The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 147

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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 147

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The next day.

I headed to the nearby cheese workshop with the wolf in tow.

When I first arrived at the cheese workshop, the craftsmen tilted their heads in confusion.

“Ah, you’re going to help us make more cheese, Young Lady?”

The large, burly men blinked their eyes in bewilderment in front of the cauldron boiling sheep’s milk.

I began giving instructions systematically.

“First, milk the sheep in the evening too. Cool the evening milk overnight so the fat concentrates, then mix it with the morning milk.”

“But there’s much more morning milk!”

“Haven’t you ever thought that makes it more diluted? Evening milk may be less in quantity, but it’s richer. If you age the evening milk at low temperature and mix that fat with the protein in the morning milk, the cheese will become much firmer.”

The craftsmen were bewildered by the instructions from a girl they’d never seen before.

“Pr-pro-protein, what did you say?”

But behind me stood the returned Duke Backhun.

The middle-aged duke who ruled the Northern Region said just one thing before leaving.

“Listen well to what the owner says.”

He was too busy to say more than two sentences. It had been quite a while since he’d left the ducal residence.

The craftsmen rolled their eyes and whispered among themselves.

“Owner?”

“Don’t tell me the Duke handed over this workshop to her?”

The Centauros ignored my request not to call me ‘owner,’ but it was still a better title than ‘master’ in many ways.

I pretended not to hear the craftsmen’s whispers and boldly gave orders using borrowed authority.

“Add the coagulant exactly when this magic tool turns this color. It’s a magic tool that can measure acid and base levels.”

What I took out was a magic tool that could accurately check acidity levels. It was the very Academy preparation item I had used to determine the acidity of the Olive Plains soil.

“Th-this is… isn’t this a precious item only used when making magic potions at the Magic Tower?”

“Ha, that’s going too far.”

I couldn’t help but put on a stern expression.

“Have you been treating cheese with that kind of mindset all this time?”

It was truly so absurd that I had no choice but to scold them.

“When distribution is paralyzed, food becomes the first problem. At that time, cheese will become an easily stored protein source, and protein is directly linked to survival.”

Then I sharply retorted to the craftsmen.

“In other words, cheese is your lifeline, so are you saying that mere magic potion is more important than your life right now?”

“Th-that’s not it!”

“Then use the magic tool. I’ll ask the Duke to have one placed in each workshop.”

Having curtly ended the argument, I taught them how to handle the magic tool.

“Ooh…”

And with just that much, considerably more cheese was made than usual.

“Lastly.”

I said in front of the cauldron.

“You have whey (*the water left after straining out cheese) remaining, right? Boil it again.”

“Pardon?”

“I said boil it again.”

The workshop staff tilted their heads but put the whey back in the cauldron and lit the fire. Then, just before boiling, white bits began floating up one by one around the edges.

“It’s whey cheese (*also called ricotta), and doing this you can get roughly 5% to 10% more.”

When we reached this point, even the eyes of the retainers who had come to observe from each territory widened. It was indeed information that would be very helpful for territories that raised livestock other than sheep.

After that, we also stopped by the pasture where the sheep were let out to graze.

“Plant clover or alfalfa here.”

By that time, the craftsmen and Northern retainers were following behind me, diligently taking notes in their notebooks.

“The milk will become more concentrated than when they eat random weeds, so much more cheese will be produced. And mark the sheep to record their milk production.”

I advised the new shepherd.

“And keep the offspring of sheep that produce milk well for breeding again. If you repeat this process for just a few generations, cheese production will increase considerably.”

At this point, the Northern retainers began making excited breathing sounds as they looked at me.

“Wooooow…”

“Amazing, truly.”

I decided to acknowledge it now. Hearing others’ admiration was quite a pleasant thing.

While I wasn’t particularly stopping their fuss for the sake of my soul’s welfare, Isabela and Alpheus also came riding up urgently on horseback.

“I heard the news.”

Isabela jumped down from her horse before Alpheus and stood in front of me.

“They say you made an incredible amount of cheese.”

She grasped my hands tightly.

“Even so… I was going to attempt 【Purification】 even without going this far.”

Isabela said in a voice filled with emotion.

