The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 247

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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 52
Leopold answered with a shallow sigh instead.
Baron Forman carefully changed the subject at last.
“I wonder if Silvia is handling this well. The people who were enjoying the festival without knowing anything have probably fallen into chaos…… I left instructions somewhat hastily, but I’m not sure if Silvia has the capacity for that. It’s a difficult situation for me to manage, too.”
“I’d say she can’t handle it.”
Leopold judged coldly.
“So our task is to identify the next region where the mysterious assailant will move.”
He continued in a low voice.
“A place where people are scarce for a specific reason…… If today is the last day of the festival in Baron Forman Territory, where would the next festival be prepared?”
Baron Forman answered at once.
“The Faber Countess Territory.”
It was a place one could reach by riding a horse for about two hours.
Leopold calculated the dates. It was clear that vampires had been gathering secretly in the Western Region during the days after the mysterious assailant appeared.
“The vampires have been starving for a long time. And the Western Region originally doesn’t raise much livestock. This won’t be enough to satisfy them.”
The night was only beginning.
Leopold knew well that matters like this must not be allowed to drag on.
By tomorrow morning, news that the power of Air Strike had been directed at civilians would surely have spread across the entire continent.
If they couldn’t prevent accidents like this afterward, soon Nogen would become a symbol of fear and a target for elimination.
No one would tolerate an uncontrolled, overwhelming force.
The reason they had finally exterminated the Monster Wave was precisely this—it caused too much damage to civilians.
Now Nogen could face the same fate of being slaughtered for the same reason.
In the worst case…….
‘I may have to let Brisa go.’
Even the thought of it was unbearably painful, yet there was no choice.
How could a child bearing Nogen’s blood be born?
Brisa seemed to want to bear children, but he couldn’t inflict such misfortune upon her. So tonight, he absolutely had to eliminate the mysterious assailant.
The rumors already spreading through Baron Forman Territory couldn’t be helped, but at least he had to eliminate that assailant and announce that there was no more danger.
But…….
Could he do it?
……Could he attack?
He decided not to think such thoughts for now.
“Now the Faber Countess Territory is probably quite empty as well due to festival preparations…… We’ll move to a place with one of the lowest population densities among the farms.”
“Leo…….”
“Great-grandfather, please return to Baron Forman Territory.”
Leopold spoke hurriedly, not wanting to receive the sympathetic look in Baron Forman’s eyes.
“Since this is a matter that requires security, I won’t take other knights with me.”
It had been the same when he found the cemetery.
Baron Forman nodded heavily, and Leopold immediately mounted his horse.
He knew Silvia well. Silvia wasn’t ill-natured and wasn’t stupid, so she could become a reasonably good lord, but she lacked the ability to demonstrate extraordinary resourcefulness in a crisis.
Right now, Baron Forman Territory was probably gripped by chaos rather than festival cheer.
To avoid repeating such tragedy, he couldn’t avoid something, no matter how much he didn’t want to face it.
And so Leopold’s horse began to gallop swiftly toward the Faber Countess Territory.
* * *
Pop, crack, snap!
Popcorn burst again from inside a jar.
“Wow! Woooow!”
The shopping street of Baron Forman Territory was livelier than ever.
“Since it’s night, everyone have some garlic popcorn too!”
“Mom! I want to eat caramel popcorn again!”
“One more cup of cheese popcorn here! Ah, and two more beers!”
Popcorn was quick to make, so the kitchens of the various shops producing snacks were pleased.
Beer sold briskly, and even the children enjoyed the festival without whining.
“It’s more delicious than turnip fritters!”
“More than oat cookies!”
Everyone was tipsy and celebrated Baron Forman Territory’s disaster.
“Ah, so that’s why our Grand Duke got so happy he leveled a turnip field? Aha! That makes sense! Ahahaha!”
“Miss Brisa wanted to introduce a new food to our festival, so of course we had to blow up the rye field! Naturally!”
“It’s too sad that livestock died because he got drunk…… but well, there weren’t many of them anyway, and he said he’d compensate us double, so…….”
The fact that everyone in the Western Region liked me helped a lot.
I’d been worried that I might not become the Grand Duchess, but since Leopold returned safely and the coming-of-age ceremony was held in the Western Region, some farmers from the Seldoche Plains were visibly relieved, even tearing up a bit.
“I think just salted is the best, you know? Made only from corn, you say? Seriously…… If Isabela’s tavern had sold stuff like this instead of that tasteless fried potato, it wouldn’t have gone under.”
Alpheus next to me spoke while picking at popcorn.
“I want beer.”
“Abstain.”
I murmured with my arms crossed.
“I knew something would happen. You need to stay sharp.”
The fact that Leopold hadn’t yet come to Baron Forman’s Estate to handle the situation clearly meant he’d moved somewhere else.
If that was the case, then it was certain he meant to settle things tonight…….
I was anxiously gnawing my nails when Alpheus dumped another handful of popcorn into his mouth and spoke.
“By the way, I…… can’t promise to stay quiet this time.”
“Huh?”
“Leopold, that ungrateful wolf.”
He muttered carelessly while crunching popcorn.
“According to Yeonae, he has to fight his own father who rose from the grave right now? Looking at how that father is openly using Air Strike and attacking everywhere, he can’t possibly be on the same side.”
“……You can’t exactly call it a resurrection. He’s probably being manipulated.”
I sighed deeply.
In Shin I-soo’s diary, there was an entry about “Undead”—that you could raise corpses and command them to obey your will.
‘Who commanded it? And why, of all the countless corpses, Leopold’s father?’
As my shoulders drooped, Alpheus spoke.
“I can’t let Leopold face his own father…… That’s too cruel. So if we have to end that assailant, I should be the one to do it.”
I’d thought he was just mindlessly eating popcorn, but it was clear that for Alpheus, the act of eating and the act of thinking were completely independent.
“Can you handle Air Strike?”
I asked carefully, and Alpheus shrugged.
“I guess we’ll find out. If I’d known this was coming, I should’ve fought him earlier like I planned…….”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. The odds that he wasn’t joking were high.
As I stayed silent, Alpheus spoke quietly.
“Brisa. Everyone carries some degree of sorrow as they live. If you try to show sympathy for all of it one by one, you can’t move forward. You just feel a little sad for a moment, accept it, and keep going your own way.”
Alpheus continued as he brushed off the popcorn crumbs from his hands.
“But…… the sorrow of having to kill your own parents who rose from the grave is probably not the kind you can carry and live with.”
No matter how much he joked around or complained, ultimately Alpheus treasured Leopold deeply in his heart.
“So don’t try to stop me. My memories with Puppy are precious too. I was the first one to embrace Puppy when he was trapped in the warehouse.”
“These days you call wrestling around ’embracing,’ I see.”
I spoke sulkily.
“And if you say that, then if you get hurt getting caught up in someone else’s fight, Puppy will have a breakdown.”
I pressed the point with sincerity hidden beneath cold tones.
“You absolutely can’t overdo it or get hurt. That’s really not for Puppy’s sake. I can’t even imagine how much he’d suffer thinking he’d caused us trouble.”
“I wish he’d suffer a little because of me.”
Alpheus said, groaning.
“Throughout the time I lived as Puppy, he never paid me any attention at all, and that’s a bit sad for me.”
“Bear that kind of sadness with you as you live. Like you said.”

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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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