MBSGBC 08

Chapter 08

The sun hadn’t even fully set, yet all the candles were already lit in the duke’s small dining room.

On the walls hung old tapestries embroidered with thread in the traditional decorative patterns of the kingdom. One scene depicted an ancient legend—the dragon contracted with the royal family bestowing magic upon this nation.

The ceiling was low, and firewood crackled in the fireplace, radiating a gentle warmth.

Unlike the reception room, it was modest rather than ostentatiously lavish, giving off a private, intimate feel.

The child ignored the place setting arranged next to Lion, walked all the way around the long table, and plopped down right next to me.

Lion pointed out the child’s behavior in a voice that betrayed little emotion.

“Ru, that’s not your seat.”

“I want to sit here!”

“Lucian Voltain.”

The child’s face instantly drooped at being addressed by his full name by his father. I quickly interjected between the two, who were creating a tense atmosphere at the dinner table.

“So what? We can just move the utensils. It’s fine for you to sit next to me.”

“Mom!”

“No, I’m not your mom. I’m not your mom, but—”

“You *are* Mom…”

Lion Voltain, who had been staring intently at me flustered and Lucian starting to sniffle across the long table, tossed out,

“Then me too.”

“Excuse me?”

In an instant, a place setting was arranged on each side of me.

Sandwiched between a dazzlingly cute boy and a dazzlingly handsome man, I got to fully enjoy the feeling of becoming even more of a squid. With those two pretty people staring at me, I genuinely wanted to find a mouse hole to stick my head into.

But.

What if the food came out?

“…Delicious…!”

I endured the piercing gazes and focused on my meal.

If you’re going to fight, you need to fill your stomach first.

After all, there was someone who would be very displeased that I’d been leaving the house from morning for several days straight.

I knew Pascal Ochner would come.

Because he had something to gain from me.

No matter how wealthy Pascal was—ranking within the top five in the kingdom—as a commoner by birth, marrying a noble lady was no easy feat.

In noble social circles, a marriage between a noble and a commoner was fundamentally an humiliation. Unless, like my mother, you were a widow remarrying for the second or third time, few parents would want to marry their daughter off to a commoner man. Especially if that man already had an illegitimate child.

In other words, Pascal was in a hurry too.

So how could he not feel frustrated and anxious when I, who should have come crawling to him the very next day begging “Please forgive me, please marry me!” had sent no word at all?

But it seemed Pascal was even more desperate than I had expected.

Pascal Ochner, who burst through the reception room door without even waiting for the servant to open it, was not alone.

Behind him followed a neatly dressed man and an elderly man in clerical robes.

Pascal, who had unceremoniously invaded the Otrena family’s reception room, slammed a document down on the table. Even upside down, it was clearly a marriage proposal.

In the first line of the proposal, my name was written.

It was a real marriage contract—with today’s date accurately filled in and even part of the witness section completed.

“I can still proceed with this marriage if you sign now, Irene. Sign it.”

The head of the Otrena family, Schule, was completely overwhelmed by the momentum.

“Wh-Where should I sign?”

As Schule fumbled for a quill, the neatly dressed man stopped him.

“Lady Irene Otrena must sign it herself.”

“And… who are you?”

“Pardon my late introduction. I am a lawyer from the Ochner family. This time, Pascal Ochner has kindly requested me to serve as a witness to the betrothal, and I am delighted to be here.”

Feeling the other party’s intellectual superiority, Schule quickly deflated.

I spoke on Schule’s behalf.

“And the gentleman behind you—is he the priest who will perform the marriage vow?”

“A marriage needs the blessing of the gods, does it not?”

“And you call this a proper betrothal?”

“Haven’t the witnesses already been seated?”

Look at him talking so casually about a marriage that was clearly just a formality. His nerve was extraordinary.

I crossed my arms and glared straight at Pascal.

“Are you planning to just gloss over the fact that you have a child?”

“I’ll give you the child when it’s born.”

“Excuse me?”

“You raise it from infancy. I’ll send Leah to a remote branch office, and you can tell the child its birth mother died. That way it will know your kindness and obey you better.”

