The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living - Chapter 9

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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 9

* * *

Western Nogen Grand Duchy.

In the middle of the night, Grand Duke Nogen frowned.

“What is this?”

Grand Duke Nogen, Hilberry Nogen, was a white-haired old man.

He had a good build and clear features, but wore an eye patch over one eye and had a prosthetic leg.

Holding a thick report, he pointed to one item.

“Timber to be used for furniture reconstruction? Olive trees?”

“Ah, it’s nothing to be greatly concerned about.”

The aide answered respectfully.

“It was timber that came in unexpectedly, so we decided to purchase it from the territory resident support budget. Since the timber is sturdy and beautiful, unlike our usual relief supplies, it would be much more helpful for boosting civilian morale in this crisis situation…”

“Hmm? It came from Sears.”

Hilberry stroked his beard and narrowed his eyes.

“I believe the new Marquis Sears is currently absent?”

House Nogen was a prestigious noble family recognized as imperial loyalists alongside House of Sears.

However, they were walking the opposite path from House of Sears, which had continued to decline and now had less influence than even frontier count families.

House Nogen had prospered endlessly with the Western Granary Region, so their wealth, honor, and information network were incomparable.

“I understand it was Miss Brisa’s order. When a grain merchant came demanding debt repayment, she said she would pay with timber.”

“Hmm.”

Hilberry didn’t know the details of the relationship between a mere grain merchant and the Marquis Territory.

The purchase of furniture timber for relief purposes wasn’t an incident worth his attention either.

Normally, he probably would have just passed it over.

If not for the name Sears, or if there hadn’t been a girl named Brisa behind this unexpected timber.

Hilberry narrowed his eyes and muttered.

“Leopold sent flowers to this child anonymously, didn’t he?”

“…He wanted to keep it secret. He thoroughly controlled the information.”

“There’s nothing in this land that I don’t know about. A mere fourteen-year-old cannot hide things from my eyes.”

Hilberry exposed the boy’s private life.

“Especially when it concerns my only grandson, who will inherit this territory.”

Leopold Nogen.

The fourteen-year-old heir to the grand duchy who closely resembled Hilberry’s childhood.

The western grand duchy was prosperous, being a famous granary region with mines.

However, the disaster called monster waves struck every year.

This year’s monster wave came earlier than usual, and its scale was larger than any on record.

So Leopold was deployed directly to the field without even being able to attend his Academy graduation ceremony.

Leopold was born with a strong inheritance of House Nogen’s special ability, making him an essential force needed for the Monster Wave.

“In the midst of that chaotic movement toward the battlefield… flowers…”

It was an unavoidable duty for any heir of Nogen.

Hilberry had also lost one eye and leg in that process. Therefore, Hilberry had no choice but to send his grandson directly to the battlefield.

Even though the son and daughter-in-law he had sent to the battlefield 10 years ago had returned as cold corpses.

“Well, um… I’m not sure. Since he couldn’t even attend the funeral of the previous Marquis Sears due to circumstances, perhaps he just looked after her as an Academy classmate?”

The aide desperately tried to protect the young man’s private life. He did so even more because it was something Hilberry would find distasteful.

“It’s something anyone could do, ahahaha. Hahahahahahaha.”

“…”

“Hahahahahahaha.”

“…”

“Haha.”

The effort failed.

Instead of laughing it off casually, Hilberry raised his eyebrows.

Normally, he wouldn’t have paid any attention at all. No matter if Leopold had sent flowers to that girl.

‘House Nogen is far too busy to worry about some unremarkable noble family from the unrelated Central Region.’

But this incident was somewhat interesting.

“Sears’ olives share the same history as the family itself. Cutting down those olive trees isn’t something that can be done easily.”

Hilberry searched through his past memories.

Had Leopold ever mentioned Brisa during his time at the Academy…

He remembered a conversation they had at the Grand Duke’s Residence during last winter break.

“Your instructor praised you greatly. He said you show particular talent in appearance but objectively excel at everything. Hehe, since you, Leopold, haven’t missed first place in any exam, valedictorian is naturally yours. So who do you expect will be salutatorian?”

“The second place is the same in every exam, so I think that child will be salutatorian.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“Brisa Sears.”

“I understand that child enrolled two years earlier than other children. Yet she’s second place in every exam?”

