Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 19
“……Pardon?”
Gretel doubted her ears for a moment.
Because the face Jack wore as he uttered those words was utterly serene, she was forced to assume she had misheard him.
However, Jack spoke once more, driving the point home.
“What I want from you is a contract. To be precise, a contract disguised as a marriage.”
“That, what does that……”
Gretel murmured in confusion.
Ever since Jack had opened the door to the drawing room and stepped inside, everything had been a blur of questions.
Just then, Jack reached into his coat and pulled something out.
This time, it wasn't a handkerchief, but a small envelope.
“Read it.”
“……What is this?”
“You'll see when you read it. I can't let you keep it, as the Marquis might find it.”
Jack pushed the envelope toward Gretel and gave a nonchalant nod.
Gretel hesitated before picking up the envelope and unfolding the paper inside.
“……\!”
Immediately after.
Her grip tightened on the stationery like a bolt of lightning. Her navy-blue eyes flew open in shock.
The hand holding the paper trembled like an aspen leaf.
As soon as that familiar handwriting entered her vision, the tears she had barely managed to stop came bursting out again.
“Ah……”
It was a letter from Laviella.
「Mom, it’s me.
I’m sorry for the late contact. I didn’t have a proper way to send word, so I had no choice. Still, I’m sorry again.
It must have been very hard and scary, right? I’m safe. Are you hurt anywhere, Mom? I hope Gilbert-ajeossi didn’t treat you poorly.
I have so many more things I want to ask, but the Duke who brought this letter will explain the details.
It really won’t be much longer until we can meet again.
So please, just wait until then. It’ll be a short time—only about as long as it takes for you to bake pancakes ten times.
……I love you, Mom.」
Gretel struggled to suppress the urge to clench her fist, barely managing to read until the final line of the letter.
She couldn't even begin to fathom the heart of the child who, having never once written the words “I love you” on paper because she found it embarrassing, had penned them now.
“……You must explain, Duke, exactly what is going on.”
Her throat was so thick with sobs that it was hard to breathe.
Yet, Gretel desperately squeezed the words out.
Jack felt a slight thrill as he witnessed her navy eyes, which had been hollow just moments ago, fill with a vivid resolve.
He let out a short, dry laugh.
The empty, doll-like face she had shown when they first met was nowhere to be found.
Gretel now wore a face similar to the one he had heard about from Paul.
The face of one who fiercely lives out their life.
And that face was, well……
‘I like it, that look.’
It was a little—no, quite attractive.
Enough so that it was only natural for a man to feel a sense of favor.
But now was not the time to be deep in thought about such emotions.
It wasn't even that deep a feeling to begin with. It was a sensation similar to watching a butterfly flit past a window for a moment.
Jack leaned his upper body toward Gretel, his expression hardening.
He spoke in a grave tone.
“Lady Gretel Diarmuid.”
Beneath his black hair, his red eyes shone with a lethal menace, yet were simultaneously captivating.
“Listen carefully to what I am about to say.”
*
*
*
Meanwhile, at that same time.
“My name is Ella. I’m hungry, could you please give me some food?”
Laviella was standing in front of an orphanage near the Capital, reaching out her hand toward a staff member.
She was dressed in grimy clothes that looked ready to fall apart at the seams, and her face was even smeared with soot she had scavenged from somewhere.
3. The Children of That Orphanage
The time was about half a day before Laviella arrived at the front gate of the orphanage.
“Here.”
Before heading to the Diarmuid Marquisate, Laviella suddenly held out an envelope to Jack as he was adjusting his cravat.
Jack paused in the middle of fastening his cufflinks and looked back at the child in bewilderment.
“What is this?”
“Please give it to Mom. And don’t open it.”
“Hmm.”
Taking the envelope, Jack narrowed his eyes and stared down at it.
After a moment of silence, he glanced at Laviella once, then pointedly held the envelope up to the light as if to peer through it.
Seeing this, Laviella gasped and lunged for Jack's leg.
“What are you doing\!”
“I’m curious about what you wrote.”
“That’s why\! I told you, *huff*, not to be curious\!”
“Why? Did you write some kind of love confession or something?”
“Stop trying to fish for it\! *Huff*, just give it to me\!”
