‘Well, what am I supposed to say to this?’
She slowly raised her head and looked at Ludville.
“……Isn’t this a rather one-sided clause?”
At her words, Ludville merely raised an eyebrow slightly and asked back with an expressionless face.
“Do you have a problem with it?”
His tone was calm, and his emotions were impossible to read, but there was something strangely persistent about him.
Odely thought for a moment before shaking her head.
“No, I don’t.”
This clause was not disadvantageous only to Odely.
Ludville himself often disappeared without saying a word and doing whatever he pleased.
If she could use it as a clause to keep an eye on him, it was not so bad.
‘At least I can stop him from running off to the Monster Forest by himself.’
Odely silently accepted the contract.
“I’d like to add another clause, too. Could you lend me the fountain pen?”
And Odely also wrote a new clause on the spot.
[Article 9. Completely exclude personal feelings and treat each other accordingly.]
Odely pushed the contract back toward Ludville before the ink had even dried.
“It’s a political marriage, so there won’t be any emotional involvement.”
“…….”
“To put it bluntly, I mean that there’s no chance I’ll fall in love with Your Highness.”
“There’s no chance you’ll fall in love?”
“I thought it would be better to clearly state even the smallest things.”
The smallest things.
Ludville did not answer.
His eyes remained on the contract, but his thoughts had already drifted beyond that sentence.
After a long while, he answered in an unusually low and dry voice.
“……Is that so.”
“I believe Your Highness will agree with me on that point as well. If emotions get involved, a contract can easily become meaningless.”
Though, in the first place, emotions could not really be controlled by a contract.
Even so, Odely had to draw a line like this.
A minimal safeguard to prevent Ludville from developing feelings for her beyond what was necessary.
‘No, even if he does develop feelings…… I hope it’s only enough for him to be sad over my death for a while, then eventually let go and live on.’
That would be enough.
Everyone lived that way.
Even after losing someone they loved, time moved on, and in the end, everyone went on living their own lives.
She hoped he would do the same, living an ordinary life like everyone else.
That way, she could leave without worrying.
Ludville silently stared down at the contract before slowly raising his gaze.
“You seem to have the ability to control your emotions, Lady Cardel. You can even decide things like this in advance.”
He spoke in a plain voice without any change in tone.
And yet, somehow, it sounded strangely sarcastic.
“Of course, I can’t control my emotions however I want, but I can hide them so they never show. That’s what this contract is for.”
Hide them so they never show?
This is what this contract is for?
Did that mean she had once desperately tried to hide her love because of a contract?
Ludville’s violet eyes slowly began to burn quietly, filled with intense emotion.
“……You know more than I expected.”
His tone was polite, but there was cold sarcasm hidden within it.
“Have you ever made a similar contract before?”
Odely felt a little uneasy at his sharp question.
……Did I sound too much like someone who had experience with a contract marriage?
Perhaps he had taken her brief hesitation and silence as an answer.
Somehow, Ludville’s mood had noticeably grown more hostile.
“……!”
He suddenly reached out.
He hooked a finger around Odely’s necklace and abruptly pulled it toward him.
The old ring hanging from the necklace was pulled into view, dangling in front of her.
It was an audacious touch, almost rude.
While Odely was startled and held her breath, Ludville was examining the ring.
It was a worn and scratched ring, as though it had been worn for quite a long time.
“This belongs to an adult man. And it’s large enough to fit the finger of someone who is either quite big or has spent a long time handling a sword……”
His indifferent gaze passed over the inside of the ring.
[ODELY.]
His grip on the ring tightened even more.
“Is this connected to the owner of this ring?”
His voice was sharp.
As if he were a husband who had discovered that Odely was wearing around her neck a token of love that she had shared with another man.
As if he were asking whether she was carrying something like this so carefully while coming to him with a proposal for a contract marriage.
“Are you asking if you added the clause about excluding personal feelings because of this?”
“…….”
“Is it the ring of that man who supposedly looked like me?”
“…….”
“Apparently, it is.”
‘No, it’s just yours…….’
It was once a ring containing the Jewel of Regression.
During her third regression, when Ludville was a knight of the Cardel family, it was the ring he had bought after spending all the wealth he had saved up.
It was the token that had marked the first time Odely and Ludville confirmed their feelings for each other.
He had combined it with the Jewel of Regression and carried it on his body for the rest of his life, but now, it was a ring that did not exist anywhere in his memories.
‘So…… does he think I have another lover?’
From Ludville’s point of view, it must have looked like she had come to propose a contract marriage despite already having another lover.
‘Well, I made the same mistake in my previous life when I saw Ludville’s ring.’
To think they were making the exact same misunderstanding because of the exact same ring……
‘What am I supposed to say about this?’
She decided to give him a simple explanation first.
“He’s not my lover.”
“I didn’t ask if he was your ‘lover.’”
“…….”
“If he isn’t your lover now, then I suppose he used to be one. Have you still not forgotten him?”
No, that’s not it.
Odely had no idea how to clear up this misunderstanding.
It seemed that the name Odely engraved inside the ring had made him certain.
‘He won’t believe me no matter how many times I say he wasn’t my lover.’
Then there was only one way.
“That person…… is no longer here.”
“…….”
“He’s dead.”
She had no choice but to make Ludville into a dead person.
It was not even a lie.
This ring really was Ludville’s keepsake.
“Even if it’s a contract marriage, you’d probably be uncomfortable if I were seeing someone else. But that person is already dead, and his funeral has already been held…… so there’s nothing for you to worry about.”
A perfectly polished explanation.
Odely spoke calmly, as if proving that there was nothing about her that could become the subject of gossip.
Yet strangely, Ludville said nothing.
“…….”
His face remained expressionless, but the muscles in his jaw had tightened firmly.
‘He seems even more upset after I told him he was dead…….’
But she could not think of a more convincing excuse than this, so Odely remained silent.
After saying nothing for a long while, he slowly picked up the fountain pen and added one line beneath the contract.
[Article 10. During the contract period, emotional or physical intimate relationships with other people are prohibited.]
“……?”
“Sign it.”
Odely looked down at the newly added line in the contract.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
Wasn’t it simply a matter of basic courtesy toward the other person?
And it would be troublesome if rumors spread that the Grand Duchess was having an affair and she became caught up in a scandal.
“I thought it would be better to clearly state even the smallest things.”
“…….”
He was looking at her with eyes that seemed determined not to allow even the slightest opening.
Odely said nothing and raised the pen toward the signature line.
Comments (0)