I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 34

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

I’d gone and married the male lead on impulse.
Chapter 34

* * *

Not long after accepting the Business Support Manager position.
Emilia received the relevant documents through Herald.
In order to be useful as a Business Support Manager, she needed to understand the details more thoroughly.
But there was one problem.
‘I have no idea what I’m looking at.’
The process of extracting energy from Magic Stones was completely foreign to her.
As a result, Emilia found herself struggling with a headache for the first time in a while.
‘All the terminology is unfamiliar too.’
Eventually, she began studying, searching for related materials in the library.
She devoted most of her time, aside from her lessons with Ivan, to familiarizing herself with this new field.
As she studied, the principles and flow gradually became clear to her.
The more she studied, the more fascinating it became—she lost all track of time.
Click, scratch-scratch.
Just then, her door opened quietly.
Emilia shifted her gaze and saw who had entered her room.
“Ivan?”
Ivan, a book tucked under one arm, was looking up at her.
‘Is it already time for our lesson?’
But when she checked the time, there was still more than an hour left.
Ivan hesitated slightly, then gestured toward the book with his eyes and asked.
“I… I haven’t finished my homework yet. Can I do it here next to you?”
“Really?”
Emilia asked in bewilderment.
Ivan was the type to always finish his daily assignments that same day.
“Of course you can.”
When Emilia agreed readily, Ivan’s expression brightened.
He settled onto the sofa far enough away so as not to disturb her, swinging his legs idly.
Then he quietly spread out his book and paper and gripped his fountain pen.
Scratch-scratch.
Soon the sound of his fountain pen stroked across paper as he focused on his homework.
Emilia also caught sight of Ivan’s diligent expression and returned her focus to her own studies.
How much time had passed like that?
‘Ugh.’
Emilia stretched, extending her arms.
Scratch-scratch.
Ivan still hadn’t finished his homework?
Emilia checked the time. Now it really was time for their lesson.
She rose quietly from her seat and tiptoed over to stand behind Ivan.
‘Huh?’
But instead of writing new letters on the paper, Ivan was retracing characters he’d already written—and a tremendous number of sentences at that.
‘Could it be…?’
At that moment, feeling Emilia’s presence, Ivan startled and hastily covered the paper with his book.
“I-I just finished! My homework!”
Without even asking, his eager denials only confirmed her suspicion.
Now that she thought about it, before taking on the Business Support Manager position, she’d spent most of her time with Ivan.
But as time spent together had dwindled lately, the child couldn’t bring himself to say it outright—instead, he was trying to spend time with her like this.
“Ivan, I’m sorry. You must’ve been lonely not spending much time together lately.”
“No, you’re… you’re busy…”
Perhaps because she’d acknowledged his loneliness, a sulky feeling welled up in him, and he pouted his lip.
‘How adorable.’
Emilia held back the urge to pull him into a tight embrace right then and there.
Instead, she smiled mischievously at Ivan and spoke.
“You know what, Ivan?”
“Mm?”
“What if we skip our lesson today?”
“Skip?”
Ivan tilted his head, unfamiliar with the word.
Emilia nearly laughed at his adorable pronunciation.
“Ahem. Actually, skip means…”
But in that instant, she felt as though she were teaching the child a bad word.
So Emilia quickly changed course.
“Never mind, what I mean is—Experiential Learning! Let’s do some Experiential Learning!”
But this, too, was difficult terminology for Ivan, and the child simply blinked in confusion.
So Emilia smiled and explained in the simplest words possible.
“It means let’s go play outside together.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
At that, Ivan’s face lit up brilliantly.

