The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 139

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 139

I carefully asked Borem.

“Duke, how do you feel? In the Southern Region, we similarly sealed an ‘otherworldly being,’ but they said it didn’t seem to completely disappear.”

“That’s accurate.”

Borem nodded.

“It feels like something horse-like is living inside me. If the owner calls, I think it would respond.”

“Owner?”

“Yes, owner. That’s how I perceive it.”

Owner, he said.

Just as their personalities were all different, it seemed their preferences for what to call me were all different too.

“But I recommend not summoning it unnecessarily. It’s in quite an angry state, so I don’t think it would cooperate well.”

Well, the ‘sage’ Chiron seemed to think he was superior to humans because he knew so much.

“I don’t really recommend questioning it either. It doesn’t seem to think it needs to tell the truth to its owner.”

It meant that while it was my possession, it still had free will.

As soon as I understood the situation, I immediately made a request.

“I see. Then would it be possible for you not to call me that?”

Just as I didn’t want to hear ‘Master’ from the Empire’s greatest beauty, I didn’t want to own a middle-aged man either.

“I’ll try my best.”

Borem looked uncertain but nodded anyway.

“I really don’t know how to thank you, but I don’t have anything right now.”

It was the truth. He didn’t even have clothes, after all.

“For now, I think we need to discuss what comes next. Won’t you come inside? Everyone agreed to gather.”

We followed him back into the house.

When we entered the house, Alpheus waved cheerfully with a bright smile.

“Brisa! Here, over here!”

I sat next to Alpheus and whispered.

“No obvious seat-saving. You look like an Academy student who can’t eat lunch without friends.”

It seemed we’d have to go to the Imperial Palace once the Northern Region business was finished, so I needed to prepare him for high society in advance.

“I think it would be nice if I looked like a pure and refreshing Academy student!”

“No rejuvenation fantasies.”

While I was giving guidance after a long time, everyone took their seats.

The first person to speak was Isabela.

She said to Leopold.

“First, as promised, I’ll go to the Western Region and try 【Purification】. 【Purification】 is an ability that’s been lost in the Northern Region for a long time, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it.”

I shook my head and said.

“That might simply be because ‘contamination’ has been extremely rare until now. In Sears too, the ability was thought to have disappeared because there were no Half-Human, Half-Beasts to 【Tame】.”

Indeed, the ‘contamination’ that had appeared on Western Region land so far was just at a negligible level.

The Western Region was so vast. Rather than calling the direct line from the Northern Region and giving them the highest treatment to request 【Purification】, it was more profitable to just abandon that land.

“So it’s a bit difficult to conclude that it’s been lost.”

Even as I spoke, I sighed a little.

If ‘contamination’ was really a product of dark magic, it meant that dark magic, which had been sluggish until now, was beginning to flourish again recently.

Then Harrison interjected.

“Actually, 【Charm】 is the same way. Ah, I was told absolutely never to mention this.”

Harrison, consistently loose-lipped, leaked another family secret.

“For generations, the spouses of Marquis Naisar House have greatly disliked the 【Charm】 ability. Because people of the opposite sex kept flocking to their spouse’s bedroom.”

That was really something a spouse would hate.

Moreover, didn’t the Centauros say earlier that 【Charm】 was originally a sexual ability? I thought it might be an ability that ordinary people would be better off not having.

“This is really confidential, but that’s why people from Marquis Naisar House have traditionally received many shamanic rituals from a young age to eliminate that ability.”

“Shamanic rituals?”

“Yes. They said it was actually effective for generations. But when it came to our father’s generation, finances became difficult…”

At this point, Harrison glanced at Borem and showed remarkable restraint by not mentioning Delmia’s name.

“We had to stop receiving rituals from a famous shaman midway… That’s why we became able to manifest 【Charm】, albeit weakly.”

To think that Southern Region shamanism, which everyone had believed to be superstition, was sometimes effective.

Anyway, until now, the three families had each become known to have lost their due to their own circumstances.

“Then I’ll try my best.”

Isabela muttered with a somewhat uncertain expression.

“But… I’m not sure if trying right now is the right thing to do. I’m currently in a position where I’m hiding my identity.”

Then Alpheus tilted his head and asked.

“Why is that? Couldn’t you just go to the Duke’s Estate now and ask them to return the ducal title?”

“As if.”

The Northern Region’s princess no longer needed to pretend to be a maid. So she immediately stopped using formal speech.

“Unlike you, those guys are the type who actually carry brains on top of their necks.”

Combined with her habit of living in harsh places, her speech had become excessively casual.

“They’re already busy siding with the Dark Mages and greasing their own bellies, so they’d readily hand over Northern Region supremacy.”

At this point, I opened my mouth to bestow guidance for Harrison and Alpheus.

“If you purify that vast land, rumors will spread immediately. That the direct line of the Northern Region has appeared.”

Harrison and Alpheus stared at me blankly.

I lifted my chin and continued with additional explanation.

“Then how would the Dark Mages currently controlling the Duke’s Estate act? Wait, don’t answer. If you answer, it’ll only increase my anger. Just memorize this. They’ll immediately cover up their crimes and cut off loose ends. If you’ve memorized it well, review it before bed. I’ll test you tomorrow morning.”

Leopold also chimed in to help.

“No matter how much of a former duke she is, it’s difficult to immediately receive the ducal title. Since the ducal title has already been transferred, in the worst case, she’d have to file a lawsuit.”

So when they didn’t expect it, we had to quickly expose and capture their crimes.

Then the ducal title would become vacant, and with no successor, naturally taking control of the Northern Region at that time would be the superior strategy.

“Thanks to hydroponic cultivation, the ‘contamination’ isn’t urgent enough to require immediate resolution, so it’s right to resolve the Bakahun ducal title first.”

Leopold officially declared that 【Purification】 could be generously postponed.

Then Isabela, who had been diligently gathering information, spoke slowly.

“The current Duke Backhun is collecting livestock. Whether goats, cattle, or reindeer, on a very large scale. But those livestock apparently just evaporated. I think they might have been handed over to Dark Mages for experiments.”

“What? Innocent animals? Then I absolutely cannot forgive this!”

Alpheus, who had once cried out for nature protection with a handkerchief around his neck, was enraged.

“I somehow thought that might be the case.”

I said, crossing my arms.

“The Northern Region has a developed livestock industry.”

Rudolph Village was located quite far south within Northern Region territory.

The further north you went, the less suitable it was for farmland, so most people engaged in livestock farming.

“But seeing that the situation wasn’t good, I roughly figured that some problem had arisen in the livestock industry too.”

“Recently, even other villages that were once prosperous are suffering from food shortages, so it’s very fortunate.”

Raul had definitely said this.

Agriculture had its limits in this region. So when he said ‘prosperous villages,’ they would naturally be places where livestock farming had developed.

“At first, they cooperated because the current Duke Backhun paid good prices. But he demanded quantities so large it seemed like he’d wipe out the breeding stock, so everyone’s finding it strange.”

Isabela shared what she had investigated.

“I think they might have installed an illegal warp in the pastures near the Duke’s Estate to smuggle to Sebon. The Duke’s Estate’s own sheep are still all there, but who knows what will happen to them soon.”

I had suspected it, and it was as expected.

That’s why Harrison had detected the aura of dark magic around the Duke’s Estate.

Seeing that no report had been filed with the Magic Tower, it meant the current owner of the Duke’s Estate was also in cahoots with them.

But this was different from Dahlia’s case, where we could just hand it over to the Magic Tower saying ‘the aura of dark magic is felt.’

A ducal house was involved in this problem. So we couldn’t just accuse them outright using Harrison’s words as evidence.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————