I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 39

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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 ended up in a hasty marriage with the male lead.
Chapter 39

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Inside the quiet carriage.
Ibane slept with his head resting on Emilia’s lap.
Soft breathing—the sounds of a child completely exhausted filled the carriage.
Emilia gently patted Ibane’s back.
‘He must be tired after running around like that.’
It was surely far more activity than he’d have gotten at the manor.
She recalled watching Ibane play in the park.
Despite them having just met, despite their words barely connecting at all—
he’d blended in with the other children without any awkwardness.
Seeing him that way, a sudden thought struck her.
“Does Ibane really have to go to the Hipri Kingdom?”
She paused for a moment, asking in a voice barely above a whisper.
Emilia added hastily, as if offering an excuse, noticing the man’s gaze turn toward her.
“Of course, I know it’s presumptuous of me—just a tutor—to ask such a thing.”
Caiden’s brow narrowed.
“It’s not presumptuous. After all, you’ve been a benefactor to this child. Only—”
He tapped his finger lightly against his own knee.
“Herald must have told you. That Ibane is my collateral-line child.”
“Yes, I heard that.”
“That’s not entirely wrong, but—”
Caiden chose his words carefully before speaking.
“To be precise, it’s misleading to call him merely collateral line.”
He glanced at Ibane, who lay sleeping motionless.
“The golden eyes this child possesses are a trait of the Empire’s Imperial Direct Bloodline.”
His gaze lifted once more.
“Ibane is an illegitimate child of His Imperial Majesty. His mother is from the Hipri Kingdom.”
At Caiden’s words, Emilia’s eyes widened in an instant.
He studied her expression before asking.
“Are you surprised?”
“Ah… somewhat.”
Emilia rolled her eyes and answered with a touch of awkwardness.
Of course, she already knew this from the original work, so his words weren’t truly shocking.
Rather, it was unexpected that he would speak of it so openly.
The Emperor’s illegitimate child should surely be a secret.
Yet Caiden didn’t stop there.
“That’s why the Empress is after Ibane. Those men on the train—they were the Empress’s people.”
He seemed intent on laying everything bare for her.
“The Empress is a greedy woman, you see…”
Even the thought of it caused Caiden’s expression to darken with distaste.
“While His Imperial Majesty lies ill, she’s managing state affairs.”
Emilia had heard that the Emperor’s health was not good.
But then, from Caiden’s lips came words she hadn’t anticipated.
“Many nobles, including myself, suspect that it is the Empress who has brought His Imperial Majesty to this state.”
“What?”
Emilia caught her breath in sudden shock.
Caiden’s eyebrow twitched at her strong reaction.
Indeed. This was the first time he’d spoken such words aloud.
They were unmistakably a slander against the imperial house.
The Emperor’s health had begun to deteriorate after the birth of the Crown Prince.
The Emperor had been perfectly sound until even both princesses were born—could such a drastic decline truly be called coincidence?
Caiden recalled his uncle the Emperor, whom he had often met in childhood.
He was an unusual man.
He took no interest in imperial power struggles, nor did he suit them.
He was a man who, with only his modest palace and the woman he loved beyond measure, would want for nothing else.
So for Caiden, who had parents like his father—who chose his wife by his own ambition and treated her like a doll—and his mother, who waited for a husband who never came home each night and never spared a glance for her son—
his uncle appeared quite remarkable.
Moreover, his uncle had often summoned Caiden to the palace.
And what he would do was nothing much. He would merely ask everyday questions that even Caiden’s own parents never asked.
Caiden later came to realize that those moments had been a profound source of comfort to him.
Others dismissed such an uncle as weak and worthless, yet paradoxically, he was the first adult Caiden had ever truly acknowledged.
Then, he suddenly married the present Empress.
His betrothed—the woman he had been promised to—vanished without a trace overnight, and Caiden ceased to meet his uncle in private thereafter.
He had been too busy with his parents’ passing and inheriting his title.
And by the time he had settled himself and arrived in the Capital, much had changed.
His uncle, who never seemed destined to become Emperor, had ascended to the throne.
And it was after he had gained two daughters and a son with the Empress.
When they met again in the Imperial Palace, his uncle was visibly frail.

“Your Majesty.”
“…You’ve come, Caiden.”

The Emperor had summoned Caiden in secret.
He appeared so gravely ill that it seemed he might breathe his last at any moment.

“What is the Empress doing to Your Majesty?”
“No, I am well.”

Yet he merely shook his head.
Instead, he grasped Caiden’s hand and pleaded desperately.

“Caiden. I have no allies in this palace. It may become a heavy burden for you, but… could you find my child and protect them? Rather, please see to it that the Empress cannot touch them—that they live far away in a safe place.”
“I shall do so.”

Caiden accepted his plea without hesitation.
The Emperor thanked him with an expression of deep remorse.
Not long after, the Emperor could no longer rise from his sickbed.
Without reliable information about the child, Caiden carefully watched the movements of those who served the Empress.
Sensing something amiss, he set out to retrieve the child.
And there, he met this woman.
Emilia, who had been listening quietly to Caiden’s account, murmured with a touch of bitterness.
“Then it seems certain that Ibane should go to the Hipri Kingdom rather than remain in this empire.”
She smiled with deliberate effort, looking down at the child still sleeping soundly.
“I do hope Ibane grows up safely in a secure place.”
The mood grew heavy for a moment.
To lighten it, Emilia spoke with deliberate tartness.
“But setting that aside—what will you do, telling me all of this?”
“All of what?”
Caiden raised his eyebrows.
“About His Imperial Majesty, and about your intention to send Ibane to the Hipri Kingdom.”
Emilia enumerated each point he had mentioned.
“What if I had approached you with ill intent?”
But at her words, Caiden let out a short laugh.
An expression of amusement crossed his face.
“Why? Why are you laughing?”
Emilia flinched slightly, asking with a note of indignation.
“Because such an approach would be far too naive—”
Still with the corner of his mouth raised, he leaned back.
“Try actually approaching me properly before you say such things.”

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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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