The Villainess Proposed a Contractual Marriage

In the office of the Luminel ducal mansion, twilight crept in.

Elphisia Luminel furrowed her brow at her desk. Harte felt a pang of nostalgia seeing her wrestle with paperwork, reminiscent of a future that now existed only in memory.

The difference from before was the cute round-framed glasses she wore. The parabolic curve of the glasses cord gave her an intellectual air.

"I\'m back."

"You took a while."

"Something came up."

A moment later, Elphisia, who had been sitting as straight as if measured with a compass, pushed her chair back. She set her pen down on the desk and gestured for Harte to take a seat.

"Sit down."

In front of the work desk were sofas arranged in parallel lines and a table for casual tea talks. Harte simply chose a sofa to sit on, but surprisingly, Elphisia took the seat right next to him.

Despite knowing full well that the norm was to sit facing one\'s conversation partner...

"Um... Elphisia?"

"Don\'t be shy, just say it."

"...It\'s nothing."

"You\'re such a contrarian."

Elphisia snorted at Harte, then muttered as if to herself.

"Being like this makes me feel like we\'ve gone back to that time."

"You mean that time."

"Yes. That time."

"When you\'d yell at the top of your lungs and scold me as naturally as breathing, right?"

At that moment, Elphisia\'s crown seemed to shoot up. It was an optical illusion created by her body trembling.

"W-what nonsense...! That was because you kept doing stupid things and it was frustrating!"

"Yeah, just like now."

"You...!"

Elphisia\'s lips moved furiously, but no sound came out as if her vocal cords were blocked. She seemed to be writing and erasing arguments in her head.

"You idiot..."

But the words Elphisia finally spat out were just that. Her face, of course, was close to bright red.

"You must miss that time, Elphisia."

"Hmph, why would I?"

"Because we\'ve known each other for so long. I can tell just by your voice."

"..."

Suddenly, an interesting idea flashed through Harte\'s mind. After considering it internally, it seemed like something Elphisia might actually like quite a bit. So Harte put away his sly expression and recalled his time at the temple.

"Did I upset you? Don\'t be angry, Elphisia."

"W-what...?"

"I\'m sorry. I won\'t tease you anymore."

"W-what\'s with this... stupid act all of a sudden..."

Elphisia was so dumbfounded she couldn\'t finish her sentence. For a moment, she truly thought Harte had gone mad.

She should slap his cheek right away to bring him back to his senses.

She should, but...

"...Ugh."

Click, it felt like a switch had been flipped somewhere inside her.

It was hard to shake off Harte\'s puppy-dog eyes, which she hadn\'t seen in so long. Elphisia became acutely aware that she had indeed been longing for the vanished past.

After all, she had lived for nearly 10 years holding onto memories from before the regression alone. During that time, the reality without the Harte she knew had been incredibly lonely.

This remained true even after encountering Harte as the director of the orphanage.

The density of their shared years had been reset, and she had to build a new relationship while holding onto memories alone.

That was certainly the case, but... when he stimulated her old nostalgia like this...

"Damn it..."

She could only bite her upper lip and avert her gaze. She felt like she was falling deeper into this ridiculous act.

"Don\'t look away, please look at me, Elphisia."

"S-stop it!"

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Ugh... The Harte I knew would understand when I said something!"

"I\'ll always listen carefully to what you say, Elphisia."

"Dammit...!"

Harte opened his round eyes innocently. He truly deserved the title of a great actor. At least, that\'s what Elphisia could assert.

"If that\'s how you\'re going to be, I have some thoughts of my own...!"

"Huh?"

Elphisia gripped Harte\'s temples with both hands. Then, her strength forcibly pushed Harte\'s face down onto her thigh.

The moment Harte\'s head made contact with Elphisia\'s softness...

The fine hairs on Harte\'s body stood on end.

"You like this kind of thing, don\'t you? You... perverted holy knight!"

"W-who\'s a pervert?!"

"I can\'t believe you dropped the act so quickly...!"

Even as Elphisia berated Harte, she didn\'t release her hold. Looking at her husband sunk into her lap, she soon wore a sly smile.

"You talk big, but you\'re not resisting at all, Harte."

As the only daughter of the Luminel ducal family, her level of training was high. However, compared to Harte, who was unparalleled throughout history, it was nothing.

If Harte had truly insisted on being gentlemanly, he could have easily broken free.

