With the current harvest and their supplies of food, there was no chance that they would be able to make it through winter.
Their supplies would run out even before they reached the halfway point.
Not to mention that no human could predict what would happen in the middle of winter.
So there could be all kinds of natural disasters that happened that would require extra supplies.
They couldn't be just satisfied with getting enough supplies to last through winter. They had to also get extra supplies so they could be prepared for anything that happened.
But where would they get those supplies from?
After I finished reading the report, I understood the problem that the two of them faced.
So I sat down with them and asked, "What plans do you have?"
This question was aimed more for Baroness Rose than it was for Cecilia.
I could see that her expression showed traces of having a plan, but she hadn't finished figuring them out yet. If I could do anything to help make it easier for her, then I would.
After all, this was my home now too.
Baroness Rose didn't say anything at first as she was still deep in thought, but then she suddenly gave a sigh and said, "We have no choice but to buy them, but…I really can't find any time to go and buy the supplies. This kind of thing requires a certain set of skills and there's no one that I can spare to take care of this. But this has to be done or else we'll start losing people during the winter."
After she finished, she couldn't help giving another sigh.
I asked immediately, "What skills?"
Baroness Rose thought about it for a bit before saying, "They need to have good communication skills, those merchants are all sly and tricky. They also need to have good mathematical skills so that they don't make a mistake with the numbers. Also, they need a certain level of prestige so that they could represent the barony. And of course, the biggest thing is that they need to be free so that they can go and take care of this matter without affecting the rest of the barony. However, there's no one like that."
When I heard this, I couldn't help revealing a bitter smile.
That was because this was a perfect description of me.
The things that I was currently doing were all simple things that could be done by others, the only thing that was truly required was the signature of a noble. However, that could be done by presenting the documents that I went over to Baroness Rose.
That wasn't to say that I wasn't helping since having me do them personally meant saving time by having me take care of the entire process, instead of going from one person to the next for single documents.
As for mathematical skills, coming from the more advanced Earth, my skills were better than most people here even though I was bad at math in the first place.
The only problem might be communication skills since I was someone who had stayed cooped up most of the time on Earth. I could talk to others, but facing those sly merchants who only thought of profit, I might be a bit overwhelmed.
But that could easily be solved by bringing an aide along to help me.
So in the end, it was still a perfect description of me.
After thinking about it, I said, "How about I go?"
Baroness Rose looked at me with a surprised look before raising one brow in a doubtful manner and saying, "You? Are you sure that you're up for it?"
I said with a nod, "I'm sure that I'm up for it."
Baroness Rose narrowed her eyes to look at me before asking, "Nine times nine."
Without hesitation, I said, "Eighty one."
There was a trace of surprise that appeared in her eyes before she asked, "One thousand fifty two plus three thousand nine hundred and twenty one."
Once again, I said without hesitation, "Four thousand nine hundred and seventy three."
This time, her eyes opened wide in surprise since she never expected me to answer it this quickly. In fact, she had to write something down just to make sure that it was the right answer.
When she finished solving it and saw that I had the right answer, she couldn't help glaring at me even more. As she glared at me, she asked, "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
I couldn't help revealing a bitter smile and saying nothing after hearing this.
To say that I hadn't hidden it on purpose would have been considered a lie.
I knew that if she knew about my math skills, then I would have been given a much heavier workload.
So for the sake of slacking off, I had chosen to mishold this information from her.
But now that it involved the future of the town and the safety of the people, I had no choice but to reveal it.
After glaring at me for a bit, Baroness Rose lost interest in blaming me and focused on planning the future. She muttered to herself and I heard a few things that made me shiver.
"Work to death…for the good of the people…punishment…"
Those were just a few things that I heard.
I now knew what kind of things my dad felt whenever my mom was angry with him…but this was a good kind of feeling as well.
Once she finished gathering her thoughts, Baroness Rose looked right at me and said, "You're going to have to go on a journey. I'm going to work you to death for hiding these secrets from me before."
I once again revealed a bitter smile, but I knew that these were the consequences of my own actions and I couldn't avoid them.
Not to mention, I did want to help the town that was now my territory and home.
So I gave a simple nod in response.