We’re in a Contract Marriage, But I’ve Imprinted - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Translator: Effe

Editor: Yonnee

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“That’s right. You are an illegitimate child who was not even listed on the family register.”

The words were so cold that I could feel the chill together with his words, but I didn’t raise my eyes.

Without a mother and father, I was an orphan, so I didn’t want to get bullied and get on the wrong side of the head of the County.

Monica’s grumpiness or bullying was nothing in comparison. The treatment of illegitimate children, often heard through maids and handmaids, was beyond imagination. I already knew their behavior of looking down on omegas.

The fact that Ian knew that I was an omega made my throat dry up for no reason.

So I tried to talk first before he brought up the matter.

“Excuse me… Count. I have something to tell you.”

“How impudent.”

My shoulders trembled at the words falling in a monotonous tone. The cold air that had just been emanating became very cold.

“I told you to come because I have something to tell you. Then shouldn’t you listen to your brother first?”

His tone was extremely cold, but my heart was beating strangely when he spoke in a friendly manner.

Until a little while ago, he was openly cold, but now it was the tone seemed to force an added a spoonful of warmth.

“…Yes, Count.”

“I have been worried about you for a long time. Then I was worried about what to do with you who couldn’t attend even though it was your father’s funeral.”

“……”

I swear, I’ve never had such a long conversation with my brother.

“So I will put you on the family register. Father didn’t do it, but I, your brother, will.”

And with his words, I raised my gaze. It was really something I hadn’t even thought about.

So I couldn’t manage my expression. Was it because I liked it?

No, it was because I didn’t want that.

There was once a time when I desperately hoped and wanted a family. But after Mother died, I had decided that I’d rather leave and be alone for the rest of my life.

It was because of Ian that I stopped thinking for a moment, but the resolution I had made at Mother’s funeral hadn’t changed.

“I can’t thank you enough…”

Brother’s expression instantly distorted into displeasure, perhaps my thoughts were read through my bare expression.

“No, not that…”

“Did you dare to think that you would be able to get out of here instead of repaying the grace that has allowed you to eat and sleep without worry?”

I felt like getting hit in the back of the head hard by Brother’s words. I thought that if I said I would be leaving the mansion, they would welcome it. Was there a person here who was pleased with my existence?

That’s why I thought that if I disappeared, they would welcome it with both hands.

But what?

“Now that you are a member of our family, you should know how to sacrifice for the family.”

“…What do you mean?”

My heart started pounding heavily. Ian’s words floated in my mind.

“There is someone who will personally take you, an illegitimate child, as his wife.”

Please, I hope not.

Ian must have done something wrong.

Brother twisted the corner of his mouth and raised it. I pursed my lips as I stared blankly at his face full of ridicule.

“…Who is it?”

“You must have met him at the mansion once. Marquis Pittman seems to have taken a liking to you.”

There was one day when Monica called me and I hurriedly went into the main building. At the time, while I was thinking it was strange as I couldn’t see the usual employees, I ran into a stranger in the hallway.

A middle-aged man who seemed to be older than Father had been looking at me for a while with a sly gaze.

There was a time when I found his gaze so unpleasant that I hurried away as if I hadn’t heard him calling me.

And it was only later that he learned that a special guest had come to the mansion, and that the guest was none other than Marquis Pittman.

The maid who told the story added some unnecessary remarks. After the death of his first wife, he took a second wife, who he also lost soon. So people started having suspicions. They had added that the wives must have been beaten to death by the Marquis.

But to be asking me to be the Marquis’ new wife? To return the Count family’s grace?

I only have memories of being ignored by the members of this family, so what kind of favor were they asking me to repay? If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t have lost my mother.

Anger and resentment, which I had never harbored before, arose violently. So I was out of breath. It was as if an invisible hand was pressing hard on my neck.

The choker Mother left behind was so suffocating. The object, which I had never thought to remove from her body because it was Mother’s mark, seized me by a rather strangling feeling.

I touched the nape of my neck with trembling hands and remembered what Ian had said.

After that, I couldn’t even remember how I ended the conversation with Brother.

Ian’s words just kept swirling in my head.

“…What am I supposed to do?”

The words he left behind weren’t long, so I didn’t know what to do. I had never written to him, and I had never left the Count family.

I suddenly realized.

I hadn’t been outside since coming to the County. Mother took care of everything I needed, and from the moment I opened my eyes in the morning, I stayed only in the annex to respond to Monica’s call, who I did not know when she would call.

The broad County did not give me the perception that I was confined. If Monica was in a certain garden, I would be sweating profusely just by going to the garden, so this mansion was like a village to me.

But now, Mother was not here.

Father, who had never spoken to me, was also dead.

So, it would be very easy for me, who was isolated in the mansion, to be taken to the Marquisate by Brother’s order. For me, it would just be a matter of changing the place where I lived from the County to the Marquisate. I can’t get out of there, and I’ll live the rest of my life like the last ten years, right?

So I realized that I was in a position where I had no choice but to rely on Ian, who disappeared after leaving only unkind words.

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