"A-Ah... Ma... Mama..."
"Ahh~! Finally, my son's first word!"
This was the moment I reached one year old. Of course, I tried to fake the stutter, and I felt embarrassed to death just saying that one word, but it was all worth it.
Mother lifted me, boasting to the maids and even to Father about how I was finally able to speak. Of course, when the handsome playboy asked me to say "Papa," I went and followed.
"Pa... Ha... rem... bas... turd..."
"..."
And just like that, Father fell to his knees in shock.
Ignoring that playboy, we had a great celebration that day.
It was my first birthday, after all. And even though Mother's stomach was already starting to swell, she was still quite mobile. So I was brought around the dining hall, greeting guests who came from nearby villages and baronies.
Ah, of course, Krystal was also present. And this time, I made sure not to appraise her. Better let sleeping dogs lie.
Anyway, I felt more like an animal in a petting zoo with how many of them tried to pinch my cheeks...
Anyway, now that I'd started to speak, it was finally time to begin implementing my "isekai to-do checklist."
As time passed, I slowly became fluent in speaking...
Of course, by faking "improvement" at each point in time.
By the time Mother was nearing her ninth month of pregnancy, I could already speak fluently. And of course, I still kept calling Father "Harem Bastard" from time to time... although I got scolded for using bad words whenever I did.
But hey, I'm still a baby, so they can't really punish me!
At that time, I was starting to appeal my "intelligence" to Father by always bringing a book with me.
Ah, right, I could already read all the books in Father's study, so my intelligence had already risen to A+. I'm not sure if it would reach S, but... I hope it could.
"Four... Crop rotation? System?"
"Yesh." I nodded with a lisp (intentional, I swear).
Of course, my first point of focus was farming.
After all, food is one of the three necessities of life.
We're in the boonies, so we could hunt for food, but from the records of the land's yields and taxes, I could still see that crop yields were going down each year.
I explained this trend to Father and warned him of its future implications.
At the same time, I provided him with the solution of using the Four-Category Crop Rotation System—the system popularized by the British agriculturist Charles Townshend in the 18th century.
Of course, I had to avoid using technical terms like nitrogen in the soil, or microorganisms, and so on, and instead replaced them with more "believable" concepts I came up with. Basically, this is "modern knowledge cheat in a backwater isekai world!"
"Still, I wonder if our farmers would agree to it..."
"They would! I can ekshplain if needed!"
Father seemed amazed by my findings, but still hesitated about implementing them. However, it was obvious he didn't want to ignore my words either.
Thus, he decided to convince a few farmers and incentivized their fields for four years, applying the crop rotation system.
When it seemed like Father misunderstood the meaning of crop rotation, I also added that we didn't have to plant the same crop across the entire field each year.
Instead, we divided the land into four sections and rotated them annually between wheat (cash/grain crop), sugar beets (root crop), rye (cash/grain/grazing crop), and clover (nitrogen-fixing/grazing crop).
This way, even though the area for cash crops is halved, the soil should recover its health and increase future yields until it stabilizes.
The overall profit should surpass the previous best in about five years. And that's without even factoring in the additional benefits from livestock—like cows or sheep—grazing on the fields.
Of course, this is a time-consuming plan.
And also the main reason I told Father as soon as I could.
For this kind of thing, the earlier we start, the better!
---
Mother's labor came about three weeks after that, just as winter was at its peak.
I was quite worried, of course. After all, technology was quite backward here. Midwives assisted Mother in giving birth, but all they had with them was the experience of birthing their own child.
No medical knowledge, no anything.
Thankfully, my fears were unfounded.
Mother safely gave birth to a healthy baby girl, my little sister. Her hair was barely there now, but the sparse golden strands were undeniable. Her eyes were a pale blue from just being born, but I could see hints of green already.
If I took after Father in terms of hair and eye color, my sister seemed to have inherited Mother's!
"Elisha... huh?"
I whispered her name while peeking over at her within Mother's embrace.
Curious, I immediately cast appraisal on her, and...
---
Name: Elisha von Grendel
Age: 1 day
Title: First daughter of Baron Claus von Grendel
Status:
STR: F-, AGI: F-, INT: F-
END: F-, MP: E+, LUK: A
Skills:
None
---
"A in luck!" I couldn't help but gasp.
This is the highest luck I've seen after myself! Even that witch, Krystal, was just C+ in luck, after all!
But other than luck and her mana, her other stats didn't seem so different from what I had when I first gained consciousness here. I guess all babies start with F- on all stats but MP and LUK?
Anyway, now, I have a sister.
My very first sister, since even in my past life (not that I died, afaik), I was a single child.
With someone who needed protecting, I definitely need to improve our territory even further!
Faster than lightning!