Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 14
Odile muttered, her brow furrowing slightly.
I didn’t say it out loud, but I agreed with her.
‘Is someone causing a scene?’
As we drew closer to the infirmary, it became clear that a commotion was unfolding inside.
Odile gripped the door handle with a stiff expression and turned to me.
“Stand behind me, just in case.”
“Understood.”
I hid behind her, clutching the fabric of her skirt just as I often did with my mother.
Perhaps she hadn’t expected me to act so deftly; Odile looked down at me with a rare look of bewilderment.
I tilted my head.
“Is something wrong?”
“……No.”
Odile started to say something but stopped, simply shaking her head.
She turned the handle and pushed the door open.
What was revealed beyond it was…….
“……Ah, I told you to bring our young lady! I’m really going to throw this! Huh? I’ll throw it!”
It was Paul, throwing a tantrum while hoisting a chair high above his head.
‘……It was you.’
I’d had a hunch, but I didn’t expect him to be so predictable.
I reflexively closed my eyes and briefly pictured my mother’s face. Then, as if finally noticing me, Paul called out in a delighted voice.
“Gasp! My lady!”
CRASH!
“Oh, dear! My furniture! It’s all being destroyed!”
A thin wail echoed from inside the infirmary.
Regardless, Paul quickly charged out of the room and thrust his face toward mine, grinning foolishly.
“My lady, where have you been? I woke up and you weren’t there, so I thought you’d been kidnapped to some other place…….”
“Paul, my head is throbbing. Stop talking.”
“Hup.”
When I covered my ears with both hands and frowned, Paul shut his mouth in surprise.
Only then did the surroundings finally become quiet—if one excluded the sound of the doctor sniffling inside the infirmary.
After the chaos subsided, I managed to enter the room and take a seat.
Though I had been taking the medicine prescribed to me, this was the first time I was meeting the doctor face-to-face.
“My chair…….”
The doctor muttered gloomily, staring at a pile of wood scraps in the corner—or what had been a chair until moments ago.
I cleared my throat and quickly changed the subject.
“So, is there anything wrong with Paul’s body?”
“Yes……. His recovery rate is so exceptional that as long as he doesn’t overexert himself, he will be fully healed in no time. As long as he doesn’t, overexert, himself…….”
“Hehe.”
The doctor muttered with a half-dazed expression, and Paul scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
……I wasn’t quite sure why he was acting proud.
Just then, the doctor wiped away his tears and looked back at me with a slightly more relaxed smile.
“The young lady’s health is also quite compromised. However, if you recuperate in a warm place for a few months and keep up with your medicine and meals, you will be able to recover sufficiently. So please, do not worry.”
“……Yes.”
I gave a noncommittal smile at those words.
After all, he didn’t know that my body couldn’t be cured with medicine.
‘I want to tell him it’s like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom…….’
Well, it wasn’t my money, so maybe I shouldn’t care.
I was just beaming at him with that thought in mind when—
“Master, this is…….”
A knock sounded, and the door to the infirmary opened as someone entered.
He paused upon discovering us sitting together in a corner of the room.
‘Ah.’
The first thing to catch my eye was a pair of silver glasses.
A shimmering chain, matching the frames, dangled long and draped behind his neck.
The next thing I noticed was hair as jet-black as the Duke of Esperanza’s.
And silver eyes that looked somewhat hollow.
“……I didn’t realize there would be guests.”
The boy who had entered muttered in a slightly troubled voice.
The way his dark, straight eyebrows furrowed slightly made him look so beautiful that even I, who knew the faces of my mother and Jack Esperanza, was struck with admiration.
‘But why does he look so familiar?’
He was definitely a boy I was seeing for the first time, yet he didn’t feel like a stranger. It was a strange sensation.
As I began to sink into thought, my brow furrowing just as the boy’s had—
The doctor’s voice reached my ears.
“What is it, Lucian?”
Ah.
Only then did I realize who the boy in front of me was, and my mouth parted slightly.
‘Lucian.’
The boy who, in the original story, played a major role in helping the male lead overthrow the Crown Prince later on.
