The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 20
“That’s your standard. Here, we only count heads. Doesn’t matter if they’re knights or old men, it’s all the same.”
The black magician responded to my negotiation with a triumphant smirk.
I narrowed my eyes and demanded,
“Still, you gave no prior notice, did you? One sack for four people is too steep. Besides, the numbers don’t add up evenly with the people we brought.”
“Then two sacks for seven people. Not a grain more.”
When the black magician spoke firmly, Baron Hawin nodded.
“Fine, let’s do that.”
I glared at him, utterly dumbfounded.
Settling so easily—when he had never grown a single grain of wheat in his life…
“Now, I brought knights to carry the sacks of wheat, so… let’s wrap this up quickly. Ugh, this place gives me the creeps. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“Wait.”
I cut off Baron Hawin and glared at the black magician.
“You need to show us the wheat first. Who makes a deal without properly inspecting the goods?”
“Hah.”
The black magician scoffed, then turned to Baron Hawin and asked,
“Is this young lady your daughter? She’s quite bold.”
Before Baron Hawin could jump in and deny it, I beat him to it.
“I am Dahlia Harwyn.”
Revealing my identity here would do me no good. That was also why I had draped the robe over myself in the first place.
Fortunately, Baron Hawin hastily nodded as well.
“Y-Yes.”
It was out of fear that if they discovered my lineage was from the Kingdom of Riente, the deal with Sebon would fall through.
“She is my daughter. Clever ever since she was young.”
Even with the robe thoroughly pulled over me, my eye color was still visible.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we both possessed pale sky-blue eyes.
Baron Hawin boasted,
“My girl is smart and meticulous.”
“She seems a bit arrogant, though.”
“That is true. I’m disciplining her, but old habits die hard.”
At that, the black magician muttered in the language of Sebon,
“Asete kibana ayultakum… (That’s just bad discipline…)”
I let out a hmph of a scoff and replied to the black magician in the Sebon tongue.
“Setene kibanata atom. Asiaki ataban. (I think so, too. This man is terrible at raising children.)”
The black magician’s eyes widened.
He muttered in bewilderment,
“I suppose calling her clever wasn’t a lie…”
“Hurry up and show me the wheat. For all I know, you might have stuffed the sacks with rotten grain.”
The black magician rolled his eyes for a moment.
“So suspicious.”
The black magician gestured to someone behind him. Soon, the man headed off toward the warehouse to fetch a sack of wheat.
‘The wheat is in that warehouse.’
I had obtained crucial information.
Warps were activating all across the port.
As if other lords were actively arriving to sell people in real time, small boats were already lining the sea in large numbers.
‘The entire port has been taken over.’
I thought, scanning the surroundings.
Of course, Delfoben Port was small and remote.
‘They must have brought in outsiders over a long period and driven out the locals one by one.’
After preparing so methodically, seizing total control the moment the place was isolated by the Monster Wave would have been child’s play.
‘Looking around, there aren’t any Western locals here.’
People were gathered here and there, but not a single trace of the distinct Western accent could be heard.
Having likely arrived at the same conclusion, Baron Forman’s expression was exceedingly grim. After all, this was taking place on his own land.
Meanwhile, one of the black magicians grunted under the weight as he returned with a sack of wheat slung over his shoulder.
“Here. Check it.”
I opened the sack myself and inspected the grain.
‘Harvested last autumn. The variety is…’
Just then.
“Aaaaargh!”
“An attack! We’re under attack!”
“It’s the Nozen Knights!”
I slowly raised my head.
Baron Forman’s Tracking Incense must have reached the nearest knight order.
‘Now!’
I quickly signaled Wendy with my eyes.
Wendy, who had been tied up alongside the intruders, swiftly slipped out of her wrist bindings and gag.
Pulling a dagger from her robes in a single motion, she struck down the black magicians guarding them in an instant.
“Aaargh!”
Having cleared the surroundings in a flash, Wendy untied the intruders’ ropes and shouted:
“Now! Seize Baron Hawin’s bunch!”
Having brought down the black magicians, Wendy immediately struck Baron Hawin across the head.
Baron Hawin lost consciousness on the spot and crumpled to the ground.
“Over here!”
Naturally, the intruders followed Wendy’s lead and rushed Baron Hawin’s knights as one.
My knights were far too imposing for them to attack me, and they were swept up in Wendy’s command.
Besides, it was Baron Hawin who had made the ‘decision’ to sell them off in the first place.
Of course, there was a reason I dealt with Baron Hawin and his knights first.
‘In unexpected situations, an internal enemy is always the most troublesome.’
Before they could stab us in the back, we had to neutralize them first.
Wendy tied up the unconscious Baron Hawin and his helplessly subdued knights.
Tears welled in her eyes.
“Now… finally…”
Her voice trembled with emotion.
“Now I can eat potatoes, too…”
A few days ago.
Wendy had begged me, apologizing for her mistake and pleading to be allowed to eat potatoes.
“While others were planting potatoes, you trained alone.”
I had said coldly:
“You must earn your keep through that training before I lift the potato ban.”
That was why I had used Wendy as bait.
Being among the hostages would make it much easier to take out the guards from within and free them.
Baron Forman was also freed, breathlessly cowering behind Wendy.
“Gah!”
Meanwhile, the black magician dealing with me fell into a flustered panic. He, too, seemed completely overwhelmed by the sudden raid of the Western forces.
“What in the world… Damn it. We need to withdraw for now.”
After barking a few words to his comrades nearby, he rummaged through his pocket. Then, he handed me a slip of paper.
“Since the Baron has collapsed, I will pass this to his daughter instead.”
I took the note in a daze.
He hushed his voice and whispered:
“Bring Brisa Seers.”
My eyes widened in an instant.
“We will pay fifty sacks of wheat for her. Understood? Here is the warp address.”
There was a reason I had been so bewildered earlier when he offered one sack of wheat for two people.
‘In the original story, my maids and I were worth fifty sacks of wheat.’
So I had thought that was the market rate, but from what I heard, it wasn’t even half a sack per person.
On top of that, they claimed they took everyone purely by head count, whether knights or old men.
The price difference was far too vast to be explained merely by high noble status. It meant there was some other reason.
‘They were desperate to have me, even if it meant paying that steep a price.’
Concealing my confusion, I asked nonchalantly,
“Why Brisa, of all people?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“She is innocent, isn’t she?”
“Probably.”
“You aren’t planning to do something terrible to that young girl, are you?”
“That is precisely what we always do—urgh!”
The whispered conversation, kept low lest anyone overhear, ended abruptly. Philip, unaware that the black magician and I were talking, had struck him hard across the head and knocked him out.
No other black magician could come to his aid. The Western knights had already begun cutting down anyone wearing white masks.
Before long, the knights of the West began slaughtering the black magicians, turning the port into absolute chaos.
Amidst the commotion, feeling detached from reality, I clutched the note tightly in my hand.
‘Bring me? In exchange for fifty sacks of wheat?’
