Contract Marriage Interrupted - Chapter 77



Only Noblemtl

Episode 77. Strange Dream
2023.10.26.

There was no need to look far for the cause of the strangeness.

Her husband, Walter, who was holding Odette and sleeping, was the cause.

Odette quietly blinked her eyes and watched Walter sleeping so as not to wake him. As she

watched him sleep, she noticed something. Walter’s eyelashes were longer than she thought.

Maybe that’s why Walter looked much more gentle when he was asleep with his eyes closed than when he was awake.

‘Or… … Maybe it’s because he doesn’t frown.’

Odette remembered Walter mostly with his eyebrows slightly narrowed.

At first, she thought it was because he was in a bad mood, but the more she looked, the more she thought it wasn’t like that.

‘Walter’s speech was so easy to misunderstand that it was hard to tell the difference, though.’

No, she still can’t guarantee that she can tell the difference well.

But after seeing Walter grabbing Russell by the collar when he couldn’t wait any longer and knocked on the door on the third day of their marriage, Odette realized one thing.

‘Walter has never been angry with me.’

He frowned at me and said many things that could be considered offensive, but that was enough to make him feel really good.

That’s… … angry.

It was a bit sad for Russell, but thanks to him grabbing her by the collar, Odette was able to come to a realization.

And she became a little puzzled.

‘Then why does Walter always frown?’

It’s not that he’s particularly upset or that he hates Odette.

Walter didn’t feel uncomfortable, so he slept with Odette in his arms every single day since their marriage.

It was as if Odette was a snowman who would melt away when he opened his eyes.

Thanks to that, there were more than a few times when he tried to sneak away in the morning when he wasn’t used to sleeping in her arms and got caught.

Even though I wasn’t planning to do anything bad, my heart would sink when I heard a voice calling me “Odette.”

Right after that, I would inevitably be grabbed and returned to Walter’s arms.

“I wouldn’t do that to someone I didn’t like.”

And Odette didn’t hate it either.

Every morning when I opened my eyes, the fact that someone was warm next to me made my toes tickle and the corners of my mouth slightly turned up.

When I often heard stories of philanderers who fell into deep loneliness when they didn’t have a lover and got used to sleeping in someone’s arms, I just thought it was strange.

“Now I think I know why.”

Despite the mean words coming out of his mouth, Walter’s arms were really warm.

He didn’t just talk about when they were in bed together.

When Walter came back from going out, he would always come to Odette and do things that could be seen as light expressions of affection.

Light hugs and kisses on the forehead, the bridge of the nose, and so on.

And then he would always ask,

“What have you been doing while I was away?” Odette nodded inwardly at the question.

“ Walter is really good at acting.” If they were a newlywed couple who were on good terms, wouldn’t they always ask how they were doing when they met again? In that sense, Walter was a wonderful actor who took care of even the smallest details. Odette reflected on her own complacency. And, as someone who had been assigned the role of a newlywed couple who were on good terms, she tried hard to do her part and tell them about her daily life in detail. After repeating this several times, she realized one thing. Walter listened to Odette’s story more attentively than she had thought. One time, this happened. “I did a flower arrangement today. I heard that a new type of rose came out on the market, so I asked Philip to buy some for me. However, it was so popular that I could only get one or two, which was a bit disappointing. It seems that the Monche Group made a lot of money.” “… … You said they were roses from the Monche Group?” “Yes. Is there a problem?” Walter shook his head, saying that it was nothing. And then, the roses that the Monsieur Sangha was proud of came pouring down in front of Odette the next day. Even Ertmann’s butler could only get one or two roses, but now they were pouring down like this. Odette was so surprised that she couldn’t close her mouth. “Where, where did you get all these?” “Don’t worry, I got them through legitimate channels. Just let me know if you need more.” “Where exactly is the legitimate channel?” “Since the Sangha said I couldn’t get roses, I just went to find a place that grows roses.”

Walter picked up a rose among the piled roses, which had a beautiful marbled look with a proper mix of pink and white, and pointed to the leaf.

The leaf had a sharp shape that made it hard to call it a rose leaf.

“Here, doesn’t it look familiar? It’s the leaf on the coat of arms of the D’Trassi family.”

“That’s true, but… … the D’Trassi family’s rose variety doesn’t look like this.”

“That’s right. They must have crossbred that rose variety with other roses to create a new variety.”

Thanks to this, the shape of the rose, the shape of the petals, and the color were all different from the D’Trassi family’s rose variety.

However, if there was one thing that couldn’t be hidden, it was the unique shape of the leaf.

