I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 33

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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 entered into a hasty marriage with the male lead.
Chapter 33

The report also included the fact that the child she had ordered killed was alive and well, in the hands of Count Valen.
And at the root of all this lay her own husband, the Emperor.
A pathetic, contemptible man who gave not a shred of affection to his own child, yet fathered a bastard with another woman.
‘I never wanted to make such a man Emperor.’
In truth, the man she had harbored feelings for over many years was the former Count Valen.
But he had coldly abandoned her and married the Crown Princess instead.
So Seraphina chose power over love.
Love was but a fleeting moment, while power was eternal.
Unfortunately, however, the Crown Prince and all the imperial princes were already married or betrothed.
So she used her father’s influence to strike a bargain with the former Emperor.
And thus she obtained the weakest of the princes—Demian.
Of course, Demian, having parted from his beloved, gave her not a shred of his heart, but that was acceptable.
After all, what she needed from him was merely his princely bloodline and his seed.
Once she had made him Emperor and borne him a son, she no longer had need for a weak-willed husband.
So she had begun to poison him slowly, steadily to death.
Yet even as he wasted away, he had managed to seek out his thousand-years’-love, his former lover, and father a child upon her.
The moment she learned this, her excitement had driven her to hunt down traces of the bastard—a fatal miscalculation.
Count Valen had wrested the illegitimate child from her grasp.
The boy’s face, which bore his father’s likeness so keenly, had always irritated her; now, he had provoked her ire beyond measure.
She had no intention of leaving behind anything that might threaten her son’s position.
Seraphina’s eyes gleamed with sinister intent when a maidservant rushed into the Garden.
“Your Majesty, Empress!”
“What is it.”
“It’s… that is…”
The maidservant hesitated, fear making her tongue falter.
“I asked what it was.”
“The… the Crown Prince, Your Highness…”
At those words, the Empress rose from her seat with an elegant motion.

* * *

The Crown Prince’s Palace was more lavish and ornate than any other place in the empire.
Within it, a young boy sat with his chin propped in his hand, sprawled in an ungainly posture.
“Yawn.”
The boy yawned deeply, his boredom palpable.
“Ugh… hack…”
At his feet, a single servant writhed on the floor.
“What sort of punishment would suit you, I wonder.”
The boy mused aloud in a tone as casual as if choosing an evening meal, idly swinging his foot.
The servant attempted to kneel before him, but his body, already subjected to torture that bordered on brutality, would not obey his will.
His arms trembled as he struggled to support himself.
Aaron gazed down at the sight with cold indifference.
Whether such a servant shed tears or not stirred nothing within him.
“Sigh… it’s all so tedious.”
In truth, Aaron had grown thoroughly weary.
Save for his naturally frail constitution, he had been given everything.
A single word, the slightest show of discomfort, and all was resolved for him.
His mother especially would place anything he desired directly into his hands.
Acquiring expensive treasures, obtaining interesting people—all of it was easy and effortless for him.
Yet paradoxically, this life in which he need not lift a finger bred only monotony in the boy.
Especially since his second sister, the one person whose reactions were worth observing, had vanished.
‘She was at least worth toying with.’
He had found her amusing—the way she would endure his torments yet could not hide the defiant glimmer in her eyes.
So utterly different from his docile eldest sister.
Aaron smacked his lips with evident regret.
‘Well, Mother must have disposed of her.’
Yet now that she was gone, the loss weighed heavily upon him.
Just then, the heavy doors swung open.
The Empress entered, attended by a retinue of knights and servants.
“Ah, Mother.”
Aaron greeted her with casual indifference, not bothering to change his posture.
The Empress, too, paid no heed to the blood that clung to her with each step.
Her gaze was fixed solely upon her precious son.
“Who has vexed my son’s spirits this time.”
The Empress approached Aaron and gently stroked his cheek with the back of her hand.
In that instant, a whimper rose from the floor.
“Ugh… hck.”
As the distressing noise interrupted her precious conversation with her son, the Empress’s brow furrowed in an instant.
She cast a cold glance to the knight standing behind her.
Understanding her meaning, the knight bowed quickly and dragged the servant away.
Seraphina turned back to her son with a gentle expression once more.
‘My son.’
Whenever she looked upon him, her heart swelled with tenderness.
No gift seemed sufficient to his worth, no honor seemed great enough for her devotion.
Such a precious child, and yet—
Seraphina’s expression darkened as she examined Aaron more closely.
His complexion was deathly pale.
His frame was gaunt, his joints prominent, his body smaller than other boys his age.
Each time she beheld her son’s sickly form, her heart felt as though it would tear apart.
‘I should have borne him without flaw.’
Such thoughts inevitably stirred her fury toward those born before him in her womb.
They had drained away all the nourishment that should have been his.
Worthless, useless things that had dared to mar her precious son.
She had asked for so little—only a single, perfect son.
But of all things, that bastard had to be a healthy boy.
She ground her teeth.
“I must have it killed as soon as possible.”
As Seraphina murmured absently, Aaron’s eyebrow twitched in response.
“That bastard, you mean?”
“Oh.”
The Empress quickly gathered her wits at the sound of her son’s voice.
“Forgive me—I’ve troubled you needlessly.”
She spoke with a tender smile.
“Your mother shall handle it; you need only concentrate on the Appointment Ceremony that approaches, my Crown Prince.”
In the empire, one had to reach the age of ten before being named Crown Prince.
This was to prevent children too young from being swayed by those around them.
Yet Aaron currently occupied the Crown Prince’s Palace despite being merely a prince.
There were no other princes, after all, and his only sibling was a sister.
Naturally, the position of Crown Prince was his, and with it, the throne itself.
“Hmm.”
But Aaron scarcely listened to his mother’s words.
His ascension to Crown Prince was so inevitable it barely registered as a matter of concern for him.
‘Is there nothing more interesting.’
As Aaron pondered this, his eyes suddenly gleamed with dangerous excitement.
“Mother, I have a rather good idea. Would you care to hear it?”

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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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