The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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I calmly took a bite of my sandwich, lost in thought.
‘I never intended to take back Beron, too.’
Originally, all I wanted was Jejel Street.
Jejel Street, with all its shops stocked with various goods, was immensely useful. Two months wasn't long enough for people to have scraped the barrel and eaten through every edible and inedible thing in sight.
Beron, on the other hand, was nothing but fields of perilla.
A textbook case of failed estate management.
“The land is small, and distribution is easy… so shouldn't we grow something that isn't commonly farmed on the continent?!”
That had been my father's logic when he chose perilla.
Except there was a good reason perilla wasn't widely cultivated across the continent: people simply didn't look for it.
‘Beron has a large elderly population, too. I'll have to feed every single one of those territory folk.’
It might have been different under Hawin's name, but bearing the name of Sears, there was no way I could let them starve.
‘Still, I had no choice.’
That day at the harbor, Baron Hawin was the very first person Wendy knocked unconscious after she was freed.
And after taking the warp gate, the intruders had asked:
“Can't we just kill this bastard right here and now?”
“My Lady, if we don't, we're the ones who'll end up dead.”
It was only natural. A lord who tried to sell off his own people, and the subjects who beat that lord to a pulp, could never live under the same sky.
“All of you are from Jejel Street, right? Then by tomorrow, you'll be under my protection.”
Once I brought Jejel Street into my domain, they would become my people.
I intended to punish them myself for the crime of abducting the lord's uncle. For instance, forcing them to eat freshly baked bread smeared with potato salad…
And if that didn't seem like enough, throwing in some mushroom salad as well—that was how I had planned to settle things, but…
“I-I live in Beron.”
“You live in Beron, too, young man?”
“T-To take care of my mother…”
Of all things, one of them lived in Beron. Which meant I had to take Beron as well.
They were intruders who had acted on their trust in me, so I had to take responsibility.
‘It can't be helped. We brought plenty of wheat, and if we all put in more effort together…’
First, I'd have to plow up every single perilla field in Beron and plant other crops.
‘Rummaging through the shops on Jejel Street will definitely turn up some seeds… Find them, plant them…’
The ground where we dug up the potatoes was sitting idle, too. I needed to find suitable seeds and plant them as well.
‘I already have a rough idea of what to grow.’
Of course, the warp gates would reopen in a month, but we still needed a way to make a living down the road, didn't we?
‘Alpheus… probably won't be coming back with any reward money.’
Right now was the early part of the original story.
Which meant the protagonist was still being dragged through the wringer.
The 2nd Prince dies, and in the end, his military achievements won't be recognized. In the original novel, he returned to an estate where his sister and his men were all gone, leaving only his uncle behind, but…
‘Did he manage to get through the crisis with the Awakening Herb?’
If I had fully accepted that I was insane back then, I could have told him something far more helpful.
Whether he overcame the crisis or not, the warp gates wouldn't work for another month. That meant it would be quite a while before we saw each other again.
‘Still, at least now he'll have a home to return to.’
Either way, we were still destined to be poor in a month. We wouldn't be able to buy grain cheaply from the West like we used to, either.
The thought instantly ruined my appetite.
Dahlia, who had been biting her nails, spoke up.
“I'll only give you Beron.”
She seemed to think she was making a tremendous concession.
“Give up on Jejel Street.”
Naturally, no matter how grand her resolution, no one was about to entertain it.
“Then you're giving up on your father's life, too.”
I replied coolly.
“You don't seem to grasp the situation, but we have nothing to lose here. Ah, not that I'm surprised. You were never particularly bright to begin with, Dahlia.”
Unable to contain her rage, Dahlia seethed.
My aunt firmly gripped Dahlia's trembling hand.
Then she asked calmly,
“…Then how about ten sacks of wheat?”
Before I knew it, Dahlia was holding her mother's hand tightly as well.
“We'll give you both Beron and Jejel Street, in exchange for ten sacks of wheat. Well? Isn't that fair?”
I stared intently at their clasped hands.
