I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother – Chapter 5

Author: isuzuuy

Even while spending my days busy raising Axion, I had been thinking of ways to prevent him from becoming one with the Demon Dragon.

‘Oh? Come to think of it…’

Then I suddenly remembered something from the original story.

‘Wasn’t the necklace Vanilla eventually obtained able to weaken the Demon Dragon’s power?’

Around the time Axion, who had tormented Vanilla in the name of love, eventually came to genuinely love her through a certain incident, Vanilla also fell in love with him…

‘That was when the necklace temporarily cut off the Demon Dragon’s power.’

But as expected from a story filled with misery upon misery, another misunderstanding arose between the two, and the necklace was eventually destroyed.

‘So Vanilla is the key to cutting off the Demon Dragon’s power.’

And there was another reason why Vanilla had been intellectually attracted to Axion. It was the vast amount of knowledge he had acquired from growing up struggling through the mud just to survive.

She realized that she, who had grown up sheltered, was like a frog in a well, and her curiosity about him began to grow.

‘But…’

The Axion of now had no reason to struggle through the mud, did he?

I was planning to raise him with the utmost care so that he wouldn’t end up on the death route!

‘This won’t do. This really won’t do…’

Even if I managed to avoid the death route Axion was supposed to take around the age of seven, he would still have a limited lifespan if we couldn’t solve the Demon Dragon problem.

‘Axion, who possesses the Dragon Heart of the Demon Dragon, may look like an ordinary baby on the outside, but he’ll grow up while retaining all of his current memories.’

Then if he started accumulating knowledge from now on, wouldn’t he naturally end up with even more knowledge than Vanilla…?

‘Let’s at least give it a try.’

The next morning, after returning from my usual early-morning mom gathering, I headed to Axion’s playroom as usual.

While I played with Axion for quite some time, Carl also settled down beside me and worked on his favorite hobby: sewing.

Looking at him, I casually said,

“Carl. Let’s look for a private tutor too.”

“Pardon? A private tutor? Have you finally decided that you want to receive a proper education?”

“Huh?”

Carl put down his sewing and stared at me with teary eyes.

As far as I remembered, Cilia was a farming fanatic, but she was also a talented person who had graduated from the academy with excellent grades.

What was he talking about?

“Me? What kind of education are you talking about?”

“Etiquette lessons! Don’t you remember? We once hired Lady Angela, who was famous as an etiquette teacher, but she left the estate after having enough of you. After that, all the other teachers your brother brought also ran out crying!”

“……”

When I searched through my memories, it seemed that something like that really had happened.

Why was this body so peculiar?

I let out a deep sigh and shook my head vigorously.

“I remember. But I’m not talking about my etiquette lessons. I’m talking about Axion. Axion!”

“…Lord Axion?”

Carl tilted his head and looked at Axion, who was nestled in my arms.

Axion, who had been happily squealing and playing with my hair, was now fast asleep.

“Lord Axion is already perfect. Why would he need a private tutor? My lady. Haha. What a joke.”

He was clearly complimenting my child, so why did it feel like he was subtly insulting me?

I pouted and let my shoulders droop.

“I heard other kids are already getting private tutors. Sigh. I’m worried our Axion might fall behind.”

More precisely, behind the female protagonist, Vanilla!

Perhaps he was finally willing to take me seriously after hearing my worried sigh, because Carl made a thoughtful expression and went, “Hmm…”

“What if he gets ignored when he meets children his age later on…? My heart would be torn to pieces.”

“How could anyone possibly ignore adorable Lord Axion?!”

Carl shouted while clutching the piece of fabric he had been sewing.

I deliberately put on an expression that said, Oh dear. How can someone be this ignorant of the ways of the world? and clicked my tongue.

“Do you know how scary kids these days are? Didn’t you see the newspaper the other day? Some little brats who were about to enter the academy secretly drove their parents’ carriage and caused an accident!”

“My goodness. Really?”

It was a lie.

“Of course! Kids these days are terrifying. And you know how vicious children their own age can be? It’s practically a kingdom of beasts.”

“…A kingdom of beasts? Where is that country?”

Carl blinked innocently.

Grandpa Carl, how can you believe everything people tell you? I was honestly worried about how he’d fare outside the estate.

“That isn’t important right now. A private tutor for Axion. That’s what’s important.”

“Hmmm. Now that you mention it, I suppose you’re right.”

I inwardly cheered when Carl finally nodded.

Yes! He fell for it.

“Exactly. So let’s hire a private tutor.”

While my older brother, Viscount Evanroar, was away, I was technically the head of the viscountcy, but Carl was actually the one managing everything.

He probably didn’t trust his farming-obsessed younger sister to handle things, so he’d left everything in Carl’s hands.

Of course, even though he managed the estate, I still had the final say. All I had to do was give an order.

But Cilia had grown up like family with him, and I didn’t want to treat someone old enough to be my grandfather that way either.

“…Yes, that’s true. However, there is a problem, My Lady.”

Carl looked at me with a slightly gloomy expression.

“A problem? What problem?”

He hesitated for a moment before letting out a small sigh.

“We don’t have any money.”

“…Huh?”

“We can’t afford to hire a private tutor. Once we take care of all the people living in the estate, there’s nothing left.”

What?!

I almost jumped to my feet in shock.

