I Was Marked as the Grand Duke Male Lead’s Stepmother - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18

[Estate dispute resolved. Blo region, mysterious corpse discovered. Investigation requested.]

Two months ago, a dispute arose in the remote Hagenda Estate, so Morgan dispatched a knight order led by Ronan, the captain of the 3rd Knight Order.

Ronan was a person who pursued fairness based on objective facts and logic, making him the perfect candidate to excellently resolve estate disputes.

The fact that Ronan, who carefully examined everything before reaching conclusions, urgently sent a message saying investigation was needed meant it was quite serious.

Morgan fell deep in thought.

“It seems you’ll have to go take a look. Rino.”

“Hmm… I think so too. Ronan isn’t the type to send messages just anytime. I’ll take just a few knights and go. Since Ronan’s party is already in Blo, there’s no need to take many.”

“Right. You’ll have to work hard.”

Rino said he would pack and leave within three days.

On the third day, Rino departed for the northern frontier Blo region, taking Dominic, the vice-captain of the 2nd Knight Order, and seven subordinates.

After sending off Rino’s party, Morgan fell into thought for a moment.

‘A type of death never seen before.’

Morgan had been observing the movements of neighboring countries recently, as their activities were not the same as usual.

The fact that a peculiar corpse was discovered at this particular time was quite troubling.

The Blo region was a border area facing multiple countries, and the dispute that occurred in the adjacent Hagenda Estate was also unpleasant, plus Zelkova, who had been quiet for a while, was showing signs of movement, which was giving him a headache.

There were countless things to worry about, but there was exactly one thing that put his mind at ease like a sailboat with favorable winds—Fleur’s condition.

Thanks to Marisselle taking good care of him, the Duke’s Household heir was finding stability.

While Rino was away on business, he had permitted an outing on the condition that Marisselle help with work for a week.

During times that wouldn’t interfere with caring for Fleur.

Even without conditions, he would have granted Fleur’s wish.

But he didn’t want to do that. Should he call it an indescribable mischievousness?

Anyway, Morgan smiled, raising the corners of his mouth as he thought of Marisselle who would soon come to help with work.

* * *

“Young Master, starting today, as I mentioned, I’ll be helping His Grace Morgan with work during your nap time and nighttime bedtime. So if you need anything, pull this bell rope to call someone. Understood?”

“Yes.”

Fleur smiled brightly, telling her not to worry.

“Sleep well, our Young Master…”

Marisselle said while gently stroking Fleur’s forehead.

Fleur, covered with blankets up to his neck, blinked his heavy-lidded eyes and moved his mouth slightly like a small bird.

“Marisselle. If you spend time with Uncle, you’ll become really close, right?”

“Hmm… would you like me to become close with Uncle?”

“Yes. Because he’s someone I like. I hope Uncle and Marisselle become really close.”

Fleur fell asleep smoothly, unable to overcome his heavy eyelids while wearing a gentle smile.

“Sleep well, our little Young Master.”

A child who fell asleep with a smile. He was nothing short of an angel.

Marisselle kissed Fleur’s forehead as he fell into deep sleep and headed to Morgan’s office.

“Your Grace. It’s Marisselle.”

“Come in. For now, sit in Rino’s seat over there.”

Morgan spoke without even looking at Marisselle, keeping his eyes on the documents.

“Yes.”

However, contrary to Morgan’s instructions, Marisselle headed straight to the tea table instead of the chair.

She had received simple lunch items that Porel had prepared for her in front of the office.

During lunch time, Porel had personally come to Fleur’s room to ask Marisselle a favor.

To please help ensure Morgan would eat his meals.

When Rino was there, Rino would take care of Morgan’s meals, even if simply, but now he was worried because Rino wasn’t there.

Marisselle readily agreed and said she would take care of his meals every day until Rino returned.

He said that on days when Morgan didn’t eat, he would prepare food in front of the office.

While Marisselle prepared the meal on the tea table, Morgan remained motionless, only looking at documents.

Marisselle looked at Morgan and fell into thought for a moment.

‘With that level of concentration, even if I tell him to come to the table and eat, he’ll just say okay and not eat, right?’

How should she make this child who won’t eat actually eat?

Marisselle began to rack her brain.

For now, let’s try asking him to come eat today, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll try a different approach next time.

“Your Highness.”

“…Speak.”

“….”

“….”

As the silence grew long, Morgan finally looked up from his documents to gaze at Marisselle.

