The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 210

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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 15
‘Besides, there’s definitely someone helping them in the Empire. Divostan in the Eastern Region is the prime suspect, but without evidence…….’
Harrison hoisted himself up with effort and asked.
“You trust Brisa too much, don’t you? You’re fine not seeing your fiancée for this long?”
Leopold didn’t answer.
Trusting Brisa was one thing—he genuinely missed her. Yet for her safety, he would…….
The memory of the reception surfaced: standing helpless before the Empress Dowager, unable to strike back.
That night when Brisa wept in his arms, small body trembling, there was nothing he could do but hold her.
Often when he woke from sleep, fragments of that moment returned to him, followed by strange dreams.
“You need someone precious to you, even if they’re not at your side.”
Surprisingly, it was Alpheus’s voice.
“You need something to protect, even if it isn’t yours.”
Alpheus had never said such things to him before…….
Yet listening to that gruff voice, somehow the mere fact that Brisa was alive seemed enough.
“Mm, you’re satisfied keeping me bound here—the very person you used to be jealous of?”
Harrison tilted his head and let out a small laugh.
Leopold answered grudgingly.
“Don’t talk as if you’re my only rival. It’s irritating.”
“Oh? So I’m not the only one?”
Harrison widened his eyes and leaned his face closer to Leopold’s.
“Who? Who else have you been jealous of?”
For a moment caught in that gaze, Leopold replied reflexively.
“Gillabrang and the Second Prince.”
But Charm didn’t work well in Sebon.
Leopold snapped back to his senses in an instant and shoved Harrison’s face away with the heel of his palm without mercy.
“I told you not to speak to me while looking at me like that.”
“Why Gillabrang, though? I can understand the Second Prince, but……”
Leopold turned the question back on him sharply.
“Understand how?”
Harrison lacked the logical capacity to answer that counter-question.
“Well…… they’re all better than you in some way?”
Yet that simple statement landed like a fatal blow on Leopold.
Status.
He was royal blood.
Looks.
Leopold was more handsome, admittedly, but if one preferred a gentler appearance, Maximus might score higher. Besides, the reputation for breathtaking beauty belonged to Harrison anyway.
Connections.
Alpheus and Maximus were quite close.
Meanwhile, if Alpheus learned of what happened with the wolf-dog, he’d surely see Leopold as an actual beast.
Age.
Once Brisa came of age, a seven-year gap wouldn’t matter much. Order of arrival had nothing to do with it, after all.
Personality.
Maximus was the only man besides Leopold who wouldn’t be intimidated by Brisa, could speak his mind freely, and smoothly glide past difficult moments.
Dwelling on such petty calculations embarrassed him, yet Harrison spoke again.
“But seriously—why Gillabrang? That coward who makes a fuss over nothing? I mean, he does have a cute face. Like a sickly pretty boy.”
“His spirit and heart are quite frail, true.”
“Sensitive, finicky, but pretty-faced—almost like a pampered pet dog.”
“The real dog is someone else.”
Leopold’s mood soured at the word “pet dog,” and he sighed before rising.
It was absurd to care about Gillabrang at all, yet that man had insisted so stubbornly on “you and I are equals” despite all of Brisa’s cuts…….
The memory of those moments gave him a headache from sheer irritation.
Years ago, during the tomato field incident in Behila, even with Alpheus present, he’d kept telling Brisa “take my side,” and never stopped.
Unlike Harrison with his easy-going nature, Gillabrang never yielded to Brisa’s sharp tongue—and that unshakeable composure bothered Leopold greatly.
“Well…… now I see why you’re so relaxed. Gillabrang will stay in the Eastern Region, the Prince will remain in the Imperial Palace, and Brisa will mostly be in Sears Territory—so they’ll never meet anyway.”
That was also a fact Leopold kept conscious of always.
According to letters that sometimes came from Hilberry, Brisa stayed almost entirely in her territory.
It was then that one of Leopold’s intelligence agents pushed through the brush.
“Young Duke.”
The agent in dark clothes whispered in a low voice.
“We’ve found a clue regarding the alternative food source for the vampire you asked us to investigate.”
Leopold’s eyes darkened in an instant.
Harrison felt the shift in atmosphere and began scanning the area, when the agent produced something from his garments.
“And this…….”
It was a letter from Sears Marquis Territory.
“We managed to slip it away before the Sebon Royal Family could censor it.”
The unusually thick envelope contained three letters.
One written by Brisa before meeting Alpheus, Alpheus’s lengthy threat, and lastly a short letter saying she was heading east to meet Maximus.
“Wow.”
Harrison, reading over his shoulder, exhaled.
He understood nothing of the complicated situation, but his instinct for needling Leopold was unerring.
“Brisa’s about to meet both Gillabrang and the Second Prince!”
* * *
Maximus had originally visited the Eastern Region at Gillabrang’s request.
“At least for appearance’s sake, it’s something I have to do.”
So after seeing Marcel return safely with the Sears siblings, Maximus set out immediately for Behila.
“I’ll just take a brief look at the flower, listen appropriately to that third son’s story, and return.”
Meanwhile, Brisa and Alpheus decided to stay in Russell Count Territory a few days longer, since Brisa had promised to make it “a place where they could live well and prosper.”
Several days later…….
“We’re done for now.”
Jerdian slammed a letter onto his father’s desk with a bitter laugh.
“I misjudged the situation.”
It was a letter the Young Duke of Divostan had sent to Jerdian: an order to kill Marcel and the Sears siblings at sea.
But when Jerdian refused the command, his elder brother’s merchant enterprise didn’t improve at all. So he still couldn’t find the courage to return east.
Following Brisa’s orders, Marcel went out to sea almost daily, scraping up seaweed from here and there. It was natural that Audrey followed anxiously in his wake.
“No, this isn’t the time for this. We need to establish our foundation immediately and stand against Ethan Dibostan. At least look into his fiancée again…….”
“B-but the Lord commanded us! We cannot defy our Lord’s orders!”
And so the Russell Count Territory steadily filled with sheets of dark seaweed.
The territory’s people whispered nervously that “the Sears siblings have gone mad, collecting garbage from the sea.”
Yet no one dared say it outright to the Sears siblings.
Because the “gifts” Brisa had brought in cartloads were food provisions.
Though grievances accumulated, potatoes, corn, and wheat piled just as high in the warehouse. So they couldn’t bring themselves to show disappointment directly.
In the end, the only target for Jerdian to grumble at was his own father.
“Really, I picked the wrong side completely.”
“My son?”
The Russell Count sighed and spoke.
“You seem to have forgotten—that side is the one *you* chose. I haven’t decided anything.”
“You decided to give birth to me!”
Jerdian roared.
“Having a stupid son who makes such terrible decisions—you should never have given birth to me in the first place! This is all your fault!”
“That’s quite the novel transgression.”
The Russell Count was shaking his head when——
A knock sounded at the door.
“May I come in?”
It was Brisa’s voice.
“Delmia has arrived. I’d like to greet her together, and there’s something I want to show you.”
Delmia Naisar?

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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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