Reasons for Contract Marriage - Chapter 156

A crack formed on the face that had been frozen like a statue. An uncharacteristically impatient voice spilled out.

“Where is she?”

“In one of the mercenary villages in the north.”

“Didn’t you say you’d already searched all the mercenary villages in the country?”

“Well… that place was left off the list because the mercenaries had left long ago, and it’s become just an ordinary village now.”

“Left off the list, huh…”

A hollow laugh escaped Lucius.

“So we’ve been searching the wrong places all this time.”

Grinding his teeth lightly, he headed toward the carriage.

“I’m going there now.”

“…Excuse me?”

The man blankly stared at him as he climbed into the carriage.

“Y-you mean right now?”

It was already dark. On top of that, Lucius had come here straight after finishing a meeting, still dressed in formal attire.

The man was about to suggest returning to the ducal residence to rest and departing early the next morning, but at Lucius’s sharp gaze, he quickly bowed his head.

“U-understood. We’ll depart immediately.”

Soon, the carriage began to move. Staring at the seat across from him in the descending darkness, Lucius reflected on the past six months.

When Brianna had first left, he had told Carl that if he tried to stop her now, he might do something he’d regret. Maybe it would be better to wait until time had passed.

But after one month, two, and then three without any sign of Brianna, Lucius realized it had been nothing but arrogance.

His patience quickly ran out, and the space it left was filled with worry for her—and anger. At one point, he even thought of locking her away forever once he found her, never letting her see the sunlight again.

As expected, Brianna hadn’t gone to her destination but got off at a station midway. Fortunately, a station attendant remembered her—passengers who got off midway without reaching their destination weren’t that common.

Afterward, Brianna transferred carriages multiple times. Then at some point, all traces of her vanished. In the end, he had lost her.

With her trail gone, they had no choice but to guess where she might have gone and track her from there. But they couldn’t just send people to search blindly. The range was too wide. She might have hidden away in a secluded countryside cabin or lived quietly in a city apartment complex. Even with the exceptional skills of the Carlisle family’s informants, they couldn’t possibly search every person in the northern region of the Kingdom of Schwerin without any leads.

One thing was certain: she hadn’t gone to Harzen. Even if there had been no bad blood with Franz, Brianna would have known that he’d check there first.

Maybe she had gone somewhere completely unfamiliar, with no ties at all, to avoid being tracked. But human nature tends to be drawn to what’s familiar. If Brianna had chosen a place to settle, then in some way, it had to be connected to her.

Days passed without finding her. Time during which it wouldn’t have been surprising if he lost his mind—Lucius held himself together by burying himself in work.

The first thing he did was drive out the long-standing thorn in his side: the Crown Prince. He had already anticipated that presenting evidence would make the Crown Prince vehemently deny everything. So Lucius timed the release of each piece of evidence deliberately. To bring the Crown Prince down once and for all, he had to drop the most decisive proof just as public sympathy peaked. That way, the fury of betrayal would push the public to corner him completely.

As expected, the public outrage over the treason escalated rapidly. Unable to avoid punishment, the Crown Prince eventually fled. It was later discovered that members of the royal family and some royalist nobles had conspired to help him escape.

Missing the Crown Prince had been a painful loss, but since the royalist nobles had assisted, it was difficult to hold them accountable. They had always claimed to seek coexistence with the king and had avoided extreme confrontations. If he tried to blame them now, the backlash from the entire royalist faction would be fierce. And internal division was the one thing that must be avoided at this moment. So this outcome had to be accepted.

However, thanks to that, Lucius finally had room to pour his full effort into finding Brianna. As he continued to ponder how to find the woman whose whereabouts remained unknown, she appeared in his dream.

“Luce…”

She smiled softly and stroked his face with her hand. Then her soft lips overlapped with his. At the sweet sensation he felt again for the first time in so long, everything that had been holding him together collapsed. Lucius lunged toward her, greedily sucking in her breath and saliva as if he were someone dying of thirst finally allowed to drink sweet water to his heart’s content.

Lucius stripped off her clothes in an instant and pressed his body to hers. Brianna opened herself wide and wrapped her arms around him. Her slender fingers caressed his shoulders, his back, every part of his body. The secret place hidden in her deepest part was already moist and waiting for his intrusion.

Just as he was about to enter her without hesitation, Brianna whispered sweetly.

“Luce, I love you.”

At that confession, Lucius froze. Only then did he realize this was all a futile dream.

Not once while they were together had Brianna ever said she loved him. And he had never said it either.

Looking back now, there had been many chances to confess. At first, it had been a contractual relationship on the surface, so it hadn’t felt like the right time. But when she had bravely kissed him first—maybe that day, he could have spoken his heart.

That he truly loved her, and what was in her heart.

But he hadn’t been able to speak the words that had risen to his throat. Because he still wasn’t sure of Brianna’s feelings.

He couldn’t believe that in such a short time, she had already forgotten Florian. It had only been a few months since his death. He feared that a rash confession might cause her to shut her heart. She might even accuse him—how could he speak of love so soon after their friend had died?

So just a little longer. A little more.

Just until Brianna completely forgot Florian and came to love him. Just a little more.

Time passed that way. And what remained for him was the fact that Brianna still hadn’t forgotten Florian—and had left his side.

In the dream, Brianna looked puzzled as Lucius stopped moving and did nothing. With a bitter smile, he climbed off her body. Then he lay beside her and gently stroked her face.

“I love you, Brianna.”

Even a confession in a dream that wasn’t reality didn’t come easily. With a tongue that felt heavy as iron, he finally conveyed his true feelings to her for the first time. Brianna stared at him for a long time before smiling brightly. Though she didn’t return his confession, that alone was enough to bring him comfort.

“I love you, Brianna. Even if you don’t love me now.”

How many times did he repeat the confession?

When he opened his eyes, Brianna wasn’t beside the bed. Pressing a hand to his forehead, he let out a long sigh—and suddenly recalled something Brianna had once said in passing.

“When I was little, we used to visit that village sometimes to see my father’s old comrades. They were so fond of me…”

Lucius’s eyes gradually widened. Finally, he felt as though he had found a clue. It wasn’t Harzen, her hometown, but there was only one other place that had ties to Brianna.

The next day, Lucius immediately had the villages where mercenaries lived investigated. After gathering all the large and small villages, there were over ten in total.

First, he sent someone to Harzen to search for information about Brianna’s father. But since he had died long ago, there was no remaining record of his personal details. Even after interviewing villagers, no one knew where he had come from.

In the end, the only option left was to search all the mercenary villages.

Lucius knew it was an unreasonable request, but he gave the order to the informants.

“Search for all women living in mercenary villages who are around Brianna’s age and match her appearance. And she probably isn’t using her real name, so try other names too…”

Just then, an old memory resurfaced. The name engraved on the watch Brianna’s father had left behind.

“…She might be using the name ‘Nana.’”