This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 212

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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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Chapter 212

Bloden had come to our house? And so suddenly at that?
I’d been standing there in a daze until he lifted one hand in a greeting, and my senses snapped back to attention.
“Great savior of the Ilpein Empire…….”
“Hush.”
Just as I tried to offer a proper bow, Bloden pressed a finger to his lips and gestured toward the tourists on the beach.
Not knowing what else to do, I covered my mouth with both hands, and Bloden rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward smile.
“I apologize for the sudden intrusion. There’s something I wanted to show you quickly.”
He glanced inside the house, then asked,
“I had something to tell you, so I came right away. May I step inside for a moment?”
My heart was pounding wildly as I hurried to move aside near the entrance.
I hadn’t prepared for any guests, which left me mortified, but I couldn’t just turn him away.
“I’m sorry, it’s not very tidy.”
“It’s fine. It’s lovely.”
He smiled warmly and stepped inside, his gaze drifting slowly around the room. Before long, his eyes landed on my dinner table.
“Oh, it seems I’ve interrupted your meal…….”
“No, no. Have you eaten, Your Majesty?”
“Actually, I haven’t yet…… I was just coming from hunting a monster beast.”
“A monster beast?”
“Yes.”
His gaze flickered back toward the dining table.
“Would you mind if I joined you?”
“Wait, please. It’s far too humble for Your Majesty…….”
“It looks delicious.”
“But I only have the doenjang-jjigae…… Please, just wait a moment. Let me prepare something else.”
“If you need to make something else, then I’ll just eat this.”
Bloden set down the sack he’d been carrying and hung his robe on the coat rack.
“On the way back from hunting, I saw a place selling good meat, so I bought some.”
For a moment, I doubted my own ears.
‘It’s like something a husband would say after coming home from work……’
“If we grill this, it should be perfect.”
He pulled the meat from the sack, found a pan in the cupboard, and began cooking. It was beef sirloin with marbling that was nothing short of art.
Watching him from behind in a daze, I suddenly came to my senses and tried to stop him.
“Your, Your Majesty. Why would you do such a thing?”
“Such a thing?”
“I mean, this is something I should be doing.”
“You’ve been making tteok-gochi all day, haven’t you? You must be tired.”
“But you’ve been hunting monster beasts. You must be more tired than I am.”
Wait, hold on?
“How do you know I’ve been making tteok-gochi all day, Your Majesty?”
“I summoned Camen just now. When I asked what you were doing, she told me.”
At those words, I remembered what had happened between Camen and the other spirits today.
Camen and Heart had been watching me work all day with blank stares, and I’d joked, “What, are you going to help?” almost as a passing comment.
But it seemed Camen had been waiting for that—she brought me soaked rice and ground it into flour, Heart lit a fire outside to steam the rice, and while Camen kneaded the steamed rice into cakes, I made a kimchi and egg pancake. After we shared the pancake, they seemed to disappear at some point, but it looked like Bloden had summoned them and everything they’d helped me with had been reported back to him.
The spirits’ help had been conveyed directly to their master.
‘Now that I think about it, Camen’s master is Bloden.’
Thinking back on it, I realized I’d ended up using Camen without the master’s permission.
“I’m sorry for putting Camen to work without asking. I won’t do it again.”
As Bloden flipped the meat, he heard my words and lifted the corners of his mouth as if amused.
“It’s fine. Use her as much as you need. Use her even if you need money.”
“……What?”
“Since Camen is a spirit of earth…… ah!”
Bloden immediately summoned Camen and asked her, as she stared blankly with gentle eyes,
“Camen, what do you think about giving Hailey as many gems as she wants as gifts?”
‘What? What are you saying?’
At that, Camen looked at me and smiled with her eyes.
The next instant, brilliant gems began pouring out in a cascade from Camen’s body.
“Ah! What, what is all this!”
At my startled reaction, Bloden let out a small laugh.
“Camen is a walking mine, after all.”
I quickly waved my hand.
“Oh no, Camen, thank you, but I appreciate the thought—please stop and take them back. At this rate the house will be buried!”
Camen dutifully collected all the gems. But his mood had grown sullen.
Bloden, watching this, took a plate from the cupboard and placed the well-cooked beef sirloin on it as he spoke.
“Seems he’s disappointed you won’t accept his feelings at all.”
……
“You’re really not going to accept even a single gift from Camen?”
Watching Bloden’s slowly rising smile and Camen’s dejected expression in turn, I finally realized I’d been caught.
