The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 18
“You’ve been contacted about the illegal warps set up by the black magicians of the Kingdom of Sebon, haven’t you?”
“H-huh?”
Baron Hawin shifted his eyes nervously.
He had indeed received word, but he hadn’t bothered to inform the people of his estate.
[We will open an illegal warp for you, so trade us people for wheat.]
In fact, he was currently searching in secret for orphans who wouldn’t be missed if they vanished one day.
The time was coming when they would genuinely starve if he didn’t.
“H-how did you know about that…?”
“Rumors have already been circulating in the capital. That black magicians created illegal warps and would be making contact all over to traffic humans. The Magic Tower was on high alert from the start.”
The capital was where all information converged.
The Magic Tower in particular dispatched instructors to the Academy. It was hardly surprising that Brisa knew beforehand.
“With the Magic Tower unable to monitor anything right now, it was obvious the Central region, which struggles to be self-sufficient, would be contacted first, wasn’t it? Yet I never received any word. I suppose it’s because of my Riente blood.”
The Kingdom of Riente had fallen at the hands of the Kingdom of Sebon.
From Sebon’s perspective, there was no reason to reach out to Brisa.
“Still, we need wheat too.”
Brisa explained calmly, then pointed toward one of the knights—a red-haired woman with a short bob, looking paler and more haggard than the rest.
“This one insulted my family. Rather than simply throwing her out, I’d rather sell her to those black magicians and get some wheat for her. The trouble is, I have no way of contacting them.”
“Hmm.”
“Why don’t we sell these intruders off together? In exchange, we’ll split the wheat fifty-fifty.”
The intruders’ eyes widened in an instant.
Before their furious protests could erupt, Brisa made her proposal to Baron Hawin.
“Make your choice, Lord.”
Brisa deliberately addressed him as ‘Lord’ instead of ‘Uncle.’ It was a clear signal that the decision rested entirely in his hands.
“What absurd nonsense!”
Baron Hawin’s eyes flared as he roared.
Genuine fury overtook him, his fists clenching tight.
“Fifty-fifty? My estate’s people outnumber yours by far! You only have a single person! We’re the ones opening the warp, too!”
He wasn’t refusing to sell his own people.
The intruders stared at the baron, utterly dumbfounded.
Right now… was he truly planning to sell them off to black magicians? Simply because they had followed his orders?
They pleaded with Baron Hawin.
“M-my daughter, my Lord! I’m the only one she has in this world!”
“I have an aging mother at home! She can’t even move without me!”
“I have seven children…! Without me, they will all starve to death!”
Baron Hawin didn’t even pretend to listen, directing his wrath solely at Brisa.
“We divide it by head count! I won’t concede! You’re the ones desperate here!”
It was then.
Amidst the commotion, a knight approached and whispered something in Brisa’s ear.
Giving the knight a slight nod, she spoke in an indifferent tone.
“Then negotiate just one thing with me.”
“What is it?”
“I’m told there’s an old man eavesdropping on us outside the door right now.”
Listening from just outside, Baron Forman nearly fainted.
“If we leave him be, rumors will spread through the estate, so let’s sell him too. In exchange, that wheat goes to us.”
At once, the knights rushed out and dragged in the disguised Baron Forman.
Baron Forman didn’t even have time to resist.
Yet something was strange.
Before dragging him into the room, a knight had stuck something onto Baron Forman’s face.
“Disguise your voice, and claim it’s a burn mark.”
Before he could even answer, Baron Forman was hauled inside.
Sure enough, Baron Hawin failed to recognize him. The man wore shabby clothes, had a hat pulled low over his head, and stood with a deeply hunched back.
As Baron Forman stood there in total bewilderment, unsure of what to do—
“So, that illegal warp.”
Brisa spoke calmly.
“Does it indeed connect to Milhuen Port in the West?”
…The West?
Baron Forman swallowed dryly.
He knew Baron Hawin had received an offer regarding an illegal warp, but he had no idea the destination was a western port.
“No. It’s Delfoben Port.”
Answering Brisa, Baron Hawin turned his head toward Baron Forman and demanded:
“Who are you?”
‘So if I take that warp right now, that means I can reach the West?’
Baron Forman made a split-second decision.
