The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 208

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Episode 13
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Though the Russell Family had fallen into straitened circumstances practically overnight, they remained nobles nonetheless. So Zerdian, too, had attended that reception seven years ago when he’d scraped together every frontier aristocrat he could find.
He’d kept to the edges of the crowd and hadn’t gotten a close view, but he’d witnessed from afar as Alpheus rushed toward the Empress Dowager as she flew through the air.
He’d also seen the slight figure of the young Brisa, weeping in despair, her small back hunched.
But they weren’t people he’d had any connection with, and life had been too demanding for him to remember them for long.
“This is the end…….”
Yet the moment he heard those words from Brisa as she collapsed, it was as though Zerdian had been struck by lightning.
The Sears siblings had just subdued the monster with swift and ruthless efficiency. Everything had been disarmingly simple.
“Bri-bri…….”
The instant Marcel found himself engulfed in the whirlwind, Brisa lost consciousness.
Alpheus caught Brisa and murmured to her.
“This is the fourth time, and I’m still so worried about you……. Open your eyes soon. Please.”
But the fact that the situation had ended quickly didn’t mean it had been an easy one for them.
What sorrow they must be carrying, and why they’d come to this unrelated territory to face a Half-Human, Half-Beast once more…….
So Zerdian silently tossed undergarments and trousers to Marcel.
“Looks like you didn’t lose consciousness. Put these on quickly.”
Marcel’s lower body had already returned to a human’s two legs.
Marcel accepted the clothes, shivering violently.
“Um, um…….”
Marcel’s eyes darted about, and then he asked carefully.
“Would you happen to have a towel? I’m rather uncomfortable from the seawater. Of, of course, I’m grateful you helped bring me to my senses!”
Zerdian replied curtly.
“I had no hand in bringing you to your senses, so that means you’re not grateful to me, is that it?”
He snorted and tossed his cloak to Marcel.
“Just wipe yourself down and wrap it around you.”
“Ah…… this is…… Um, um, is there any chance you could call my mother?”
Zerdian stared at Marcel, who stood bundled in the cloak and rolling his eyes in disbelief.
‘At his age, he’s calling for his mother in the middle of the sea just because there’s no towel?’
What’s more, Marcel had been speaking freely to Zerdian from the moment he saw him.
‘And openly disrespecting me, no less.’
It was unmistakable that Marcel had judged Zerdian a commoner by his shabby clothes.
But by rank, even as the son of Dibostane, he’d never inherited the family name, so he was technically a commoner himself!
“Your cloak is too poor quality. Can you give me your shirt? I could use it to dry myself off. Well, it doesn’t look particularly good either, but it’s better than nothing…….”
Zerdian’s jaw fell open.
‘Is our territory in ruins because of this senseless fool whose mind is in shambles?’
That was when it happened.
Brisa opened her eyes slowly. She then looked at Marcel, who was covering himself with the cloak.
Upon seeing the only adult woman present, he flushed and shrank back.
“P-p-please don’t look!”
Zerdian spoke irritably.
“Does that mean I’m allowed to look? My eyes matter too, don’t they?”
But the words that followed made both Zerdian and Alpheus stiffen.
“I’m in quite a state, Lord!”
……Lord?
At that word, Brisa’s shoulders rose slightly. Her expression showed little surprise.
Instead, she regarded Zerdian quietly.
“Thank you.”
Suddenly, to me?
Zerdian furrowed his brows and replied.
“That’s not it. I’ve actually failed in my grave duty. He hasn’t put on his trousers yet.”
Brisa then smiled very subtly and continued.
“No, I mean I’m grateful you didn’t try to kill us.”
Zerdian’s expression hardened in an instant.
Brisa brushed dust from her dress and went on.
“I thought you could have left us behind in secret, since there’s a lifeboat.”
Alpheus and Marcel’s eyes widened, but Brisa remained composed.
“Killing people in the open ocean is far too easy for a sailor.”
Zerdian swallowed hard.
Brisa continued.
“Even if we’d tried to depart with the ship on our own later, it would have been too late. That vessel would probably already be damaged in some way and sunk in the middle of the sea.”
Zerdian’s lips worked soundlessly. He had no idea what to say.
