Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 16
He looked at me with a dazed expression, so I restated my point in a firm voice.
“My mother dislikes people like you, Duke.”
“……I’ve never even confessed to the Lady of Diarmuid, so why do I feel like I’ve just been rejected?”
“Anyway, my mother does not care for men like you, and she already has a child—me. Therefore, she won’t have even a speck of desire to produce an heir with you.”
Of course, Mom didn’t know about this plan yet, but I could say this much with certainty.
It was because Mom always clenched her fists and muttered that she would ‘never marry again.’
‘……It’s probably because of the shock of losing Dad at the hands of the Marquis.’
However, I didn’t particularly want to share that part with the Duke.
The Duke also occasionally showed signs of curiosity about how I had lived before coming here, yet he never pressed for details.
“So, request a contract marriage in exchange for taking my mother out of Marquis Diarmuid’s reach. Tell her you need her to be a shield to deflect the pressure for marriage and an heir until Lucian inherits the title.”
“But if the Marquis’s goal is the actual power of the Dukedom, he will surely try to interfere with the family through your mother.”
“That’s why it’s your job, Duke, to make sure Marquis Diarmuid can never touch my mother again during the contract period.”
Even if I were to die and the contract between Mom and the Duke ended, the Marquis had to be rendered unable to lay a finger on her. Only then would this be meaningful.
“……But to do that, for the several years of the contract, you and the Lady would have to ignore each other and hide the fact that you are biological mother and daughter in front of others.”
“…….”
“Will you be okay with that?”
At the Duke’s question, I reflexively fell silent.
Inevitably, a corner of my heart began to ache.
‘……Right, I suppose so.’
There were many who coveted the position of the Duchess of Esperanza.
The more people there were who desired something limited, the more criteria for being deemed ‘suitable’ for that position would inevitably increase.
For the contract marriage between Mom and the Duke to succeed, Mom must publicly appear to have no children.
If it were known that he was bringing in a woman as the Duchess of Esperanza who had already been married once—even if only in a simple ceremony—and had a child, the vassals and nobles alike would rise up in protest.
The Duke asked me because he knew this as well.
“……It’s a necessary thing.”
I clenched my fists tight and replied stoically.
My sorrow was merely a meaningless emotion that would be buried in the ground and crumble away when I died.
Saving Mom was more important than a childish heart that would disappear anyway.
The Duke, who had been watching me quietly with his head tilted, parted his lips.
“Then what about you?”
His red eyes watching me were meaningful.
Feeling as though he might strip away my innermost thoughts, I quickly put on a smile.
“You have to protect me as well, of course. I have no desire to die after being used by the Marquis either.”
“……Hmm.”
“While you are preparing for the wedding with my mother, I will stay at a nearby orphanage. Then, while you are touring the area on your honeymoon after the wedding, you can say you met an angelic child like me and felt moved to sponsor me…….”
“Pfft.”
At that, the Duke hastily covered his mouth with one hand and bowed his head. A suppressed laugh leaked through his teeth.
Because of that, the serious atmosphere I had worked so hard to establish shattered in an instant.
Watching the Duke’s shoulders tremble, I felt a twinge of annoyance.
I furrowed my brows and tilted my head.
“Exactly what part of what I said was funny?”
“No, an an…… angel? You?”
“Is it funny?”
“……No, it’s not. Pfft.”
“Why don’t you just laugh openly? It’s more offensive when you try to hold it in.”
“Pfft, puhaha!”
In the end, the Duke began to roar with laughter, his voice filling the dining room.
I didn’t need a mirror to know that my expression was souring by the second.
……Is it really okay to let Mom marry this man?
Meanwhile, while Laviella and Jack were bickering in the dining room.
Lucian was sitting askew on the windowsill of his room in the annex.
“…….”
The room was flooded with bluish moonlight.
The boy, sitting with one leg folded up on the windowsill, boasted a grace as elegant as a painting.
Leaning his head against the window and looking outside, his silver glasses sparkled like jewels.
His silver eyes, set beneath lids that looked as if they were drawn with a delicate brush, were as beautiful as if they had been crafted from moonlight itself.
However, Lucian’s face was devoid of expression.
