The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 84

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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 84

“But seeing you being loved in the territory…”

“…What? Loved?”

I was startled by the embarrassing word that sounded like something Alpheus would use.

But Leopold replied nonchalantly.

“Love. Everyone was absolutely fond of you.”

He saw it.

He saw me chatting with people on Jezel Street and receiving things from them… he saw it all.

Suddenly I felt my cheeks burning.

“Anyway, that scene looked so nice that I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt, and that’s how I ended up following you onto the ship.”

Leopold said with a low chuckle mixed in.

“So if you were flustered, it’s entirely my fault. I just… I just wanted to keep watching secretly.”

Was saying “watching secretly” something to be so brazen about?

If I had known Leopold was watching, I wouldn’t have eaten so many pieces of bread so aggressively.

I was glaring at him in disbelief when he tilted his head and added playfully.

“But should I have said I’d protect you? Sorry for disappointing your expectations. It was so obvious that I didn’t feel the need to say it.”

“What do you mean obvious?”

“Because protecting you benefits Nogen?”

When he brought up objective facts, I was left speechless.

“If it weren’t for you, winter in the Western Region would have been terrible. Just thinking about it gives me chills.”

Leopold paused to choose his words. Then he smiled slightly and said.

“Actually, I don’t think this is about who helps whom anymore.”

“…Huh?”

“I just… aren’t we on the same side, Brisa? I thought we were.”

Something stirred in my heart for a moment.

Leopold said he didn’t follow me out of pity.

That I was valuable enough. That I had a lot to offer him too.

“Next time there’s a problem like this in the Western Region, I’m going to ask for your help, so wouldn’t it be unfair if you refused my help? I know you have no interest in volunteering.”

At the same time, my heart that didn’t want to be hurt wavered like trembling waves.

I hated that Leopold was such a good boy.

Because I knew too well how inadequate I was compared to this perfect boy.

Because he was the only outsider who witnessed Mother’s madness.

Standing before this boy made me feel so shabby, yet he kept saying exactly what I wanted to hear.

“Besides, even apart from the problem of people targeting you, the Dark Mages are our enemies. You seem to forget that sometimes. Is it because you’re second place?”

The twelve-year-old was immediately triggered by school grades.

‘The point difference wasn’t even that big!’

Just as I flared up and glared at him, about to spit out some harsh words.

“…What is all this about?”

Suddenly, an ominous voice was heard.

Both Leopold and I were startled and turned toward where the voice came from.

Dripping with river water as if he had swum here, Alpheus was looking at me with a shocked expression.

“Dark mage?”

His platinum hair was completely soaked.

“Those guys… those pieces of trash… are targeting my little sister?”

Both Leopold and I froze in place.

While Leopold was skilled with his body, his attacks were only powerful due to Air Strike, but he was still fourteen years old. He couldn’t compare to the war hero Alpheus. That’s why he hadn’t sensed Alpheus’s presence.

“So my little sister… has been living in anxiety all this time? And I didn’t know about it until now?”

Alpheus looked at me with disbelieving eyes.

“Is this… is this right? Is this right, Brisa?”

“No, it’s not right.”

I answered in a horrified voice.

“You can’t spill this much water on the deck…”

* * *

A few minutes earlier.

“Did you hear that?”

After receiving and reading an urgent letter from Langsi, Alpheus was moving cattle feed boxes at the former potato field, now dairy farm, when he heard a rumor.

“Young Lady Brisa has come to Jezel Street right now!”

At that moment, everyone’s eyes widened.

“What? The Young Lady? Now? Already?”

Philip, who had been plowing a nearby vegetable garden, was the first to shout.

“Then we need to go welcome her quickly!”

He rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward.

Philip lifted his plow and shouted.

“Now, who will join the welcoming team!”

“Me!”

“Meeee!”

“Me too, me too! I’m from the Potato Squad! Give preference to experienced members!”

Everyone stood up with one heart, shouting together.

Watching this scene, one of the children asked with wide eyes.

“Is Young Lady Brisa really that beloved here?”

That child was from the Baron Plains.

Having spent time in Baron Hawin’s territory during the period of isolation, they didn’t know Brisa well. After Alpheus returned, Brisa hadn’t particularly appeared before the territory residents.

“She must be someone with a lot of charm and cuteness!”

For a moment, Philip and the knights were at a loss for words.

If she had a lot of charm… she would certainly be cute…

If she even smiled… many people would melt away…

But it was difficult to even imagine such a sight.

If the moment came when Brisa smiled and acted cute, it seemed like I would have to call a priest with tears in my eyes to perform an exorcism ritual.

“Well, our Young Lady is… either angry or not angry, one of the two… so I’ve never seen anything like… acting cute?”

Philip muttered uncertainly.

The child tilted their head and asked again.

“Then was she someone who often gave you warm words during difficult times?”

“…She gave us warm potatoes.”

Philip answered, and the child who remembered hunger immediately understood.

“I want to meet that amazing person too.”

“Right. If it weren’t for Young Lady Brisa, who speaks five languages and graduated second from the Academy, we wouldn’t be able to drink milk so abundantly like this… wait.”

Philip’s eyes widened as he was about to praise Brisa out of habit.

He hurriedly looked around and asked.

“But where is the Marquis?”

The child answered.

“He was running off earlier? Saying he didn’t have time for this.”

Philip’s mouth fell open.

Looking far behind, he could see Alpheus running over the hill. It was almost inhuman speed.

“What? Didn’t the Marquis already meet the Young Lady in the Western Region earlier? But why is he running like that again?”

Indeed, Alpheus was running as fast as a horse without even riding one.

‘No time to go to the stable!’

Three months ago, Alpheus actually didn’t want to leave Brisa alone in the Western Region.

But he had left her in the Western Region because he too had eyes to see.

Vast plains, experienced farmers, abundant resources, magnificent mansions…

Honestly speaking, it was incomparable to the Sears Marquis Territory, which was small in scale and like a rural village.

It was even more so when he visited Duke Dibostane’s estate in the Eastern Region.

Not just Nogen, but Divostan was also incomparable to Sears. Just in terms of territory size alone, it was dozens of times larger.

He couldn’t understand at all why Sears was included in the First Five Families.

‘No, the Central Region itself is too small… Even if House of Sears had sold off a lot of territory over generations, isn’t the difference too great?’

And Brisa had achieved large-scale hydroponic cultivation in the Western Region and even started wheat farming.

Though he didn’t want to admit it, the Western Region was good land for Brisa to grow.

A trustworthy lord, people who worked systematically, and even young Leopold who, despite his strange behavior of breaking engagements and sending flowers, was responsible nonetheless.

It was good to see Brisa being recognized and fulfilling her aspirations there.

Yet he was also anxious.

‘What if Brisa says she’ll never return to Sears Marquis Territory again?’

After hydroponic cultivation comes summer wheat, after summer wheat comes… if she keeps going around all the good places in the Western Region like that and grows up completely.

That child hasn’t opened her heart to him completely yet.

What if they end up living like strangers for the rest of their lives?

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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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