The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 265

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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 70
The Duke lay collapsed, blood pooling beneath him.
Alpheus carelessly tossed the vampire’s corpse toward Audrey as he asked in astonishment.
“What?!”
Gillab, dragged forward by Jerdian, gasped out his protest.
“That’s impossible! Father can’t fall to a Dark Mage because of Nullification! She knew that and hid behind Father’s back!”
But Maximus shook his head.
“…No. He’s not breathing. He’s certainly breathed his last.”
His voice was low, yet laden with certainty.
“I’ve wallowed on the battlefield since boyhood. I can tell a corpse from a wounded man well enough. I stake the honor of House Beviano—your father is dead.”
Then Audrey stumbled backward in disarray, overwhelmed by the sight of the vampire’s body.
“Oh, oh dear? It seems like he struck the wall as he fell, and…?”
Her eyes darted about in an expression of bewilderment.
“But I—just as the Young Master said, the Duke has Nullification, so I was only hiding! I never thought the Duke would actually be injured!”
Then Gillab shot to his feet and pointed an accusing finger at Audrey.
“It’s all your fault! You brought ruin to this house! Because of your house!”
His reddened face trembled as he shrieked from behind Jerdian.
“You murderer! You’ll go straight to prison for murdering the Duke of Divostan!”
Jerdian’s brow furrowed.
He understood the sentiment, but objectively, it was difficult to charge Audrey with a crime. There had been no intent.
When the Dark Mage rushed forward, her hiding behind the Duke could not be deemed intentional either.
“Father can’t fall to a Dark Mage because of Nullification! She knew that and hid behind Father’s back!”
Gillab’s accusation had become, paradoxically, a defense of Audrey.
Audrey’s tears dripped one by one.
“That can’t be…. The Duke couldn’t possibly have….”
Then it happened.
“I’m afraid so.”
Brisa’s voice came from above.
Brisa sat at the edge of the collapsed floor, cradling a small puppy, her legs swinging freely.
She looked down at them with a rather cold gaze.
“The honor of House Beviano seems to have suffered considerable damage, Your Highness.”
What on earth was she saying?
Just as Jerdian’s eyes widened, the Duke of Divostan coughed and spat blood. His eyes trembled slowly.
“Oh.”
Maximus showed little surprise.
“Can’t be helped…. Well, since I’m not even the Crown Prince, the honor of House Beviano that I wagered won’t amount to much.”
Brisa raised an eyebrow and spoke.
“Attempted murder is still a crime, isn’t it, Your Highness?”
She didn’t sound like she was asking because she didn’t know.
Maximus answered calmly.
“Of course.”
“Then….”
Brisa asked coldly.
“What penalty should befall the Cardipol Guild Master for attempting to murder the Duke?”
What? This…what was she saying?
“Why are you doing this to me, Lady Sears? Why are you framing me? Everyone said it was just an accident!”
Audrey glared upward, her voice shrill.
“I’m the one suffering most right now—my husband nearly died!”
“Husband?”
Brisa let out a soft laugh.
“Well…let’s say that’s true.”
It was unmistakable mockery.
“If you prefer the charge: attempted murder of your husband using an Ability Weakening Scroll.”
Jerdian muttered to himself without thinking.
“It seems only the Young Lady and His Highness are communicating properly here….”
Gillab too nodded in agreement, his face bewildered.
* * *
My plan had been simple, really.
Just as I’d explained to Jerdian: eliminate the Young Duke Ethan’s faction—those commanding the Dark Mage—and make Gillab into Marcel’s new rival.
That was today’s objective, but….
I hadn’t foreseen events unfolding quite like this.
“You’re saying something quite amusing, Young Lady.”
Audrey said, her eyes wide.
“Why would I use an Ability Weakening Scroll? Is it right to drive someone into a corner like this? In the world’s name, do you have proof that I attached such a thing to the Duke? As you yourself saw, the Young Master gave it to me right before the meeting!”
“You decided at the last moment too.”
I answered coldly.
Audrey clearly hadn’t even considered Gillab a rival.
The moment the Duchess sent a vampire, introducing him as her long-standing lawyer, the Duchess herself had become bound as a criminal. So she must have thought her son Gillab would simply vanish as an afterthought….
‘Her calculations went awry today, too.’
Because I had summoned Gillab.
“The moment Gillab drew a clear line between himself and the Young Duke Ethan’s faction before the Duke, you would have noticed he’d become Marcel’s new rival. And that we would support him.”
