A Contract Marriage with My Child’s Father - Chapter 62

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 62

Cain carefully lifted the unconscious Viola from his arms and laid her on the makeshift bed across from where Jayden was lying.

I thought I told her to make sure she ate properly while I was away from the manor.

Did she even listen? She was still as light as a cotton ball.

This had happened before. Somehow, she never changed.

He covered Viola’s trembling body with a blanket, wondering if she had caught a fever.

The woman’s face was full of exhaustion.

It was only natural. With such a thin and small frame, she had poured everything into treatment with the intensity of burning her very soul—there was no way her stamina could hold up.

It was an obsession bordering on foolishness.

“Mmm…”

As Viola groaned and stirred restlessly, the blanket slipped down slightly.

Cain clicked his tongue in displeasure and pulled the blanket back up to her shoulders.

Even after that, he didn’t leave his spot. He intended to stay by their side until both Jayden and Viola woke up.

The wheezing breaths of the two people alternated, then gradually began to overlap.

Around that time, dim dawn light began to seep through the window.

A bluish silence.

It should be the same sun rising as yesterday, yet somehow today’s dawn felt particularly quiet.

Perhaps it wasn’t because it was truly quiet, but because yesterday had been far too chaotic.

And at the center of that chaos was none other than Viola.

‘I really can’t take my eyes off her for even a moment.’

He never imagined she would get caught up in such an incident during the few days he was away in the capital.

Cain recalled Viola’s appearance yesterday as she confronted Morden.

Honestly, just looking at her round, gentle face, Cain had thought Viola was someone who wouldn’t even know how to get angry her entire life.

But she didn’t back down even when facing Morden, a Sword Master.

Was she fearless? Or was she the type who would correct wrong values and push through with her will even if she was afraid?

In the past, he would have naturally dismissed it as the former, but thinking about it now, it seemed to be the latter.

Looking back, Viola had always been that way.

With eyes like tender sprouts that would fall in the wind, Viola had always been more upright than anyone else.

Suddenly, the words she had screamed at Morden echoed in his ears.

“Are Dragon Blood not even people? Are they made of iron? They bleed when cut by swords, they hurt when hit. They’re all the same people! Just how long are you going to keep going on about that damn Dragon Blood? Aren’t you sick of it?”

Though she was speaking to Morden, those words left a deep impression on Cain’s mind as well.

Cain had never seen anyone other than Viola treat him so ordinarily in his entire life.

She neither feared nor was frightened of him.

Viola told him the names of flowers and smiled brightly, asking if it wasn’t fascinating.

As if… she was just treating a ‘person.’

Perhaps that was why. Cain found his gaze drawn to Viola more than to others.

He often thought about her.

It wasn’t a meaningful act.

He was just curious.

Why does this woman act differently? What makes her different from other people?

Has she truly lost all fear? Or is she pretending? If so, why? To bewitch me?

Ridiculously, he had even harbored such doubts.

Living with her, he came to understand. They were all groundless suspicions.

There was no pretense or falsehood in Viola.

She truly, simply saw Cain as a person.

As the human Cain Ashern, not as Dragon Blood.

Though he didn’t particularly like indulging in sentimentality, his childhood memories buried deep in the back of his mind suddenly surfaced.

“Honey, it’s too horrible. That thing can’t be my child.”

“Monster! You’re a monster!”

His mother had called Cain a monster from the earliest days he could remember.

What had he done? Nothing. There had never been such a time.

Cain was simply Dragon Blood. Dragon’s blood so thick that it frightened even his own mother flowed through his body.

The Dragon Blood that had grown diluted through generations manifested in Cain as densely as in the First Count, appearing suddenly like a mutation.

His father regarded his existence as both a blessing and a curse.

Dragon Blood characteristics as strong as the First Count.

His father couldn’t embrace a son who surpassed his own abilities.

Due to his inferiority complex, the Previous Count didn’t treat Cain as a father should.

Instead, from the earliest childhood the boy could remember, he only imposed the duties of Dragon Blood.

