The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 130

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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 130

Of course, it wasn’t like this in the original story.

The nature of their conversation when they met at Maximus’s funeral was completely different from now.

“…Alpheus? You… your expression… no, why do you have such a big wound again…? Ah, right. Ah, should I call you Marquis Sears from now on…?”

“Do whatever you want. We won’t be seeing each other again anyway.”

“…Huh? Ah…”

“Well then, I’ll be going.”

“W-wait!”

It was definitely that kind of reunion.

“To me, who has no friends, no territory, no family, no comrades, such a title feels like mockery.”

“…You might not believe me when I say this, but Alpheus, I understand that feeling completely. It was never mockery. Please believe me.”

That’s how she was supposed to connect with the Northern heir who had abandoned everything and left…

When I arrived at the dining room, Alpheus and the mercenary group were laughing and chatting loudly.

“So you see! Our young lady who entered the Academy as valedictorian planted seed potatoes, just like that! Thunk! Thunk!”

“Isabela, your tavern’s french fries were really terrible! It must have failed because of those french fries, right?”

“Everyone pay attention! My sister called me brother today! It’s a historic day! Is it because I sang two lullabies outside her door yesterday? I should sing three songs today!”

Oh no.

A crisis was approaching me tonight as well.

Anyway, in the midst of all that, Isabela was…

‘She looks like she’s used up a month’s worth of energy.’

She even had her handbag placed within reach. It meant she was ready to sneak out at any opportunity.

“Um, Isabela?”

I carefully approached and called out to her.

Then Isabela looked at me with soulless eyes.

“Yes?”

“Could we talk for a moment?”

“Ah, yes.”

Although Isabela had no friendship with me at all, she followed me out of a desire to escape from this situation.

However, the moment we arrived at the reception room.

She saw Leopold’s face and slightly frowned. Though it was their first meeting, she immediately recognized him as the Western heir.

Leopold immediately stood up and greeted her.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Leopold Nogen.”

A conflicted expression crossed Isabela’s face.

“Ha.”

Then she sighed deeply and pressed her forehead.

“Really…”

Isabela was already completely exhausted.

So she seemed to have no energy left for power struggles.

“The Western Region’s intelligence network is truly impressive. Just how long have you been following me?”

She skipped unnecessary acting like ‘Why would Young Duke bother with a mere maid…’ Instead, she spoke in a cold and chilly voice.

“If you’ve come to ask me for <Purification>, I’ll tell you first that it would be useless.”

I was newly impressed between the two of them.

‘Wow, it seems everyone except Alpheus is unhappy, and everyone is quick-witted.’

* * *

Isabela was too exhausted.

She never expected Alpheus’s personality to be exactly the same as before.

‘Surely now that he’s become a noble overnight, he’ll act arrogant. There’s no way he’d take the initiative in things like strawberry sales that require lining up at dawn.’

But Alpheus did take the initiative.

“Anyway, they’re visitors to our territory! They want to eat just one strawberry. Then naturally I should welcome them!”

Having encountered him so annoyingly drained all her energy.

So when Leopold stood up and formally greeted her, she went straight to the point.

Logically, there was no reason for the Western heir to use honorifics with someone dressed as a maid.

‘The Western Region’s intelligence network was originally famous. But to think it would be to this extent.’

Surely Leopold had threatened Brisa to bring her here.

She also knew well about Brisa, who was Alpheus’s sister and the daughter of Marquis Sears.

‘The talent who solved the food shortages of the Western and Southern Regions…’

And she looked at Leopold with coldly calculating eyes.

‘Breaking off the engagement because he didn’t receive a marquis title, yet when it comes to using someone, he has no hesitation. Truly befitting the master of the Western Region that everyone desperately seeks. Look at that arrogance of having everything.’

Isabela spoke to Leopold while not letting go of her handbag.

“I haven’t manifested <Purification>. I also don’t want to let others know that I inherited the bloodline of Duke Bakahun. I just want to live quietly.”

She didn’t know how much Leopold knew, but her identity had been discovered anyway.

