I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 57

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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 gotten into a Fake Marriage with the male lead.
Chapter 57

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The duchess’s chambers prepared for her were made perfect in no time at all.
Emilia collapsed into a chair that gleamed even more resplendently than before.
‘Is this really right?’
But she barely had time to lament before Laura spoke up.
“Where should I put this bag?”
“I’m fine with everything. Could you just take care of it however you think best?”
“Of course!”
Unlike me, Laura was practically vibrating with excitement.
My maid had been automatically promoted to serving as the duchess’s attendant.
She was also one of the precious few who knew about the Fake Marriage.
Since she’d been closest among the servants to me and Ivan, I’d told her in advance to prepare for whatever situations might arise.
“Oh, and you know you shouldn’t be using formal speech with me anymore, right?”
“R-right. I’ll try my best……”
Emilia answered awkwardly.
Laura nodded in satisfaction, then pointed at the desk with curious eyes.
“Is that the ring the master gave you?”
Emilia followed her gaze down to the ring box sitting lonely on the desk.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
It was the Family Seal Ring that Kaiden had given her yesterday.
He’d told her to keep it, so she’d accepted it, though she doubted she’d have any occasion to wear it until the Fake Marriage ended.
She’d been engaged to Cedric for years, yet he’d never given her anything like a ring.
Emilia felt a tangle of complicated emotions.
Just then, Laura, who’d been humming cheerfully, suddenly wore a serious expression.
“Now that I think about it, I’ve been wondering about something for a while.”
“Hmm?”
“Could you come here for a moment?”
“What is it?”
Emilia followed Laura into the dressing room adjoining the chamber.
Laura swung open the wardrobe doors wide.
“Don’t you think you’re missing quite a lot of clothes? Like, a *lot*?”
Emilia blinked at Laura’s distinctly dissatisfied tone.
She turned her gaze to the wardrobe now spread open before her.
‘She’s right……’
In the large wardrobe hung barely a handful of garments that could hardly even be called dresses.
“I’m sorry to say this, but I think I have more clothes than you do.”
“……Really?”
“Really! This simply won’t do!”
Laura shook her head vigorously, then her eyes suddenly gleamed.
“Once the duchess’s budget is allocated, could we go to the Halloway Dress Shop and do one of those ‘from here to there’ shopping sprees?”
At that, Emilia laughed.
“Laura, haven’t you been reading too many romance novels?”
“But—!”
Laura spoke as though frustrated by that response.
“Since you’re a duchess now, why not enjoy it?”
“Hmm.”
Emilia paused at her words, considering.
Laura was right—she truly didn’t have enough clothes to wear.
When she was merely Ivan’s tutor, it hadn’t mattered, but now she had to think of Kaiden’s reputation as well.
‘Besides, I was planning to buy more clothes anyway.’
Emilia was just about to tell Laura that they’d visit the dress shop together next time when—
“My, it seems the master has arrived.”
At the commotion from outside, the two women glanced toward the window.
What they saw left them staring blankly.
Behind Kaiden’s carriage, an unfamiliar procession of carriages stretched in a line, from which servants were rapidly unloading something.
“Dresses……?”
Dresses in every conceivable color and design streamed out endlessly.
Like people struggling their way out of a packed subway car.
“Oh my goodness! Those must all be dresses for you, Emilia!”
Laura, bright with excitement, laughed and even clapped her hands.
She wore an enraptured expression as though she herself had received the gift.
“And they’re from the Halloway Dress Shop! That place is incredibly popular among young ladies these days!”
As Laura elaborated, Emilia remembered a fact she’d been trying to forget.
‘Kaiden… he really is the male lead.’
She hadn’t wanted to feel it in a way like this.
Watching this man who’d single-handedly realized Laura’s dreams at the dress shop, Emilia felt a faint throb begin at her temples.
But she couldn’t very well complain about her husband on the first day, so Emilia decided to turn a blind eye to this reality for now.
She offered Laura a hazy smile from where she stood by the window.
“Laura, could you draw the curtains?”

* * *

In a small, dark room.
Reina stirred slightly awake at the noise from outside.
Her body ached and felt heavy, so she shifted awkwardly, trying to find a more comfortable position.
But soon a thought stopped her restless movements.
‘Will moving around like this harm the baby?’
Just as she was about to lie on her side and try to sleep again—
Thud! Clang!
‘What was that noise?’
Reina opened her eyes and pushed herself up with her hands, lifting her heavy body from the bed.
Truth be told, since becoming pregnant, Reina had rarely slept deeply. The constant ache in her belly made it difficult to get proper rest.
But she’d been told this was natural when carrying a child.

“That level of pain is something any expectant mother feels. If you whine so much, the baby won’t be healthy either.”

Whenever she worried about calling for a physician, Romances always scolded her this way.
And Reina could only nod along with the lady’s words.
After all, as the illegitimate daughter of a count, she’d never received proper education—her knowledge was limited.
Why waste time with tutors on a child meant only as a bargaining chip?
Instead, she’d been dragged out to social gatherings at her father’s insistence.
But each time she returned, it was with nothing but humiliating experiences.
Her father would put her on display, eyeing which nobleman would pay the highest price.
Noble youths would swarm to her like bees drawn to her beauty, only to change their tune the moment they learned she was a bastard with no standing.
The ones who remained at her side were either men seeking her as a plaything for a single night, or those whose offered sum her father deemed insufficient.
Slowly, she withered away, nothing more than a pretty flower in high society.
Then one day, quite by chance, she met Cedric in the Capital.

“Cedric?”
“Huh? Is that really you, Reina?”
She’d been popular even as a pretty girl in that rural village.
And Cedric had been among the children who’d admired her then.
He’d invited her to his home, treated her to fine food, and given her expensive gifts.
Young Cedric had treated her with remarkable deference.
“So you really did become a count’s daughter, then. I’d heard the rumor.”
When they met again, he looked at her with wonder in his eyes.
Reina glanced down at her own appearance.
The count spared no expense in maintaining her beauty.
So she looked every inch the beloved daughter of a count.
Reina didn’t want him to see through to her miserable, wretched reality.
So she lied, acting as though she truly were a cherished count’s daughter.
‘Cedric is different.’
He wasn’t like the other young nobles in the Capital.
He still looked at her with unclouded, innocent eyes.
And so, starved for affection, desperate for love, this girl with nowhere else to turn—
spent a single night with Cedric.

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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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