The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 248

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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 53
That was when Silvia rushed toward me.
“Brisa!”
Her face was flushed as she came running out of the Baron Estate.
“Leopold went to Feber County. Grandfather just sent word.”
She handed me something long and bundled tightly in cloth.
“Here, the item you asked for first. The letter you requested, I sent it the moment we learned of Leopold’s whereabouts.”
“Thank you.”
I accepted what Silvia handed me and spoke.
“Then we’ll head out too.”
“……Won’t it be dangerous? You’re going too?”
“To be honest, I don’t want to go, but I have to. There’s something I need to do there.”
At my sincere answer, Silvia blinked both eyes. After hesitating for a moment, she suddenly grasped my hand tightly and spoke.
“You can’t get hurt. Any of you.”
Her eyes glistened.
“I’m really grateful…… I was too busy to send a reply, but I received a letter from Lea saying you two had become friends. Next time, let’s have fun with all three of us. Please.”
“I can’t call us friends yet.”
I answered with a frown.
“Your side needs to submit a formal application form first. Then I’ll review it thoroughly and consider various circumstances before making a careful decision, but I haven’t even received an application yet.”
“Wow, Leopold doesn’t have friends either—you two really are perfect for each other!”
Silvia, answering cheerfully, quickly added:
“Oh my, to say such harsh things to my territory’s benefactor…….”
It seemed that only Alpheus and I weren’t at odds with our blood relatives.
I shrugged my shoulders once, and Silvia grinned widely as she spoke.
“But luckily, I’m family with you, aren’t I? So I don’t need to send a friend application form. In that case, I’ve already beaten Lea.”
I looked at her quietly.
Once a girl I thought lived in a different world than me. Bright and cheerful, with low melancholy and anxiety, gossiping with friends about trivial matters.
Yet here she was, casually inviting me into that world. Already using a word that had always been so difficult for me—”family.”
I had been locked away in the Sears Marquis Territory, wanting to see no one…….
As I hesitated, Silvia whispered.
“Next time I meet you with Lea, I’ll tell you how Matthias played both sides with me and Cecil. My goodness, he was so thorough—not just anyone can pull off something like that.”
Cecil? That quiet girl?
I answered immediately.
“Set a date.”
Lea had taught me the joy of gossip. It was impossible now to return to the time when I didn’t know it.
“Perfect!”
Silvia laughed with abandon.
Even in this situation, she could laugh aloud at an enjoyable conversation, making her feel like an entirely different species from me, but somehow it didn’t sound bad.
“I’ll have beer and popcorn ready. So come back safe, all of you.”
I nodded once, then gestured to Alpheus.
We’d be a bit late because of the time lag anyway, but we still needed to depart quickly.
* * *
Air Strike grows stronger with physical prime and power. That is, the Air Strike of Leopold, in his early twenties, was far more powerful than that of the elderly Hilberry.
Then would it be stronger than the Mysterious Assailant’s Air Strike?
Leopold had no certainty.
Because Xavier died young. If he had been revived at that same age, there would be little difference in strength.
When Leopold arrived alone at Feber County, the fields were already laid waste by Air Strike, and Vampires were gathering at the ruins of livestock pens, shattered to pieces.
“Ah…….”
Leopold let out a groan and without hesitation unleashed Air Strike at the Vampires.
With a sickening screech, the Vampires collapsed on the spot. He didn’t even have the leisure to glance at them.
Leopold dismounted and gazed at the Mysterious Assailant beyond the field.
The figure in a pitch-black Hood had quite a striking physique. Much like Leopold’s now.
Moonlight illuminated the two figures in the silence. With his extremely developed vision, Leopold could see golden eyes gleaming darkly within the hood.
A trace of his Father—visible every time he looked in a mirror.
In the moment Leopold hesitated, wondering if an attack would have been easier had he not seen those eyes,
the Mysterious Assailant raised his right hand in the exact same stance as Leopold and unleashed Air Strike.
Leopold dodged desperately, but a wound opened across his cheek from the near miss.
“Ah…….”
Air Strike was not a defensive technique. It was purely offensive.
Leopold counterattacked frantically. His Air Strike grazed past the Assailant, who sidestepped with a creaking sound.
The exchange repeated several times.
Leopold dodged desperately and attacked with such ferocity that the earth split, yet he could not land a blow on the Assailant.
If only he hadn’t taken the portrait. If only he hadn’t chosen a time and place where there would be no casualties.
Then he could have attacked more freely.
In the meantime, the Assailant’s limbs emerged from the hood—black things that could not be called human flesh, coalescing into form.
‘That’s right.’
Leopold gritted his teeth and steadied his resolve.
‘That should not exist in this world.’
Just as he was about to deliberately throw another Air Strike,
he heard a sharp voice call out. His mind began to prepare, and he was raising his right hand when the Assailant closed in at alarming speed and seized Leopold by the throat.
“Gasp…….”
It was not human grip strength.
Leopold had confidence in Superhuman Strength himself, but he could not overcome this force through sheer power.
Danger was inevitable. He had lost the opening strike, failed to land consecutive hits during his offensive window, and hesitated to the very end.
He could barely breathe, as if death itself was near. But the moment he saw the Assailant’s face up close, Leopold forgot even to resist.
His golden eyes were filled with anguish.
His face, blotched with pitch-black scabs, writhed hideously. From what could barely be called a mouth came the sound of escaping air.
“Leo…… …… .
Even as the Assailant spoke Leopold’s nickname, the hand gripping his throat tightened with increasing force.
Leopold was angry at himself for wanting to hear his Father’s voice even in this moment.
“…… Please…… kill…… me…….”
It felt as though his heart was being torn apart.
How many times, as a child, had he dreamed of his Parents returning alive?
Dreams of learning Air Strike directly from his Father, receiving Heir Education, going out on outings together…….
There were so many things he wanted to say. How it felt when he first killed a Monster, the day Silvia was insufferable, how there was suddenly a girl he couldn’t stop thinking about…….
But the conversation he’d dreamed of having with his Father ultimately came down to…….
“Yes…… Father…….”
Until now, Leopold had deliberately never called the Assailant “Father.” If he did, it would feel like crossing a point of no return.
But now, though Leopold couldn’t pronounce it clearly through his gasping, he wanted to answer “Yes, Father.”
Yet even this wish could not be granted. He was now seconds away from death at his Father’s hands—a man resurrected from the grave.
It was already a predetermined ending from the moment he had not fought with his best against a stronger opponent.
He would die like this, and his Father would not return to the grave.
There was exactly one method left.
If he detonated Air Strike here, both he and his Father would be torn to pieces. With good control, perhaps he could walk away with only serious injuries…….
Just as Leopold’s hand twitched while he gasped for breath, a sharp voice rang out from far away.
“Badok!”
Incredibly, it was Brisa’s voice.
“Come!”
A force beyond his control surged from deep within his body, and he transformed into a small wolf cub on the spot.
Leopold, who had slipped from between the Assailant’s two hands, fell through his own clothes and blinked for a moment to make sense of the situation.
With a sharp metallic clang, Alpheus’s mechanical arm lashed out at the Assailant’s face.
“I’ve got him!”
Alpheus hurled the Assailant aside as he spoke.
“Air Strike is a ranged attack, right? Then we settle this in close combat!”

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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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