‘Wow, using innocent Camen to show off wealth and give a gift at the same time—so Bloden’s a fox after all.’
His eagerness to give me something like this was burdensome, yet honestly delightful too. His gesture seemed to say his heart still held affection for me.
“W-well, then just one.”
When I nodded reluctantly, Bloden’s crimson eyes lit up with joy.
“Camen, Hailey says she’ll accept just one. You need to think very carefully about which gem would be the best gift for her.”
Camen’s gaze turned to Bloden. Meeting that look, Bloden smiled.
“If it glitters too brilliantly, Hailey might feel burdened, so don’t you think something practical would be better?”
Camen’s eyes went wide. He drew a happy face on his body with chalk, then produced a tiny stone that gleamed with a subtle black light.
Bloden looked at the stone Camen had offered and asked with an expression of disbelief.
“Oh, I didn’t expect that. Camen, are you serious?”
Camen smiled with his eyes and bent his body forward, then straightened.
‘Ah, so Camen doesn’t understand the value of minerals.’
It seemed Camen had defied Bloden’s expectations. Instead of the gems and gold he’d been eagerly spilling out, this was honestly surprising—but since it didn’t look expensive, I felt far less burdened.
“Thank you, Camen. I’ll take good care of it.”
Bloden, watching me handle it carefully, asked.
“You’re definitely accepting it?”
“Yes, I like it.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“Isn’t it just… a black stone?”
“Ah, a black stone. Camen, you knew what this was when you gave it, didn’t you?”
Camen smiled with his eyes and bent his body forward, then straightened.
“Good, then Hailey. You’re not changing your mind, are you?”
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like just a pebble, so I could only stare with wide eyes. Bloden laughed and wrote a note for Camen.
“Camen, deliver this to Duke Dillen. I’ve come to need his abilities.”
‘Bloden suddenly needs to call our neighbor Duke Dillen? Has something come up that requires his merchant abilities?’
While I tilted my head in confusion, Camen took the note and sank straight into the floor. After that, Bloden sat down at the dining table.
“Tell him to come in about thirty minutes. We’ll eat in the meantime.”
At his words, I quickly brought a bowl of rice.
In the meantime, Bloden cut the roasted beef sirloin into small pieces and placed them on his own rice bowl, then swapped it with mine.
“Y-Your Majesty? That one’s cooled down.”
“I prefer it a bit cooled. You eat the warm one.”
Bloden spooned some doenjang-jjigae and smiled.
“Eat plenty.”
Sitting across from him to eat, the sweetness in the way he looked at me was so overwhelming I couldn’t even bring myself to meet his eyes.
‘Why does this feel so much like newlyweds!’
But that feeling didn’t last long.
“Cough!”
After tasting the doenjang-jjigae, Bloden’s face turned bright red.
“Your Majesty?”
Bloden closed his eyes and pressed his lips shut. Veins bulged prominently on the back of the hand holding the spoon.
“A-are you alright?”
After his throat bobbed visibly, Bloden grabbed his water cup and drained it in one go.
“It’s spicier than I thought. It’s actually hotter than tteok-gochi, isn’t it……?”
“Oh, that’s right—I added hot peppers to the doenjang-jjigae. Let me make a milder version for you!”
“It has an appealing flavor, so it’s fine. Sit down.”
Bloden steadfastly continued eating rice with the doenjang-jjigae and beef sirloin as side dishes.
But from the way he sweated profusely each time he ate the doenjang-jjigae, I learned one new fact.
Bloden was also a spice wimp, just like our Baron.
.
.
.
After finishing our meal and rinsing our mouths with barley tea, Raven arrived with Camen and bowed respectfully to Bloden.
The moment Raven joined the table, Bloden spoke up.
“Raven, Camen has given Miss Hailey a gift.”
“A gift?”
Ah, so that’s why Raven was called here.
I poured barley tea for Raven and Camen, then set the stone on the table.
“Camen gave me this.”
Raven looked between the stone and Camen, his mouth falling open.
“Raven?”
“Forgive me—my mind isn’t what it should be. Please, give me a moment.”
Raven stepped outside and returned with a fine leather pouch, which he handed to me.
“Place that stone inside this pouch.”
“I beg your pardon?”
It made no sense, but I did as Raven instructed, slipping the stone into the pouch.
In an instant, the stone vanished, and the interior of the pouch turned pitch black.
“What—what is this?”
Raven reached for the vase in the center of the table and handed it to me.
“Try placing this inside the pouch.”
He wanted me to fit a vase several times larger than the small pouch into it.
For a moment I stood bewildered at the absurdity of it, but then the truth struck me.
“Good heavens! Could that stone be the material used to create a Pocket Dimension Bag?”

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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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