“Is there a lifeboat?”
“Y-yes, there is…….”
So that’s why she’d asked about the lifeboat out of the blue?
He’d certainly been caught off guard at the time.
Had this young lady known all along? From what point exactly?
“What do you mean, Brisa?”
Alpheus interjected.
“Why would Zerdian kill us? We haven’t done anything wrong!”
Brisa shrugged.
“Because one must eat to survive. A fish doesn’t do anything wrong before a seabird catches and devours it, does it?”
Zerdian’s heart plummeted.
The truth was, when Alpheus’s party had arrived, he’d received a secret message.
[Before Taming the monster, kill the Sears siblings. If the task proves difficult, you may proceed during the Taming process.]
It was a secret letter from the Duchess of Dibostane.
[If you obey my command, your brother will be able to return safely to the Eastern Region.]
Even with the monster gone, reviving a territory buried under a mountain of debt would be difficult in a single day.
But if his brother and sister-in-law returned?
If the Young Duke of Dibostane and the Duchess then turned a blind eye to his brother-in-law’s trading company?
Then he could lay the foundation for revival once more.
If he killed the Sears siblings, the monster wouldn’t be Tamed. But in terms of the territory’s interests, it might actually be more beneficial to keep the monster and have his brother and sister-in-law return.
The method was simple.
He just needed to make the ship take on water while they were preoccupied, slip away in the lifeboat, and that would be that. The sailors he’d brought would naturally be loyal to him.
‘They’d drown helplessly in the middle of the sea.’
When Maximus had suddenly exposed Marcel’s identity, Zerdian had finally understood why the Duchess of Dibostane had wanted to prevent the monster’s Taming.
‘Of course she resented Marcel’s return.’
To be honest, even at the very end, Zerdian had wanted to kill Marcel.
But the reason he’d chosen not to do anything and simply cooperate with the Sears siblings was…….
“Marcel Cardipol didn’t choose to become such a monster. So I think he deserves a chance to live as human again.”
In truth, he’d thought it was nonsense. Such words couldn’t move his heart, which was wrapped up entirely in victimhood. But…….
“Right now, I’m promising to make this territory prosper.”
In fact, thanks to Brisa all this time, Western Wheat prices had fallen considerably, allowing people to get by. The continents owed her a debt.
“Then I’ll handle that variable.”
The Duchess of Dibostane’s attitude had rankled him. When she’d driven out his brother’s couple for no reason other than personal dislike, where was that grace? And now she dared offer ‘permission’ to make Zerdian a murderer.
But Brisa, who had entrusted her life to him, had promised confident hope. So Zerdian had chosen to take her side.
Yet she’d seen through all of it beforehand…….
“How…… how did you know?”
“It’s obvious, really. The way nobles scheme in succession struggles is always the same.”
Brisa remained expressionless.
“Still, I told the Prince absolutely not to come, just in case. But Zerdian, you made a good decision. Alpheus never would have died in the open ocean.”
The confidence of a younger sister with a War Hero for her brother was remarkable.
“Well, I’ll reward loyalty.”
Brisa spoke cleanly.
“I’ll make Marcel earn his keep too. At least, no one will be better at underwater labor than he is.”
……Underwater labor?
As Zerdian said nothing, Brisa turned to her brother with a familiar air.
“You brought some things on board, didn’t you? Go get them — keep one for yourself and give one to Marcel.”
Things brought on board?
Now that he thought about it, he’d heard that before they set sail, Brisa had asked Count Russell for something.
“Just in case, could you bring some flat-blade swords?”
It wasn’t difficult, so he’d brought them without much thought…….
Brisa distributed flat-blade swords to Marcel, who shivered in his cloak, to Alpheus, and to Zerdian, then spoke.
“Right, we’re taking these with us. Marcel, you transform back into a merman. And go to places where Zerdian and Alpheus cannot reach, gathering thoroughly.”
What she pointed to was the dark waters around the reef.
“……Pardon? Seawater? My Lord, seawater is everywhere…….”
Brisa shook her head at Marcel’s question.
“No, those dark things.”
Hmm? Dark things? Wasn’t that rotted seaweed?
“That’s seaweed.”

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