“That’s what the results show.”

As always, Leopold gave only dry answers that revealed nothing of his inner thoughts.

Instead, his maternal cousin Silvia, who was beside Leopold, cheerfully interjected.

“But that girl stays in the library all night. Even with that much effort, she still can’t beat Leo, so I think her natural intelligence is just about the same level as mine. Right, Leo?”

Then Leopold answered like this.

“That’s an interesting opinion.”

That was the aristocratic way of saying ‘that’s nonsense.’

Leopold, befitting the heir of the Western Region, never directly revealed his true thoughts.

“How arrogant and prickly she is, she doesn’t even have friends. She’s incredibly beautiful like a porcelain doll, but I’ve never seen her laugh or get excited. Her personality must really be something else. Right, Leo?”

“That’s somewhat debatable.”

That meant ‘I don’t agree.’

Silvia glanced at Leopold once before continuing to chatter away.

“But her accessories and belongings are all top quality. Most kids probably can’t even imagine that House of Sears is going to ruin. Hmm, she might not know it herself either?”

“Silvia.”

Leopold spoke without any change in expression.

“Isn’t the pepper flavor in this duck too strong?”

That meant ‘I don’t want to hear any more of your nonsense.’

At the time, I just passed it off without thinking, but now that I think about it…

“I should send an informant to Sears.”

Hilbury raised his eyebrows and commanded.

“I need to know too.”

The old man’s remaining golden eye gleamed calmly.

“It seems Leopold holds that child in high regard, so I wonder if she’s a child worth evaluating myself as well.”

* * *

A few days later, in Sears Marquis Territory.

“The Marquis will probably come today, won’t he?”

It was the day Alpheus was scheduled to return.

Philip was excited as he planted the remaining seed potatoes.

“If he catches the Warp on time, he should arrive this afternoon.”

When I didn’t respond at all, Philip continued with an awkward smile.

“That girl Wendy… Lord Alpheus will probably scold her severely.”

Wendy had been excluded from the potato field labor.

No one was taking the punishment I had given her seriously.

“We’re not such clueless bastards.”

Philip seemed to have forgotten that he had initially defied me without any sense.

“It’s just that she’s a bit like that. She worships Lord Alpheus too much and crossed the line.”

I let out a light sigh as I looked at the ‘former Olive Plains’ that had become a seed potato field.

Up to this point, it could be handled as something I did in a fit of madness.

‘I’m just a bit crazy, and I hope Alpheus comes back.’

I hoped there wouldn’t be the kind of early hardships from the novel where everyone starts starving.

But even when afternoon came that day, Alpheus didn’t return.

Instead, in the middle of the night, one of Alpheus’s Elite Unit members appeared at the Marquis Manor, staggering.

“It seems the Marquis will be delayed much longer than expected.”

He spoke with a pained expression.

“Right now, the Marquis has… suddenly departed for the Eastern Region to rescue the Second Prince. He sent only me to relay the situation.”

I pressed my forehead and let out a sigh.

As expected, it was exactly the same as the future I had learned about.

Langsi, who had been working late as usual, came rushing over and asked frantically.

“Eastern Region? Why is everyone suddenly going to the Eastern Region?”

Alpheus’s knight spoke while catching his tired breath.

“A monster wave has started in the Eastern Sea. The reward money sponsor, I mean, the Second Prince is trapped there… and the only person who can acknowledge the Marquis’s achievements in the Northern war is the Second Prince.”

It was the same flow as the original story.

I decided not to doubt it anymore.

I was right about learning the future.

Fortunately, I had been preparing accordingly.

“He can’t return empty-handed like this, and the two of them are comrades-in-arms. So the Marquis had no choice but to go there.”

“But why did the Second Prince go there in the first place? Shouldn’t he be at the victory banquet? Why would such a high-ranking person go there again?”

According to the original story, the Second Prince, who is capable but the son of the Commoner Empress, falls into the Crown Prince’s scheme at this point and dies in the Eastern Region.

“How would I know? It must be orders from someone higher up… Still, since there’s Warp, won’t he return within three days?”

Three days my foot, the Warp instability is just beginning now.

‘This knight himself was already half a day late…’

Warp operates on magical power. When monsters with magical power appear, it inevitably affects its operation.

And so the problem occurred the very next morning.

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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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