The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 5

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

Chapter 5

* * *

“So you people need to pay back this debt right now!”

The atmosphere in the reception room was a complete mess.

“If you can’t hand over the land, then at least hand over your corpse!”

The person dealing with the Guild Leader was Alpheus’s adjutant, Langsi.

He first sternly warned them to stop shouting.

“Even so, you won’t get proper value from my corpse. My eardrums just got damaged…”

In fact, Langsi’s manner of speaking was excessively polite. He wasn’t suited for this kind of verbal sparring.

When Alpheus led the mercenary company, he handled various administrative and financial matters. So naturally, the various administrative work and household management of the marquis manor became Langsi’s responsibility.

The problem was that this was only his third day on this assignment.

There wasn’t even a butler to hand over duties to him.

“The repayment date written in the contract has already passed long ago! If you can’t pay it back right now, I’ll take the land in the Erenta region that’s listed as collateral here!”

There was no logic to refute the Guild Leader’s words. It was true that the repayment date had passed.

“Why are you doing this, really? That’s just a contract, and you usually received payment in winter!”

The Head Maid came out and shouted.

Langsi was greatly angered by the phrase “that’s just a contract.” So he fiercely questioned the Head Maid about whether that made any sense.

“Then was the contract written for signature practice?”

Only after speaking did he realize the Head Maid was on the same side. For the past three days, he had been thinking of her as “the opposing side that only talks nonsense.”

Since she was talking nonsense again, he instinctively judged her as the opposing side.

Fortunately, Langsi’s anger-filled rebuke had no effect as usual. It was instantly drowned out by the Head Maid’s loud voice.

“It was the same last year, two years ago, and three years ago! We wrote the same contract every year, so we should follow precedent the same way!”

Langsi desperately held back from pointing out the error.

But the other party didn’t hold back.

“That’s because we’ve been lenient with you all this time! The situation is different now, don’t you see? We’re also dying because of the western monster wave right now!”

Langsi suffered and was convinced. Having a secret about his lord’s birth was not something to be happy about.

‘If I had known it would be like this, I should have kept it a secret.’

House of Sears was a meritorious family of the Empire, but it had become increasingly impoverished, leading to the current situation.

After Marquis Sears’s funeral three days ago. Even before the coffin was buried, creditors came looking.

“Beron is our land now. Here’s the loan document where Marquis Sears put the Beron region as collateral.”

“What, what did you say?”

“Reference this too. Looking at this contract, the marquis put Jezel Shopping District as penalty for breach of contract.”

Just like that, the lands in Sears Marquis Territory were handed over one after another.

This was because the contracts contained the clause “If either party dies, the contract is terminated due to the fault of the deceased.”

Moreover, the debt that the late Marquis Sears’ wife owed to the Central Bank was substantial.

The marquis’ wife had always been extravagant, but two years ago she took out another massive loan to send Brisa to the Capital Academy.

“This debt isn’t a personal contract – it gets passed down to the children. The interest is enormous, so it’d be best to pay this off immediately too.”

“Can’t I somehow handle it all with my personal funds for now?”

“You could, but then you’d have to pour in almost everything you have.”

“So in the end, I’d have to go back to being penniless. That’s fine. I’m still young.”

Alpheus had quite a lot of money saved up from his competent mercenary work over the years.

However, as Langsi said, after paying off those debts, there wasn’t much cash left.

“We’ve roughly put out the urgent fire, but the financial crisis remains, right?”

“It’s no ordinary financial crisis. Now we need to feed the knights too, so time is of the essence. You’d better hurry to the Imperial Palace and get something.”

Originally, Alpheus had participated in the Northern civil war as a mercenary.

But he became comrades with the Second Prince, ended the civil war together, and even received the title of ‘War Hero.’

The Second Prince highly valued Alpheus’s contributions and said he would petition the Emperor for a baronetcy on his behalf. They were on their way to the capital together.