In other words, Harte had succumbed to desire. Finally, his body honestly acknowledged it.

"Hm? Do you like it that much? Just like that pervert Holy Knight Commander who groped my thigh at our first meeting."

"Urgh..."

Harte faced a crucial crossroads. If he said he liked it, he\'d be admitting his weakness to lust, but if he said he didn\'t, it might hurt her feelings.

... No, even this was just an excuse.

\'There\'s no way... I could push her away saying I don\'t like it...!!!\'

Having honestly admitted this to himself, Harte suddenly remembered.

They weren\'t lovers, but husband and wife.

There was no need to feel burdened by an act as simple as a lap pillow...!

"...I like it."

"What, what?"

"I want to... do this every day."

"..."

Now it was Elphisia\'s turn to be stunned. She rubbed her ears with the hand that had been holding Harte, as if she couldn\'t believe what she\'d heard. Her conclusion after doing so was that there was nothing wrong with her hearing.

"Is this a dream..."

"It\'s reality, Elphisia."

"The Harte in reality wouldn\'t say such lewd things..."

"I guess the Harte who\'s not a holy knight can."

Harte thought that perhaps the Sovereign God had wanted him to live a more honest life than before.

He always had a question.

What point in his life was his previous life? What was the true reason for the return of those memories that triggered his escape from the temple?

Today at the temple, the Pope had guided him to a place where he could find that answer.

It was the hall where saints or holy maidens received baptism to continue their lives as vessels of the Sovereign God.

As soon as Harte set foot there, the Pope nodded.

[As I thought... Harte was once a vessel inhabited by the Sovereign God.]

[Your Holiness, what do you mean?]

[This is a sacred area that can\'t be entered except by the Sovereign God\'s proxy and candidates. But Harte stepped in quite naturally.]

[That\'s...]

Harte instinctively recalled the erased history. The moment when the overwhelming raw power unleashed by the High Priest had nullified the divine power Harte had squeezed out.

At that time, his mind was filled with only one thought: to save Elphisia. So he prayed. He asked for the Sovereign God\'s world, beyond the frame of the material world, to descend here.

At the same time, rainbow light drove away the High Priest\'s power. It colored the dawn with the same hue as the Pope\'s divine power.

Thus, Harte had temporarily become the Sovereign God\'s avatar.

[Well then, I\'ll see you later, Harte.]

[Your Holiness?! What am I supposed to do here...!]

The Pope closed the door to the sacred area without even listening to the end of Harte\'s question.

In the utterly quiet, pure white space.

There, Harte heard the voice of God.

At the end of a fate that had rushed towards tragedy, that beautiful timbre that had been testing him.

Thanks to this, he understood all the truth.

The Sovereign God had lowered their rank as a god in exchange for rewinding time. Originally, they should have borne the price of annihilation, but they avoided the crisis by binding the memory to the leader of the enemy race.

And while the world was being reconstructed, Harte\'s soul, having lost its body, had no choice but to take refuge in another world.

That world was the previous life where he had observed the current life through the Sovereign God\'s arrangement.

Therefore, the premature death in his previous life was inevitable. When the world was completely reconstructed, Harte\'s soul had to find its place again.

This was the truth Harte came to know.

\'Are you satisfied? My Sovereign God.\'

How were they viewing this outcome of the fate they had stirred up? He was deeply curious about that, but it was impossible to get an answer.

So Harte came to one conclusion.

If he lived his current life faithfully and came to face the Sovereign God, he would surely press them.

As a beneficiary of that mercy.

As a lucky one who had gained the chance to make his precious people happy.

He would express his gratitude.

"...I\'m wrapped in quite an undeserved happiness."

"Is my lap really that great...?"

"T-that\'s not what I meant...! Ahem."

Harte sat up. If he stayed surrounded by Elphisia\'s warmth and scent any longer, he didn\'t think his thoughts would function properly.

"I just... felt like I\'ve been running busily until now."

"I suppose we have."

It might be an illusion caused by inflated emotions. Life is like a race towards the end for everyone.

It would be unusual to look back now and get lost in sentimentality.

So, Elphisia decided to urge her stopped steps forward.

"Let\'s make a promise, Harte."

"A promise?"

"Yes, a promise."

Harte smiled gently and asked.

"How many clauses?"

"Three."

"Just like when you came to the orphanage."

They both chuckled softly at the casual joke.

