I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother – Chapter 10

Author: isuzuuy

As soon as I entered the Evanroar Viscount’s estate, I called for Carl.

“Carl!”

Perhaps he had been waiting for me, because Carl came rushing out.

“Lady Cilia! Sob. To think Lady Cilia would actually visit another noble’s estate like this… This old man has no regrets left in this life.”

Why don’t you put down that bottle of carp extract you’re holding before saying things like that?

Still holding the empty transparent bottle shyly in his hands after sucking it dry, Carl looked deeply moved.

I had personally bought the ingredients and made that carp extract after seeing how much weight he had been losing because of Axion.

The tonic had worked wonders for him, and ever since then, Carl had started making carp extract himself with sparkling eyes. There was now a whole stockpile of it in the mansion.

I cheerfully shook my head.

“What are you talking about? Even if you’re going to leave this world, you still have to take care of Axion’s future children first, Carl.”

“How could you say something so utterly heartless?”

Carl replied with a stern expression.

I was in a fairly good mood, so I lightly ignored his glare and wandered around him with a silly grin.

“Anyway, Carl. The rice stalks I cut and dried are still in the storage room, right?”

Carl sighed.

“Yes, they’re still there. There was never anywhere to use them, after all.”

“Hehe. You don’t have to do any more sewing, Carl. I think our finances are about to improve.”

Seeing my sinister grin, Carl took a step back.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly rushed toward me, clasped both of my hands tightly, and said solemnly,

“…There are many paths in this world, but one must still walk the righteous path if they don’t want to regret it before they die. Even if you’ve become completely consumed by farming, you must not sell your soul to the devil. Lady Cilia. You understand, don’t you?”

Carl continued rambling on about things I couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“Even though you’ve thrown manners out the window and are living a life that can hardly be called human, Lady Cilia! I did not raise you to be like this!”

There were even tears welling up in his eyes.

…Was he picking a fight with me?

As he held both my hands, I stared coldly at the crushed bottle of carp extract trapped between our hands.

The juice leaking from the mouth of the bottle had made my palm sticky.

Looking at it suddenly reminded me of the goldfish Duke Dazar had talked about.

I squeezed the bottle of carp extract tightly in one hand, crushing it further.

“It’s not like that, so don’t worry. I’m going to make money through perfectly legitimate means. I think we’ll be able to solve Axion’s education problem, too!”

“Is… is that really true?”

“Yeah. As part of that, I’m going back to the Siastor estate tomorrow. I have to finish threshing and milling all of this today, so help me.”

“…Pardon?”

Carl blinked.

A few dozen minutes later, his blinking eyes were filled with tears.

“Lady Ciliaaa! This is too haaard!”

“Just hang in there a little longer!”

Ugh. Without the proper tools, threshing was this difficult?

Carl and I were holding stalks of rice covered in grains and stripping them with our gloved hands.

I wished we at least had a rice stripper or something similar, but there was no way such a tool existed here.

This knowledge from helping my grandmother with rice farming in my previous life is actually coming in handy.

During harvest season, she would often call me over because there weren’t enough hands to help. Thanks to that, I had somehow become quite skilled at growing rice.

Back then, I had even considered becoming a farmer since I was unemployed at the time.

But because my parents were vehemently opposed to the idea, I ended up getting a job at a company instead.

“D-Do we really have to do all of this?”

“If I only give him one bowl of rice, it’ll look like I barely brought anything. We need enough to fill an entire rice pot.”

“Wh-what?”

After encouraging the exhausted Carl as much as I could, we managed to obtain a fairly large amount of rice grains.

I gathered them into a large basket and stood up with an “oof.”

“There’s something even harder left, Carl. You can’t collapse here! Think of our adorable Axion!”

“A-Axiooon… Sob…”

Dragging Carl along as he panted and wiped away his sweat, I headed toward the corner.

There was a large wooden bowl that I had asked the servants to bring from the kitchen beforehand.

It was thick and sturdy, perfect for using as a mortar.

There also happened to be a wooden rod with a concave end that was normally used as a rolling pin, so I had asked them to bring that as well.

I planned to use it as a pestle.

As someone whose energy seemed to endlessly regenerate whenever farming was involved, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work without hesitation.

“When I give the signal, put the rice grains in here. We need to pound as much as possible to turn it into polished white rice.”

“Yes, yes.”

Thump. Thump. Thump.

“Ugh!”

The bowl was thick and sturdy enough to serve as a mortar, but it was too shallow.

