The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 68
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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 68
“Langsi?”
Alpheus greeted him with a bright smile.
“Did you happen to receive contact from the Second Prince?”
Langsi grumbled in response.
“That prince still ain’t dead yet?”
It was a statement that would get him arrested immediately if the Imperial Knights heard it.
“If you get money from that prince, make sure to show it at my grave. I don’t think I’ll live to see money come out of there.”
“So you haven’t heard from him yet… He must be really busy in the Southern Region. Then why did you come?”
Langsi suddenly came to his senses and trembled as he held out a bundle of papers.
“L-l-look at this! It’s a lawsuit document demanding that the Marquis title of Sears be surrendered!”
“What are you talking about? Who on earth?”
Everyone had reason to be bewildered. Because both Sears siblings were here in this situation.
I, who had been raised as the immediate heir, had acknowledged Alpheus. So who exactly was trying to take the Marquis title of Sears from whom?
“What?”
Alpheus blinked slowly.
“Wasn’t I the eldest son? Did Father perhaps have some other past?”
But at that moment, I swallowed nervously from anxiety.
‘This kind of thing did happen in the original story too. Yes. That’s right.’
The incident where someone objects that Alpheus’s marquis title isn’t legitimate.
‘But… that was Baron Hawin who did that, and Uncle should be in prison right now?’
Uncle raises the issue using the excuse that Alpheus has commoner blood mixed in. Originally, it was naturally a legitimate inheritance legally.
But it was because movements were quietly appearing in the Imperial Palace to expel nobles with commoner blood mixed in.
‘Still, that’s something that happens quite late in the original story.’
Moreover, thanks to the Second Prince, even the commoners were full of confidence.
‘After the Second Prince’s death, all the major commoner factions scatter, but right now the Second Prince has survived even in the Eastern Region and his support is growing even higher…’
Besides, even if we concede a hundred times that Uncle raises the issue from prison.
He still couldn’t take the Sears name. Even according to that principle, the marquis title should have come to me.
“Who wrote the lawsuit document?”
I asked calmly.
“So, who wants to take the Marquis title of Sears?”
“Well…”
Langsi rolled his eyes once and answered.
“Dahlia Sears Hawin… is what it says.”
* * *
The next day.
I was able to learn the full details of the situation. This was because Hilberry had stepped forward and deployed his information agents, sharing the results with us.
“Dahlia Hawin was sent to a monastery, but it seems the Duke Dibostane’s House in the Eastern Region pulled her out and decided to become her patron.”
Hilberry explained matter-of-factly.
“And they’re claiming that Dahlia is the child befitting the Marquis Sears position.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Baron Forman said with an incredulous expression.
“Even if we concede a hundred times that the current Marquis Sears’s origins are problematic, then Young Lady Brisa should be the candidate. Why would Dahlia Hawin, who isn’t even direct lineage but a cousin, become that candidate?”
“Well…”
Hilberry slowly blinked his eyes and then sighed.
“According to the information agent, it seems Dahlia Hawin has manifested a special ability.”
Everyone was shocked by those words.
Sears’s special ability was 【Taming】.
When that ability was last manifested wasn’t even recorded in the history books.
So everyone had given no thought to that ability. Even more so because no one knew what 【Taming】 actually did.
“Then… they seem to be arguing that the Marquis Sears position should go to her.”
And of all things, her backing was the Duke Dibostane’s House.
I pressed my forehead.
Dibostane wasn’t a house we could ignore.
They were too close to the Crown Prince, so even Nogen would find them burdensome to touch.
‘Could there be something called the flow of the original story?’
In the original work, Dibostane also sided with Baron Hawin. They claimed Alpheus wasn’t qualified to receive the Marquis Sears position, and that Baron Hawin was the rightful successor.
That was purely for Dibostane’s benefit. They wanted to place the Marquis Sears family under their influence.
Because the Crown Prince’s discriminatory laws would cause internal strife even among the First Five Families.
