The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 125

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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 125

In the distance, Harrison and Delmia were approaching from behind Alpheus, as if they had something to say.

Alpheus paid no attention to others at all, looking at me and shaking his head.

“It’s not really something that needs to be hidden, is it? I already told you it’s not because I dislike the Nogen Vice Duke. Even if you fell for some boy and begged me for an engagement, I wouldn’t allow it.”

I looked up at Alpheus and asked sharply.

“Why?”

“Because you’re still young.”

Alpheus said with his characteristic confident expression.

“I also have experience of passionately having a one-sided crush on the bakery sister for a very long time when I was fourteen, so I know.”

At those words, Delmia, who had been approaching, froze in place.

“At that time, I was truly convinced it was the love of a lifetime. I sincerely thought about that sister all day long.”

Delmia eventually drooped her shoulders and turned around to disappear. Only Harrison remained alone with a bewildered expression.

“But now I can’t even remember that sister’s name.”

Alpheus continued his speech.

“During the growth period, emotions change rapidly. While I can respect those fluctuating feelings, well, believing they’ll continue into the future is… well, unreasonable.”

Alpheus began making ‘well’ sounds as a result of using his brain cells too hard.

“The reason minors need guardians is because their decisions might not be rational. From my position as your guardian… I think such things should be decided after reaching adulthood.”

Usually, engagements between nobles were made as promises between families, regardless of the parties’ wishes.

“This is absolutely non-negotiable, Brisa. No one, including you, will be able to bring up talk of your engagement in front of me from now on.”

Hilberry and Maximus coughed awkwardly at this point.

Alpheus’s speech continued, completely oblivious to any sense of discord.

“Of course, I understand your mother’s heart in trying to protect you by arranging the best fiancé for you.”

Finally, he clenched both fists and raised them to the sky, shouting.

“But I will become the strongest, most powerful guardian in the world to protect what I must protect!”

I quietly lowered Alpheus’s fists and whispered.

“Making such resolute vows with that determined expression in front of people is forbidden.”

Meanwhile, Maximus calmly nodded.

“I see. It’s quite radical but an excellent idea. Thirteen isn’t an awkward age for engagement, but it’s not a strange culture to avoid it either. I respect your opinion.”

The prince, who had grown up reading the room, was quick to change his stance.

“Anyway, Alpheus, I understand your thoughts well.”

I answered obediently.

“Whatever happens to me, I won’t get engaged to anyone anyway. So Leopold, stop glaring at His Grace the Grand Duke. I understand well that His Grace’s remarriage proposal wasn’t agreed upon with you.”

Then Leopold sighed lightly and answered.

“It’s absolutely not… that I didn’t want you as my fiancée. You’re too good for me…”

Then Harrison shrugged and muttered.

“That’s obviously a standard line for a safe breakup, right? Delmia said she wrote over a hundred letters with that kind of content.”

Leopold ignored him and said.

“I thought there was no reason for you to be tied down for life to someone like me.”

Harrison scoffed.

“That’s obviously an excuse to avoid criticism, right? If I could just be tied to Leopold Nogen for life, I’d bet my life on it.”

Leopold closed his eyes briefly and barely contained his irritation. Then he continued slowly.

“I just… wanted you to meet someone a little better.”

“Where in this empire is there a better marriage prospect than Leopold Nogen? It’s either cowardly excuses or terrible sense of reality.”

Finally, Leopold glared at Harrison with murderous eyes.

“It’s probably the terrible sense of reality, Harrison. I once thought that a man better than me was you.”

Then, as if he couldn’t stand it anymore, he said to me.

“Brisa, just for a moment. You alone.”

And he strode forward.

I shrugged once and then said to Harrison.

“Thank you so much, Harrison.”

Then Harrison asked in confusion.

“Should I apologize now? You’re being sarcastic, right?”

“Usually yes, but surprisingly not this time.”

I sighed deeply.

“If you hadn’t made Leopold angry like this, we probably would have just wasted time because we lacked the confidence to meet privately.”

Though I hesitated due to fear and awkwardness, it was a problem we had to face at least once.

I hurried after Leopold.

“You don’t know the geography here.”

After catching up to him, I pointed out from beside him.

“There are definitely people who want to eavesdrop, so follow me.”

“You’re not from the south either. What do you know about this area?”

“I know a place where even Alpheus absolutely couldn’t eavesdrop.”

And I began walking ahead of him confidently.

* * *

“Here… you say?”

“Yes.”

The place Brisa guided Leopold to was the greenhouse where cucumbers were grown.

“Cucumbers are crops vulnerable to low temperatures, so we attached several layers of vinyl leaves.”

He had wondered what secret place she meant, but it was quite an open location.

“Since we had to conserve magic stones, we decided to use more vinyl leaves to prevent cold wind from entering.”

Brisa explained efficiently.

“So it’s well soundproofed too. Plus it’s incredibly spacious. If we prevent anyone from entering here and speak quietly in the middle.”

She even picked up a vinyl leaf and held it out to him, saying.

“No one can hear us. But since the outside is transparent, we can also follow etiquette that says a man and woman shouldn’t be in an enclosed space together.”

“I don’t usually use words like this, but…”

Leopold sat down on the vinyl leaf she handed him and smiled wryly.

“Perfect.”

“Right?”

Brisa also laid down a vinyl leaf next to him and sat down.

Indeed, outside the greenhouse, Alpheus was watching them with wide eyes.

His intention to rush over immediately if Leopold so much as touched Brisa’s body was visible. And around him, people were lurking, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation somehow.

Brisa glanced at them and said indifferently.

“Hmm, but sitting side by side like this with others watching us… it reminds me of the engagement ceremony.”

They had first met on their engagement day.

After exchanging only ceremonial greetings once, they sat side by side like dolls, receiving applause from others.

Leopold chuckled and answered.

“In the meantime, well, you’ve become much more down-to-earth.”

Then Brisa suppressed a laugh.

Back then, they wore the most splendid clothes and sat without even breathing loudly.

Now they were sitting side by side in a cucumber field on spread leaves, sleeves rolled up from the heat.

Leopold gently touched a cucumber flower with his finger.

Brisa watched him and said slowly.

“Cucumbers are really sensitive crops. They’re difficult to grow. But if you care for them diligently, the results show immediately.”

“An attractive crop.”

“Right. Isn’t it just like our relationship?”

A relationship that could easily drift apart with the slightest misstep, but if they just managed to overcome each precarious crisis…

They could sit side by side like this and have conversations together.

It was an absolutely certain reward in his life that he couldn’t give up.

“A relationship like cucumber farming. That’s probably an unprecedented comparison. Record Brisa Sears’s literary girl aspects in the Sears Family History Book.”

“I was planning to anyway.”

Brisa spoke proudly, then maintained silence for a moment before adding in a low voice.

“I… know your heart… all of it, Leopold. I really know everything.”

She probably did. She was clever, after all.

“It’s for the best. There’s no such thing as free in noble house marriages. If it was forcibly arranged despite mismatched conditions, it means the other side has hidden cards.”

Why he had said such things.

“And if anyone suffered losses from that engagement, it wasn’t me but you. It’s true I wanted to break off the engagement, but it wasn’t because you were lacking—it was because I felt like I was doing something terrible to you.”

What he had tried to say when they were preparing for the broken engagement on the Seldoche Plains.

He couldn’t ask her to be engaged to him again.

He had originally thought to let her go, but now that Brisa had discovered everything, even more so.

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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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