He gazed at the night sky, then suddenly lowered his gaze to look at the main building, which was brightly lit.
His red lips suddenly moved.
“……When I only heard your words, I thought it was just a hollow old tale.”
The image of the girl he had seen during the day faintly appeared on the windowpane.
Lucian pulled up one corner of his mouth and smiled languidly.
“To think such a child actually exists.”
As soon as those words fell, light sparkled in the air, and a purple butterfly fluttered its wings before landing on his fingertip.
Flutter—
Every time the butterfly flapped its wings, light scattered like sparkling dust; it was truly a fantastic sight.
As the butterfly fluttered, a voice—neither clearly male nor female—spoke inside his head.
-I had only heard that such things were possible; I never expected to actually see it.
“Hmm…….”
A rare look of interest flickered in Lucian’s eyes, which usually appeared empty.
He stared quietly at his other palm, where the butterfly hadn’t landed, and lightly clenched and unclenched his fist.
‘A Cursed Soul in this world.’
[Hey!]
The image of the girl who had chased after him earlier that day was still vivid in his mind.
The smile that had been lingering on his lips slowly faded.
In all his life, Lucian had never once thought that anyone resembled him.
But the moment he first saw the girl.
Ridiculously, Lucian was able to understand for the first time the meaning of the words he had heard all his life: ‘The child is not like a child.’
“……Her eyes looked like someone who is already dead.”
At Lucian’s involuntary murmur, the butterfly fluttered its wings in agreement.
-Do you finally understand? Why I usually nag you? You act like someone who will just drop dead the moment your revenge is fulfilled.
“Even when I say I won’t, you don’t believe me, so I don’t know what else you want me to do.”
-Be quiet, you sly brat. Do you think I don’t know what’s inside you?
As the butterfly began to pour out its nagging in earnest again, Lucian let the words go in one ear and out the other as he turned his gaze out the window.
‘I wonder how much time is left.’
[Wait, just a second……!]
The reason Lucian had caught the girl, Laviella, earlier that day wasn’t for a cute reason like flower petals.
It was because of the moment Laviella turned around.
It was because of the terrible aura of death he felt coming from behind her.
To confirm it, Lucian had reflexively grabbed Laviella’s wrist, and he had confirmed the murky energy that filled her body.
Furthermore, he sensed that the death pooling in the area where his hand touched had momentarily receded.
-You.
Just then, the butterfly stopped nagging and took flight.
Approaching right in front of Lucian’s eyes, the butterfly asked.
-Don’t tell me you’re feeling sympathy? Are you planning to heal her?
Lucian’s shoulders flinched the moment he heard that.
It was a very brief moment of agitation, so quick that even he might not have noticed.
But Lucian soon let out a small, mocking laugh as if nothing had happened.
“As if I’m crazy. If this ability were discovered, there are more than enough people in the world who would tear me limb from limb and consume every shard of my bone and every drop of my blood.”
Grisly words, unbefitting of a child, spilled from his mouth.
However, none of it was an exaggeration.
Lucian stared quietly at the butterfly fluttering before him, then suddenly reached out and squeezed his hand shut as if to crush it.
Yet the butterfly soon drifted through the back of his hand and continued to flap about.
-What a nasty fellow.
“Shut it, old man.”
-How many times must I tell you that no matter how much you want to tear me apart, you cannot get rid of me? The power of a god is absolute.
“……That’s exactly why you can’t escape being treated like an old man.”
-What!
As Lucian sneered with a crooked smile, the butterfly protested fiercely.
Regardless, Lucian, who had returned to an expressionless mask, stood up and drew the curtains.
With a rustling sound, the room was submerged in complete darkness.
It was just as Lucian closed his eyes to feel the cozy dark.
“Young Master, are you in?”
Knock, knock. The sound of knocking broke his peace. His straight brows twitched uncomfortably.
But it was not yet time to reveal his claws.
At least until he completely held the Esperanza Dukedom in his hands and thrust a sword into the chests of those who had brutally murdered his family, he had to keep his head down and endure.
Lucian furrowed his brow, but responded to the call with a voice that was nothing short of kind.
“What is it?”
“Ah, you were inside. The Duke is looking for you. He asked me to bring you to his office.”
“……I’ll be right there.”
