This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 20

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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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Chapter 20

The night was deep. In the darkness, the cottage door quietly opened and Baron came out.

Baron went to a place some distance from the cottage, sat on a rock, and looked up at the night sky while listening to the sound of lapping waves.

Soon Ignis Fatuus flew near Baron, creating alternating bright and gentle lights. In that light, Baron’s red eyes and restless expression were clearly revealed.

Soon the ground also vibrated slightly. Baron chuckled softly as he felt Camen’s presence too.

“There’s nothing for you to do today. Both of you rest and don’t come out until I call you separately.”

The light went out, and everything around became quiet.

Baron hugged his knees.

He stayed in that position for a long time, gazing at the sea and sky, then sighed.

When he sat next to Hailey, sharing a blanket and opening a book, he had felt so good.

But while reading the fairy tale, his emotions fluctuated. It was because he could see Anna the regent’s scheming.

He knew her ambitions were strong. But he didn’t know she had extended her reach even to fairy tales.

Children reading fairy tales would unconsciously have their thoughts fixed.

That the Emperor must live as a warrior, defeating the monsters of the Northern Gate. That this is the mission of those with abilities.

Thanks to this, they would grow up believing that everyone in the Empire was safe and happy, which couldn’t be better.

With the Empire safe under the Emperor’s protection, it was a happy ending by anyone’s standards.

Since the Empire was saved by sacrificing just one Emperor, and the imperial citizens even deified and worshipped the Emperor, Baron thought the value of that life was quite admirable.

But perhaps it was because he knew even this was Anna’s scheming.

Perhaps it was because he could guess what influence the content that would gradually seep into children’s way of thinking would have in the future.

Or perhaps it was because he thought that, without knowing the reality, the imperial citizens’ sentiment might have already changed like this.

Baron felt nauseous throughout.

His heart felt empty, and he also felt like he was being abandoned by the world.

‘That doesn’t seem right.’

That seemed to be why. Why he immediately reacted to Hailey’s murmuring, whom he thought was asleep.

Warriors are people too. They just don’t say it, but the ending of the fairy tale seems wrong.

At those words, Baron’s eyes somehow stung. When he hugged her and asked how she felt, strangely his throat seemed blocked and no words came out.

He thought it was fortunate that it was dark all around so Hailey couldn’t see Baron’s expression.

Then he realized.

That his empty heart and the feeling of being abandoned had all disappeared with just one hug from Hailey.

Hailey’s hug and goodnight kiss were literally warm and cozy.

“The warmth between people. The temperature of the heart.”

Baron, who murmured exactly what Hailey had said, soon chuckled.

“Really a strange woman.”

Then his face turned bright red and he buried it between his knees.

“And I’m even stranger for not wanting to let go of such a woman.”

How many days had it been since he met Hailey?

It really was strange.

* * *

I woke up unusually early in the morning. My condition was good too.

Looking to the side, Baron was in the middle of traveling to dreamland. Perhaps he had kicked off the blanket while sleeping, as his legs were cutely sticking out.

I properly arranged the blanket to cover him, then gathered seeds to plant in the field and went outside.

Beyond the sea, I could see quite a lot of dark clouds.

It would rain heavily around afternoon, so I probably wouldn’t need to water the vegetable garden separately.

After scattering all the prepared seeds, the sea was receding. The rocky terrain was already exposed.

‘Should I go take a look after breakfast?’

Baron was still sleeping soundly. I thought about waking him but decided against it and ate a simple meal by myself.

‘They say children need lots of sleep to grow.’

Bread and milk, strawberry jam.

I prepared Baron’s portion on one side of the table, left a note saying I’d be out briefly, then took a bucket and a hoe and went outside.

When I had walked about 5 minutes in the wind, a small light that sparkled bright enough to be visible even in the morning followed me around like a puppy.

“Could it be… Serch?”

As soon as I finished asking, the light became much stronger, wrapped around my body and spun around once, startling me.

“Wow. You really are Serch!”

When I recognized it, the light floating in the air moved up and down. Just like a person nodding their head.

I heard it was smart enough to understand human speech. It was so amazing that we could communicate like this.

“Did you sleep well?”

Serch moved up and down once more.

“Did you eat?”

Another up and down nod, it was amazing.

“Are you following me because you want to come with me?”

Though light wasn’t really needed during the day, I felt good at Serch’s bobbing response.

“Alright. Let’s go together.”

Serch wrapped around me and spun once more. The long tail of light that formed even during the day was so beautiful.

‘Baron said it was an insect, but this is just like a spirit.’

Thinking I was traveling with a spirit made me feel like I had become someone special, and I couldn’t help but smile.

