FTPWR 07

Chapter: 07

A monotonous voice without the slightest change in pitch.

Ian’s eyes were fixed on the dull book in front of him, making it obvious to anyone that he had only offered tea out of courtesy.

Vanessa felt that his expression was too guarded for them to leisurely reminisce about their childhood, so she shook her head.

“I’m fine, but you look too busy to even have time for tea.”

Of course, if he had asked her to stay one more time, she would have been willing to sit back down and pretend she had no choice but to accept.

But as she glanced toward the piles of documents, Ian did not press her any further.

In the vague silence, Vanessa fell into thought for a moment.

‘…Could it really be that small?’

He was large overall. His hand gripping the quill, his broad shoulders, even the tip of his shoe slightly protruding from beneath the table.

Carlyle was not exactly small or slight either, but standing beside Ian, he could certainly appear that way.

‘But… how could someone be fully grown and only that part be small…’

Vanessa deliberately let her gaze linger briefly around his hips with a serious expression before shaking her head.

‘Never mind. Why should I care whether it’s big or small?’

Vanessa lifted her gaze from his waist and looked at Ian’s face.

Ian Ruscliff.

He had been her longtime childhood friend, but they had not kept in touch after becoming adults. Yet after returning to the past, they had somehow become people who had spent a night together just a week ago.

She had kept thinking about it, and she became convinced that this must be why the marriage conditions he had proposed included a ban on physical contact.

‘Could I have been the one who came onto him?’

No matter how hard she thought about it, she had no memory of doing anything with Ian that night. She had even been fully dressed afterward.

Of all times, why had she returned to the past in such a situation?

For Ian, it had only been a week ago, but for her, it was already an incident from fifteen years ago.

Besides, she had been terribly drunk, so that particular part of her memory had simply been cut off.

The reason she had become frightened and rushed into marriage back then was also because her memories of that time were incomplete.

Even if he had hugged her because he was happy to see her, surely he would not have thought she had deliberately crossed a line.

When Vanessa’s thoughts reached that point, she let out a small sigh inwardly.

But if he considered even touching her collar to count as physical contact, perhaps he could have interpreted even a simple hug that way.

Still, asking him here, “Did I hug you?” or perhaps, “Did I touch you?” would only make the atmosphere even more awkward.

Just then, Ian raised his head, and their eyes met. Vanessa gave him an awkward smile.

“Well, I’ll be going now. Sorry for disturbing you.”

Ian’s eyes followed her retreating figure without even waiting for a response.

“Whether I didn’t like it…”

Perhaps he was remembering Vanessa carefully asking him with her small lips, but Ian’s brow slightly furrowed.

“Perhaps… I wish that had been the case.”

Just then, the butler, who had come with freshly brewed tea, saw Vanessa passing by him and tilted his head in confusion.

“Have you already finished your conversation?”

“Yes.”

“If the conversation ended faster than it took to brew the tea… did you reject her?”

At the butler’s question, Ian shook his head.

“The opposite.”

“…Pardon?”

“I said the opposite.”

“You’re getting married?”

“…Yes.”

Leaving the butler standing there in shock with his mouth hanging open and the teacups held in both hands, Ian finally rose from his seat and looked out the window.

A tiny head bobbed along as its owner disappeared into the distance.

‘Vanessa Sharoz.’

He remembered her eyes that night, soaked in alcohol and looking at him with a dazed smile.

Normally, he would have simply ordered the butler to take her back to the ducal residence. But the reason he had been unable to do so was—

‘…She seemed strangely vulnerable.’

Not at all like a bride who was about to be married.

Her words had been slurred and jumbled, but it had not been difficult to understand her.

‘Marriage.’ ‘Father’s opposition.’

Those few words alone were enough for him to realize that she was considering marrying that man.

The Duke of Sharoz would practically do anything for his daughter, so in the end, he would probably give his reluctant approval to the marriage.

But of all people, her intended partner was Carlyle Leonard.

Ian had almost blurted out that perhaps she should marry him instead.

He had held her in his arms as she cried uncontrollably.

He had wrapped his arms around her trembling shoulders and almost acted without thinking.

He had pushed her away the moment he came to his senses.

‘Does she not remember?’

That would explain why, instead of criticizing his behavior, she had sent him a letter filled with an unbelievable proposal.

But he had never imagined that Vanessa would approach him first and propose marriage.

‘I thought she cared about him quite a lot.’

If she was willing to suddenly break off that marriage and come to him, perhaps that had not been the case after all.

