Contract Marriage Interrupted - Chapter 78



Only Noblemtl

Episode 78. Feelings toward Walter
2023.10.29.

Only a small number of people in the Belfort Academy Magic Department, including Cedric, Ellie, and Anne-Sophie, knew about Odette’s abilities.

Of course, the others at Belfort Academy knew that someone with the ability to grant life was cooperating with the research,

but their identity had not been revealed. Odette’s visit was always dismissed as a visit to see Anne-Sophie, so it was even more so.

‘And Cedric and Ellie are not the type of people who would tell others about my abilities.’

Furthermore, even Cedric did not know everything about Odette’s abilities.

All he knew was that Odette could use her magic to operate a bird that was much more maneuverable than other carrier pigeons. He did not really know what kind of power she had in essence.

And Ellie would risk her life to protect Odette, so there was no need to tell her.

Therefore, it is meaningless to assume that Walter already knows about Odette’s abilities.

Moreover, when Odette gave him the pendant, she did not directly mention the ability.

‘I guess I really don’t know.’

Judging from the conversation in the dream, it seemed that Cedric was already dead. It

seemed even more impossible for Walter to know about Odette’s ability.

So why did he have to risk the risk of having his hidden ability revealed all his life to give him the pendant?

Odette wondered, but it didn’t take long.

She soon felt that she didn’t need to see other scenes to understand herself in the dream.

Odette’s words that she hoped Walter would be happy.

‘… That’s all.’

If only Walter could be happy, if only the pendant she was giving him could be of some help to him.

Even if the day came when her hidden ability was revealed all her life, Odette in the dream didn’t care.

That was her heart, that was her affection.

It was affection that was far from calculated, and reckless to the point of being cunning.

Thanks to that, when she woke up from the dream, Odette was able to be certain of one thing.

The dream self was in love with Walter.

.

.

.

From that day’s dream, and up until the present,

Odette had been experiencing a strange phenomenon.

It was a feeling of being assimilated into the emotions she had felt in her dreams.

‘Oddly, when I see Walter’s face, I feel… … it doesn’t feel like mine.’ She

had never been this agitated before, but at some point, Odette could feel herself reacting to Walter’s voice and every expression.

As if she had really come to love Walter.

‘I love Walter.’

That was a really ridiculous sentence.

After experiencing Regis Xavier, that great piece of trash, spring had never existed for Odette.

If there was one thing she realized then, it was that the idea that someone who would love her completely would appear was something that only the heroines of popular romance novels would think of.

Not a contract marriage or an illegitimate princess who was looking for a marriage partner in a hurry.

‘I think I’ve been making mistakes.’

There are cases like that sometimes.

It’s like a story about an actor who is so immersed in the role of a murderer that he actually commits murder.

Odette thought that she was probably one of those cases.

‘I guess I’m trying to look like I love Walter, so I’m having these strange thoughts.’

Wasn’t Walter’s first impression the worst?

He was a very self-centered, rude, and arrogant person.

To borrow Ellie’s expression, he was ‘the ideal man in a romance novel. ’

In fact, Odette had been surprised many times by Walter’s blunt and direct speech while spending time with him. How

could she love such a man? That was ridiculous.

‘I’m a difficult woman.’

Even when Regis tried to sugarcoat things, wasn’t it Odette, herself, who didn’t easily fall for it? There was no

way she could love such a terrible man… … .

“… … .”

Odette paused for a moment. She wanted to refute something.

‘… … But, Walter isn’t that bad, is he?

Of

course, it’s true that Walter’s first impression was the worst.

But isn’t it natural for everyone to have minor misunderstandings when they first meet?

When I actually got to know him, Walter wasn’t that bad.

He was more affectionate and thoughtful than I thought.

‘If he had been a really bad person to begin with, he wouldn’t have brought me roses.’

Of course, Walter’s attitude toward Odette was not always polite.

But that doesn’t mean he was light.

He listened to Odette’s words carefully, and his hands were always careful with her.

After all, it was Walter who took such good care of Odette during the three days he deceived her right after their marriage.

‘If someone lived in a mansion like this, they wouldn’t even pick out their own clothes.’

Considering that Odette never felt uncomfortable under Walter’s care, it goes without saying how careful Walter was.

Of course, he sometimes played a mischievous prank.

– Walter, give me some water… I’m thirsty.

