The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
“Regarding the remaining roots,”
Brisa instructed calmly.
“They’re hard and dense, so selling them will bring in some extra money. If you give us the leftover rice bran and wheat bran from the guild’s warehouse, I’ll let you harvest the roots as well.”
In any case, the roots had to be dug up to plant the seed potatoes.
By utilizing the workforce the guild master could mobilize, we could obtain rice bran and wheat bran while also saving our own labor.
‘There’s so much work ahead. We need to conserve manpower as much as possible.’
The guild master asked, his expression showing he was unsure whether to believe all of this.
“Milady, where on earth did you learn all this?”
At that, the maids erupted in chatter once more.
“Our young lady is a genius!”
“She could read at age three, and spoke five languages by seven!”
“The Princess herself taught her history, culture, the arts, and etiquette! She placed first in the Capital Academy entrance exam and graduated salutatorian!”
Amid their praise, Brisa said dryly,
“A book titled <Basic Understanding of Soil> contains a wealth of knowledge regarding soil properties and farming methods. Volume 7 of <Fruit Tree Varieties and Their Uses> covers olive trees.”
As the guild master pulled out his notebook again, Brisa continued.
“They are books in the Capital Academy library. However, both are original texts written in the Sernin Kingdom Language, so they’ll be difficult to read.”
The maids’ praise had been useless, but it was enough to win the guild master’s trust.
“Old olive trees have particularly beautiful growth ring patterns, so they’re quite popular for ornamental purposes.”
Brisa gazed at the timber with her characteristic thoughtful expression and said,
“However, drying and processing them isn’t easy, so when you take them to the West, don’t ask for too high a price.”
“Is that so?”
The guild master’s eyes sparkled with newfound trust.
“The Grand Duchy of Nogen in the West has been purchasing various materials lately, so handing it over to them would be perfect. Thank you for the advice.”
“Then make sure to give us plenty of rice bran and wheat bran.”
“Those aren’t even meant for human consumption anyway, are they? We have piles of it in the warehouse, so of course I can give you plenty.”
“Really? Then just give us all of it.”
“Yes! That’s completely fine! But what do you intend to use that for…?”
“Somewhere that won’t make you any money.”
Rancy quietly looked down at Brisa.
‘She’s a clever one, she is.’
Knowledge and the ability to execute.
Though young, she possessed ample qualities of a lord.
Yet a question still remained.
‘But why keep maids like that by her side?’
Shouldn’t competent people naturally gather around competent individuals?
Why were only such delusional maids surrounding her?
‘At the very least, she ought to discipline them when they spout nonsense, so why doesn’t she?’
Rancy figured he should find a good opportunity to ask.
Thanks to the knights’ sword aura, the logging wrapped up in no time.
I remained on site the entire time.
By the time the roots were thoroughly uprooted and the soil was overturned, it was already late afternoon.
The guild master loaded up the timber and departed the marquisate with a broad grin.
“Let’s see…”
I inspected the seed potatoes the Potato Squad had brought back.
Perhaps because I had sent people with potato farming experience, the seed potatoes were all in excellent condition.
“Now then, make ridges and plant the seed potatoes with the sprouts facing up. Philip, demonstrate for them.”
“Yes! Everyone, watch closely!”
Philip personally demonstrated how to plant the seed potatoes.
Just then, a snicker escaped from among the knights. It came from a female knight with a delinquent swagger.
I looked at her quietly.
At my gaze, she spoke as if making an excuse.
“No, I mean, isn’t it kind of ridiculous?”
She was a woman with red hair tied in a ponytail.
“Doing all this… over potatoes of all things, not anything else.”
I sighed inwardly.
I had expected something like this might happen.
These were all Alpheus’s people.
They were likely already annoyed because of the maids, so it would have been stranger if no one objected.
“What’s the intention behind making us, who once roamed the battlefield, do such pointless work, Milady? Do you think of us as a joke? If so, I’d rather you just ignore us as you have until now. We’re busy enough with training alone.”
Fortunately, only one maid remained by my side. The rest had returned to the marquis’s residence to prepare dinner.
Frothing with rage, the maid raised her hand high to slap the female knight’s cheek.
