The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 219

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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 24
Maximus sat at a shelter on a hilltop overlooking a flower field, visible at a glance.
He lounged in a relaxed posture, gazing vacantly down at the flowers.
Brisa observed the brown-haired young man quietly, noting the ease in his expression.
He was dressed far too casually for a crown prince, and he’d come without a guard detail—though admittedly, Maximus himself was formidable enough to need none.
She paused a moment, considering, then began climbing toward the shelter. She had something she’d wanted to discuss with him anyway.
“Ah, Brisa.”
As expected, Maximus raised an eyebrow without surprise—he’d sensed her presence the moment she appeared in the flower field.
“I’d have greeted you openly, but I wasn’t sure if Gillab might be nearby, so I feigned ignorance. Please forgive my cowardice and pretend you didn’t see.”
“Absolutely not.”
Brisa’s tone was cold.
“I’m recording it in history.”
“Hmm.”
Maximus spread out the hood he’d been wearing to make room for her to sit, clicking his tongue at himself.
“Then I’ll do my best to ensure I’m remembered in those history books. If one of my more temperamental siblings takes the Crown Prince seat, they’ll probably erase my name from every record.”
Brisa shrugged once and settled beside Maximus.
Wendy grew pensive, whispering anxiously.
“If M-Masa finds out, she’ll faint…….”
A noble young lady sitting anywhere but a chair was indeed a grave breach of etiquette.
Brisa answered with utmost seriousness.
“But if I don’t do this, I’ll be charged with insulting the royal family. How could I refuse a seat the Crown Prince himself has offered? Masa will certainly think dirt on my skirts beats dirt on my severed neck.”
“Well, young lady? Call me an uneducated brute instead, why don’t you.”
Maximus laughed soundlessly, shaking his head. Then he reclined comfortably, arms stretched back, and continued.
“But I’ve sat like this with Alpheus many times before on hillsides just like this one. If you resemble him, then easy, lightweight conversation must suit your taste. And…….”
His gaze shifted to Wendy.
“The lighter the conversation, the more attention one pays when someone else is near. Could you step back a little? I can protect your mistress well enough on my own.”
“Ah…….”
Wendy’s eyes darted uncertainly, and Brisa nodded her approval.
Only after Wendy had stationed herself at a considerable distance did Maximus’s gaze settle back on the flower field.
He murmured lazily.
“Those flowers…… I see nothing particularly strange about them, but having looked at them often, they’ve grown beautiful in my eyes.”
“Yet you stay in this flower field all the same.”
“Well, Gillab called me here for this matter, after all.”
Maximus grinned.
“It was merely an excuse to come to the Eastern Region, but even so, one should show sincerity, shouldn’t one? The one who called me must have been desperate, in any case.”
Only Maximus sat here now, but his elite information agents were already scattered throughout the Eastern Region.
Even if they were discovered, the excuse that he’d been investigating the flowers at Gillab’s request would suffice—no problems would arise.
For Gillab alone, Maximus’s time came at considerable cost. The only trouble was that Gillab didn’t know it.
Brisa would have perceived all these calculations.
“Well, then, Brisa.”
Maximus watched her platinum hair drift in the wind as he asked quietly.
“Did you come to warn me because you’ve grown tired of being used?”
Brisa didn’t particularly like Maximus. The perceptive prince would have grasped this fact immediately.
For her to approach him without purpose was unthinkable. So surely she meant to tell him not to lay a hand on Alpheus—or face her wrath.
But Brisa shook her head firmly.
“No.”
She spoke flatly.
“I just…… came to thank you.”
Maximus laughed heartily in response.
“Well, it’s nothing. Of course I can do that much for my friend’s younger sister.”
After laughing broadly for some time, he asked very seriously.
“But what exactly have I done for you?”
“You haven’t done anything special for me, really.”
Brisa shrugged.
“You exposed Marcel’s identity before the Cardipol Guild Master…….”
Many words were unnecessary between them.
In truth, Maximus had come hoping to join hands with the Cardipol Guild.
Then uncovering the dark magic in the Eastern Region would become easy, and once Marcel became heir to Divostan, his own position would be solidified. Those who clung most persistently to questions of his origins were conservatives like Ethan.
The enemy of my enemy is my ally; so when Audrey returned, he’d thought to forge a coalition.
But the coalition crumbled before it began—the moment Maximus exposed Marcel’s identity before the Russell noble house.
‘I couldn’t openly protest, only because I’m a crown prince, but I’ve already made an enemy of Audrey.’
He’d failed to achieve his greatest objective.
“You didn’t have to do it. You were considerate of us.”
Brisa spoke quietly.
“We were in a position where it would be difficult for us to expose him.”
“Perhaps, young lady. Consider it this way instead.”
Maximus smiled faintly.
“Actually, you didn’t need to expose anything either. It was a purely emotional matter—I simply couldn’t bear to watch the perpetrator play innocent before the victim.”
Then Brisa turned to face him directly.
“I just…… couldn’t bear the sight of it either. It wasn’t something I did for you. But don’t withdraw your thanks—refunds are not available per my personal policy.”
Silence hung between them.
Maximus scratched the back of his head before finally meeting her eyes.
“Why…… why are you making me uneasy, young lady…….”
“It’s nothing…….”
Brisa blinked slowly.
“I actually wanted to thank you quickly and be done with it…… but Your Highness, you can act on emotion too. I assumed of course you did it for us. After all, making an enemy of Audrey Cardipol does you no good…….”
Maximus shrugged.
“No matter how hard I work my mind, how constantly I calculate, I don’t divide the world into my side and those who aren’t.”
He continued slowly.
“Just as commoner blood doesn’t make one inherently inferior to a noble, neither does it make one inherently virtuous. I simply don’t forget that.”
Brisa watched him quietly. Some realization seemed to dawn on her.
She murmured very slowly.
“That must be why you’re such close friends with Alpheus, then.”
Her eyes shifted—from the gaze one reserves for garbage to one reserved for inanimate objects.
“Come to think of it, I’m grateful you never sought me out either. I could have represented Sears and aided Your Highness with my strength, yet you didn’t ask.”
Suddenly, Maximus felt the weight of her approaching adulthood.
The little girl he once knew had never been easy prey for him—not once.
“Had you visited my territory often and cared for me warmly, you could have made a greater show of favor before Alpheus. But you didn’t.”
That child had always grasped everything.
Maximus felt an unexpected melancholy wash over him.
So this—her thanks for nothing he had done—that’s what this was.
‘Wait.’
He wiped the smile from his face and thought.
‘…… Why do I feel sad? Why suddenly bereft?’

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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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