The Isolated Marchioness Just Wants to Make a Living
Chapter 9
* * *
The Western Grand Duchy of Nozen.
In the dead of night, Grand Duke Nozen furrowed his brow.
“What is this?”
Grand Duke Nozen, Hilbery Nozen, was a white-haired old man.
Though robust in build with sharp, defined features, he wore an eyepatch over one eye and walked on a prosthetic leg.
Holding the dense report, he pointed to an item.
“Lumber to be used for rebuilding furniture? Olive wood?”
“Ah, it is nothing you need be overly concerned about,” the aide replied deferentially.
“Since it was lumber that arrived unexpectedly, we decided to purchase it using the estate relief budget. The timber is sturdy and beautiful, setting it apart from ordinary relief supplies, so in a crisis like this, it should do far more to boost the morale of the commoners—”
“Hmm? It came from Sears.”
Stroking his beard, Hilbery narrowed his eyes.
“If I recall correctly, isn’t the new Marquis Sears currently absent?”
The Grand Duchy of Nozen, alongside the Marquisate of Sears, was a venerable noble house recognized among the founding contributors of the Empire.
However, while the continually declining Marquisate of Sears had dwindled until its influence was lesser than even a frontier countdom’s, the Grand Duchy of Nozen had walked the exact opposite path.
Bordering the fertile western granary, the Grand Duchy of Nozen had prospered without end. Thus, not only their wealth and prestige but also their intelligence networks were on an entirely incomparable level.
“I understand it was by Lady Brisa’s order. When a grain merchant barged in demanding debt repayment, she reportedly offered to pay in timber instead.”
“Hmph.”
Hilbery did not know the petty dealings between a mere grain merchant and a marquisate.
Nor was purchasing furniture timber for relief aid an affair worthy of his personal attention.
Under normal circumstances, he would have likely let it pass.
If not for the name Sears—or rather, if not for the girl named Brisa standing behind this unexpected timber.
Hilbery narrowed his eyes and murmured,
“Leopold sent flowers to this child anonymously, didn’t he?”
“……He wished to keep it a secret. He strictly controlled the information.”
“Nothing happens in this land that I do not know. A mere fourteen-year-old cannot pull the wool over my eyes.”
Hilbery exposed the boy’s private affair.
“Especially when it concerns my one and only grandson, the heir who will inherit this estate.”
Leopold Nozen.
The fourteen-year-old heir to the Grand Duchy, who was the spitting image of Hilbery in his youth.
The western Grand Duchy was wealthy, possessing famed granaries and rich mines.
Yet every year, the disaster known as the Monster Wave struck without fail.
This year’s Monster Wave had arrived earlier than usual, and its scale was greater than any recorded in history.
Because of this, Leopold had been deployed straight to the front lines without even being able to attend his Academy graduation ceremony.
Leopold had inherited the innate supernatural power of the Grand Duchy of Nozen to an exceptional degree, making him an indispensable force against the Monster Wave.
“In the midst of all that chaos, while marching toward the battlefield…… flowers…….”
It was an inescapable duty for an heir of Nozen.
Hilbery, too, had lost an eye and a leg in that very struggle. That was why Hilbery had no choice but to send his own grandson to the battlefield.
Even though, ten years ago, his son and daughter-in-law sent to the battlefield had returned as cold corpses.
“W-Well, um…… who knows? Since circumstances prevented him from attending the late Marquis Sears’s funeral, perhaps he was simply looking out for her as an Academy classmate?”
The aide tried desperately to protect the boy’s privacy. All the more so because this was something Hilbery was unlikely to look upon favorably.
“It’s something anyone might do, ahaha. Hahahahaha.”
“…….”
“Hahahahaha.”
“…….”
“Haha.”
The effort failed.
Instead of laughing it off as a trifle, Hilbery raised an eyebrow.
Normally, he wouldn’t have paid the slightest attention. Even if Leopold had sent the girl flowers.
‘The Grand Duchy of Nozen is far too busy to care about some mediocre, unrelated noble house in the Central region.’
Yet this incident was rather intriguing.
“The olives of Sears share their history with the family itself. Felling those olive trees is no simple undertaking.”
Hilbery sifted through his memories.
Had Leopold ever spoken of Brisa during his time at the Academy……
He recalled a conversation they had shared at the Grand Duke’s Residence during the last winter break.
“Your instructor praised you profusely. He said you show a talent especially in appearance, but objectively excel at everything. Oho, since you never missed first place on a single exam, Leopold, graduating as valedictorian is a given. Who do you expect will be salutatorian?”