And the child I had to protect.
“Ah, that is…….”
At the doctor’s question, Lucian let out a troubled sound and glanced over at us once.
Clutching a book under one arm, he offered a faint smile and a slight bow of his head.
“It’s nothing. This doesn’t seem like something I should ask while guests are present. I will come back later. Well then.”
Creak, click.
Leaving only those words, Lucian closed the door and vanished.
Seeing Paul blinking in confusion, the doctor laughed heartily as if to mask the awkwardness.
“He is a child sponsored by Esperanza. He tends to be quite shy……. Furthermore, he’s a bit of a germaphobe, so he avoids other people.”
“Aha.”
Paul nodded as if he understood.
I followed suit with a nod, but then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Come to think of it, did the Duke tell Lucian about my plan?’
While others weren’t supposed to know, Lucian was the child who would one day have to inherit the Esperanza Dukedom.
But if things went according to plan, I would soon become a ward and a strong candidate for the Esperanza succession.
Of course, I had told the Duke that I would leave the family with my mother once I became an adult.
‘In reality, I plan to slip away even earlier, as soon as my health worsens.’
But from Lucian’s perspective, wouldn’t it feel like I, a rolling stone, was usurping his position as the settled stone?
‘And if he ends up feeling betrayed by the Duke for bringing me in…….’
The original plot might twist in unnecessary ways.
As soon as that thought hit me, I stood up abruptly without a moment’s hesitation.
“Ah, my lady?”
“What is…….”
“Wait a moment, I’ll just go and greet him properly! Everyone, stay here!”
I shouted the last part with emphasis and dashed out of the infirmary.
Fortunately, there was an open door nearby, and beyond it, I could see Lucian’s back as he crossed the garden.
“Hey!”
Not knowing what to call him, I just threw my voice out and ran.
Whether he recognized the call or not, Lucian paused and turned around.
Whoosh—
A sudden, strong gust of wind sent leaves fluttering.
Against the backdrop of the garden shining bright green in the sunlight, the sight of the black-haired beautiful boy looking at me with wide eyes was, well…….
‘He’s really pretty.’
It was quite impressive.
When I saw him earlier, I thought he was a child who suited the darkness perfectly, but seeing him in this sunlit garden, he suited this just as well.
“Wait, ha, just a moment…….”
I barely caught up to Lucian and stopped running.
The distance from the infirmary to the garden wasn’t far, but seeing as I felt like I was going to lose my breath after just that much running, it seemed my health was steadily declining.
“……Is something the matter?”
After a momentary look of surprise, Lucian composed his expression and asked.
I took a little longer to steady my breathing before I finally managed to part my lips.
“That…….”
But as I tried to speak, my mind felt like it was going blank.
I’d caught him for now, but since I hadn’t properly organized my thoughts, the moment I felt flustered, my thinking seemed to seize up and stop altogether.
“That, uh, I mean.”
Even as I stammered, unable to form a proper sentence, Lucian’s face remained calm.
He didn’t look at me as if I were a fool, nor did he rush me; he just stared at me quietly. That only added to my embarrassment.
In the end, the words jumped out of my mouth before my thoughts could catch up.
“I hope…… you won’t hate me.”
“……Pardon?”
The moment I regained my senses immediately afterward, I wanted to bite my tongue.
‘Wow, how do I fix this?’
What I had meant to say was, “I’ll probably be sponsored by the Esperanza Dukedom like you soon, but I have no interest in your position as successor and will leave on my own when the time comes, so you don’t need to worry.”
How did things end up like this……?
‘……I don’t know. Surely the Duke will explain it well on his own.’
I racked my brain for a solution but couldn’t think of any way to fix the situation.
Ultimately, I decided to leave all the cleanup to the Duke, took a step back, and gave a deep bow.
“It’s nothing. I’m sorry for stopping you. Well then.”
Leaving only those words, I turned around and began to walk away. But in the next moment—
“Wait, a moment……!”
Along with a flustered voice, something grabbed my wrist firmly.
Startled, I turned my head to find Lucian looking at me with an indescribable expression.
