During the month Darius had gone south for marriage negotiations, all work in the Grand Duchy had come to a halt.

Perhaps because of this, upon entering the main hall to receive petitions from the people, I saw documents piled like mountains next to the large chair.

‘Wow, look at the height of those petitions. But it’s not like I’ll be the one handling them anyway.’

“Lady Egritte seems like a nice person. She could leave tasks like attending to me to the maids.”

“Lady Egritte is a distant aunt. She married into our family, but her husband died first and she was left alone.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Darius was now examining the first petition of the day. It was a permit request for expanding the blacksmith guild.

“We may be poor, but surely we have enough money to build a blacksmith shop?”

“We have enough money to get through this winter.”

No, you’re wrong, male lead. Lady Egritte is going to run off with all the money from this castle.

Even the food and cotton I brought when I married into the family will be useless, as she’ll take all the cash!

This was precisely why I was wary of Lady Egritte. When the male lead had just become Grand Duke and didn’t know any better, she pocketed the finances of the ducal house and disappeared.

Because of this, Darius, who had run out of money, had to personally lead the knights to participate in wars in other territories to earn money while maintaining the face of a Grand Duke. He was no different from a mercenary.

“Have you ever thought about what you might have become if you weren’t born as a Grand Duke? Perhaps a wandering mercenary living freely on the battlefield?”

“Knight, merchant, scholar. Among many professions, why specifically a mercenary?”

“Hmm, it just came to mind.”

Because in the original story, you were too good at being a mercenary. They said that if Darius participated in a war, it was as good as won.

“It’s true that northern mercenaries are famous. But I have no intention of making money with the precious lives of my people. We’re not so short on funds to resort to that.”

Darius cut me off. He seemed to have interpreted my earlier question as a suggestion to revitalize the territory through the mercenary industry.

“Of course.”

He doesn’t want to make money with the lives of his people when the situation isn’t even that dire.

This was his true heart, but the original “The Abandoned Saint Goes to the Northern Grand Duke” was a novel that really put the male lead through the wringer.

Just when things would get a bit better, famine, plague, or magical beasts would attack the North. Other regions would ignore the North and never offer help.

The North could have rebelled, saying “Don’t you know we’re protecting you from magical beasts?”, but Darius steadfastly protected his people in the despised North.

Finally, with the appearance of the female lead, who was a saint, the North began to develop, and together with the saint, they defeated the Demon King – that was the original story.

It’s fortunate this novel was from the female protagonist’s perspective, because Darius’s life was nothing but hardship.

‘The fact that he was betrayed even by a relative he trusted will make Darius develop an even darker personality.’

Because of this, when he first met the female lead who had been driven out of the temple, he was reluctant to trust her.

Lady Egritte’s name wasn’t mentioned in the original work, so I didn’t notice at first either.

‘It must have been easy to embezzle money up until now, when the previous Grand Duke died and Darius was just settling into his position. But Darius won’t trust only Lady Egritte forever, so she must have decided to pull out at this point.’

Along with the wealth she had accumulated so far.

I recalled Lady Egritte, who smiled with a gentle face while trying her best not to lose the initiative to me in our power struggle.

Originally, Anette wouldn’t have come to the main castle, so Lady Egritte could have continued her schemes for a while longer.

‘But coincidentally, I came. The real mistress who can check the account books.’

I sat quietly in the large chair of the Grand Duchess, thinking various thoughts. The seats for the Grand Duke and Duchess were large golden chairs, like those often seen in games or movies.

‘Is it because the chair is so big that Darius’s posture keeps slipping?’

“Your Grace, the armrest is here.”

I smiled and fixed his arm so he wouldn’t feel embarrassed. It was because he had unconsciously reached out towards me.

My fingers collided with the tips of his outstretched hand.

“Anette, and your armrest is here.”

I was in no position to talk. Our hands kept causing contact accidents on the two attached armrests.

I grumbled and gave up on the armrest, folding my hands demurely. Use it as you please, that silly armrest.

* * *

Gilbert the gnome was a blacksmith who had worked for over 15 years in the largest forge in the North. He was also a working-level member of the Northern Blacksmith Guild.

“…So we’d like Your Lordship’s permission for a full-scale construction.”

Although he was usually good at bargaining with market people, his tongue kept twisting in front of the Grand Duke, who was like the sky above. After all, he was a noble lord, and the master of the North at that.

‘This isn’t even my job, what am I doing here, way out of my league.’

Gilbert inwardly cursed the guild master who had pushed this ducal meeting onto him.

