The Maid's Contract Marriage - Chapter 68
Arthur’s voice continued in the darkness.
“I had the arrogant thought that perhaps I could be with you. When returning from war, everyone talks about the women they left behind in their hometown.”
“……”
“I also had to consider how to deal with ‘Julius’ who treated me and the conscripted soldiers that way. Thoughts of you were sometimes included in that.”
“……”
“What should I do with you?”
Arthur laughed briefly after a short pause.
“Confessing my foolishness, I thought only I had to worry. I believed that if I said I would be with you, I could have you by my side.”
“……”
“I didn’t think you might have reasons not to want to be involved with me.”
Reina looked up at Arthur intently.
Arthur quietly stroked Reina’s hair while continuing to speak, his gaze fixed on a distant point.
“I used to mock arrogant nobles who believed they alone had choices. I laughed at men who mistook a woman’s kind word for affection. I was doing the same thing.”
Arthur’s voice was calm.
“You probably didn’t even consider it.”
Arthur looked down at Reina and asked plainly.
“You have a family to protect, so you wouldn’t want to get caught up in the danger I carry, right?”
“……”
Reina’s possible answer was predetermined.
Arthur seemed to know this as well.
However, Reina didn’t get the chance to express it.
Because Arthur added a serious question.
“What if I’m… a bit handsome?”
“……”
Silence fell.
For a moment, Reina looked at him, not understanding his words.
“……”
Arthur muttered to himself.
“I guess looks don’t matter much even if you’re somewhat good-looking.”
“……”
After some silence.
A burst of laughter erupted with a ‘pfft’ sound.
Reina laughed so hard she nearly cried.
“Is it that funny?”
Arthur said, sounding a bit hurt, as he ruffled Reina’s hair.
His attitude was playful, as if deliberate.
“Ahem. I’m sorry,” Reina said, wiping away tears, but still unable to stop laughing.
For quite a while.
[This is the timeline separator]Arthur chuckled and began to speak.
My handsome face probably takes after my mother.
Though I’ve never seen her.
I hear she was quite beautiful.
Arthur thus began the story of his family.
My mother was an actress.
They say she caught the Emperor’s eye while performing in some city.
I was born and my mother pointed to the Emperor as the child’s father,
But His Majesty didn’t acknowledge it.
My mother was a famous lead actress, and she worked with many male actors.
I don’t know how many men could have been pointed to as the child’s father by my mother.
But it seems that the possibility that it might not have been only him
Was an important issue for the Emperor.
Well, I understand. He’s the Emperor after all.
He couldn’t afford to look foolish.
Maybe his pride was hurt to say it might be his child but he wasn’t sure.
The Empress Maria was also heavily pregnant around the same time.
“……”
The Emperor refused to acknowledge the possibility that I might be his son and remained silent,
My mother died of puerperal fever just a week after giving birth to me.
They say the Emperor didn’t even come to visit.
It was rather harsh treatment from my late mother’s perspective.
“……”
But well, I suppose not much would have changed even if he had come to see earlier.
I heard the Emperor did see me after a few months somehow.
They say the Emperor showed little interest in me, seeing no resemblance to himself.
I took after my mother, so there was no visible evidence of being the Emperor’s child.
That was the end of His Majesty’s interest.
“……”
Arthur looked at Reina and smiled slightly.
Now I’m talked about for having gray eyes like the late Emperor Alexander Rusaik II,
But they say I had blue eyes when I was very young.
As everyone in the Empire knows, the Emperor has purple eyes.
My hair was black like my mother’s…..
Black hair and blue eyes would be a look not found in the imperial bloodline.
And my mother had red eyes.
But the child had blue eyes.
“So the Emperor, who saw me as a newborn, must have thought I wasn’t his child.”
“……”
Reina quietly looked at Arthur.
It was a story Reina knew as well.
The story of Arthur’s ‘gray eyes’.
“For me to think that way just because of eye color…. That’s how I feel, but.”
