I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 51

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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 fake marriage with the male lead.
51

* * *

A few moments later.
As I continued stroking his head, Ivan drifted off to sleep in fits and starts.
Emilia rose slowly so as not to wake the child.
She tiptoed toward the door and opened it, when—
“……Duke?”
She nearly cried out in surprise at the sight of a tall, lanky man leaning against the corridor wall.
Emilia clutched at her chest, her heart already frayed from the day’s trials.
“Why are you here?”
She closed the door carefully to avoid making noise as she asked.
“There’s more we need to discuss. Shall we go to the study?”
“Yes, of course.”
She nodded quickly.

* * *

Kaiden opened the door, and Emilia stepped into the study first.
But it was the dead of night, so only a faint light illuminated the room.
‘Ah.’
Come to think of it, she’d always visited this place during daylight hours when bright sunlight streamed through the windows.
‘I never realized it was this dark.’
Emilia swallowed nervously and sat down on the sofa first.
Click.
The sound of the door closing behind her seemed unusually loud, and her body tensed.
Tap-tap.
Kaiden was merely walking toward the sofa, yet time seemed to stretch interminably.
It had been the same feeling when they’d ridden back earlier.
An inexplicable tension had kept her spine rigid.
Even though Kaiden had guided the horse far more smoothly than Lucas ever did, riding with him had somehow felt far more nerve-wracking.
Then Kaiden sat down on the opposite sofa.
Emilia couldn’t quite meet his gaze directly, her eyes lowered as she spoke.
“So… what did you want to discuss?”
“I’ll announce my marriage at tomorrow’s Grand Council.”
“Yes, of course.”
Wasn’t that precisely why this absurd marriage had taken place?
It would be far safer to make a public declaration before the Empress could attempt any further schemes.
“Are you certain you’re comfortable with that?”
“Comfortable? What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ll undoubtedly become the focus of attention as well.”
“Ah.”
‘That’s true, isn’t it?’
She’d been so focused on preventing Ivan from falling into the Empress’s hands that she hadn’t considered that far ahead.
Once Kaiden’s marriage became public knowledge, the eyes turned toward her would be far from kind.
‘And “attention” is a rather generous way to put it.’
After all, an unknown woman had seized the position of Duchess.
Those who’d been watching Kaiden with predatory interest would surely be outraged.
The thought already gave her a headache, but—
She’d made her choice to marry Kaiden, and this was the price of that choice.
“Well, it’s only fair. I’ve managed to win over such an exceptional man, so I suppose I have to face the consequences?”
Emilia shrugged with a hint of playfulness.
“Consequences, you say…”
At those words, he let out a soft laugh and said something rather loaded.
“Then shall we see what compensation those consequences demand?”
“Co-compensation?”
Emilia blinked, confused.
‘Wait—I have to pay a price for this?’
Just then, Kaiden handed her a rather thick stack of papers.
“What is this?”
“Look through it and you’ll see.”
Kaiden tilted his head slightly, urging her to examine it.
Emilia swallowed and turned to the first page of the suspicious stack he’d offered.
Her eyes widened at once.
“What on earth is…?”
The first thing visible was a neatly organized table of contents.
But the items listed within were anything but ordinary.
Emilia felt something amiss and flipped through the pages again.
This time, she found astronomical sums written out—amounts that could have purchased any mansion in the Capital several times over.
And on the next page were detailed records of the types and quantities of minerals from the mine mentioned in the table of contents, along with the annual average income from the Domain.
Any single one of these would have been enough wealth for three generations to spend lavishly and still have more.
But the problem was…
“Why does it say I’m the owner of all of this?”
Emilia asked blankly as she checked the final page.
Or more precisely, the contents stated that Kaiden would transfer all of it to her.
“Because it’s yours.”
He answered as casually as if he were returning something she’d lost.
But Emilia remained utterly bewildered.
Kaiden observed her confusion and continued slowly.
“Since you’ll be bound to me during this fake marriage.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“What’s wrong? Isn’t that the case?”
Kaiden raised an eyebrow, as if seeking confirmation.
“You’re not planning to see another man, are you?”
“Oh, no. Of course not.”
She’d hesitated only because his phrasing had caught her off guard; that wasn’t what he meant at all, so Emilia quickly shook her head.
Then his voice came again.
“In any case, I thought some compensation was in order for that arrangement.”
So that was what he’d meant by the price—compensation.
At least he wasn’t putting her in his debt, which was a mercy, but…
The absurdity still lingered.
‘But even if I weren’t bound to you, I could never earn this much money?’
She barely managed to swallow back the reflexive objection that almost escaped her lips.
“Just sign there, and I’ll handle the rest. Though the Domain will take a bit more time.”
He even added that he thought her Domain would be convenient to manage and well-suited to her.
Emilia found herself at a loss for words.
‘Of course it will take time!’
Transferring a Domain to a stranger wasn’t something done lightly.
‘Anyone who saw this would think I had some leverage over him…’
Though, she supposed, if she refused to divorce him, that could be considered leverage from Kaiden’s perspective.
But even if this were a real marriage that ended in divorce, she could never demand a settlement of this magnitude.
‘Duchess…’
The title struck her suddenly as utterly unbecoming.
“But don’t you think people will find it strange?”
“Find what strange?”
“Our marriage. I’m sure they’ll be skeptical about it.”
“Skeptical?”
“Well, because I’m so… ordinary.”
Emilia cast her gaze downward.
To those who didn’t know the truth, this marriage would naturally seem suspicious.
She was hardly the kind of stunning beauty men fell for at first sight.
Emilia fidgeted with her fingers.

“You don’t feel like a woman to me! Why can’t you be charming like Reina? Why can’t you be gentle and demure?”

Cedric’s voice, spat with pure venom, still echoed clearly in her mind.
She knew those words had been meant to wound.
But knowing that didn’t make them hurt any less.
After all, they carried the weight of his true feelings.
“Ordinary, you say.”
But then Kaiden laughed as if the very notion were preposterous.
“And what does it matter what they think? I’m the one who married you.”
Emilia lifted her gaze to look at him.
Kaiden had tilted his head slightly to one side.
His answer was tinged with something like arrogance, but there was no fault in his logic.
‘…Well, I suppose they could just chalk it up to unusual taste.’
‘You’re like no woman I’ve ever known’—wasn’t that a classically romantic first step in falling in love?
In fact, the very ordinariness that didn’t quite fit would make the marriage easier to nullify later.
Passionate love, after all, tended to cool quickly.
“But this is still too much.”
Emilia set the documents down on the table.
At that, Kaiden’s brow furrowed slightly as he spoke.
“Just accept it. This is already holding back.”
“…What?”

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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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