I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 45

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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 shotgun marriage with the male lead.
Chapter 45

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Kaliana, freshly expelled from the trading company, leaned her back against the wall and irritably ran a hand through her disheveled hair.
“Damn it. Where am I supposed to get money this instant?”
Her family owned a small estate located in the Western Empire.
In truth, it was barely more than a handful of villages clustered together—hardly grand enough to be called a proper holding.
Moreover, the soil was poor, making it difficult to meet their basic food needs through local production alone.
But thanks to the river flowing nearby, the few residents who lived there managed without serious hardship.
The trouble began when the neighboring estate started making life difficult.
‘Those garbage-tier Pariznan people.’
At first, relations with the neighboring Pariznan family weren’t particularly hostile.
Then one day, a count who looked exactly like that Morris bastard began damming up the river.
Demanding a “Water Tax” if anyone wanted to use it.
It was patently absurd extortion, but with the river blocked, the estate residents suffered not just in their farming but in their daily lives too.
Unable to endure any longer, Kaliana eventually established a modest trading company to raise the funds needed to pay the Water Tax.
She’d barely managed to catch her breath when—
Now the Pariznan Trading Company had joined forces with neighboring merchants and was moving to utterly crush her business.
“Maybe I should just torch that fly-bitten bastard’s whole operation and watch it burn.”
She was muttering this, glaring at the garish building of the Pariznan Trading Company, when a woman approached her cautiously.
“Um… no matter how angry you are, you can’t commit arson.”
“Huh?”
Kaliana turned to look at the woman.
“If you set a fire, other people get hurt too.”
Despite her mild, gentle face, her voice carried surprising firmness.
As Kaliana stared down at her, the woman continued quietly.
“And even if you did, you’d just become a criminal yourself.”
She didn’t know this person—apparently just someone passing by who’d overheard her muttering.
But Kaliana had her own legitimate grievance.
“Ha! What good does it do me to care about that? He’s harming innocent people too, so what’s the difference?”
At that, Emilia’s eyes shifted to the building the woman had been glaring at.
The place she wanted to burn was precisely the one Emilia had just left.
Hearing her mention the Pariznan name made suspicion bloom in Emilia’s mind.
“Is it the head of the Pariznan Trading Company who’s causing you trouble?”
At Emilia’s question, Kaliana’s eyes widened.
“What—did he get you too?”
“No, that’s not… I mean—”
But Kaliana nodded knowingly, as if to say she understood perfectly.
“Right, he’s only hurt one or two people, hasn’t he? Last time, he—”
Frustrated and desperate, she launched into her complaints.
Emilia decided to listen rather than risk becoming a witness to arson, letting the woman vent.
But as she continued listening, she found herself understanding the woman’s position.
And surprisingly, her story turned out to involve House Valen.
‘So there was a reason House Valen was forced to deal with the Pariznan Trading Company.’
Specifically, the Heatran textile that House Valen needed had been monopolized by a select few trading companies, including Pariznan.
But the monopoly itself wasn’t the core problem.
The issue was that to maintain their monopoly, they resorted to underhanded tactics against other merchants without hesitation.
“So the Pariznan Trading Company is colluding with other merchants.”
But Kaliana didn’t understand Emilia’s phrasing.
“Col… what?”
“Oh.”
On second thought, this society didn’t even have a concept for such collusion, nor was it technically illegal here.
In fact, guilds controlling production quantities among themselves had been perfectly natural in earlier times.
But what the Pariznan Trading Company was doing sounded less like market regulation and more like pure sabotage.
It seemed smaller operations like Kaliana’s were the ones truly suffering.
“I actually know quite a bit about that man’s shady dealings. That’s why I tried to grab some evidence from the office earlier—”
This was also why she’d made the sudden visit to find Morris.
But who knew he’d hire such a horde of brutish guards.
Morris himself must know he’s involved in dirty business, or he wouldn’t take such precautions.
Kaliana clicked her tongue in disappointment.

Morris, who had been groaning in agony for some time, finally cried out.
His face had flushed crimson with pain and humiliation.
The fact that tears were still streaming down his cheeks meant his bones were definitely broken.
“Even if you’re a duke, you can’t just treat people like this!”
In his agony, Morris lost his composure and began protesting.
But Kaiden merely sneered, looking distinctly displeased.
“No pedigree? That’s a new one.”
At his cold gaze, Morris recalled what he’d said moments before.

He hastily tried to clarify, his words tumbling out desperately.
“It wasn’t?”
But Kaiden only lifted his eyebrows more coldly.
Morris flinched, drawing a sharp breath in panic.
He’d been privately dismissing the man as a naive, foolish nobleman with no sense, but that assessment was hardly about House Valen itself.
Who would dare speak ill of House Valen, a lineage as old and distinguished as the imperial family itself?
His remark had been directed at that woman standing beside the duke—the one who’d spoken out of turn.
But Morris couldn’t open his mouth to defend himself.
The moment he admitted that his words had indeed been aimed at her, he sensed something very, very bad would happen.
‘The mood is somehow… different.’
It was completely changed from when the woman had been present.
The social instinct he’d cultivated as the third son of a noble house was finally warning him properly.
Morris carefully continued, choosing his words with care.
“I-I’m terribly sorry. I spoke carelessly.”
“Ah, carelessly. Well, if that’s how you put it, I suppose I should be understanding.”
At that, the duke’s expression softened slightly, and one corner of his mouth lifted.
“Then I’d like you to continue calmly explaining things.”
“Y-yes, of course! A-absolutely!”
Morris pressed a hand to his chest in relief at the duke’s words.
And just as he reached down to grab his aching shin and tried to sit back on the sofa—
Smack!
“Aaaaiiieee!”
Kaiden kicked the table once more.
Then, leaning back against the sofa, he continued at his leisure.
“You see, I just realized I’m actually quite lacking in pedigree myself.”

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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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