The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 2

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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 2

The sharp-eared war hero quickly approached the door again like lightning.

“Hm? Do you perhaps have something to say to me?”

Actually, I didn’t have particularly good feelings toward Alpheus.

It was just the objective situation.

Due to his appearance, I lost the marquis title right before my eyes.

In the end, he was the very existence my mother had been wary of her entire life, fearing something like this would happen. So even after impulsively calling out to him, I hesitated for a moment.

“Brisa, are you worried about being without adults? Are you feeling burdened about being the territory’s representative while I’m gone?”

Alpheus spoke soothingly to me as I hesitated.

“But there’s my adjutant Langsi that I mentioned earlier… and I’m leaving all the knights except for the Elite Unit, and I’ve already told them to listen to you well. I’ve instructed them to protect you well, so there shouldn’t be any problems with you staying safe even without me.”

I swallowed dryly. Then I suddenly thrust out a pouch containing a single dried herb through the door crack.

“Take this.”

“Hm?”

“What’s inside is Awakening Herb – at the Academy, we eat it when studying the night before exams.”

This seemed like something even someone who wasn’t crazy could do.

Of course, I could have said this instead:

“Listen, I just realized this world is inside a book. If you go now, half your body will be cut and you won’t be able to return for three months. During that time, our territory will be ruined and everyone here, including me, will be massacred. After that, your personality will change 180 degrees, and you’ll overcome all hardships and marry the female protagonist, but you’ll suffer terribly until then.”

Then the conversation would continue like this:

“Really? Is that true? Can I believe you?”

“No. If we judge objectively, it’s more likely that I’ve just gone insane like our mother.”

After imagining it, this didn’t seem quite right.

Alpheus had made the decision to go to the Capital for the territory’s sake.

The current situation was so urgent that he was departing without even catching his breath.

I didn’t want to overturn that decision. I had neither the conviction nor the evidence to do so.

But just in case, I could at least prepare for the worst-case scenario.

I spoke clearly and distinctly.

“Use it when you’re too sleepy but can’t sleep. Always keep it on you.”

If by any chance this delusion was the future that would actually come…

‘Then it would be of crucial help to Alpheus.’

I didn’t know Alpheus well yet, but I had decided to help him for now.

‘I need to think coldly. Now Alpheus is my only protector, and if our relationship goes wrong for no reason, I’m the only one who loses. I’m doing all this just for myself. To put it bluntly, Alpheus could make me disappear without anyone knowing.’

In the original story, it said Alpheus was a good person.

But logically, that ‘original story’ was most likely my delusion. So I had to stay sharp and approach as carefully as possible.

‘Will he accept it? Is it too absurd?’

But this much seemed okay.

Isn’t it something even a normal person could give?

A brief silence fell outside the door.

‘Does it just look like useless grass? But it’s expensive. I only have one left myself.’

Just as I was about to tell him the price of the Awakening Herb.

“Thank you….”

Suddenly, a voice mixed with tears reached me.

“A symbol of luck and love from family… It’s the first time I’ve ever received something like this…. I’ll keep it close to my heart always.”

It was an excessively moved voice.

‘What an unnecessarily sentimental personality.’

I felt relieved.

‘At least he won’t be carrying it around carelessly.’

* * *

Three days after that incident.

I locked myself in my room, waiting for the delusions to disappear.

During that time, an Annulment Letter arrived from my fiancé.

With a time delay, an anonymous Bouquet also arrived.

The maids were excited.

“My goodness, it must be from a young master who had a secret crush on you!”

“Someone who was quietly waiting for your engagement to be broken! My word, this is an incredibly expensive bouquet! He must be quite wealthy too!”

That bouquet didn’t comfort the bitter feelings from receiving the Annulment Letter, but it had the effect of preventing the maids from wailing.

While quietly handling the annulment, I told the maids.

“I’ll give you just one order. I don’t like things getting noisy, so don’t mention this matter to the people Alpheus brought with him.”

