Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 15
An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment.
Lucian, belatedly flustered, pulled his hand back.
“Ah, I apologize. It’s just… there was a petal stuck in your hair.”
“Oh.”
Only after hearing those words did Lucian’s actions make sense.
I lowered my head to check my hair, and just as he said, a small petal was clinging to the ends.
“Thank you for letting me know.”
I brushed it off with a smile, then paused.
‘…But didn’t they say he has a bit of a germaphobia?’
And yet, he grabbed a girl he only met today just to tell her there was a petal in her hair?
‘Hmm.’
Something felt suspicious, but then again, Lucian likely found me just as suspicious.
I brushed off the sense of incongruity as a mere misunderstanding.
“Well then, please head inside.”
“……Yes.”
I offered a parting greeting and turned back toward the infirmary. All the while, I felt as if a gaze were following my back.
Well, it was probably just my imagination again.
That evening. At the Duke’s request, I joined him for dinner.
Because we had been wary of outside eyes, I had been eating all my meals in my room until now. The dining hall I visited for the first time was so dazzling it made my head spin.
Eating in a place like this, I felt like I wouldn’t even know if the food was going into my mouth or my nose because I’d be too busy staring at the surroundings.
The Duke, who had arrived first and was sitting at the head of the table, nodded toward me.
“You’re here? Sit—.”
The Duke, who was gesturing toward the seat next to him while wiping his hands with a damp cloth, paused.
Then, he suddenly rose from his seat and strode toward me.
“What are you— ack.”
“This chair is higher than the sofa.”
I wondered what he was doing, but the Duke simply picked me up—just like last time—and plopped me right into the seat beside him.
I was grateful, but since I felt like I was being treated like a piece of luggage, I muttered grumpily.
“It’s a bit unsightly, but I can climb up on my own.”
“That is precisely the problem. It hurts my eyes.”
“The nerve…”
“……What does that mean?”
“It roughly means you’re being obnoxious. Anyway, thank you.”
I gave a half-hearted nod and turned my attention to the plate.
At that, the Duke let out a dry laugh and propped his chin on his hand over the table.
Tilting his head slightly, he asked.
“Your way of speaking seems to have become quite casual.”
“It just means the atmosphere here is that comfortable and pleasant.”
“……I swear, the way you wag your tongue is no ordinary feat.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.”
……If I throw this fork, I’ll get kicked out, right? But why are there so many forks?
I glared at the forks lined up beside my plate, but since I couldn’t decide which one to throw, I gave up. It was a pity.
“Let’s stop the wordplay and eat.”
Soon, following the Duke’s lead, hot dishes began to fill the table.
The meals I’d had in my room were excellent, but the food brought straight to the dining hall was on a different level of presentation.
My jaw dropped at the sight of a roasted duck… or perhaps a turkey, nearly the size of my own head.
However, the Duke picked up his fork and knife composedly, as if this were just daily life.
“Shall I cut it for you?”
“……Why are you asking when you’re already cutting it?”
“I asked out of politeness. Eat.”
The Duke personally carved the meat and placed it on my front plate.
After some deliberation, I picked up the smallest fork that fit my hand and put a piece in my mouth.
“……!”
For a moment, I forgot I was in front of the Duke and almost cried out in surprise.
It was because the meat melted away so tenderly that I didn’t even have to chew properly.
My expression naturally turned serious. I stared at the roasted bird—the one with its side now hollowed out—and fell into thought.
‘I knew from the original novel’s descriptions that the Esperanza family was incredibly wealthy.’
But I hadn’t realized I would feel it so viscerally just through a meal.
Perhaps I had messed with a family even more formidable than I thought.
‘Well, it’ll suit Mom well.’
Mom was originally someone who lived a life where things like this were natural.
In fact, this might be better.
I continued the meal, trying my best not to look awkward.
However, throughout the dinner, the Duke constantly carved new dishes into appropriate sizes, placed them on my plate, and spoke with a dissatisfied face.
“Why can you only eat this much? Eat more.”
‘……Is he provoking me?’
To call it consideration, his condescending attitude was quite grating.
I also wondered if he was hinting that I was eating too much.
