Contract Marriage Interrupted - Chapter 74



Only Noblemtl

Episode 74. Truth (4)
2023.10.15.

An object that changes its appearance in response to magic power and other things, and its usage changes depending on certain conditions.

Walter knew what these objects were commonly called.

‘Artifacts.’

Sometimes they are called holy relics depending on their inherent power or characteristics, but anyway.

Even if he didn’t know the exact principle, he could tell that Odette’s pendant had activated this artifact.

And since this artifact couldn’t possibly corrode over time, its initial worn-out appearance was probably a disguise.

In its disguised state, it would have been no more or less efficient than a worn-out dagger no matter what he did.

It was Odette’s pendant that had turned an object that could be sold at a hardware store for cheap into an artifact.

‘What on earth was this pendant for?’

And what on earth did Odette do that she had a magical tool that could activate this artifact?

In other cases, it would have been possible to anticipate the situation and prepare for it, but this was different.

How could Walter have predicted that he would accidentally pick up an artifact in a cave he entered after failing to return from the snowy mountain?

‘It must have been made for another purpose.’

It must have just happened to be used to activate this artifact.

The pendant had stopped vibrating, perhaps because it had exhausted its magical power.

Walter put the pendant back in his bosom and picked up the artifact.

From the intricately crafted handle to the blade, this dagger looked as if it had been made without any care, and it looked as if it would tear apart anything it got in its way at any moment.

It wasn’t that hard to figure out how to use it, considering that he had read the text on the handle.

‘A dagger for an altar that can accommodate one person.’

Isn’t that too obvious?

‘It’s telling me to make a sacrifice.’

　
Haha, a hollow laugh escaped his mouth.

Was it funny that he had encountered something like this in a situation where he would freeze to death, or was it that the idea that came to his mind was so lighthearted?

If others had picked up this artifact, they would have probably thought about many things.

The most common idea would be to first preserve his body and get out of here, then bring something to sacrifice and place it on the altar and stab it.

Fortunately, this was a forest full of people and animals who would die instead, whether it was a coincidence or not.

However, Walter had a gut feeling.

‘I can’t go down this mountain.’ He

had already lost too much blood.

He couldn’t even make a fire, so he would freeze to

death if he lost consciousness. Of course, if he had tried to figure out how to survive now, it wouldn’t have been difficult, but Walter had already lost his will a long time ago.

The only difference would be that the body that should have been found in front of the cave would have been found inside the cave.

So ‘next’ no longer existed for Walter.

Furthermore.

‘There is no subject in this sentence.’

Walter was not very knowledgeable about magic or divine powers, but he had the level of knowledge that a duke’s family should have as a form of education.

And as far as he knew, the phrases on the artifacts that had the initiation method written on them all referred to the ‘user’.

For example, the phrase engraved on the artifact that was supposed to change the wearer’s appearance was as follows:

[Leave the left ring finger of the one who dreams of lies empty.]

The meaning of this phrase was quite ambiguous.

The first thing that meant was to leave the left ring finger, where the wedding ring was usually worn, empty, meaning that only unmarried people could use this artifact.

And it also literally meant that the left ring finger had to be empty.

This was because this artifact was in the form of a ring, and it worked by wearing it on the left ring finger.

However, if you delve a little deeper, it also contained a warning that those who used this artifact would never be able to form deep relationships.

A ring worn on the left ring finger signifies a promise, but if this spot is always empty, it ultimately means that that level of trust cannot be exchanged.

In this way, the text on the artifact often contained instructions for use as well as warnings to the user.

As such, the content was sometimes ambiguous, but at least there were never cases where there was no subject.

‘But this dagger… … There is only instructions for use, and no story about the user.’

The instructions for use are written strangely clearly, but there is no story about the user.

Then, how can we know if the one who stabs the sacrifice becomes the user, or if the one who is stabbed by the dagger becomes the user?

And in this situation, there is only one way to find out.

‘More than anything, to get what I want… … I don’t think an ordinary sacrifice will pay the full price.’

Even if this method was wrong and I died a fool’s death here, it didn’t matter.

My life was too small, and it was okay to say that it wasn’t enough to get what I wanted.

After all, he had no more reason to live.

‘After all, I’m a fool.’

There were so many options to live well, but he kicked them all away and died a fool’s death in this remote place. It

was a pitiful way to greet Odette with a topic that he had mocked and resented.

But what can you do?

For someone standing on the edge of a cliff, there was no other way than to fall.

Maybe Odette was right. Maybe

she was born with misfortune.

