This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 203

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

Episode 203

Duke Utra spurred his horse forward eagerly, savoring the distant roars echoing from the Otix Army.
“Kheh heh heh.”
As he rode toward them, memories of the Previous Emperors’ predicament kept bubbling up, forcing laughter from his lips.
The Previous Emperors had deployed Commanders to face Monsters while positioning the Imperial Army in the vanguard—a necessary compromise, since channeling raw power invited curses: shortened lifespans, physical pain, accelerated aging. This strategy bought them time.
But Bloden was different. In the Northern Region, he had held back the Monsters with Commanders alone, consigning the Imperial Army to reconstruction and rear logistics.
The Nobles interpreted his motives however they pleased.
A delicate Emperor, too squeamish to witness death.
An Emperor buried in the North, denied the chance to learn warfare.
The remarkable part was that despite all this, Bloden was managing the Northern Gate flawlessly.
That itself suggested his innate magical power differed fundamentally from his predecessors’.
Some among the Nobles who grasped this detail fixed their attention on a singular fact: only Bloden and Anna remained within the Imperial House.
Without needing to speak aloud, each began scheming in earnest.
‘If we indoctrinate that clueless boy and station him in the North, the Empire will know peace!’
The Empire would naturally prosper, and amid that prosperity, Anna would consolidate actual authority.
So Duke Utra had sided with Anna. But after Bloden came of age, unease crept in.
If he ever returned to the throne and began governing, those aligned with the Emperor would inevitably grow stronger—it was as certain as daylight.
They would shower Bloden with honeyed words, pressuring him to suppress the Nobles who had backed Anna.
‘That won’t do.’
He had to preemptively weaken his opponents and uproot them.
‘Create conditions where the Emperor cannot govern properly, then apply pressure.’
Keeping Bloden occupied was simple enough, and Duke Utra’s devised method was formidable. He had spent years preparing, and today he had set his grand design in motion.
“Kheh heh heh. If it succeeds, I become a Grand Duke. If it fails, I’m still an indispensable borderland Marquis.”
Either way, he stood to lose nothing.
Then he noticed a billowing cloud of dust rising in the distance.
He’d thought the Otix Army was performing beautifully—until this moment.
“Save me!”
“Ahhhhh!”
The clarity of those screams made Duke Utra sense something amiss, and he sharply reined in his horse.
The Otix Army appeared to be fleeing in panic from something. Moreover, the shouts he’d been hearing weren’t battle cries meant to bolster morale—they were shrieks of raw terror.
The Knights flanking Duke Utra stopped their mounts and fixed their eyes ahead, speaking in alarm.
“Your Grace, something is gravely wrong! There appear to be Monsters in great number!”
“What? Monsters? That makes no sense.”
They had arranged to detonate buried signal flares if any anomaly arose. Yet the Otix Army had given no such warning.
Then a leisurely voice reached Duke Utra from behind.
“Indeed, Monsters shouldn’t exist.”
Duke Utra’s spine went cold. He turned—and felt as though his skull had been struck by a hammer.
“Your Ma—Your Majesty?”
Even as he spoke the words aloud, Duke Utra couldn’t believe his eyes. What he saw was unmistakably Bloden astride a silver wolf.
Watching his slack expression, Bloden’s mouth twisted into a smile.
“What? Surprised to see someone you thought shouldn’t be here?”
“N-no, Your Majesty. I merely wondered why you had come to this place….”
“Why, indeed. I’ve come to apprehend you red-handed.”
Bloden drew a document from his coat and unfurled it so Duke Utra could see clearly.
“I’ve obtained proof that Duke Utra conspires with the Otix Kingdom to throw the Empire into chaos. Turns out Lord Frediki was falsely accused—the man was a patriot all along.”
The moment Duke Utra understood what document Bloden held, his heart began hammering wildly.
“Your Majesty, I confess I don’t follow your meaning. I fear there’s been a grave misunderstanding.”
Bloden gave a derisive snort.
“Misunderstanding? Did you honestly think Lora Enox escaped on her own?”
“…….”
The day Lora fled suddenly crystallized in Duke Utra’s memory.
He had personally dispatched assassins to her the moment Doctor Bernard stepped away.
Yet afterward, Lora and Hailey—who should have been killed and staged as suicide—vanished, and none of the assassins he’d sent ever returned. There was no trace of injury, no corpses, no wreckage.
Which left only one conclusion.
Lora and Hailey had successfully turned the assassins to their side.
He had assumed the two women must have promised them enormous sums, and he’d decided to dispose of them all afterward anyway.
‘But it wasn’t that at all—the Emperor intervened?’
Cold sweat trickled down Duke Utra’s spine.
Many questions chased one another in her mind, but there was no time to untangle them now. For the moment, denial was the only option.
“Your Majesty, I truly don’t understand what you’re saying. I came only to stop the Otix invasion.”
He gestured toward the still-chaotic Otix forces.
“First, I’ll defend the Empire, and then I can explain everything in detail. Please grant me permission to deal with them.”
He had to get over there. He needed to detonate the signal explosives as much as possible to alert the Otix commanders waiting in the rear that something had gone wrong.
“The conspirators who dared to cross the border are already in the custody of my servants.”
Bloden’s voice grew colder with each word.
“And the explosives you buried have become useless, so there is no battlefield left for you to perform your little theater.”
“……What?”
Duke Utra’s eyes went wide as he repeated the words back.
Even the explosives had been discovered. At this point, denial meant nothing.
Then he had no choice.
Right now Bloden was alone, and the servants he commanded were all occupied with capturing the Otix forces.
‘Escape for now and wait for another opportunity.’
He had spoken with Anna at length over these past days, and as long as she remained safe, the day would come when he could set things right.
“Hyah!”
Duke Utra spurred his horse forward.
But his horse whinnied sharply and stopped short. An army of servants erupted from the earth below, completely surrounding Duke Utra and his knights.
Then Bloden’s voice reached him.
“Curious—you thought you could actually escape.”
When Duke Utra turned to look back, his eyes widened in disbelief.
‘This can’t be real.’
Despite the power Bloden had expended, he showed no sign of exhaustion whatsoever.
That was when Duke Utra understood.
His entire plan had crumbled to dust.

