The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 33
“Let’s go, Count.”
Philip spoke heartily from behind.
“I’ve set the five sacks of wheat over that way. Come along with me.”
“Ha ha ha ha! I was just looking around, though certainly not because of the five sacks of wheat! But just how did Sears come by wheat in the first place?”
Wheat was a crop that did not grow in the Central region.
Even just five sacks would be extraordinarily precious.
I had told everyone last night:
“If any outsider asks, just say you don’t know.”
There was no need to advertise that it was connected to a black magician.
Sure enough, Philip answered just as instructed.
“Ahaha! It is all thanks to our Lady Brisa, who graduated as the salutatorian of the Capital Academy, speaks five languages, and possesses such flawless court etiquette that she was once invited to the banquet of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager! How could lowly folk like us ever fathom the depths of her wisdom!”
I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell him to say that.
Regardless, Alpheus carried me in his arms as he walked toward the marquis’s mansion.
Dangling in his embrace, I pressed him.
“Explain what happened.”
I was dying to know the full story, so I threatened him to make him explain first.
“Or I’m getting down.”
The war hero yielded instantly.
“You see, your gift saved my life. But the poor Awakening Herb, um, met the end of its glorious life in the end.”
“It had already met its end and was dried.”
“Thanks to that, we saved the 2nd Prince and all made it out alive, but then they said the warp gate was broken, you see? To sit around waiting aimlessly when I have all my limbs in working order would be, um, a disgrace to the Awakening Herb I hold dear in my heart.”
“You mean hold dear in your stomach.”
Answering calmly, I quietly set my goal for my relationship with Alpheus.
He was the protagonist of this world, and getting on his bad side would bring me no good.
Even if I bared my claws as Mother had advised, I was the only one who would lose.
Alpheus was the master of Sears now, which meant I was practically in the palm of his hand.
‘That was why I gave him the Awakening Herb in the first place.’
As it turned out, the Awakening Herb had helped him, so it wasn’t a bad start.
‘I should be able to get along with him in relative peace.’
Unlike the original story, the 2nd Prince had survived, and Alpheus hadn’t turned dark either.
Yet there was a side effect.
The clothes Alpheus wore hadn’t turned sleek and dark either.
Unable to bear it any longer, I stared at the floral handkerchief dangling before my eyes and said:
“Let’s untie this hideous floral handkerchief right now.”
Getting along reasonably well was one thing; staying silent when something needed to be said was entirely another.
I had saved him from a crisis. I was well entitled to make at least this much of a statement on everyone’s behalf.
“It’s an eyesore.”
At that, Alpheus flustered.
“Huh? This is, um, a reflection of my conviction that we must protect beautiful nature—”
“Keep your convictions in your heart. Not in your fashion.”
“Wait, don’t pull on it! You’re going to rip it!”
“Saves me the trouble. I was planning to shred it to pieces and throw it out anyway. We can’t have anyone accidentally recycling it.”
To think he had gone to the Imperial Palace with that handkerchief tied around his neck. It was truly a tragedy for the Marquisate of Sears and an offense against the public interest of the Empire’s people. I had to do everything in my power to prevent a recurrence.
‘Even though Alpheus is the Marquis of Sears now.’
Besides, since I was technically the one who stopped him from turning dark, I felt a certain sense of responsibility.
‘It feels like upholding the family’s name is still my responsibility, though…’
Even if I hadn’t inherited the title, my surname was still Sears. That meant my reputation was tied to Alpheus’s as well.
‘My precious reputation, which I defended by holding back both laughter and tears just so no one would call me crazy!’
If he kept going like this, it was obvious Alpheus would be utterly ridiculed in high society.
Basking in the silent cheers radiating from the knights’ eyes, I continued.
“If you’re going to use your face like that from now on, go get a refund from God and add it to the marquisate’s coffers. Actually, no. Let’s just refund your soul and keep the face. That would be best for the future of our estate.”
“Is that even possible?”
“I’m going to start looking into ways tomorrow. I just added it to the shortlist for my new study plans.”
“Um… you’re joking, right?”
“And you’d better stop making that ‘um’ sound in the middle of sentences. It lacks far too much refinement for the speech of a marquis.”
“Really? All right. I’ll fix it right away. Um… how can I fix… Ah, darn it.”