The Duke Dibostane’s House was a family that thoroughly sided with the Crown Prince. To be precise, the Duke was indecisive so he was irrelevant, but his first son, the Young Duke, and the Duchess were like that.
‘This time too, they want to place their puppet in Sears’s position.’
We lacked money but had honor. We also had the symbolism of being one of the First Five Families.
But were they so desperate that they’d even pull Dahlia out of the monastery?
‘This is something that happened recently.’
I thought while holding the wolf-dog.
‘Gillab didn’t say a single word about such plans.’
No, he did.
Gillab had told me.
“Contact me.”
The original target was me.
‘But I clearly rejected that proposal.’
Even when they waged a public opinion war in the Western Region claiming ‘the new Marquis Sears is cursed,’ I didn’t come over. So they switched their approach to Dahlia.
‘I see.’
I swallowed dryly.
‘The Eastern Region was already coveting Sears.’
Setting up a Marquis Sears to their liking, that is. No, it might not have been the Eastern Region.
‘The Crown Prince must be behind this.’
In the end, we got caught up in the Imperial Family’s struggle. Just like in the original story.
‘In the original, the Third Prince stepped forward after some time passed, but the situation hasn’t changed at all now.’
Rather, with the Second Prince surviving, only the Crown Prince’s heart had become more urgent.
“There’s no need to officially raise our voice over such petty movements and make a fuss. If it becomes a mudslinging fight, we’ll be the ones at a loss.”
Hilberry said in a low voice.
“For now, just respond legally. Hire legal experts and let them handle it for now. Don’t waver and just buy time.”
“Well, the thing is…”
Langsi said restlessly.
“So… I came because of the funding issue…”
I let out a deep sigh.
We had barely overcome the crisis.
In the midst of that, we also bought seeds and cattle. It was unavoidable for the future.
‘We were already short on money and waiting for the Second Prince’s contact.’
And now suddenly additional costs due to legal disputes.
“So they’re trying to put financial pressure on us.”
I said gloomily.
“Knowing we’re poor.”
If we just stayed still after being sued, it would truly be like having our nose cut off while our eyes were open. So from our position, we naturally had to spend money.
“That’s right. So I came to get permission for how much money we should spend on legal fees.”
“No need to ask for permission.”
Hilberry said leisurely.
“We’ll assign Nogen’s legal experts. You don’t need to worry.”
“Pardon?”
Alpheus, who had been preparing to visit the Second Prince dispatched to the Southern Region to make a plea, blinked.
“From Nogen…?”
“Of course.”
Hilberry struck the floor once with his prosthetic leg and said.
“Don’t worry. Our legal experts will handle everything.”
Nogen’s legal experts could be considered to have the best skills on the continent.
Langsi looked at Hilberry as if he had met a savior. Then he whispered to me.
“You can’t let this financial backer go, you understand?”
He assessed decisively.
“Much better than the Second Prince. At least we can meet him.”
Of course, I couldn’t think so positively. I was the only one here who properly understood how noble houses operated.
“But Duke Dibostane’s House will definitely take issue with this.”
I said to Hilberry while holding Wolf-dog.
“They’ll say the Western Region is interfering in Central Region affairs. Because while Duke Dibostane’s House became Dahlia’s patron anyway, we have no connection to House Nogen.”
Objectively speaking, Nogen had gotten involved in someone else’s family affairs.
‘No, to be precise, in the family affairs of a woman who broke off her engagement…’
However, Hilberry shrugged his shoulders.
“Can’t you see the Seldoche Plains? If the summer wheat farming succeeds, we’ll owe the Sears siblings a debt worth more than 100 lawyers. We’re simply paying our due.”
Well… that was true.
“I don’t believe that Dahlia Hawin manifested a special ability.”
Hilberry said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“An unknown special ability can be called whatever you want… they’re just trying to push through with underhanded capital, plain and simple.”
I thought the same. It was obvious we’d lose in a capital war against the Eastern Region.
“I hope this will allow us to repay even a small portion of our debt to Sears.”
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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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