The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 8
“They know too. They’re just pretending not to. It’s hardly an expenditure to be proud of, so I hope you’ll pretend not to know as well.”
I said nonchalantly.
“That was money spent on my engagement five years ago. It went into behind-the-scenes arrangements, so I deliberately kept the details vague.”
Rancy nearly tumbled out of his chair.
A look of utter disbelief flashed across his eyes.
“What? Your engagement, my lady?”
“That’s what I said.”
“No, wait—does getting engaged at seven years old even make any sense?”
He added with a groan,
“And spending a fortune like this to boot… Good heavens, what kind of lunatic would do such a—”
“My mother orchestrated it.”
Having spoken the truth, Rancy smacked his own mouth hard.
“I must’ve been possessed by Wendy for a second there.”
He had to be in a total panic.
I dropped an even more shocking remark on him.
“The engagement’s been broken off anyway. I handled everything, so you don’t need to worry about it. The notice of termination arrived the very day Alpheus became Marquis.”
Rancy clutched the back of his head.
“Don’t tell me they asked to break it off the moment you were no longer the heir of Sears? Does that make any sense?!”
“It would make even less sense to stay engaged when the terms no longer match.”
“No, but who on earth weighs every single calculation just to ensure they don’t lose a single coin in a marriage?!”
“My parents.”
I explained calmly.
“Mother was a penniless princess of a fallen kingdom, so she had no choice but to marry a divorcee ten years her senior. And Father, as you know, went around openly proclaiming that he wanted to pass the marquisate down to his missing eldest son, which meant he couldn’t marry any respectable imperial noble lady.”
It was a political marriage made on equally dismal terms.
“It was a precise match between two people who had prominent names but nothing of actual substance. On paper, neither held the slightest advantage over the other.”
“B-B-But…”
“Besides, well, my fiancé…”
I murmured bitterly,
“He was never particularly keen on the engagement in the first place. The scales were heavily tipped from the start, so I never expected it to go smoothly all the way to marriage.”
Catching his breath, Rancy barely managed to ask:
“M-M-My lady… Are you… are you all right?”
I furrowed my brow slightly. The question felt alien to me.
Only after a moment did I realize that no one had ever asked me, “Are you all right?”
The maids never asked such things. They wouldn’t dare say something like that.
And my parents…
“Everyone dislikes a whining child, Rancy.”
I answered evenly.
“When a child isn’t okay, adults just find it bothersome.”
The truth was, I hadn’t been okay on the day of the engagement ceremony either. I simply hadn’t been able to tell anyone.
“That’s enough of this topic. What else did you want to ask of me?”
“Suddenly, I don’t feel like asking anymore. I have some tact, you know.”
“Then you must have also noticed that if you don’t ask right now, I won’t let you off easy for making me feel wretchedly pitied.”
“B-But if I ask you now, I feel like a corner of my conscience will be terribly uncomfortable…”
“Which ultimately means several other corners of your conscience will feel better if you just ask, so spit it out.”
When I retorted mercilessly, Rancy sighed and spoke with caution.
“Th-Then, my lady, though I am truly sorry… could I ask you to… look into educating the maids?”
I could tell he was frantically choosing his words, terrified of offending me.
“The maids in the marquis’s residence are being excessively dismissive of Lord Alpheus and all of us who serve him.”
The very fact that he brought up such a request could be seen as an acknowledgment of my authority.
“Having the master they served pushed out of the succession overnight… we understand now that it couldn’t have been pleasant. But from our perspective, we can’t look kindly on maids who do nothing but talk without a clue about how the world works, all while the house is drowning in debt.”
Having said this much, Rancy cautiously gauged my reaction.
I slowly held up two fingers.
“I have two things to say to that. First, you’re right that my maids know nothing of the world.”
“You already knew? Good heavens!”
Rancy’s eyes widened.
I said coolly,
“But that is precisely why they remain here. If you’ve looked over the budget, you must know how many months their wages are overdue.”