* * *

“Extra edition! Extra!”
While I was tending the garden, the Newspaper Boy’s cry reached my ears.
“The Shield of the Empire was actually a traitor! Duke Utra exposed for collusion with Otix Kingdom!”
At the news I’d been waiting for, I hastily wiped my hands and hurried toward the entrance.
Kimarise was just stepping outside as well, and I could see tourists who’d been playing by the seaside rising hurriedly to receive the newspapers.
The excited Newspaper Boy called out even louder.
“Duke Utra lured foreign enemies and was caught red-handed by His Majesty!”
I waved to the Newspaper Boy, and he quickly ran over and handed newspapers to both Kimarise and me before speaking.
“Where are you going tomorrow?”
“Well, nowhere in particular?”
“Then pay for the newspaper with skewered rice cake!”
“What?”
“The newspaper office is completely hectic right now! There’ll be more breaking news for a while, so whenever a new paper comes out I’ll bring it to you! Just pay me with skewered rice cake each time. Please!”
Before I could even offer payment, the boy rattled off his request and dashed away, waving papers and shouting at passersby again.
“Extra edition! Extra! His Majesty the Emperor! Duke Utra arrested!”
Kimarise watched the Newspaper Boy’s retreating figure and murmured.
“……There’s no stopping that one.”
“You’re telling me.”
I let out a slight laugh and unfolded the newspaper. It contained every detail the boy had been shouting.
Just as the Newspaper Boy predicted, breaking news continued to pour in over the following days.
A few days later, he shouted about how the horrible conspiracy between Duke Utra—who had tried to bind Bloden to the Northern Region—and the Otix Kingdom had been exposed; days after that, he announced Duke Utra’s stripping of title and that the Regent Faction he belonged to was now in disarray.
“Extra edition! Extra!”
And after several more days, the news we had been waiting for finally burst from the Newspaper Boy’s lips.
“The Frediki Family, which was destroyed, and the Duchess of Borderland, who was imprisoned—both have been proven innocent of all charges!”

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