The name of this country is the Kingdom of Guthail.
The current sovereign, the reigning king, is Schwarzkopf III.
He is thirty-seven years old.
The territory lies roughly in the center of a long continent stretching east to west, with its southern border facing the sea.
The Kingdom’s Capital and the Royal Domain are concentrated in the central region, while the rest is divided into various noble domains.
The noble ranks, from highest to lowest, are: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron.
As you already know, my family name is House Berushuman, holding the rank of Baron—the lowest of the noble titles.
However, among the many barons, some do not hold any land and only serve within the Royal Palace, so in that regard, we rank slightly higher.
Strictly speaking, the noble class refers to those holding these titles, but many knights and servants of noble families also come from noble-born children.
Henrik and Vessel-sensei fall into this category.
The Barony of Berushuman is the only domain that juts out to the north, located at the far northwest edge of the Kingdom’s territory.
To the north and west lie neighboring countries, but a vast mountain range runs between them, making passage by humans nearly impossible.
This means no worries about invasions from those borders, but also no trade benefits.
To the southeast, across a large forest, it borders the Barony of Dimitarl.
To the south, passing between a large lake and the Marquisate of Lortzing, the road leads to the Kingdom’s Capital.
The domain itself is quite small.
Its shape resembles a slightly rounded square, roughly an hour’s walk from north to south and east to west.
The population is just over two hundred.
The main industry is agriculture, with some forestry and hunting done alongside it.
The primary crops are white wheat, black wheat, Kuroaosou, and Goro potatoes.
That much is the official information.
What follows is, so to speak, the blunt truth.
Barony of Berushuman: a population just over two hundred, primarily agricultural.
Frankly, the domain cannot be sustained by tax revenue alone.
Among the main crops—white wheat, black wheat, Kuroaosou, and Goro potatoes—only the white wheat is genuinely marketable elsewhere.
It would be better if we could grow only white wheat, but crop rotation is impossible.
Every year, about a third of the farmland is planted with it, while the rest is devoted to other crops, rotated annually.
Because national tax is imposed based on farmland area rather than actual harvest, the total yearly white wheat harvest barely covers the taxes owed.
Normally, the lord’s role in a noble domain is to divide the collected tax between the Kingdom and himself.
But in our case, the entire white wheat harvest is handed over to the Royal Treasury as tax.
The lord’s share is zero.
The remainder of the crops, which are mostly unsellable, are collected as feudal taxes but only in small amounts, considering the peasants’ food needs, so it’s more of a token sum.
So how does the Baron’s family cover living expenses?
Everything comes from the Baron himself, who works at the Royal Palace and receives a salary.
‘The shock of discovering that the supposedly noble household is in fact a salaried family!’
My older brother also doesn’t know the details, but apparently, Father works under some Duke—acting like a clerk or something at the Royal Palace.
As a devoted family man, Father doesn’t want to leave the domain, but he has no choice.
So he’s reluctantly endured living apart, only able to come home maybe once a month.
Putting that aside—
The domain has suffered poor harvests for the past three years.
In the first year, the Kingdom considered the situation and reduced the tax rate, so the total white wheat harvest barely covered it.
But last year and this year, even with reduced taxes, white wheat alone wasn’t enough.
The Kingdom only accepts tax payments in cash or white wheat.
Other crops in the domain are virtually unsellable.
Therefore, the missing portion of the tax is paid in cash, which the Baron provides separately—in other words, debt.
Three consecutive years of poor harvests have led to evaluations that the lord lacks management ability.
To put it bluntly, people say, “Why don’t you make them grow crops that resist cold better or are more marketable?”
But that’s impossible.
In this world, there are no crops better suited to cold regions than the main crops mentioned.
Whether that’s truly the case is unclear, but Father has scoured countless records in desperation and found nothing.
Moreover, no one else researches this because there are no colder regions beyond our own domain.
Besides, crops like black wheat and Goro potatoes are not grown because farmers want to grow them.
They simply have no choice—these plants grow naturally in the soil.
White wheat is the national staple, but the further north you go, the worse the yield.
At the same time, somehow, the chance of black wheat mixing in increases.
That’s black wheat.
White wheat is used for hard-baked bread, noodles, and dumplings in soups.
Black wheat can be used the same way, but it tastes bad.
