I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 3

by Funa

  I had no choice, it was time to pull out my trump card!

  “Jewel detectooor!”

  I reached into the bag on my shoulder and pulled out a new device. It was a jewel detector-type potion container.

  “Detection targets: Corundum, diamonds, pearls. Search radius: Eighty meters. Set! Ready!”

  By setting it to search for corundum, which included rubies and sapphires, as well as diamonds and pearls, it would definitely pick up any sort of treasure besides gold. And this time, I went with a PPI (Plan Position Indicator) scope to make it easier to tell where it all may be. It was that kind used on modern Earth that had a rotating radar antenna and blinked when it detected the target.

  Yes, I was a woman who learned from her mistakes.

  All right, begin detection! Switch on!

  [No detection]

  ...Yeah, I figured as much. It was unlikely that something referred to as a “fortune” without specifying any precious jewel wouldn’t contain any gold in the first place. But what was the deal here?

  1. It was enshrouded in an anti-detection field.

  2. The fortune was neither gold nor precious jewels.

  3. It wasn’t here.

  4. It wasn’t anywhere.

  5. It was all in the company commander’s head.

  As well...

  A. It never existed.

  B. His ancestor had made up the story to give him hope.

  C. It existed before, but had been all used up.

  There were multiple possible answers.

  I told the company commander as such, and he sandwiched my head between his fists and drilled my head with them. It was the so-called “umeboshi punishment.” It was actually pretty effective.

  Not to mention, the complete lack of emotion on his face made it scary. Really, really scary...

  This was bad. I had to do something.

  The company commander seemed to be getting anxious, and I felt danger looming in. I didn’t want to be found floating in the river the next morning! I had to think! Think!

  Ergh, grrr, hnnng!

  Ah.

  Aaahhh!

  I took out the first detector that responded to gold again.

  Switch on!

  I pointed it in the direction it guided me, and it led me past the wall with the hole in it, then directly to the back of the safe...

  I left the room wordlessly. The company commander followed me in a hurry.

  I checked the direction in the hallway. Passing the vault room, I checked the direction again.

  ...Yup, that confirmed it!

  I walked back into the vault room, which was left unlocked. It was left open! How careless! Though I guessed no one would just waltz into a noble’s house in the middle of the day to steal something. Besides, a noble’s house was never going to be completely empty. There’d always be several servants there at any given time.

  The company commander and I stood before the safe. He had no idea what was going on, but seemed to know something was up from observing me. Then...

  “I need something hard that you wouldn’t mind getting damaged!”

  “R-Right!”

  He immediately produced a silver coin from his pouch. Well, it wasn’t pure silver, so it was probably harder than “that.”

  So I took the coin and began scratching away... at the black-coated safe.

  Scratch.

  Scratch scratch scratch.

  Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch...

  The layers and layers of paint peeled away, revealing the safe’s original surface below. A nice, golden color...

  “Ah! Aaahhh!!!”

  The company commander’s eyes widened and he knelt to the ground.

  “Ahhh... Father, my ancestor, and God! The people of Lasrich will overcome this crisis and gallantly strive toward the future...”

  “...But considering you keep facing danger with bad harvests and such, you’ll eventually use this up and die out...”

  “Q-Quiet!”

  He was actually pretty mad, maybe because I’d ruined his heartfelt moment.

  “How much of this fortune do you plan on using?”

  “Huh? Oh, I don’t plan to use any.”

  “Wha...?”

  He explained that they had managed to power through this bad harvest by using their food storage and some of their viscount household’s funds, along with a small loan.

  “Word of my house’s fortune became quite a big topic at the time. Thanks to the rumor that the House of Lasrich has a reserve for truly desperate times, it gives the impression that we’re still not in enough trouble to withdraw from it, that we can fall back on it to repay any loans if necessary. This allows us to acquire loans with little to no collateral.”

  Huh, I knew there were many drawbacks to people knowing you had money, but this was a perk I hadn’t thought of.

  “But if something were to happen before we could build up our reserves again, one small incident could have bankrupted us. If that were to occur, we would’ve had to borrow money from a lord of a big territory and effectively become part of their territory, or return the land to His Majesty to have it merged with another territory later... In either case, we would have been treated differently compared to their original citizens in matters such as taxes, and there would have been no benefit for my people. No matter what may happen to us, I have to avoid this at all costs... This was why I absolutely had to find that fortune now.”

  Wow! Such a good person!

  Oh, but what if people find out that he found the fortune?

  “Wouldn’t it be an issue if the government finds out though? With taxes and demands for payment to the treasury and such...”

  “No, there’s no need to worry about that.” He dismissed my concern right away. “When my ancestors first discovered the fortune, they notified the kingdom and paid taxes for it properly. That’s why no one doubts the existence of it. No fool would lend large amounts of money without collateral based on hearsay alone. Besides, if everyone knows we own a fortune, there would be no problem since we do actually have one.”

  I-I see...

