A Contract Marriage with My Child’s Father - Chapter 90

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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 90

“Please marry Viola!”

A clear shout spread across the vast training grounds.

“….”

Silence.

Cain froze in place.

That wasn’t all.

All the knights training in the adjacent training area stopped mid-swing and came to a halt.

Clang.

And another clang.

For a knight, not dropping their sword was a matter of pride. Yet two knights accidentally dropped their swords.

However, everyone understood. They were too busy blinking and exchanging glances with each other.

What did I just hear? Did I mishear? Was it a hallucination?

The strange silence was soon broken by someone who was unmatched in the knight order for his lack of awareness.

“Ueoeoeoeo!!! Has the time finally come? The time to welcome our lady!”

It was Craig.

Without reading the atmosphere at all, his voice boomed with tremendous projection across the training grounds.

Thwack!

Someone struck Craig’s back hard.

“Ack!”

Craig screamed and shut his mouth at the particularly stinging blow.

When he turned around, he saw Yujin, who glared at him with sharp eyes.

“Read the room. Please, just once.”

Yujin warned him, but it was already too late.

The Duke’s eyes, which held an unreadable cold gaze as he looked this way, met directly with Craig’s.

Only then did Craig realize.

Ah, I messed up, didn’t I?

* * *

Cain, who had brought Jayden back to his study, sat in his chair with a serious expression.

‘I did tell him to speak up if he had any concerns… but I never expected this kind of concern.’

Cain was rarely at a loss for words.

He had known that Jayden had been acting strangely lately.

He couldn’t guess the exact reason, but it seemed like he was particularly obsessed with the word “marriage.”

‘Conrad said it was one of the natural developmental processes children go through.’

As Jayden’s guardian and uncle, Cain found this situation quite bewildering.

It was something he had never experienced in his life. Yet everyone naturally went through this developmental process as they grew up.

‘Young children are such complex and difficult beings.’

Of course, thanks to being an emotionally detached dragon blood, he only appeared expressionless on the outside.

Only heavy silence flowed within the study.

It was the natural silence brought about by the combination of Cain, who didn’t know what to say, and Jayden, who was reading the atmosphere.

As the standoff between the two prolonged, Conrad, unable to bear it any longer, carefully opened his mouth.

“Um, Young Master. Earlier at the training grounds… you told His Grace to marry Lady Viola.”

Cain was inwardly relieved by Conrad’s intervention.

Naturally, Conrad would have more normal common sense than someone who had spent his entire life wandering dangerous regions.

Jayden also seemed more comfortable with Conrad.

Even while still reading his mood, he was pouting his lips and saying what he wanted to say.

“I can’t do it with Viola, but Uncle and Viola can do it!”

Jayden was quite confident.

His imposing attitude left Cain at a loss for words once again.

Was Viola also the one he wanted to marry when he threw a tantrum about marriage before?

Well, it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand those feelings.

She was the benefactor who saved him from the painful Tamuthar disease, and she was also genuinely kind to Jayden.

‘To be honest, is there anyone who doesn’t like Viola?’

She was kind, gentle, and full of charm.

Anyone who spent time with her would have a smile on their face. Even… someone emotionally detached like himself.

So to Cain, Jayden saying he wanted to marry Viola felt quite plausible.

‘It’s apparently even more common for young children to want to marry their mothers or teachers…’

Even without similar experience, it was easy to understand since the subject was Viola. Unlike Cain, who was nodding inwardly, the wrinkles on Conrad’s brow only deepened.

He seemed to have no idea where to start correcting Jayden’s twisted view of marriage.

Conrad scolded the child with a firm voice.

“Young Master, marriage isn’t something you just do carelessly. It’s something people who love each other do.”

Since there were no plans for arranged marriages for Noah and Jayden, it was necessary to instill proper views on marriage from a young age.

So Cain quietly watched Conrad’s persuasion.

But Jayden showed no signs of backing down.

Just moments ago, he had been fidgeting and maintaining appearances in front of him.

Starting from when he began calling him uncle, such behavior had almost disappeared.

“Uncle loves Viola! Right, Uncle?”

Seeing his blazing eyes, Jayden seemed firmly convinced that his uncle loved Viola.

‘Me loving Viola?’

Cain made a troubled expression at this proposition he had never considered.

Conrad asked the child while breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Young Master, what kind of emotion do you think love is?”

“That’s liking someone a whole lot! Liking them the most in the world!”

It was a clear answer befitting a young child.

Liking someone a whole lot.

‘…Hmm.’

In Cain’s life, where he didn’t have many preferences to begin with, Viola did belong to the rare category of things he liked.

In his gray world, she was certainly special.

So, what does that mean? According to Jayden’s logic, am I in love or something?

Conrad sent Cain a desperate look as if pleading for him to say something, but Cain couldn’t give a definitive answer himself and kept his mouth shut.

Honestly, Cain didn’t have particularly proper views on romance either, so he couldn’t find words to refute the child’s logic.

In the end, Conrad took charge again.

“Well, there are different types of love. What two people who marry share is a different kind of love. More precisely, marriage is what people who love each other and are in a relationship do.”

“What’s a relationship?”

“It’s when people feel mutual attraction and often go on dates, or hold hands together, that sort of thing…”

“What’s a date?”

“It’s when people who like each other go out together, just the two of them, that sort of…”

“Viola likes me, and I like Viola too. But I’ve gone out with Viola before! So I’ve been on a date with Viola?”

“No, that’s not it! That was with Lady Melody and His Grace too! Just the two! Just the two of you alone! A date is spending intimate time together without anyone’s interference!”

As Cain listened to Conrad’s passionate explanation, a memory from some time ago flashed through his mind.

The day he went out to dine alone with Viola.

Although it turned into chaos when a demon interrupted midway, the two of them had certainly spent time together until late.

Just the two of them eating together and walking the night streets, having an enjoyable time.

‘Depending on the person… that could also be called a date.’

Or since he said there shouldn’t be any interference, would it not count as a date because they were interrupted by a demon?

It was a difficult concept.

The subject of education was Jayden, but somehow it felt like he was the one learning.

Jayden slammed the desk in frustration and shouted.

“Do you think I don’t know you’re trying to deceive me because I’m a child? People don’t only marry when they’re in love!”

“Deceive you, Young Master?”

“Political marriage!”

“Pardon?”

“Contract marriage!”

Conrad’s mouth fell open at the resounding shout.

“Pardon? Political marriage aside, where on earth did you hear about contract marriage?”

“It’s all in fairy tale books these days! Ah, forget it. Forget it. Never mind! I can’t get through to Conrad!”

Jayden huffed angrily, turned around, and stomped out of the room with heavy footsteps.

Bang!

The door closed and silence returned once again.

“Sigh… What should we do about the Young Master? For now, I should immediately order the librarian to censor the fairy tale books…”

Conrad muttered seriously.

But instead of responding, Cain was rolling the word Jayden had mentioned around in his mouth.

‘Contract marriage.’

A phrase he had never thought of in his life.

Yet somehow, those four syllables were stuck in his head and wouldn’t leave.

* * *

The next day, morning.

Since I woke up early today, I left Melody to sleep a bit more and was walking lightly through the manor’s corridor when I heard a very bewildering sound.

“Lady Viola! Are you getting married? Finally, you’re going to become our mistress…”

Huh?

What on earth is this about?

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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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