Its bread is even harder than white wheat bread, noodles and dumplings have a dry, crumbly texture, and a distinctive unpleasant smell lingers.
That’s why it can hardly be sold outside the domain or in the Kingdom’s Capital.
Still, it’s edible.
For the farmers here, there’s nothing else to eat, so they eat it.
By winter, after storing the harvest, the bread becomes even harder and worse tasting.
But they have no choice but to eat it—that’s the reality of our domain.
By the way, the first time I saw the blackened, hard-looking bread in the kitchen, it was made from this black wheat.
Of course, even in the Baron’s house, this is all they have to eat.
Since I am still nursing, I haven’t yet had the “honor” of tasting it.
As I listened to my brother’s explanation, I gradually became aware that my gaze was dropping.
Eventually, I found myself propping my elbows on my knees and burying my head in my hands—a posture hardly fitting for a lovable baby.
“…Really, huh?”
“It’s real.”
Well, since I already knew the peasants were on the brink of starvation, it wasn’t a shock beyond that.
Still, in a way, the depth of the problem only grows.
This winter’s passing won’t solve everything.
“Debt?”
“Father doesn’t tell us the exact amount, but it can’t be small. For the past few years, to cover the tax shortfalls, plus public maintenance in the domain, the Baron’s family has been paying out of pocket.”
“Wha…”
“For example, this spring they built protective fences in front of the forest to keep Wild Rabbit damage at bay. That was paid for entirely by our family.”
“Wha…oh.”
“Furthermore, apparently this fall, thanks to an increase in Wild Rabbit numbers and some kind of evolution, some rabbits have been seen jumping over the fences repeatedly.”
“Haa…”
All I could do was bury my head deeper.
“Working away from home…”
“Hm? Oh, you mean the domain’s peasants who can’t find work? What about it?”
“The cause?”
“Yeah.”
“The conditions, they’re tough?”
“Ah…”
With a face as if tasting something bitter, my brother shook his head.
“Father won’t say anything, but there’s a rumor I heard at the knights’ training camp.”
“Hm?”
“One of the people Father owes money to seems to be Baron Dimitarl.”
“The… one from yesterday?”
“Yeah, his domain is beyond the forest to the east. That guy has been imposing harsh conditions on Father.”
“Hm.”
“If we can’t repay a certain amount by next autumn, Father will have to hand over land including the entire eastern forest and part of the domain’s tax collection rights as interest.”
“Eh…”
“Unthinkable, right?”
“Hm… but, tax rights?”
“Yeah. Though since we don’t actually collect taxes properly, it’s unclear what benefits he gains. Still, if that happens, it’ll be a total disgrace for the lord.”
“Right.”
“That Baron Dimitarl is apparently quite skilled socially—better than Father.”
“Oh…”
“He even has influence where our peasants find seasonal work.”
“Ugh…”
“…So I can imagine a lot of things, but there’s no proof.”
“Yeah.”
“But judging from his attitude yesterday, I get the feeling that Baron Dimitarl already considers our domain his. He probably came to check whether repayment is impossible next year.”
“Ugh…”
“It’s frustrating to be treated so rudely. We can’t just let him do as he pleases. Maybe Father can’t speak out because of this debt.”
“Hmm…”
“It’s frustrating, but for now, we don’t have any options here.”
I figured there was no use worrying about that side, and my mental map turned toward the east.
No matter how I think about it, the eastern forest and the Wild Rabbits are unavoidable problems.
“Forest…”
“The eastern forest?”
“Is something there?”
“Something? Animals?”
“Yeah.”
“Besides Wild Rabbit and Wild Mouse, there are wolves in the dangerous areas, and I’ve heard there are bears too, though no one’s seen them.”
“Wolves…”
“So?”
“Do they eat rabbits?”
“Ah? Yeah, wolves eat rabbits.”
“Why have the number of rabbits increased?”
“Don’t know.”
“Have the wolves decreased?”
“Not sure… Ah, wait—that’s it.”
“Hm?”
“If the wolves that eat rabbits decrease, the rabbit population goes up. That’s the logic.”
“Mm.”
“Sure enough, wolves are probably the main predators of Wild Rabbits in the forest. We should look into this.”
My brother groaned, folding his arms.
“It’s almost noon,” he muttered, standing and moving to open the window shutters.