  His ancestors must’ve been straightlaced and honest people. But this was the ancestor of a company commander who used his personal funds for the people of his fief, so it probably ran in the family. I personally didn’t dislike people like him, so I decided to give him some advice. Some irresponsible advice that wouldn’t be my problem if he actually followed it.

  Hey, I wasn’t the one who’d be paying for it.

  I sound so evil right now...

  “...Why don’t you blow it all?”

  “Huh?” He looked surprised.

  “I mean, use up all that fortune your ancestors left for you!”

  “Wh-Wh-Wha...”

  What good were life and money if you couldn’t enjoy them?

  “You’ve had bad harvests a bunch of times before, which will surely occur again, right? How many times do you think you can endure that before your fortune dries up?”

  “Ugh...”

  From the sounds of it, it was used several times in the past already anyway.

  “And if a bad harvest had such repercussions, what if you have continuously devastating harvests? What if it goes on for years? Fluctuating weather like cold summers or pest issues could easily go on for two years. In that case, the amount of food you’d need to buy from other regions would skyrocket. In fact, they may not sell you anything because they’d think of their own fief’s people first.”

  “U-Uuugh...”

  I must’ve scared him, because he was starting to look pale.

  “Instead of patching the issue whenever something happens, you should stop the issue at its root. If you don’t fix the fundamental problem, any money you throw at treating the symptoms will be wasted.”

  “H-Hmm... You say that, but what can I do? We’re a poor region with little fertile land...”

  Yeah, I knew that. If that weren’t the case, he would
n’t have been in this situation so many times before when the country as a whole wasn’t having bad harvests. I couldn’t say anything for sure without confirming the full situation, but I did at least have a starting point.

  “Please consider the reason for the bad harvests not just in your region, but in other places with similar conditions, and compare them to the times where you didn’t have such issues. If it was because of a cold summer, you could get seeds for crops that are strong against the cold from the northern regions. If it was because of droughts, you could dig a deep well or dig up a waterway from a nearby river. You could also diversify to minimize risk by growing not just grains, but corn and potatoes as well... Potatoes can grow quickly even in sterile lands and they’re full of vitamins. They’re also resilient to the cold, droughts, and weather changes in general, so they’re highly effective as a safety net. It may not be an attractive option for sales, but human lives come before profit, right?”

  “Y-Yes...”

  The company commander seemed a bit hesitant. He wasn’t an idiot, so of course he knew about potatoes. But countries around here had it in their minds that potatoes and corn were feed for livestock. They’d eat anything if they were starving, of course, but they didn’t really consider growing them for the purpose of human consumption. Grains and vegetables were the core of crops meant for human food, with wheat being mainly used in tax payment. Peasants usually ate rye, oats, and barley, since they were so easily grown, even if the land wasn’t in perfect shape or there wasn’t enough water.

  But with the level of civilization in this world, harvesting grains was highly inefficient. About 300 kilograms were harvested per acre, which wasn’t too bad for being the equivalent to the Middle Ages of modern Earth, but it was nowhere near the three to four tons that could be harvested with modern agriculture. A good harvest here would be 500 to 600 kilograms. Also, in the case of potatoes, one acre could yield about 30 tons on modern Earth.

  “I understand this is so much to take in so suddenly. Please just think about it some time.”

  No lord would just agree right away to a spontaneous suggestion from some amateur girl who didn’t know about managing territory or agriculture. And if there were a lord like that, it’d probably be best to stay away. He might try to push the blame of his failures onto you...

  I wasn’t going to help him with any internal affair cheats. That’d only be an extreme risk for me with few benefits. We’d be talking about units of years too. I’d offered some simple advice because I was already involved, but I wasn’t going to take responsibility for any of it. I’d already provided one gold coin’s worth of work.

  “Well then, I’ll be excusing myself...”

  Layette was getting bored with nothing to do. It seemed she didn’t like staying at the noble’s residence either. I had to head back to try and appease her. Lunch time was approaching too.

  And so, I tried to depart.

  “Wait, I can’t just let you leave after all you’ve done! We’re preparing lunch, so please have some before you go.”

  ““Okay!”” Layette and I immediately replied in unison.

  Joining a noble family’s meal was a rare opportunity. Though I guessed we’d technically be joining nobles for a meal if I made Roland or Francette pay for one, but that was different.

  In Layette’s case, this was a miracle that would’ve been impossible even if she were reborn ten times. She might’ve been hesitant because she didn’t know proper table manners or she didn’t want to impose, but for six-year-old Layette, this was a chance to eat delicious food, and that was all there was to it.

  ...Though, I didn’t have much room to talk.

  “You’ve been a great help today. I’d like to thank you on behalf of the house of Lasrich—no, for the entirety of the house of Lasrich’s fiefdom.”

  The company commander formally thanked us before the tables full of food in the dining hall. Seated there were me, Layette, the company commander’s wife, his two twenty-something daughters, and his sixteen- and eighteen-year-old sons.

