I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 44

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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 made a shotgun marriage with the male lead.
Chapter 44

He congratulated himself inwardly on his sharp eye, beaming with satisfaction.
Morris, grinning widely, rubbed his hands together as he settled into his seat.
“Now that you’re here, I’d like to explain the business venture I had my aide convey to you previously. You’re going to be absolutely astounded when you hear it!”
Morris had to make this venture succeed at all costs.
Moreover, if he could seize the territories that his father had always coveted—those of that woman Kaliana—then he could finally outmaneuver his brothers.
For that, he absolutely needed the investment of the powerful Duke Valen.
The truth was, he’d already inflated his claims to other investors.
He’d told them the House of Valen was making a substantial investment this time.
But Morris didn’t think of himself as having lied, not really.
After all, once you make the lie a truth, it ceases to be one, doesn’t it?

* * *

Yet soon the smile faded from Morris’s face.
The duke showed little interest in his passionate explanation.
He sat with his arms crossed, his expression distinctly displeased.
Morris’s irritation turned toward the woman seated beside the duke.
‘If you’re going to be a mistress, at least act like one.’
Shouldn’t she be flirting or offering some response to buoy the mood?
Instead, she seemed to be studying the documents as intently as the duke himself—acting as though she were something more than her station.
The duke did nothing to stop her, simply allowing her to overstep.
‘What does he think he’s doing, letting her cross such lines?’
Irritated without cause, he turned to address the woman.
“Ah, forgive me—is something troubling you, perhaps?”
“Pardon?”
The woman opened her eyes wide, fixing them upon him.
“I only thought, since you were studying so intently, that you might have an opinion to share.”
A mistress like her couldn’t possibly offer a proper answer.
Surely she would blush with embarrassment when confronted so directly and insist she had nothing to say.
“I’m a man quite open to ideas, so I’d be grateful to hear whatever you might offer, ha ha.”
The implication was clear: don’t presume to interrupt, and focus instead on pleasing the duke—
“I don’t have an opinion, exactly… but there is something rather peculiar.”
The woman spoke in a clear, crisp voice.
“And that would be?”
His face tightened for a moment, but Morris forced out an amiable laugh before asking.
“The Kingdom of Aleheim restricts foreigners from constructing buildings in certain districts.”
“Yes, yes?”
Morris asked uncertainly, thrown off balance.
Seeing his confusion, Emilia clarified further.
“So the location listed in this business proposal is precisely in such a district, yet the property owner is registered as the merchant lord. It struck me as odd.”
What she was saying meant one of two things: either the merchant lord had illegally purchased the building using a native’s name as cover,
or the documents were fabricated.
Morris’s breath caught audibly.
“And the raw material prices seem significantly inflated as well. The region mentioned here is well past the rainy season. Production should have increased by now, causing prices to drop considerably—wouldn’t you agree?”
“That is to say…”
While he fumbled for words, the woman identified several more inconsistencies.
Morris’s face flushed crimson as he found himself unable to refute any of her points.
She was pinpointing precisely the gaps he’d engineered to pocket money for himself.
Finally, his temper flared, and he jerked to his feet.
“You, you gutless nobody, what do you think you’re—!”
Just then, the table in the center of the sofa abruptly slid forward.
Thwack!
Morris’s shin connected squarely with the table’s edge, and he yelped and bounced backward.
“Aaaaagh!”
Emilia jumped at the enormous sound, her eyes flying wide.
She glanced over in alarm.
“I can listen no longer.”
Kaiden, his brow furrowed, slowly folded the leg he’d extended lazily across the table.
“My foot slipped.”
With remarkable audacity, he offered this explanation to Emilia, then scrubbed his shoe against the floor to demonstrate his innocence.
“Ah, I see…”
“My apologies for startling you.”
At Kaiden’s words, Emilia turned her gaze back to Morris, who was still clutching at his shin.
‘…I don’t think I’m the one who deserves an apology.’
Bang!
Morris, hopping on one leg while gripping the other, lost his balance and crashed into the table a second time.
“Ughhhh!”
Emilia’s brows furrowed involuntarily at the sight.
‘That must hurt terribly.’
Yet regardless of whether the man before her was writhing in agony, Kaiden paid him no mind and turned back to Emilia with a suggestion.
“Shall we wait in the carriage?”
“Pardon?”
At her confused expression, his frown deepened.
“Surely you don’t intend to continue speaking with this—with this fellow?”
Emilia shook her head.
Of course she had no such intention.
There was no reason to conduct business with someone so patently dishonest.
Moreover, it seemed clear to her that if he continued operating his company in such a manner, collapse was inevitable.
“What of you, Duke?”
Emilia asked Kaiden, who’d suggested she wait in the carriage.
“I have a few more words to exchange.”
“Understood. Then I’ll wait in the carriage.”
Emilia nodded and rose from her seat.

* * *

‘What on earth…?’
George, the merchant lord’s employee stationed outside, listened intently at the door with mounting dread.
The thick door hadn’t prevented enormous sounds from leaking through.
What sounded like impacts and Morris’s groans of pain.
‘…Should I go in?’
But if this was serious business, he’d only complicate matters further.
Worse, if this somehow caused the investment to fall through, it would be catastrophic.
As George wrestled with which choice would be safer,
the door swung open.
“Oh?”
The woman who emerged—the duke’s companion—looked at him with a somewhat bewildered expression.
Color rushed back into George’s face.
‘Thank goodness.’
She hadn’t come running out in a panic, so contrary to his fears, nothing serious seemed to have happened.
Right. Morris was sharper than most about profit and loss.
He’d never risk offending the duke, who stood to become his largest investor.
And certainly that composed, upstanding duke wouldn’t resort to violence.
‘Ha, just needless worrying after all.’
Perhaps he’d simply knocked over some decoration.
George nodded to himself, satisfied.
And with a relieved expression, he addressed the woman.
“Allow me to show you out.”
So it was as Emilia accepted the staff member’s courteous escort and stepped outside the company headquarters
that an ominous voice reached her ears.
“Should I just set that fly-sized bastard on fire and watch him burn to death?”
Emilia blinked, having just witnessed an arson enthusiast in the making.

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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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