Instead of My Beloved Sister, I Married a Monster - Chapter 47

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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 47

“Everyone living in Litberck knows that he has no interest in human affairs. Those born in this region learn it from their parents as they grow up, and those who migrate here later inevitably realize it too. That the great hero living in that castle simply exists like a god.”

“…”

“He’s like a religion. I don’t know how it was in the old days, but now it’s been so long since anyone received a response that only myths remain. So the people here began borrowing his name just as they borrow God’s name. They pray for God’s blessing on their benefactors and curse that God will not forgive their enemies. They made the savior who has no interest in worldly affairs save us through notoriety alone.”

“…So you deliberately spread bad rumors about Lord Ram? To prevent people who fear him from approaching this place?”

“Don’t blame the people here now, since it’s something that started so long ago no one knows when it began. Later generations simply followed the good precedent their predecessors established with grateful hearts.”

Evnia lost her words and closed her mouth.

Certainly, the notoriety of the Litberg Region wasn’t a trend limited to one generation.

She had thought the described content was strangely specific for baseless rumors, but perhaps there were good reasons why the hero who saved the nation fell to become a monster everyone avoided.

Even if those were slanders created by someone deliberately throwing straw into a chimney that wasn’t smoking.

“Everyone in Litberck has their own reasons for being unable to leave this place. Unless they were in pretty wretched circumstances, they wouldn’t crawl all the way here to live. Watching carefully, it’s one of three things. Either they were unjustly driven from where they originally lived, fled owing debts, or offended some high-ranking person.”

“…Aren’t there also those who committed crimes?”

“Occasionally some truly wicked bastards do come. We all join forces to deal with such scum.”

Jens answered Count Max’s question curtly.

No one asked about the results.

No matter how vicious a criminal, it would be difficult to face many people at once.

“We don’t want our existence to be revealed to the outside. We’re not naive enough to believe that the great master of that castle would fight neighboring territories on behalf of stray cats who don’t even pay taxes. In fact, it would only be troublesome if he did.”

“You don’t want people’s attention focused on Litberck.”

“Right, what do you think would happen if it became known that this place is quite livable? Development that was postponed would take place. People would flock here and someone would quickly claim profitable spots. Do you know what happens then? The powerless get pushed out first.”

It was a sufficiently realistic prophecy.

Though they claimed to have lived here for a long time, they had no rights to this land.

No, to put it more bluntly, they were nothing more than illegal squatters occupying Ram’s property without permission.

If Litberck were opened and began operating like other ordinary territories, they would lose everything they had worked so hard to build.

“How did you come to Litberck, Mr. Jens?”

After a brief silence, Evnia brought up a different topic.

Though it wasn’t entirely unrelated to what they had been discussing.

“I was from Schwaiger. About half the men who gathered earlier are from the same hometown as me. The Schwaiger family wasn’t originally such a wealthy house. Do you know how that bastard Frank made his money? It’s obvious. Something similar to what I just mentioned happened in Schwaiger too.”

“Did he drive people from where they lived?”

“It was more cruel than that. This was about 20 years ago. That bastard Frank gathered people by promising to give them farmland and relocated them to the outskirts of his territory, which was no better than wasteland. It was a place adjacent to Litberck where originally no one lived. But for serfs without their own land, even that was desperately needed. Over five years, they shed blood and sweat to clear that land. They cut trees, pulled weeds, removed stones, and plowed fields to barely make it suitable for cultivation.”

“Don’t tell me he took that place…”

“Why wouldn’t he? They were driven out at the beginning of winter. It was the time when they had just harvested the fruits of seeds sown long ago and finally entered a period of rest.”

“…”

“That bastard didn’t want to waste the effort of harvesting, so he used the people he would soon drive out until the very end. He said nothing when collecting taxes, but one day suddenly appeared with soldiers and painted the immigrants as demonic beings. He claimed that those people who had only been diligently farming had been bewitched by Litberck’s monster and become seditious.”

“How could such absurd slander work?”

“Why do you think it’s absurd? Country folk believe it all. Or pretend to believe it. Those who don’t believe get branded as demons and killed just the same.”

Evnia quietly looked back at Count Max.

Since he was from Schwaiger, she wondered if he might know something about that incident.

Count Max seemed too shocked to notice her gaze, just rubbing his lips with a stricken expression.

Hearing his voice murmur quietly, “So that’s when…,” Evnia turned her eyes back to Jens.

“Why were you exiled, Mr. Jens?”

At Evnia’s question, Jens raised his eyebrows with a puzzled expression.

“I just told you. How I ended up being driven from Schwaiger.”

“That was the story of the others who migrated with you. I think you had a somewhat different charge.”

His frown deepened.

Was he deliberately pretending not to understand her meaning, or did he think he hadn’t been caught yet?

After a moment’s consideration, Evnia added:

“You’re a noble, aren’t you, Mr. Jens?”

“…Why do you think that?”

“Your speech pattern changed quite a bit partway through.”

“Damn, it’s been so long since I stood before a lady and knight that I unconsciously…!”

“I suspected from when we first met. Because you were wearing glasses.”

Glasses were luxury items that only fairly well-off families could afford.

It meant they were objects that serfs without their own land, pushed to frontier settlements, couldn’t even dare covet.

The idea that he obtained them after moving to Litberck made even less sense.

“You’re a perceptive young lady. Have you lived watching others’ reactions closely?”

“…You weren’t trying to hide it anyway, Mr. Jens. That’s the only reason I noticed.”

“I didn’t hide it because there was no need to. Even though I’ve been living carelessly all this time, that girl Hanna didn’t notice for over ten years. The knight beside you also looks like he just realized.”

“I did suspect you might be up to village chief level…”

At Count Max’s feeble excuse, Jens laughed briefly.

“It was a similar role. I was the one who supervised that development project in Frank’s place. He didn’t give me the job based on ability—bloodline played a big part. I’m that bastard’s cousin.”

At this unexpected family secret, Evnia’s eyes widened in surprise.

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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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