But then it was revealed that Alpheus was the hidden son of Marquis Sears. So he hurriedly attended the funeral and inherited the marquis title.

“What? I had a twelve-year-old little sister? Then that child has become an orphan? I should quickly receive the marquis title and then warmly embrace and protect her like a mother hen.”

That too was soon revealed to be a commoner’s way of thinking.

All the existing servants of the Marquis Manor viewed him as ‘the commoner’s son who stole away Miss Brisa’s marquis title.’

Before he could even feel that contempt, Alpheus headed to the capital.

“Since I don’t need to receive a title now, I can just ask for compensation money instead. His Highness the Second Prince would never be stingy toward a comrade who shared life and death with him on the battlefield.”

“Then hurry and go. The sooner you beg, the better.”

Alpheus thus led the Elite Unit toward Warp that very night.

Of course, even on his way out, he worried about his newly discovered little sister.

“Isn’t there another way? Brisa lost her father today, and I’m not sure if it’s right to leave her alone and go like this.”

“There’s the method of our Knight Order switching careers to become bandits and robbing the Central Bank big time. Since you just gave them a large sum, their vault should be well-stocked tonight.”

“I’ll hurry back.”

After sending off Alpheus like that, Langsi remained at the Marquis Manor and began examining the documents.

‘Only two pieces of land remain now.’

The previous Marquis Sears had kept exactly two pieces of land until the very end.

‘The Olive Plains where the First Marquis Sears personally planted olive trees… and the Erenta Region by the river where Marang Fish can be caught.’

The olives weren’t very profitable. The quality of the harvested fruit was just mediocre.

Only the Marang Fish catching brought in some money.

From what he could see, they had been getting by on credit for grain from Western grain merchants from spring to winter, then paying off the debt with Marang Fish in early winter.

‘No, then why did you write the contract like this?’

Langsi wanted to cry.

‘You should have said you’d pay in early winter from the beginning, so why did you write immediate payment?’

The Guild Leader spoke as if he was being generous.

“Fine. You seem quite upset… Then let’s do this. Last winter’s grain payment, and the cost of the next month’s grain… If we combine all of this and pay with Erenta’s 5-year fishing rights, that should work.”

His vision went dark.

Now that the war was over, their valiant Knight Order couldn’t make money either. The stored food supplies weren’t abundant either. It wasn’t for nothing that they had urgently sent Alpheus to collect payment.

‘But at this rate, the territory’s meaningful income source will completely disappear for 5 years…’

That’s when it happened.

A girl with platinum hair flowing down entered the reception room with confident steps.

“From now on, you’ll be talking with me.”

It was Brisa with a cold yet calm expression. By Langsi’s standards, she was ‘the spiritual leader of the nonsense-spouting maids.’

While Langsi froze in surprise, the maid beside Brisa kicked his foot hard.

“Argh!”

When he glared to protest, the maid gestured with her chin. It meant to move aside.

How, how dare… a maid… to the Marquis’s adjutant… like this…

Langsi protested vehemently that he could not tolerate this kind of kicking.

“Are you a foot volleyball player?”

Then the maid glared and began rotating her ankle in earnest, starting her warm-up exercises.

Eventually, Langsi staggered up from the seat across from the merchant.

Brisa gracefully sat in that spot.

“Amazing.”

The maid muttered.

“You’ve been to the garden and back, yet there’s still not a single wrinkle in your skirt… You’re incredible, our young lady.”

As expected.

Langsi once again realized that his judgment about the maids in this mansion was correct.

‘They come with a free feature that produces situationally inappropriate comments whenever they open their mouths…’

The leader they praised like a round song was none other than Brisa.

So naturally, her appearance in this crisis situation was unwelcome.

But Brisa calmly looked at the Guild Leader and asked.

“I’d like to know about timber prices.”

…Suddenly, why timber?

“The western forests must have suffered severe damage from the Monster Wave, right?”

But there are no forests in the Marquis Territory?

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