“What do we do, Madam? I think it’s dead!”

I nodded at Rona’s tearful observation. The birth of a new monster is equal to another monster’s death.

“Even a monster looks like a baby animal when it’s still a baby.”

Rona removed the baby monster that resembled a baby wolf from its dead mother’s embrace.

A wolf-shaped baby monster with lustrous silver fur.

“Vivi.”

I muttered its name casually as I smoothed the fur of the squirming newborn monster.

“Vivi?”

“This monster’s name.”

One of the most important steps in taming a monster was to give it a name. There was a significant meaning behind that act.

‘Monsters will submit to humans who named them.’

After putting Vivi down on a small bed, I knelt in front of the sleeping monster.

“Rona, you may leave now.”

In order to imprint myself on the monster, only I had to be by its side the moment it woke up.

“Yes, Madam. Please be careful.”

As soon as Rona left my temporary lab located deep in the forest, the cave was quickly engulfed in silence.

Alone in a quiet space, where only the monster pup’s soft breathing echoed, I was reminded of Yvonne’s sleeping face.

The dead child managed to squeeze her way into the small void in my head and soon occupied my entire thoughts.

‘Yvonne used to sleep with such an angelic face.’

Baby human or baby monster, do they always have such a pretty sleeping face?

I smiled slightly, caressing the fur around Vivi’s eyes, the place where its dense eyelashes cast a shadow.

“Vivi.”

Vivi was actually the name of Yvonne’s dog. It went missing when the Imperial Knights stormed the Grand Duke’s castle.

“Let’s get along from now on.”

As soon as I whispered, Vivi opened its eyes. I tensed when I met the cub’s blue eyes.

Grrr-

Is a monster a monster after all, even if it’s still a baby?

I felt a shiver down my spine when Vivi growled.

If I hadn’t pulled my arm quickly, I would’ve been bitten.

“Sit down, Vivi.” I commanded, grabbing the leash that I had attached while it was sleeping.

It was a special leash made to restrain monsters, so Vivi quickly lost its strength and tumbled down.

I drew my head back a little farther from Vivi, who barked at me with a wronged expression.

‘Ibelina said it took a full three years to tame Geneva the Black Dragon.’

Vivi was a wolf-type monster, not a dragon, so it might take less time to tame it.

“I’ll be back when you’re hungry.”

Grrr-

Tapping Vivi’s soft fur lightly, I left the cave hurriedly to avoid being bitten.

“Madam, the farmers you invited have arrived at the Grand Duke Castle.”

I opened my eyes wide to Dante’s polite announcement.

The soil’s quality was seriously bad. Most of the people of Katan made a living by hunting as their main source of income.

‘I already expected that the number of farmers here would be much smaller than in other territories...’

But only three people? Isn’t that too severe?

I glanced at the three farmers sitting in the parlor.

A skinny woman around my age, a middle-aged man and a young man.

There can’t be only three people who rented the Grand Duke’s territory to farm!

‘The Grand Duchess is calling them, but they didn’t even show up?’

Recalling my reputation in Katan, I couldn’t hold back my bitter smile.

Looking at my expression, Dante hesitated before speaking.

“Most of the residents are stubborn and despise the nobility so much that they don’t even listen to His Highness the Grand Duke, Madam.”

I nodded as if considering his explanation, but in fact, I didn’t fully believe him.

‘It’s because many people dislike Cardinale.’

The southern and northern region shared a long history of civil war, and the Cardinale, known as the Southern Rose, had a very bad image especially in the northern region.

‘I can’t blame them. My father took over the Karha Plain, which was the only granary in Katan.’

Already a barren land, Katan suffered from famine a few years ago.

Joseph allocated the funds to buy food supplies from residents of Cardinale, one of the richest territories at that time, and my father charged him a usurious interest.

‘He couldn’t pay the debt, so he had to hand over the granary..’

No matter how much I thought about it, Joseph must have had a heart as wide as an ocean or he was the world’s prime pushover.

I heaved a small sigh as I noted their distrustful gazes.

So I kept my head straight, and smiled at the woman who kept glancing at me and Dante.

“Thank you for responding to my call.”

“..Ah, it’s nothing.”

Perhaps she didn’t think I’d talk to her, but she shook her head, looking a little puzzled.

“Have you tested the soil that I sent you through Dante? To tell you briefly, using alchemy ...”

“Do you expect me to believe that the red soil you sent is actually Katan’s soil?”

The middle-aged man next to the woman cut me off.

‘That man..’

Was it Umberto?

He was memorable because his name was quite noble-ish for a commoner.

No, in fact, even if it wasn’t for his name, he was someone that I would never forget.

Umberto continued to talk before I could open my mouth.

“I don’t know why you are trying to lure innocent farmers like us, but I will tell you that we’re not going to fall for it.” Umberto concluded, raising an eyebrow.

I knitted my own eyebrows when I looked at the sack filled with my alchemy ingredients that I had prepared for the farmers, placed against the wall.

‘I knew you wouldn’t readily believe me, but I never thought that you’d be so open about it.’

It was a mistake on my part for thinking I could use my authority as the Grand Duchess to persuade them.

It’s not so surprising, since Katan was also a territory with a characteristic similar to that of a free city.

I had an embarrassed smile plastered on my face because the farmers did not even consider looking at the ingredients I prepared.

“You may not believe me, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even try.”

“The soil is so dry no matter how much red soil was poured on it, so what if the soil becomes contaminated after pouring your strange drug on it?”

I turned my head toward the man who so strongly opposed me.

He was a cleaner-looking farmer, a little younger than Umberto.

“That won’t happen. I can guarantee it.”

“Even if you guarantee it, you can’t revitalize contaminated soil! The farmland the three of us manage are the only lands in Katan that can be mixed with red soil.”

The man shook his head angrily as Umberto grabbed his shoulder and added.

“Ricky is right. Because Count Cardinale took the Karha Plains away!”

“Umberto, watch what you say in front of Madam!”

Dante couldn’t tolerate his impudent behavior and stepped forward, but I stopped the butler.

“Then I’ll farm on the Kensteen Plain myself! If it’s proven effective, there’s no reason for you not to use my method, right?”

“Of course. If you could turn Katan soil into red soil, the cost of farming could be reduced by one-tenth,”

Only the woman nodded as if she agreed with me.

‘It should be easiest to persuade her.’

Ignoring Umberto’s glare, I focused on her.

“If you’re done talking, I’m leaving! Don’t ever call me for useless things like this ever again!”

Umberto and Ricky stormed out of the drawing-room without taking the alchemy bag prepared for them.

“I don’t mind even if you pour it on a very small area, so would you like to test it yourself?”

I held out the bag to the woman who stayed in her place. She hesitated at first, but eventually accepted my bag.

“Alright. Then, can you please forgive my father for his rudeness?”

“Are you Umberto’s daughter?”

So you had a daughter.

“Yes. Do you know my father?”

I knew him pretty well. Before returning back in time, his son died because of the Cardinale.

‘Give back my son, you witch!’

In that past, he unleashed his seething anger at me.

At that time, I had just married Joseph.

‘At that time..’