The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 19
“Probably? I can’t say for certain, but isn’t the entire Empire in this exact state?”
The adjutant answered in an uncertain voice.
“In any case, the Magic Tower seems to believe it’s best to wait until summer, when the monsters will completely vanish. They claim operating them now is out of the question since it could cause an even bigger disaster.”
“And can we really trust that the Monster Wave will disappear once summer comes?”
One of the knights beside the adjutant grumbled.
“Isn’t a scale like this unprecedented in the first place?”
“Well… the timing and scale are abnormal, but the intrinsic nature of monsters hasn’t changed. At least, that’s what the Magic Tower announced.”
Leopold did not interject in the conversation between the adjutant and the knight.
He merely narrowed his eyes.
“Lord Leopold?”
The boy slowly turned his head toward the ridge beyond the hill.
Golden eyes gazed keenly into the distance.
“There is a port in that direction.”
Though not a vast, azure sea like the East, the West also bordered the ocean as it stretched to the edge of the continent.
“Monsters don’t usually appear near the sea, so there’s no real need for us to go—”
Just then.
A wind carrying a distinctive fragrance swept past them.
It was an emergency signal held only by key figures in the West: ‘Tracking Incense.’
A scent imbued with a special mana that enemies’ sensory organs could never catch, yet knights of the West, trained over long years, could easily detect.
Whoever it was, they had certainly sent it toward the nearest unit.
“We move.”
The boy rose without hesitation.
Whoever it was, anyone possessing Tracking Incense had to be an influential figure.
Why such an important person had come all the way to this remote corner of the Western territory remained unknown, but they had to be rescued regardless.
Leopold mounted the horse that had been waiting meekly for him.
He pulled the reins, following the Tracking Incense. Behind Leopold’s black steed as it vanished into the darkness, the order of knights thundered after him.
3. Leopold Nozen
‘Wow.’
The illegal warp was already set up in the baron’s back garden.
‘I knew it. Everything was already prepared.’
In the original novel, the knights and I were all said to have drowned together in the sea. Even though the Central region had no ocean, and all the warp gates had shut down.
It was only briefly described, but I had deduced the situation.
‘An illegal warp was installed, and if the knights followed, it couldn’t have been far from the baron’s estate. The reason they were allowed to follow was to sell them off by head count…’
And the ones capable of setting up an illegal warp were the Black Magicians.
I had heard similar talk back at the Capital Academy anyway. Rumors that the Black Magicians had all fled across the sea to the Kingdom of Sebon to evade the Empire’s pursuit.
Originally, I should have passed through this warp and been sold a month ago.
Yet two months had already passed.
‘I held out considerably longer than in the original novel.’
It was only natural. There was plenty of food in our territory.
No matter how much the higher-ups tried to block trade, the common folk would still barter. We, too, had been surviving by consuming salt and perilla seeds from the Baron Hawin estate.
Once the commoners obtained food through bartering, the higher-ups ended up sharing in it as well.
Either way, we had endured together like that. Though even that was now reaching its limit.
‘And… once we pass through the warp…’
Taking Baron Hawin, the knights, the intruders, and even Baron Forman along, I rode the warp.
Baron Hawin had brought quite a few knights of his own to guard him.
The warp shuddered violently, but it was bearable. Because illegal warps were a technology born of forbidden experiments, they weren’t heavily affected by monsters.
“Phew…”
At the end of the warp, the scent of the sea hung in the air.
A clamor of voices reached my ears.
“Whoa, another batch has arrived!”
“Where from? Where’d they come from this time?”
“Looks like Hawin! That tiny fief in the Central region!”
“Central lands are all pint-sized anyway.”
Opening the eyes I had closed against dizziness, a dark port indeed came into view.
As I looked around, people with the crests of Black Magicians engraved across half their faces came running over.
Those eerie crests could never be erased.
That was why they could never blend in among ordinary people. They couldn’t hide their identities. It was the price paid for dabbling in forbidden magic.
As if this wasn’t his first or second time dealing with them, Baron Hawin stepped forward smoothly.
“I brought the people as promised. You haven’t forgotten the deal to pay one sack of wheat for two people, have you?”
What?
I was utterly flabbergasted.
‘Half a sack of wheat per person?’
At that, the Black Magician waved his hand dismissively.
“Now, now, easy there.”
He cleared his throat with a cough and spoke arrogantly.
“That was days ago. The price has dropped lately since so many estates have been bringing in people.”
The gagged intruders had fallen into a panic and were screaming. Of course, not a word could be heard.
They hadn’t thought they would actually be sold off like this.
Catching the sudden scent of the sea seemed to have made the reality sink in that they were truly being sold.
Being sold as a test subject for Black Magicians meant one of the most wretched deaths imaginable.
As if unsurprised by their reaction, the Black Magician smirked and said,
“One sack of wheat for four people. That’s the current going rate.”
I let out a heavy sigh.
I really couldn’t bear this.
Stepping in front of Baron Hawin, I spoke up.
“I’ve listened long enough, and this is utterly absurd. Are you people even human?”
After calling him out in a frosty voice, I glared straight at him.
With all eyes on me, I lifted my chin and protested.
“Where in the world do you slash prices in half in just a few days? Make it one sack for three people.”
The Black Magician eyed me with suspicion and asked Baron Hawin,
“Who is this young lady?”
Ignoring him completely, I said only what I wanted to say.
“There are knights mixed in among them, and they’re quite sturdy. Can you count one knight as one sack?”
Fortunately, this piqued the Black Magician’s interest.
“No such thing. It’s strictly by head count.”
I scoffed at his criteria.
“Then does an old man on the verge of death count as one full head as well? That makes no sense.”
Their labor capacity is different, and so is the amount of food they consume.
While I took the lead in the conversation, I spotted Baron Forman rustling about in the distance.
They were already surrounded by Black Magicians, but it didn’t matter. I had deliberately ordered my knights to tie their ropes loosely.
‘That’s right. We’re in the West.’
He would definitely release the Tracking Incense. Then, the nearest order of knights in the West would surely come.
‘From the moment the novel described boarding a ship, I guessed it had to be the Western sea.’
Crossing the sea from the West led straight to Sebon, after all.
Since intercontinental warps had yet to be developed, traveling by ship was an absolute necessity.
‘The North has glaciers, making ships unusable, while the islands in the South are bound by a curse of slumber, preventing anyone from venturing there recklessly.’
Just as monsters roamed the Western plains, they also infested the waters of the East. There was no way they would use an Eastern port.
Which meant this illegal warp had to be connected to a port in the West!
“So is this illegal warp really connected to Milhwen Port in the West?”
“No. It’s Delfoben Port.”
Not knowing which port it actually was, I had simply tossed out a random name.
I also intended to keep Baron Forman quiet by mentioning the word “West.”
Naturally, Baron Hawin fell for my trick and blurted out the exact location.
‘I knew it.’
I had intended to bring Baron Forman along no matter what, since I needed his Tracking Incense to summon the Western knights.
If he hadn’t been eavesdropping outside the door while hiding his identity, I would have called him out and dragged him along anyway—though the situation would have been much more complicated and difficult.
‘Still, he’s a former informant, so I figured he wouldn’t miss a night like this.’
He truly was a diligent old man. One way or another, he certainly earned his keep.
‘Those plums I gave him for dessert were worth every bite.’
It was the highest praise I could offer.
Now, all I had to do was stall for time until the nearest Western unit arrived.
