A Contract Marriage with My Child’s Father - Chapter 87

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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 87

I sent words of encouragement in my heart, then pretended not to know and quickly turned around, sneaking out of the corridor.

‘It’ll take a while for Jayden to come, right?’

I deliberately took a different route, going around to head to Jayden’s bedroom.

Even when I arrived at Jayden’s room door after quite some time, the room inside was still empty.

It seemed Jayden was still clinging to Conrad and pestering him.

‘Let’s wait quietly inside.’

He’ll come soon.

I peered into the room through the open door crack.

But…

“…Huh?”

‘The room is in quite a state today.’

Jayden’s room had always been neatly organized since his recovery. But for some reason, the floor was a complete mess.

‘Since I’m here early, I should clean up a bit. I don’t have anything else to do anyway.’

Looking closer, it wasn’t that the entire room was dirty, but fairy tale books that should have been on the bookshelf were scattered all over the floor. As if someone had desperately searched for something.

I bent down and started picking up the fairy tale books one by one.

But as I checked the book covers, I tilted my head in confusion.

‘…Is this kind of thing popular these days?’

Whether by coincidence or just my imagination, the title keywords of the books scattered on the floor strangely overlapped.

『The Mermaid Princess Gets Married for the Fifth Time』

『The Moonlight Prince Loves Getting Married』

『The Newlywed Life of a Herbivorous Tiger and Carnivorous Rabbit』

Even if they all ended with marriage…

‘Is this really okay?’

No matter how I looked at it, these titles didn’t seem good for children’s emotional development.

Wondering if the content might be decent, I flipped through them and was relieved to find they were ordinary happy ending fairy tales.

‘At least that’s a relief.’

I felt reassured and continued picking up the fairy tale books in order, placing them back on the bookshelf with soft thuds.

Just then.

One thin picture book particularly caught my eye.

『My Sister is Fake Marrying a Monster!』

“…Huh?”

The title seemed unusual, so I unconsciously opened the book.

Cute illustrations drawn to match children’s eye level.

Skimming through the content, it was a story about an ordinary girl who makes a ‘contract’ with a forest monster and enters a fake marriage to protect her young sibling.

‘This is good!’

I felt like I had found an answer in an unexpected place.

I had been pulling my hair out wondering how to explain this complicated situation to Melody.

‘With this, I can easily explain contract marriage to Melody!’

Unlike the fairy tale, I’m not a sister but a mother.

But anyway, it was perfect educational material to help her understand why I need to get married and that this isn’t something sad but a wonderful strategy to protect us.

‘What an unexpected harvest. There should be another copy in the manor library, right? I should stop by later.’

I finished organizing the books with a much lighter heart.

Tonight I’ll read this fairy tale to Melody.

* * *

Conrad, who had been trapped by Jayden in the corridor for quite some time, was finally able to escape from those small clutches only after Cain appeared.

“…Hah.”

Conrad let out a small sigh as he entered the study.

The hem of his crisply pressed pants was now wrinkled and stretched.

Though he was always impeccably dressed as befitting Count Ashern’s aide, today he looked somewhat disheveled.

However, Cain asked indifferently while habitually keeping his eyes fixed on documents, as if he didn’t particularly care.

“What did Jayden say? What got that kid throwing such a tantrum?”

Jayden had pretended nothing happened and immediately stopped all his actions and left as soon as Cain approached.

It seemed that even though he had openly thrown a tantrum with Conrad, he didn’t want to show that side to Cain.

But unfortunately, it was already too late.

He had already heard Jayden’s tantrum, albeit faintly, from before entering the corridor.

‘Does he want something?’

If it was something that kid wanted badly enough to throw such a tantrum, he’d like to grant it if possible.

Because he wasn’t a child who desired many things.

Usually, Jayden was a child without greed.

But to plead so passionately like that. Cain was prepared to grant it if reasonably possible.

He had asked lightly with such thoughts.

Conrad cleared his throat while adjusting his disheveled cravat.

“Young Master seems to want to get married.”

“…Ha.”

Cain unconsciously burst into a hollow laugh.

“So what did you tell him?”

“Of course I firmly told him it wasn’t possible.”

“Well done. Marriage at six years old would be problematic.”

Of course, it wasn’t impossible under Imperial Law.

Legally, engagement or marriage was possible once you turned five, so occasionally families would marry their heirs early to strengthen bonds between houses.

Naturally, it was a thoroughly political marriage without any love.

Cain had absolutely no intention of marrying Jayden off at such a young age in that manner. Even if he wanted to do it himself, he should be stopped.

Children should live like children. That was something Viola often said too.

‘What on earth got into Jayden’s head?’

Cain emerged from his thoughts and asked again while rolling his pen.

“Did he obediently listen when you said no?”

“At first he kept insisting… but when I mentioned Your Grace, he finally seemed to understand somewhat.”

He mentioned himself.

Did he threaten to tell on him if he kept throwing tantrums? So Jayden got scared and gave up?

Such thoughts crossed his mind for a moment, but Conrad’s following answer completely missed Cain’s expectations.

“I sternly told him that Your Grace is still unmarried, so how dare a nephew think of marrying first, and then he understood.”

“…Ha.”

Another incredulous laugh escaped him.

It sounded nice to call it persuasion, but it was essentially nagging him to get married.

His retainers and Conrad alike, even though they clearly knew he had no interest in marriage, would slip in such nagging whenever they had the chance.

Of course, Cain wasn’t one to bend to such words. He spoke nonchalantly.

“By that logic, Jayden will never be able to marry. What a pity.”

“…The butler would cry if he heard that. Do you know how hard the butler is working these days, handling even internal affairs?”

He was referring to the situation where the old butler had to take on estate management after the recent internal affairs deputy Sylvian Barns voluntarily stepped down from her position.

It meant the subordinates were suffering because there was no mistress of the house.

“More importantly, didn’t you say you had something to report?”

When Cain appropriately changed the subject, Conrad returned to his cold aide’s expression. His eyes beneath his glasses gleamed sharply.

“Yes. It’s nothing else, but Lady Viola seems to be very troubled about status issues.”

“The Temple matter.”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

The situation where Melody was confirmed as the Holy Maiden.

To protect the child from the Temple’s clutches, it would be absolutely advantageous for Viola, as her guardian, to possess noble status.

“First, as Your Grace mentioned previously, I did provide guidance regarding the plan to register Lady Viola as an adopted daughter into one of the retainer families.”

“Her response?”

“Initially, she hesitated, wondering if she would be receiving too much help.”

Too much help.

Cain’s brow furrowed slightly.

If she would only voice her desires, he would pluck even the stars from the sky for her.

She had saved Jayden from death’s door and discovered a complete cure for the Tamuthar disease that had long plagued Ashern.

She was Ashern’s benefactor.

Yet how could merely registering her into a retainer family be considered too much help? She still seemed to undervalue the worth of her own accomplishments.

“So did she refuse?”

“No. After I explained further, she said she would like a few days to think it over. She mentioned there might be another way.”

Hmm.

Another way. Did she have something in mind of her own?

“I’ll discuss this matter with her myself in due time.”

“Yes, understood.”

Having finished his report, Conrad quietly withdrew from the study.

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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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