A Contract Marriage with My Child’s Father - Chapter 78

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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 78

Although he had decided to properly learn swordsmanship again, Jayden still had one unresolved concern.

Namely, who he should learn swordsmanship from.

If he asked for a swordsmanship instructor, his uncle would surely find any of the top masters in the Empire.

He knew well that just looking at the Silver Dragon Knights, there were plenty of excellent knights who could teach him.

‘But…’

Jayden suddenly recalled a conversation he had with Viola not long ago.

“Viola. When you went out last time, you encountered monsters, right?”

“You heard about it? Yes, that’s right.”

“She told me about it.”

Since it was something Melody had said, he wasn’t sure if he understood it properly, but that’s what he gathered from combining various pieces of information.

Whether Jayden had understood Melody’s words correctly or not, Viola immediately nodded in agreement.

“…Weren’t you scared?”

Having stayed only in the manor since childhood, he had never seen monsters up close, but he still knew that monsters were terrifying.

Grotesque creatures. With strength and ferocity that ordinary humans couldn’t dare face.

If someone as fragile as Viola had seen monsters up close, it wouldn’t have been strange for her to faint.

With such a delicate body, she seemed like she would collapse just from hearing a monster’s roar.

But Viola shook her head and smiled far too calmly.

“No. What would there be to fear? Ah, I might have been scared if I were alone…”

“Really weren’t scared? Not at all?”

“Of course. His Grace the Duke who protects the Empire was right beside me.”

That single statement Viola uttered so casually struck an unfamiliar chord in Jayden’s heart.

I see.

His uncle, the man named Cain Ashern.

Just his presence alone becomes a source of faith for people.

His name alone washes away the fear deeply rooted in one’s heart.

‘…Could I ever become like that someday?’

Morden, his former instructor, would habitually belittle Jayden as dragon blood far inferior to his uncle.

A half-wit dragon blood who was neither emotionless nor imposing, and who groveled due to his sickly nature.

“Young Master, aren’t you also dragon blood? You must somehow become like His Grace the Duke. You must prove your qualifications as dragon blood.”

Morden would always push Jayden to the edge with such words.

Because of that pressure, Jayden feared and avoided Cain even more.

Because Cain Ashern was ‘true dragon blood’ with a fundamentally different nature from someone like him.

The distance and intimidation that name carried had dominated the boy’s mind like a curse.

‘But… not now.’

Not because of someone’s coercion, but sincerely.

For the first time, Jayden thought he wanted to become like his uncle Cain.

‘Viola said so. That dragon blood are just people too.’

“Aren’t dragon blood people too? Were they made of iron?”

Viola’s voice as she shouted with all her might at the instructor he thought couldn’t be defied.

Even while collapsed and his mind was hazy, Jayden clearly remembered that cry she had made for his sake.

‘I can’t become a perfect dragon blood like uncle.’

Because that’s how he was born from the beginning.

Because he, with his weak heart and tendency to cry, was a different person from his uncle from the start.

But if that was just one characteristic as Viola said.

And if he didn’t have to force himself to resemble someone.

It didn’t matter if he couldn’t become perfect dragon blood like his uncle.

Instead…

‘I want to become someone whose very existence gives strength to Viola.’

Just like Cain Ashern.

Now he wanted to resemble his uncle in a completely different meaning than before.

When his thoughts reached that point, Jayden was finally able to make the decision he had been hesitating about for so long.

‘The swordsmanship instructor should be…’

Jayden took a deep breath and knocked on the study door.

“How unusual. Do you have something you want to say?”

It was still a blunt and cold voice, but through spending time with Viola, Jayden now knew.

That Cain wasn’t someone he should fear.

Although standing before him still made his legs tremble slightly from that enormous presence, he could now muster courage without running away.

Jayden raised his head to look straight into Cain’s red eyes and said.

“Please teach me swordsmanship.”

* * *

Cain calmly accepted Jayden’s sudden proposal.

“Let’s do that.”

“…Thank you.”

That was the only conversation exchanged between the two.

There were no further elaborations or sharing of sentiments.

Only the sound of the clock’s pendulum echoing in the study filled the awkward air between them.

“Then I’ll take my leave now.”

Jayden clenched and unclenched his hands nervously before leaving the study.

Cain stared blankly at the closed door.

In a way, it was nothing special.

Just a conversation where a nephew asked his uncle for teaching, and the uncle responded to his nephew’s wish.

But Cain, left alone in the study, somehow couldn’t easily escape from the lingering effects of that brief conversation.

Documents with undried ink were piled high on the desk, but his hand holding the pen wouldn’t move.

An unfamiliar sensation that felt both ticklish in one corner of his chest and strangely heavy and oppressive.

Eventually, Cain stood up from his seat.

Generally, he wasn’t one for impulses, but at this moment, he felt like escaping the confines of the completely enclosed study.

His long strides through the manor corridors had no destination.

Just movements meant as a way to organize his thoughts.

But his subconscious seemed to have already decided on a destination.

When he came to his senses, Cain had stopped in front of a door.

‘Why did I come here?’

It was the apothecary.

The very place where Viola would be.

‘Am I tired or something? I haven’t been in my right mind lately.’

He was aware that he had been acting strangely recently.

It was hard not to notice since he often indulged in whims he normally wouldn’t.

However, Cain considered his own changes to be natural.

A fascinating person he had never encountered in his entire life had appeared in his world.

It would be stranger if he didn’t change.

Even so… he couldn’t easily accept the fact that he had come this far without intending to.

‘It’s not like I have any business here.’

Let’s go back.

It was just as he was trying to rationalize that he must be particularly tired today and was about to turn around silently.

“Your Grace? What are you doing there?”

Viola, who had come around the corner of the corridor, stopped walking and tilted her head curiously.

In her arms was an armful of herbs giving off a fresh fragrance.

Viola, who had been looking puzzled by his sudden visit, seemed to realize something and gasped.

“Oh no, did you get hurt somewhere? Or did your wound get infected…!”

He immediately reassured her as she came running over, pale with worry.

“It’s nothing like that.”

“Oh, thank goodness! But then what brings you here…?”

I just came.

Even though there would be no problem telling her the truth, Cain felt a strange awkwardness.

‘Maybe I should have made up some scratch or something.’

Perhaps if he had actually been injured somewhere, he wouldn’t have felt this way.

This was Cain’s manor.

Even though there was no place he couldn’t set foot in, somehow he didn’t feel confident.

As Cain stood silently, unable to choose what words to answer with, she smiled brightly and gestured toward the laboratory.

“Come in for now! I was just about to take a break myself.”

She led Cain to the inner sofa with practiced hands.

Then she naturally sat down right next to him, close beside him.

“Since you’re here, let me take a look at your wound. The place you hurt last time.”

Cain rolled up his sleeve as if entranced and extended his wrist.

The very spot where she had put the heart-shaped tape not long ago.

Viola carefully examined the skin that had healed cleanly without a single scar.

“Wow, I’m glad it didn’t leave a scar.”

Her soft fingertips touched his skin and then withdrew.

Cain gazed at her profile as she examined his wrist, then suddenly threw out an unexpected topic.

“Jayden.”

“Yes?”

At the sudden change of subject, Viola looked up at Cain with curious eyes.

“…He came to me asking me to teach him swordsmanship. Directly.”

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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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