Reasons for Contract Marriage - Chapter 176

Brianna embraced him. And she rubbed her face against his chest.

“Florian may have seemed like someone who only laughed foolishly, but in truth, he was more considerate than anyone.”

With that, they began talking about the Florian each of them remembered. As though a forbidden spell had been broken. Lucius mainly spoke about stories from the academy that she didn’t know, and Brianna shared memories from childhood.

But surprisingly, Lucius already knew nearly everything about the two of them.

“You knew about the time Florian got lost in the forest as a child?”

Lucius nodded as if it were obvious. He added that he had heard the story so many times it almost made his ears ache.

“I also heard that you tied ribbons on every tree so he could find his way home safely.”

At that, Brianna chuckled.

“It’s a mistake often made by people who moved from other places. When the snow falls heavily, they only think it looks pretty. But they don’t realize that after a blizzard covers everything, in a world turned completely white, one loses all sense of direction. I immediately realized that the young master who grew up sheltered in the capital must have been crying in the snowy forest, lost without knowing the way.”

“Florian said he completely fell for you that day.”

Brianna’s eyes widened. “Really? I didn’t know that.”

“He said that because he already knew his parents disliked taking care of a sick child and had handed him over to distant relatives, he felt a deep sense of abandonment by his parents. So how could he not fall in love with the little girl who risked herself to come save him?”

Lucius then gave a bitter smile.

“I envy that you and Florian shared so many childhood memories. I wish I had met you earlier…”

He stroked Brianna’s cheek and murmured in a voice full of certainty.

“If I had, I’d surely have fallen in love with you the moment I saw you as a child.”

His wish was one that could never come true. He, who had no ties to Harzen, and she, who had been born and raised in Harzen all her life, had almost no chance of meeting earlier. Even if that hadn’t been the case, he was far too high in status for her to ever have met.

If not for Florian, they likely would have lived their whole lives apart, strangers who never knew each other. Meeting at all, even late, was a miracle.

“I’m grateful just for having met you.”

Brianna lightly brushed her lips against his, then pulled back.

“And we still have so many days ahead of us to spend together. We’ll be together until we are grandfather and grandmother.”

At that, Lucius smiled radiantly. As though he had never heard anything that made him happier.

“Even when I grow old, wrinkled, and fat, you can never take back your words. If by then you seek another woman…”

“If I do?”

Brianna glared at him fiercely. “Then you will find a hole in your head. You already know well how good I am with a gun, don’t you?”

Lucius began laughing, clutching his stomach. It was obvious he found her murderous threat trivial and cute.

“Luce, I mean it, but if you keep laughing…”

“My goodness, do you truly think that is possible?”

“Now that I think of it, you were quite kind to Count Kirchner’s daughter back then too. Do you know how much the maids of the count’s household envied her?”

Looking back, she felt wronged. The reason she had doubted his feelings was because he had treated his fiancée at the time, Lady Kirchner, with such kindness. She thought he was someone who could act tender even toward someone he had no affection for, as long as they were bound by a contract.

“From now on, there will be no other woman in your life besides me. I swear on my shooting skills, this is a serious warning, so take it to heart.”

“Since the subject has come up, I should show you the gift I prepared for you.”

Lucius rose from the bed and put on a gown. Then he went to the study and brought back something in a box.

“Open it.”

Brianna covered her bare body with the blanket and perched on the head of the bed. Then she carefully lifted the lid. Inside the box was a small gun.

“This is…”

“You already have the gun given to you by Madam Linares…”

Lucius picked up the gun inside and handed it to Brianna.

“That one is store-bought, but this was specially ordered and made just for you.”

Surprisingly, it was much lighter than the gun she had before. And unlike the standard models made to fit a man’s hand, this one fit perfectly into her small hand.

“If you practice a lot, it will even be possible to shoot with one hand. Of course, to do that, you will need to increase your accuracy and strengthen your grip more. But with your skill, you will manage quickly.”

It wasn’t simply a custom-made piece. Along the side of the barrel, there was even an elaborate engraving etched in relief. She could only wonder when he had found the time to prepare something like this.

Brianna stroked the cold, gleaming surface of the gun with her hand. For a moment, she gazed in a daze at the weapon, so beautiful it seemed it could be ornamental, before lifting her head to ask him a question.

“Luce, why are you giving me this as a gift?”

This time too, she had vaguely thought he would give her something like the accessories or jewels he had given before. The gifts husbands usually gave their wives were mostly similar. But the gift he gave her now was nothing like those.

“The last time you were seriously injured…”

He let out a faint sigh.

“I didn’t want you to ever be hurt again. To prevent that, I thought I had to protect you thoroughly so that you would never be in danger again. So I placed guards wherever you went, but in the end, you disappeared from my sight far too easily, and that unsettled me. If someone else set their mind to it as you did, they could reach you no matter what. Could I really prevent you from being harmed at the root? That doubt remained in me.”

He placed his hand over the back of Brianna’s hand that was holding the gun.

“After going through many things, the conclusion I reached was that Madam Linares’s way was right.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“She left you with a vast inheritance instead of choosing a good husband for you. So that you could be free to choose your life on your own. Because most women cannot be independent, they are forced to marry. That was why she did it.”

His words were all true. Though Leona had considered the possibility of Brianna marrying Florian, she hadn’t entrusted Brianna’s life to him. If she had been like most people, she would have left her fortune to Florian on the condition that he marry Brianna.

“In truth, I once resented her a little. I thought you never relied on me because of her teachings. I thought that if you had been a bit more dependent, if you had not had that inheritance to rely on, you would never have left me. But now I admit her way was right. So instead of binding you at my side, I wanted to give you something that would let you protect yourself.”

And then Lucius sincerely apologized.

“I’m sorry for touching your property without permission. I acted out of anger, but I shouldn’t have. I regret not listening to Carl when he tried to stop me. I’ll return it to the way it was.”

Brianna nodded. “All right. I will accept your apology. And I too will take back my words calling you a swindler and a robber, with generous forgiveness.”

Lucius burst into laughter again. Brianna, laughing with him, said, “Then, now it is my turn to give you a gift.”

Brianna called her maid to bring the belongings she had carried when she went out the day before. Among them, she handed Lucius her father’s watch.

“As you might have guessed, this watch is my father’s keepsake. I should have given it to you sooner, but I’m sorry that I’m only giving it to you now.”

Unlike Lucius’s gift, hers was not surprising. After all, she had already told him before that she had once tried to give him the watch.

But Lucius was overjoyed, as though he had never heard such a thing before. Looking at the watch with the expression of a child seeing a toy for the first time, Brianna said to him.

“Open the cover.”

Lucius tilted his head slightly. He already knew what was engraved inside, having opened the watch before.

“Hurry.”

At Brianna’s urging, he opened the closed watch. And he drew in a sharp breath.