In any event, it was a relief that she was not going to marry that snake of a man.

But did Vanessa realize it?

That her current situation was like escaping a fox only to walk straight into a tiger’s den?

‘I left in the heat of the moment, but I had nowhere to go.’

Her sulky expression was hardly any different from when she had been a child.

And that was precisely the problem.

He could not be with her…

Ian picked up the cigar lying on the table and let out a small sigh.

“…What exactly are you planning to do?”

“I set some conditions. They’re there. Read them.”

The gaze that had been following Vanessa as she disappeared into the distance finally turned toward the butler.

“Conditions? What kind of…”

As the butler slowly read the words written on the paper, his eyes widened.

“The young lady actually accepted these?”

“…Yes.”

“Conditions that would only be suitable for a woman who had sworn to become a servant of God in the Holy Kingdom?”

“….”

“Or perhaps… do you have a mistress?”

“…I don’t think that’s the case.”

The butler looked once at the words written on the paper and then at his master, his expression filled with confusion.

“…It sounds like you’re proposing that the two of you live together as unmarried people until you die.”

Dominuc Freya’s Restaurant.

While eating, Vanessa kept letting out little suppressed laughs, causing her father, the duke, to look at her somewhat strangely.

“It is certainly fortunate that you had no intention of marrying that man…”

At Vanessa’s declaration that she would not marry Carlyle, the duke’s face brightened.

“You seem to have grown so much in just one day.”

His tone contained both pride and bitterness, as though he could hardly believe that his daughter had already grown this much.

Of course, that sentiment was shattered almost immediately.

“But I’m going to marry Ian instead. What do you think, Father?”

At her words, the duke gave her a look that seemed to say, ‘Of course.’

Vanessa knew that deciding on a marriage this way was another form of disobedience toward her father, but she could not back down.

“Do you really have to get married?”

“I already told Carlyle that I was going to marry Ian.”

More precisely, she had said that there was someone else.

Well, depending on how you looked at it, that counted.

“Why would you… No. If that is what you want, then do as you wish. As a father, I cannot oppose you twice.”

Perhaps his appetite had vanished after hearing his daughter’s declaration, because the duke set down even the utensils he had been holding and let out a quiet sigh.

“But are you really all right with this? A marriage simply to keep your word? Marriage can only be happy when both people’s hearts are in it.”

Vanessa smiled reassuringly at her father, who looked at her with obvious concern.

“He’s a good person. And… you know that Ian and I have been childhood friends. The order is a little different, but it’s marriage first, love later. That’s all.”

Of course, it was less marriage first, love later, and more marriage first, revenge later.

‘As long as I can avoid marrying Carlyle Leonard, I can endure a loveless marriage as many times as necessary.’

Vanessa swallowed the words she could not bring herself to say and put the last piece of steak on her plate into her mouth.

“The food is delicious. I’ll visit often even after I get married, so let’s go out to eat together from time to time.”

“…Yes, let’s do that.”

‘My daughter is strange.’

It felt like only yesterday that she had been such a mischievous girl.

Although that side of her had not disappeared completely, the duke could not shake the feeling that his daughter had somehow grown far more than she had before.Today marked three days since the day Vanessa proposed the contract marriage.

The moment Vanessa checked the contents of the gift sent by Ian, she was left with a rather peculiar feeling.

A contract neatly placed inside a luxurious case that clearly looked expensive.

“…Isn’t the wrapping a little excessive?”

Vanessa stared intently at the contract bearing both of their signatures and let out a small hum.

“A life as a nun instead of a crippled life…”

She had essentially signed her name to a life in the Empire after having once sworn to live as a servant of God in the Holy Kingdom.

But—

‘It’s probably for the best.’

Her newlywed life, which should have been the happiest period of her marriage, had been filled with arguments because of her mother-in-law, who constantly barged in whenever she pleased.

The romance, the dreams, and the marriage she had imagined in her head had all been dragged through the dirt in reality.

Because of her mother-in-law’s interference, Carlyle had never even treated her as a proper wife, and all those circumstances had piled up until eventually…

‘It even resulted in my late mother becoming the subject of gossip among the nobles.’

The fact that she had never had children was not her fault at all. It had been entirely because of her mother-in-law.

Looking back now, perhaps her mother-in-law had simply been trying to avoid creating problems that might make a future remarriage difficult.

In any case, Vanessa was more than willing to accept this life simply because none of those things would happen anymore.

‘It’s sad that I won’t be able to have a child who resembles me, but there’s nothing I can do about it.’