The maids snorted with excitement.

“There’s no need for such an order, Miss. What would those ill-bred people know about noble family affairs?”

“Oh my… I misspoke.”

I replied calmly.

“It turns out I have two orders to give. Don’t say things like that anymore either.”

Even so, they’d probably make their feelings quite obvious with their looks.

This kind of internal conflict within the Marquis Manor was exactly the same as in the original story.

All the maids in the Marquis Manor were people my mother, who had been a princess, brought from the Royal Palace.

To them, Alpheus and his group who suddenly appeared were ‘lowly creatures who managed to steal what belonged to Brisa.’

In fact, in the original story, ‘Brisa’ felt the same way. But all of us, including myself and the maids, get eliminated early on.

‘…By starvation.’

As I unconsciously continued that train of thought, I was startled and made a resolution.

‘No. Get a grip. I’m not crazy. My delusions can’t possibly be the real future.’

Anxiety about the half-brother who suddenly appeared.

Strange guilt about my mother.

Helplessness about the broken engagement.

Complex feelings about my former fiancé.

Such things didn’t even make it into my current priorities.

‘Since when did I ever care about my own feelings?’

Right now, whether my brain was functioning normally was the most serious problem.

But three days later.

After seeing the newspaper, I decided to just accept that I had gone crazy.

[Western Region Monster Wave – Largest Scale in History]

‘This is exactly the same as the future I learned about.’

Everyone at the Marquis Manor was treating this as someone else’s problem.

But after an unprecedented monster wave struck the Western Region, which was a granary area, grain prices would skyrocket.

Right now, everyone was thinking ‘Things are a bit rough. But they always have been.’ But…

‘The western grain merchants we owe money to will demand immediate debt repayment…’

To make matters worse, Alpheus would lose contact due to circumstances.

I held my head in my hands.

‘Survival is at stake.’

I couldn’t just sit here doing nothing.

‘If we don’t eat, we die.’

I couldn’t even bring myself to set goals while looking toward the distant future.

With Alpheus gone, I was the representative of this territory.

At this rate, forget about feeding the territory’s people, I wouldn’t even be able to take care of myself.

‘Originally, unable to endure the hunger, I fell for a relative’s deception and boarded a ship to be sold as a slave abroad along with the maids!’

In the midst of that, the knight order Alpheus left behind would chase after us to rescue us, but in the end, the ship would sink and everyone would die.

‘In the end, it all happens because of not having enough to eat. So I need to prepare for the coming food shortage.’

Actually, I couldn’t remember the ‘life from my previous existence’ itself very well.

But vaguely, it seemed like I had extensive knowledge in agriculture and livestock farming.

I was probably someone who studied those things professionally.

I quietly looked at the books in my room.

During my two years at the Academy, I only searched for such books in the library. Only secretly in the middle of the night, afraid others would criticize me for being unbecoming of a noble.

Crops, farming methods, livestock, specialty products, agricultural economics… Somehow, self-studying these things was so enjoyable.

Though the environment was completely different from my previous life, when viewed from a broad perspective, there were many subtly similar aspects. Perhaps that’s why my comprehension and application were quick.

‘To the extent that I even published numerous research papers under a pseudonym.’

Until now, even I couldn’t understand that secret hobby of mine, but it seemed like interests from my previous life had carried over.

‘Fortunately, Alpheus told his people to listen to me before he left. Without even knowing me well.’

In any case, it was extremely fortunate.

“Summon the knight order immediately.”

The Sears Knight Order consisted entirely of former mercenaries that Alpheus had left behind.

The Marquis Territory originally didn’t have the money to raise soldiers. In fact, it wasn’t a place that needed a knight order of this scale either.

But they had already become Sears’s people. If that was the case, I had to protect them. Just as the knights had risked their lives trying to save me in the original story.

I contemplated that scene and made an objective assessment of them.

‘They’ll eat a lot.’

And so I summoned the workers—no, the Knights.

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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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