I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 9

I crossed my legs just like Dazar and leaned back against the sofa, speaking arrogantly.

“So you don’t believe that I went to the Eastern Continent?”

“No, before that, what was that ‘gongin-in…’ thing?”

“It’s something from an ancient era. Anyway, let’s talk about what’s important first. The Eastern Continent.”

Dazar narrowed his eyes and stared at me.

“Right. The Eastern Continent. It’s hard to believe.”

I searched through the memories of this body, going over them carefully, but it was an undeniable fact that she had been to the Eastern Continent.

Yet Dazar was right, too.

It made no sense for this body to have traveled to the Eastern Continent using only her own abilities.

It was a place even the Transcendents couldn’t reach through the barrier.

Hmm.

Ironically, many of the problems occurring on the Quizen Continent were caused by the enormous barrier that had been erected to protect our lives.

Including the fact that we couldn’t leave the continent.

The reason Dazar was searching for new food was also related to this. While a food shortage was occurring, they couldn’t trade with other continents either.

But how did she actually get there?

Images of people wearing unfamiliar clothes and having exotic appearances, along with fragments of the time spent there, vaguely surfaced in my mind.

But the actual memory of traveling to the Eastern Continent was as hazy as though it were covered in fog. I could only remember the fact that I had been there.

I had no evidence with which to insist that what I was saying was true.

So I shrugged and said,

“Then let’s correct that. I didn’t go to the Eastern Continent. But I do have food.”

“What?”

“The problem is supposedly that I went to the Eastern Continent, right? Then just assume I didn’t go. What matters is that I have a crop that can be used as a new source of food.”

“Hah!”

Dazar let out a hollow laugh.

He rested an arm on the armrest and propped his chin on his hand.

His face, tilted slightly to the side, looked cold and arrogant. There wasn’t a trace of politeness left on it.

“You really are an unbelievable woman.”

“You’re the one who’s unbelievably good at pretending. Everyone should know that the Grand Duke of Siastor is actually such an ill-mannered person.”

“I thought you were unusual from the moment you shoved that rattle in my face yesterday.”

“I don’t think the person who suddenly pointed a sword at me has any right to say that.”

Dazar grinned.

He looked at me as though he had discovered something incredibly amusing.

He crossed his legs the other way and said,

“Though, my sword was much more effective at stopping the baby from crying than your rattle.”

“Well, good for you. You have a sword that’s useful for calming babies. Where did you get it? I should get one, too.”

“It’s a divine artifact passed down through generations. Sorry, but I don’t know where it was made either.”

The meaningless exchange of insults continued.

Seeing his smile grow wider and wider somehow made me feel as though I was losing.

I leaned forward and lightly slapped the table.

Bang.

“Enough. You said you needed a new source of food, didn’t you? You heard that I have it, so why are you talking so much?”

Dazar leaned forward just as I had.

Our bodies drew closer across the table.

He came close enough that I almost wanted to back away, then slowly opened and closed his eyes.

There was something strange about his gaze.

For a man so rough and irritating, his eyes were surprisingly deep.

He raised one eyebrow slightly and said quietly,

“Then bring me the food.”

“And then?”

“I’ll grant you whatever you want.”

I looked directly into his golden eyes and smiled.

“Deal.”

For just a moment, I thought his eyes seemed to sparkle.

 

***

 

“I imagine it was probably an order from the Emperor. No, from His Majesty.”

On the way back to the Evanroar Viscount’s estate in the carriage, Elston, who was sitting across from me, spoke.

I tilted my head as I watched the vegetation rapidly passing outside the window.

“His Majesty?”

“Yes.”

I had just asked him why the Duke of Siastor was searching for a new source of food.

Elston seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then he pulled out the coupon that read ‘30-Second Hug Coupon for Cute Axion’ from inside his clothes, looked at it, and finally answered with an I don’t care anymore expression.

“Scarlet, the current Emperor of the Quizen Empire, is a benevolent ruler. He’s probably the Emperor who has loved his people the most throughout history.”

“Hmm. That’s true.”

Even when I dug through the memories of this body, Scarlet, the current Emperor of the Quizen Empire, was someone who truly loved his people. If I had to compare him to someone from Korea before I was reincarnated, perhaps King Sejong the Great would be the closest comparison.

He gathered brilliant people and had them create inventions for the people, while carefully identifying their hardships and solving their problems.

“Though, because he’s such a benevolent ruler, there are quite a few complaints among the nobles.”

“……”

Elston turned his head toward the window.

