How to Use the Lord’s Future Diary

Chapter 21

The reproductive power of rabbits was famous even on Earth.

In Australia, there had even been an extermination operation mobilizing the regular army, only for it to end in failure.

Wasn’t it that even after launching chemical warfare by spreading viruses, they still couldn’t eradicate the rabbits?

The surviving 0.2% of rabbits gained immune cells, and their numbers grew again, eventually recovering to their previous levels.

I couldn’t help but be astonished at that story.

Thanks to this, the Australian regular army ended up being mocked as an invincible army that always lost to wild animals (emus, rabbits, foxes).

It was quite the amusing joke.

Honestly, even I thought there was no solution over there.

‘But I never expected to go through the same thing myself.’

Unlimited food, no predators, and on top of that, Black Rabbit’s growth buff.

Those three combined into a trinity, and the number of Horned Rabbits was increasing at a truly insane pace.

Once the number of adult Horned Rabbits surpassed a thousand, it was already beyond what our territory could control.

If more than a thousand adult Horned Rabbits roamed the fields, then who could even guess how many baby Horned Rabbits were waiting to sortie(?) from their underground burrows?

I had expected their numbers to grow quickly with time, but the speed was far greater than I had imagined.

‘The only relief is that, even if Horned Rabbits escape outside, something like Australia won’t happen here.’

The explosive growth of Horned Rabbits inside the breeding pens was limited to this area.

It was only possible because the northern basin of the lord’s castle was such a safe place.

In this world, surrounded on all sides by predators, something bizarre like Australia could never happen.

Even if tens of thousands of Horned Rabbits burst out at once, it would be the same.

The monsters would simply feast on them.

Above all, in other regions, Black Rabbit’s buff wouldn’t exist, and even their growth rate would be different.

But since this state would continue only in the Horned Rabbit pens within the territory, it was still something we needed to pay attention to.

‘If their numbers grow too much, problems could arise. Especially with that Evil Spirit Grass.’

The endlessly growing Evil Spirit Grass and the explosively multiplying Horned Rabbits.

If the fierce battle between those two ended in the Horned Rabbits’ victory, it would cause problems for us.

The Horned Rabbits, having lost their food, would rampage in all directions, and even the farmland being restored to the south of the territory would become their target.

Although the world’s ecosystem wouldn’t collapse due to the nature of this place, Johnson

Territory’s agricultural plans would be utterly ruined, so we had to do something.

Moreover, the monsters gathering to hunt the Horned Rabbits released in all directions could also invade the territory.

Johnson Territory wouldn’t take any real damage from just that much, but it would still be troublesome.

It was something best avoided, if possible.

-Don’t you have those beans brought by the sharp-eyed male?

“Ah, right. I never expected it to turn out like this.”

The mysterious plant Peter had discovered, resembling peanuts, was temporarily named ‘Forest Peanuts.’

We had sown those peanuts in the rabbit pens this time, and whether it was some kind of symbiotic plant with Evil Spirit Grass or not, the Evil Spirit Grass was growing even faster now.

At first, I hadn’t known what to make of it, but thinking about it now, it was quite meaningful.

Thanks to that, our Horned Rabbit pens could now sustain even more Horned Rabbits than before.

I never imagined the day would come when I would sincerely cheer for the advance(?) of Evil Spirit Grass, and I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded.

‘Can’t we get rid of the growth buff? Like moving the Black Rabbit Statue somewhere else.’

-This is like a passive ability. Since the Horned Rabbits already recognize my existence, even if you remove the statue as a medium, the situation won’t change. This is already my land.

‘Is that so? Then, in the end, the only method is to cull as many as we can. We can’t stop a Horned Rabbit rampage with our strength, but it’s still better to do what we can. Even just delaying the rampage has meaning.’

Due to the Horned Rabbits’ trait of burrowing underground to give birth, controlling their numbers was realistically impossible.

It wasn’t as if we had started breeding Horned Rabbits with the intention of raising just a few dozen.

The profits from raising large numbers of Horned Rabbits far outweighed the damages from a potential rampage, so we had no choice but to accept it.

Still, it didn’t sit right to do nothing, so we decided to take measures we could manage.

“We’ll slaughter as many Horned Rabbits as possible and store them. Actively produce jerky, since it’s compact and easy to store.”

“We’ll need manpower for that.”

“Indeed. It can’t be helped.”

Since Horned Rabbits weren’t livestock we raised in pens, slaughtering them consumed a lot of manpower.

If we added jerky processing on top of that, even more manpower would be required.

Fortunately, since we had already pushed the entire farming workload onto the Rabbit Tribe, there was some labor to spare.

‘But not nearly enough to actually control the Horned Rabbit population.’

That was the limit of a small territory whose population, even after the Rabbit Tribe joined, was less than four thousand.

‘In that case, I’ll have to find a market to sell Horned Rabbits.’

When we first started operating the Horned Rabbit pens, I hadn’t thought much about selling them.

I simply thought it was enough if the residents could eat meat freely and survive the winter warmly.

But with the Horned Rabbits multiplying this fast, there was no reason not to sell them externally.

‘These will definitely sell. It’s best to make a profit while we can.’

In this world, there was no way a superior product like Horned Rabbits wouldn’t sell.

* * *

For the first time in a while, a meeting was held.