“How dare you talk back to our young lady like that…!”
I quickly restrained the maid.
If the two of them were to clash fairly, the maid would lose her life in an instant.
In the meantime, the female knight, Wendy, whirled around and shouted to the other knights.
“We are the ones who crossed through life and death alongside Lord Alpheus! This is making a laughingstock of our lord! Don’t you all see? Unless she’s out of her mind like her mother, why on earth would she overturn the perfectly fine Olive Plains and plant innocent potatoes—”
Instantly, the surroundings fell dead silent.
Gasping for breath, the maid collapsed to the ground. She had collapsed from hyperventilation.
Philip muttered,
“…That crossed the line.”
The other female knights standing behind Wendy clicked their tongues as well.
“Bringing up her mother…”
“Look at her character…”
Faced with the chilling atmosphere, Wendy flinched. She seemed to realize she had gone too far.
I asked calmly,
“What is your name?”
“W-Wendy Hight.”
“Wendy, you will not plant potatoes from now on. You may step down from all upcoming knightly duties. You’re free to do your personal training as you please.”
In the icy silence, Wendy quietly shifted her eyes.
“Instead, though I truly didn’t want to go this far…”
I spoke solemnly, then paused.
Before uttering the words, hesitation inevitably gripped me.
Could one human being really give another such an order?
Could I really be this cruel?
Yet as a superior, one had to be ruthless when the situation called for it.
“Since you didn’t plant any potatoes, from now on, you…”
My voice trembled with inner conflict until the very end.
Yet in the end, I delivered the punishment resolutely.
“You are forbidden from eating potatoes from now on.”
At that moment, I saw everyone in the back garden stifle their laughter with deflated expressions.
Even Wendy did.
Wendy even seemed to forgive her young master internally.
‘Good grief, what was I thinking, picking a fight with a mere child…?’
It was as if I could hear the thoughts inside her head.
Philip, holding a seed potato, spoke quietly.
“Er… seeing a grown adult throw a tantrum in front of a twelve-year-old young lady… really doesn’t look good. I only realized it now that I’m seeing it from a third party’s perspective.”
He looked genuinely pained.
“I apologize once again for my disgraceful behavior during our first meeting. It is truly humiliating. I only hope everyone forgets about it.”
“It’s fine.”
I nodded magnanimously.
“Because I’ll be recording it in the history books anyway.”
Of course, some time later.
Everyone came to realize that my punishment was unimaginably cruel.
After finishing planting the seed potatoes and arriving back at the marquis’s residence.
“Um, Milady. Would it be alright if we spoke in private once we get to the residence?”
Rancy asked hesitantly.
“I was reviewing the budget and had something I wanted to ask you directly, you see…”
“That’s fine.”
I followed Rancy into the office. It used to be Father’s space, and now Alpheus had inherited it.
‘I naturally thought I’d be the one inheriting it…’
After sweeping my lingering, regretful gaze across the room, I pointed to the stack of documents on the desk and asked,
“What are all those?”
“I was organizing the marquisate’s budget. It’s five years’ worth, but not a single thing was properly organized, so I’ve been checking everything one by one…”
My lingering regret vanished instantly.
When I left the residence, I was ten years old, so I didn’t know the detailed budget.
However, referencing the original novel, inheriting this wretched household had already become nothing short of a disaster.
I sat down haughtily on one of the chairs prepared in the office.
“So, you’re the one managing the marquis’s household affairs now?”
“Even back in the mercenary corps, everything related to money and documents was my job.”
Rancy sighed and took a seat opposite me. Then, he spoke carefully.
“Well, Milady… The truth is, I have one question to ask and one favor to request…”
“Start with the question.”
“Yes. It’s actually from the budget proposal five years ago… There’s an allocation here listed under ‘Personal Top-Secret Matter—Regarding Brisa.’ It was an entire two years’ worth of the marquisate’s total budget.”
Rancy flipped through the papers, pointed to an entry, and asked,
“For such an enormous amount of money spent, there isn’t a single receipt or breakdown of expenses. Just what on earth was this…? The maids keep repeating that they don’t know anything…”
