Contract Marriage Interrupted - Chapter 88



Only Noblemtl

Episode 88. Fatigue
2023.12.03.

Walter Ertmann, the master of the supreme Ertmann, was working in the mansion unlike usual.

Considering how he had been out and about every other day recently, it was a long time since he had been out.

On the other hand, it also meant that he had finished his business for going out.

The pen turned around in Walter’s hand as he pondered.

The reason he had to be busy going out despite being newlyweds, and the reason for his current worries were all the same.

Louis Clovis.

‘That guy is up to something.’

Walter had been keeping a close eye on him for some time.

Louis Clovis, who had been seen since he was digging up bootlegging, had now reached Blake.

Walter’s gaze turned to the letter in front of him.

On the day that Cedric took control of the Ertmann dukedom, he had told Cedric about Louis and Blake’s collusion. And Cedric returned his findings in return, and this was the content of the letter.

[… … So, there were rare instances of Louis Clovis coming and going. It seems that he met outside to avoid suspicion, but since Blake was such a good hider of his destination, it was not easy to track him down after that.]

In short, it was not known whether Louis and Blake had a deep relationship that they suspected, but it was certain that the two people who should not have had any contact in the past were often meeting.

Cedric questioned whether Louis should be guarded to this extent, but Walter thought differently.

‘In the past, Louis Clovis had no connection to politics at all.’

It was not that he had no ambition.

However, his ambition was more focused on business than politics.

Of course, he could not be completely separate from politics in order to do business, but Louis avoided getting involved in politics as much as possible.

The reason was simple. It was because Louis didn’t want to use his background.

‘It was a bit of a special case. He wanted to avoid the family’s halo as much as possible.’

It seemed that he wanted to prove himself by doing something with his own power, not the power of his family.

The problem was that it was an idea that only a naive nobleman could come up with.

‘Foolish.’

What could a man who had lived as a noble and only knew how to live as a noble do without the family’s halo?

If he had been less capable, he would not have dreamed of such ambitions, but unfortunately, Louis was quite a bright person. He

just wasn’t outstanding.

He had been caught up in such mediocrity and had unrealistic dreams, so the ending couldn’t have been good.

Louis got involved in businesses that were happening behind the scenes to raise funds while avoiding Clovis’s eyes, and eventually got sucked into the bootlegging business.

‘Once he got involved, he couldn’t have let it go until he made a profit.’ It would

have been even more so because if he had let it go, it would have been proof of his own incompetence.

Because of that, Louis kept pouring money like trying to fill a bottomless bowl, and the aftereffects all flowed to Odette.

Louis would ask Odette to bring Clovis money, so Odette was basically hiding behind a screen.

Thinking about how Odette ended up dying, I still want to kill Louis, but anyway, that was a thing of the past that no longer exists.

The important thing was that Louis’s actions were strange despite the existence of this past.

‘Louis Clovis has clearly regained most of his past memories.’

Although we don’t know where it all starts and ends, it would be enough to interfere with Walter’s plans.

And if he had such memories, he would know that he should stop the undercover businesses he had been foolishly involved in.

‘I wonder if he’s getting even deeper into it.’

Isn’t doing something like this like crying out for someone to find out?

Let’s remember again, Louis wasn’t stupid. And if you add the additional element of his past memories, this judgment would never have come

out. So it can only be seen that he is doing this because he has some intention.

‘It must have something to do with the fact that he is attached to the Second Prince.’

Then what is Louis Clovis aiming for?

This was the question that Walter could not solve all along.

He knew that Blake and Louis had joined hands, but even after digging into their whereabouts, it was still unclear what they were up to.

He even met Blake in person… …

-You look good married, Duke. It was so noisy that he heard rumors that the two of you were getting along every three steps.

– Odette, did she really take after her mother? She’s so good at man-shaming. Haha!

… … There was no real gain.

Especially since Blake was even more venomous than usual and showed his displeasure openly.

‘Probably because he was cornered.’

And Odette was probably a big part of that.

Blake had planned to send Cedric away and build up his power in the center of the palace.

However, thanks to Odette’s diligent efforts to gather information, Blake’s plan failed because Cedric returned much earlier than usual due to Odette’s marriage.

On top of that, Cedric’s power began to gain momentum when he returned.

From Blake’s perspective, everything he had worked hard for over the past few months was in vain.

