I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 2

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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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I’d married the male lead in a flash.
Chapter 2

Brilliant blonde hair and eyes blue as a lake.
A woman with a pale, delicate frame and features sculpted with exquisite precision.
‘I’ve never seen this face before.’
When Emilia’s gaze met the woman’s, she blinked. And she began to guess who she might be.
‘A guest of Madam Romans?’
The expensive cut of her dress made that seem likely.
Madam Romans had been holding tea gatherings from time to time since Sedrick passed his examination, inviting guests from among the nobility.
Emilia looked up at Sedrick with a questioning gaze.
“Who is she?”
“Well, that is to say…….”
Sedrick stammered over his answer, but he stepped forward and blocked the woman from Emilia’s view.
It was then.
“Sedrick, would it be alright if I introduced myself?”
The woman slipped to his side and gently laid her hand on his arm.
Emilia’s gaze naturally settled on that pale hand.
‘Sedrick? As in……?’
It was a pet name even she didn’t use.
As an inexplicable displeasure tightened her brow, the woman continued.
“It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Reina Illake.”
“Oh, I’m Emilia…….”
Emilia began her own introduction but stopped mid-sentence.
The name was not unfamiliar to her.
Emilia’s eyes widened suddenly.
‘Reina Illake?’
This was unmistakably the name of the female lead in the novel.
The heroine born as an illegitimate child of the Count’s House, who enters into a contractual engagement with the male lead to escape her family.
‘Surely not…….’
Emilia studied the woman’s features again. Now that she looked closely, they matched the description in the novel exactly.
‘Why on earth has she appeared here?’
And in her fiancé’s home, no less.
Like herself, Sedrick was a character who didn’t even appear in the margins of the novel.
Moreover, Reina should have remained confined to the Mansion until she met Kaiden, the male protagonist…….
As if sensing her confusion, Reina explained.
“Sedrick and I were childhood friends. We ran into each other by chance in the Capital recently. Isn’t that right, Sedrick?”
“Oh, right……. We bumped into each other on the way back from the Inn. Ha ha.”
“How fortunate it was to see you again in such a desolate city.”
Reina smiled bashfully, as if reminiscing about that happy day.
‘They were childhood friends?’
This was entirely new to her.
Emilia hurriedly recalled the original story’s details.
‘Now that I think about it…….’
Before Reina’s identity as an illegitimate child of the Count’s House was revealed, there had been mention of her living in the countryside.
‘So they met back then.’
Yet even this didn’t resolve all of Emilia’s doubts.
‘But would she really follow him all this way just because they’re old friends?’
Just then, Madam Romans approached the Entrance with a puzzled expression.
“Why are you all standing out here? Emilia? What brings you at this hour?”
Reina smiled brightly in response and offered an invitation.
“Perhaps we should head inside rather than stay out here?”
She spoke as if she were the mistress of the house.
Emilia glanced back and forth between Sedrick and Madam Romans.
Neither of them seemed to find anything odd about Reina’s manner.
‘Is it just me who finds this strange?’
For a moment, an odd feeling stirred within her.
Yet whether Reina was aware of it or not, she pressed forward.
“Please, do come in.”
“……All right.”
Emilia nodded slowly.
Either way, she couldn’t turn around and leave without facing this situation.

* * *

Dinner was quite pleasant.
Madam Romans asked Reina about her life all this time.
Sedrick shared memories from their earliest childhood spent together.
Clink. Clink.
Yet Emilia alone remained silent.
Though she sat at the same table, she felt utterly isolated, like a solitary island unto herself.
But what troubled her more was Sedrick.
The way his eyes fixed only on Reina, his childhood friend, as if she were the only one in the world.
‘That’s fair. He hasn’t seen an old friend in a long time, so of course he’d be delighted.’
Yet she’d been worried enough to find her way to his home, only to be treated as though she were invisible.
“Se…….”
She started to call out to the elated Sedrick but caught herself and closed her mouth.
It didn’t feel right to air grievances in front of strangers.
Instead, she set down her spoon on the table with a deliberate clink.
Only then did the diners’ attention turn toward her.
“I’m not feeling well. I’m going to lie down in the Guest Room for a bit.”
“What?”
Clatter.
Emilia rose from her seat and walked away before Sedrick could even respond.
In truth, she wanted nothing more than to leave for home at once.
But the reason she didn’t was because she wanted to speak with Sedrick.
‘Why hasn’t he contacted me this whole time?’
And just what had he been doing to come home so late?

* * *

Emilia squinted as she stepped into the Guest Room, a knot of frustration twisting in her chest.
‘Did I really eat something that disagreed with me?’
She’d used it as an excuse to leave the table, but it seemed the food she’d eaten earlier truly was sitting heavy.
She was pressing her fist against her chest when——
Knock, knock.
A gentle voice came along with the sound at the door.
“May we have a word?”
“Come in.”
The moment she gave permission, the door opened carefully and Reina entered the room.
“What is it?”
“That is…….”
But Reina hesitated without speaking.
“Let’s sit and talk.”
“Thank you.”
At Emilia’s gesture, Reina settled into the chair across from her.
Yet for some reason, she remained silent for a long while after that.
Emilia waited quietly for her to speak.
‘What on earth is she trying to say that she’s dragging her feet like this?’
Perhaps something about what happened in the Dining Room was weighing on her.
As she considered various possibilities……
“Actually, I came with a request.”
“A request?”
The words fell outside the bounds of what Emilia expected, and she frowned.
‘Not from Sedrick, and I’ve never even met her before today?’
“What kind of request?”
Then Reina, who had kept her gaze downcast, lifted her beautiful lake-blue eyes to meet hers.
Her eyes held a certain resolve.
“Break your engagement with Sedrick.”
“……What?”
The words that came from Reina’s mouth were so absurd that Emilia found herself repeating them in disbelief.
“You’re asking me, right now, to break my engagement with Sedrick?”
Reina nodded in response.
“I know this is sudden. But if you truly cared for Sedrick, you’d break your engagement with him first.”
She gripped her own hand tightly, the fingers curled on the table.
“Sedrick has only higher places to reach now. But if you stay by his side, it will only be a burden to him.”
Emilia was momentarily lost for words.
‘Is she saying that I’m an obstacle to Sedrick?’
Admittedly, looked at coldly, Reina wasn’t entirely wrong.
To rise higher, it fundamentally helped to cultivate connections with powerful nobles.
‘And the easiest way to do that is to marry a noblewoman of rank.’
By contrast, she had no such connections to offer Sedrick.
‘But still…….’
This was a line that shouldn’t be crossed, and Reina had crossed it by miles.
To say such a thing to an old friend’s fiancée, whom she’d only just met, was far too presumptuous and discourteous.
“Whether or not I hinder Sedrick’s path is something only time will tell.”
Emilia spoke firmly.
“But——”
“And above all, I have no reason to hear such talk from a third party like you.”
At those words, Reina’s lips pressed into a tight line.
But that lasted only a moment, and she spoke again with urgency.
“I can help him! I can introduce him to noble families I know, and I also——”
“Stop, Reina. Are you saying you want to be Sedrick’s fiancée in my place?”
“…….”
Reina hung her head and said nothing.
That silence was answer enough.
‘So that’s what this was about all along?’

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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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