Normally, even if she’d realized it, nothing would have changed. But Maximus had placed a weapon in Audrey’s hands at the last moment: a scroll to weaken Nullification.
And before her lay a perfect will, one transferring everything to Marcel.
A fake will the Duke had written, anticipating he would not die. And as long as the Duke lived, he could change that will at any time.
Given that he hadn’t disposed of it until now, once the situation settled, he’d likely destroy it immediately.
“If the Duke dies here, the will becomes real at last….”
So rather than eliminate the vampire and Ethan outright, I chose to draw the vampire’s attack toward myself and the Duke.
It meant Ethan had remained in Audrey’s palm the entire game.
“Be careful! His strength is tremendous—an ordinary person dies from just a touch!”
Maximus’s words would have given her courage.
“That’s why you secretly attached the scroll the Young Master gave you to the Duke’s back, then quietly removed it after the attack ended, making it look like simple injury damage.”
Even if the Duke hadn’t died, it was a risk with no downside for her. Ethan was already finished.
“Then without even facing Gillab, Marcel could take the Duke’s position immediately.”
Maximus had looked at the Duke and immediately confirmed: dead. Audrey must have felt considerable relief, knowing everything had gone according to plan.
‘I myself didn’t know that scroll existed…I barely managed to read the board.’
It was a series of developments that didn’t unfold as expected, but comprehension remained possible. Because I’d had a brief exchange with Maximus earlier.
There was exactly one variable in my plan, and that was Maximus.
He’d never communicated with me before, and he was someone capable of devising his own strategy independently.
“Still, I drew it out. I’ll show you shortly.”
A single phrase was enough for Maximus to understand my strategy.
Maximus must have anticipated Gillab’s arrival and devised a new plan. I’d stayed quiet because I’d confirmed our opinions aligned.
Gillab should become the master of the Eastern Region.
It was truly regrettable, but not every leader in the world deserved to be great.
‘If he had the courage to come all this way to learn what crops the Territory Residents should cultivate…he may be trivial and minor, but adequate enough to protect the Eastern Region.’
Better for the Eastern Region to muddle through under Gillab’s rule for a hundred years or so, then hope for a perfect leader later.
“You’re quite the novelist, Young Lady.”
Audrey glared at me, her laugh hollow.
“Do you have proof? Can you drive someone into a corner without proof that I did it? It just happened to collapse during construction, that’s all?”
I’d already heard from Leopold that Audrey could collapse any foundation. So I could easily infer why she’d deliberately drawn the vampire to her side.
And there was one more reason I could be certain.
“I stake the honor of House Beviano—your father is dead.”
That statement from Maximus sounded like ‘a lie’ to me. Because Maximus had just said that for him, only House Sears held meaning.
And there was only one reason Maximus would lie in this situation: to observe Audrey’s reaction.
If Audrey learned the Duke was alive, she could have said something like, ‘Oh my, the scroll must have stuck by accident!’
As I sighed once, Audrey pressed her attack.
“In that split second as he fell, can you prove whether I used the scroll or not?”
Then Maximus lifted his shoulders helplessly.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, Guild Master….”
There was a reason I hadn’t spelled everything out in detail.
Something began to glow at the Duke’s feet. It was the scroll lying scattered on the ground.
The scroll uttered a name into the air.
[Final User: Audrey Cardipol]
Maximus murmured with a sigh.
“Didn’t I tell you? It was made by imitating shamanic magic from the Southern Region.”
“Fortunately, it’s a shamanic technique that leaves the shaman’s name after use. When that shaman was sent to the Magic Tower, the Tower Master easily replicated it.”
Audrey murmured in a trembling voice.
“That…that can’t be…. That, that, th-that’s…completely….”
“Already done. The Young Lady understood, but it seems you let it pass by your ears….”
Maximus clicked his tongue as if regretful.
“Besides, I specifically said ‘weaken.’ It can’t eliminate an ability entirely. If such a scroll could be developed, no one would be at a loss watching Miss Delmia, would they?”
The Duke was alive, and he would never let stand a will written according to Audrey’s intentions to kill him.
With Ethan and Marcel naturally eliminated from the succession structure, only Gillab remained.
Of course, unable to calculate this situation, the party in question could only tremble.
“S-so these garlic bulbs are clean, right? There aren’t insects stuck to them or anything? The hygiene is properly maintained, yes? What if there are poisonous centipedes or something like that?”

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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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