“I was going to extort a hefty sum from your former fiancé.”

At that, the wolf-dog who had been by my side the whole time narrowed his eyes.

At the same time, the retainers who had gathered raised their eyebrows.

“Ah! Are you referring to Young Duke Nogen?”

“Didn’t he send a letter of annulment to Lady Brisa as soon as the marquis title went to his elder brother?”

The scandalous love affair of the young people had already spread to the Northern Region.

“Ha… What did the Western Region let slip away…”

“How sad it is that Backhun has no young master of the same age!”

“No, actually marriages among the original five families are complicated in many ways. Don’t you perhaps need wealthy, gentle in-laws who do everything they’re told? Though our family is only a viscounty, all of northern Arohol is our territory! If the Young Lady would just marry my grandson, we would offer our entire family!”

At the praise pouring out as they coveted me, the wolf-dog finally bared his teeth.

“Grrrrr…”

The sheep stiffened and stopped eating grass, and the retainers also stepped backward.

“Wolf-dog, you can’t attack people! That person must have been mentally attacked by a Dark Mage, so I’ll handle it myself later!”

Alpheus even hurriedly grabbed the wolf-dog and tumbled backward.

“Ugh, now he’s stronger than me… When did he grow so big?”

Alpheus sighed as he rolled around on the grass.

“Oh no, my clothes are a mess. Wolf-dog, you can’t do this to big brother Alpheus.”

Leaving behind Alpheus who was blinking his eyes, I took the wolf-dog’s side.

“It suits you well, though.”

But I was the only one on the wolf-dog’s side. The Northern retainers began commenting about the wolf-dog one by one.

“My word, I suppose it’s because he’s a wolf raised by Young Duke Nogen.”

“Huh, being a dumb beast, he doesn’t know his master’s greed and acts like that. Let’s see how much better a fiancée he can find.”

Everyone insulted both Leopold and the wolf-dog simultaneously.

“What.”

Meanwhile, the cold Northern beauty boldly declared.

“I just need to be more helpful to Brisa than Nogen’s former fiancé.”

“Yes, I’ll be counting on you.”

I nodded my head.

“The rumors have probably spread to the Capital by now. That Duke Backhun has returned and reclaimed his daughter too.”

Paul was immediately arrested as a criminal caught in the act.

The vacant ducal title returned to Borem that very night according to Northern law. There were no procedural problems whatsoever.

During this time, the curse had manifested in Borem’s body making his whereabouts unknown, but it was officially announced that Alpheus Sears, who possessed the 【Taming】 ability, had resolved this matter.

However, everything wasn’t over yet. Now remained the task of reporting to the Imperial Court and having an audience with the Emperor to explain the situation.

“Soon, the Imperial Court will hold an imperial banquet for the Duke and the Duke’s daughter.”

At my words, Isabela nodded in bewilderment.

“But the Duke’s daughter never attended the Academy and has never debuted in the Capital’s social circles.”

Since Isabela was young, the Northern Region had harbored great dissatisfaction with the Imperial Family.

So at that time, Borem had decided not to send his only heir to the Academy, which required spending two years traveling back and forth to the Capital.

After that, the Northern Civil War continued and Isabela was officially reported missing.

“Moreover, since the Duke’s daughter is now of marriageable age, she’ll be staying at the Capital Townhouse for several days before the banquet and will be invited to various gatherings.”

Our next destination was the Capital.

We needed to gather information and seize the opportunity to find ‘Solomon’s Ring.’

‘A ring… In the end, it’s an accessory. Rumors about Imperial accessories spread first in High Society, so I need to go directly inside and see for myself.’

The Centauros had definitely said that ring was inside the Imperial Palace.

In other words, it had been passed down through the Imperial Family until now.

Since it was a ring possessed by the ‘Dimensional Traveler’ who was the Queen of Riente, it was definitely a woman’s accessory, and if it had been passed down from daughter-in-law to daughter-in-law for such a long time, there was no way rumors wouldn’t have spread.

‘There was no ancient curse until Leopold’s father’s time. That means before then, the Imperial Family didn’t know how to cast curses with the ring. There’s a high possibility they didn’t keep the ring that had been passed down through generations a secret.’

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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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