I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 53

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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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The Emperor knew nothing about Judith. He had heard she was the daughter of some noble family, but he knew nothing about her background either. He couldn’t possibly know about every fallen lower noble.

He had only heard rumors that she was quite a beauty, and later heard that Isabella had protected and favored her.

For Isabella, who had quite a proud personality, to take her under her wing was certainly intriguing enough.

“Ah.”

When Judith’s name came up, Anais’s eyes changed.

“Your Majesty, you mean Judith Ailan… no, Judith Meius?”

Actually, Anais was around Judith’s age. When they were growing up as daughters of similar noble families, they were often compared. The tutors and people around them had praised Judith quite a lot.

Many boys had fallen for her pretty face, proper demeanor, and intelligent eyes.

But ridiculously, Judith had shown little interest in any of it. She was like floating debris that didn’t mix well with the world.

She was clearly bright, cheerful, and intelligent, yet strangely felt out of place. While that peculiarity drew the boys’ attention, she herself paid no attention to others at all.

So when Judith’s family fell into ruin at seventeen, Anais secretly felt pleased.

“Um, Anais. Sorry, but could you lend me some money? I’ll pay you back somehow.”

When Judith was going around borrowing money, overwhelmed by the huge debt her father had left behind, Anais dropped two silver coins at her feet without even responding.

She wanted to see her face turn red and blue with anger. Or ask with a thoroughly humiliated expression if she couldn’t lend more.

But Judith casually picked up the money Anais had thrown and said this:

“You threw this at my feet, right? Since you threw it away and I picked it up, I won’t pay it back.”

She even added gently:

“Feel free to throw away more. If I’m careful with it, I won’t have to worry about meals for about three days.”

As if it didn’t bother her at all. As if something like that couldn’t hurt her.

That pleasant arrogance was disgusting to watch, but she thought it was fine since Judith was ruined. But today, she had appeared splendidly dressed as the Meius Marquis’s wife, as if to show off.

While she herself had entered as the remarriage partner of an old baron and was living as the aged Emperor’s mistress!

Ekian Meius had been the perfect marriage candidate that any girl their age would have been interested in. Even when they gathered in groups to steal glances at Ekian, Judith had acted as if she had no interest.

But she had actually gotten pregnant with the missing Ekian’s child and turned her life around?

It made her stomach churn for no reason.

“I know Judith well. We were acquainted when we were young.”

Anais smiled slyly.

“Shall I create some scandal?”

Anais, the Emperor’s open mistress, had quite a reputation in high society.

“This would be a good opportunity to make the Meius Marquis Family’s reputation plummet too. While Your Majesty investigates Judith, I’ll do my part.”

Anais raised her eyebrows.

“If Meius takes Judith’s side again like before and jumps into the mud with her, wouldn’t that be quite an entertaining spectacle for the nobles?”

Ben and Isabella were in a panic.

They had been hoping for Ekian’s return all along, but they hadn’t expected him to appear so suddenly.

It had been five years.

Ekian, who had been seventeen, was now twenty-two. Like a young man of that age, he had grown tall and handsome.

Ben swallowed a sigh as he looked at Ekian’s blonde hair.

All this time, Bart had been mixing hair dye into the tea he made for Ekian to change his hair color.

If he had stopped drinking that tea, his black hair would have surely grown out.

They could have dyed his hair directly with hair dye, but they had deliberately mixed the dye into his tea because they didn’t want to tell Ekian the secret of his birth.

‘I was planning to tell him when he became an adult.’

It wasn’t that they intended to hide the secret forever. They just didn’t want to tell him during his childhood.

He truly thought of Ekian as his own son.

When they met baby Ekian on that dreamlike island during their vacation, both Isabella and he had resolved to raise this child like their own son.

Even when Karl was born a few years later, it was the same. To them, Karl was always the second son, not the eldest.

Ekian had been an excellent son. He had never failed to meet their expectations and had always been a reliable eldest son who made them proud.

But even if that hadn’t been the case, they would have truly embraced Ekian.

Because that’s what it means to be parent and child.

Because parents have no choice but to love any child.

‘But the fact that his hair is blonde now… did he dye it himself?’

Ben’s eyes deepened. He had no idea how to bring up the subject. Isabella seemed to feel the same way.

Ekian, who had been smiling with a relaxed face in front of the couple, spoke first.

“You must have worried a great deal all this time. I’m truly sorry for being such a disappointing son.”

“How can you say such a thing!”

Tears welled up in Isabella’s eyes again.

“No, no. It’s enough that you’ve returned safely. We… goodness, how much we worried about you…”

“I had hoped you would designate Karl as the heir. Actually, I still feel the same way now.”

Ekian looked at Isabella and Ben with warm eyes as he spoke.

“You know the reason… don’t you?”

Isabella and Ben trembled their lips and remained silent.

When Ekian ran away, they had roughly guessed that he had finally learned the secret of his birth. Seventeen years old, adolescence – wasn’t that the perfect age for a teenager to run away when he realized such a fact?

They couldn’t know exactly how he had learned the truth, but secrets tend to leak out in various ways.

However, they had naturally expected him to return if they waited. They truly hadn’t expected it to take five whole years.

“Ekian, listen carefully. We raised you truly like our own son and we still think of you that way.”

Ben said emphatically.

“If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have told you about all the secret passages. Those are only revealed to the heir.”

After Karl was born, Ekian had become the heir. While he had thought nothing of it at the time, it meant that even though they had a biological child, they had planned to pass the inheritance to Ekian.

“…I didn’t return to argue about that, so let’s think about it gradually.”

Ekian said leisurely.

“There are more urgent matters than that.”

“Urgent matters…”

“At this rate, the Meius Estate is in danger. You know that, don’t you?”

Ben and Isabella exchanged glances.

Actually, after Bart’s poisoning attempt, they had realized that some conspiracy was casting a shadow over the Meius Estate.

“Soon, the conflict between the Crown Prince and Emperor will become visible.”

“…Huh? The Crown Prince isn’t that kind of person…”

“He has become that way.”

Ekian said firmly.

“I plan to help the Crown Prince and strike against the Emperor. I have long been Prince Alteon’s close friend, and the enemy of my enemy is my ally.”

Ben and Ekian briefly discussed the current political situation. Ekian was making sharp judgments about the situation, as if the long absence from his position as Marquis meant nothing.

His thorough intelligence network and careful judgment were amazing, showing no sense of gap at all. Both Isabella and Ben looked at Ekian with pride.

In the end, he had returned because of the family crisis.

He wanted to pass the Marquis position to Karl, but judged that now was not the time for that.

Just as they had raised Ekian like their own child, Ekian also regarded them as his real parents.

However, there was one slightly awkward fact at this point. Isabella hesitated for a long time, then glanced at him and spoke up.

“And, um, about Judith, I mean your wife.”

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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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