Standard Contract Guidelines for a Fraudulent Marriage - Chapter 89

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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 89

As Adelia listened to Ellie speak, she felt her nose prickle with sudden emotion.

Her face flushed with the embarrassment of meddling in someone else’s affairs, yet she couldn’t stop her eyes from welling with tears.

Ellie spoke quickly.

“Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Adelia…….”
“No, no—you needn’t apologize, Ellie. It’s just…….”

Adelia exhaled a long breath before continuing.

“If there’s anything I could do to help…….”
“It’s all right. As long as Clicker is here on the island, I can keep seeing him.”
“…….”
“If I keep persuading him, won’t he eventually come around to me?”

Ellie smiled brightly as she spoke.

“But Clicker…….”

After taking a sip of tea, Ellie’s expression grew darker.

“What about Clicker?”
“Ah, it’s nothing serious. The thing is……Clicker seems to want to go to the mainland at heart.”
“The mainland? The Capital?”
“Not necessarily the Capital, though he probably dreams of going there too. Clicker wants to start his own acrobat troupe. The Troupe Master he works for now isn’t in very good health. He looks fine, but he’s getting on in years, and it shows in other ways.”
“I see…….”
“Clicker carries a debt of gratitude in his heart toward the Troupe Master, who gave him work when he was young. Even if the Troupe Master can no longer perform, Clicker wants to continue the troupe. Of course, he wants to add his own ideas too—to build something bigger, more entertaining, a troupe that everyone would love. That’s what I’ve heard from him.”

The mainland. Of course—performing only for tourists visiting the island was far less stable than touring the mainland, and the income would be considerably higher.

If things went well, he could even contract with a theater to perform there regularly.

A theater…….

Adelia called to mind several theaters in the Capital. Places where singers, comedians, and storytellers performed…….

They weren’t quite as grand as the Opera House, where nobles came and went as casually as meals, but there were theaters that were quite famous and splendid in their own right. Performing on such a stage would certainly bring in substantial earnings.

“Clicker’s desire to run an acrobat troupe on the mainland isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

At Adelia’s words, Ellie looked at her with puzzlement.

“Why……would you think that?”

Adelia studied Ellie carefully.

“To the contrary, it seems you’re troubled by the thought of Clicker going to the mainland. Why is that?”
“Well…….”

After a moment of searching for words, Ellie spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Because……there are many complications in the Capital. With so much attention and scrutiny, it would be difficult for me to see Clicker as often as I do now.”
“Is that all?”
“There’s more to it than that…….”

Both of Ellie’s cheeks flushed red.

Like a child caught in wrongdoing, she wrung the hem of her dress nervously in her lap before speaking.

“There are……so many beautiful young ladies in the Capital that you can’t even count them. And there are plenty of them who would be perfectly suited to marry someone like Clicker. And if he goes to places like theaters……well, you know as well as I do how many beautiful actresses and singers there are.”

Suddenly, Adelia couldn’t help but laugh—Ellie was simply too adorable.

Ellie immediately bristled, feigning indignation.

“I’m serious about this!”
“I know you are, Ellie. I’m sorry for laughing. But you’re just too cute.”
“Cute? Hardly.”

Ellie pouted and turned away.

“A girl who thinks of nothing but machines could never be cute. I can’t even choose a single piece of jewelry without my servants’ help, I’m so uninterested in such things. Grooming bores me to tears.”
“Don’t you think Clicker might like you precisely because of that?”
“Even if Clicker does like me…….”

Ellie trailed off, blinking as she clapped her hand over her mouth.

“Good heavens, what am I saying! Please forget you heard that.”
“Why? It’s obvious to me that you and Clicker care for each other.”
“No, that’s not it!”
“Ellie, what if we tried something?”
“Something like what?”
“Finding a way for you and Clicker to leave this island and be happy together.”

Ellie’s expression showed alarm at Adelia’s proposal.

Adelia herself had a home in the Capital, so leaving the island posed no real difficulty for her. But Clicker—surely he had almost no savings, spending every coin he earned to feed, clothe, and raise his younger siblings.

How could someone like that bring his siblings to the Capital? There was only the Slums to go to. It would be infinitely worse than his current life.

“That won’t work. Clicker won’t have saved anything. And he won’t want it anyway.”
“Something you said earlier gave me an idea. If the Troupe Master’s health is failing, shouldn’t he move while he’s still able to? Setting aside romance, isn’t that the sensible thing to do?”
“But…….”
“Why not have a conversation with Clicker about it? The truth is, I need to open a salon as soon as I return to the Capital. So I’ll be inviting several people over to practice hosting one.”

Ellie looked bewildered.

“Practice hosting a salon? You, a duchess?”

Adelia’s brow arched slightly.

“There are certain circumstances involved. In any case, gentlemen will be attending the salon, and I was thinking of inviting Clicker as practice. What if you came as well?”
“But if I’m there, Clicker won’t speak his true thoughts. He never does around me.”
“Is that so? Then…….”

Adelia fell quiet, thinking. Then she snapped her fingers with a decisive click.

“I have an idea.”

Ellie’s eyes widened with curiosity as she watched Adelia.

***

After Ellie departed, Adelia and Loerston finished their evening meal and settled onto the balcony adjoining their bedroom, conversing in hushed tones.

The topic, unsurprisingly, was Ellie and Clicker.

“I think it would be good for Clicker to come to the Capital. What do you think?”
“Honestly, I’m not as invested in their romance as you are. Clicker coming to the Capital shouldn’t be difficult. But what comes after? What’s your plan?”
“Theaters. Having his acrobat troupe perform at theaters.”
“Theaters? The kinds of places where cross-dressed female singers perform, or comedians do sketches?”
“Exactly! And those places are visited far more by commoners than by nobles. If the acrobat troupe takes up a segment of the performance, they’ll definitely become popular.”
“Will it be that simple?”

Adelia tilted her head thoughtfully.

“It depends on Clicker’s efforts, but somehow I feel confident he could manage it.”
“Even if the acrobat troupe establishes itself in the Capital, do you think maintaining a connection with Ellie would be possible?”
“I’ve given that thought too. What if we had Ellie lend her Mechanical Expertise to help with the brewery?”
“Lend her expertise?”
“Yes, exactly. Making spirits requires complex processes. To achieve a distinctive flavor, there are likely many places where machinery needs adjustment. If we simply provide Ellie with a pretext to move about openly, meeting Clicker wouldn’t be so difficult.”

Loerston fell silent, arms crossed, lost in thought.

Making Ellie Rumble a technical manager for the brewery wasn’t difficult, nor was arranging connections at theaters for Clicker’s acrobat troupe—though the latter didn’t particularly appeal to him.

But a problem remained nonetheless. If word spread that Ellie Rumble and Clicker were involved, the Rumble Family would suffer considerable damage.

And if that happened, Lady Rumble would immediately cause a scene trying to marry off her daughter to the highest bidder, as though selling livestock.

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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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