The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 233

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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 38
Lea asked in the meantime.
“I’ll drink the tea anyway. But why did you call for me?”
“Ah.”
I spoke without being able to shake thoughts of the unripe fruit from my mind.
“I’ll be direct. Has Marcel brought up a marriage proposal?”
At that, Lea spat out her tea.
During the meal, the moment I’d suggested summoning Marcel, her complexion had turned a sickly pale.
As far as I knew, there was no connection between Marcel and Lea, but once I considered what Audrey—now that Marcel had returned to his senses—might have him do, the answer became obvious.
Besides, I’d heard that the Johnston Count House’s finances were in dire straits.
Since the Duke Dibostane’s House had no daughters, Lea had been marked as the finest choice for a daughter-in-law in the Eastern Region.
“H-how did you know?”
Lea stammered out the words.
“It’s still confidential, but… to be precise, his mother requested me as a daughter-in-law.”
“So that’s why you ran away from home?”
I stared directly at Lea and asked. She was the type to make excuses about her status, so it wouldn’t have been out of character.
“It’s common knowledge across the continent that the Count Johnston dotes on his youngest daughter, born to him late in life…”
“That’s right. Father really does.”
Lea answered dejectedly.
That alone was enough to suggest the closeness between father and daughter. I had never once called anyone “Father” in my entire life.
“But as the lord of his territory, he’s resolved to take responsibility for his own mistaken choices by selling what he holds most dear.”
“That phrasing is misleading.”
I corrected the situation realistically.
“That position could make you the next Duchess of Dibostane.”
If even the Johnston Count House, which had been close to the Duke Dibostane’s House, was wavering toward the Cardipol Guild, then the current Young Duke and Duchess’s influence had been rendered practically nonexistent.
Though admittedly, with the Empress and Crown Prince deposed, the blow was bound to be severe.
‘The more things deteriorate, the more Dark Magic becomes their only answer. Once Maximus uncovers it, Ethan goes to prison.’
So Lea marrying Marcel might not have been the worst choice. It was worth taking a gamble on.
“Why not form a political alliance instead and consolidate your strength?”
At that, she let out a cry.
“I’m different from you!”
“Of course.”
I answered calmly.
“For one, I don’t shout. Especially not in the middle of the night, and certainly not in someone else’s home.”
But I hadn’t missed the underlying meaning of her outburst, so I sighed and pressed on.
“…Don’t tell me you actually think the arrangement between Leopold and me is purely political?”
“Wasn’t it?”
Lea asked blankly.
“I always figured you were the type who doesn’t care about love or pride at all—that you look only at conditions, strictly speaking.”
It seemed Lea had been following Gillab’s belief that Leopold and I had entered into a thoroughly pragmatic political marriage.
“You sent an annulment letter the moment your brother came back, yet you’re still fine and well, and then the moment Leopold’s conditions lowered, you engaged him again.”
Ah, from an outside perspective, that interpretation was certainly possible.
Lea asked as if confused.
“I mean… surely there was at least some sincerity involved?”
I spoke with my arms crossed.
“You remember contacting my fiancé about wanting to go to the Western Region, don’t you?”
At that, Lea’s eyes widened.
“What? Were you jealous?”
“That’s impossible. It was just a rational emotional reaction, that’s all.”
“You do care, don’t you?”
“Not at all. It’s merely a matter of curiosity.”
Suddenly, Lea’s face came alive.
“My goodness, I… I really didn’t know!”
She suddenly grinned like a carefree girl.
“Oh my! I absolutely love this kind of talk! Good heavens, when was the last time I got to gossip about something like this!”
I swear I had never once imagined gossiping with Lea about such matters.
Lea was so delighted she even clapped her hands.
“Oh dear, what should I do? I’m sorry. Look, don’t misunderstand, absolutely don’t. I only reached out because I wanted to make a deal.”
What was she talking about now?
“What kind of deal?”
At that, Lea’s face hardened. She realized she’d let slip a secret while being too thrilled about “this kind of talk.”
I continued matter-of-factly.
“And you certainly spoke to Petro this afternoon in a way that seemed quite misleading.”
“Th-th-that was!”
Lea’s face flushed bright red.
“…I only wanted to make Petro jealous.”
At that, even I was left speechless.
Could it be… that Lea actually liked Petro?
“When I said status matters more than money… I was roundabout way of saying I prefer Petro to Marcel.”
Seeing my expression of shock, Lea shrugged.
“Ah, I’m completely hopeless when it comes to this kind of topic. I’ve ended up telling you everything.”