“Did Leah Vestin agree to that?”

“Leah doesn’t know yet. But she’s also the daughter of a wealthy merchant. She’ll make the wise choice.”

These were the words of a man who believed everything in the world could be repaid with adequate compensation.

My mother, who had been standing behind us, stepped forward with a beaming face.

“That’s a wonderful idea! Then the child will forget its birth mother and follow you like a real mother. Everyone in the family can live happily without any problems.”

Of course, I had no intention of doing any such thing.

“I’ve told you several times. I will not agree to this marriage.”

“Then. Do you insist on watching the Otrena family lose its title and collapse?”

Pascal smiled with a greasy expression.

“You’re only useful as long as Otrena has its title. You can’t possibly be unaware of that.”

He spoke in a meaningful tone, as if letting me in on a great secret.

“The Otrena family’s bonds have been moving suspiciously lately. It wouldn’t be strange if that were a precursor to the seizure of your title. Do you understand the situation now?”

I let out a silent sigh of relief.

After all, with his eyes so blind, there was no way this man knew those bonds were in my hands.

“I’ll be honest with you.”

“What?”

“Conditions and all that aside—all I feel for you now is disgust. There’s no way I can live married to a man like that.”

The air in the reception room grew heavy in an instant. The sharp glares from my mother and brother, and the Ochner camp’s stares as if looking at a foolish woman, pricked at my skin. But my resolve was firm.

My resolve to end this connection for good, starting today.

“Our family’s affairs are for my family to handle. Pascal Ochner, it doesn’t seem like something you should concern yourself with. I will never become Irene Ochner.”

I pushed the marriage contract off the table and lifted my chin.

“Goodbye.”

In front of the priest, the lawyer, and his own people, Pascal’s face turned red with rage and bewilderment at being rejected so definitively.

But the greater fury came not from him, but from our side.

“Irene! What are you saying?”

“Irene Otrena, you ungrateful wretch!”

My mother and brother flailed like fish doused in hot water and grabbed hold of me.

While my mother held one of my arms, Schule, who had run over breathless, hurriedly dipped a quill in ink and thrust it into my hand. His face was desperate, as if this marriage contract were the last lifeline.

“Sign it!”

“Sign!”

Whether I resisted or not, the two of them put strength into their grip and tried to force me to sign.

Pascal Ochner stood with his arms crossed, sneering at this tense and ridiculous spectacle.

The sneer curling the corner of his mouth only fueled my conviction. I could no longer endure this humiliation.

“Stop.”

Just as the trembling quill was about to touch the marriage contract. I shouted.

“Stop!”

*BANG.* The vibrations emanating from my body caused all the windows in the reception room to tremble, making a sound like a prelude to an earthquake. The startled people all took a step back from me.

Sometimes these people acted as if they completely forgot I was a mage.

There was a basic Magic Tower guideline against using magic on people, but that was just a guideline.

If it was to protect myself, I would use magic as much as I needed.

“I said again—I…”

The marriage contract floating in midair slowly tore in half with a dull ripping sound.

“I am not getting married.”

The two pieces of the contract tore—*rip, rip*—into four pieces, eight, sixteen… and soon scattered like paper petals, their form unrecognizable.

White paper flowers fluttered beautifully among the frozen onlookers, like spring blossoms falling.

And at that moment, Pascal’s party and my family members were slammed to the floor, gasping for breath.

“Irene, stop—!”

Before Schule’s scream could even finish, I silenced him by squeezing his throat with an invisible hand of magical force, as if strangling him.

“Forcing a mage to sign under duress? You must think you have nine lives, don’t you?”

Almost as soon as I finished speaking, someone screamed from beyond the window.

I slowly withdrew my magic.

“Pascal.”

“…!”

Pascal, his face pale as death, mustered his last shred of pride and glared at me.

“You don’t need to pretend to care about me. In this life, don’t be greedy—just build a beautiful family with Leah.”

At that, Schule, who had collapsed to the floor, cried out in a trembling voice.

“Then what about the debts?”

He was truly pathetic to the very end.