The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 136

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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 136

While I was organizing the flood of information, Leopold asked again.

“Then what kind of phenomenon is contamination? Is this also related to another world?”

[Contamination and monster waves are devices created by the people of Riente Kingdom who have been wary of the ‘barbarians’ of this land since ancient times, commissioning dark mages to make them.]

This can’t be.

It was the karma of my ancestors.

[The more they experiment with dark magic beyond the continent, the more contamination appears in the western lands. The contamination that has spread to your land is worse than in your previous life because their experiments have become more frequent.]

I slowly rolled my eyes.

The difference between my past life and this life is…

‘Dahlia!’

When Dahlia lost her guardian, the dark mages conducted experiments to implant ‘taming’ into her.

Was the result of that experiment faster contamination?

[They are targeting the continent. Beyond curses, they want to control new weapons with the power of another world. Brisa Sears is needed in that process. I only know this much.]

The sage’s knowledge had limits.

Leopold was lost in thought for a moment before asking again.

“I can feel the aura of dark magic from Duke Backhun’s estate in the north. What is happening there now?”

Then Borem snorted.

[How tiresome. I am not one who exists to satisfy everyone’s curiosity.]

It seemed the beast Q&A session was over now.

[Well then, everyone struggle on.]

Borem looked at us with indifferent eyes and said.

[Life is inherently arduous but meaningless, and individual struggles are inevitably buried in time.]

“Right.”

Isabela chuckled.

“Life is meaningless. But individuals always struggle anyway.”

In that moment, I caught onto Isabela’s intention.

Even in the original story, she always carried a dagger coated with deadly poison in her bosom. And whenever she had the chance, she honed her assassination skills.

When she seriously set her mind on assassination, only Alpheus could sense that aura.

“Even though we’ve managed to live without slash-and-burn farming, we can’t let a dangerous monster like you live in the north.”

Judging by her voice trembling with anger, it seemed she was about to throw that dagger. Just as she had consistently said from the beginning.

“W-wait a moment!”

I stepped in front of Isabela and shouted.

“Is my brother okay? Don’t we need to use some medicine?”

Isabela flinched. She hesitated for a moment, thinking she wouldn’t get an answer if she threw the dagger now.

I urgently continued asking.

“I know you’re also knowledgeable in medicine, and since you’re the one who made Alpheus like that, can’t you at least tell us this much?”

Borem let out a light sigh. Then he looked at me and answered.

[It’s just a simple fainting spell, so if you leave him as he is, he’ll soon regain consciousness…]

And before those words ended, I quickly answered.

“Yes, Sage Keiron!”

It was his true name.

In an instant, with Borem’s last look of betrayal, wind began to blow fiercely.

I shrugged my shoulders and muttered.

“Well…”

It was a belated excuse.

“You knew it too, didn’t you? That humans are this kind of existence.”

[Humans are cunning, good at betrayal, and lie as easily as breathing, making them difficult to trust.]

Of course, saying ‘I won’t call your true name’ was a lie.

Even Alpheus, who had protagonist syndrome, despicably ambushed Delmia.

So what am I to face a Half-Human, Half-Beast honorably?

It seemed Borem wouldn’t be of any more help to us. Even if we asked questions, he probably wouldn’t answer.

So I just blurted out his true name.

“Now…”

I looked into his eyes and said.

“Return to your daughter, Duke.”

[Ugh, uaaaaaaah!]

As my body frantically floated up, I felt Isabela embrace me.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes.

Isabela was looking at me with worried eyes.

“Ah, you’ve regained consciousness.”

A sigh of relief escaped from her lips.

“Thank goodness.”

“How long was I… unconscious?”

“About 5 minutes?”

My fainting spell was short.

Isabela stroked my hair and said.

“Shall we go back? Everyone is probably still at that place from earlier.”

“What?”

I asked in surprise. In the southern ‘Forest of Sleep’, everyone had scattered…

“Didn’t everyone lose consciousness?”

“Not really. It seems only Young Lady briefly lost consciousness as an aftereffect of calling the true name.”

The south seemed to be a somewhat special case since the demon’s domain was vast.

Isabela asked carefully.

“Apart from Sears’s 【Taming】, Young Lady has to call the true name… for this curse to be lifted, right?”

Everything had been exposed through my conversation with Borem.

As if reading my thoughts, Isabela smiled bitterly.

“Well, my identity was completely exposed too. To Harrison Naisar, that is. Now Alpheus knows too. He regained consciousness similarly to Father.”