At Odette’s words, instead of pouring a cup of water into Odette’s mouth, Walter chose to hold it in his mouth and let it flow past Odette’s lips.

Even then, he wouldn’t feed her properly, so half of it leaked out, and only after Odette whined and begged did he properly feed her the water.

‘… … Hmm, I guess he’s not so good after all.’

Odette lowered her evaluation of Walter, which she had briefly raised positively.

Walter’s sleeping face, which had seemed gentle just a moment ago, was starting to look bad again.

Odette pouted her lips inwardly and stared at her husband’s face.

‘He may look gentle now, but when he opens his eyes, the tips of his eyebrows will pierce the sky.’

And what about his arrogant green eyes?

When he looked at her cynically as if everything in the world was trivial, his reputation as a royal family seemed meaningless.

‘Plus, his eyebrows and eyes are narrow, so his impression looks bad.’

Not only that, he would frown at the slightest.

There was no other example of a person who used his pride and joy as they pleased.

If a painter wanted to paint a devil, Odette would gladly recommend Walter as a model.

‘… … But sometimes, when he smiles, he seems a little cute.’

His eyes didn’t squint much, but his lips were crooked, which was cute.

Odette gently reached out and poked Walter’s cheek.

Then, mustering up a little courage, she pulled the corners of his lips slightly.

‘When the corners of his lips go up like this… … .’

Surprisingly, that fierce expression softened in an instant… … .

“… … !”

And at that moment, Odette froze stiffly.

Walter, who she had thought was deeply asleep, lifted his eyelids, and the green eyes that she had just evaluated as arrogant turned to Odette.

When on earth he had been awake, his loosely raised green eyes seemed to be telling her that they knew all the thoughts Odette had in her mind.

The slow blinking that reminded her of a predator’s attitude and the eye contact at a distance where their lips could touch at any moment paralyzed all of Odette’s thoughts.

At first, it was because of surprise, but this time it wasn’t for that reason.

‘… … Again.’

Her heart raced again.

　
Walter, who had held Odette’s frozen hand, lightly kissed it and whispered.

“You should be old enough to know that a person’s face is not a toy… … .”

The voice, slightly hoarse and sleepy because she had only just woken up, tickled her ears more sensually than usual.

“Or did my princess want to play with her husband since the morning? Huh?”

“I-I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Of course. You always try to run away when I’m asleep… … .”

Walter, who seemed to not have completely recovered from his sleepiness, dragged Odette into his arms, his words trailing off languidly. They had enough bickering, so it seemed like they were growing up.

The warmth that had built up overnight and the familiar scent enveloped Odette, and her already pounding heartbeat began to speed up even more.

Odette could not open her mouth because she felt as if her heartbeat would burst out instead of her voice if she opened it.

She thought to herself, frozen stiffly in Walter’s arms.

‘This must be… . . . ’

Something was seriously wrong.

* * *

No matter how much she thought about it, it was the dream that was the problem.

It was broad daylight when Walter had gone out and the mansion was empty.

Odette sat alone in her room, lost in thought. ‘

What on earth could this dream be?’ At first, she had thought to ignore the dream and this strange phenomenon. However, as the days passed, she could feel that the phenomenon of emotional identification was getting worse.

‘Even this morning.’

If it had been any other time, her heart would not have raced that much even if something like that had happened.

It would have been different if she had thought it was warm.

If she were to look back on the cause, it would eventually come down to that strange dream.

The dream in which she loved Walter.

‘It’s too specific to be just a fantasy.’

And even without any vague parts, it all remained in her head.

Moreover, the strangest thing was that the content was connected to the dream Odette had the day she first woke up at Duke Ertmann’s residence.

‘Sometimes dreams do connect, but how can they be this realistic?’ Although

she couldn’t know the details of the dream, if she were to summarize it, it was like this.

In the dream, she had safely entered into a contractual marriage with Louis, and Cedric was somehow dead.

Above all, she had maintained a strange friendship with Walter, whom she should have never met, perhaps because of Cedric’s will.

‘And I… … was married, but I loved Walter without a conscience.’

Of course, what Odette did in her dream was not a normal marriage where they had to be faithful to each other, but a contractual marriage.

So strictly speaking, she didn’t have any feelings that were particularly against her conscience.

‘The problem is that it affects reality.’

That feeling she had when she hugged Walter this morning.

Strangely, that feeling was not unfamiliar.

Maybe it was natural.

That was because it was the same feeling Odette had for Walter in her dream.