Rancy looked as if he had been struck over the head.
“Everyone who knew how the world works has already left. The only maids who stayed are those for whom the pride and honor of serving the last bloodline of the Riente royalty matters more than a paycheck.”
The Kingdom of Riente had fallen to the Kingdom of Sebon before I was even born.
Right before the kingdom’s demise, the king hurriedly sent his youngest, the Fifth Princess, to Marquis Sears, a high noble of the Empire. It was in the desperate hope that at least his youngest daughter might survive.
Even that mother of mine had passed away. Thus, I was officially the only direct royal bloodline of Riente remaining.
“Riente’s history is longer than the Empire’s. But for ages, Riente neglected practical studies and valued only luxury and empty vanity.”
“I-Is that so? But they shouldn’t have done that, right?”
“That’s why it fell.”
I calmly laid bare the shame of my mother’s family.
“Even so, to those girls, my every move is an honor they must uphold. I know it might seem ridiculous to you.”
I was their pride.
That held greater value to them than any wage I could offer.
That was why they weren’t naive children—they were Riente people who had come with my mother.
“Still, wouldn’t it be better not to scoff so easily at a person’s unwavering convictions? Which brings me to my second point.”
Gazing at Rancy, whose mouth hung slightly open, I continued evenly.
“Tell me when you are able to pay all their back wages. Then, I will educate them properly just as you asked.”
It meant: if you want to boss them around, pay up first.
“Tell them that a single coin in their hand is more precious than an uncreased hem on their master’s skirt.”
“…No.”
The budget manager’s silence gave way to a swift answer.
“For now, your uncreased skirt hem is far more precious to all of us.”
And just like that, Rancy decided to align his soul with the maids.
“Very well.”
I magnanimously accepted Rancy’s change of heart.
“I’ll take my leave now, then.”
Feeling that there was nothing more to say, I quietly stood up.
Rancy forgot even his indignation.
This clever child understood the price of the fine clothes she wore.
She was no mere ringleader of babbling maids. She was pulling her own weight, as demanded by the marquisate’s crushing debts.
If the maids were gone right now, who would run this estate?
“I-I’ll see you out.”
Rancy hastily stood and followed after Brisa.
Yet the moment he opened the door, he encountered a maid waiting for her.
Observing Brisa’s expression, the maid immediately whispered to Rancy:
“The young lady looks bitter. Did you bring up the broken engagement by any chance?”
‘Sharp as a demon. How did she know?’
Just as Rancy blinked in surprise—
“Don’t go pitying our young lady. It’s not as though she merely dealt with the cancellation notice in secret. The moment the engagement fell through, an anonymous bouquet arrived.”
The maid said haughtily,
“Receiving a marriage proposal from that young lord will be child’s play.”
Rancy’s jaw dropped.
“In fact, she might even forge a marriage alliance with a house of far greater standing!”
‘Surely she’s not saying that as comfort right now, is she?’
Rancy lamented internally.
He could roughly piece together what had transpired in this household.
While the tactless maids showered her with misguided affection, the child had grown up too soon, entirely on her own.
If Alpheus learned of this, he would weep for three days and three nights. For Alpheus, too, was a child who had grown up too fast.
“Brisa must have missed having family too. Look what she gave me.”
Before leaving for the capital, Alpheus had proudly shown off a withered herb.
“She was only shaken by today’s shock. I’m sure she’s a sweet, kind child just like me. I want to see her again soon, blow up balloons for her in the garden, and play together. If I bring back soap bubbles from the capital as a surprise gift, she’ll love it, right?”
Growing up too quickly was the very thing Alpheus had worried about so deeply before he left.
“I really don’t want my little sister to become an adult too quickly…”
Yet, sadly, one thing was certain.
‘My Lord Marquis, you’ll have to blow those bubbles by yourself.’
Even with the greatest stretch of imagination, if the two of them ever shared that moment, it would undoubtedly look more like Brisa playing along to humor Alpheus.
