How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary-Chapter 80

Chapter 80
After watching the Battle Ball game, we decided to have a simple dinner and then return to the lodging.
For dinner, we chose food from the street stalls scattered around the square, and since they seemed to have prepared quite a lot for the festival, the quality was higher than I expected.
‘Especially the fried chicken.’
Among the many dishes, the most impressive were the fried foods.
In particular, the dish where they butchered a chicken, coated it in batter, and fried it until golden brown was quite good. Apparently, this was one of the most beloved foods before the Great Cataclysm.
As expected, chicken seemed to work in any world.
Since chickens could be raised even in the Haken region, it was a very familiar food to the residents as well.
‘Chicken, huh. Then what about us?’
While eating the chicken, what first came to mind was fried Horned Rabbit.
If chicken tasted this good when fried, then how delicious would fried Horned Rabbit be?
After civilization collapsed, fried foods had become rather high-class cuisine.
Just obtaining the oil was already troublesome.
The reason we hadn’t thought of making fried dishes despite raising a large number of Horned Rabbits was because, in a poor territory, oil was something unimaginable. But now that I thought about it, the situation had changed somewhat.
With just a little effort, we could now easily obtain oil.
‘We can press oil from peanuts, right?’
During the Forest of Illusions expedition, Peter had collected a plant similar to peanuts.
It was a crop that could coexist with Evil Spirit Grass, and we had planted a huge amount of it in our Horned Rabbit ranch.
With so many other things going on, I had forgotten about it, but if we harvested and pressed them, we could secure quite a lot of oil.
‘Or we could buy oil from Haken. I’d prefer self-sufficiency, but the situation might not always allow that.’
If the peanut-like crop harvested in our territory wasn’t the right variety for oil pressing, we might have to consider importing oil from the south.
In the north, oil was a precious ingredient, but here it seemed so common that even street vendors could use it. So importing it wouldn’t be unreasonable.
‘They must have found something. Like olives or rapeseed.’
I suspected the abundance of oil came from planting rapeseed flowers in large quantities near Vines or New Level.
Or perhaps they were cultivating sunflowers on a large scale.
Either way, it seemed that the day when the residents of our territory would welcome fried Horned Rabbit was not far off.
“Indeed, the great territory is different.”
“Is it?”
The great territory of Haken was far more developed than Johnson could ever compare.
Especially in technological and cultural aspects, such differences were striking. Just by looking at these things, one could easily see how livable Haken was.
Seeing how much Haken had developed proved that the Lord of Haken was indeed a remarkable figure.
Though he had some issues managing his children in his later years, that alone couldn’t diminish the Lord of Haken’s achievements.
‘Nothing in the world is perfect, after all.’
Of course, this place wasn’t perfect either.
Conflicts between the rich and poor, struggles for power among the ruling class, and factional disputes were problems that piled up here as well.
In fact, Irene and the knights of Crimson Comet were living witnesses of such power struggles, so it couldn’t be said that there were no issues.
But in any territory where people gathered, conflict was inevitable.
Our territory too would face the same as it developed.
That the successor had not yet been confirmed was a somewhat serious matter, but aside from that, there didn’t seem to be any threat that endangered the survival of the territory.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
“Curious? About what?”
“Haken. Do they have enough farmland? On the way here, it didn’t look like there was that much farmland near the territory. Is it concentrated in the south?”
“Oh, farmland? Not really.”
“Is that so?”
“In fact, there’s plenty of arable land all around. The Haken River isn’t far, right?”
“That’s true.”
“But the Haken River area isn’t safe since Lizardmen roam freely there.”
“Is it difficult to sweep them out?”
“It’s not that the land is vast. We cleared the area near the territory, but since we can’t predict when they’ll crawl back down, we can’t farm there with peace of mind. That’s why the self-sufficiency rate for food isn’t that high.”
Still, as I looked around Haken, there was something concerning.
Compared to the population, the surrounding farmland didn’t seem sufficient.
We had only observed the northern part of Haken.
I wondered if farmland spread widely in the south, so I asked Irene, but apparently not.
That meant Haken too relied quite heavily on trade with outside sources for food.
“But it’s not to the point of worry. The stockpiles are already enough for Haken’s population to last several years. And even now, food continues to be traded regularly.”
“By trade, you mean with Vines or Levelium?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“If both cut off food sales, Haken would be in trouble.”
“Strictly speaking, yes. But realistically, would Vines and Levelium, with their differing interests, easily cooperate like that?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Besides, if they don’t sell food to us, Vines and Levelium would face difficulties too. They sell food to buy various other things, but aside from us or New Level, there aren’t many who can purchase food in large quantities. And it’s not like they can store it forever.”
“So in the end, it’s mutual assistance, isn’t it?”
“Well, that’s true.”
It was a reasonable argument.
After all, food was produced again every year, so if there was surplus, selling it would be to their benefit as well.
And with two groups holding different interests, collusion wasn’t something easy to achieve, so there was no reason to worry about an abrupt suspension of food imports.