“The second-place student was also the same in every exam, so I expect it will be that student.”
“Is that so? Who is it?”
“Brisa Seers.”
“I understand that child enrolled two years earlier than the others. And yet she took second in every exam?”
“The results say as much.”
As always, Leopold gave only an impassive, dry reply that revealed nothing of his thoughts.
Instead, his maternal cousin Sylvia, who was beside him, chimed in cheerfully.
“But she practically lives in the library overnight. Seeing how she can’t beat Leo despite putting in that much effort, I think her actual wits are about the same as mine. Right, Leo?”
To which Leopold replied:
“An interesting opinion.”
That was an aristocratic way of saying, ‘What utter nonsense.’
True to an heir of the West, Leopold never wore his true thoughts on his sleeve.
“And she’s so haughty and prickly, she doesn’t even have any friends. She looks gorgeous like a porcelain doll, but I’ve never seen her smile or get excited. She definitely has quite a personality. Don’t you think, Leo?”
“That is debatable.”
That meant, ‘I disagree.’
After shooting Leopold a glare, Sylvia chattered on.
“And her accessories and belongings are top-notch. Most kids would never even imagine that the Marquisate of Sears is practically ruined. Hmm, maybe she doesn’t even know it herself?”
“Sylvia.”
Leopold spoke without a shift in expression.
“Don’t you think this duck is overcooked?”
That meant, ‘I don’t want to hear any more of your nonsense.’
Back then, Hilbery had let it pass without a second thought, but thinking about it now……
“I must send an informant to Sears.”
Hilbery raised an eyebrow and ordered,
“I need to see for myself.”
The old man’s single remaining golden eye gleamed placidly.
“It seems Leopold holds that child in high regard. I shall see whether she is worthy of my evaluation as well.”
* * *
A few days later, the Marquisate of Sears.
“The Marquis will probably arrive today, right?”
Today was the day Alpheus was scheduled to return.
Philip bustled about as he planted the remaining seed potatoes.
“As long as he catches the warp gate on time, he’ll be here this afternoon.”
When I didn’t answer, Philip chuckled awkwardly and added,
“Wendy…… Lord Alpheus will probably give her a harsh scolding.”
Wendy had been excused from working the potato field.
No one was taking the punishment I had handed down to her seriously.
“We’re not completely shameless bastards, you know.”
Philip seemed to have forgotten how impudently he had defied me at first.
“She’s just like that. She worships Lord Alpheus so much that she crossed the line.”
Looking over the ‘former Olive Plains’ that had now turned into a seed potato field, I let out a soft sigh.
Up to this point, I could clean things up by playing it off as an act of temporary madness.
‘I can just be the crazy one—I just hope Alpheus comes back.’
I truly hoped there wouldn’t be the early-novel hardship where everyone begins to starve.
Yet even as afternoon came and went, Alpheus did not return.
Instead, in the middle of the night, one of the men from Alpheus’s elite squad stumbled into the Marquis’s estate.
“It seems the Marquis will be delayed considerably longer than expected,” he said with an agonized expression.
“Right now, the Marquis has…… suddenly departed for the East to rescue the 2nd Prince. He sent only me back to deliver word of the situation.”
I pressed a hand to my forehead and sighed.
Just as expected, it was exactly what I knew of the future.
Rancy, who had been working late as usual, rushed over in a panic.
“The East? Why on earth did everyone suddenly go to the East?”
Alpheus’s knight gasped for breath and replied,
“They say a Monster Wave has begun in the Eastern Sea. The sponsor of the reward—no, the 2nd Prince—is trapped there…… and the 2nd Prince is the only one who can formally recognize the Marquis’s achievements in the northern war.”
It was progressing just like the original work.
I decided not to doubt it any longer.
It was true: I knew the future.
Fortunately, I had been preparing for it accordingly.
“We couldn’t return empty-handed like this, and the two of them are comrades-in-arms besides. So the Marquis had no choice but to go there.”
“No, why did the 2nd Prince go there in the first place? Shouldn’t he be at the victory banquet? Why on earth would someone of such high standing go out there again?”
According to the original novel, the 2nd Prince—competent, yet born of a commoner imperial concubine—falls into a trap laid by the Crown Prince and dies in the East right around this time.
“How would I know? It’s probably the orders of someone higher up, I suppose……. Still, with the warp gates, wouldn’t he be back within three days?”
Three days, my foot. The instability of the warp gates is only just beginning.
‘Even this knight was delayed by half a day…….’
Warp gates operate on mana. When monsters imbued with mana surface, their function is bound to be disrupted.
And just like that, the trouble began first thing the very next morning.