The agenda was about the exponentially increasing Horned Rabbits, and where to sell them.

The entire leadership of the territory gathered.

There was me, Knight Commander Rudick, Peter from the Alchemy Workshop, and Butler Harold.

And even Dr. Nickel was included.

That madman had somehow risen to become a core figure in the territory.

He didn’t seem out of place even at a gathering like this.

‘Why does this feel so natural?’

-He truly is a curious human.

Even I didn’t feel like kicking him out, which was suspicious in itself, showing just how skilled he was at handling people.

‘But for this matter, Dr. Nickel’s advice will be important. That man said he wandered all over the place.’

He was a strange fellow, but I acknowledged his wide-ranging experience traveling the land.

For today’s meeting, Dr. Nickel’s insights would be indispensable.

“We probably need to expand the cold storage first. The amount being slaughtered already isn’t small.”

“For now, I plan to store it as jerky.”

“Still, we’ll need more storage, won’t we? We have to prepare for winter too. Are you planning to feed the residents only jerky? Of course, that’s better than nothing, but if we can afford more, why not?”

“That’s true. Can we expand the storage with our capabilities?”

“One or two small warehouses, maybe. The mana crystals are fine, but we lack reagents. Especially catalysts like gold or silver—we’ve completely run out.”

“Is that so?”

Peter suggested expanding the cold storage first.

If we wanted to store more meat, new warehouses were essential.

Although for now, I intended to keep as much as possible in jerky form, expanding cold storage for the residents’ sake wasn’t a bad idea either.

Later, when we traded Horned Rabbit meat, multiple warehouses would be essential.

The problem was the financial state of the territory.

Johnson Territory still had little room in its finances, and there was a severe shortage of precious metals like gold and silver, which were essential for drawing the magic circles.

“For now, build as much as we can manage. Once we sell Horned Rabbits outside, the territory’s finances will ease up.”

“If we plan to sell Horned Rabbit meat, we’ll also need to think about cold-storage wagons, you know? That’s even trickier than storage. It requires a lot more materials.”

“Alright. Whatever the case, I’ll make that a priority.”

Indeed, traveling to another territory would take at least several days.

Taking meat as-is would end in disaster.

If we wanted to sell not just jerky but fresh meat, we had to consider transportation first.

“I plan to either sell jerky to secure funds, or use jerky as proof to open trade with another territory. Horned Rabbits are quite an attractive product, after all.”

“Indeed. They will sell without question.”

“So, the question is where we should sell them.”

That was ultimately the issue we had gathered here to discuss today.

“Dr. Nickel, I hear there’s no place in the country you haven’t been. Where do you think is the best place to trade Horned Rabbits?”

In the end, the reason I had invited Dr. Nickel to this meeting was to hear his advice on this very matter.

Neither I nor the other key figures of the territory knew much about the circumstances of other lands.

“We must first consider the buyer’s financial capacity. If we’re going so far as to build cold-storage wagons, surely it’s not just to sell a few dozen Horned Rabbits, right?”

“Of course not. Johnson Territory, with barely a few thousand people, couldn’t possibly consume this many Horned Rabbits.”

At this rate of growth, it was impossible to predict how far their numbers would climb.

Once trade began, the volume would inevitably increase.

“In that sense, there are only about two places that could take as many Horned Rabbits as we want to sell. Strictly speaking, there may be more, but realistically, only about that many.”

“Realistically?”

“The distance, of course. We can’t exactly trade with Lupel or Bison way up north or far to the south, can we?”

“True enough. So, which two?”

“Haken and Levelium.”

Dr. Nickel named Haken and Levelium as the places worth trading with.

Levelium, about three days southwest by horse.

And Haken Territory, about a week’s ride south.

“Haken and Levelium, huh……”

I found myself nodding, as I had been thinking along the same lines.

Given the volume of goods we would be offering, both places were capable of consuming large amounts of meat.

“So both could handle the volume we’re aiming for?”

“Most likely, yes. Haken has silver mines, and as for Levelium, it has vast plains with high productivity, and it’s a major transportation hub where goods from the north all pass through.”

“Indeed……”

The currencies used in inter-territorial or factional trade were gold, silver, and mana crystals.

Gold and silver weren’t valuable as currency simply because they were precious metals, but because they served as catalysts in the magic circles inscribed when making magical items.

‘For civilization to advance in this world, magical items are essential. And since each one consumed gold and silver, their value had no choice but to remain high.’

The only silver mine discovered in the southern Ribella Peninsula was currently in Haken’s possession.

That meant it was an extremely wealthy territory.

If Iron Johnson’s mining development plan had succeeded, Johnson Territory would have been in the same position.

The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

As for Haken Territory, it was a region overflowing with monsters.

To the northeast were hordes of Lizardmen, to the east were Orcs, and heading just a bit south would lead to mountain ranges teeming with monsters.

It wasn’t quite on the level of the Monster Mountains, but the area around Haken Territory was still densely packed with formidable monsters.

‘That’s why livestock raising is practically impossible there. There’s no way they could raise large numbers of animals outside the castle walls.’

Even if they did raise livestock in large numbers outside, it would just attract monsters.

Not as much as humans, but monsters still enjoyed livestock raised by humans greatly.

Having abandoned livestock husbandry, Haken Territory was forced to import a large amount of meat from outside.

‘And as for the Levelium region……’