Besides, no territory on the Ribella Peninsula could solve everything with its own strength.
Trading with each other might not be a choice but a matter of survival.
And when the day came that even a Catastrophe-Class Monster moved, territories and all, every human would have to roll up their sleeves and unite.
Which meant that while the great territories might check one another, there was no reason to go so far as to make enemies.
‘That’s just common sense.’
In truth, conflict between the great territories only meant mutual checks. It didn’t mean they were blood enemies who wanted to kill each other.
Put simply, it was a relationship of keeping within minimum boundaries while checking each other in moderation.
If, by chance, a Catastrophe-Class Monster suddenly fell upon New Level, the first territory to move would be Haken.
Conversely, if a Catastrophe-Class Monster appeared in Haken, New Level would dispatch aid.
So judging that such pointless clashes that harmed their own survival wouldn’t happen was only natural.
Since I planned to continue trading with this side for a long time, the stability of Haken was also quite important to me, and I felt somewhat reassured.
While I looked around the festival, Celine had gone about the territory meeting acquaintances.
It was to find out what the two successor candidates—those most likely to have obstructed Irene’s return—were plotting.
Of course, I didn’t expect Celine to bring back some groundbreaking information.
Since she was known to everyone in Haken as Irene’s closest aide, if anyone was scheming, they would naturally hide it from her.
‘Still, it’s better than nothing.’
But Celine had long held a position overseeing a knight order, and with her many connections, she could at least discover how the successors had behaved after Irene left Haken.
In this situation, where we didn’t even know who had stood in Irene’s way, such information was quite valuable.
“…Really? You mean nothing at all?”
“Yes, my lord. I even met the young lords directly, but I noticed no such signs whatsoever.”
“What did they say?”
“They did express regret that you left for Johnson, my lord, but the general atmosphere was that this was preferable to having you defect to the other side.”
“Well, that’s reasonable. But hadn’t the Second Young Lord been rather active in trying to recruit Dame Irene? Shouldn’t his reaction have been somewhat different?”
“That is true. Even this time, he subtly asked if the commander had any plans to return to Haken. And he even went as far as to try persuading me. Judging from that……”
“Then it doesn’t seem like he’s scheming anything. If he were plotting, he wouldn’t have asked in that way.”
If anyone had prevented Irene’s return, the most likely suspect was the Second Young Lord—her second older brother.
Even when she had been in Haken, he had been the most proactive.
That was why I thought if anyone was scheming, it would be him. But if he was openly asking whether she planned to return, it didn’t seem like he was plotting anything.
If he really was plotting, then it would only be natural for him to distance himself from Irene as much as possible, so she wouldn’t suspect him.
If Irene sensed something and fled before things even began, their entire plan would collapse before it could even start.
“Could it be that the Second Young Lord is some kind of master of deception?”
“The Second Young Lord is… how should I put it… overly self-confident. Acting isn’t really his thing.”
“So in the end, it’s not that something is happening without his knowledge… No, that’s impossible. Then what about the First Young Lord?”
“Well, wasn’t he actually glad that you left the territory, commander? He wouldn’t go out of his way to drag you back to Haken…”
“Logically, yes, but the situation might have changed.”
“The state of the territory remained the same. The First Young Lord is still in a more advantageous position, with the Second Young Lord merely holding him in check.”
“So the First Young Lord has no reason to take risks.”
“And more importantly……”
“Yes, go on.”
“Neither of the young lords even knew you were visiting Haken, commander.”
“…What?”
“Yes. I suppose the Lord didn’t inform them, perhaps to keep them from bothering you.”
Irene had visited Haken at the request of the Lord of Haken.
But if the Lord hadn’t told his sons, then there was no way they could have known about her visit.
After all, Irene and the Lord of Haken had communicated through the Mana Communicator.
‘This is getting strange.’
—I don’t get it.
If neither of them even knew about Irene’s visit, then scheming from the start was impossible.
I felt like things were becoming more complicated.
There was the fact that she hadn’t been able to return to the territory, but we had no clue about the process.
And yet, the most likely suspects—the successors of Haken—showed not the slightest hint of involvement, which left me unsettled.
Even if I couldn’t figure out what had happened, I had thought at least I could figure out who. But I couldn’t, not at all.
“In any case, both factions are focused solely on ensuring the festival concludes without issue.”
“I see.”
“Perhaps, my lord, you’re just overthinking it.”
“Maybe so, maybe not. Either way, good work. Go and rest.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Celine had long witnessed Irene being tormented between the successors.
So she had thought they might be the ones to hinder Irene’s return, and she had actively cooperated with me.
But with things as they were now, it was awkward to ask her to look into it any further.
From any angle, it seemed impossible that the two successors could have prevented Irene’s return.
“Could it have been… coincidence?”
All three had no intention of holding Irene back.
Then only one answer remained.
An unforeseen incident.
Some absurd happening had occurred.
“Eh, no way it went that far.”
Since the Diary would never show me a false illusion, it was something bound to happen eventually.
For now, it seemed the only option was to wait and watch.