The Maid's Contract Marriage - Chapter 31

The crown prince frowned and leaned back on the sofa.

“Well, if not, forget it. You caused me a lot of trouble earlier. It seems Arthur quite likes his wife.”

Rembrandt said with a somewhat strange expression.

“…Is that so?”

Francis asked, looking increasingly puzzled and confused.

“…Are you talking about Lord Arthur and Lady Christina? Aren’t they a couple who married without even seeing each other’s faces, in a political marriage? It’s been barely a week since they met again and got to know each other…”

Even as Francis said this, he himself was interested in a maid he had only known for a week…

Rembrandt stirred his teacup with an ambiguous smile.

The crown prince spoke calmly as he brought the teacup to his lips.

“Well… the affection between a man and a woman doesn’t necessarily correspond to the time they’ve known each other. She was that charming of a lady.”

Francis muttered in bewilderment.

“Is she that… impressive? Lady Christina…?”

…Since he’s the type who doesn’t have much to get attached to, it seems he might have fallen hard for a kind-looking woman who treated him well, calling her his wife…

The crown prince leaned back on the sofa, thinking to himself.

“…”

A ‘proper family’ for Arthur…

The crown prince quietly looked down at his teacup.

“…”

And he recalled the conversation he had with Arthur.

On the way back after the victory.

Forced to drink under the pretext of an imperial order,

It was the day he saw him drunk for the first and last time.

·

·

·

“…Ryan Dalton*?”

The drunken Arthur said with a groggy smile.

“…Yes.”

For the first time in front of the crown prince, his tongue was dulled.

Speaking a bit slowly, with a hint of laughter, he said.

“He told me… that I didn’t have to come back…”

“That it would be fine to live like Ryan Dalton…”

Arthur laughed deflated and dropped his head.

“…That’s what he said.”

“Right before we parted…”

The crown prince, pleasantly drunk, smiled quietly as he looked at Arthur, who was completely disheveled after drinking heavily on his orders.

“…”

Arthur, heavily intoxicated, mumbled with slightly slurred speech.

“…Was I that bad?”

“Bad enough to never want to see me again?”

So drunk that he wouldn’t remember the next day.

He spoke words that, given his personality, he would never have uttered when sober.

“…”

With a smile he had never shown before, disheveled.

Arthur mumbled.

“…I miss him.”

“…”

His half-brother, who always maintained an inhuman, restrained expression and was always perfect.

For the first time, he looked at him with a loose smile.

“What will he say when I return…?”

“…That woman…”

He smiled with a relaxed face.

Just once.

That was all he ever heard about his fiancée, no, his wife, at that time.

·

·

·

“…”

Hearing that he had mentioned Ryan Dalton’s story, the crown prince guessed that Arthur must have thought about Christina for five years.

Even I… I think I would have thought about that woman for five years.

“…”

Is it the same for everyone on the battlefield…

Or is it just Arthur and me.

The emperor’s sons who want to run away, but can’t.

“…”

The crown prince chuckled.

It’s a bit worrying that he seems to be getting too attached already.

But it’s fortunate that the young lady seems to be a good person.

I was worried because she’s a lady of the ‘Julius’ family.

It was unexpected.

How could such a lady come from under ‘Julius’.

The crown prince just felt somewhat relieved, and also a bit hurt by Arthur for some reason, so he laughed alone.

“…”

Francis looked with strange eyes at the crown prince and Rembrandt, who seemed to be lost in their own thoughts about ‘Christina’.

“No… I’m really curious. How impressive must Lady Christina have been for…”

Rembrandt just shrugged and smiled.

The crown prince tilted his head back and lamented.

“Ah… If only I had a fiancée to even consider becoming Ryan Dalton…”

The crown prince muttered, looking at the chandelier on the ceiling.

“I’m dying of envy.”

Just as Rembrandt was about to say something to the crown prince with a smile.

The next moment.

Bang!

The door opened roughly, and the doorknob hit the wall.

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”

And the captain of the Imperial Guard barged in.

The crown prince, his expression changed, jumped to his feet.

Rembrandt and Francis also stood up in surprise.

The captain of the Imperial Guard, in his fifties, strode in shouting.

“So this is where you were hiding!”

A string of Imperial Guard members rushed in behind the captain.

The crown prince, instantly surrounded by his guards, raised his hands.

“Wait, wait. Calm down, Lord Fairman. This is someone else’s house. It’s not polite to barge in like this.”

The captain of the guard shouted, fuming.

“I’m sure the host will understand the difficult position of the captain of the Imperial Guard who has to catch the fleeing crown prince!”

The knights, who had already fallen for the same trick several times, didn’t budge at the crown prince’s talk of rudeness and tightened their encirclement around him following the captain’s instructions.

The crown prince smiled nervously and protested.

“…Fleeing? I said I’d go back on my own after staying for just a day or two. I left a note…”

The captain of the guard snapped.

“This is the seventh time you’ve postponed like this! I’ve had to report to His Majesty the Emperor three times about delaying the expected arrival date I had already informed him of! The messengers had to go three times to apologize to His Majesty for the schedule delays! Don’t you feel sorry for the messengers?!”

The crown prince shrank before the captain of the guard who had protected him for five years.

“Ah, I got it. I’ll go. I said I’ll go, okay?”