So now she needed to quickly disappear and create a new identity.

“Then may I leave now? I actually have urgent business.”

That’s when it happened.

“Wait a moment.”

Brisa interjected.

“Special abilities can manifest late if stimulated. Perhaps if you face the contaminated land of the Western Region, your ability might manifest…”

Isabela answered coldly and halfheartedly.

“Well, that might be possible.”

She tried to brush it off since they were children. But due to the aftereffects of facing Alpheus, she didn’t even have the energy to put on a fake face right now.

“But why should I do that?”

Then Leopold gently proposed.

“If the purification succeeds, we’ll calculate the 10-year harvest of wheat grown on the purified land, then the Grand Duke’s family will provide grain or money divided as the Northern Region desires.”

It was literally a groundbreaking condition.

“Then the Northern Region wouldn’t have to worry about food for quite a long time.”

But Isabela wouldn’t accept it even if they offered 20 years’ worth of harvest.

She immediately refused.

“You seem to be mistaken, but I’m not the leader of the Northern Region.”

That was her sincere feeling.

As long as the ‘Oath of the Original Five Families’ existed, Bakahun was not free from the Imperial Court.

‘So Bakahun must give up the hegemony of the Northern Region.’

Even if Bakahun collapsed and the families below started territorial wars, turning the Northern Region into ruins.

‘The Northern Region must become independent. There’s no reason to be subordinate to the damn Beviano Imperial Family.’

And for that independence, she planned to do as much underground work as possible in the Empire. For the sake of the Northern Region’s new master.

“Besides, that proposal is ultimately a way for the Northern Region to depend on the Western Region’s grain. I don’t want that.”

That was her long-held thought.

She hated that the Northern Region remained tied to the Empire. Though it was terribly cold in winter and most areas were mountainous, the Northern Region was still vast.

“Before the Empire’s founding, the Northern Region lived well without necessarily trading with the Western Region.”

She said while crossing her arms.

“The forests are deep so hunting is possible, and since there are four seasons anyway, farming is somewhat possible too.”

Then Brisa interjected.

“But the Northern Region isn’t suitable land for wheat farming. If you can’t receive wheat from the Western Region, self-sufficiency would be difficult.”

“We’ll have to adapt to that extent. We have potatoes too.”

Isabela answered indifferently.

“Besides, the Northern Region also grows rice. It’s not like we can’t eat grains at all.”

“I wonder about that.”

Leopold slowly interjected.

“Comparing with before the Empire’s founding isn’t appropriate. Originally the Northern Region lived by slash-and-burn agriculture (*agriculture that clears forests by burning), but… I heard that’s not done now. Didn’t production decrease significantly after that?”

At those words, Isabela flinched.

Slash-and-burn agriculture.

It was still a method chosen by many farmers in the Northern Region even when she was young.

However… after his father became that ‘monster’.

[Slash-and-burn farming is not allowed. Disgusting humans who devastate nature.]

Duke Backhun, who had lost his sense of self as a lord, no, that ‘monster’ took revenge on the Hwajeon farmers. That is, on his own territory residents…

[I can never coexist with you who burn everything down in an instant.]

The Hwajeon farmers who lost their livelihood became bandits.

As a result, public safety became rapidly unstable. It was one of the many reasons why the Northern Region collapsed.

Nevertheless, Isabela had no intention of helping the Western Region at all.

The revival of the West would ultimately mean the revival of the Empire.

It would not help her move to attempt Northern independence by taking advantage of the Empire’s chaos.

Moreover, slash-and-burn farming as well…

‘I can do it again. After Northern independence, I just need to kill that monster.’

Isabela had a plan.

‘I know how to summon that monster. Then they should just die together.’

Now she no longer shed tears even when thinking such thoughts.

‘That monster is no longer my father. It’s just a demon that makes people’s lives miserable.’

If only that monster were gone, she could cultivate slash-and-burn farming again. So…

But that was when it happened.

“My thoughts are a little different.”

Brisa spoke up.

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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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