He looked somewhat tired.

“Well, the current food shortage is probably connected to all that. In this isolated continent, the staple food is Miar, but the nobles have monopolized its distribution.”

He was right.

In the original setting, the nobles each possessed exclusive rights to Miar across different territories.

The imperial family controlled less than five percent of it. That was because imperial authority had collapsed under the previous generations of Emperors, before Emperor Scarlet, who was known as a benevolent ruler.

The imperial authority that had crumbled back then had damaged not only the royal family but the entire empire.

Emperor Scarlet had managed to seize what remained of that shattered authority and restore it to its current state.

Thanks to that, unlike in the past, the nobles now obediently followed imperial orders.

“Anyway, if the imperial family develops a new source of food and manages it directly, then the people won’t have to pay ridiculous prices for Miar, they won’t have to go hungry just because they don’t have money, and the country will become stronger. Something like that, I suppose.”

Elston, unusually serious as he discussed the political situation, looked a little more like a Tower Master than usual.

However, Elston’s interpretation was slightly off. The reason they were trying to develop a new food source was undoubtedly because the Miar harvest had been disrupted.

Just like in the original novel.

I simply nodded vaguely.

“I see. He sounds like a wonderful person.”

I quietly agreed with him.

Just then, Elston cautiously asked,

“But how did you go to the Eastern Continent?”

“The Eastern Continent? Me?”

“Yes. You said you had been there earlier.”

Elston tilted his head.

I stared at him as though he were talking nonsense.

“Are you sick? When did I ever say I went to the Eastern Continent? When you get back to the Magic Tower, take your temperature.”

“……?”

I casually ignored the confusion filling his brown eyes and turned my head back toward the window.

Well, anyway. The food shortage must really be serious.

Actually, I had taken a small amount of rice-bearing stalks with me earlier.

But I had brought them back without showing Dazar because, aside from the fact that he was that crazy man from yesterday, he was far too suspicious of me.

A crazy man like him seemed like the type who wouldn’t believe something unless I personally spoon-fed it to him.

The corners of my lips curled into a wicked smile.

 

***

 

“Goodbye, Elston! See you again soon!”

“Ahem. It’s not that I particularly want to see you. I just thought I might as well say hello to the little one while I’m here…”

Whoosh.

Watching Cilia’s back as she hurried away as if she had teleported, Elston scratched the back of his head.

“……She’s already gone.”

Elston let out a deep sigh and drew a formula in the air.

The scenery before his eyes suddenly changed.

He had cast a teleportation spell.

“Master of the Magic Tower! I’m drowning in work here, so why have you been away so often lately?”

“Master! You said you’d take a look at the error in the golem operation research last time! When can you check it?”

“Master! Master!”

That damn ‘Master of the Magic Tower.’

As soon as he arrived at the Magic Tower, Elston’s eyes grew hollow at the sight of the noisy magicians calling for him.

As the Master of the only Magic Tower on the continent, he was an extremely busy man.

In other words, he barely had enough time to breathe.

And yet lately, he had become entangled with a certain woman, giving up his precious personal time to serve as the personal physician of a baby—a role that had absolutely nothing to do with his usual life.

“All right, everyone, line up one at a time.”

Elston lined up the magicians who had business with him and quickly began working through their reports.

Having led the Magic Tower for a long time, clearing this much accumulated work was easy for him.

Cilia Evanroar.

As he mechanically processed his work, Elston thought of the woman he had been encountering frequently lately.

She really is much stranger than the rumors suggest.

The strength she possessed, which was impossible to associate with a noble young lady…

Take that damn Dragon Heart out of this child’s heart right now!

Not to mention her rough and courageous personality, which was more ferocious than that of most knights.

And then there’s the fact that she willingly adopted a child she had never even met.

She was clearly having a hard time because of it. Elston recalled the words she had been muttering lately.

Money, money, money…

It was a secret that the sight of her chanting those words as though they were an actual curse spell had made him a little nervous.

She really is scary sometimes.

After working through everything in a daze, there were no magicians left standing in front of him.

He headed toward his room.

“A new source of food, huh? Dazar is putting quite a bit of effort into this.”

Contrary to Cilia’s thoughts, Elston had already realized that the food shortage had begun.

After arriving in his spacious room, Elston scratched his cheek and began drawing a formula.

White light emanated from his hand, and a small messenger in the shape of a dove appeared.

“I suppose I should go and deliver the news. That’s my role right now.”

The dove seemed to understand his words. It cooed softly before taking flight.