When I hummed a tune, Serch also rippled with gentle curved light as if matching the rhythm.

Walking a bit more like that, I arrived at my destination. With each footstep I made, tiny streams of water spurted up here and there and disappeared. Clams were spitting water.

When I stuck the hoe in wherever I saw them, large littleneck clams popped out.

“Wow, they’re big.”

When I scratched lightly next to them, three surf clams rolled out at once.

While picking up the surf clams that were hurriedly hiding their extended siphons, I looked around and flipped over a flat stone.

An octopus stuck tightly under the stone and wriggling vigorously was illuminated by Serch’s light from the side. At the same time, I couldn’t contain my joy and let out a cheer.

“Found one!”

Great, today’s lunch will be octopus dishes!

Chopped octopus, octopus soup, grilled octopus, stir-fried octopus, seasoned octopus, octopus pancake, fermented octopus, and so on.

Motivated, I looked for and flipped over more stones where octopuses might be hiding.

As expected, octopuses came out from every place I anticipated.

“?”

But it was when I caught the sixth octopus, put it in the container, and turned my gaze.

“What is… this?”

Where I had lifted the stone, a fist-sized oval hole had formed, and around its edges, a dark blue light gently swirled.

‘I’ve never seen this before? What lives inside this?’

Out of curiosity, I dug the hole deeper with the hoe. Despite this being a rocky field, the hole dug easily. As the hole grew larger, the dark blue light swirling around the edges also grew.

But I gave up after digging a little. It was because seawater that had pooled nearby kept flowing in, making it difficult to examine the inside.

“Should I put my hand in?”

I muttered, but I was also anxious inside.

‘There are things like sea slimes too, so wouldn’t it be better to wear gloves or bring other tools to dig?’

Then Serch emitted a bright light and moved quickly left and right in front of the hole.

I obediently stepped back.

It was partly because the light was blinding, but it also seemed to mean don’t touch it.

“Alright, let’s go home now.”

I spoke to Serch and strode away. Serch, who had been rippling beside me, flew ahead toward the house first.

When I returned home, Baron, who had been sitting outside the door, saw me and jumped up.

“Nuna! Did you go foraging at the shore?”

“Yeah. Did you eat well?”

“Yeah, I saw the note too. But you should have woken me up. It would have been nice to go together.”

“What, you were sleeping so peacefully.”

Baron’s cheeks turned slightly red. Just looking at him was so cute that I couldn’t help but smile.

“You need to sleep well to grow tall…”

As I was about to say that, I noticed Baron seemed different from yesterday.

“Wait, Baron. You really do seem a bit taller?”

“What? That can’t be.”

“No. You seem taller than yesterday. Hold on.”

I measured Baron’s height again.

“You really do seem to have grown a bit. Now that I look, your face has changed a little too.”

Baron’s eyes widened, then he shook his head.

“There’s no way I could grow enough in one day for it to be noticeable.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course.”

Since Baron was so confident, I became confused instead.

“Then should we ask when Raven comes later? Since he saw you yesterday, wouldn’t he notice if you changed?”

Baron thought for a moment, then nodded.

“Sure.”

“Good.”

I rolled up my sleeves. It was time to prepare my masterpiece lunch.

I checked the tanks for purging shellfish that I had placed on one side of the House.

In the small tank were sea cucumbers, and in the large tank, several conch shells and two blue crabs were swimming around.

These were the ones I had kept without selling because I wanted to eat them.

“Alright. Blue crabs, conch shells, sea cucumbers. Time to move out.”

After taking out the seafood, when I released the clams and octopus I had caught, Baron, who was watching from the side, was horrified.

“Wh-wh-what is that?”

“Octopus. Don’t you know?”

“No, I know what it is, but why did you catch it? D-don’t tell me you’re going to eat it?”

Baron’s panicked reaction made me laugh.

“Of course, I caught it to eat. Don’t people here eat octopus?”

“Of course not. It looks weird. There are no recipes for it either.”

“Why wouldn’t there be recipes? There are so many. You just don’t know how because no one eats it.”

“I-it probably doesn’t taste good.”

“How do you know the taste if no one eats it?”

“…”

“Nuna will take care of it. Go over there and read your book.”

Baron couldn’t argue back and pouted before turning away.

I washed rice to cook, and made a clear soup with clams, blue crab, and cabbage.

I sliced the sea cucumber, put the conch shells on the fire, and caught the octopus. The strong octopus wrapped its long, writhing legs around my arm.

“Aaaaah!”

The scream I heard then was Baron’s voice.

Baron threw down the book he was holding and ran over in horror, tearing off the octopus that was clinging to me and slamming it to the floor.

“How dare you!”

Splat!

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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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