Reasons for Contract Marriage - Chapter 42

“This place will be so beautiful in the spring,” Brianna murmured softly to herself as she looked around. The garden was barren now in the dead of winter, with not a single bloom in sight, but the trees planted there were all flowering varieties. She could imagine how lovely it would be when the branches were covered with leaves and blossoms.

As she walked, lost in her thoughts, she noticed a small boy crouching in a corner of the garden. His shoes and hands were covered in dirt. Brianna wondered if he had come with his parents, who might be working at the estate.

“What are you doing there?” Brianna asked as she approached the boy.

Startled, the boy turned to look at her with wide eyes. He seemed to be about seven years old, and he stared at Brianna with curiosity.

“What are you up to?” Brianna sat down next to the boy and noticed he was holding an egg in his hand.

“…Are you planning to eat that?” she asked, thinking it might be a hard-boiled egg. But the boy suddenly burst out angrily.

“Eat it? No way! This isn’t for eating!”

“Then why are you holding it?” Brianna asked, puzzled.

The boy pointed to a spot nearby. “The mother hen laid this egg on the ground but isn’t sitting on it.”

Brianna then noticed a plump hen busily pecking at the ground, showing no interest in the egg. The hen seemed more concerned with digging in the dirt than with her egg.

The boy’s voice was filled with concern. “If she doesn’t sit on it, the egg won’t hatch, and the chick will die.”

“Well, of course.”

“Why is that ‘of course’?” the boy asked, his face scrunched in confusion.

“Because hens don’t usually lay eggs in the winter, and even if they do, they don’t sit on them,” Brianna explained.

“Why not?” the boy asked, even more perplexed.

“That’s just how nature works.”

“Nature?”

“When do birds usually lay eggs?”

The boy thought hard for a moment before clapping his hands together. “Oh! In the spring? I’ve seen birds laying eggs in the spring!”

“Exactly,” Brianna said, nodding. “Hens, even though they’ve been domesticated by humans, are still birds. Birds don’t lay or sit on eggs in the winter because they need to conserve their energy to survive. So don’t worry too much. When spring comes, the hen will naturally start sitting on her eggs.”

The boy’s face brightened up. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll get to see chicks in the spring?”

“Of course. Where I come from, every spring, cute yellow chicks would follow their mother hens around, chirping happily.”

“Where you come from? Where did you live?”

Brianna flicked the boy lightly on the forehead. “Ouch!”

“A little guy like you should be calling me ‘big sister,’ not ‘you’,” Brianna said, teasingly.

The boy rubbed his forehead and whined, “Ow, that hurt!”

Brianna rested her chin on her hand and continued, “Still, it looks like the environment here is pretty good if the hens are laying eggs even in winter. Back in Harzen, we’d be lucky if the hens weren’t carried off by wild animals or monsters, let alone laid eggs…”

“Harzen? Did you come from Harzen?” The boy flinched as Brianna raised her hand again, quickly covering his forehead with his hand and whispering, “Big sister….”

Brianna burst into laughter. “Yes, that’s my hometown.”

The boy’s eyes sparkled with interest. “I’ve never met anyone from Harzen before. They say there are monsters there. Is that true?”

“You’ve never seen a monster before?”

“Have you? I mean, has big sister really seen one?” the boy asked, his eyes wide with anticipation.

“Of course. I’ve seen plenty. My father was a monster hunter,” Brianna replied.

“Wow!” The boy exclaimed in awe, looking at Brianna as if she were a hero. And that’s how the lecture on monsters began. Brianna drew pictures in the dirt with a stick, explaining the different kinds of monsters in detail.

“…So this type of monster is the most dangerous. It’s not just fierce; it never travels alone. If you see one, it means the others aren’t far behind. That’s why if you spot one, you need to run to the castle and tell the knights immediately. They’ll sound the warning horn from the ramparts, telling everyone to take shelter. Especially in winter, when food is scarce in the forest, these monsters are more likely to show up in the village.”

The boy listened intently, then let out a deep sigh.

“Then it must not be a place fit for people to live.”

“No, it’s such a wonderful place. I still miss Harzen, the people there, and the scenery.”

As the child looked up at Brianna’s face, he tilted his head. “If you miss it that much, why don’t you go back?”

“I can’t go back anymore.”

“Why not?”

Because Franz was there. Dowager Countess Linares would also not welcome Brianna’s visit.

In fact, Margot wasn’t entirely wrong. Just as she had said, after the death of the Dowager Countess of Linares, Brianna could no longer live there.

She had spent 18 long years of her life there, and now it was a place she could no longer return to. The sense of loss was overwhelming.

“I have to live somewhere else now,” Brianna murmured, her spirits sinking. The feeling of always having her feet hovering above the ground, as if she were adrift, might have been because she had lost her hometown forever.

As she was sinking into such gloomy thoughts, the child suddenly reached up and patted Brianna on the head.

“Don’t be too disappointed. There’s a saying that even though a ship is safe in the harbor, that’s not what a ship is meant for. Life is probably like that too.”

Brianna looked at the child in surprise. The words he had just said were a famous quote from classical literature, something a commoner child wouldn’t typically know. Perhaps a noble child who had received early education would.

A noble child? Could it be…?

Come to think of it, why was there a chicken wandering around in the garden?

Only then did Brianna realize the oddity of the situation and looked around. In Harzen, they raised chickens and pigs in the castle to eat, but this wasn’t the case here. In a grand mansion like this, there was no reason to raise chickens unless they were pets.

“Why is there a chicken here?”

At Brianna’s question, the child beamed. “The chicken must get bored if it’s always in the coop, so I sometimes let it out in the garden.”

“You let it out into the garden yourself?”

“Yeah. I really love animals. There are other animals over there besides the chickens. Want to go see them together?”

The child’s innocent eyes sparkled with excitement, and Brianna felt a chill run down her spine.

Now that she looked, the clothes the child was wearing were dirty with mud, but the fabric itself was luxurious. His face was fair and carried an air of nobility…

“You’re not….”

“Young Master Michael! Where are you?”

Just then, a maid’s voice called out from a distance.

The child waved toward her. “I’m here!”

The maid hurried over and began brushing the dirt off the child’s clothes.

“Oh my, young master. Were you playing with the chickens again? You really are quite unusual.”

Brianna finally understood what the head maid meant by ‘unusual.’

Raising animals, touching dirt, and wandering around was certainly behavior not typical of a noble child. Even Florian disliked having anything on his hands and would wipe them immediately with a handkerchief.

Brianna broke into a cold sweat as she recalled that she had just spoken informally to this precious young master and even flicked his forehead. If this incident were reported, she might have to pack her bags and leave as early as tomorrow. It looked like she would be kicked out of here before Margot.

“But who is this lady…?”

As the maid pointed at Brianna, causing her to flinch, Michael cheerfully exclaimed, “Big sister!”

“What?”

“Earlier, she was….”

Brianna quickly stepped forward and smiled at Michael. “Young Master Michael, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Brianna Everett, and I’ll be your new tutor. I’ll be teaching you from now on.”

And she silently prayed.

Please, I beg you, just let this slide. If I get kicked out of here, I really have nowhere else to go.

Michael blinked his big eyes as if pondering something, then broke into a beautiful smile.

“Nice to meet you, teacher.”

His small, cute hand, like a maple leaf, grasped Brianna’s hand. The firm grip felt as if it was telling her not to worry about anything, and Brianna discreetly let out a sigh of relief.