I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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She’d married the male lead in a shotgun wedding.
Chapter 11

* * *

The man lying in the room stirred his fingers.
Herald caught the small movement and approached the bed at once.
“Your Excellency, are you awake?”
Kaiden, surveying his surroundings, pushed himself up on his elbows and immediately turned to Herald. “The child.”

“Ivan is safe, sir.”
Herald answered quickly, then clicked his tongue in disapproval. “It would’ve been so much better if you’d recovered and come with us. What state is this?”

“If I had, the boy would already be dead.”
It was meant with concern, but the reply came cold and measured.
“Ah yes, yes—here you are, helpless from the poison, and your tongue runs so freely. Oh, that’s right. The Detoxification is complete now, isn’t it?”
“Bring me water.”
Kaiden furrowed his brow, cutting off Herald’s rambling.
“Yes, yes, here it is.”
Rather than push further, Herald quickly offered him a cup.
As Kaiden drank, his throat moved up and down.
Herald grumbled inwardly about his superior—even his adam’s apple was annoyingly flawless.
Meanwhile, as Kaiden composed his thoughts while drinking, a scene suddenly flashed through his mind.
And that scene was deeply unsettling………
“Cough, cough!”
“Sir! Are you all right?”
As Kaiden coughed violently, Herald’s eyes went wide.
It was closer to shock than concern.
‘That man choking on water? Just plain water!’
This was the same man who could swallow food with perfect composure even at formal banquets that were exhausting merely to sit through.
He’d endured training so brutal it left him breathless, yet never coughed once………
“Your condition still seems quite poor. Shall I call the physician again?”
Herald’s expression turned serious as he studied his superior.
It was a potentially significant matter—his own job security was at stake.
“Nonsense.”
Kaiden rebuked him and quickly erased the scene from his mind.
At last regaining his composure, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“So where is the woman?”
He’d lost consciousness and hadn’t even properly introduced himself.
Of course, his aide would see to her comfort, but he’d intended to meet her face to face.
Kaiden clenched his fist involuntarily, remembering vividly the feeling of her soft, delicate body against him.
‘How on earth did she come up with such a brilliant method?’
Though he’d only glimpsed her briefly, he wanted to peer inside her mind.
He rose from the bed and pulled on the shirt that lay ready.
As he reached for the first button, Herald offered an unexpected answer.
“She left immediately.”
“……What?”

* * *

Emilia let out a sigh so deep it seemed the ground might swallow her.
She looked up at the buildings lined on either side, then murmured to herself in a daze.
“So many shops around, and I can’t find a single place to work……”
It hadn’t taken long for her spirits, which had been buoyed when she arrived in the Capital, to completely deflate.
She’d thought she’d find work quickly and adapt to life in the Capital soon enough.
Clearly she’d underestimated the Capital.

“Why should I hire you?”
“Do you have any letters of recommendation?”
“Do you think you’re the first starry-eyed girl to climb up to the Capital?”

She’d asked just to be given one day’s trial, but all she got was refusal.
Then finally one shop agreed to hire her, but……
During the probationary period, they gave her no proper wages while heaping every menial task upon her.
‘Fine. I was willing to bear with that, but the moment the probation ended, they just fired me.’
The face of the greasy-looking owner floated before her eyes.
Emilia stamped her foot irritably.
But she quickly realized she was only wasting her own energy and stopped.
‘Let me just go home for now.’
She thought she’d look for work again when the sun came up.
So Emilia turned and made her way down the street.

* * *

She was heading toward a residential area in the Old District.
Among its buildings stood a ramshackle multi-unit dwelling that looked as though it had been erected when the Empire itself was born.
That was where Emilia had been living.
It got little sunlight and was cramped, but to her it was an irreplaceable home.
Yet the area near her house was remarkably chaotic.
The neighbors had gathered together, murmuring amongst themselves.
‘What’s going on?’
Bewildered, Emilia approached a woman she knew.
“Ma’am.”
“Oh, miss! You’re home now?”
The woman greeted Emilia with a start.
“Yes. But why is everyone gathered here? What happened?”
Looking closer, they all wore grim expressions.
“Well, you see, that’s… if I just told you, you wouldn’t believe it……”
The woman, who had been rambling, patted Emilia’s shoulder sympathetically and urged her to go check on her house right away.
Confused, Emilia turned the corner toward where her building stood—
“What in the…?”
Emilia blinked several times at the unbelievable sight before her.
Her building had collapsed entirely.
She’d sighed deeply before, but she hadn’t literally meant for the ground to swallow her……

* * *

“It can’t be… it’s all lies……”
Emilia’s mind reeled from the cascade of disasters.
‘How can my home just collapse like this?’
Days had passed since the building crumbled—no, since it vanished.
In the span of a single night, she’d lost the home she’d been living in.
There had been strange resonant sounds and gusts of wind from deep within the walls, but she’d never imagined those were warning signs before the collapse.
Fortunately, everyone had evacuated just before the building came down, so no one was injured.
‘Yes. I’m grateful for that, at least….’
But why had only her house collapsed when all the surrounding buildings stood perfectly intact?
Emilia swallowed a hollow laugh.
‘Can luck really be this bad?’
No matter how she thought about it, the gods had surely abandoned her.
‘The gods….’
That thought sparked a rational suspicion.
‘Could it be that my core essence isn’t fully of this world?’
If so, the gods were truly petty.
Emilia sat down at the Plaza Fountain in a melancholy mood.
“Sigh.”
She’d made it all the way to the Capital, but nothing was working out.
No job, and the house she’d stayed in had become nothing but a mirage.
Now that she thought about it, she’d faced hardship even before arriving in the Capital.
‘Or maybe, looking at it differently, I’ve been lucky….’
Between then and now, she’d at least kept her life through each ordeal.
‘I don’t know anymore.’
Emilia barely suppressed a yawn so wide it seemed her jaw might split.
But her eyelids kept dropping no matter what she tried.
As her head nodded in the warm sunlight, about to tip to the side—
Tap.
Someone caught her head and held it steady.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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