“Ah…”

“The mysterious wind only occurred around Young Lady… I just embraced your body and came to a place a bit farther away.”

It wasn’t Leopold but Isabela who looked after me?

When I blinked with eyes that showed I didn’t understand, Isabela shrugged her shoulders.

“It seemed like you didn’t have any clothes.”

Clothes had consistently been a headache for the half-human, half-beasts.

Unlike Delmia who existed in human form… well, Borem’s lower body was that of a horse…

“The three men will probably take care of it themselves. Alpheus should have come to his senses by now too.”

Isabela spoke calmly.

I looked at her and said.

“…Please speak comfortably. Now that Duke Backhun has returned, you’re also a duke’s daughter.”

Isabela fell silent.

I sat up and said.

“Your deduction is correct. Sears’s 【Taming】 only makes them regain consciousness without any change in appearance, and I, as the sole descendant of Riente, must call their true name for them to completely return to their former appearance. It doesn’t seem like the curse is perfectly lifted, but… they become my subordinates anyway.”

“…”

“I know what feelings you had when you abandoned the name Backhun. But now let’s change our strategy, lift the curse, and permanently eliminate the demons. The new master of the Northern Region is… currently being consumed by dark magic too.”

At my words, Isabela bit her lower lip hard.

While we were in Rudolph Village, she had been extremely busy. She had traveled around gathering information about the Northern Region.

Each time she did so, her complexion grew worse and worse. Clearly, the situation in the Northern Region must not have been good.

So later in the original story, she would eventually become the master of the Northern Region.

Abandoning her initial resolve to forever hand over the Northern Region’s throne to others.

“The Northern Region… still seems to need the Backhun Duke House.”

I looked at Isabela and said.

“And you still need your father too.”

At those words, Isabela’s eyes wavered.

She fidgeted with the dagger in her bosom and slowly asked.

“Why did you think that? I was just trying to kill father… I really, really was going to… I kept saying that you didn’t need to do anything… I kept saying that.”

“You love your father. You’re angry because you love him.”

Isabela had always been calm and composed.

However, in front of Borem, she lost her composure. She became angry, furious, and trembled.

It meant she hated that half-human, half-beast who abandoned her and the territory residents that much. She clearly looked like she was in great pain.

‘If I were to face my father right now, it would be more of a headache than heartache.’

So regardless of what Isabela said, I wanted to speak the true name.

“I wanted to return him to you somehow. So I won’t apologize for not listening to you.”

In the original story, it was described that Isabela grew up in a harmonious family when she was young.

I didn’t know the detailed circumstances, but it meant that Duke Backhun had been a good father to her before losing his reason.

I brushed off my skirt and said.

“I now have precious family too, so I think I understand what that feeling is like. Of course, it’s a secret from Alpheus. I don’t want to see him getting all proud after I tell him my true feelings.”

At my words, Isabela hung her head low. Tears began falling drop by drop.

Having long forgotten how to cry out loud, she shed tears without making a single sound.

I gently took her arm.

A duke’s daughter in hunting attire who had been sharpening her blade in darkness for so long.

Only after some time had passed did she stop crying and barely whisper.

“Thank you…”

I felt embarrassed and changed the subject.

“It’s a bit awkward to receive thanks just yet. Actually, Rudolph Village has relatively high temperature and humidity even among Northern Region areas, so rice farming was possible, but there are probably many more areas where this isn’t the case, right?”

Translated, it meant something like ‘Please keep your thanks to yourself. I don’t know what to say at times like this.’

“Actually, at high altitudes even that doesn’t work well, so I didn’t dramatically increase production. If it had been the duke’s estate instead of Rudolph Village, I could have thought of other methods… Ah, well, we’ll be going to the duke’s estate soon anyway. We can’t just leave it alone.”

No matter how much I tried to express my feelings, the Northern Region’s duke’s daughter didn’t stop.

“Thank you so much… I will never… forget this kindness.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks.

“I didn’t want to burden someone as young as you with any responsibility, but… still, for preventing me from… killing father… thank you. I know this gratitude… might not particularly help you in your future journey, but still, still thank you.”

I was about to speak, then let out a soft sigh and wiped away her tears.

‘Ah, this is really serious.’

I was quite seriously frustrated inside.

‘It seems like I’m starting to resemble Alpheus.’

Hearing such direct expressions of gratitude…

I was starting to feel a bit proud, which showed it.

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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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