* * *

Of course, there were matters that needed to be arranged before she could take Ivan out.
“So I was thinking of going out for a bit with Ivan—would that be all right?”
Namely, getting permission from his guardian, Kaiden.
Since there had been that incident on the way to the Capital where Ivan’s life was threatened, she was also thinking of asking if a guard could be assigned to them.
But upon hearing her words, Kaiden furrowed his brow as if troubled.
“Right now?”
“Ah, yes. Would that be inconvenient? If you think of it as a sort of Experiential Learning activity…”
“…”
“Outdoor activities can also improve learning performance, after all.”
Emilia slyly added another justification.
Kaiden then glanced once at the documents he’d been reviewing before speaking.
“Very well. Let’s go.”
“Really? Thank you!”
Emilia answered quickly before he could change his mind.
“Do you have a destination in mind?”
“No, not yet.”
When Emilia shook her head, Kaiden, tapping the desk with his index finger, opened his mouth.
“What about the Children’s Park?”
“The Children’s Park?”
Emilia tilted her head as if hearing of it for the first time.
“I heard that recently a park for children was built on the outskirts of the Capital.”
“I didn’t know such a place existed.”
Just hearing about it sounded like the perfect place to go with Ivan.
The Capital’s outskirts would require a carriage ride, but since they were going out from the Mansion anyway, she thought it would be nice for them to get plenty of fresh air.
“I’ll be back soon!”
Emilia spoke with an excited smile, looking forward to this rare outing.

* * *

Though the outing was rather spontaneous, fortunately the weather was beautiful.
Sitting on a bench, Emilia drew in the fresh outdoor air deeply.
Then she asked Kaiden, who sat beside her reviewing documents.
“Are you able to concentrate?”
As she did, she recalled the situation from before.
When Emilia had come downstairs after preparing for the outing with Ivan, she discovered Kaiden standing near the entrance.
And because the situation felt oddly familiar, she couldn’t help but ask.

“Um. Are you… going out somewhere?”
“Yes.”
“Where to?”
“I am also going to the park.”
“Aren’t you busy?”
“I am.”
“Then why…”
“Didn’t you just say that outdoor activities improve performance? Was that a lie?”

So somehow she’d ended up taking along a guard she couldn’t hire no matter what she paid.
Who would have thought he’d actually go out himself to verify the truthfulness of her words?
“Not particularly.”
Just then, a response came from Kaiden to the question she’d just asked.
Judging from how curtly he’d spoken, it seemed his concentration was not improving at all.
“Well… people do experience these things differently, after all.”
Emilia trailed off, feeling embarrassed about having made a questionable claim.
Deciding she shouldn’t speak so carelessly in front of him going forward, she turned her gaze away from the man.
Then she asked Ivan, who sat beside her.
“Is it okay if you stay sitting here?”
Ivan’s reaction was somewhat different from when they’d stopped by the toy shop before coming here.
He’d been very excited then, but now he merely gazed at the park with curious eyes.
Especially at the boys gathered near the goal, playing ball.
Emilia followed Ivan’s gaze.
“Hey! Pass it straight!”
“That’s funny—you only missed it because you’re terrible!”
Emilia turned away from the group engaged in heated banter and, looking at children roughly Ivan’s age playing more harmoniously, spoke up.
“Want me to ask those kids if you can play with them?”
“Huh?”
“What do you think?”
Ivan glanced briefly toward where she was pointing.
“But…”
Yet Ivan hesitated, fidgeting with his hands.
“They might not like it if I talk to them.”
“Why?”
“I use different words, and… well.”
‘Ah.’
Emilia swallowed hard at Ivan’s dejected answer.
It seemed he had a memory of being rejected by other children because he used Hifrian alone.
Emilia paused to consider what to do.
If he didn’t want to, she had no intention of forcing him—
“But why not ask anyway?”
The way he gazed longingly showed that Ivan clearly wanted to play with them.
“You’ve worked so hard to learn Imperial Language. You speak it really well now.”
But Ivan still lacked the courage.
‘What should I do?’
Truth be told, Emilia herself had no professional knowledge of child-rearing.
She couldn’t be certain which approach would be better for the child.
But there was one thing she could tell him without difficulty.
“It’s okay even if they reject you.”
“Huh?”
Ivan looked up at her.
“Even if your friends reject you, it’s okay.”
Emilia tilted her head toward Ivan with a smile, whispering.
“Because then you can play with me instead, right?”
At those words, Ivan’s eyes blinked before he answered vigorously.
“Yeah!”
The child then took a sharp breath and descended from the bench.
And after a few steps, he turned back to look at Emilia and called out.
“I’ll be back soon!”

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