The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 123

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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 123

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‘These children… what the hell?’

Maximus looked at Leopold and Brisa, inwardly horrified.

‘They’re both absolutely vicious?’

One brought in the Crown Prince’s assassin to extract information.

The other flaunted the Western Region’s chilling intelligence network, pressuring him with ‘dare to oppose us?’

‘Becoming Emperor without anything is this difficult.’

Maximus groaned as he looked at these formidable noble children.

Meanwhile, Leopold stared at him coldly, shouting inwardly.

‘Admit it! Admit that you have Madness!’

He couldn’t bring himself to say ‘I heard you’re insane’ in front of Brisa.

But he couldn’t leave someone who wasn’t in their right mind near Brisa.

‘It’s absolutely not because you proposed engagement to Brisa.’

Brisa should meet a better man than him. That’s why he broke off their engagement.

‘But that man isn’t you.’

So Leopold waited with a cold expression for Maximus to say ‘honestly, I’m a bit unstable and suffer from delusions.’

And the other person in this place, Brisa…

‘My goodness, Leopold is giving me such a huge birthday present.’

She had already suspected that Maximus wasn’t sharing all his information. She was doing the same thing after all.

‘So that’s why you were trying to stick by Alpheus no matter what! It was almost obsessive or religious! You knew Alpheus was the protagonist!’

At the same time, she felt completely relieved knowing she wasn’t the only one suffering from ‘Madness.’

‘Hurry up and say it! Say it quickly!’

She glared at Maximus with longing.

‘It’s obviously incredible information!’

Maximus unconsciously stepped back under the sharp gazes of the two children.

Leopold in particular, though quite younger than him, was well-developed and not that short.

He had no idea how much the Nogen Duchy knew to pressure him like this…

‘Did Grand Duke Nogen bring his heir along just for this? Is this some kind of test for me? Otherwise, there’s no need to do this to me when we were getting along fine.’

But the unfortunate prince without backing had no choice.

Leopold was already showing intense hostility toward him without hiding it.

‘Is this normally his style when threatening someone? It’s quite different from the inscrutable Grand Duke Nogen.’

Even though he had become cunning from living on scraps for so long, he was still a nineteen-year-old who had never received advice from anyone.

He couldn’t help but be intimidated by the murderous atmosphere of the two noble children.

‘I’m being completely stripped bare, completely…’

Finally, Maximus sighed, held his forehead, and opened his mouth.

“I have no choice but to speak honestly, but please… keep this as a secret between just the three of us.”

His voice drooped with resignation as he revealed his last remaining secret.

* * *

The Second Empress, Anais, hid her pregnancy until her belly showed. She sensed the child’s life wouldn’t be smooth.

‘Wouldn’t it be better to hide that it’s the Emperor’s child and flee?’

While having such thoughts, the child was born earlier than expected.

The Emperor, upon seeing his son with brilliant green eyes, immediately declared him ‘a child of the Imperial Family’ and appointed her as an Empress.

The Emperor already had one son and one daughter with the Empress.

After the politically arranged First Empress died young, the Emperor had many mistresses but never appointed another Empress.

Public concern was already strong toward the violent, trouble-making boy Crown Prince.

It was natural that the suddenly arrived Second Empress Anais and her child Maximus were thorns in the Empress’s eyes.

Moreover, since Anais was a commoner-born Imperial Knight, that fact alone made her a focal point for the emerging commoner forces growing in economic power.

The Emperor initially favored Anais, but gradually lost interest in her over time.

Due to the Empress’s schemes, Anais was sent on various campaigns again, and Maximus was often left alone in the Imperial Palace.

But Anais’s campaigns ended before the Northern civil war. She suffered severe injuries and could no longer wield a sword.

She even lost half the knights she commanded. The Emperor held Anais responsible for this.

Finally, Maximus knelt before the Emperor and pleaded.

“Your Majesty, I will take responsibility for my mother’s mistake. I will take the remaining knights and campaign to definitely restore order in the North.”

Though he was a minor, he was quite skilled with his body.

With the Empress’s agreement, he was sent off to campaign as if driven out.

The North was a mountainous region with large daily and annual temperature variations.

On a winter day when blizzards raged fiercely.

Maximus fell alone from a cliff. His eyes were severely injured and he couldn’t see.

‘I acted recklessly without knowing better and now I’m dying like this,’ he thought.

That’s when it happened.

[You there, do you happen to have any food?]

A heavy voice came from above his fallen body.

Though it was a middle-aged man’s voice, he instinctively knew it wasn’t human. But he had no strength to attack.

[This is my dwelling, but I’m quite hungry being isolated by the blizzard.]

Maximus hesitated for a moment. He had emergency rations with him.

If he ate those and held out, perhaps the knights would come looking for him. But…

“Here they are. Take them.”

He fumbled to take out the emergency rations and water he carried and handed them to the unknown being.

Cold hands took what he offered.

[Hmm, do you happen to have any medicinal herbs good for cuts?]

“I don’t have herbs, but perhaps… here.”

Maximus also handed over a pouch containing emergency medicine from his chest.

The unknown being muttered disapprovingly.

[You smell of destructive humans.]

Regardless, Maximus relaxed his body and sat there blankly.

Finishing the Northern civil war now seemed impossible to him. Rather than returning to the Imperial Palace to continue a miserable life, he wanted to just end it all here.

[Unfortunate prince… pull yourself together. Your fate won’t end now.]

Hm?

[Of course, normally you’d die soon anyway.]

What is this… giving medicine then disease?

[I dislike humans. So in the previous life, I just took your food and medicine and left. But seeing you act the same way even after time turned back, my heart changes again.]

‘Previous life’? What on earth does this mean?

[Thanks to you, I can resolve my hunger somewhat this time too, so I’ll tell you one secret of the world. This world recently had time turn back once.]

Is this being insane?

[The original timeline became just a story with one happy ending and disappeared. You’ll soon meet the ‘male protagonist’ of this story, and in the previous life, he didn’t die and ultimately won.]

However, Maximus could instinctively sense that this ‘voice’ wasn’t human and that what it spoke was ‘truth.’

[So this time, try staying close to his side. Then your short life might be extended.]

At the same time, he felt the being moving away.

Maximus sat blankly then hurriedly shouted.

“Wait! Who exactly are you?”

[Me?]

A voice came from far away.

[For now… let’s say Half-Human, Half-Beast.]

After that, he lost consciousness completely.

How much time had passed?

“Hey, hey? Pull yourself together! Langsi, bring a high-grade potion. This person is badly hurt. Let’s treat his eyes first.”

“Are you crazy? We only have one high-grade potion left.”

“But we can’t just leave a dying person like this.”

“Then search his pockets first. See if he’s someone who can pay.”

“I’ve already searched through even his underwear, but there’s not a single penny. He doesn’t have any money, let alone a scrap of jerky. But even so, there might be a family desperately waiting for this poor person. Don’t you think?”

“You could become the world’s greatest sucker with just one potion, couldn’t you? Why don’t you just strip off his underwear too.”

“But his is cleaner though.”

It was along with such truly unwanted information that he met Alpheus.

‘That Half-Human, Half-Beast gave me a revelation!’

Since then, he had never once doubted his belief that Alpheus was the ‘protagonist’ of this world.

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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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