“More than anything, the Monchet top is a top created by the D’Trassi family for money laundering. Its origin is obvious, isn’t it?”

Walter added cynically and put the rose back down.

But even then, Odette still couldn’t recover from the shock.

‘How on earth did you know this?’

The Dtrassigas are not stupid.

When they put new varieties of roses on the market with their identities washed, they did so because they were sure no one would notice.

The leaves of the Dtrassigas roses are sharp, but most people don’t look at them closely.

As a result, even Odette, who was well-versed in all sorts of family symbols, didn’t think much of them when she saw them.

‘And how did you find out that the Monchet Merchant was related to the Dtrassigas?’

If such information had been easily available, the Dtrassigas’ front gate would have been packed with customers.

Since it was a merchant established by the Dtrassigas to launder money, they must have kept security tight, but how did Walter know all this? Odette was

a little surprised, but she used the roses she received well.

Of course, she didn’t forget to thank Walter.

‘I thought he would listen with one ear and let it go, but he remembered this.’

After that, Odette also began to report on her daily life more diligently.

“There are so many rooms in the Ertmann residence, Walter. Philip gave me the keys, but I gave up because there were so many. Instead, I went around opening locked rooms with Emma and looking for hidden devices. They really do come out with all sorts of things. Do you know that?”

“At least there’s nothing I don’t know about this mansion.”

It seemed that when the head of the household was handed over, they had to approve everything about the mansion.

Odette thought about the many rooms that were tightly closed and wondered if there would come a day when she would surpass Walter’s knowledge.

Then she quickly gave up.

“If there’s something I don’t know, I’ll have to ask you. This isn’t something I should be talking about, but just taking over Ertmann’s internal affairs was giving me quite a headache.”

Fortunately, Odette had learned accounting and economics as part of her various educations at the palace, so she was relatively quick.

However, separate from that, Odette didn’t like that kind of thing, so she was experiencing the dizziness she had felt when she first learned accounting. To

put it simply, it was like she was dying.

“I think I can do it soon. I’ve already gotten used to the ledger.” “Is

that so?”

Walter listened to this story silently, then suddenly said,

“Then you’ll get along fine without me.”

“Probably so. That’s why I’m here.”

There was only one reason why Odette was having such a hard time.

The mistress of the family shared the work of the head of the household, and when the head of the household was away, the mistress became the head of the household.

Of course, Arnold could have taken on the role of the head of the household, but that didn’t mean the mistress’s influence would disappear.

That’s why Odette worked even harder to hand over the family.

She thought that filling Walter’s place when he was away for business on the estate was another duty she had in this contractual marriage.

So it didn’t take much thought to nod to Walter’s words.

“I’ll do my best to make sure everything goes well without you.”

“… … I’ll do my best too.”

“What?”

“So that everything can go on without me.”

It was a strange thing to say, but Odette didn’t have much doubt. She

thought it was probably a way to help her adjust to being a hostess.

Walter kissed her right after, so she couldn’t continue her thoughts.

And from that day on, strange things started to happen.

The dream that had been tiring Odette out for a while came back. It

was very miserable, and for a moment, she felt happy.

A dream that she couldn’t remember anything about.

The dream had disappeared without a trace since Odette had left for the palace a few days before her wedding.

When she returned to Ertmann, she didn’t have any dreams either, perhaps because she had been with Walter.

But just yesterday, she had another dream.

She couldn’t even remember it, but it wasn’t hard to tell that it was the dream that had been tormenting her.

It wasn’t common to feel this helpless and unhappy.

And this time, for some reason, she couldn’t forget it.

So Odette stood facing a familiar face again in her dream.

-I really hope you’ll be happy, Duke Ertmann.

Odette in her dream said that and handed her a necklace.

-I don’t know if I’ll ever use it… …but it will be useful someday.

-What is it for?

-I can’t tell you. You’ll know it naturally when you really need it, so I recommend that you always carry it with you.

It was a fragmentary dream, but Odette could sense it intuitively.

‘That’s a pendant with my magic.’

　
Odette’s power was the power to grant life, but as an additional effect, she could also change the form of objects.

The magical pendant she had borrowed from Anne-Sophie a while ago was an item made using Odette’s power.

So if she carried it around, the magical power of the pendant would automatically take the form needed at that moment when the time came. However

, if that happened, Odette’s power, which she had hidden her entire life, would automatically be revealed.

So Odette couldn’t help but wonder.

‘In my dreams, I don’t seem that close to Walter.’

What on earth was he thinking?