The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 27
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 27
Only when I went to the ship cabin where Mother was lying did reality hit me.
All the strength drained from my body.
‘I’ll probably have my engagement broken.’
Someone who wasn’t from the Marquis Manor had witnessed Mother’s madness.
We had stayed only at the Marquis Manor to avoid this very situation.
Now rumors would spread. That the princess of Riente had indeed gone mad.
We had spent so much money to make my engagement happen…
My fiancé’s family would be furious.
How shameless to hide such a major issue and rush through the engagement.
What if the madness was hereditary…
I held Mother’s hand as she lay in the ship cabin and finally let my tears fall.
From regret, misery, and… despair.
“Hmm?”
Mother opened her eyes only after the boat ride had ended.
“What’s this? I feel a bit dizzy…”
I smiled with a clean face, having wiped away my tears.
“You took medicine because you said you were seasick, Mother.”
“Did I?”
Mother tilted her head.
“Oh my, I must have missed the prize recommendations. Where is your father?”
“In another ship cabin.”
I said calmly.
“You still don’t seem to be feeling well though. The official schedule is all finished now, so shall we go home?”
“Let’s do that. My stomach does feel a bit queasy.”
Mother remembered nothing. But as always, she accepted the gap in her memory as if it were nothing.
“Anyway, the engagement went off without a hitch, right? Right?”
“Yes, Mother.”
I nodded.
“Everything went well.”
I couldn’t tell Mother the truth because I was afraid.
Mother still couldn’t accept her own madness. I couldn’t gauge how shocked she would be when told this fact.
What if she was so shocked that she went completely mad…
Right now she was still lucid most of the time…
But she would find out eventually…
Leopold had witnessed Mother’s madness, rumors would spread far and wide, and I would soon have my engagement broken.
Of course, even after the engagement ceremony, Mother didn’t get better.
Every night Mother would wail from behind locked doors.
“I don’t want to go! I said I don’t want to go! I’d rather die! How am I supposed to live there all alone? How?”
Unable to eat or sleep, saying she wouldn’t go to the Empire…
“I won’t marry that man! Marquis Sears? Why should I marry some old man I’ve never even seen?”
I quietly cried in my room with my face buried in my arms.
She hated the Empire and Father so much – could Mother truly love me, the child she was forced to bear?
She had been unwilling to bear Father’s child from the moment she left Riente.
The reason she kept returning to that day when she left the Kingdom of Riente was perhaps because she regretted all the days she spent with me.
But after causing such a commotion all night, when morning came and the sun rose, Mother would look for me.
“Brisa? Hurry and bring your Teipan Language Textbook. We need to move on to the next lesson. Hmm, your lace is wrinkled, so sit properly again. We’ll have an ancient language vocabulary test this afternoon, so keep that in mind.”
I always did my best.
When I did well, Mother was happy, and then maybe she wouldn’t regret giving birth to me, and maybe if she escaped from the past like that, she might miraculously become normal.
‘But after trying so hard… if the engagement is broken off, it would all be for nothing, wouldn’t it?’
I couldn’t tell anyone about Leopold’s account and suffered in agonizing silence.
However, one month, two months, and then three months passed.
Until Mother passed away.
That incident never came up in anyone’s conversation.
Even when I reunited with Leopold at the Academy, we never once mentioned that incident.
Only I was careful not to say nonsense or foolish things in front of him. In case he suspected I was a ‘crazy child who takes after Mother.’
Actually, I was like that with everyone.
Not losing my composure, not crying or laughing easily, not saying things that didn’t make sense.
As a result, I often heard that I was cold and aloof, but it was better than being called crazy.
Unlike me, Leopold was a gentleman who showed such kindness to everyone.
To him, who would get involved in others’ affairs with appropriate kindness and then forget about it, that day probably meant nothing.
“Everything will be fine.”
But there are such moments in life.
Moments when you incur a debt that only you will never forget for the rest of your life.
Because my heart was so heavy, I tried to act as if nothing had happened.
In case it would be burdensome for him if I kept remembering that day’s incident.
There was a reason I fed Baron Forman well. Even packing potatoes and radish sprouts to send.
‘Actually, that wasn’t all.’
I even gave him eggs. I picked out the big ones.
* * *
Leopold quietly watched Brisa’s party disappear through Warp.
The knights were doing their best to carry the wheat sacks piled high.
“I guess they’re taking wheat like that because Warp doesn’t work in the Central Region either.”
“Right. I really thought I was going to starve to death.”
Baron Forman, standing next to Leopold, let out a sigh.
“But that Young Lady fed everyone. That Young Lady you anonymously sent flowers to.”
“I should dismiss my subordinates.”
Leopold said languidly.
“It seems confidential information has reached grandfather’s ears.”
“No matter how many subordinates you replace, you can’t escape Grand Duke Nogen’s eyes in the Western Region.”
Baron Forman grinned slyly.
When Leopold heard that his great-grandfather had gone to the Central Region, he had already grasped the entire situation.
Since there was no point in playing dumb anyway, Baron Forman spoke cunningly.
“Why did you send the flowers?”
“A small gesture of comfort for an Academy classmate who would be dejected because of the broken engagement.”
“Then why did you send them anonymously?”
“Because I hate situations where someone asks me ‘why.’ Just like this very moment.”
Leopold answered expressionlessly.
Baron Forman muttered contentedly.
“She’s truly an amazing Young Lady. I’ll have much to tell Grand Duke Nogen. For now, I owe that Young Lady an enormous debt.”
“A debt?”
“Lotus root, fried fish, grilled mushrooms…”
At Baron Forman’s serious words, Leopold smiled calmly.
“An interesting debt.”
“It’s absolutely not trivial, Leopold.”
Baron Forman became serious, understanding Leopold’s meaning of ‘it’s nothing much.’
“You’ve been in the Western Region all along, so you don’t know the preciousness of food. This place is abundant everywhere even when monsters appear.”
“I see.”
“Leo, you don’t understand at all.”
Baron Forman’s eyes grew serious.
“That Young Lady’s value… You probably won’t understand it in your heart even if I explain it in your current state.”
“Surely not.”
It was a strong denial.
“No, I said you don’t know.”
Baron Forman said decisively.
“If you truly understood, you wouldn’t have given something like Tracking Incense.”
“That was the most valuable thing I had. I actually thought Great-grandfather would be shocked.”
“Look at this clueless youngster… Couldn’t you see she was just accepting it out of politeness? She had the look of someone viewing something utterly useless.”
“Then I’m curious about the gift Great-grandfather would have wanted to give Brisa instead of the Tracking Incense.”
Then Baron Forman answered proudly.
“One more sack of wheat.”
“Surely not.”
And he added wistfully.
“Then I might have been able to see that Young Lady’s smile.”
“No way.”
“But before that.”
Baron Forman looked around his surroundings.
“I need to find out when Dark Mages started crawling into the Western Region’s ports.”
Leopold’s eyes also gleamed ominously as he nodded.
At his feet, the Dark Mage who had faced Brisa was still lying collapsed. He had no intention of killing him easily.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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