Tsumi Kake
Chapter 4 When one door is shut, another is open.
During the 10 day period during which Sora's parents were in the mansion, a total of 9 attendants were 'punished'. Twice that amount of people would have probably disappeared if Sora didn't stick up for them.
Of course, physically.
Among the attendants who had been working in the mansion before, only 8 remained.
On top of that, the tax upon the people in the territory increased three times. As a front, they are saying it's because of several villages dispersing but the actual money was being used to bribe a certain bishop.
Sitting with his parents who were speaking of these with pride, Sora felt his head aching and suppressed his increasing urge to kill.
All the dishes lined up on the dining table tasted as if they were filled with sugar and oil. Just by looking at it, his appetite was lost and if he ate it, he would probably feel like vomiting. That was the kind of food being served.
"Sora, aren't you going to eat?"
The pig parents passed the plate to Sora. Their flabby hands jiggled as they raised the plate. How good would it feel to throw it at their faces?-Sora thought.
"Ah, it's that…… I just don't feel like it."
"What? Are you feeling ill again? You're like that everytime we eat."
The pig father looked at the chef while rubbing his chin.
"Cook, are you sure it's not your cooking's fault?"
The cook trembled as the landlord looked at him.
In the first place, this oily food was ordered by the pig parents but it seems like they have completely forgotten about that.
Bearing his increasing headache, Sora interrupted.
"Father, how about you try something out before punishing that cook?"
The cook looked at Sora with a ray of hope. Not a look someone would give a 2 year old.
"Sora, what are you telling me to try?"
His mother asked. Nobody there knew how irritated Sora felt whenever he looked at her.
-You guys are idiots, be aware of that.
To him, the Clinecelt house's current landlord and his wife were nothing but enemies who harm people.
"Let the cook make something he is bad at. Then disqualify him if it doesn't taste good."
Before his parents could even open their mouths, Sora drove out the cook to the kitchen, to which his parents gave a displeased look.
"Sora, there's no need to make him cook something he's bad at. We could just kill him instead."
"Father, I am not saying we will be the ones eating. Let's have that maid eat it. If it tastes bad even to the maid, then that's that. But if she thinks it is good, then our standard of good food is just too high. People will think you're narrow-minded if you punish the cook just because we prefer far more delicious food."
"I see. You have a point. It might also be fun seeing how lacking the commoner's taste is."
The pig father and rugged-faced mother had a revolting smile on their faces.
Sora apologized with a glance to the maid after confirming that his parents weren't looking.
The cook came in bringing the food, the maid ate it and said it was good, to which the pig parents burst out laughing, saying that commoner's have a weird sense of taste and left the dining hall.
The cook's punishment was avoided and the meal ended without producing another sacrifice.
The pig parents will head out to the capital tomorrow.
'Weak successor' Sora will stay in the territory.
Seeing the attendants clean up the table with a side glance, Sora also headed towards his room.
During this 10 day period, many different things happened- from the pig father almost attacking the young maids, to the territory army building a plan to enslave a whole village, and what not…
Sora's anxiety kept accumulating.
The only good thing that happened was that he was now trusted by some of the attendants. The others just thought he was creepy…
"Master Sora, that was a wonderful lifeboat you sent."
His attendant, Minan, said while following him.
"Sorry for doing that to you. That cook really cooked what he was bad at, after all…"
He didn't ask for good cooking but he expected the cook to at least conduct himself a bit skillfully.
"Yes, the taste was dreadful. Putting that aside, the thing you requested for the other day has arrived."
"I see. Good job."
Sora acted tough, receiving Minan's report. It looked pleasant-like a 2 year old trying to stand on their tiptoe.
"What will you do with that grass?"
He didn't answer until they entered his room.
The maid, who could read the atmosphere, also entered the room without saying anything more and closed the door.
"Now then, about the answer to that question… you probably won't believe it."
Facing Minan, Sora began to talk.
