The Terms of Employment
Yes. When one got right down to it, this marriage was closer to a kind of employment contract.
And both people involved—each so clever and quick-witted that few could hope to match them—realized that fact very quickly.
A contract, by nature, required paperwork and terms.
Once again, it bore repeating: Curtis was a brutally efficient man.
While ordering Chloe to bring her family and take refuge in this house, he also gave her a separate assignment.
“Until the wedding, you won’t be allowed outside the residence anyway, so think about the terms of the contract.”
“Pardon?”
“Let’s draw up a contract. A prenuptial contract.”
Even among those who were not royalty, such things were common in ruling families. Titles, manors, and estates had to be kept from being torn to shreds.
Moreover, this marriage was premised on divorce, and Chloe had agreed to become Grand Duchess in exchange for money. If anything, putting the terms in writing was only natural.
Still, for Chloe, who had lived her life as a semi-noble, placing the words marriage and contract side by side was understandable in principle—but emotionally, it felt alien.
And so Chloe left her two younger sisters, whose eyes had gone round as they toured the annex, to their own devices and spent an entire day in fierce contemplation before a blank sheet of paper.
1. No overtime during the contract period.
The indentations from how hard she had pressed the pen into the paper were plainly visible. But there was no helping the snort that escaped him at the very first clause.
Under Curtis’s openly amused gaze, Chloe fidgeted and opened her mouth.
“Do you wish to go down in history as a man cold-hearted enough to make his beloved work overtime?”
“I don’t know about history, but people already seem to think that of me.”
He was referring to the newspaper that had printed the Royal Guard interview. Chloe answered at once.
“That was under the premise that our relationship was secret, so I believe we can smooth it over somehow later.”
Not a chance.
Curtis sneered in his distinctive tone.
“I think we’ll have to define the scope of overtime first. Does attending a banquet as the Grand Duke’s wife count as overtime?”
Chloe blinked. A banquet, apparently, had not even occurred to her.
Curtis lightly adjusted his glasses and continued.
“What I require of you, Warrant Officer, is not simply to be Grand Duchess in name. If all I needed was someone to shut up in the house, I could have dressed Noel in women’s clothes, slapped a name tag reading Grand Duchess on him, and shut him up there instead.”
“Curtis, do I get a say in this?”
Second Lieutenant Noel lodged a mild protest, which was ignored.
“As long as you and I are pretending this is a love match, banquet attendance will be mandatory, and you’ll have to fulfill all manner of obligations.”
The obligations of a Grand Duchess. Her head throbbed.
Seeing Chloe unconsciously press a hand to her forehead, Curtis smirked.
“Your concern for your family’s safety was touching, but shouldn’t you have considered that I would become your family as well?”
At those words, Chloe paused and looked at him.
Curtis raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just… you said family.”
“Do you have a complaint?”
“Less a complaint and more… I swear, I have never once in my life connected Your Grace with that word, so it gave me chills.”
Even as she said it, Chloe seemed a little concerned that it had been far too insolent and hesitated. But Noel burst out laughing—“Ahaha!”—and after a brief pause, Curtis’s mouth also curved upward.
Only then did Chloe relax.
“As for matters you must handle as a warrant officer of the Royal Guard, understood.”
“Yes!”
“Though first, we’ll have to ask the Military Law Compliance Committee whether you can continue serving as my aide.”
At that, Chloe confidently folded her arms.
“The Military Law Committee will say it’s fine.”
“And what gives you that confidence?”
“Because if Warrant Officer Amboise is removed, there obviously won’t be anyone left willing to be your aide.”
Noel cut in, and Chloe giggled.
With a distinctly displeased expression, Curtis read the next clause aloud.
2. Separate signing bonus of one million sing.
“Fine. The supplementary clause requesting a four-hundred-percent salary increase is denied.”
“Why?”
“Your salary comes from the national treasury, not my vault. Instead, the Grand Duchess will receive a stipend for maintaining dignity… Wait. How much is your salary?”
“Forty thousand sing a month…”
At that point, Curtis looked at Chloe again.
Chloe narrowed her eyes at the way his gaze swept her up and down.
For the record, today’s Chloe was, once again, in uniform.
I told them to send at least a few women’s outfits to the annex, even temporarily, so she must have received them. Why on earth didn’t she wear one?
Instead of asking that, Curtis gave a short laugh of derision.
