Reasons for Contract Marriage - Chapter 70

Daniel stared blankly at the glass of alcohol he held. He had barely taken a few sips, yet he thought he must have heard something wrong.

“Strange… Am I already drunk? Brother, what did you just say?”

“I said I shot my arm.”

Daniel instantly shot up from his seat. Seeing Lucius’s calm black eyes staring at him without a trace of hesitation, Daniel realized it was true.

“You madman! What did you do to your arm?!”

Daniel yelled without thinking, then hurriedly covered his mouth. If their mother heard this, she might faint on the spot. She had nearly collapsed upon hearing that Lucius had returned from the battlefield with a bullet wound.

After their eldest son had been left with a disabled leg from an accident, she lived in constant fear that her second son would also end up with a lasting injury. She hadn’t been able to sleep or eat, crying until she could finally embrace her son and confirm with her own eyes that both of his arms were intact.

“Why did you do such a thing?”

“It’s better than desertion. I needed a legitimate reason to leave the battlefield.”

“You fool!”

Daniel raised his fist in fury. Since giving Lucius a playful knock on the head when he was six, he had never laid a hand on his younger brother again. Even that gentle knock was out of affection.

Lucius, the much younger sibling Daniel had practically raised, had always been precious to him. The idea of ever physically punishing him had seemed unimaginable.

But in this moment, Daniel had an overwhelming urge to pummel his brother until he was covered in dust.

“Does that even make sense? How could you just shoot yourself like that?!”

“Florian’s death wasn’t an accident.”

Daniel thought, again, that he must have misheard.

“…What?”

“It’s reported that the gunpowder warehouse exploded by accident, but that’s not true. Florian was murdered.”

Daniel slowly lowered his raised fist and sat back down.

“Explain everything. What are you talking about?”

“…About a month ago, Florian came to me.”

“Lucius, I have something I want to discuss with you privately…”

Florian had appeared unusually serious and led Lucius away to speak alone. He explained that there was a significant issue with the quality of gunpowder supplied to the military. He had even found impurities mixed in that shouldn’t coexist with the powder.

Florian’s graduation thesis had diverged from the traditional qualitative approach to handling gunpowder, instead presenting a quantitative, systematic study. Using his knowledge, Florian had analyzed the delivered gunpowder and was the first to recognize that there was a problem.

“At first, I thought it was typical military corruption—someone cutting costs by mixing in cheap materials. But after Florian reported it to the higher-ups, they started monitoring him instead.”

“The military was spying on him?”

“Yes, I later found out that all of Florian’s letters were being censored.”

The letters he sent to Brianna showed signs of being opened and resealed. After that, Florian stopped sending letters altogether.

“And when we started investigating, everyone involved and all the evidence vanished. Only then did I realize this was beyond a simple case of corruption. It might not be just about embezzlement.”

“If it wasn’t embezzlement, then…”

“It could be someone who desperately wanted us to lose the war.”

Daniel’s face turned cold immediately. It wasn’t unheard of for people within the Kingdom of Schwerin to wish for their side’s defeat in the war.

“Investors who poured fortunes into the Sierra Mines, or perhaps the king and crown prince, hoping to reclaim their lost authority with the empire’s defeat. Given the military involvement, it’s probably the latter…”

Daniel remembered how the crown prince had been unusually silent during their last meeting, as if he were watching how things would unfold with an air of indifference. It seemed he had already guessed the outcome and was waiting for the next phase.

“I should’ve forced him out of this mess from the beginning…”

Lucius groaned in pain as he continued, “In hindsight, I think Florian knew how dangerous this was from the start. He hesitated when I asked him to look into it further.”

But after a brief hesitation, Florian had smiled brightly, just like always.

“Of course, I’ll help you. Trust me! I’m the best gunpowder expert there is.”

“On the day Florian died, he told me he had found solid evidence and asked me to meet him quietly at the gunpowder warehouse that night. By the time I got there, though, the warehouse…”

On the way to the warehouse at the agreed time, Lucius had heard a deafening explosion. From afar, he had seen flames rise high into the dark sky. He knew something was wrong and ran at full speed.

When he arrived, the warehouse was already ablaze. Several people tried to put out the fire, but the explosives kept going off, making it impossible to get close.

After the fire was finally out, Lucius hoped Florian hadn’t been there. Florian had always been late for everything, even classes. Lucius had tried to convince himself that Florian had simply been running late again.

But inside the charred warehouse, they found pieces of someone’s flesh, blood, scorched clothing, and a broken fragment of a brooch—the one Florian always wore on his chest. Lucius had often seen Florian touch it softly, smiling, and had vaguely realized it was a gift from Brianna.

It was almost miraculous that the fire hadn’t spread elsewhere. What could’ve been a massive tragedy, with countless casualties, had ended with Florian’s death alone.

People suggested Florian might have been smoking in the warehouse. But Florian never smoked, and though he could be clumsy, he was always strict about safety. Even during his academy experiments, where he often tried unconventional methods, he had only ever singed his sleeve because he was so careful.

But once the fire was out, people were quick to assign blame for the enormous loss of gunpowder. In the end, Florian bore all the responsibility. It was the easiest, most convenient solution to put the blame on the deceased.

“So, the reason you have someone watching Brianna is…”

“Since they intercepted Florian’s letters, it means whoever they are, they already know about Brianna.”

If Brianna had received any information from Florian through those letters, she might be in danger too.

The next day, Lucius, on deployment, shot his own arm. He needed a plausible excuse to leave the battlefield—to find Florian’s killer, restore his friend’s honor, and protect Brianna.

“Ha…”

Daniel downed his drink in one gulp, as if trying to quench a fire within him. Lucius lowered his head, clutching his hair. In his mind, Brianna’s tearful voice echoed.

“He promised he wouldn’t do anything dangerous… so why…”

It was because of him that Florian had broken his promise to Brianna and taken on this dangerous task. Florian’s death, Brianna’s suffering—it was all his fault.

But he couldn’t tell Brianna that Florian had been murdered. Even if he did, it would only be after he found the culprits and cut off their heads.

Ignoring the burning sensation in his throat, Daniel slammed his empty glass onto the table. He looked down at Lucius, who was trembling with anguish.

Daniel’s hand gently rested on Lucius’s black hair, just as he had comforted his brother during thunderstorms when they were young.

“I’ll help you find them. The ones who killed Florian. I’ll make sure we find them.”

Florian had been special to Daniel too. Lucius, who had always been quiet and friendless, had gotten into a fight as soon as he entered the academy and ended up suspended. Daniel had worried his brother would graduate without making any friends, but then Florian, like an eager puppy, had suddenly started following Lucius home, warming up to both Daniel and their mother.

A bright child, always smiling and kind to everyone.

Daniel could never forgive those who had taken that light away.