A Contract Marriage with My Child’s Father - Chapter 82

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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 82

Though I had brought Melody because it was something that had to be done, now that I stood before Ernst, worry took precedence.

‘Will this be okay…? Melody is afraid of clerics.’

The child peeked her head out from behind me, then quickly hid again.

A stark contrast to her usual bright and sociable demeanor.

It seemed she had noticed the bracelet-shaped rosary around Ernst’s wrist.

‘This is troublesome.’

Before bringing her to Ernst, I had done my best to explain things in a way the child could understand.

“Melody. We’re going to meet a holy knight now, but he’s not a bad person.”

“Uu…”

“You have a special power called holy power, don’t you? Even though you’re hiding it now, there might come a time when you’ll need to use it. He’s going to help train you for that time.”

“Uuu…”

I had brought her after getting what seemed like an understanding response, but perhaps today was too much after all.

Seeing the child’s tense state, I first took Melody’s hand.

“It’s okay. Mother is here with you.”

“Uuu…”

“Should we go back today if you’re scared?”

Blocking the child’s view with my body so Melody wouldn’t be frightened, I whispered softly.

“Uuh.”

Seeing her hesitant expression made me regret this.

‘I was probably too hasty. Melody still can’t speak properly due to her trauma from the Temple.’

Even knowing this, I had my reasons for bringing her before Ernst.

For the sake of the future, Melody absolutely had to learn how to properly handle holy power.

‘The current Melody faints immediately after using even a little holy power.’

If we left things as they were, it would be troublesome if she ever faced danger.

No matter how much the adults promised to protect her, we always had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

So while we had time, she needed to become familiar with holy power somehow.

‘But still, this won’t work. Let’s end it here for today.’

Ernst seemed to have noticed that the child was afraid of him, even if he didn’t know the exact situation.

“We’ll just offer our greetings for today and withdraw.”

Just as he smiled faintly and turned to leave with a calm attitude—

“Uh!”

Melody stopped him with a loud voice, as if she had made some kind of decision.

* * *

Melody fidgeted with her small hands as she looked up at the man before her.

An unfamiliar face not in her memories.

Having time-leaped from 643, Melody knew all the faces of those who would become high-ranking Temple officials during that period.

Among them, she had never seen a man with such coral-colored hair. So surely, as Viola said, this person would not harm her.

With that single belief, the child mustered courage to call out to him, but soon regretted it.

The bracelet-shaped rosary wound around the man’s wrist. And the refined, cool atmosphere unique to Temple people that emanated from him.

All these elements brought back memories of that terrible past.

Overcome with fear, the truth no longer mattered.

The primal terror carved into her body instantly constricted the child’s breathing.

Melody’s consciousness was suddenly drawn into the memories of 643.

Though it was the future from the current perspective of 637, the memories of 643 were actually the past for Melody.

Since Melody had come from the future through time leap.

And the reason the small child had time-leaped was to escape.

From 643. To get away from that horrific timeline.

In truth, the future Melody had been a Holy Maiden.

One born with the divine mark, a woman possessing the most powerful holy power in history.

At first, with a child’s heart, she had thought it was a blessing and rejoiced.

When a child not even three years old awakened as a Holy Maiden, everyone around her praised it as evidence of divine love.

But that wasn’t the truth.

Only after becoming a Holy Maiden and being dragged to the Temple did the child learn the terrible reality.

The reality that the title of Holy Maiden was shackles, and the power called holy power was nothing but a curse.

Life at the Temple was hell every single day.

The clerics in white robes confined the child and forcibly extracted her holy power.

Originally, Holy Maidens possessed strong regenerative abilities and wounds would heal quickly, but they didn’t allow even that respite.

Without giving the child time to recover, they wrung out every last drop of life force like squeezing a dry rag.

“It hurts… I don’t want to…”

The child prayed crying every night.

Please make this terrible power disappear. Please end this suffering.

But the clerics only smiled indifferently while watching the child writhe in agony.

Their unchanging expressions were like masks.

“That’s it, Holy Maiden. You’re doing very well. Look at this. See how the holy power is rising! Truly, you are receiving divine love.”

“Excellent. Despite your young age, you’re carrying out the divine will so magnificently… The Divine must surely be pleased.”

It was clear abuse, but they disguised it as divine will.

Young Melody didn’t know exactly what the Divine was, but she could instinctively tell that this was not right.

The deepest part of the Great Temple. A splendid prison built under the pretense of protection.

In that place where not a single ray of light entered, Melody’s daily routine consisted only of trembling in fear at the approaching footsteps of clerics.

“Uuu…”

At some point, the child even forgot how to speak.

It didn’t matter anyway, since no one would listen to her words.

“Uuh… *sob*”

In words no one could understand, Melody pleaded every day.

That she wanted to escape from this hellish place.

But escape was impossible.

The Temple had sacred artifacts that could detect beings with strong holy power.

Even if she tried to run away, she would be caught immediately. The child knew this best, having already tried.

There was no way to escape this faithful hell.

What if she could go back to the past instead?

To before awakening her holy power.

No, to an even earlier time.

If she could escape to a very distant past where no one in the world knew her.

…Then maybe she wouldn’t have to endure such terrible suffering anymore.

That was the moment.

Was it the Divine’s whim, or had the child’s desperate wish reached them?

A mysterious light enveloped Melody’s body.

It wasn’t simple holy power.

It was a far more complex and higher-dimensional force.

It was the Holy Maiden’s authority to manipulate time.

The child instinctively realized.

The only opportunity to escape this hell had arrived.

Melody ran endlessly through the tunnel of light that surrounded her.

Her entire body ached as if it would shatter from repeated experiments and abuse, but she couldn’t stop.

The fear that looking back might trap her in that prison again pushed the child forward.

When she collapsed after running to her limits and opened her eyes again.

Melody had arrived at a completely unfamiliar time and place.

Not the cold floor of the temple, but an alley in some unknown city.

Cold rain was drizzling down from the sky.

The child couldn’t even fathom how long it had been since she’d seen rainwater with her own eyes.

She had succeeded.

She had truly escaped to the past.

No one in this time period knew she was the Holy Maiden. She was free.

But the relief lasted only a moment. Soon after, immense loneliness and fear overwhelmed the child.

A strange time before Melody was even born into the world. A strange city where she knew no one.

The fact that she had become utterly alone hit her to the bone.

Passersby coldly ignored the young child soaked in rain.

Melody crouched in a corner of the alley, enduring the pouring rain as she burst into sorrowful tears.

“Sob, waaah…”

That’s when it happened.

Someone’s footsteps stopped in front of the child.

“…Are you okay?”

When Melody looked up at the gentle voice, a woman stood there, soaked through just like herself.

Without caring for her own condition, she reached out her hand to block the raindrops falling on the child’s head.

Curly pink hair. Light green eyes that resembled a fresh forest.

In this timeline of the past where she thought she’d been left alone, Melody encountered her savior like fate.

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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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