“T-there’s nothing to eat at home, so I… I-I snuck into the storehouse to, t-to steal some corn…”
The former intelligence agent poured his soul into the performance.
“A petty thief, then.”
Decades of seasoned experience instantly paid off.
“An old geezer with too much nerve. Sell him off.”
Having reached a swift conclusion, Baron Hawin turned to Brisa and declared magnanimously:
“You can take the share for two people, then. I won’t yield any more than that.”
“Very well.”
Brisa replied placidly.
“Let’s sell them now. We can do it right away, can’t we? How do we contact the black magician?”
“…Follow me.”
Baron Hawin led the way.
Brisa followed behind him.
Behind her, the gagged intruders, the knight named Wendy, and Baron Forman were dragged along in a line by the knights.
‘If I can just reach the West! Once my feet touch western soil…!’
Baron Forman thought, unable to contain the surge of emotion rising in his chest.
‘I can issue an emergency protection request!’
Though merely a baron, he was the closest confidant of Grand Duke Nozen and Leopold’s maternal grandfather.
He possessed one of the few existing tracking incenses used for emergency protection requests.
The moment he reached the West, if he lit that tracking incense in secret, the nearby stationed western forces would come for him.
‘Delfoben? Black magicians are running human trafficking there?’
Hilbery would never let this slide if he found out, but of all times, the Monster Wave had broken out…
‘Your Grace.’
Baron Forman swallowed hard, his thoughts racing.
‘I am returning to you with crucial information.’
His brain, which had frozen in shock at the mention of the West, only began functioning properly once they left the baron’s mansion.
‘Wait a moment…’
Only now did the full reality of the situation dawn on him.
‘Why on earth did that knight hide my identity?’
Up ahead, beautiful platinum-blonde hair swayed beneath the starlight.
The girl glanced around her surroundings before pulling her robe over her head to conceal her appearance.
Looking at her back, Baron Forman felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
‘Just how far ahead is this young lady looking?’
A hill near Delfoben Port in the West.
A flash like a beast’s claw tore through the pitch-black night.
“Skreeeech!”
“Kaaah! Kraaack!”
“Kyeeeeeeek!”
Green bodily fluids splattered alongside the dying shrieks of monsters.
A black-haired boy gave chase behind the fleeing beasts.
“Lord Leopold, behind you!”
Before the knight could even finish shouting, another flash gleamed through the air.
It was , the unique ability passed down exclusively through the direct bloodline of the Grand Duchy of Nozen.
was a power that severed the very air itself, sweeping away enemies across a wide area.
Faced with a Monster Wave, its devastating might surpassed that of an entire knight squad.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
Every time his golden eyes flashed, another monster corpse tumbled to the earth.
Having annihilated every monster around the hill in an instant, the boy finally let out an exhausted sigh.
Sitting down on a boulder, the boy possessed striking, handsome features. Even from an early age, his appearance had shown remarkable distinction.
His golden eyes scanned the monster carcasses indifferently.
As always, the monsters’ corpses and fluids soon vanished back into the other realm.
The plants on the hill appeared unharmed, but having been contaminated by the fluids, they would be inedible for about two weeks.
Even the smallest mushroom could only be safely foraged and eaten by the villagers after a full fortnight had passed.
Still, it was fine. The West was a bountiful land; no matter where one went, people did not starve.
“This is truly bizarre.”
The adjutant caught up, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I have never seen a Monster Wave persist for this long. And on such a massive scale, no less.”
“…The warps are still down?”
“I heard from a nearby lord that the Magic Tower deliberately shut them down.”
With the warps out of commission, Leopold’s knight order had also lost contact with the outside world.
He couldn’t even reach Grand Duke Nozen. Thus, Leopold and his knights were surviving entirely on their own.
Fortunately, the West was a self-sufficient territory. They had no need to worry about food.
Furthermore, once they cleared out the monsters, the roads opened up for travel, prompting every village they reached to rejoice, crying out that they were finally saved.
However, having pushed all the way to the edge of the West, news reached them painfully slow.
Leopold asked, his expression unchanging:
“Then does that mean the warp anomaly isn’t limited to the West? Does it affect the Central, Eastern, and Southern regions as well?”
