The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 266

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Part 2, Episode 71
* * *
Audrey was arrested at once.
The personal physician came rushing over in alarm to examine the Duke.
The physician, who had assisted in this false death farce by drafting the Death Certificate, clicked his tongue repeatedly.
“You nearly died whilst attempting to fabricate your own death. Your Excellency. Though consciousness has not yet returned, thankfully there is no danger to your life.”
Of course, Ethan was also arrested. He couldn’t even escape, being unconscious.
When he regained his senses some time later, he muttered in a daze.
“This massive wolf appeared out of nowhere…… I’ve never seen one that size before…… and it attacked me…….”
Being a Dark Magic offender, personnel from the Magic Tower were mobilized to clean up the scene.
The mages shook their heads and spoke.
“Stop pretending to be out of your mind. Feigning delirium won’t earn you a lighter sentence.”
Beside them, Jerdian was sighing as he testified.
“Wait—if a wolf attacked you, where are the bite marks?”
“I-it attacked with its body, I’m telling you! It hit me with its front paws and threw me against the wall!”
“A wolf with front paws that powerful couldn’t have failed to escape through the window. At least be consistent with your lies.”
He was doing his utmost to preserve the honor of a noble young lady.
“Of course! It’s absolutely untrue that Young Duke Ethan and Miss Brisa were alone together. There was an enormous hole in the floor. That counts as an open space. We continued conversing the entire time.”
She heard that the Duchess, who had been at home, was also arrested.
“I have to go to the Magic Tower too?”
Alpheus, too, had to cooperate with the investigation since he was the one who killed the vampire.
“The vampire…… well, I just stabbed it with my arm. I’ve killed one before, haven’t I? It seemed you had to pierce the heart.”
The mage busily observed Alpheus’s mechanical arm and wrote his report.
In the midst of all that chaos, Maximus drooped his shoulders and clicked his tongue with disappointment.
“What a tragedy this is…… I specifically gave him a Scroll to help, and he used it for a crime.”
I stared at Maximus while holding Baekgu. After choosing my words carefully, I asked.
“But the Merchant Guild Master seemed to have trusted you. Wasn’t things between you two awkward after you exposed Marcel’s identity?”
“The Guild Master did send me a letter asking for help in this situation.”
Maximus answered as smoothly as flowing water.
“Young Duke Ethan is also my rival, so I had thoughts of helping. That’s why I told my Adjutant to give him a suitable response. Perhaps my Adjutant was overly favorable in his letter. But my seal wasn’t on it, so if he truly believed it, that would be foolish of him, wouldn’t it?”
He continued, lifting one corner of his mouth.
“And in a game like this, foolishness must be paid for. It’s unfortunate. I genuinely wanted to take the Guild Master’s side this time.”
I remembered his words from the card game—that he had “many ears listening.”
So I didn’t ask him, “Isn’t this all calculated?” Because I already understood his intentions.
“It is my honor to play a card game with you, Miss Brisa. Shall we do this in earnest now?”
We each formulated our own independent strategies. We didn’t consult with each other, but as a result, we resolved the Eastern Region quite swiftly to our liking.
“For the record, I prefer quick play.”
No one would have noticed that we cooperated in this affair. Except…… perhaps Baekgu.
So I took on the role of revealing the truth. Maximus didn’t need to say anything.
Likely Maximus realized that when I exposed Audrey’s crime before everyone, it was all for his sake.
“The card game with you, Miss Brisa, was truly enjoyable.”
Maximus smiled bitterly as he spoke.
“Reading each other’s moves without knowing the other’s hand, steering the board as we please—that’s truly a joy. It was an honor to play with a partner of equal skill. If this becomes a pleasant memory for you as well, I could ask for nothing more.”
I looked at Maximus quietly.
Two hours had passed, and long ago the perfume on Baekgu’s front paws had lost its effect. So I nodded without asking anything further.
“Honestly, it wasn’t my usual style of play, but I still think it was a good game.”
To be frank, handing your opponent a weapon and letting them hurt someone…… that was a strategy I would never use.
In the end, the Duke of Divostan survived, but truthfully, he could have died. If he had, Audrey would have gone to prison for “murder of a duke” regardless, and Maximus would have lost nothing.
Maximus’s hands remained clean, and it was only Audrey who had been used by that psychological warfare.
Maximus probably wouldn’t have cared if the Duke had died.
He revealed his true feelings just now. To him, nothing outside the House of Sears held any meaning.
He manipulated people’s desires and malice, orchestrated games that shattered human trust, and the suffering of innocent people caught in between was nothing to him.
If he weren’t this callous, he wouldn’t have survived this long.
‘Still…… I didn’t think Audrey would actually kill the Duke.’
I was reading the board roughly, but I was newly struck when Audrey hid behind the Duke. Both Audrey and Maximus—I truly understood then how cruel they both were.
Perhaps the two of them recognized each other, which is why they could immediately calculate how to exploit one another.
I could guess what Audrey had prepared when she asked Maximus for help.
‘It would be me.’
Thanks to Silvia, I understood—Maximus likes me.
Leopold had never been alone with me in a confined space since childhood.
Especially not in a situation where a third party could notice. It was to prevent any possible scandal. Even when we were engaged, it was the same.
Jerdian, being of noble birth, was also extremely reluctant to leave Ethan and me alone together. He even hesitated despite the floor being open, merely because the sightlines didn’t connect.
Yet Audrey left me and Maximus alone in the side conference room. Baekgu was permitted since he was a dog.
‘She probably spread the rumor that we were in the opposite conference room together whilst testifying about Ethan’s affair.’
Undoubtedly, after everything was settled, she would have used the mansion to confine me and Maximus in a sealed space.
For a noble young lady with a fiancé, that would have been a devastating blow. She likely thought that if such public opinion were cultivated, the House of Nogen wouldn’t accept me as a daughter-in-law.
‘Since rumors still circulate in High Society that Leopold and I are in a political engagement, she probably thought it was an easy way to break it.’
She wasn’t noble, so she must have consulted with another noble about how to overturn a political marriage most easily. That would have been their immediate answer.
By that measure, even if Maximus was somewhat cold-hearted, his turning Audrey into a murderer was fortunate for me.
Of course, no one would know that all of this was Maximus’s intention…….
In any case, Silvia’s perfume accomplished its purpose of revealing his true heart.
That to him, only the House of Sears was an exception in this cruel game.
So I murmured quietly.
“…… I count myself fortunate for that.”
Baekgu had stayed with me the whole time anyway, and Hilberry would never order a broken engagement over such scandal, but still, there was no good in having any noise at all.
“Not to that extent.”
Maximus laughed carelessly and stretched.
“But if ever a card game with someone else becomes tedious, or if you think this isn’t it, come find me anytime. I’ll always be ready with my skills sharpened.”
That was when it happened.
Gillab Divostan approached, his eyes puffy and swollen.
“Keep your promise, Brisa.”
He sniffled as he asked.
“What should we plant in our land instead of herbs?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————