“……Are you seriously out of breath from just that little bit of jumping? Incredible. Are you sure you’re taking your medicine? You aren’t throwing it away in secret, are you? That stuff is quite expensive.”
“I am taking it\!”
Laviella huffed indignantly, a rare sight for her, as she hopped up and down on the spot to reclaim the envelope in Jack's hand.
However, Jack held his hand even higher, looking down at the child and laughing heartily.
‘……He wasn't originally that kind of person.’
Serpen, who had been watching the scene from the side with his jacket draped over his arm, shuddered as if his entire body were crawling with goosebumps.
It wasn't that Jack Esperanza was a man of few laughs—though, of course, most of the smiles he showed were sneers.
At any rate, Jack Esperanza certainly had a fierce impression, but he wasn't someone who lacked a sense of humor.
However, seeing Jack smile so innocently without any hidden agenda was nothing short of miraculous, even to Serpen, who had been by his side for nearly ten years.
‘Though to say there's no agenda, that’s clearly the face of someone who wants to tease……’
Serpen watched Jack, whose grin looked ready to split his face, with dry, unimpressed eyes before slowly lowering his gaze.
There, his eyes fell upon Laviella, who was puffing out her cheeks and shouting back, unlike her usual self.
Inwardly, Serpen empathized with Jack.
‘With a face like that, it's no wonder he wants to tease her.’
After all, the only child Jack had kept somewhat close until now was Lucian.
But Lucian, from his earliest years until now, had shown a cold and chilling side that could never be seen as childlike at any moment. To the point where it felt somewhat alien.
Of course, Laviella was also an unbelievably calm and detached child.
But unlike Lucian, the important point was that if you teased her, you got a reaction.
‘……And she is cute.’
Perhaps it was because she was the daughter of Gretel Diarmuid, who had been praised in her youth as the greatest beauty in the Empire.
Laviella also possessed delicate, dainty features.
The sight of her huffing and puffing with indignation with such a face was cute enough for even Serpen to agree.
“If you’re so upset, grow taller. Right now, you look way too small for a nine-year-old.”
After teasing Laviella to his heart's content for a while, Jack lowered his hand and ruffled the child's hair haphazardly.
Laviella, whose curls were already messy to begin with, now had hair that was even more disheveled. She glared at him, her eyes sharp as she growled.
“Duke, have you ever even given me a single glass of milk to help me grow? No, you haven’t.”
“Shall I?”
“……Never mind.”
Jack picked up an empty glass sitting on the desk and shook it teasingly.
Laviella, seemingly deciding that further bickering was pointless, let out a deep sigh and turned her head away.
“Anyway, please deliver that letter to Mom. I’ll be at the orphanage as we discussed.”
“……Will you really be alright?”
The traces of laughter on Jack's face instantly vanished, replaced by a look of concern.
“Still, maybe you should see Gretel Diarmuid’s face before you go……”
“You know yourself how nonsensical that sounds right now, don’t you?”
“……”
“As long as the Marquis of Diarmuid has begun to weigh the possibility of a marriage alliance with the Duke of Esperanza, he will try to find me even faster.”
Laviella's face became infinitely cold, unlike just moments ago.
When she reacted to Jack's teasing, she at least looked like a nine-year-old child.
Now, she gave off the feeling Jack had felt when he first saw her—like an elderly person standing at the final crossroads of life.
Following his deal with Laviella, Jack had sent a second letter to the Diarmuid Marquisate after the first.
He claimed that his previous request for a meeting was actually to discuss a marriage with Gretel Diarmuid, and thus, he wished to meet her during this visit.
In the original story, the reason the Marquis of Diarmuid had sent Gretel to the Brian Dukedom was that no other ducal family had given him even the slightest opening.
The Marquis of Diarmuid was no fool.
He, too, would not have wanted to become the power behind a newly established dukedom that had no prestige, no wealth, and didn't even carry the blood of the Imperial family.
However, the other ducal families the Marquis had his eye on, including the Esperanza Dukedom, had no intention of letting the blood of a mere merchant like Diarmuid mix with their families, so they had thoroughly ignored the Marquis's marriage proposals.
That was why the original Marquis of Diarmuid had been left with no choice but the 'Brian Dukedom.'
