Contract Marriage Interrupted - Chapter 67



Only Noblemtl

Episode 67. Childhood Dream
2023.09.21.

Louis had an expression that didn’t fit in with this seemingly cheerful banquet hall.

If Odette had stood a little closer to Louis, there would have been rumors that something had happened between the two.

To put it simply.

‘She had a story behind her face.’

Thanks to that, I couldn’t help but recall the day of the wedding announcement at the palace that I had forgotten.

– Your Majesty, how about reconsidering the marriage? Duke Ertmann is not a good person.

– Can’t you find another partner even now? For example… … Me.

To be honest, I wanted to dismiss it as a joke, but Louis’s attitude was serious.

And since he had yelled at Walter like that, it couldn’t have been a joke.

‘It’s really strange.’

It’s true that Odette had intended to marry Louis, but wasn’t it Louis who drew the line?

If Louis hadn’t cut Odette off like a knife after Xavier’s banquet, Odette would not have accepted Walter’s proposal. Louis, who

could spend the rest of her life more comfortably and freely, was a more suitable marriage partner for her than Walter, a famous person.

However, Louis drew the line with Odette, and showed himself to her only after a long time had passed.

‘Of course, Count Clovis sent me a letter,’

she asked the other maids and maids, and they all said they didn’t remember seeing a letter from Clovis.

Then, it seems that Louis was lying and saying he sent the letter to make a good excuse.

Above all, if Louis wanted to convey his true feelings, Odette thought, he should have shown himself to her sooner.

‘But this time, Count Clovis disappeared after that.’

After the announcement of the marriage at the palace, Odette had thought that Louis might come to visit her at least once.

She had even asked Emma separately in case Walter interfered with her meeting with Louis.

-Emma, ​​can you tell me the carriage that visited the mansion every day? It doesn’t have to come all the way to the mansion.

However, Clovis’s carriage never showed up during that period.

So Odette decided to think about it as best she could.

‘I guess he’s given up on marrying me. The reason he acted like that back then… … Well, he must have urgently needed a marriage partner.’

From

Odette’s perspective, there was no particular reason why Louis would cling to her so desperately other than the fact that he needed a suitable marriage partner, so it was a natural conclusion.

So naturally, seeing that Louis didn’t show up, she assumed that he had found a marriage partner.

‘What on earth is Count Clovis thinking?’

At this point, even Odette, who was extremely indifferent to things that had nothing to do with her, was curious.

Above all, she felt a strange sense of foreboding from Louis.

Of course, she was already familiar with Louis.

‘It seems like there’s something more to it… … .’

A strange feeling.

I think I’ve felt this feeling before, somewhere. When I tried

to recall it now, it didn’t come to mind

. Furthermore, Odette wasn’t given enough time to think back.

Louis seemed to frown when their eyes met from afar, but he soon disappeared into the crowd.

Odette almost followed him without realizing it.

“Your Majesty, you need to change into your wedding dress. Come this way.”

“… … Ah.”

Thanks to the maid’s words that appeared just in time, she finally came to her senses.

The only fortunate thing was that she didn’t have time to think of Louis’ face after that. Just

changing clothes, walking around the wedding party, and talking to other guests was a task that required considerable physical and mental strength.

In particular, dealing with the extremes of Ellie and Arnold would have required considerable physical strength.

“Congratulations on your wedding, my dear! What do you want as a wedding present? Should I give you that island that belongs to the dukedom in the south? Or would you rather have money? Just say it!”

“Your Majesty is getting married, ugh! This feels like a dream to me!”

One of them was about to rattle off a list of Ertmann’s assets, and the other was still crying and snotting, as if he hadn’t gotten tired of it yesterday.

Furthermore, the fact that there was one person who was particularly nagging at them made them even more difficult to deal with.

“Hey, tsk! Walter, what are you doing here?”

“I’m the groom today.”

“Shut up! I could have called ten more guys to replace that groom, so what’s the big deal about you? Go get me some more drinks. The sight of your face makes me sick to my stomach.”

Arnold would barge in and harass Walter whenever he saw him.

“I gave my permission for the marriage because I saw Odette, but I still oppose this marriage.”

“Are you being foolish?”

“If you neglect Odette even a little bit, no! If Odette falls and hurts her knee, I’ll take you away from her right away!”

“Then I’ll have to carry Odette around all day. Good.”

And Walter responded comfortably without changing his expression no matter how stubborn Arnold was.

“Huh, carrying her around all day…?”