“You need to tell me how to do the work so I can actually do it. So, how about having a little meal here while you explain?”

Marisselle smiled brightly as she urged him to eat.

Morgan stared at Marisselle intently.

He didn’t have the luxury to leisurely take care of his meals.

When he worked with Rino, he at least had enough leeway to eat something simple while working.

But without Rino around, he had to cut down on eating time as much as possible.

He could have more assistants besides Rino, but that wasn’t easy either.

There were those who couldn’t handle the work intensity and dropped out, those caught trying to sell internal information, those who were afraid of Morgan, and so on—it was better to have none at all.

Thus, only his friend Rino remained as Morgan’s sole assistant.

Rino also disliked the assistant job, but he couldn’t let his friend die buried in paperwork, so he reluctantly accepted it.

‘But why did I call Marisselle?’

The answer came to him easily enough.

She seemed to find him intimidating yet still spoke her mind.

And as if she carried a refreshing spring breeze with her, being with Marisselle made him feel good.

Morgan gave her a faint smile.

“Let’s do that.”

Morgan went and sat at the table Marisselle had prepared.

He put a bite-sized sandwich into his mouth while explaining to Marisselle how she could help with the work.

The method was simple. She just needed to sort things.

‘This way the work will be done quickly, right? I won’t need to come at night.’

“Um, Your Highness? If the sorting work is finished during the day, I won’t need to come at night, right?”

Morgan momentarily doubted his own ears.

She could finish sorting all those documents in just one hour?

He snorted and said,

“Try it first, then we’ll talk.”

Marisselle inwardly pursed her lips, thinking ‘He’s planning to give me other work.’

“Yes….”

After finishing his meal, Morgan got up from his seat and moved the documents to Rino’s desk so Marisselle could work.

‘Oh. I thought he’d tell me to move everything myself, but he’s moving them personally?’

Marisselle was inwardly amazed by Morgan’s unexpected kindness.

“Thank you, Your Highness. I could have moved them myself….”

Morgan listened to her words and stared at Marisselle for a moment, then quickly spat out an annoying remark.

“Then you should have moved quickly before I had to move. Don’t you think?”

‘Sigh. Of course. People don’t change easily.’

“Ah, yes. I’ll move quickly next time.”

Marisselle unconsciously let a curt tone slip out.

‘Oops. That probably sounded a bit insolent?’

Realizing this, Marisselle immediately adopted a humble posture and gave an awkward smile.

For a moment, it seemed like her lips were twitching.

“What’s with that, that irreverent smile?”

‘Irreverent? It looked irreverent?’

How did I smile? I can’t see a mirror, so how would I know….

“Well….”

What should I say? That I was worried my tone might have sounded a bit insolent just now, so I smiled?

No. Then he might find it even more irreverent.

“Um, that… I wasn’t smiling, I was sco-scolding myself for not being quick enough. Yes. That’s right, Your Highness.”

He looked at Marisselle with suspicious eyes.

“Let’s say that’s the case.”

‘Phew… it’s really hard to make a living.’

“Yes… Your Highness.”

Marisselle let out a small sigh inwardly, seeming to have gotten through it appropriately.

She went to sit at the desk and began the document sorting work in earnest.

She divided them by categories such as estate, facility, commerce, economy, etc., according to the sources marked at the front of the documents.

There were quite a few that were ambiguous to categorize.

As Morgan said, just sorting them took quite a bit of time.

‘I’ll probably have to come in the evening too.’

Now she understood why he lived buried in work.

And she also thought that living with this person would be quite exhausting.

‘Gabriella is a bit pitiful.’

Marisselle suddenly felt sorry for the female lead Gabriella.

What’s the point of getting married and living together? Her husband would be stolen by documents, and his wife would also live buried in work.

‘Then, would it be like being married to work?’

Marisselle shook her head inwardly.

‘Ugh, how intense.’

The original story only showed up to the wedding and ended with a happy ending, so she didn’t know what happened after, but still, this was clearly predictable. How the couple would end up living.

‘Well, maybe not.’

When reading the novel, even the sight of him buried in work was one of the male lead’s charm points…

Reality is indeed different. Far from being a charm point, it actually looked pitiful.

She wondered if a life where you have to work while saving time for meals could really be happy.

All this work is done to make a living…

She felt compassion. So Marisselle made a decision.

‘Male lead, I’ll at least make sure you get to eat.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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