“Impressive that you managed to look human on that amount.”
“…I’ll take that to mean you intend to give me a generous stipend for maintaining dignity?”
“I’ll pay you ten million sing a year.”
“Pardon?!”
Chloe nearly sprang out of her seat.
It was a reaction that made giving her money rather satisfying.
“I told you. You’ll have to perform every duty of a Grand Duchess. Then you’ll also have to preserve the dignity of one.”
“I will do my utmost.”
At her solemn reply, Curtis chuckled and moved on to the next clause.
It was already the final one.
Chloe Amboise shall be obeyed at all times.
“‘Chloe Amboise shall be obeyed at all times’?”
“I wanted it put in writing, if possible. There is a more specific sentence beneath it.”
Where had the woman gone who had been babbling only moments ago, “Ten million sing?! Not ten thousand?!”
Chloe had already regained her composure as she answered him.
“I wrote obey, but I don’t mean I intend to make Your Grace kneel as I did before.”
“Of course you can’t tell me to kneel three times.”
It was a barbed sneer.
Only Second Lieutenant Noel, who had no idea what they were talking about, tilted his head.
Curtis pushed his glasses up and read the line below aloud.
Curtis Shan Berk shall regard Chloe Amboise as his superior and show her the utmost respect.
“Mm, yes.”
Furthermore, should Chloe Amboise invoke this contract to make a demand, Curtis Shan Berk is obligated to accept any such demand three times within the contract period.
“What is this? Some fairy tale where I grant wishes?”
Grant three wishes, was it? He felt as though he were reading some bedtime story for children.
Curtis was dumbfounded.
But Chloe remained firm.
“It is a clause directly tied to my family’s survival and mine.”
“Now it’s survival all of a sudden? Are you going to war, Warrant Officer?”
“No. I gave this some thought.”
Despite Curtis’s continued sarcasm, Chloe spoke seriously, both hands resting on her knees.
“Whether I meant to or not, I’m in the same boat as Your Grace now, so I intend to do my best in this matter. But His Majesty the King will be extremely displeased if I do my best, won’t he?”
Doing one’s best in a matter.
It was a rather ridiculous thing for a bride-to-be to say, but Curtis found even that wording quite satisfactory.
“He will.”
“I considered the easiest thing His Majesty might do to prevent this marriage, and in my opinion, it would likely be assassination.”
At the sudden appearance of such a grave word, Noel, standing nearby, widened his eyes in alarm.
Curtis, however, nodded calmly.
“If you die, my marriage and all the rest of it comes to an end. That is why I brought your family into the Berk Ducal Residence.”
“Ah, I actually think I’ll be in more danger after the wedding than before it.”
“Why?”
Chloe’s eyes shifted slightly before she answered.
“Because between a man who cannot forget the fiancée who tragically died right before the wedding and a widower, I imagine it would be easier to push remarriage on the latter.”
“A sharp deduction,” Noel said admiringly.
Curtis smiled viciously.
“Did you think I wouldn’t use that excuse to avoid marriage if you died before the wedding?”
“Then would you quietly marry someone else?”
“No. That’s a fine excuse. I hadn’t thought that far, but if you should unfortunately lose your life before the wedding, I’ll gladly make use of it.”
“That makes me curious. In that case, would I be treated as someone who died in service to the nation?”
“Would you? I’ll make sure your family receives a consolation payment that doesn’t disappoint.”
“Ah. My parents have no sense of money, so that’s a little concerning. Please put it in my second younger sibling’s name.”
“I’ll remember that.”
For a couple about to be married, it was an astonishingly loveless conversation.
Even if it was only a contract, was this all right? Noel glanced at the two of them, but neither looked hurt or appalled.
Of course they did not. Such feelings had never had any place between them to begin with.
Chloe shrugged calmly.
“In any case, it’s only natural that my family might be taken hostage or that some other troublesome situation might arise. But considering I am, after all, someone who is marrying Your Grace for money…”
“I understand. You want me to prioritize your interests over mine three times. Approved.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m the one who should be grateful.”
That was the end of Chloe’s proposed clauses.
Of course, it was not the end of the contract.
A contract was, by nature, a document proving the interests of both parties.
With a sigh, Noel handed Chloe a sheet of paper.
Naturally, Curtis’s terms were written there.
Chloe’s eyes skimmed the document quickly.