The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 226

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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 31
Maximus had walked the knife’s edge between life and death many times. He’d even thrown himself into the Forest of Sleep, prepared to lose consciousness.
He’d never once thought himself a coward. Yet in that moment, he felt his nerve truly failing him.
“Ri, Riente…… if that’s the case.”
Only after answering did he realize that “bloodline” referred to Brisa.
“Do you have any idea how many times you’ve said that child’s name? The moment you speak of her, your eyes give everything away.”
“I, I don’t know what you—”
“You want to keep her at your side, don’t you? So there was a reason you showed no interest in women all this time.”
“She is still a minor, Your Majesty.”
“She’ll be of age soon enough. At that point, you can hardly call her a child anymore.”
Maximus felt the blood drain from his face.
Keep Brisa at his side—what kind of….
But it wasn’t entirely absurd, was it?
What came to mind, surprisingly, was something Brisa had said.
“You will surely become a good Emperor.”
The Master of the Magic Tower had said something identical, so why did only her words keep echoing in his mind?
Everything begins in the past. Traps often lay hidden there.
Days of being mocked and compared to Brisa—seven years his junior—before the Empress Dowager and the Empress.
He hadn’t hated that child, but that was precisely why he’d wanted to prove something. That he was no insect worthy of such treatment. That he too could be recognized, just as she was.
That he could become someone not so very different from her.
Time passed, and when he saw Brisa again after so long, she said—
“I’ve come to believe in you.”
Brisa was the symbol of shame, stained by the abuse of his past.
When she spoke those words, Maximus finally understood.
Perhaps showing this small child that “I am not the defective wretch these people call me” mattered to his life as much as survival itself.
And it was only when the Emperor stated his observation so coldly—
“You’ve taken a liking to that child.”
—that, after showing surprise at those words, he truly faced his own heart. Earlier, he’d come to his senses only to find himself already in a power struggle with Leopold.
He’d tried to deny it. Something in him rebelled at harboring such feelings for his friend’s sister. But….
“Miss Brisa is the fiancée of Nogen Vice Duke.”
He could only speak the bitter truth.
“And she doesn’t regard me as a man. She seems to think of me merely as a colleague with shared goals.”
At this, light began to kindle in the Emperor’s eyes, which had been still as stone.
“A colleague….”
Maximus suddenly felt profoundly uncomfortable. He couldn’t understand why they were discussing Brisa instead of Dark Magic.
“Shall I tell you a secret, Maximus?”
The Emperor whispered low.
“In truth, I find all my children much the same, but the one who resembles me most—that would be you.”
Maximus felt a deep sting of insult.
‘I’m capable.’
Moreover, he lived diligently for the Empire.
But before he could bring himself to object, the Emperor added—
“You want to survive.”
Maximus found it suddenly difficult to meet the Emperor’s eyes.
After all, the Emperor had “survived” all this time. With this vague and ambiguous leadership.
Though it was hard to say he’d governed the Empire well, he had kept the throne.
“Since you resemble me so closely….”
The Emperor smiled enigmatically.
“I hope you’ll obtain what you desire. Shall I help you?”
It was the first act of paternal kindness Maximus had ever known.
‘Why on earth?’
Maximus blinked slowly, bewildered.
‘Does he mean to make me Crown Prince? But perhaps he’s afraid of the nobles’ resistance, so he’s judged it best to give me a fiancée of impeccable bloodline? Is that why he called Brisa the Riente bloodline?’
But how could he possibly win the fiancée of Nogen Vice Duke?
As Maximus stood dazed, the Emperor waved his hand dismissively.
“See for yourself. Do as you wish about flowers and such things.”
Behila’s new flower seemed to be no shock to the Emperor whatsoever.
Maximus bowed respectfully and turned to leave, deeply unsettled.
For the first time, he found something unsettling about his own father. And he was not a man to ignore such feelings.
‘I should investigate….’
* * *
The next morning.
I was heading to the Warp with Alpheus, ready to return to Sears, when Gillab followed us right up to the gate.
He looked at us with desperate eyes and asked,
“You’re really leaving? Just abandoning me here after everything?”
“As expected.”
I sighed with relief.
“If you’d come just to see us off, I would’ve thought you’d finally developed a split personality from stress. Congratulations on maintaining a single one.”
Fortunately, he’d come to whine, just as I’d anticipated.
“You’re really leaving just like that?”
“Well, not quite as we came.”
I shook my head and pointed to the sealed wooden box.
“We’re taking the bees.”
The Sears Marquis Territory didn’t have extensive wildflower meadows. One productive beehive was all we needed.
“So… I’m staying here alone? Really?”
But Alpheus, oblivious as ever, spoke up.
“Yes. Gillab’s still young, so he might be scared to be alone.”
“He’s young?”
I scoffed in disbelief.
“You’re still adjusting to the time difference, aren’t you? After sleeping for over six years, it makes sense.”
“Then why don’t you try reconciling with your family?”
He suggested this with such innocent sincerity.
“You might find that real conversation, everything out in the open, could change things.”
“Gillab’s life would certainly change.”
I answered pragmatically.
The Duchess of Dibosthan would genuinely struggle to forgive Gillab. He’d essentially handed over the secret experiments to Maximus.
‘She still hasn’t let go of the Dark Mages’ hand. Well, Maximus will dig into that well enough on his own.’
In the end, Gillab had been unwillingly separated from his family….
“Hmm, I think what you said is more accurate than the Marquis’s.”
“That’s always the case.”
“But you know….”
Gillab spoke quietly, his eyes distant for no good reason.
“I don’t regret it.”
I regarded him silently.
“It was inevitable. If things had gone on like this, vampires would’ve swarmed the land where my Territory Residents live, drawn by whatever they could find.”
Looking at him anew, Gillab’s delicate, pale face looked haggard—clearly he’d been awake all night.
“My Territory Residents are people who believe in me…. The same people who, long ago in the tomato fields, left without complaint when I told them to go.”
Well, they probably complained—just out of his earshot.
“Truth is, I’ve known for a very long time.”
He continued, his voice trembling slightly.
“That my family doesn’t care about me. My father’s two women were each too busy protecting their own eldest sons…… and there was no place for me with Father either.”
I watched Gillab quietly.
“Maybe I hated accepting that, so I kept trying to cling to Mother and my brother. Simply because I couldn’t bear being alone. You wouldn’t understand.”
Surprisingly, I understood that feeling well.
My father had always called only Alpheus’s name. So I clung to Mother instead.
Terrified of being abandoned by both parents, I did my best never to disappoint her. So I could understand it well—how that loneliness, that feeling of being treated as lesser, wounds a child.
“But no matter how much I pretend to be ‘on the same side’ or accept everyone’s emotions…… I’m the first to be cast aside when crisis comes.”
Gillab wiped his tears again as he spoke.
“But I don’t mind being cast aside alone. My Territory Residents did nothing to deserve this. So I don’t regret taking a different path from Mother. I protected the people who needed me.”
I realized something new. Remarkably, a sense of responsibility and fussiness were words that could coexist.

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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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