Chapter 8. One-Day Partner

“Lady Fortgard!”

“Don’t you think so, Viscountess? It’s already overwhelming enough to part from beloved family, leave a familiar home to adapt to a strange new house, and then on top of that, I have to take over all the duties my mother used to handle overnight? When I’m just a clueless girl around twenty?”

“That’s,”

“Lottie, do you know what a married woman’s most important duty is? Pregnancy and childbirth to continue the bloodline. Do you know how babies are made? Imagine pushing your thumb into your nostril. With that agonizing pain, something from your husband enters your body…… Mmph.”

Having realized that calling someone’s name was utterly useless in stopping their mouth, Isabelle clamped her hand over Eugenie’s lips.

That barbaric but direct action clearly worked, and instead of continuing her vulgar talk, Eugenie giggled like she did in her younger days.

“Lottie, marry only when you find someone you want to be with despite all these hardships.”

After setting aside her playful laughter, surprisingly serious words followed.

“As you know, mine wasn’t a marriage I wanted. After what happened to my brother, I had no choice……”

“……”

“I thought it was absurd that our family estate would go to a stranger I’d never even met if I didn’t marry, but what I hated more was the reality of having to marry a man I’d never met. I wanted to run away and become a vagrant if I could, that’s how much I hated it.”

Eugenie’s pre-marriage situation wasn’t much different from Lottie’s current predicament.

With no son to inherit the property and title, if the daughter didn’t marry and pass it on to a son-in-law or grandson, those rights would either go to a completely unrelated person or disappear entirely.

“But the funny thing is, even when I was planning to run away, I tried to take Lily with me. Because I had never gone out alone without a guardian before marriage.”

“……”

“When I realized I was so ignorant that I couldn’t even properly run away, it became easier to accept the fate given to me.”

In this era where women had extremely limited inheritance rights, property rights, and freedom of occupation.

Just as Eugenie had accepted her fate, Lottie in her past life had also searched for a remarriage partner who could provide her with a comfortable life.

Because she knew well that she was an ignorant person who couldn’t do anything alone.

‘If I don’t marry my ex-husband, then what next?’

The question that had never been answered rose again within her. Fortunately, she was sitting down, so there was no need to stumble backward in surprise like in the past.

“What kind of person do you mean by someone you want to be with despite all these hardships?”

Isabelle, who had been deeply immersed in Eugenie’s words to the point of her eyes reddening, looked at Lottie in response to her quiet question as if asking why she would ask such an obvious thing.

“Well…… Someone who feels like me, and I feel like them…… Someone so intense that I wouldn’t mind giving everything to them?”

“So? Are you happy now? That’s what matters most to me.”

“Hmm.”

Isabelle anxiously watched Eugenie who fell into contemplation. What message she was trying to convey with her eyes was crystal clear without even looking.

“Yes. I’m happy.”

“……!”

“It’s not the intense relationship with someone I described. But still. I think I’m happy.”

“……”

“So. Which one captured your heart? The feather? Or the glove?”

“La~dy~Fort~gard~!”

Just as she was relieved to hear the answer she desired, Isabelle’s thunderous shout made Eugenie burst into laughter.

Looking at her cousin who had answered yes to the question of whether she was happy in her marriage, Lottie resolved to forever keep silent about the sad future Eugenie would face.

If that too was the fate she had chosen, she would surely shake it off bravely as she was doing now and find her happiness again.

* * *

The meeting with Eugenie affected Lottie and Isabelle differently.

First, Isabelle became less anxious about her grandniece’s awkward behavior in front of men.

Though she still felt surges of frustration at Lottie, who still couldn’t manage more than three sentences of conversation with young men.

‘Well, it’s not easy to find someone you wouldn’t mind giving everything to.’

Thinking this way made her feel much more at ease.

Whether due to Isabelle’s noble patience or not, a man who finally succeeded in having more than three exchanges with Lottie appeared.

His name was Andrew Thompson. He had been the undisputed number one on Lottie’s remarriage list.

To the eyes of ordinary people living toward a future that hasn’t yet arrived, his handsome appearance and gentle personality would seem attractive.

But to the eyes of a special young lady who had glimpsed the future, something else appeared that couldn’t help but be coveted.

His past and future of devoting himself to his family while only looking at his wife throughout his life.

— Marry only when you find someone you want to be with despite all these hardships.

Sister. I’ve already met such a person.

I loved him enough to give my life, and ultimately fell into hell deceived by that love.

So after hearing Eugenie’s words, Lottie thought. If she ever found someone she wanted to give everything to again, she would absolutely not marry that person.