“Simple. If you get caned on the calves every time you say ‘um,’ it’ll be fixed in no time.”
I looked down at Alpheus’s excessively sturdy calves.
At that, Alpheus furrowed his brow and asked back:
“You want to… what?”
“Don’t worry. If you apply ointment, it won’t leave a scar. We have plenty left at home.”
At those words, even Wendy, who was hurriedly disposing of the discarded floral handkerchief behind us, froze.
After a brief silence, Alpheus asked slowly:
“Were you… caned on the calves too?”
Good grief. He couldn’t possibly be putting me on the same level as himself.
I scoffed and retorted:
“I at least didn’t get caned over things like ‘um.’ In my case, it was ‘uh…’”
There was a vast difference between ‘um’ and ‘uh.’ At least, that was how I saw it.
Yet Alpheus’s eyes went wide.
“Just when was this?”
“When I was six.”
“What? What kind of bastard worthy of death would lay a hand on such a young child—”
“My mother.”
I replied flatly.
Wendy quietly pressed a hand to her forehead behind us.
I felt Alpheus’s body go stiff as a board.
I tilted my head and reassured him:
“Well, she’s already passed away, so I won’t be suing for attempted murder.”
“I-I see. Um, let’s hurry inside and sleep. A child shouldn’t be awake this late.”
“Well, if you keep making that ‘um’ sound, I’ll be sleeping even later pointing it out.”
By the time we arrived at the marquis’s mansion.
The maids came rushing over in a crowd, and right at that moment, Alpheus said:
“So, Bribri, I’m only getting to ask now. How have you been? Did anything happen? Was there anything difficult?”
Wait. I’m pretty sure I just heard something truly bizarre, horrifying, and chilling.
“…Bribri? Don’t tell me… you’re calling me that?”
“Huh? Yeah… Isn’t it cute as a nickname?”
Alpheus winked once again.
“You can call me Alphy oppa too. How’s that sound?”
The three-hit combo made my head spin.
I took a breath to compose myself, then said to the maids:
“Call Rancy. We need to allocate a budget to send to the temple.”
“Pardon? To the temple?”
“Yes. We need them to dispatch a priest.”
Fighting back tears, I made a decision for the sake of the Marquisate of Sears.
“For the honor of the marquisate, we have no use for a soul like this, so I’m booking an exorcism that will leave only the husk behind.”
“Brib—”
“What are you waiting for? Time is of the essence.”
Before my resolute decision, Alpheus admitted defeat.
“I’m sorry, Brisa! I’ll call you Brisa!”
“Be sure to keep the evil spirit in your heart sealed tightly from now on. It’ll be a disaster if it awakens, so manage it well. Now, put me down.”
Alpheus set me down with a look of reluctance.
I dusted off my skirt and looked up at Alpheus.
Platinum-blonde hair and sky-blue eyes, just like mine…
I had never known how to lean on family.
That was why I hadn’t panicked when I was left alone in the estate and had to prepare for isolation. I had never trusted anyone in the first place.
‘I shouldn’t trust him just because he’s family.’
I steeled my resolve.
‘In the original story, Alpheus and Brisa never lived together. There’s no telling how he might suddenly change.’
Mother usually doted on me dearly. But on the nights when her madness flared, she couldn’t even recognize my presence. She would throw violent fits like that before being locked away in her room.
Father had been no different.
Father had never spared me a single warm glance, consumed as he was with searching for his eldest son. One day, drunkenly, he had only said this:
“While you and your mother live in luxury here… I have no idea what hardships my child is suffering right now. So, Brisa, even paying attention to you makes me feel guilty.”
Even in that moment, all I could see was Father’s back. I had no desire to look at someone’s back again.
Rather than go through that, I would close my heart first and just keep things moderately peaceful—
“Huh? Ain’t that the Marquis? Good lord, am I seein’ a ghost in the dead of night? How did ya die? What lingering regrets brought ya all the way back here?”
Rancy came running out from inside the mansion.
“I just ran here, I’m not dead. I don’t have any lingering regrets yet. Ah, since I haven’t had dinner…”
Wait.
“I’m just a bit hungry, haha.”
What? Hungry?
He suffered in a foreign land and came home… and he’s hungry?
My eyes flashed.
This was unacceptable.