Chapter 14

Penelope is the only person who could calm Carcel, who went half crazy, just like the typical events in any romantic fantasy novel.

She marries Carcel under a contract to keep her by his side, knowing that she would be safe, until the culprit who killed Theo is caught.

Of course, during their time together, the two fell in love.

Carcel, who was only cold in the process, also changed thanks to the sweet and beautiful heroine, with her somewhat fickle personality.

Is it because Theo is alive, unlike the original?

Carcel was like the usual Carcel, a very different person from The original cruel Carcel that Charlotte read about in the novel.

He is reserved and has few expressions.

There is affinity, but he does not seem to treat people carelessly.

Although he looked stiff due to his expressionless face, there was no cold or chilling air.

It’s hard to talk to him first.

All of this was rather better than she thought, Charlotte found hope for Carcel.

If Theo is alive, and Carcel is not cruel, he may not hold the Lannia’s family responsible for it.

This is satisfying.

Thinking about it, Charlotte belatedly realized that Carcel was staring at her.

It was fine when she was overwhelmed in thought, but as soon as she realized, his eyes bothered her.

Unlike Charlotte, Carcel seems to have no idea.

Far from avoiding him, she kept looking into his eyes.

His eyes were so intense that Charlotte blushed.

Only then did Charlotte look at Theo in her arms as she bowed her head to avoid looking at Carcel.

His eyes suddenly fixed on the wound on the back of Theo’s hand.

The wound that Charlotte found when she met Theo in the woods now formed a brown crust.

“It appears to be a slight scratch from a branch while wandering in the woods. I looked at him. He has no wounds except this one.”

“Sir Heather was a knight able enough to entrust him with Theo. He seemed to have kept Theo safe until the end.”

Charlotte felt heavy when she realized that Lord Heather was the escort for Theo who had died.

“I feel sorry for Lord Heather as well. I wanted to give him a nice funeral but ······.”

Charlotte, who was about to explain what had happened that day, fell silent when she saw Theo picking up the fourth cookie.

Perhaps this child does not know what death is.

The first day we met, Theo explained that the escort brother was asleep.

But it was a little embarrassing to tell the story of a dead escort before Theo’s ears, just in case Theo would be shocked.

Carcel might have read Charlotte’s thoughts, so he raised the bell and shook it.

Emma, who had been waiting outside the drawing-room with the door slightly open, walked inside.

“Should I bring more tea for you, miss?”

“No, the miss is fine, can you take Theo out of the room for a while?”

“Yes, Sir!”

Theo, who was not interested in Charlotte and Carcel’s conversation, cried.

with his mouth full of cookies, he was trying to say something, but his words weren’t clear.

Charlotte realized and carefully took Theo who was hugging her.

“Theo, I have something to talk to your brother about. Go play with Emma. ok? I will be there soon.”

Theo looked around, pouting his biscuit-filled lips, wanting to stay with them.

Then He gently reached for Emma.

“Now, young master. Shall we go play with the cubes?”

Emma, who hugged Theo, bent down and left the drawing room.

Baroness Lannia was supposed to be the one talking to the Duke but alas she is out now.

Charlotte waited for Carcel to sit on the opposite couch again and opened her mouth.

“We wanted to hold Sir Heather’s funeral, but since he was from the Heinst family, we could not arbitrarily hold a funeral.”

“…….”

“Instead, I called the wizard and put a saving spell on him, so that he could go to the capital safely.”

Perhaps unexpectedly, Carcel’s eyes widened slightly and then back to normal.

Charlotte continued to speak without hesitation, as he seemed to mean to keep talking.

“The assassin’s body was also kept with a preservation amulet because we thought it would be necessary for the investigation. Unfortunately, we did not find anything special because we didn’t have enough manpower to investigate and deal with such a case. But as I said earlier, if there is anything you need to investigate, the Lannia family will actively cooperate.”

So far Charlotte has read Carcel’s features.

He stared at Charlotte with a pensive look.

From the moment he entered the drawing room, he did so.

He even looked at Charlotte more than Theo.

It’s much different than before.

When Charlotte met Carcel for the first time.

She thought he drew a line like a knife when he was told the story.

‘Thank you for taking an interest in Theo, but until the investigation is complete, it appears that Lannia is one of the suspects in this assassination. I don’t want to listen to you anymore.’

That’s what Charlotte thought.

But with this sequence of events, I felt he would listen to the story.

Charlotte mustered up her courage to calmly tell him what happened in the past five days.

The story of meeting Theo, who was covered in blood in the woods, and Lord Heather and the assassins found dead there.

Carcel listened to her softly, and watched Charlotte.

Only after the whole story was over he rose and bowed, quite politely.

“Thank you again for everything you’ve done for Theo and Sir Heather.”

“No, that’s something anyone could have done.”

“I also know that Baron Lannia was not involved in this matter. I apologize for what I said to the little miss earlier.”

Everything she was worried about was resolved, but Charlotte couldn’t smile easily.

It was because of what happened earlier with that light.

‘Should I ask or not?’

I wish I act like nothing happened, but it was an inevitable problem

Carcel opened his mouth first, as if he had read her thoughts.

“There is something I want to tell the lady apart from this.”

Charlotte asked, feeling dry.

“Are you talking about what happened to Theo?”

“Yes.”

Carcel answered with a heavy face, took the bell and shook it.

Soon a man with reddish-brown hair and green eyes entered the room and closed the door.

Noted by Charlotte, she politely bowed and extended her hand, holding the man’s hand to greet him.

If Carcel had the appearance and build of a knight by all means, this man was very visibly tall, but muscular.

The man introduced himself by kissing Charlotte on the back of her hand.

“Nice to meet you, young lady of Lannia. My name is Chase Renner, the assistant of Duke Heinst.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Charlotte was at a loss as to why Carcel suddenly called Chase, but accepted his greetings with a smile.

“I would like to explain to you. If you don’t mind, may I speak on behalf of the Duke? “

“Okay”.

“Have you ever heard of the word “destined person”? “

“Destined person? ”

I hadn’t heard it in this world, but I had heard it in Korea before I came here.

It’s from the original novel I read, “The Duke’s Marriage Contract”.

Penelope was certainly the destined person, not Charlotte, the country baroness.

She shook her head, trying to be calm.

“No, I’ve never heard of it before,”

Chase opened his mouth with a look of anticipation.

“I understand. It is not well known.”

He started explaining in a decent and charming way.

Charlotte listened to him and recalled the events she had read in her head.

To explain what a person is destined for, one needs to understand the magic of this world.

In this world, mages amplify their innate mana and manifests magic with that power.

Because of its sophisticated work, they study how to control mana before learning magic.

But there were geniuses who could use magic without learning how to control mana.

‘Was it a risotto?’

The first wizard, Rosito, who was said to have inherited Ensia’s blood, was not only much stronger than ordinary magicians, but was also able to use magic instinctively.

It was a great talent when ordinary magicians thought to systematically learn theories and study the formulas for performing magic.

However, Rosito had a fatal flaw.

He can use magic as easily as breathing, but he cannot control his mana flowing into his body until he learns how to formally control it.

His mana riots and overheats easily, in severe cases he suffers from overheating after using magic which leads to death.

Children born with magical powers learn to control their mana at the age of five or eight at the earliest.

After that, they could steadily use magic, but before that, they were a walking time bomb.

Just like Theo.