Glancing down, I could see that the dress, which had been tailored perfectly to my body, was now bulging.
Hmm, if I eat just a little more, it might burst.
Anyway, because the Duke kept throwing these provocations-that-weren’t-quite-provocations, a strange stubbornness flared up, and I cleared every bit of food he handed me.
‘I’m full.’
Once the feast was over, the servants brought out something in small dishes.
Thinking it might be chocolate, I peered into the small glass-like dish to find it filled with a yellow, liquid-like substance.
However, even when I shook the glass slightly, it didn’t ripple much; it seemed to be neither a liquid nor a solid.
“……Is this soup?”
After much deliberation, I swallowed my pride and asked the Duke, who looked at me with an ambiguous expression.
He muttered something softly.
“……To think you are ostensibly the child of a Marquis, I wonder how you were raised for you to be like this.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
His voice was too low for me to hear.
But instead of answering my question directly, the Duke explained something else.
“This is called custard pudding. You eat it with the smallest spoon next to it.”
“Oh…….”
Following the Duke’s instructions, I picked up the smallest spoon and carefully scooped the pudding.
The jiggly sensation was almost startling, yet somehow pleasant.
As I put a spoonful of pudding into my mouth, my eyes widened at the texture I was experiencing for the first time.
“……Hoh.”
After a small exclamation of wonder, I busily moved my spoon to eat the pudding.
Before I knew it, there were two puddings in front of me.
The Duke had pushed his toward me.
“Now, about your plan.”
I had suspected the Duke hadn’t invited me to dinner simply to watch me eat, and sure enough.
As the meal was coming to an end, he finally opened his mouth.
‘Time to earn my keep.’
I paused and set down the spoon. The Duke looked at me with a somewhat disappointed face.
“What is it?”
“……Nothing. Anyway, what specifically do you intend to do? For now, I’ve received a reply from the Marquis regarding when he would like to meet.”
“Hmm……”
As I sat in thought, my eyebrows furrowed slightly.
‘Wait. Even so, the Marquis sent a reply this quickly?’
It had only been about three days since I proposed the deal to the Duke. In that time, he had supposedly weighed how to handle the deal with me, sent a letter to the Marquis, and already received a reply.
Chronologically, it seemed impossible.
I narrowed my eyes and gave the Duke a disgruntled look.
“I suppose while I was unconscious, you were only busy plotting how to send me back to the Marquis’s estate.”
“Rather than plotting, let’s call it the standard operating procedure for when one finds a lost child.”
‘As if…….’
He shouldn’t be the one telling me my way of speaking is extraordinary.
From what I could see, the Duke was the one who could probably grind a person down with words alone.
Anyway, I shook my head and continued.
“So to summarize, Marquis Diarmuid wants to use my mother as leverage to control the Duchy. And you, Your Grace, are in a position where you must safely hand over the title to Lucian once he becomes an adult.”
“That’s right.”
The Duke nodded.
I fell into deep thought, folding my fingers one by one.
Then, based on the descriptions in the novel and the information I had gleaned from Paul, I began to lay out the story.
“Certainly, from Your Grace’s perspective, marriage could be a dangerous gamble. Someone who manages to secure the position of the Duchess of Esperanza wouldn’t lack ambition for the succession.”
“……Indeed.”
The Duke laughed bitterly. It likely meant I was right.
The Esperanza family is one of the few ducal houses in the Empire.
Furthermore, as the head of the Imperial Faction, its reputation was exceedingly high. High enough that even Marquis Diarmuid was salivating with greed.
The world is vast, and surely there are many like Marquis Diarmuid.
There were many seeking to push their daughters into the position of the Duchess of Esperanza, and their ultimate goal was usually to have their daughter bear the heir to the Esperanza Duchy.
Therefore, if the Duke were to marry someone, the risk of the title being stolen from Lucian was extremely high.
For Lucian’s sake, the Duke needed to remain without children of his own.
But that was exactly why there was room for me to offer him a deal.
“My mother dislikes people like you, Your Grace.”
“Cough. ……What?”
The Duke, who had been drinking water, choked on it at my words and began to cough.
