Standard Contract Guidelines for a Fraudulent Marriage - Chapter 74

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 74

The twins stared at each other’s faces, eyes wide as saucers, mouths rounded in perfect O’s. They looked like two nestlings, so endearing that both Adelia and Loerston nearly burst out laughing.

“Do you know our brother?”
“Do you know our brother?”

Loerston tilted his head with an ambiguous smile.

“I’d say we know each other slightly.”

The girl twin then skipped forward with such enthusiasm that her braids swung wildly as she spoke.

“Our brother is super famous at the Circus! The clown Clurker is funny too, but our brother is the most popular!”

The boy twin cried out, not to be outdone.

“And he can ride a really, really big unicycle! And he can do tightrope walking tricks too? He promised he’d teach me everything when I grow up.”
“That sounds wonderful indeed.”

Loerston was patting the boy’s head while pondering how to catch this con artist when—

“Holly! Molly!”

A man’s voice rang out from somewhere, and both twins whipped their heads around in unison.

A tall young man came bounding across the Sandy Field like a gazelle.

Adelia, her feelings complicated, suppressed a smile and bowed slightly toward the twins.

“So your names are Holly and Molly?”

The boy spoke up.

“That’s right. I’m Holly, and she’s Molly.”

The girl was quick to answer back.

“No, it’s not. I’m Holly, and he’s Molly.”

While the twins bickered over who was Holly and who was Molly, the tall man crossed the Sandy Field in a flash and came to stand before Adelia and Loerston.

He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the sun, squinting for a moment before his face fell, and he quickly seized his younger siblings’ hands to pull them away.

“Well, fancy meeting you again.”

At Loerston’s words, the man laughed awkwardly, ha-ha, his eyes darting about as though scrambling to concoct an excuse.

“I heard your younger siblings had upset stomachs, didn’t they? Isn’t that right, Adelia?”

Adelia, mischief twitching at the bridge of her nose, folded her arms and fixed her gaze on Clurker.

“That’s what I heard too. I’m quite puzzled by how this came to pass.”

Clurker laughed awkwardly, ha-ha, and cleared his throat.

“It’s hardly proper for me to speak of such matters to respectable ladies and gentlemen…”

But Loerston raised a hand to cut him off.

“Stop. I’ve no wish to hear any more of your tales. Never mind that you lied and cheated us of fruit—how can you justify putting small children to work like this?”

Before Clurker could respond, the twins—Holly and Molly—cried out in turn.

“We’re not little kids!”
“That’s right! Castle is the little one!”
“We’re already six years old!”
“Castle isn’t even one yet!”
“Now, now, children. Enough, enough.”

Clurker pulled his siblings close and tucked them behind his back.

He gazed at the two of them for a long moment, then his brow softened and he sighed. A faint smile played across his lips, though his expression was tinged with bitterness.

“I apologize. The money is quite good when dealing with tourists, so I told them the lie. And in our house, it’s the rule that you earn your keep once you turn five.”
“Five years old? That’s absurd.”
“Well, it may look like abuse and tyranny to the nobility who visit such scenic places, but what can you do? Some people are born in beautiful lands but without wealth, surviving day to day on what they earn. That’s simply how it is.”

Adelia spoke.

“So that’s why these children were selling fruit? Because they needed to earn money?”
“Precisely, miss.”
“…At utterly outrageous prices?”

Clurker burst out laughing.

“Outrageous prices, you say? Well, you’re not wrong. But tourists who come to a place like this usually have deep pockets, and they’re in a carefree mood—willing to try everything. When there’s a chance to make a profit—whether it’s fruit or anything else—we have to seize it to feed all the mouths that depend on us, yes?”
“You’re taking care of all these children alone?”
“Oh no, not just me. I have a younger brother who’s eighteen and another who’s sixteen, and below them a pair of twelve-year-old twins. Then there’s a nine-year-old, and after that comes our darling Holly and Molly. And as you may have heard, there’s also Castle, a newborn.”

Loerston asked.

“If there’s a newborn, that means you have parents, doesn’t it?”
“Oh no. You can find newborns plenty of places without parents. Sometimes you go out to filch cabbage and come back with a baby instead of cabbage, and sometimes they just fall from the sky, you know.”

So not all blood siblings, then, Loerston thought, and glanced sideways at Adelia. She appeared to be suppressing laughter at Clurker’s jest and easy manner.

Then the twins spoke up.

“Our brother said we were in a cabbage patch!”
“No, he said we were in a carrot patch.”
“It was a cabbage patch!”
“Carrot patch!”
“Oh dear, children. Enough. Whether it was a cabbage patch or a carrot patch doesn’t matter now. After all, you’ve both grown so big that you don’t need to be left in a field anymore.”

The girl twin clung to Clurker’s long legs.

“Can I drive then?”
“Driving can wait. At least until your feet are big enough to reach the brake.”

Clurker chuckled as he tried to settle the clinging children, but eventually gave up and let go. He looked between Loerston and Adelia.

“I’m terribly sorry, but could you let this incident pass?”

Loerston’s eyes narrowed.

“Well, these children engaged in forced selling without a license, which is illegal.”
“How strict you are.”
“Setting aside the children, what you did borders on fraud.”
“Come now, why must you speak so fearfully?”

Clurker, dropping his charm, winked at Adelia. No wonder he was popular—he certainly had appeal.

Loerston’s gaze turned even colder, though Clurker seemed not to notice as he said:

“What does the kind-hearted young lady think?”

Adelia, arms still folded, looked at Loerston. She knew perfectly well that talk of forced selling and fraud was all in jest.

She looked down at the shameless, good-natured Clurker and the two children with sparkling eyes.

It was true that the children had engaged in forced selling, and it was true that Clurker had committed fraud, but if what she’d heard was accurate, she didn’t want to quibble over such trifles.

Fortunately, both the children and Clurker seemed cheerful and well, but there was no real joy in a situation where even such small ones had to work for money.

“I’ll let it go this time.”
“As I thought—my eye for people is never wrong. I knew you’d say that, miss. Now, children. Say thank you.”
“Isn’t ‘thank you’ what you say when you get pie?”
“Or candy.”

Clurker pressed down on both children’s heads, forcing them to bow.

The children mumbled “thank you” in bewilderment, and Adelia finally burst out laughing.

Clurker spoke.

“If you still have the Circus Tickets I gave you, there’s a performance tonight. Please come see it. I’ll have the best seats reserved and waiting. It’s also my way of repaying your kindness.”
“This won’t be a swindle, will it?”

Loerston’s voice was tinged with amusement. Clurker responded by clicking his tongue—tock, tack, tock, tack—and wagging his finger.

“I never lie about anything related to the Circus. You’ll see. I’ll have the finest seats, crispy popcorn, sweet taffy and lemonade all prepared and waiting. Admission starts at six o’clock, so if you come a bit earlier, it won’t be too crowded.”

Adelia, who’d been giggling throughout, spoke.

“I’ll think about it.”
“Do think about it positively, won’t you? Well then, I’ll take my leave.”

Clurker blew a kiss toward Adelia.

But before Adelia could react, Loerston swept his hand up as if batting it away—rather like returning a ball in tennis.

Adelia’s expression suggested she was about to laugh herself silly, so Loerston deliberately spoke in a flat tone.

“That con artist will definitely have some sticky, cramped corner all set up while calling it a first-class seat. Mark my words, I’ll be right. See for yourself, junior.”

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