How to Extend a Marriage Contract

Side Story

At dinnertime, Duke Wade, Duchess Wade, and their five sons were seated at the Duke's table. The dining room was quiet as usual. Only the sound of forks and knives hitting the plate was occasionally heard.

Because of that, Duchess Wade's sigh resounded in the dining room. At her small sigh, everyone's eyes turned to her. It was Duke Wade who spoke first.

"Did something happen?"

"No, nothing."

The Duchess waved her hand and struggled to smile. But before moving the knife a few times, she sighed deeply again. The Duke opened his mouth again.

"Janice, if something is going on, please tell me."

"Well...."

The Duchess continued her to talk after she hesitated for a moment.

"Actually, I have one graduating student that I'm worried about."

The Duke nodded his head. It was not uncommon for the Duchess to help graduates with pitiful circumstances.

"Count Lampard is quite old. When I saw him before, he looked unwell. So I think he is rushing to get his daughter married."

This is the first time he had heard of this. The Duke remembered Count Lampard, who was close to eighty. The Duke had only five sons, but he could empathize with the extent to which Count Lampard was concerned for his daughter, who would be left alone after his death.

"I'm not sure how far the gossip has spread, but everyone and their brothers seem to be flocking in to become Count Lampard's son-in-law. I'm worried that a noble lady might get caught up in strange rumors."

"It would have been better to have a proper marriage with a suitable family sooner before the rumors spread."

The Duke, unaware of the quarrels between Emily and the Count, had doubts, but the Duchess knew her well, so she did not find it very strange. It was just pitiful for Emily to be tormented by strange men.

"By the way, you chaperoned Lady Lampard since you chose her as the honor student. She must have been a pretty good student?"

At the Duke's question, the Duchess burst into laughter.

"I do not know about that. But she was a bright girl."

Whether she used a hairpin to enter the principal's room while drunk and sleep in the principal's chair, or ride on a running horse while wearing a dress. At the time, she was terrified of Emily's behavior, but now that she had thought about it, they were all just pleasant memories. The Duchess told stories of Emily, and she smiled a few times.

The Duke smiled awkwardly as if he was embarrassed just by hearing it. The first and second sons ate the food with polite smiles. The third son focused only on the steak on the plate, and the fifth son smiled with an exasperated look. And the duchess' fourth son thought:

'She was quite old enough to drink alcohol, but to do such a thing at school. She's not a normal troublemaker.'

The fourth looked at his mother carefully. She often said she wanted a daughter and often brought up stories about Emily Lampard. At first, he thought that his mother, who had lost her mother during childhood, was giving special attention to Emily Lampard since Emily had also lost her mother during childhood . But his mother was actually....

"Isn't she cute?"

"......."

It was clear that she just liked Emily Lampard. Therefore, the fourth was not at all surprised by his mother's words that followed.

"Oh, yes! Why don't you one of you be Count Lampard's son-in-law?"

"Mother!"

"How could we...!"

Excluding the first who was engaged, there were four left. Among them, the second had a lover whom he could not tell his parents about, and the third had a woman he had in mind. The fifth didn't like her because he had already heard a lot about Emily's behavior. It should have been the same with the fourth.

'A woman who thought to change from one running horse to another.'

If he hadn't cast a spell beforehand, she would have fallen off the horse and broken her neck. She was a woman whom he needed to constantly keep his eyes on. (TN: lmao, Emily is not the ).

She skipped class and hide in the stables and the library while chattering loudly with her friend. She ran with her skirt above her knees and ran through the school hallways and gardens, or climbed trees while in a dress....

The man who would marry her was sure to suffer quite a bit. Duke Wade's dining room was dead silent.

The Duchess smiled bitterly as she watched her sons avert her gaze.

"Isn't it a bit strange to be doing this all of a sudden?"

But immediately the fourth son's low voice rang through the dining room.

"I'll do it."

The eldest looked back at his younger brother with a frown. The eyes of the surprised Duke and other brothers also turned to him. The Duchess smiled proudly.

"That's right, Kyle. I knew one of our four sons would like Emily."

"Are you serious, Kyle?"

Kyle kept his mouth shut at the questions of his brothers. He didn't want his precious feelings to be caught by his mischievous brothers. He silently moved his fork and knife. A bold and beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes flashed before his eyes.

His future was bright. Kyle sighed deeply.