Two hands held together in desperation, grasping onto the family they had left to save the one they had lost.
My uncle had likely swindled my father for the sake of those two. And in the original story, he had sold me out for them as well.
The sandwich tasted even less appealing now.
“No, it isn't.”
I cut her off bluntly.
“Goodbye.”
With that, I pushed myself up to leave.
My aunt lunged forward, grabbing my arm.
“I-I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll give them to you!”
“Mother!”
“I'll give them, I'll give them both to you! So just give us five sacks of wheat. Please?”
At the same time, Dahlia cried out in sheer horror.
“Mother, have you lost your mind?”
Those were words I had never once spoken to my own mother in my entire life.
“Why are you listening to her? This deal makes no sense at all! Absolutely not!”
“We lived just fine without those two lands before, Dahlia. As long as we have your father, everything will be alright. We can live well again.”
My aunt soothed Dahlia.
“We're the desperate ones here, Dahlia. Isn't Brisa the only one who has wheat?”
She then turned to me hurriedly.
“It's fine if I sign as proxy, right? Since the lord is currently missing.”
Land transactions were conducted using the ‘Territory Contract’ distributed by the Magic Tower. If the lord was absent from the territory, a proxy could automatically sign in their stead.
Furthermore, the moment the ‘Territory Contract’ was signed, the record was etched into the Magic Tower, leaving no room to backtrack later.
“Here, can I sign it now? Yes?”
Of course she could. Literally speaking, I had nothing to lose.
With an elegant gesture to the maid, the ‘Territory Contract’ was promptly placed before us.
And just like that, past noon that day, Jejel Street and Beron returned to the Sears Marquisate once more.
“Alright.”
After dispatching a group of knights to handle the tasks, I addressed the shopkeepers of Jejel Street.
“Anyone who has seeds stored away in their warehouses, bring them all forward. It doesn't matter if it's out of season or just a tiny amount.”
Having returned under the banner of the Sears Marquisate after nearly two months, the people of Jejel Street offered no resistance whatsoever.
“I'll trade them for wheat or potatoes.”
Rather, their reaction to my words was instantaneous:
“Woooooaaaaah!”
Seeing how happy they were brought a swell of pride to my chest.
I used that brief spark of joy to suppress the stray thoughts swirling in my mind.
‘We lived just fine without those two lands before.’
I, on the other hand, couldn't live well without land.
I was in a position where I had to worry about my very next meal.
No, to be completely honest, with black magicians backed by Sebon coming after my life, there was nothing I could do to prepare. Nothing except retreat into my territory and hold my breath.
I even caught myself thinking it was a relief the warp gates were disabled. At least no outsiders could enter for now.
An illegal warp couldn't be opened without mutual cooperation on both ends. Which meant, at the very least, no illegal warps would appear in my territory.
The fact that I was actually glad for this mere isolation showed just how terrified I truly was. And yet…
‘As long as we have your father, everything will be alright.’
I didn't have a single person I could open up to and lean on in all of this.
I was the sole bearer of Riente blood left in the entire Empire.
I didn't want to tell the maids or the knights. It wasn't because I wanted to spare them the burden. Truth be told, I was simply afraid.
‘Ah, they're killing… everyone with Riente blood? Then are our lives in danger, too?’
‘We're honored to serve the last descendant of the Riente royal family, but, um, we don't want to die…’
What if the maids left me?
In the original story, the maids had followed me blindly without knowing anything, only to end up dead.
Would they still have followed me if they had known the ending?
‘What? Sebon and black magicians are after the young lady?’
‘Then what did we do to deserve this? Especially our Marquis, he has nothing to do with Riente.’
‘Aren't they practically strangers anyway? Wouldn't it be better to just hand her over and get it over with? The territory is struggling as it is…’
Even if the knights followed me now, wasn't it entirely because of Alpheus's orders?
They wouldn't want Alpheus to be put in a difficult spot because of me.
‘I'm scared.’
I bit hard on my lower lip.
I had never learned how to share my fear.