I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 2

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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1. Contract Daughter-in-Law

“Give me the money right now! Hand over the money!”

At seventeen, Judith’s situation was not good. She was literally an orphan with nothing but debt left behind.

“If you don’t pay at least the interest by this Thursday, you won’t get away with it!”

It felt like she had heard similar threats about twenty times now.

Judith Ailan sighed and closed her eyes in her disheveled state. Since her father Paul Ailan had taken his own life, she, his only daughter, was now Baron Ailan.

Baron in name only, though, as all she had was a pile of debt.

Even worse, her mother had taken everything of value and run away.

Together with a servant she had been unusually close to, stealing even Judith’s jewelry.

All that was left behind was Judith.

“What am I really going to do.”

Judith, wearing a single worn dress, let out a deep sigh. The fact that her father, who was obsessed with gambling and never came home, had died, or that her mother, who was always busy clinging to servants without any interest in Judith, had run away—these felt strangely detached, like someone else’s business.

Rather, it felt like something she had vaguely imagined for a very long time had finally become reality.

However, what she couldn’t deal with calmly was the debt that had now become her burden.

“What should I do…”

She no longer had any friends either. After her father passed away, she had already gone around to various friends trying to borrow money, and in the process, she had lost all her friends as well.

But Judith’s debt was so enormous that she didn’t even feel like resenting them.

If she couldn’t pay the interest like this, she would be dragged away by loan sharks, and usually in such situations, noble young ladies would either take their own lives to preserve their honor or be sold off to wealthy old men who could pay their debts.

Honestly speaking, it was an utterly desperate situation without question.

However, there was one thing. Judith had something special about her. When her father passed away, she had recalled her previous life.

On her way being kicked out without even properly seeing the face of a friend she thought she was quite close to, she suddenly realized that she had been reincarnated into a book she had read in her previous life.

‘Hmm, even if I try to use the original story, this happens to be well before the starting point.’

How did she know the starting point of the original story? It was because the cheap boarding house where Judith was staying after selling the Baron’s Manor at auction was perfectly intact.

The entire street where that boarding house was located burning down and becoming ruins was the prologue of the original story.

The title of this novel that Judith from her previous life had been reading until just before her death was 【Flowers Bloom in the Ruins】.

In other words, it was a story about a spirited female flower shop owner who lost her livelihood when the street burned down, but lived on without yielding to hardship and found love.

Even though she didn’t seem to have read it particularly carefully, she remembered every detail vividly.

So as soon as Judith recalled her previous life, she immediately went to see the flower shop of the female protagonist, who was a local resident. The female protagonist of the original story was… twelve years old.

It meant there were 3 years until the fire, and 8 years until she would start getting seriously involved with men after working hard in poverty.

‘Something… isn’t there something I could use?’

Fortunately, Judith could remember the contents of the original story without missing a single detail. But no matter how much she searched through the narratives of the female and male protagonists, no particularly good ideas came up.

‘Then is there anything on the villain side…? Well, the villain side would still be children too. Hmm, wait!’

The villain who harbored twisted emotions and obsessed over the heroine while tormenting her, Karl Meius.

‘The Meius Ducal House!’

Karl Meius had a backstory that would make him a villain. A temporary contract daughter-in-law that the family had brought in as a fake had secretly abused him when he was still young.

Already emotionally unstable because his much older brother who had cherished him had gone missing, he couldn’t even tell his parents and was helplessly tormented.

This caused his personality to develop very badly, and he eventually grew up to become a villain…

‘That contract daughter-in-law, couldn’t I do that? From the Meius Ducal House’s perspective, anyone could have done it anyway.’

In fact, they claimed that one of the maids was pregnant with the missing eldest son’s child and had her stand in as a substitute for the marriage registration.

This was because they intended to delay the death report of their missing son even a little. If that son who had run away heard the news and returned even out of bewilderment, that would be even more fortunate.

Of course, they could have forced it with the ducal house’s power, but the risk was too great.

‘Most importantly, in the original story, the imperial family dislikes the Meius family. If they forcibly canceled it, they’d be giving them an excuse.’

So even if it was just a deception, any woman had to register for marriage with that eldest son, and since that would leave a record of marriage, the ducal house would provide sufficient compensation.

‘In the end, the eldest son doesn’t return. Later they just say it was a miscarriage and give her a generous sum before sending her away…’

Judith rolled her eyes as she fell into thought.

‘What if I took that position? I wouldn’t abuse the young villain and would just take the money and leave. Wouldn’t that be good for everyone?’

No matter how much of a villain he was, a child being abused was something that should never happen. If he didn’t become a villain because he wasn’t abused, that would also be a good thing.

Judith steeled her resolve while thinking of the local resident she had secretly observed, the little female protagonist.

In 3 years, if she approached the ducal house at just the right time, obtaining that contract daughter-in-law position wouldn’t seem too difficult.

Then the ducal house would provide generously as in the original story, and this enormous debt would be solved at once.

‘Of course, unlike that maid in the original story, I won’t be the one receiving the proposal first, so I’ll have to use my head well, but anyway…’

The problem was the 3 years until then. She had to endure for 3 years.

‘I have to survive by paying at least the interest during that time, but then what should I do?’

Even if she could somehow make a living by doing odd jobs, that clearly wouldn’t be enough to pay the interest.

Judith held her head in her hands as she fell into thought.

She diligently went through the original story that she could recall without missing a single detail. Information was the only thing she had more of than others. Though it was very limited information…

‘…Ah! Information! I know information.’

Her eyes sparkled at this brilliant idea that came to her once more.

‘There’s also an information guild in this alley.’

When this street burned down, there was a passage about how the information guild headquarters that had been flourishing in the capital also burned and everyone died instantly. That’s why the male protagonist regretted it later…

‘Couldn’t I sell the information I know there?’

Of course, since there wasn’t much described in flashback form, it wouldn’t make big money now before the original story began, but there should be something I could sell.

‘The name was 【Grey Information Trading House】, right?’

Judith jumped up and headed out to the street.

‘I absolutely have to meet the Master. If it’s not information that the Master recognizes, it won’t really make money.’

The information guild wasn’t in a secretive location. It was like a neighborhood shop you could find just by looking at the sign. However, meeting the Master was difficult.

The Grey Information Trading House was a rising new guild that had been rapidly growing recently.

Many people sought the Master, but the Master didn’t easily show himself. From what Judith heard, even according to neighborhood rumors, no one had ever seen the Master’s face.

“I’ve come to sell information.”

So when she went to the 【Grey Information Trading House】, Judith was determined to deal only with the Master.

“Please tell me.”

The guide at the entrance smiled and said.

“I’ll relay it to the Master.”

“I’d like to speak directly.”

“That’s impossible according to our rules. If you tell me the information, I’ll relay it and then give you the money.”

“Ah.”

This was the situation she had expected. Judith had already thought of a way to ignore such rules.

Judith smiled and naturally lifted her chin as she spoke.

“Don’t tell me the Master won’t deal with me because I’m still young?”

She knew it wasn’t because she was seventeen that they weren’t treating her as a customer. But she mentioned age first in order to say what she really needed to say next.

“I understand the Master is also a minor.”

Indeed, as soon as Judith finished speaking, the guide at the entrance looked slightly flustered. His face showed he was troubled about what to do.

When Judith endured the brief silence with a confident expression, the door behind the guide quietly opened.

At the same time, a young man wearing a mysterious mask appeared.

“Well.”

Though his expression couldn’t be seen because of the mask, the interest in his voice was clear.

“An interesting customer has arrived.”

This was the first meeting with the mysterious man, the Master, who would continue to deal with Judith for the next 3 years.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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