The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 34
Forman Barony.
“Leo!”
Sylvia, granddaughter of Baron Forman, came running over.
“What on earth are you doing here—oh, Grandfather?”
Sylvia’s eyes widened and she gasped in surprise.
“Where on earth have you been all this time! Leaving just a single scrap of a letter saying you’d be away on His Grace the Grand Duke’s orders! Not a single word from you for so long!”
Baron Forman had not informed his family of his whereabouts either.
“I didn’t expect to be away from the estate for so long myself, Sylvia. Besides, Leo is here too.”
Leopold emerged from behind Baron Forman and offered a half-hearted greeting.
“Your voice is as loud as ever, Sylvia.”
Baron Forman lived with his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter—and that only granddaughter was Sylvia. In other words, she was Leopold’s only cousin.
“And you’re as rude as ever, Leo.”
Sylvia shrugged, firing back as usual, before turning to Baron Forman.
“Grandfather, so you’ve been with Leo this whole time?”
Sylvia was a fourteen-year-old girl, the same age as Leopold.
Without answering any of his granddaughter’s questions, Baron Forman casually asked,
“Has everything been quiet on the estate?”
“Hardly. It’s been sixty-three whole days since I started begging Father to let me get engaged.”
At Sylvia’s words, Baron Forman let out a heavy sigh.
His granddaughter, who would inherit this estate one day, was utterly frivolous, unlike Leopold. Sent to the Academy to study, she had grown close to a boy and was now pleading to be engaged.
“Matisse and I are meant to be. I want to get engaged.”
“Sylvia, get a grip.”
“But if I don’t settle it right now, I might end up marrying some guy who only cares about my background! Father is already getting flooded with marriage proposals! Heavens, they don’t even know what I look like!”
“And that justifies wanting to get engaged at fourteen?”
“Fourteen is the perfect age to get engaged! Brisa Seers got engaged when she was seven—”
Leopold cut Sylvia off without missing a beat.
“And she successfully broke it off anyway. Sylvia, I’m against getting engaged too early as well.”
“Really? You mean that sincerely? On your honor and your face?”
“No.”
Leopold corrected himself nonchalantly.
“Honestly, I don’t really care.”
“I figured. Why would you care about my destiny?”
Sylvia crossed her arms and sneered.
“Not when the great Leopold Nozen already has a ‘destiny’ of his own.”
“Is Uncle in the library?”
Leopold did not bother entertaining Sylvia and strode right into the mansion.
“I came because there’s something I need to check at the library.”
The library of the Forman estate housed a vast collection of materials. This was because Sylvia’s father, Baron Forman’s only son, was the director of the Nozen Magic Library.
There were about ten Magic Libraries across the Empire. The libraries of the Capital Academy and the Magic Tower were among them.
And the Nozen Magic Library located in the Barony of Forman was also one such Magic Library.
There were countless ordinary libraries that simply gathered books. However, Magic Libraries were uniquely special because all books and theses were automatically archived in sub-spaces, allowing one to search for titles and authors.
“Do you have two gold ready?”
Sylvia ruthlessly demanded an entrance fee from her cousin.
“You know there’s no family discount, right? Especially not for family members richer than me.”
“I don’t care about discounts either. Just like your destiny.”
Leopold tossed the words over his shoulder and strode off into the distance.
“Of course you wouldn’t. Your destiny comes before mine, naturally.”
Sylvia stuck her tongue out at his retreating back.
After Leopold disappeared into the library, Baron Forman lowered his voice and asked Sylvia,
“What? ‘Destiny’? What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means just that—his destiny,” Sylvia said with a giggle.
“The entire time we were at the Academy, Leo was searching frantically for someone. Every chance he got, he’d go to the library to look for traces of that ‘destiny.’”
She continued, thoroughly amused.
“If His Grace the Grand Duke of Nozen wants Leo to marry anytime soon, he’d better pray the ‘destiny’ Leo is searching so hard for turns out to be a girl his age.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Baron Forman stamped his foot, letting out a frustrated breath.
Sylvia shrugged.
“Just what I said. There’s someone Leo wants to meet. Someone whose face, age, and gender he doesn’t even know.”
“What kind of person?”
“I’m not entirely sure either, but I think they’re the author of some theses. Or maybe ‘thesis machine’ would be more accurate? I heard they’ve written a ton of them.”
“A thesis machine?”
“Does Leo ever explain anything in detail to anyone? You only know this much because it’s me.”
“If they’re that prolific, why hasn’t he found them?”
“I heard the author uses a pseudonym.”
Sylvia tilted her head as she spoke.
“So he said he can’t track down their identity at all.”
“What’s the pseudonym?”
“How should I know? What if I asked just to be polite and he actually gave me a serious answer? Honestly, I’m not that interested.”
Baron Forman nodded. They truly were an ordinary pair of cousins.
“By the way, Grandfather, where did you really go?”
“Never mind that. Do we have any potatoes in the mansion?”
“I’m sure we do. Should I tell them to prepare some for a late-night snack?”
“Yes. It would be nice if they could serve some small fish alongside it.”
“All right!”
Sylvia fluttered off toward the kitchen.
Baron Forman waited impatiently for his snack, and when he finally took a bite of the potato, he muttered, “This isn’t the taste….”
“Grandfather.”
Before he knew it, Leopold had returned from the library and stood before him.
Leopold asked Baron Forman,
“You investigated Brisa Seers, didn’t you?”
“You ask quick enough.”
Baron Forman replied, taking another bite of the potato.
“I like that child.”
“Is that so.”
Leopold responded that he had no interest in his grandfather’s sentiments, then added anxiously,
“I want to meet her as soon as possible.”
Only then did Baron Forman look up from his plate. He noticed a thesis clutched in Leopold’s hand.
Southern wheat….
“And this wheat isn’t Western wheat. I think it’s Southern wheat, but investigate it regardless.”
When Brisa had said that, Baron Forman had also thought it was meaningful information. Passing up Western wheat to deliberately use Southern wheat, which incurred higher distribution costs….
Moreover, the estates in the South were not even functioning properly right now.
In other words, it meant the Black Magicians captured at the Western port were connected to the South. At the very least, a major stronghold had to be in the South.
“We have to wait until the warp gates are operational before we can investigate the South anyway,” Baron Forman said after swallowing the rest of his food. “There’s nothing we can do right now regardless.”
“Ah, I’m not talking about the Southern wheat.”
Leopold thrust the thesis toward Baron Forman.
“A review paper on Southern wheat might be helpful too. <Characteristics and Considerations of Southern Wheat Varieties>. That’s the only paper that exclusively covers Southern wheat anyway.”
It was the paper Brisa had recommended previously.
“Surely you aren’t asking your grandfather, who just returned from all kinds of hardships and is finally eating a potato, to read this?”
When Baron Forman asked, Leopold silently pointed at the author’s name.
“Hmm?”
Baron Forman’s eyes narrowed.
The author’s name was merely a single letter: ‘El.’
“This is the person I’m looking for.”
“…What does that have to do with the young lady of the Marquisate of Sears?”
“Grandfather, this person’s papers are not easy to find. Because their name is just a single letter.”
Every Magic Library offered a search magic service.
Only then did Baron Forman understand what Leopold meant.
There were an enormous number of names containing the syllable ‘El.’
As long as a paper met the basic format, the Magic Tower registered it automatically. Thus, entering ‘El’ at the search terminal would merely yield tens of millions of results.
“I didn’t expect Brisa Seers to know this person’s papers.”
Leopold spoke with a serious expression.
“If she knows more of this person’s work, I must find even the smallest clue.”