Maybe that’s why everyone around her, even those who just looked on, were infected with misfortune and ruined like this.

‘I’m crazy for thinking such things.’

Walter sneered coldly, then picked up the dagger and stabbed it directly into his own heart.

A voice from some time ago played in his clouded consciousness.

-I hope you will be happy, Duke Ertmann.

And still, Walter could not answer that voice.

* * *

Fortunately, Walter’s heart was enough to fulfill his wish.

And it seems that the method he chose was also right.

After Walter stabbed his heart with the dagger, ‘he’ who met also expressed interest in Walter’s case and said this.

“I’ve often met people who stabbed their own hearts because they wanted to die, but this is a first. And it seems that you were not born with the ability… … .”

“Ability?”

“The minimum requirement to activate that dagger.”

As Walter had expected, the pendant Odette had given him seemed to have replaced the ‘ability’ that was the minimum requirement.

When Walter guessed the situation and nodded, ‘he’ continued speaking as if he was surprised.

“It seems that you don’t know anything properly. Do you know the name of this item you used?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s right. This is misfortune. Oh, the name of the item you just thought of is distrust.”

Walter quickly erased the ring artifact that he had thought of without thinking, which changed the appearance of the wearer.

He also thought that all of its names sounded like dogs.

“It’s only natural that the name came to be like that. This is an item that corrects the errors of the world.”

“… … An error?”

“Sometimes, a being is born with the ability to deviate from the norm of the world due to an error. The world naturally does its best to eliminate that being and restore the norm. If you keep quiet, you can save your life to some extent, but you won’t be able to completely avoid disaster.”

And since that disaster is called ‘misfortune’ among humans, the name of the dagger naturally became ‘misfortune.’

In short, this artifact was made for those who were born with exceptional abilities but ended up suffering misfortune.

Walter suddenly remembered Odette’s words.

-I’m unlucky, Duke. Maybe I was born with misfortune.

Odette had suppressed her confidence with the expression, “maybe,” but her guess was right.

She was truly born with misfortune. It was

just that Odette herself had hidden her abilities and lived quietly, so the intensity of her misfortune was not strong enough, and it was too late to realize it.

However, even though Odette had lived so quietly, the world had succeeded in correcting its error.

Fate had driven Odette to misfortune and caused her death.

“How terrible.”

Walter cursed inwardly and asked,

“If I had no abilities, would I not be able to make a deal with you? Even though I gave you my heart?”

“It wouldn’t be difficult to grant your wish in exchange for your heart. But would you be able to endure it? Your sincerity would be distorted and you would be rejected frequently.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You will be hurt countless times, and you will not be able to believe the sincerity of others at face value. In the end, all that will be left will be pitiful words. Do you really want to make a deal?”

“It’s already happened once, how can it be difficult the second time?”

Walter sneered coldly and continued.

“Please proceed with the deal. I will receive the price of my heart.”

The deal with ‘him’ went smoothly.

At the end, ‘him’ said this.

“I have accepted the sacrifice, so I have proceeded with the deal, but remember. This is called misfortune. No matter how you got here, since you made the deal, this misfortune will also be yours.”

Everything ‘him’ had said before to stop the deal seemed to mean that ‘misfortune’ would follow.

The warning given until the end was eerie, but it didn’t really inspire Walter.

In the first place, he didn’t care about that kind of thing.

If only he could go back in time and meet Odette again as he wished.

* * *

That’s how Walter went back in time.

The first thing he did upon returning to the capital was to gather information on the artifact he had used.

There were almost no documents that could not be collected under the continent under the name of Ertmann, and after looking through all of them, Walter concluded,

‘I was lucky.’

The artifact he had used, the holy relic, was said to be an object that could grant the wishes of its target, but its usage, operating principles, and even minimum conditions were unknown.

How many cases would Walter, who had accidentally discovered something like that right before he died and did not even meet the minimum conditions, use it correctly?

From what I heard, the Department of Divinity at Belfort Academy was diligently researching this, and they would have probably stood on their heads and thanked him if they had heard even a little bit of Walter’s story.

At least Walter had heard about the minimum conditions and correct usage from the other party to the transaction.

The conversation with the other party to the transaction, commonly referred to as ‘that’, taught Walter a lot.

Based on that conversation, Walter was able to guess what misfortune ‘that’ had been talking about.

‘The user will inevitably disappear after about a year or two.’

It was supposed to be an object that existed to correct errors, but it seemed that in exchange for granting the user’s wish, it completely erased its existence from this world.

And now, it was Walter’s turn to pay the price.