‘So in a situation like this, he won’t be able to refuse the deal that Louis Clovis offers.’

And whatever he plans, he’ll be much bolder than usual.

He’ll probably know that if he doesn’t, there’s really no way to defeat Cedric.

‘The emperor will fall within this year.’

Empress Katharina has been consistently feeding the emperor with poison.

If she succeeds in defeating Cedric, she’ll immediately poison the emperor and take the throne before Cedric recovers.

‘It’s actually been like that in the past.’

She planned to control the poison to keep the emperor alive until she defeated Cedric, and she actually did, but unfortunately, Cedric was a much more cunning person than they knew.

– The tea leaves that the emperor likes to drink are mixed with poison. How did she know? It’s not hard. I’m drinking the same tea. Easy?

-… … Are you planning to die then?

– I’ve been consistently taking poison and antidotes, so I’ve built up a tolerance. It’s okay. But at some point, I started getting good tea. So I threw away all the tea leaves, making the excuse that they seemed to be spoiled, and replaced them with new ones.

The reason I threw away the good ones and replaced them with new ones is obvious.

– I must have filled them with the same ones the empress used.

– The empress used to do that, so it was easy to sell her name. Thanks to that, it was easy.

Just like I had done so far, I changed the good tea into poisoned tea under Katharina’s name.

– Even if the empress was imprisoned because of the tea I changed, it wouldn’t be so unfair, right? Isn’t that what I’ve been doing all along?

Cedric smiled good-naturedly as he said that.

It was a cruel smile, befitting of someone who had survived all sorts of tricks and aimed for the emperor’s throne.

It was also a smile of someone who knew that the end was near.

And Walter felt the same way.

He was completely different from Cedric, but he also had a gut feeling that the end was near.

‘I wonder if Cedric will be able to live until he ascends to the throne.’

I didn’t see it in my last life, so it would be nice to see it in this life, but it seemed difficult.

The pain near Walter’s heart that had been tormenting him had suddenly stopped at some point.

However, that was by no means good news.

There was only one case where pain that should have been there before disappeared without treatment.

When the wounded area became necrotic, whether from freezing or burning, and no pain was felt.

‘The pulse was faint, and even when I put my hand on my heart, I could barely feel the beat.’

It was close to my heart slowly stopping.

I could intuitively sense that there wasn’t much time left to endure this.

‘It seems that the closer I get to Odette, the closer I will die.’

Or, since this death was ultimately called ‘misfortune,’ conversely, the closer Odette became to death… … .

“… … I’m tired.”

The thought grew longer. Walter got up from his seat and walked to the window to intentionally break the chain of thoughts.

It was a coincidence that he saw a carriage entering the garden of Duke Ertmann’s residence.

And if it was that carriage, it must have been the carriage that Odette had taken to the Countess Murat’s social gathering today.

‘She’s back already?’

It was too early for the social gathering to be over.

I thought she would return around sunset.

He felt a bit strange, but he was also glad, because he was already feeling uneasy.

It seemed that his fatigue would disappear when he saw Odette.

Walter went down the stairs without hesitation and greeted Odette.

Odette looked surprised as she came in, perhaps not expecting him to welcome her.

“Walter? How… did you know?”

“I just wanted to see you.”

So he looked out the window, and there was no need to explain that Odette was coming in at just the right time.

Just their eyes met and Walter smiled faintly.

Odette, who would have blushed or turned her head away, saying that he often makes such embarrassing remarks, hugged Walter tightly without saying anything.

As if she had been missing his embrace for a long time.

“… … Odette?”

Walter called her, embarrassed by the unfamiliar hospitality, but Odette did not answer.

The strangely early return home and unfamiliar attitude.

Looking back, Walter remembered that Odette’s complexion before she made a surprised expression was not very good. He

also had a hunch that something had happened at Countess Murat’s social gathering.

* * *

He could quickly figure out what had happened to Odette.

“What do you think about your mother?”

“… … Did Countess Noarche attend Countess Murat’s social gathering?”

Walter could infer the correlation just from Odette’s simple question.

And Odette was the one who was particularly bad at lying.

Walter felt even more tired than before as he looked at Odette, who had become so struck by the truth.

“… … It’s true that she came. But I’ve been meaning to ask her for a while now.”

“Countess Noarsh has nothing to do with Ertmann anymore.”

“But she does have something to do with you.”

Seriously, he was terribly tired.