NOVEL NEXT Chapter 02: A Drawn Day
Episode 02. A Drawn Day
Until the end of the contract
D-48
Ding-dong—
She woke up to the sound of a phone ringing from afar. Renee, who was dazed, turned her head and looked at a patch of sunlight swaying back and forth between the curtains.
“What? I definitely think I had a dream.”
At first glance, a red jewel sparkled through her blurry retina and then disappeared. She frowned and blinked her watery eyes slowly, then slowly stood up. She habitually checked the wall clock; it was only 9 o’clock.
She got up and drank water from the kettle on the bedside table. As soon as she was hydrated, she came to her senses a little bit. At that moment, the dream from last night suddenly came back to Renee.
‘I’ll make you happy!’
“Why did that child say such a thing?” Other memories floated in and out like ingredients in a stew, but only that last phrase remained vividly in her mind. A little boy with blue eyes. He had been running around a grassy field, playing and chatting with her, but when she looked again, he had fallen asleep on her lap.
After a while, he suddenly woke up, hugged her tightly, and said those words.
“I’ll make you happy.”
“What? Who? Why? …But who are you?”
Before she could pour out questions, the phone ringing woke her up. Yes, the phone rang before 9 a.m.
Renee looked at the bedroom door with frowning eyes, as if she had a premonition of something. At that moment, a knock was heard, and the door opened gently as if waiting for her to turn around.
“Oh, you’re awake, ma’am.”
The manor housekeeper, Mrs. Andrea, with her graying white hair neatly tied up, entered holding a vase containing morning roses. The cats that had been rolling around in the connecting room followed her steps and entered the bedroom.
“Oh, these guys. Good morning. It looks like it might fall, so please move out of the way.”
As the kittens born two months ago flocked to her feet, Mrs. Andrea smiled in embarrassment and cautiously approached the side of the bed.
“I heard the phone ringing,” Renee asked.
“I was already going to tell you about that.” Mrs. Andrea, who was putting down a vase on the fireplace, looked back with a smile.
“It was a call from Louis. My master will arrive at Kaliba Central Station soon.”
Renee, who had been petting the cats running at her feet, stopped and looked up. “……Alexander is coming today?”
“Yes. You were very surprised, right? Well, we are also in an emergency right now. According to Louis, it seems like we were lucky that the schedule was delayed by a day.”
Perhaps interpreting Renee’s frozen expression, Andrea burst out laughing and opened the curtain that was casting a shadow in the room.
Swoosh —
The curtain opened with a cheerful sound, and abundant sunlight poured into the couple’s bedroom, where Renee had been living alone for several months.
Renee stiffened and looked at the scenery outside the window. The scenery of Kaliba’s Central Station, which of course could not be seen from here, seemed to unfold vividly before her eyes. A huge black machine pushed onto the platform with a roar, people pouring out, waves of people undulating with those leaving and those arriving. And there, standing alone, was Alexander Chambler, her damn contract husband.
“At last,” she murmured.
Just a day earlier, but her heart raced as if she’d been in a sudden accident. From the strange dream to now, “Was this what she’d been waiting for, his arrival?”
With a sigh mingled with an awkward laugh, Renee tightened her clenched fist and headed for the dressing room.
Contract expired.
Reminding herself that it was almost time to end their fake marriage.
***
This strange contract marriage began suddenly exactly two years and three months ago. From the very day that Alexander Chambler, who she thought had completely disappeared from her life, suddenly *reappeared.*
***
“Vienna! Don’t just cry like that, hurry up and change your clothes! I will give you some time to take revenge after you change your clothes.”
“Maurice! When you’re done eating, I told you to put it in the dishwasher! “
“Ugh, guys, listen to me!”
Renee screamed at the top of her lungs, but it wasn’t enough to attract the attention of the children playing and making noise in the restaurant. Because half of the mansion was renovated and given over to an orphanage, the main dining room of Hazlin Mansion was occupied by children and was always noisy. In times like these, strict guidance was needed.
“Kids who are late for school because they can’t finish their meal in 10 minutes will be disqualified from getting apple pie tomorrow night!”
“No! My apple pie!”
“That’s too cruel, Renee!” Only then did the children startle and quickly finish their meals. In a flash, the children who had finished eating rushed out of the dining room all at once. Finally, Renee let out a deep sigh, grasping the chaos of the breakfast table with both hands. Mrs. Merina, who had been helping with breakfast, patted Renee’s back.
“You’ve been through a lot, Renee. I’ll take care of things here, so why don’t you go upstairs?”
Renee shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. The mess on the table was not something she could clean up alone.
“How do you expect me to clean up all of this by myself? Let’s do it together. It’ll be done quickly if we work together.”
“Are you still doubting my ability to raise four boys on my own? I can handle this mess in just an hour, so go and do your own work.” Mrs. Merina replied.
“But…”
“You said you had a lot of paperwork to catch up on. Anyone can help with the dishes, but you’re the only one who can do the paperwork. Now, go.”
With Mrs. Merina’s dismissal, Renee apologetically followed her upstairs to her study.
It had only been two years since Hazlin Manor had taken in children. It hadn’t been Renee’s idea, but that of her uncle, Roderick Hazlin. The children were victims of a war that had ended about three years earlier. Children of pirates, to be precise, who had been turned into plunderers by the war.
The waters off Whitehall were bordered by three countries, and one of those three countries happened to be one of the great battles of the last world war. Many of the people displaced by the fighting traveled by boat to neighboring cities. Whitehall, relatively unscathed by the war, was not out of their sights. They would have been less callous if they had simply asked to be taken in, but instead, they invaded Whitehall by looting.
Felix Hazlin, the head of the Hazlin family, and Renee’s grandfather, who had maintained Whitehall for a long time at the time, could not sit idly by. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he was a naval officer who achieved quite a reputation when he was young. He willingly boarded the ship again to defend Whitehall and exterminated the pirates without difficulty. In fact, it was a natural result. Although they were called pirates, they were ordinary people who had been forcibly driven out of their homes, and they had little to say about combat weapons.
Thanks to this, the territory became safe, but not everything ended well. Her grandfather died after fighting too hard due to his old age, and the children who lost their parents due to her grandfather were left on the ship. Renee’s parents had died in an accident when she was young, and there were no other worthy successors to the title. It was an insignificant title, but it could not be allowed to end its existence like this. Even if it meant losing more than gaining.
Renee had no choice but to inherit the title and territory on behalf of her grandfather and frantically took care of the remaining matters. At that moment, Uncle Roderick, who had returned to his hometown as a monk to help his niece, suggested an orphanage.
“Life goes around in circles, Renee. It may be unavoidable, but the children who lost their lives because of us are also innocent.”
She hadn’t realized it because she was too busy attending her grandfather’s funeral, taking over the title, and taking care of the small estate, but children who had lost their parents had become vagrants, wandering around the nearby city. And some of the younger ones had already died.
Once she understood the situation, she couldn’t turn a blind eye. Eventually, Renee had to bring the children in, leading to the current situation.
*A bill.*
*A bill.*
*A bill.*
And dozens of credit receipts.
“Oh, my.”
Renee, who was looking at the receipt while tearing her hair out, eventually fell flat on the desk. Renee’s uncle, the cause of these numerous receipts, glanced at her and approached Renee with a cold teapot.
“Hey, do you want a cup of tea?”
*“……Do we have any tea leaves left?”*
“Well, I think it’ll come out a little bit if I scratch the bottom…”
*”Ah, uncle?!”*
At her outburst, Roderick Hazlin, with his shoulder-length, disheveled hair loosely tied back and wearing his old glasses, was startled and dropped the teapot.