I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 63

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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’ve rushed into marriage with the male lead.
63

“……The Duchess of House Valen?”
He accepted the invitation mechanically, muttering as though he’d misheardsomething, bewilderment crossing his face.
Emilia gently bit the inside of her lip.
‘And here I thought he was usually so perceptive!’
Emilia released her grip on the invitation and tapped the back of his hand lightly with her forefinger.
It was a small signal invisible to the guards standing behind her on the Queen’s side.
At that, Lucas started and met her gaze.
Emilia made a shushing motion with her lips and jerked her chin toward the back.
Lucas, whose eyes had been clouded with confusion, finally opened his mouth.
“……Yes. Confirmed.”
Emilia took back the invitation he held out and spoke.
“Thank you for confirming.”
The invitation slipped smoothly from Lucas’s hand.
As Emilia passed by him, she whispered in the softest voice.
“Let’s talk later, all right?”
A man with keen ears—he would certainly have heard her words.

* * *

‘So Lucas really was a knight.’
During the short journey to the tea party, Emilia sorted through her thoughts.
She felt oddly embarrassed about having treated such a man as an unemployed layabout.
‘And why on earth did he pretend to be from the Capital Guard?’
But her thoughts couldn’t continue much further. The tea party venue appeared almost at once.
She could see a large table placed at one corner of the garden.
And gathered around it, far more elaborately dressed than she was, sat a circle of noble ladies.
Most seemed to know one another already, chatting away in warm, comfortable tones.
Emilia’s gaze was drawn to a single girl sitting alone in tension.
Unlike the others, she wasn’t participating in the conversation, but sat with rigid posture.
‘So that must be her.’
The silver-haired princess, Selena.
‘But…….’
Emilia narrowed her brows.
Though she’d never attended such a tea party before, something felt decidedly out of place.
That was the moment.
“Oh my, look there.”
One of the ladies spotted Emilia and let out a surprised voice.
Immediately, all eyes fixed upon her.
Just as Selena noticed Emilia and began to rise from her seat—
“Might you be the Duchess of House Valen?”
A woman elbowed Selena aside, stood up first, and approached Emilia.
At this, Emilia’s eyes narrowed slightly.
The woman who had come forward was the most lavishly adorned among all the attendees.
“Yes, I am the Duchess of House Valen.”
At that answer, the woman looked Emilia up and down.
She was Estelle, the most influential young lady currently in social circles—the Daughter of House Grillmore.
And no wonder, given that she was the Queen’s favored cousin; the most noble woman in the empire doted on her.
In fact, the Queen spent more time with Estelle than with her own daughter, the princess.
As proof of this, Estelle had been given advance notice by the Queen before coming here.
She’d been asked to attend the princess’s tea party and gather information on the new duchess.
This also meant the Queen trusted Estelle more than the princess, whom she mistrusted.
‘Well, naturally.’
Princess Selena was cooped up in the palace and had never even familiarized herself with other nobility.
Of course, even without the Queen’s request, Estelle would have attended this gathering.
She was dying of curiosity about the woman who had become Duchess of House Valen.
She too had been one of the young ladies who witnessed the Duke of House Valen purchasing numerous dresses at the Halloway Dress Shop.
‘That dress must be from the Halloway Dress Shop as well, surely.’
No matter how common her origins, a duchess favored by her husband inevitably wielded considerable influence in society.
That was why Estelle needed to verify something.
Whether this woman posed a threat to the social position Estelle had carefully built for herself.
‘But it seems my worry was needless.’
Estelle watched the woman, who appeared rather simple-minded, and smirked inwardly.
She had no idea how the Duke had taken a fancy to her, but it was clear this woman couldn’t read even the most basic undercurrents of society.
Had she been more astute, she wouldn’t have shown her face for the first time at such an unremarkable princess’s tea party.
Seeing the woman who looked merely innocent and kind, Estelle revised her plan.
‘If I’d stuck to the original scheme, I would have excluded her from the conversation, subtly disparaged her, and probed gently—’
But this naive sort would spill secrets readily with just a little kindness shown to her.
Having made her decision, Estelle deliberately raised her voice and made a great show of warmth.
“Oh my, how delightful! Everyone’s been waiting for you to arrive. Come, do sit down quickly. We have so much we’re dying to hear!”
She moved to lead the woman to the table, but the woman pulled her arm free.
Then, with a curious note in her voice, she asked.
“Might you be Her Highness Princess Selena?”
“Pardon?”
At this unexpected question, Estelle blinked, then burst into laughter.
“Aha ha!”
She had grasped the reason for the woman’s question.
Apparently, seeing her refined appearance, the woman had mistaken her for someone else.
From the perspective of a naive woman only just stepping into society, it was understandable.
Estelle’s lips curved upward in amusement, but the woman appeared flustered.
“Oh, if I’ve misunderstood, I’m truly sorry.”
She continued with an awkward expression.
“This is my first time attending a tea party like this.”
“Not at all. It’s perfectly natural for a first meeting.”
Estelle offered what she meant to be a benevolent smile.
“Thank you for your understanding. I’m afraid I’ve only learned etiquette from books and remain quite ignorant. I understood that it falls to the host to receive and guide the arriving guests.”
The woman spoke calmly and clearly, her eyes meeting Estelle’s directly.
“And since you didn’t identify yourself before questioning me, I mistook you for Her Highness.”
At this, Estelle’s expression hardened.
The atmosphere around them had grown tense as well.
What she had just pointed out consisted of two things.
First, why was Estelle performing the duty of the host—the princess who had organized this tea party?
And second, she had called out Estelle’s rudeness in questioning someone of higher rank when Estelle herself held a lower station.
Having been corrected on basic etiquette, Estelle’s face flushed crimson in an instant.
Emilia walked past Estelle and stopped before the silver-haired girl.
Then, seeing Selena’s bewildered face, she bowed formally and paid her respects.
“Your Highness. I am Emilia Valen. It is an honor to make your acquaintance.”
Receiving such a formal greeting for the first time, Selena was momentarily at a loss for words.
But soon she gracefully returned the courtesy.
“A…… I, I’m pleased to meet you, Duchess Valen.”
Estelle, who had spun around sharply, now stared at the scene with an incredulous expression.
‘Impossible.’
The woman calling herself the Duchess of House Valen had walked toward the princess without a moment’s hesitation.
Which meant she had identified who the princess was all along.
‘She’s not ordinary.’
It seemed Estelle had indeed assessed her far too carelessly.

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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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