I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 60

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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 ended up eloping with the male lead.
Chapter 60

* * *

Flora took a deep breath the moment she stepped through her door.
“Phew, phew.”
Then she carefully withdrew the envelope she’d been clutching to her chest.
With trembling hands, she pulled out the papers inside, and her face broke into an enormous grin.
‘I’ve lost my mind.’
A check bearing the seal of the Top Three Imperial Banks.
The endless procession of zeros was nothing short of beautiful.
She’d been nothing but anxious during the entire journey home, terrified that this check—worth more than her own body—might slip from her grasp.
What if someone noticed she was carrying such an enormous sum?
She’d fretted the whole way: leaving the Duke’s Residence, riding in the carriage.
In the end, Flora had actually pounded the floor of the carriage in regret.
‘Why did I go to the Capital without any guards!’
Of course, she never could have anticipated such a turn of events.
Still, she and her precious check had made it safely home.
“Hehe.”
Just looking at the beautiful check made her smile without thinking.
That’s when she heard a knock on the door.
Flora quickly shoved the check into a drawer before anyone could see it.
“Come in.”
She regarded whoever stood beyond the threshold with guarded eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
Samuel asked, bewildered by his sister’s wary expression.
“Nothing. Why are you in here?”
“Ah, you had that book on Mana Fields, didn’t you? I was wondering if I could borrow it.”
“It’s on the third shelf, far left.”
“Right, thanks.”
As he pulled the book from the shelf and turned to leave, he felt a sharp gaze boring into his back.
Samuel turned around.
His sister sat in her chair, watching him with a rather petulant expression.
“Do you have something to say?”
“Ugh, never mind.”
“What is it?”
“Moving so slowly—what good does it do?”
“What?”
She was needling him simply because he’d been hunting for the book.
“It’s nothing. Just close the door quietly on your way out.”
Click.
Samuel obliged, closing the door and stepping into the hallway.
He walked down the corridor, tilting his head thoughtfully. Flora was being particularly sharp-tongued today.
‘Did something happen to her?’
Surely she hadn’t suddenly hit puberty.
Samuel had been living an extraordinarily busy life lately.
He was nearly finished developing the most efficient catalyst for extracting mana energy.
With the work so close to completion, he couldn’t afford to drop it.
So busy was he that he hadn’t even glanced at the newspaper lately, yet he harbored no resentment about his situation.
The reason was simple: each week brought him something far more welcome than any newspaper.
Samuel thought of Emilia’s letters, which always arrived with warm encouragement written in round, delicate script.
He absently adjusted his spectacles while contemplating the matter.
‘Next time we meet, should I ask her if we might have tea somewhere outside the Mansion?’
Of course, there was nothing improper in his intentions—he simply wanted to express his gratitude.
Presumably….
As Samuel walked down the corridor, he spotted his grandfather.
“Ah, Grandfather, it’s Flora—she seemed rather odd today…”
But he trailed off the moment he saw his grandfather’s expression.
“Tsk, tsk.”
The old man made a disapproving sound, his look remarkably similar to the same disdainful gaze Flora had cast at him just moments earlier.
“What’s wrong, Grandfather? Has something happened at home?”
“Home, nothing. The problem is with you, you blockhead.”
Ardel, head of House Ardel, shook his head at his remarkably obtuse grandson.
“But I’m done trying to fix this. Stirring it now will only make things worse. You just focus on your own work.”
With that, Ardel swept past Samuel into his study.
Left alone, Samuel scratched his head in confusion.

* * *

The Empress tapped the table irritably with her long, sharp nails.

Aaron, who had expected to receive a plaything into his hands, was deeply aggrieved.
She’d spared no effort in soothing him, and only after promising him a grand hunting competition had he finally deigned to smile again.
‘Where exactly did the information leak from?’
The Empress ground her teeth.
No matter how thoroughly she investigated, she couldn’t pinpoint where the breach had occurred.
Once she caught that vermin, she would make them wish they’d never been born.
Her eyes settled on the man kneeling before her.
“So, what more have you learned about that woman?”
“As of now, Your Majesty, nothing further. My apologies.”
The man bowed deeply, his shame evident.
The Empress ceased her tapping and narrowed her eyes.
She had ordered her servants to investigate the woman who had become the Duke’s wife.
Yet all they had discovered was that she had been a tutor for the Duke’s illegitimate child.
So the Empress had sent invitations through every noblewoman of influence and every debutante she knew.
But the Duke had kept the woman hidden, refusing to present her anywhere.
This, despite weeks having passed since word of the marriage had spread through society.
‘I need more information on that woman.’
Of course, her interest was not mere curiosity.
A few days after the humiliation she’d suffered at the Tournament Venue, her advisor had brought her intriguing news.
She couldn’t afford to let this slip through her fingers—and suddenly, her eyes widened.
‘Ah, yes.’
She issued her command to the man still kneeling before her.
“Summon Selena at once.”

* * *

She could see a gardener diligently trimming grass and planting flowers, and a maid scrubbing a statue covered in moss and overgrowth.

Then she heard Lucas’s voice beside her.
“I never imagined a simple message to the Duke would unfold like this.”
“Neither did I….”
Selena murmured softly.
After she’d sent that letter to the Duke of Valen that day.
She had braced herself for whatever punishment her mother might exact.
But even after dawn had broken and the tournament ended, nothing happened to her.
No heavy footsteps of knights, no enraged mother seeking her out.
‘What’s going on?’
Selena had been utterly bewildered.
Sensing something odd, Lucas had brought her word from outside.

“So the Duke announced his marriage at the tournament?”
“So it would seem.”

Both Selena and Lucas had grasped the implications immediately.

“That child, without doubt.”

Lucas shrugged as he confirmed Selena’s suspicion.
When she’d sent word, she’d imagined the Duke would simply move the child somewhere safe.

And the Duke’s extraordinary solution had produced an unexpected consequence.
It meant no suspicion fell on Selena.
Of course it didn’t.
For the highest-ranking nobleman in the empire to marry a commoner—that was mad enough that one wouldn’t usually leap to such a conclusion.
In this way, Selena had naturally escaped suspicion, her role in the affair unsuspected.
‘I didn’t fully remember things clearly because of the drink.’
In any case, Selena’s fortune had been extraordinary.
And proof that the Empress harbored no suspicion of her lay in the very scene unfolding before her eyes.
‘She’s ordered me to host a tea party in my quarters.’
The Empress had suddenly summoned her and commanded her to arrange a tea party.
Selena had never hosted a social gathering of any kind in her life.
The Empress was exploiting this fact.
Convention held that all unmarried noblewomen—barring those in mourning—must attend a princess’s first tea party without fail.
And Selena was the empire’s princess, no less.
Though her actual circumstances fell far short of what a typical noblewoman enjoyed.
Those invited had no choice but to accept.
Selena bit her lip as she thought of the tea party’s true purpose: the Duke of Valen’s wife.
‘Will it be alright?’
Surely the woman had stumbled into this affair entirely by chance.

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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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