Thanks to this, only Odette, who was next to him, was suffering.

　
Furthermore, Ellie, who was next to Odette, harassed Walter in a completely different way than Arnold, but her argument was the same no matter what she said.

“Listen carefully, Your Majesty. If Her Majesty Odette can’t wear an off-shoulder top at the next banquet because of you, I’ll take Her Majesty on a month-long trip. Do you understand?”

In particular, it seemed that the final change in the design of the wedding dress was Ellie’s red light.

Ellie, slightly drunk, gave a long speech about how much the dress that revealed Odette’s shoulder line would make her stand out.

Odette was surprised once by the fact that Ellie treasured her shoulder line so much, and twice by the fact that Walter, who would normally have found it annoying and cut off the conversation, was nodding along to the story.

“What we’re saying is, not only is your shoulder line your shoulder line, but your skin is also fair and your collarbone is so straight!” ”

That’s definitely true.”

“That’s right! Both thin necklaces and dangling pearl necklaces go well with you, but last time, when you wore a bolero and hung a necklace over it, your beauty came alive even more-”

“T-stop! Ellie, please stop! Walter, what are you saying again?”

And Odette was on the verge of losing her mind from the endless compliments in front of her.

In the end, Odette was finally able to regain her senses after sending the drunken Ellie back to her family, and fortunately or unfortunately,

the wedding party was coming to an end by then. “Odette, let’s go now. I’ll be waiting at the mansion.”

“Oh, right… … .”

Odette followed Walter’s escort and absentmindedly looked back at the banquet hall.

It was because she had a feeling that she was missing something.

‘Hmm… … .’

Odette tried to think a little more, but she was too tired to think smoothly.

In addition, the fact that she could guess too many things also had an effect.

She almost couldn’t attend the wedding last night because of Blake’s interference, and she had even briefly run into Louis a little while ago.

It would be strange not to feel uneasy after going through something like that.

‘I guess I’ll lean on it.’

Odette thought that and got into the carriage.

It was truly a noisy wedding in many ways.

* * *

When they returned to Ertmann after the wedding, the sun was already setting.

Perhaps that was why Odette was a little surprised at the fact that the road to the Ertmann ducal residence, which she had become quite familiar with, felt tingly.

So she quietly looked out the window and muttered without realizing it.

“… … Ertmann is really my home now.”

“Hasn’t it been my home until now?”

“But up until now, I felt like a guest.”

The first reason she felt this way was because of Russell’s words as he opened the carriage door.

– Please come in, Madam. Congratulations on your marriage.

Of course, Russell was just using the proper title.

Madam.

For Odette, who had always been called “Your Highness,” it was a really unfamiliar title.

She felt like she had truly thrown off her status as a princess, which had been nothing more than a shackle.

Now, even when she went outside, she would be called “Duchess Ertmann” instead of “Your Highness the 4th Princess.”

It was a natural change, but the feeling she felt on her skin was unfamiliar.

Odette smiled and fixed her gaze on the window where the sunset was falling.

The sunset glittered like a sliver over her golden yellow eyes.

“I mean, Walter. Ever since I was little, I’ve dreamed of a very ordinary life. Life in the palace was, frankly, hard.”

“… … In what way?”

“That there was no one I could trust. For example, Ellie was a maid I met when I was ten, but it took me ten years to really trust her.”

It wasn’t that Ellie wasn’t trustworthy.

It was just that Odette was afraid of becoming attached to someone.

“When I was young, I lived in the Empress’s palace, and at that time, the Empress constantly changed the people in charge of me. It was as short as a month, and as long as half a year. If I felt like I was getting attached, a new person would come.”

I know why Empress Katharina did that.

She was wary of Odette getting too close to someone in the palace.

Children like her would easily draw sympathy, and sympathy would quickly develop into favor.

She probably didn’t want Odette to get too close to the palace people and form a power structure.

“I was really a child back then.”

Katharina was so thorough that she wouldn’t give even a child like that a chance.

“Well, nothing really changed after I went to my palace. All of my maids were either the Empress’s or demoted. Or they were from families that were not as lowly as those.”

Ellie was the last of the group, and Odette’s nanny, Viscountess Inaia, was a demoted one.

That’s why, except for Ellie, everyone left as soon as things got better.

So Odette couldn’t help but be afraid of giving affection before trusting anyone, and that’s how her dream was determined without her knowing it.

To leave the palace and live an ordinary life.

“If you want to believe, believe, if you want to like, like. That’s how I wanted to live.”