Yes?” Isabella said.

Come to think of it, it was the season for that. Shall we go to the kitchen for a while before making tea?

I entered the kitchen and stirred the contents of a pot so that it wouldn’t burn on the inside. I wonder if it’s about time if color appears and it’s thickened. I put sugar and water in it. In short, candy. It’s easy to make candy, whether you can do it well or not is the question. Put water and sugar in a pot and bring it to a boil. The process itself is very simple and easy.

When the candy is ready, take out “that thing” that I cut the stem off and skewered on a stick ahead of time. Dip it in the boiled-down sugar and spread it evenly, then lift it and set aside. After that, just leave it until the candy hardens and you’re done. Yes: I just made a candy apple. It’s apple season and we have fresh apples. I wanted to use it to make sweets.

“What? What is this smell? Did Floto make something again?” Mikoto asked as she tried to sneak in.

“Have you sniffed it out right away? Unfortunately, it’s not finished yet, so you should wait,” I said.

“Huh~…? At least let me have a taste…” Mikoto said.

“Absolutely not!”

I shoo Mikoto out of the kitchen. It doesn’t take that long, so just wait until it’s done.

Right. And with that, the candy apples were completed. I made it in the royal capital a long time ago, but not everyone ate it. Many people probably don’t know about it.

I don’t have any particular reason to have suddenly made candy apples. I just had apples on hand… and I was wondering if I could make apple tea with the black tea…

In that case, you may think that you should make apple tea, but I thought it would be nice to have straight black tea while eating sweet and sour candy apples. There is no particular meaning.

The wives were eating candy apples and drinking tea. I also take a break with a little candy apple and tea. But candy apples look beautiful and delicious, but they’re quite sour and hard to eat, and you get tired of them quickly…

In my previous life, I bought some at a night market, lured in by the appearance and smell, but even if I bought it and tried it, I wouldn’t want it halfway through…

Well, I’m having it with tea now, so it’ll work out somehow. I managed to endure it because the sweet and sour taste was washed away with black tea. From now on, let’s not make strange things unplanned…

I also wanted to teach the chefs over here recipes for sweets and such, so it’s fine! I told you that there are things like this! I will also teach them how to brew apple tea later. I’m not that knowledgeable either, so I’m just talking about normal methods… To put it in extreme terms, all you have to do is put in a sliced apple…

It’s like teaching that there are such things… while teaching various things like that, everyone should come up with new ideas for other good combinations. Even on Earth, inventions were created and disappeared in the same way, and so for all the ones that still existed, there must have been many disappeared failures.

There is a high possibility that the same mistakes will be repeated here, but someone may come up with something completely different with a new idea entirely. It will surely be fun if something unique to this world is completed. The break time passed so quickly.

Today we leave Cien by boat and head for Lubek. Lubek is close, and it’s just an afterthought. I’d also like to see what happened after the previous council was dissolved. For the time being, the governing structure has changed because of me, so I can’t leave it alone without knowing what’s going on.

That’s why I came to Lubek…. there seems to be no problem… don’t get mad at me if you say something like, “It’s boring…” I wasn’t expecting another problem, were you? I thought it would be more confusing, but it wasn’t at all.

As expected, it was nearly half a year ago, so the confusion has settled down… the town seems to be lively and the government seems to be going well. Even if you listen to rumors in the town, you won’t hear many bad rumors. Most of them just say things are getting better.

I guess the economy is booming because the demand for various supplies and labor has increased due to the relief to Koenigsvelg and the war with the Kingdom of Polsky. I’m afraid of the reaction when it settles down, but for the time being it’s still rough here and there, so I won’t be able to finish my work.

Since Lubek’s inspection was a brief visit, I finished it easily and went further up the river. After crossing Caanburg and arriving at the Carruzan dock, we returned to my hometown after a long absence.

“Ah… Come to think of it, you haven’t been home in a long time, Alexandra,” I said. “You must want a reunion with Lady Gabriella… now that I say all this, you would have been better off if you came back sooner, right?”

“I find no problem,” Alexandra said.

No, no… a girl about 15 or 16… she’s been living away from her mother for months in a far-away place from home, so it’s only once in a while that she’s able to go back…

“Come to think of it, are you okay, Louisa?” I asked.

“Me? I have seen my friends a while ago and I don’t really see anyone that often,” Louisa said.

Well, all her family is in the royal capital, and the friends who she hadn’t haven’t seen in years had a reunion about 4 months ago, so maybe they can skip this time, but… even so, it’s normal to meet friends for the first time in a while, and more to the point… I wonder if there are any friends to see?

Well, it’s okay, but… if the two of them are like that, it’s not something I should say anything about.

“Then, let’s head to Manor Carruthers while touring Carruzan for a little while,” I said.

The inspection of the canal starts tomorrow. Today, all I have to do is visit Carruzan and relax at Manor Carruthers. I have to work, too…

“Katarina, would you like to stop by Viscount Royce’s manor?” I asked.

“No… ah… actually, may I stop by? I’m sure you can drop me off. Miss Flora, please return to the mansion.”

Hmmm… Well, Manors Royce and Carruthers are just around the corner from each other… Helmut, Christa, and the rest of Houses Royce and Reingen families are now at Manor Royce Carruzan. Katharina will probably join there as well.

I was thinking of calling out to her, but I wonder if I’ll just get in trouble if I say it poorly… in that case, as Katharina says, let’s just drop her off and head straight to Manor Carruthers afterward.

“Well then, Miss Flora…” Katharina said.

“Right,” I said.

Katharina gets off at Manor Royce. It would be better to leave before someone comes to attend to me. If I linger, I’ll cause trouble for both families.

“I will return to the mansion on my own, so please don’t worry about me,” Katharina said.

“I understand. Then please take it easy,” I said.

I don’t care how many days you leave my side. It’s been a long time since you’ve come back to your parent’s house, so all relax. Even Helmut has already taken days off.

That’s why, after dropping off Katharina, we returned to Manor Carruthers after so long.