“When?”

“I’ll really go tomorrow.”

“Today!”

The captain fired off in rapid succession.

“You were supposed to leave yesterday originally! Before that, you were supposed to leave for the capital last week, separating from Lord Arthur’s army! You’ve been dragging it out saying you’ll go today, you’ll go tomorrow, and ended up following Lord Arthur all the way to the doorstep of the Julius territory!”

The crown prince looked apologetic but still brazenly went on.

“That’s why! Now that we’ve come all this way, how can I just leave? I should at least greet Arthur’s lady before going… Ah!”

And he quickly introduced the two people behind him.

“This is Rembrandt. Say hello. You know him, right? He’s my cousin, the son of my uncle, Duke Karl Klein. This is Francis. He’s the second son of Count Ford, my friend, and he’s helping Rembrandt. Both of you, say hello. That’s Lord Fairman, the captain of the Imperial Guard.”

He said he came secretly, but he didn’t expect to come so secretly that the furious captain of the guard would come to catch him.

The surprised Rembrandt and Francis stood up from their seats and awkwardly bowed and greeted.

“Ah, hello, Lord Fairman. You must be working hard. I am Rembrandt Eaton von Klein…”

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”

The captain shouted.

While the bewildered Rembrandt was awkwardly greeting Fairman, the crown prince instantly dashed towards the back door.

“Your Highness!”

Following the captain of the guard, cries of resentment from the guard members followed.

“After him!”

The crown prince took to his heels and ran.

[This is the timeline separator]

“…”

“…”

After the storm had passed.

Only Rembrandt and Francis were left alone in the room.

“Lord Rembrandt.”

Francis, who called out to Rembrandt who was standing there blankly, finally changed his expression with a small smile when he looked at him and brought up the business he had come for.

“I’ve completed the initial investigation on ‘Reina Astarin’. If it’s alright with you, would you like to hear it now?”

Rembrandt said “Ah.” and then smiled, changing his posture as he sat down.

“Yes, that’s fine. Please tell me.”

Francis began his report.

In addition to basic information about Reina as a maid of Julius,

His report included content suggesting that she seemed to have a secret romantic relationship with the son of Julius’s personal physician, Dr. Lorenson,

That she had suddenly disappeared for a week now on some kind of errand,

And that Tristan, Arthur’s closest knight, was investigating her.

“That’s all for now. Shall I look into it further?”

Rembrandt, who had silently listened to his report to the end, pondered for a moment, and feeling the need to see how long it would take for someone as capable as Francis to uncover Reina’s secret, gave a new order.

“Yes, please continue a bit more. Please also investigate about her family, or if she had any financial difficulties or hardships. However…”

Rembrandt added another request with a smile.

“Could you conduct the investigation on ‘Reina’ more discreetly from now on? So that it’s not too obvious that you’re looking into it.”

Francis nodded willingly.

“Yes. That much is not difficult.”

Rembrandt looked at Francis.

And with a slightly apologetic smile, he added.

“…And if you’ve taken a liking to that young lady, it might be better to give up. I’ve heard some things separately.”

Rembrandt said, fiddling with his interlocked hands.

“It doesn’t seem like she’s someone you can have a light, brief romance with while staying here. It seems there’s a dangerous competitor.”

[This is the timeline separator]

Click. Click.

Julius Marquis Mansion’s main building.

The path leading to the side of the central staircase guarded by Arthur’s knights.

A blonde lady, not excessively adorned yet elegant and gorgeous, walked quietly.

Click.

As she reached a certain distance, she stopped.

Then she calmly swept her gaze over the knights.

“…”

Her gaze, which had been moving smoothly, stopped at the sight of a knight with a scar on his mouth.

Christina gently grasped her skirt and bent her knees slightly, lowering her gaze in greeting.

Without bowing her head or waist, she only lowered her eyes briefly while bending her knees,

It was a proud and elegant greeting.

As she opened her eyes and looked up at the end of the brief greeting, her emerald eyes were revealed.

Even with more than half of her face covered by her bonnet, one could tell she was an astonishingly beautiful woman.

“Do you have business here?”

Lionel asked.

Christina smiled faintly.

“I’ve come to see Lord Arthur, is he in?”

“He is not here.”

Among nobles, saying “He is not here” wasn’t just used when someone was really absent, but also as a polite refusal even when the person was inside but couldn’t be met.

So even if one knew the person was inside, if they received the answer “He is not here”, it was polite to understand it as meaning they couldn’t meet today and withdraw.

However, Christina smiled as if she had expected this answer and said,

“Then I will wait.”

Lionel replied expressionlessly.

“He will not be coming today. It would be best if you just leave a message and go.”

“No. I will wait.”

She smiled, looking at Lionel.

“It’s fine if he doesn’t come. I’ll wait, so please let him know that I waited.”

And she really waited for an hour standing there.

With her back against the wall, standing like a flower on the wall.

After exactly one hour had passed.

Click, she took out a pocket watch from her bag to check the time

With a very calm face, as she turned to leave, she smiled gently.

—

*Ryan Dalton: A character from a classic novel who deserted his position as a prince, abandoning his status and name to live longing for his beloved fiancée for the rest of his life. He is interpreted as a cowardly and foolish character.