When Lottie met Andrew, she wavered for that reason.

Because she knew that with this person, she could live a life where she only needed to receive.

Lottie continued to meet Andrew several more times and enjoyed their dates.

Although Isabelle tagged along as both protection and supervision, making it not quite a romantic date, the time spent enjoying boat rides, watching sports, and savoring gourmet food at restaurants was certainly pleasant.

It was pleasant, but a corner of her heart kept feeling stuffy. She couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

“Lottie. Do you see those people gathering near the riverbank?”

Andrew, who was strolling with her in the park on a leisurely afternoon, pointed to the crowd.

Andrew, who had become close enough to call Lottie by her nickname, had also won Isabelle’s heart, and the two had been tacitly permitted to spend time together without a chaperone for the past few days.

“Enjoy a special entertainment! Gentlemen to the left, ladies to the right! You can become partners for today with someone who draws the same number as you!”

“My goodness. This is an unwholesome event promoting promiscuous meetings between men and women. I should report this to the authorities……”

“It sounds fun to me, though?”

Andrew started to object with a “What?” but Lottie had already joined the crowd with light steps to draw a number.

“Aren’t you curious? Whether our connection is destiny or coincidence?”

When Andrew followed her and hesitated with a troubled face, Lottie smiled brightly and said this. Finally, Andrew half-gave up and joined the line on the left.

‘Destiny and coincidence.’

Having been betrayed by destined love in her past life, she thought she might try coincidence this time.

If by an extremely rare coincidence she drew the same number as Andrew, perhaps she could shake off this inexplicable uncomfortable feeling and gladly make a fresh start with him.

Lottie exchanged glances with Andrew, whose turn had come, and smiled softly.

They drew numbers almost simultaneously.

“Ah.”

On the red paper Lottie drew was the number 25, and on the blue paper Andrew drew was the number 340.

The moment they confirmed their numbers were different, Lottie couldn’t clearly distinguish whether she felt disappointed or relieved.

“I knew it would be almost impossible to draw the same number out of hundreds of tickets at the same time…… But the fact that I feel deflated shows that I must have been hopeful and nervous in that moment of drawing.”

Andrew said with a weak smile.

I felt the same way, and although our numbers weren’t the same, our feelings were, so wasn’t that enough?

Several such sweet and useful words swirled in Lottie’s mouth, but somehow they wouldn’t come out, as if caught on thorns.

After hesitating a bit, Andrew offered his arm to Lottie.

A man and woman walking arm in arm on the street was a symbolic act declaring that they were lovers who had promised marriage.

After deliberating until the very last moment, Lottie decided to take his arm.

As a manifestation of that decision, she dropped the red number ticket she had been holding onto the ground.

Ladies and gentlemen holding red and blue number tickets wandered around looking for their matches, shouting out their numbers chaotically. 412, 81, 103, 341, 57……

“Number 25.”

The voice felt like a hand reaching out to grab the back of her neck.

The owner of the voice stood where she turned to look.

A man with reddish-brown eyes who had picked up the red number ticket from the ground and was looking this way with a gentle expression.

“It seems I’m the one who’s gained a day’s connection, not him.”

It was neither destiny nor coincidence, but an ill-fated connection named Calyx Valdea.

After doubting her eyes several times, Lottie realized this was definitely not a dream. The moment she confirmed the clear number 25 on the blue ticket, self-loathing washed over her.

‘I should have stayed put when Andrew tried to stop me, instead of making such a fuss!’

No one would have thought she would draw the same number as someone else out of hundreds of tickets, especially the second-to-last man she wanted to meet in the world, but she felt pathetic for not even recalling that obvious fact.

The emotional turmoil was so vivid that Calyx, standing opposite her, could read her green eyes as if looking into transparent water.

‘She’s blaming herself.’

The probability of drawing the same number as someone else out of hundreds of tickets, especially with the woman he had targeted to seduce, was extremely low.

Calyx Valdea, who was well aware of this fact, had used vile tactics befitting a villain burdened with all sorts of infamy.

To ensure that no matter which of the hundreds of numbers she drew, she couldn’t avoid drawing the same number as him, he had held all the number tickets in advance.

Like a meticulous villain, he hadn’t forgotten to bribe the host beforehand.

So he could have told her not to blame herself, that no matter what she did, she would have inevitably been entangled with him, but he didn’t.

As everyone knew, he was a rogue who didn’t know the ways of a gentleman.

“……”

Even in this situation, he was strangely bothered by the hand firmly holding the arm of the man beside her.

“If you care about the event organizer and participants, it would be best to respect the rules now, Miss Number 25.”