It was hard to gauge how long it had been since they had a conversation like this, looking at each other intently. Especially for Elphisia, who had endured Harte\'s absence.

Finally, she opened her mouth.

"First, we\'ll fulfill our duties as husband and wife."

"That\'s exactly the same as before."

Ignoring Harte\'s quip, Elphisia continued.

"Second, more than anyone else..."

...

......

As the silence lengthened, Harte called out to her.

"Elphisia?"

Only then did she speak, her lips trembling, her voice barely crawling out.

"......More than anyone else... I\'ll love you."

"Elphi-"

"I\'m not finished yet."

"Ah, um, okay."

He was about to add something, finding it cute how she was blushing but still determined to say what she needed to say, but Elphisia cut off his intervention sharply.

In the solemn atmosphere that had returned, she proposed the final clause.

"Third."

Silence again.

After about 10 seconds.

Having steeled herself, Elphisia spoke with a face that looked like it might burst.

"......I\'m the only woman in your life. In this life, the next life. From now on, always."

It was a clause that left no room for jokes.

Harte immediately embraced her as if handling a precious treasure.

He answered his first and last love, who he would protect by his side forever.

"I swear by my name."

That he would become a man she could rely on for life and support her.

That he would share a life without regrets.

Today.

Tomorrow, and the day after.

Engraving each other\'s lives in their own time, cherishing even the daily life where years etched wrinkles.

I will love only you, forever.

The Villainess Proposed a Contractual Marriage (End)

---

Heya raei here! I hope you all enjoyed the story, as short as it was :(

The last two chaps after this one are author notes so i\'ve attached them below and then, my own note below that!

---

I\'d like to express my gratitude to all of you who have followed "The Villainess Proposed a Contractual Marriage" to its conclusion.

I imagine many readers felt pushed to the limits of their patience. Due to personal circumstances, the release schedule often stretched out in the middle and latter parts of the series.

Still, I\'m happy we were able to reach exactly 100 chapters and add the "completed" tag.

Including this one, I\'ve now written four post-completion reflections, but as I sit down to write, I\'m not sure where to begin.

I suppose it\'s most natural to start with talk of epilogues and side stories.

I believe the standard for stories about raising children is to show them grown up and living well at the end. The content of the epilogue will probably focus on that.

I\'d also like to write a bit more about the supporting characters who got less attention. People like Second Prince Rayners, Erehite, Elphisia\'s mother (the Duchess)...

However, I\'m not sure when I\'ll be able to do this. It saddens me, as I enjoy writing.

Next, let\'s talk about my next work. Of course, given that I can\'t even write an epilogue, I wonder if another work is even possible...

Personally, I really want to write about the concept I\'ve been developing.

It\'s a story set in a VRMMORPG that\'s also a death game, but with an in-game live streaming function that allows communication with the outside world...

Time will be the issue, of course. Plus, the concept for the next work might change entirely. As it always has...

I really need to write 1 chapter every 3-4 days and build up a backlog.

... I\'ve gone on a bit of a tangent.

Once again, thank you to all the readers who enjoyed "The Villainess Proposed a Contractual Marriage." And to those who have followed me since my previous works, I truly adore you.

If you have any questions about the work, please feel free to ask in the comments! I\'ll make sure to answer them diligently.

I\'ll see you next time.

I\'m always grateful and I love you all!!!

---

Hello, dear readers!

I\'m back with some news after about a month.

As you can tell from the title, I\'d like to talk about my new work.

I\'m currently serializing a new story called "I Became an NPC in a Cursed Mansion" in the free serialization section.

I want to show you a heartwarming tale about a pitiful (?) imperial princess who\'s also the protagonist of a horror game, stumbling through a mysterious haunted house full of intrigue!

Without further ado, I\'ll drop this illustration of our main character, who\'s bound to go through a lot of trouble, and step back.

Oh, and for the part that readers will surely want to know...

It\'s a pure love story.

Thank you. I\'ll see you in the next work.

---

Heya raei again!

I\'ve decided to pick all of this author\'s works, his current ongoing one, and his previous completed ones!

Thanks for reading till the end. I kinda wish we had some more slice of life and explored their relationships a little bit but better this than 400+ chaps of nothing. His other works are also quite short but I hope his writing is as enjoyable to read in those as it was in this one.

Anyways, see ya next time. Feel free to come discuss in the discord or in the comments!

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