After all, the stuff he is going to speak of now is of hundreds of years later from now.
He was using the knowledge on an era with microscope, which didn't exist in this world yet.
Making the doubtful Minan sit down first, Sora started explaining his plan.
"—And that is the limit for now. If we go too far, that pi… father will be too happy, after all."
Sora concluded. Hearing this, Minan was fanning her head with her hand 'cause it had gotten hot with all that knowledge she didn't understand.
"To be honest, I don't understand it well."
Minan gave her impression with a tired voice.
"That's to be expected. If anyone could understand this, they would be very popular, even in the capital, after all."
This was Sora's plan:
Processing the boards to make tickets and use that as lottery to gather funds.
While buying food with that fund, he will have the street children go and live in the deserted village by the coast. And while he is at it, he will give them the old clothing to make them feel grateful.
He will then have the street children learn fishing. He had already secured a fisherman so that will probably go smoothly.
Even the people of this world could understand up to this point. He just needed to explain how lottery worked but that was it.
Things similar to lottery also existed in the Edo period so it isn't that difficult.
The difficult part was after this. Selective breeding of halophytic plants and turning them into a specialty product.
Among these, the frozen grass which grow all year round, the ice-plants store up salt on their leaves so it looks frozen.
In fact, the special characteristics of this grass was that it was even a step ahead of 'not being damaged air', it had so much salt that it even grew after sea water hit it and it is also being researched in Japan.
Not only will they be able to do agriculture by the sea with this, it will also be hard for the tax collector to find out.
One could even go as far as to call it tax evasion.
-We just have to pay if they do find out. Even the Japanese prime minister did it, after all.
"I didn't understand properly but I do understand that it is something bad."
"It's philanthropic work, you know."
The 2 year old boasted, chuckling.
"…..I want to improve the lifestyle of the people. And for that, there's a need to move forward with this in secret."
And within a moment, he made a serious expression and urged earnestly.
"Father just takes everything forcibly from the people but doesn't give anything back. At this rate, there will be no territory for me to inherit. That is troubling."
"…..Master Sora, are you sure you are not misunderstanding something?"
"What?"
Minan's face distorted as Sora asked the question.
And then she slowly rose from the chair and gave a fascinating bow and said,
"There is no way that the attendant who serves the son of the landlord, isn't an ally to the landlord, is there?"
"Oi, don't tell me…?!"
The moment Sora realized what was going on, Minan quickly moved away.
"Wait..!"
He soon followed after but there's no way a 2 year old can catch up.
The maid slowly increased the distance between them and disappeared.
"Haa… haa… darn it!"
Sora sunk down to the floor.
-That maid… betrayed me after listening to everything!
It is unlikely that she understands all of the plan but she is probably expecting a reward or something by telling the landlord.
Minan chose certain profit over an uncertain plan of a two year old.
Now that the plan has leaked, he has to start afresh. On top of that, if he is being monitored now, then it makes it harder for him to take action.
"I need to come up with something else…"
He returned to his room while thinking at full speed.
"As I thought, there's a limit to what I can do alone. If I could at least get down to the city."
He entered his room, deprecating himself. But for some reason, there was a preceding visitor there.
That visitor, a girl of about 15 years, was looking up at the evening sun but noticing Sora enter the room, she turned towards him.
"Ah, master Sora. I have brought the frozen grass per Ms. Minan's instructions."
She showed the ice-plant on her right hand and smiled cheerfully.
"When one door is closed, another opens up, eh…"
Sora muttered. And with a sigh, he let out all his heavy feelings.
A girl coming to work at the landlord's house recently from a fisherman village-he could guess the location with that much information.
"If you don't want your house destroyed along with your whole village, do exactly what I say."
He prevented her betrayal by taking control of her weakness. Sora was also unwilling to do this but he wasn't left with the leeway to choose his methods.
-I am this close to being checkmated but there's a change to turn this around. Before they catch up,
"I will checkmate them…!"