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Chapter 8: “What Do You Mean My Ex-Boyfriend Had My Child?”
Even though the sun had not completely set yet, all the candles in the Duke’s small dining room were already lit.
An old tapestry hung on the wall. It showed a traditional legend of the kingdom, where a dragon that had made a contract with the royal family granted magic to the country.
The ceiling was low, and logs burned quietly in the fireplace, filling the room with gentle warmth.
Unlike the reception room, this place wasn’t overly luxurious. It felt simple and private.
There was a place already set for Lu beside Leon.
But Lu ignored it completely.
He walked around the long table and quickly sat down beside me.
Leon pointed out his behavior in an almost emotionless voice.
“Lu, that’s not your seat.”
“I want to sit here!”
“Lucian Voltane.”
The moment his father called him by his full name, Lu’s face became gloomy.
I quickly stepped between the two of them before the atmosphere at the dinner table became too tense.
“What does it matter? We can just move his dishes. He can sit beside me.”
“Mom!”
“I’m not your mom. I’m really not your mom.”
“But you are…”
Leon Voltane stared at the embarrassed me and the teary-eyed Lucian across the table.
Then he casually said,
“Then me too.”
“What?”
A place setting suddenly appeared on each side of me.
Sitting between an incredibly adorable boy and an incredibly beautiful man made me feel even more like a squid.
With two beautiful people staring at me, I wanted nothing more than to find a hole in the ground and hide my head inside it.
But…
What if food arrived?
“…This is delicious!”
I ignored the stares and focused on my meal.
If I was going to fight, I needed to fill my stomach first.
There was someone who definitely wasn’t happy that I had been leaving the house every morning for several days.
I knew Pascal Oker would come to see me.
He had something to gain from me.
Even though Pascal was one of the five richest men in the kingdom, he had been born a commoner.
That made marrying a noblewoman difficult.
Among the nobility, a marriage between a noblewoman and a commoner was generally considered humiliating.
It might be different for a widow like my mother, who had already married several times.
But very few parents would willingly marry their daughter to a commoner man.
And it would be even worse if that man already had an illegitimate child.
So Pascal was in a difficult position too.
He probably expected me to come crawling back to him the very next day, apologize, and beg him to marry me.
But I hadn’t contacted him at all.
That must have made him extremely anxious.
Still, I hadn’t expected him to be this desperate.
Pascal Oker didn’t even wait for a servant to open the reception room door.
He pushed it open and walked inside.
And he wasn’t alone.
Behind him came a neatly dressed man and an old man wearing priestly robes.
Pascal entered the Otreha family’s reception room as if he owned the place and slammed a document onto the table.
Even upside down, I could tell what it was.
A marriage contract.
My name was written on the first line.
Today’s date was clearly written on it, and part of the witness section had already been completed.
It was a real marriage contract.
“If we do it now, the marriage can still go ahead. Irina, sign it.”
Schle, the head of the Otreha family, was completely overwhelmed.
“Wh-Where should I sign?”
He hurriedly searched for a quill.
But the neatly dressed man stopped him.
“Lady Irina Otreha must sign it herself.”
“Th-Then who are you?”
“My apologies. I’m the Oker family’s lawyer. Pascal Oker asked me to serve as a witness to this engagement, so I’m honored to be here.”
Schle immediately became intimidated by the lawyer’s confidence.
I spoke for him.
“And the man standing behind you is the priest who will perform the marriage ceremony?”
“A marriage requires God’s blessing.”
“You call this a proper marriage?”
“We already have witnesses.”
What a ridiculous thing to say while presenting what was obviously nothing more than a rushed marriage arrangement.
His skin was incredibly thick.
I crossed my arms and stared directly at Pascal.
“Are you planning to completely ignore the fact that you have a child?”
“I’ll give the child to you.”
“What?”
“You can raise the baby from birth. We can send Lea to a distant branch of the family and tell the child that his biological mother died. That way, the child will understand how much you have done for him and obey you more easily.”
“Lea Bestin agreed to this?”
“Lea doesn’t know yet. But she’s the daughter of a wealthy merchant, so I’m sure she’ll make the sensible choice.”
He spoke as if everything in the world could be solved by paying the right price.
Mother, who had been standing behind us, stepped forward happily.
“That’s a wonderful idea! Then the child will forget his biological mother and treat you like his real mother. The whole family can live happily together without any problems.”
Of course, I had absolutely no intention of doing that.
“I’ve told you several times. I don’t agree to this marriage.”
“Then do you really want to watch the Otreha family lose its title and fall into ruin?”
Pascal smiled coldly.
“You’re only useful while the Otreha family still has its title. You know that.”
Then he spoke in a meaningful voice, as if he were revealing a great secret.
“The Otreha family’s debt claims have been moving in a suspicious way recently. It wouldn’t be strange if this were the beginning of an attempt to take away your family’s title. Do you understand your situation now?”
I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Of course.
Since I had hidden everything so well, there was no way he could know that those debt claims were now in my hands.
“I’ll be honest.”
“About what?”
“No matter what conditions you offer, all I feel toward you now is disgust. I can’t spend my life married to a man like you.”
The atmosphere in the room instantly became heavy.
Mother and Schle looked at me angrily.
The Oker people looked at me as if I were a foolish woman.
But my decision was firm.
Today, I would end this relationship completely.
“Our family matters are something we can deal with ourselves. Pascal Oker, I don’t think it’s any of your concern.”
“I will never become Irina Oker.”
I pushed the marriage contract away.
“You should leave.”
Pascal’s face turned bright red with anger and confusion.
He had just been rejected completely in front of a priest, a lawyer, and everyone else.
But the biggest anger came from my own family.
“Irina! What are you saying?”
“Irina Otreha, you ungrateful girl!”
Mother and Schle jumped up like fish thrown into boiling water and grabbed me.
Mother grabbed one of my arms.
Schle rushed over and immediately put a quill into my hand.
They looked desperate, as if this marriage contract were their last lifeline.
“Sign it!”
“Sign!”
No matter how much I resisted, they tightened their grip and tried to force me to sign.
Pascal Oker stood nearby with his arms crossed, laughing at the ridiculous scene.
That mocking smile strengthened my resolve.
I couldn’t tolerate this humiliation anymore.
“Enough.”
The trembling quill was almost touching the marriage contract.
I shouted,
“Enough!”
Boom!
A vibration came from my body.
Every window in the reception room shook at once, making a sound like the beginning of an earthquake.
Everyone stepped away from me in shock.
Sometimes these people seemed to completely forget that I was a mage.
There was a basic rule at the Magic Tower:
Don’t use magic against people.
But it was only a basic rule.
If I needed magic to protect myself, I could use it.
“I’ll say it again. I…”
The marriage contract floating in the air slowly tore in half.
Riiip.
“I am not marrying you.”
The two pieces of paper continued tearing.
Four pieces.
Eight.
Sixteen…
Soon, the contract was completely destroyed, turning into pieces that looked like flower petals.
White paper floated beautifully through the room like petals falling in spring.
And at that exact moment, Pascal, his companions, and my family were all slammed down onto the floor.
“Irina, stop…!”
Before Schle could even finish screaming, I used invisible magical force to squeeze his throat and silence him.
“You tried to force a mage to sign a marriage contract. Do you people have several lives or something?”
Almost immediately after I finished speaking, someone screamed from outside the window.
I slowly withdrew my magic.
“Pascal.”
“…”
Pascal’s face had gone completely pale.
He gathered the last of his 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 Lea.”
Then Schle, still sitting on the floor and trembling, asked in a frightened voice:
“But what about the debts?”
He really was hopeless until the very end.