I hugged Axion tightly and broke out in a cold sweat.

“Wait. Why don’t we have any money? The fields are huge, and we have so much land!”

“…Those were purchased with the inheritance left by your father. Since you haven’t been engaging in any economic activities, naturally, there is no outside income. We’re barely getting by on the taxes collected from the territory.”

“What has Silvestain been doing all this time, then? He must have money saved up! He’s a professor at the Imperial Academy, isn’t he? Doesn’t he make quite a lot of money?”

Silvestain was the name of my older brother in this body.

I couldn’t remember what his field of study was, but he was a professor at the Imperial Academy. As the head of the Viscounty of Evanroar, a family of scholars for generations, it suited him perfectly.

He was currently away conducting some sort of research.

Carl let out a long sigh.

“Of course, we can’t use that money.”

“What? Why?”

“Before Silvestain left the estate, he repeatedly warned me.”

“…What did he say?”

Carl subtly averted his gaze.

“He told me not to touch anything except the assets allocated to Cilia.”

“……”

“It’s probably because of all those crop seeds Lady Cilia bought with the family’s money in the past. I heard the financial damage was enormous.”

How could this be?

“Therefore, if we hire a private tutor using Lady Cilia’s money, our household budget will go into the red. Especially since the cost of formula and diapers for Lord Axion is already no joke.”

He cast a tired gaze into the distance.

Suddenly, I noticed the sewing in his hands.

Wait, when did Carl take up sewing as a hobby…?

“I’ve been putting up with it because I didn’t want to burden you, My Lady, but I suppose there’s no helping it now. Sigh.”

“Ugh…”

Seeing the exhaustion etched all over Carl’s face, I felt a sharp pang in my heart.

“What about the rice we harvested last time? Didn’t we make any money from it at all?”

“Pardon? The mysterious yellow plants growing in the field… Are those rice?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t know?”

“No. You said two years ago that you had found some new seeds and were going to research them. I thought you were still trying to figure out what they could be used for.”

What was this?

“But it’s quite fascinating, isn’t it? In the first year, you worked so hard growing them while looking at some book you’d brought from somewhere, yet almost all of them died. Then, the following year, you suddenly started growing that rice plant perfectly, as if you’d become a completely different person.”

“……”

I was dumbfounded as Carl nodded as though it were the most fascinating thing in the world.

Wait.

The following year was when I transmigrated into this body.

So, before that, Cilia didn’t even know how to grow rice?

“Then… I was the one who grew it?”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, never mind.”

Maybe I’d taken too many shocks in a row, because I shifted uncomfortably.

“Iiing.”

Axion squirmed in my arms, about to start fussing.

“Let’s talk about it later.”

“Very well.”

I quickly soothed the baby and laid him down in the bedroom before flopping down on the bed beside him.

Carl went to his room, saying he would finish his sewing.

I blinked several times while lying on the bed.

“So…”

Cilia had studied rice farming by reading books, while I had grown up in a place where rice was a staple food and had experience helping my grandmother with rice farming.

“In the end, the two of us combined to produce the result.”

But the harvested rice was simply piled up in the storage room.

Clearly, I still had no idea what to do with it afterward.

“I can make money with this, can’t I?”

I muttered while lying on the bed.

Then I could hire a private tutor, and Axion wouldn’t have to be looked down on by the heroine, Vanilla.

If that happened, he wouldn’t have to take the death route either. And judging by the timeline, it should be around the point described in the original story.

If I timed it right, this could be a huge success.

Yes.

It was a perfect plan.

***

But contrary to my expectations, finding someone willing to buy the rice turned out to be much harder than I thought.

“This makes an excellent source of food, I assure you.”

“That’s exactly why. Why would we eat something we’ve never seen before? What if something happens after we eat it?”

Elston, who had been watching Axion toddle around with an entranced expression, answered my words indifferently.

“Ugh.”

I had even considered selling it to the Magic Tower.

But Elston reacted just like all the other food merchants.

They couldn’t just buy something they’d never seen before.

Why would they take such a risk based on nothing but my word?

Everyone gave me the same answer and wouldn’t even give the rice a second glance.

‘I’m sure mentioned that a food shortage happened in the past.’

The staple food of this world was something called miar. It looked similar to wheat and had similar characteristics. Miar was a crop that grew well no matter where it was planted.

Thanks to it, the Empire had enjoyed abundant food supplies and flourished.

Until one day, when something suddenly went wrong with the miar harvest.

That was the beginning of the food shortage.

It was also part of the background that led to Axion experiencing all kinds of hardships from a very young age. Around that time, people’s hearts had become so cold that Axion was treated harshly wherever he went.

‘Has that time not come yet?’

I was feeling dejected, wondering if I’d gotten the timing wrong, when Elston glanced at me and suddenly said,

“Come to think of it, I went to the Siastor Ducal Estate, didn’t I?”

Ah, right.

I’d asked him to find out what subjects Vanilla was studying and who her teachers were.

What good would that do? Our Axion wouldn’t even be able to study.

Sob.

My shoulders drooped even further, and my gloomy expression seemed to make Elston flustered.

He hurriedly continued,

“Duke Dazar confided in me about a concern. He said they need food. New food.”

“…What?”

“He asked if the Magic Tower could develop a new food source. I told him I’d think about it, but…”