Because of that, the rice grains kept flying out and landing in my mouth. That alone would have been fine, but they even flew into my eyes, making them water.

Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. This bowl was originally meant for making salads.

Once I started properly growing rice here, I would have to acquire all sorts of proper farming equipment.

By the time Carl was completely exhausted and ready to collapse, we had finally finished milling the rice.

I wiped the sweat running down my forehead and looked out the storage-room window.

In the meantime, the sun had completely set, and a pale white moon had appeared in the sky.

“See? That carp extract was worth it, wasn’t it, Carl?”

“…”

Carl, who was lying spread-eagled on the storage-room floor, gave no response.

His body had been reduced to nothing but exhaustion, but I felt nothing but satisfaction at the thought of surprising that crazy future in-law of mine tomorrow.

All that remained was to serve my future in-law some freshly cooked rice tomorrow.

***

After struggling to calm Axion, who cried because he didn’t want to be separated from me in the morning, we set off for the Siastor estate.

Since Elston wasn’t with him, Dazar treated me in his true manner as soon as he saw me.

“I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

The elegant Duke Siastor I had met briefly yesterday was nowhere to be seen.

Yesterday, he had been perfectly dressed in a vest and a three-button coat, but today he was wearing nothing but a white shirt.

Even that had two or three buttons undone, revealing his smooth collarbone through the opening.

His neatly combed-back black hair was now freely tousled, making him look like a wild horse that had broken free of its reins.

On top of that, there was a bird I had never seen before perched on his shoulder. It was small, but somehow gave off a fierce impression.

I paid no attention to his appearance and raised my chin.

“What, did you think I was going to run away?”

Dazar simply smirked without answering.

“So, did you bring the food?”

“Of course. First, please show me to the kitchen.”

“The kitchen? Why the kitchen?”

“Because I have to cook the rice.”

Well, obviously I had to go to the kitchen if I was going to cook.

Seeing my sulky expression, Dazar crossed his arms and stood there at an angle. Then he tilted his head.

“You’re going to cook?”

“Yes. Save all your questions for later and ask them all at once. Just try eating it first.”

Dazar then gestured toward the servant standing behind him. It was the same servant who had escorted Elston and me to the drawing room the previous day.

“Show her the way.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

In the kitchen I was guided to, I obtained a suitable pot for cooking rice with the help of the servants.

Then I carefully washed the rice and began cooking it.

All you need to cook rice is a pot, water, and fire.

At least for a Korean like me. Heh.

The servants all looked amazed as a noble lady rolled up her sleeves, got her hands wet, and cooked in the kitchen normally used by servants.

Let them be amazed.

There was no reason for me to care about my image here, so I simply wiped my nose and continued cooking.

After some time passed, a savory yet slightly sweet aroma began to emerge from the large pot.

The smell of rice cooking.

“What is that smell?”

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s making me hungry.”

“Exactly. It smells delicious!”

The servants whispered among themselves.

Once the rice was finished and I stirred it with the rice paddle, they couldn’t resist and began hovering nearby.

I picked up a few grains stuck to the paddle and rolled them around in my mouth.

Hmm. This should be just about right.

Though it’s a little disappointing.

What kind of people were we?

The kind of people who worshipped fried chicken as the “Chicken God” and absolutely had to eat samgyeopsal at least once a week.

If the price of either dish went up by 1,000 won one day because of rising ingredient costs, we might say, “Ah, I see. There must be an important reason,” and accept it.

But if a bowl of rice went from 1,000 won to 2,000 won?

We were not the kind of people who could simply sit back and accept that.

The example was a little off, but the point was that we were a people who loved rice.

Naturally, when it came to rice, my palate was extremely refined.

The rice stalks had been left unattended for a long time, the grains had been hastily threshed and milled, and the rice had been cooked in an unfamiliar pot. There was no way the result could be top quality.

The taste is decent, but it’s lacking a little in texture and aroma.

Still, it wasn’t bad.

I vigorously turned the rice over with the paddle, then carried the entire pot to where Dazar was.

He was in what appeared to be his study.

“…What is that?”

“What do you think? It’s the food I told you about yesterday.”

“Oh?”

He had been casually flipping through documents while leaning against his mahogany desk, but he suddenly stood up.

In the meantime, the red bird that had been perched on his shoulder was gone, perhaps having flown away.

I wanted to ask where the bird had gone, but Dazar and I weren’t close enough for me to casually ask something like that, so I let it go.

I walked over to the table he was heading toward and set the pot down with a heavy thud.

He glanced at the enormous pot and muttered,