episode_0030

Winter is coming.

There is a famous fantasy novel that goes like this. I read it with great interest when I was a college student, but the sequel volume did not come out for a long time after I finished reading it, so I did not see the ending of that novel until I finally came here.

Anyway, I think that the word that appears as a family saying in the story is really well-made.

Winter is an ordeal. Even by the standards of modern Korea, where technology has advanced so much that the possibility of freezing to death is significantly reduced if one can properly pay the electricity bill, winter has always been an ordeal. There are always people who cannot properly pay the electricity bill.

Moreover, in an age where we do not even have such technological capabilities, the only way to prepare for winter is literally the same old-fashioned methods seen in old stories.

Prepare a lot of food. Then, the food is preserved by drying, smoking, or salting so that it does not spoil even when stored for a long time. Fruits are dried, and all grains are packed tightly in thick leather bags with several layers at the entrance to prevent mice and insects from eating them. Seal it with

In fact, if an outsider sees such preparations, they may find it a bit surprising. Although this was not a modern society where electricity and gas pipes came into the city without any notice, Delki City still had a connecting road and was a place where merchants regularly visited. Because it’s winning.

Although Del Qui City is basically a remote area, it is not a place where communication with the outside world can be lost. In fact, the food warehouses of Del Qui City Castle were full of not only meat and dried fruits available around Del Qui City, but also grain from the southern granary region. Although there were few, there were also dried fish that came from the sea.

So, you may not need to prepare in this way to ‘survive the winter with only food’. Even if you are isolated due to falling snow, you will not be isolated until the winter is over. The people of Delkish are capable of clearing the snow to reveal a path. Because they were wealthy people.

This fact is proven by the fact that Prince Evan and Amelia do not return home, but stay in Edo del Chisi at the beginning of winter. They are also here because there is a guarantee that they can return ‘whenever they want’.

… … Of course, ‘always’ cannot be the literal ‘always’, but it was clear that if you could tolerate at least a few weeks of error, you could go back.

But this is tradition.

“If people try to be too comfortable, they tend to become lazy.”

Amelia asked me a question while I was twisting the rope with dried grass, and I answered that way.

By the way, does she have no intention of going back? Is it okay for someone called the Grand Duchess to stay outside the family territory for this long?

I may have put it here because I had my own thoughts, but I began to think that maybe it was time for the Archduke to find him.

“If you are comfortable, you become lazy?”

When Amelia asked back, I nodded.

“That’s right. Once you’re comfortable, you want to be comfortable the next time, and if you repeat this over and over again, you’ll reach a dangerous line. Normally, it might be okay. But if that situation continues for several years, you’ll reach that ‘line’ once. Accidents that exceed the limit will occur. After an accident occurs, there is nothing you can do about it.”

In my past life, I was not a very sincere person. I reluctantly went to school, reluctantly went to college to get my grades right, and reluctantly got a job at a company that paid me a small salary, so I reluctantly went to work. It was because I had to feed my mouth anyway.

On weekdays, I could barely open my eyes and go to work and somehow survive until work, and on the weekends, I slept a lot and only opened my eyes just before the afternoon, so I couldn’t say I was very sincere compared to now, when I wake up at dawn every day and find something to do. At that time, it wasn’t something I wanted to do.

If you ask me, ‘Do I do what I do now because I want to?’, I will answer that it is not because I really want to. In this world, there are no laws such as labor laws, child protection laws, etc., so I work hard without distinction between weekdays and holidays.

Of course, she was the baron’s daughter anyway, so she was given some convenience.

In addition, I was so small that even my family could call me deformed – to the point where my mother would often look at me with sad eyes and say, ‘It’s my fault’ – and my physical strength was weak compared to the other members of the family, so in the winter, I was involved in various architectural tasks that the family members did. They were also excluded from chopping firewood.

Even if I don’t do something on my own, I’ve been told that it’s ‘okay’, but there is still something about people being shameful.

Still, I stayed here for 7 years. I know how hard the people of Delkish work to get food and not freeze to death, but it’s a bit weird to just enjoy that for free.

Well, considering my age, it is right to be supported by the standards of modern society, but the content is that I am in my late 20s. It was a bit uneasy to be supported while considering such things at an age where I was already childish and had nothing to do with it.

So, it’s natural to look for something like this to do. In this world without a mass production system, if you make a lot of things like rope, they will be used at some point.

“And if you prepare well like this, you will have room to spare when variables arise.”

“… … .”

Seeing that Amelia was speechless after seeing my words and actions, I laughed and said,

“You don’t have to worry too much, Grand Duchess. I’ll say it again, the Prince and Grand Duchess are guests.”

There are not as many systematic laws as there are in modern times, but without laws, gentlemen’s agreements exist between people.

If a guest comes, we accept it without rejecting it. We also provide enough food. And the guest does not refuse it.

If you treat us that well, then we can expect the same treatment when we visit. Of course, Delki City people don’t go out much, but we live with help in other ways.

“… … Is there anything I can help you with?”

“You don’t have to do that. It’s okay. We already receive a lot of help from the Archduke family on a regular basis. If there were no supplies from the Archduke family, we wouldn’t be able to maintain the territory on this scale.”

“But that’s… … .”

Amelia, who had spoken, closed her mouth again.

Delki City is in charge of blocking the northern barbarians on the front line. It may have seemed like they were shifting responsibility to us, who are the only ones fighting in this peaceful world and living in a barren land.

“Delki City is our home. It is our hometown where we have lived for hundreds of years.”

I looked down again and looked at the twisted rope. I made it right after breakfast, so I was able to make quite a lot, but considering how much I could use, I thought it would be better to make more.

Did you say that this method of twisting rope is also the method used by giants hundreds of years ago?

It may be much thinner than the rope the giant used.

And there were no giants left either.

The writer Delkisi was born when one of the members of the Great Duchy of Grattenmount visited the North to pioneer the North and made eye contact with a giant and sat down with them. Since then, Delkisi has continued to accept humans. That is the Great Duchy of Grattenmount. Sometimes it was a chair hand, and sometimes it was just an ordinary person who came from somewhere else.

What all of them came together to create was this ‘Delkisi’. In Delkisi, the word ‘Delkisi’ does not just mean the baron and the barony. It means all the people of Delkisi.

And for us, the descendants of those who chose to live here, this place was literally our home.

This is our home, so we must hold on and protect it. Whether or not the Great Duke of Grattonmount gives us support, we will endure here. Even if the result is that we are falling apart, we can only silently accept it.

“So there is no need for the people of the Great Duke family to feel indebted. We live here because we want to.”

If we leave this place, we will definitely miss the blindingly white snow fields and the sturdy pine trees that do not lose their blue color even under the white snow. We will miss the summer when the sun does not set, and the winter when the quiet nights continue.

In the first place, there is no option for us to give up this place.

“Is that so… … .”

Amelia, who listened silently for a while to my story, answered quietly.

After watching my hand movements for a while again, he picked up a handful of dry rice straw that I had piled next to him.

“The Grand Duchess is—”

“I’m just bored.”

When I tried to stop him, Amelia quickly spoke.

“Because I’ve hardly ever done this kind of pastime. Usually, when I’m at the Grand Duke’s house, I take classes from a tutor or read books, but here, I’m just a guest and there’s nothing to do.”

Amelia said with a small smile at me.

“Also, I agree that if you sit still and do nothing, you become lazy. So, when you have nothing to do, I think it would be better to spend your time doing something like this. What do you think? ”

After hearing the story, I lightly shrugged my shoulders.

“If you really think so.”

Well, there is no harm in having a lot of twisted rope.