I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 28

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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 had ended up in a shotgun marriage with the male lead.
Chapter 28

He brushed off his clothes with a careless hand before yawning and moving to the sofa to sit.
It was hardly the behavior befitting a knight attending to a princess, but Selena merely wore an expression of resigned tolerance.
The moment she lowered her gaze again and moved to take up her fountain pen.
A strange scent drifting from somewhere made her tilt her head.
“Where were you today? There’s an odd smell about you.”
“Are you now reproaching me for going about unwashed, ma’am?”
“Hardly.”
Selena laughed and shook her head.
Since her own world extended no further than this crumbling palace, he was her sole knight through whom the outside world reached her.
Whether some contrary streak drove him, he had abandoned a respectable house to serve as the knight of this insignificant princess.
And without even a proper title to show for it, given how she was neglected.
Yet she had benefited greatly from Lucas’s presence.
She heard accounts of the great and small incidents unfolding in the Capital, and could verify that the modest policies touched by her hand were being properly administered.
“No, it smells more like… a dessert shop, somehow.”
At Selena’s offhand remark, Lucas went very still.
His unfamiliar reaction sparked Selena’s curiosity.
She set down her fountain pen and rested her chin in her palm as she spoke.
“With a woman, perhaps?”
“…Pardon?”
Lucas’s eyes widened before he quickly scratched at his cheek with an embarrassed smile.
At this unexpected side of her knight, Selena burst into laughter.
“Ah, ha ha.”
“You needn’t concern yourself with a child’s teasing.”
“I’m hardly a child anymore—I know what there is to know.”
Yet she spoke with genuine delight.
“I’m simply curious. If I should happen to meet her, I’d take care to speak very well of you.”
Of course, confined as she was to this palace, such a meeting would never come to pass.
A bittersweet expression crossed Selena’s face before she took up her fountain pen again and set her hand to the papers.
“So if you ever take a liking to someone, you’ll tell me first, won’t you?”
“There’s nothing like that, I assure you.”
“Of course, of course. I won’t ask again, so you get back to your duties.”
Having said that, she fixed her gaze upon the documents.
And Lucas found himself thinking of that woman to the familiar backdrop of the fountain pen’s gentle scratchings.
“Hmm.”
At first, she had merely been mildly intriguing.
Everything about her—the way she dressed, the trembling over something as trivial as a dessert—marked her plainly as common, yet when he spoke with her, none of that impression remained.
Particularly because she bore some resemblance to his young mistress, when he happened to spot the woman wearing that grave expression on the street.
He had approached her without hesitation or self-consciousness.
To the woman who suited so perfectly the sweet fragrance wafting from the Dessert Shop.

* * *

After Ivan’s lesson concluded.
Emilia was descending to the lower floors when a loud shout echoed from somewhere.
‘What on earth is that?’
In all her time at this mansion, she had never heard such a raised voice.
Puzzled, Emilia followed the sound to its source.
And found Laura standing beside the reception room door, looking thoroughly bewildered.
“Laura, what’s the matter—”
Then a voice came from inside the room.
“Is it really so difficult to review this once more? There must be an error somewhere!”
It was the voice of an elderly man who sounded rather cantankerous.
Laura furrowed her brow and stepped toward Emilia, speaking in hushed tones.
“He’s from one of the vassal families of House Valen. From what I gathered, he came because his business proposal was rejected.”
At that, Emilia recalled helping Herald organize documents in the library not long ago.
“Count Ardel, please stop this now.”
And Herald’s voice followed—unusually cold for him.
‘Ardel?’
Emilia tilted her head at the house name, which she felt she’d heard before.
‘Ah—Flora, Countess Ardel’s daughter!’
She was a character Reina met at a tea party in the original work.
There had been a scene where, disheartened at not fitting in with the other noble ladies, Reina had approached and become her conversational companion.
If memory served, Flora’s family was in straits, so she’d entered the marriage market hoping to be of some help.
In any case, after the tea party, Flora had gifted Reina with tea leaves she’d grown herself, and Reina had been quite taken with them, creating an episode Emilia remembered well.
However, in the original work, Flora had been Count Ardel’s younger sister, not his granddaughter.
‘Which means…’
Emilia’s gaze fixed on the heavy reception room door.
It seemed the Count Ardel now inside would soon be passing his title to his grandson.
“The steward instructed me to bring tea, but the atmosphere isn’t quite right to enter at the moment.”
Laura glanced at the trolley beside her and let out a deep sigh.
“I see.”
Emilia nodded in agreement, when—
“Sigh… Very well. Please wait, then. I’ll have it properly reviewed for you.”
With those words, the reception room door swung open and Herald emerged, his expression heavy with exhaustion.
He walked briskly down the corridor without noticing Emilia and Laura standing nearby.
“I’d better go in now.”
Laura said this, grasping the trolley handle with some tension.
“Wait a moment.”
But Emilia gently placed a hand on her arm.
“Yes?”
Laura turned, her expression uncertain.
“Does the mansion have a variety of tea leaves? Perhaps something more unusual?”
“Of course. Though the master doesn’t drink them himself, we do keep a selection on hand for guests.”
Laura answered, taken aback by the sudden question.
“Then, if you have apricot blossom petals, could you prepare fresh tea with those instead?”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll take it in myself.”
Emilia said with a smile.

* * *

Shortly after.
Emilia wheeled the trolley into the reception room.
“Pardon the intrusion.”
An elderly man, apparently Count Ardel, sat on one side of the sofa with a distinctly displeased expression.
Having briefly confirmed his presence, Emilia slowly pushed the trolley deeper into the room—
When a figure standing some distance away came into view.
‘Isn’t that… the steward?’
Robert was standing before the wall on the opposite side.
Emilia, who had naturally expected to find only Count Ardel in the reception room, felt her eyes widen slightly.
Robert likewise blinked in surprise that Emilia had entered instead of a maid.
As Robert opened his mouth to address her, Emilia quickly shook her head.
It was a signal not to acknowledge knowing her.
At her gesture, Robert’s brow furrowed, but he said nothing.
Reassured by this, Emilia approached Count Ardel’s side.
Clink.
She carefully set the teacup down on the table.
Warm steam rose from the tea.
“Mm?”
Count Ardel reacted as expected.
He gazed down at the teacup, catching a familiar scent drifting into his nostrils.
“This is…”
A spark of recognition crossed the Count’s eyes.
Emilia smiled innocently and introduced the tea leaves to him.
“It may be unfamiliar to you, but it’s a flower tea that’s excellent for calming the mind and restoring vitality.”
Count Ardel let out a soft cough.
“I know it well. Apricot trees grow abundantly in my domain.”
“My, is that so.”
Emilia clapped her hands together in feigned surprise.
“My granddaughter, when she could barely speak, gathered those petals with her tiny hands and brewed this tea herself, saying she would make it for her grandfather.”
“Your granddaughter sounds quite dutiful and clever.”
At Emilia’s warm affirmation, the Count’s expression softened.

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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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