He did his best to explain the production and consumption of the northern iron mines, but he didn’t notice the expressions of the Grand Duke and Duchess growing worse as the conversation became increasingly technical.

“Wait a moment. If we were to say building a blacksmith shop has 10 stages, what stage do you think our territory’s blacksmiths are at currently?”

“Pardon?”

The Grand Duke alone, black as a crow, was enough to make his heart tremble, but suddenly the girl beside him asked Gilbert a question.

What was it again? She’s supposed to be our new mistress, right?

“If we consider the ideal forge that every blacksmith dreams of, for example, one that can handle the legendary mineral orichalcum, as stage 10, what level would you say the current northern forges are at?”

“By that standard… I’d say we’re currently at stage 4, no, stage 3 of development. If we expand this time, we could reach stage 4.”

“What? Is that all we’re at right now?”

As the girl frowned, Gilbert’s heart sank. He felt like he had done something wrong even though he hadn’t.

“If we expand, how much will it cost?”

“We’ve budgeted for about twenty cartloads of materials, ten cartloads of iron, and about 1,000 gold coins.”

This was the minimum estimate. If they expanded, the guild would also pour in its budget, but given the scale of the project, support from the ducal house was essential.

“If we expand the forge, we’ll be able to hire more people and process more iron. It will benefit the North either way.”

Gilbert, sweating profusely, argued passionately that the forge should be expanded for the sake of local economic development. At the same time, he was grateful to Anette for her timely intervention.

‘It’s fortunate the lady asked to explain the current forge level in 10 stages. If I had gone on explaining how we’d handle polluted wastewater if we build more forges, the higher-ups would have just lost interest.’

How much more intuitive could it be than 3 out of 10 stages?

“Your Grace, seeing that the blacksmith expansion proposal came up as the first agenda today, it seems your vassals also consider this issue important.”

Darius nodded at Anette’s words. He too seemed to agree on the necessity of expanding the forge.

“Therefore, I propose that we not only approve this expansion but add an additional expansion on top of it.”

“Additional expansion?”

Gilbert’s eyes widened at Anette’s unexpected words.

‘I thought it would be fortunate just to get approval for the expansion!’

A project even larger than the current one – is this a dream or reality? As if on cue, the Grand Duke, who had been quietly listening, put on the brakes.

“After hearing the explanation, I too feel this construction is absolutely necessary. But an additional construction that they didn’t even propose? What are you suddenly saying, Anette?”

“No. At this rate, it’s too slow, far too slow.”

Anette asked Gilbert again.

“If our northern forges are at stage 3, what level would you say other cities’ forges are at?”

“Other cities… For example, an excellent one in the capital might be at stage 5 or 6.”

“Then what about on average, not in the capital?”

“About stage 4.”

“So they all have forges superior to our northern ones, which you evaluated as stage 3. We’re quite behind, aren’t we?”

Anette sighed regretfully.

If the most advanced forge in the country was at about stage 6, then the average level of northern forges was only about half of that.

As he listened, not only Gilbert but even Darius began to feel that this situation was more serious than they had thought.

“If there’s anything our North excels at, it’s military strength and logistics. Wouldn’t it be a disgrace if the North, famous for its military might, had to import weapons from elsewhere?”

Although there had never been a precedent in northern history of importing weapons on a large scale from other territories, the moment they heard Anette’s words, Gilbert found himself nodding as if entranced.

“You’re right! If you approve the expansion, we’ll repay you with results.”

Thus, the blacksmith expansion project was approved on a larger scale than expected, thanks to Anette’s advice.

* * *

‘This is strange. It certainly doesn’t seem right to be at this level at the current stage.’

In the original story, the North had an image of hidden treasures beneath the barren, frozen land. In exchange for magical beasts, the soldiers were sturdy, and northern weapons were rumored to be famous due to the rich iron ore deposits.

‘But now they say we’re far behind even the best forges in the capital?’

The reason I asked about forging the fantasy mineral orichalcum was because it was the material for the sword that the protagonist had to wield in the final battle of the original story.

Before the final battle, the protagonist and her group repair their weapons not elsewhere, but at this northern forge, before setting out to subjugate the Demon King.

‘At the forge with the grand name of “The World’s End Forge”, no less.’

But forget about the fantastical orichalcum, the current situation in the North is struggling just to increase the amount of iron ore they can smelt.

With facilities like this, how are they going to manage supplies during the final war when the Demon King descends with his monsters? That’s why I strongly pushed for the expansion.

‘Could there be other problems they’re not mentioning?’

If so, I need to find out.