Lea confessed that she had liked Petro since the Academy days, and that mentioning the engagement to Leopold was merely a way to provoke him.
“I had no idea… You two didn’t even get along well during your Academy years.”
“Brisa, I have two dialogue lines here.”
Suddenly brimming with confidence, Lea spoke.
“‘Hmph, I really hate you. How incompatible we are—let’s swap name tags’ and ‘I took your name tag and used it as I pleased. We were almost engaged, after all.’ Which one sounds more like what a twelve-year-old girl in an unrequited love would say to the boy she likes?”
Remarkably, Lea remembered the Vegetable Garden incident with perfect accuracy.
“A twelve-year-old’s unrequited love is fundamentally about not wanting the other person to find out.”
Lea spoke with open arrogance.
“Why? Because I hate the sight of his bewildered eyes, hate watching him avoid me more than I’d hate death itself.”
I understood completely.
When I’d harbored unrequited feelings for Leopold, I too couldn’t let him know. I hated the look of his reluctance, hated seeing him regard me as if I were shameless.
“Think about it carefully. Do you remember even once when Leopold played along with what I said?”
“But you kept doing it anyway.”
“That’s because it didn’t matter to me how Leopold treated me.”
Once I thought about it from her perspective, it made a certain sense.
“I thought you two genuinely had no interest in each other. If only I’d known you were capable of such a fierce expression, I never would have done it. I’m really sorry.”
Lea, who had been smirking moments before, now slouched her shoulders as she spoke.
“That’s why I said that to Petro earlier, and I contacted Leopold with completely honest intentions.”
She murmured while rolling her eyes.
“Well, everyone says theirs is the real thing, but actually, the First Oath did take place in our territory. It’s information that the Western Region has been searching for over a long time, and I’ve been wondering whether to just provide it.”
I immediately understood what she was getting at.
“So the Johnston family has a secret that’s been passed down through generations, connected to this?”
“Yes.”
“What did you demand in exchange for selling that information?”
“Petro kept saying if we eloped together, I’d be unhappy because of a life of poverty, so I was thinking of asking him to arrange money for the two of us to live off comfortably in hiding for the rest of our lives.”
I could roughly guess the nature of the relationship between the two of them.
Not being recognized by one’s parents and marrying in secret was considered considerable dishonor among the nobility. It was no coincidence that Father had regained the title of Marquis Sears only after divorcing Alpheus’s birth mother.
Petro held a position as a teacher at the Monastery, so if Lea’s words were true and he eloped, he could no longer remain in a profession that valued honor.
Teaching didn’t pay much, so it was obvious he wouldn’t have saved much money.
From Petro’s perspective, it must have seemed certain that Lea, who had lived comfortably her entire life, would become unhappy with him.
‘So that’s why Jerdian complained that Petro went through a rough adolescence after the territory became impoverished.’
Marcel’s earlier question about what kind of person he was also stemmed from that context.
Having experienced poverty, Petro likely realized that love couldn’t save everything, and objectively knew that Marcel was a far better match than himself, which is why he’d asked.
“I… I was just thinking about it. I couldn’t come to a decision at all. As for Petro, I don’t know. Given his personality, he’d definitely object.”
“Just marry Marcel.”
I spoke plainly.
“It seems like you two both disregard the family’s legacy in exactly the same way.”
In fact, marriage for the sake of one’s territory was also a noble’s duty. Wasn’t that precisely why the Territory Residents paid taxes and obeyed the nobility’s commands?
“To abandon a struggling territory and sell off the secrets your ancestors preserved, then take the money and live happily for yourself alone? That’s your plan?”
“I… I hadn’t actually decided! I was just acting in anger… just, kind of not in my right mind…”
“Then the moment you come to your senses, I’d recommend you immediately write a letter to the Western Region and send it.”
I offered the advice sincerely.
“Say that it seems someone was recently possessed and you’ve scheduled an Exorcism Ritual, so please handle that deranged letter by turning it three times clockwise, sealing it with silver, wrapping it in onion skin, and burning it at dawn.”
Regardless of whether Leopold and the Western Region were on our side, wrong was wrong.
“Of course, if you want to eat, you might have to sell secrets—what else can you do? But even if I’m generous a hundred times over, the right to sell that secret belongs to your father, doesn’t it?”
Yet the fact that the Western Region’s agents wanted to find the “real” site where the First Oath had taken place held significance.
The site where the First Oath took place.
The starting point of Imperial history—where the founding families pledged their loyalty to the Queen of Riente and the First Emperor, Daxion Bebiano.
I could roughly guess what Leopold was thinking.

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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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