  This may have been a viscount’s household, but they were still well-respected nobles, and they were a family all the more pleasing to look at too. Maybe they inherited their ancestors’ good-natured blood, because they all had gentle eyes. The company commander’s sons seemed like they’d grow up to be dandy men when they’re older, and I had high expectations for their future.

  ...But why did they have such an all-star cast? And were those military fatigues they were wearing? Their uniforms seemed much different...

  I didn’t even think it was a day off for them. Normally, this was the time people began eating and chatting, but the brothers looked at me with flushed cheeks and passionate eyes without touching their forks or knives.

  ...Did they fall for me?

  Maybe this wasn’t a bad option. Becoming the wife of a small, somewhat poorer viscount household, improving the agriculture and river management as we received the finances to do so, being taken care of by my mother- and father-in-law, having kids and living a fulfilling life with the population of the fief...

  It seemed like it’d be a lifestyle of freedom where I didn’t have to worry about getting by. There’d be no social hierarchy to concern myself with, and the company commander seemed like a good person who cared about his people.

  Yeah, it wasn’t bad. If they ever tried to court me...

  As I thought about it, one of the brothers approached me with a serious look on his face.

  “Miss Kaoru, there’s something I’d like to ask of you...”

  H-Here we gooo!

  “Wait, Big Brother, me first!”

  Whoa! And a sudden interference from his younger brother! Looks like I’m popular!

  “No, I’m first!”

  “No, me!”

  Fueheheh, now was the time to bust out that line, the line I’d always wanted to say: “Please, don’t fight over me!”

  Ehe, fueheheh...

  And finally, the two brothers turned toward me and shouted, ““Please, give me some of your soldier’s disease medicine!””

  Of course.

  ...Yeah, I saw that coming.

  Damn it! Got my hopes up for nothing!

  ...No, this was my fault for assuming, not theirs. To jump at the opportunity because of their looks and status without even confirming their personality or anything... What was I, an unpopular thirty-something woman? Wait, my mental age, or the number of years I’d lived was over twenty-seven, so I pretty much was thirty!

  Whoa whoa, wait a sec. Since that asshole crown prince proposed to me, maybe I could relinquish the title of an unpopular woman?

  No no no no, never mind! That didn’t even count!

  “...Sure.”

  I stuck my hand in my bag, which I put next to the chair, then pulled out two bottles of the medicine that I’d created on the spot and slammed them on the table. I thought I’d concealed my displeasure, but I couldn’t help the sullen look from showing on my face. The company commander looked a little anxious. He must’ve thought I was upset because they made such brazen requests at the dinner table or something.

  ...But suddenly, he started grinning at me.

  Damn it, he figured me out!

  Layette couldn’t wait anymore and began chowing down. Actually, the dinner had already started some time ago, so there was no need for her to wait.

  I began stuffing my face too, partly to hide my embarrassment.

  ...Mhm. As expected of a noble household’s cooking, it was well-made with good ingredients and technique.

  But...

  “...”

  The look on Layette’s face screamed something was off. It was a look that said the food wasn’t much different from what we usually ate.

  Indeed, I was pretty confident in the food I’d been making. Whenever I found good ingredients on the cheap, I stocked up on them and stored them in the item box. This ensured I always had high-quality and fresh ingredients.

 
Then there were the plethora of seasonings I made with my potion creation ability. Not only that, but there had been times when I’d cook instead of my mom ever since I was in middle school. This was how I’d mastered everything from prep work and cooking basics to complex cooking methods. So, because cooking in this world wasn’t very refined, my cooking could hold its own against professional chefs!

  Was it not fair that I used chemical seasonings? Yeah, I’d agree. In any case, the viscount family seemed to think we were not-particularly-wealthy commoners and we’d be emotionally moved by such a lavish meal for the first time in our lives. A portly man, who I presumed to be the head chef, even came out from the kitchen, seemingly to get some satisfaction from seeing the reactions of us common girls, but had a disappointed look on his face upon seeing Layette’s disapproval and me eating it normally.

  Not my problem!

  After the somewhat dispirited chef went back to the kitchen, we began having a pleasant chat along with the meal. Apparently, both sons were in the military as I’d presumed, with one of them being in the royal sentries and the other being a platoon leader in some other battalion. If he was a platoon leader, he was probably around the rank of a second or first lieutenant. On Earth, he probably would’ve graduated university, enlisted as a cadet, and be at this position a few years after graduating from the military academy...

  Though in this world, the education they received from a tutor until they become adults at fifteen was considered the replacement for graduating from a university. This meant that, unless you were a noble or from a very wealthy home, you couldn’t enlist as a cadet from the get-go.

  Long ago, there were countries on Earth that only allowed nobles to become officers too. This country may have been considered progressive, considering there were officers who worked their way up from being common soldiers.

  The sons were sent to the sentries and a different battalion so they could avoid bad influences from riding their father’s coattails within the same unit. I was sure this wasn’t a lie, but the true reason was probably the same one where the father and son of a fisherman didn’t ride the same ship. If there were ever a shipwreck, the family line would end.