“……”
It was a story no one had ever heard from the perspective of the person involved.
Arthur’s voice continued.
“If he thought my mother had lied about my bloodline, I suppose I should be grateful that he just ignored me and let me live.”
“……”
My heart ached and tightened.
Reina held her breath.
[This is the timeline separator]Clatter…..
The imperial mail carriage carrying letters sent from the capital knocked on the gates of Julius after crossing the drawbridge.
Though there was no prior appointment and it was late, the noble attire of the coachman and the imperial seal on the carriage
Easily opened the outer gate, inner gate, and the door of the Julius mansion in succession.
[This is the timeline separator]【 To my dear nephew, Rembrandt. 】
【 Do as you wish. 】
【 With love. Maria Abigail von Rusaik. 】
【 My dear shield. 】
【 I’ve arrived safely. 】
【 Come quickly too. 】
【 Golden Trophy. 】
【 P.S. Give my regards to Arthur and the lady. 】
【 Did you deliver the letter I gave you? 】
[This is the timeline separator]Rembrandt, who had been reading the letters from Empress Maria and Crown Prince Kyle in order, scratched his forehead.
“Ah.”
That ‘letter’?
I’m not sure if that could be called a letter, but…..
“……”
I thought it was given as a joke.
……I’m sorry.
I haven’t had a chance to meet yet…..
Rembrandt glanced at the Crown Prince’s ‘previous letter’ placed on top inside his personal letter box in front of him.
The Crown Prince’s letter, hastily scrawled on a card without even being sealed or put in an envelope, had its contents openly displayed.
[This is the timeline separator]【 To my dear lady. 】
【 Please take good care of Arthur. 】
【 It seems Arthur has thought of you for a long time. 】
【 Looking forward to our reunion. 】
【 Envious of Ryan Dalton and Arthur, 】
【 A wine delivery man accustomed to sleeping outdoors. 】
【 P.S. Next time, I won’t prepare alcohol. I’m sorry. 】
Arthur continued speaking calmly.
“They say my eye color changed to gray around when I turned one year old. But it didn’t mean much. My grandfather, the late Emperor, did have gray eyes. But who would bother to remember for an illegitimate child with no foundation, abandoned by the Emperor? That the late Emperor, who passed away at thirty-five, also had blue eyes as a child before they turned gray.”
“……”
The child’s eye color changed and seems to resemble his grandfather. Maybe he is your bloodline after all. Shouldn’t we take another look?
Even if someone had argued like that, it would have seemed like a commonality forcibly found.
Honestly, I think I would have scoffed at it too.
Arthur’s voice was indifferent.
“……”
“But after more time passed… I belatedly found out that I had inherited some evidence of bloodline unique to the imperial family, something much more definitive than eye color.”
“……”
Arthur’s voice paused for a while at that point.
Reina looked up at him and asked carefully.
“…So… did the imperial family acknowledge you?”
Arthur answered with a small laugh.
“Well….. They didn’t acknowledge me right away, but it’s similar. I think that’s when they started considering whether to use me as insurance or not.”
“……”
They needed someone to go to war.
I had nothing, but there was Julius.
If I went to war under the name of the Julius family, it wouldn’t give the impression that the imperial family, who hadn’t acknowledged me until then, was suddenly trying to use me.
“……”
If I returned successful,
It would seem that the imperial family had secretly been trying to arrange a good marriage for the illegitimate child they appeared not to have acknowledged, and had been giving me a chance to regain honor.
― They could save face in that way too.
“…It’s not exactly a beautiful story.”
Arthur laughed.
“But it’s true that it brought me a contract with solid guarantees and a good opportunity.”
“……”
Reina listened intently to all his stories, holding her breath.
It was the story of her hero about himself, which she couldn’t know even from the newsletters she had diligently collected.
“That’s how I came to Julius.”
“……”
“It wasn’t something I had a choice in.”
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
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