Dragon Blood. An emotionless monster. The yoke of responsibility he must willingly bear for possessing great power.

So Cain had lived his entire life according to those words.

Becoming Dragon Blood, an emotionless monster.

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

Perhaps due to his thick Dragon Blood, Cain’s emotions were naturally dim.

Even when seeing the fearful gazes of others, he accepted it as inevitable.

To Cain, that was simply a natural truth.

But someone was looking at him properly.

Ha. Cain, who had been lost in thought, let out a small sigh.

Cain was emotionless because he was Dragon Blood.

He was strong because he was Dragon Blood.

Everyone feared him because he was Dragon Blood.

But… if he truly was just one person, as Viola said.

Once again, a scene from his childhood came to mind.

His mother’s eyes, soaked in fear as she looked at a monster. Those shackles he had believed to be truth all along.

…Would Viola have looked at me with different eyes?

“…”

Cain soon chuckled self-deprecatingly and shook his head.

Since meeting Viola, he had more useless thoughts.

Like imagining certain scenarios.

What if he had met her in the past.

If that had happened.

But the end of such imagination was ultimately just the useless sentiment that it was meaningless. There was no way she and he could have met in those days.

After another long while, finally both Viola and Jayden showed signs of waking up.

It seemed time to give them space.

Cain quietly left the apothecary.

* * *

-Viola.

“…Mmm.”

-Viola.

Was it just my imagination? For some reason, it was a nostalgic, young voice.

However, before long, the pleasant voice gradually faded away and I realized.

‘Ah… it was a dream.’

Leaving my drowsy mind behind, I slowly opened my eyes.

“Yaaawn.”

As I blinked my heavy eyelids, my vision gradually became clearer.

Brilliant sunlight streaming through the window.

Huh? Sunlight?

“Gasp!”

I startled and bolted upright.

I definitely hadn’t planned on sleeping. I was going to stay awake with my eyes open until Jayden woke up!

Looking outside, the sunlight was blazing bright.

‘Where did the Duke go?’

Was it Cain who just woke me up?

But when I looked around, his figure was nowhere to be seen in the apothecary.

When did he leave?

It seemed like he was with me until I lost consciousness. Was it my imagination?

Just as I was tilting my head in confusion, I heard the sound of blankets rustling from the makeshift bed across from me.

“Mmm…”

With a small murmur, Jayden slowly opened his eyes.

“Young Master!”

I jumped out of bed and rushed over to Jayden.

“Are you feeling more alert? It’s me, Viola. Can you recognize me?”

“Mmm… Viola.”

“How’s your body? Does anything hurt…”

“I’m fine.”

Jayden smiled brightly.

It was different from the pained smile he had forced last night to reassure me.

It was truly the clear smile characteristic of a child who seemed much more comfortable.

“Oh, thank goodness…!”

Only then did I sigh in relief and pat my chest. My legs nearly gave out from relief, but now wasn’t the time to be immersed in that feeling.

Swish. When I hardened my expression and stared at him intently, Jayden, who had been smiling innocently, began to cautiously read the mood.

Knowing he had done something wrong, he avoided my gaze and only fidgeted with his fingers, looking exactly like a puppy about to be scolded.

Sigh. I didn’t want to do this to a sick child, but I had to clearly address what was right and wrong. This had been that serious of an incident.

“Young Master.”

“…Yes.”

“Why did you do that? You promised me. That you wouldn’t overdo it.”

When I spoke in a tearful voice, Jayden’s shoulders flinched.

“Do you know how scared I was? If you do that again next time, I’ll really get angry…”

Sniffle. My emotions welled up and I couldn’t say any more.

“S-sorry…”

Jayden hung his head low. His small lips trembled, then he poured out the feelings he had been suppressing.

“I wanted to become strong.”

“Pardon?”

“…My teacher said so. That Mother and Father died because I was weak.”

The child looked up at me with wet eyes.

“If I had been a proper Dragon Blood, if I had been stronger, I could have protected Mother and Father. But I couldn’t. Because I’m a half-wit…”

Thump. It felt like my heart was sinking.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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