This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 237

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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 237

Hailey was the first to fall through the Gate, so we have no information on the situation. As for King Otix…
Kimarise continued his report.
When Kimarise’s two split bodies, who had followed Hailey through, encountered the swarm of Monsters rising from below and engaged them in combat, King Otix gathered all his strength to tear open a hole, threw the Queen into it, and fell after her only moments too late.
Kimarise, realizing what had happened, sent a split body to rescue him, but time had already run out. There were simply too many Monsters.
Upon hearing this news, Bloden felt the world spin. His consciousness threatened to slip away entirely.
‘What happened to her? Did the Monsters get her too?’
The mere thought of it was so terrible that he suddenly lost his footing and swayed, causing Raven to start in alarm and catch him, asking urgently.
“Your Majesty, are you all right?”
Bloden did not answer.
‘If she’s dead, what happens to me?’
Dread and despair flooded through him, nearly overwhelming.
A life without Hailey was no longer worth living. He felt a mad urge to give up everything, to surrender to it all. The thought of abandoning life itself sent a strange, unsettling familiarity through his mind.
But Bloden clenched his teeth.
He could not act on impulse. He was the Emperor. Somehow, he had to find his composure and save both Hailey and the Empire.
Moreover, in this world, he alone could go and save Hailey.
Only then did Bloden remember that he had assigned Salamander as Hailey’s personal guard.
Salamander was nowhere to be seen in this place now. It was possible she had followed Hailey through the Gate. Salamander alone would have limits in facing such a vast swarm of Monsters, but if things went well, she might buy him time to get there.
‘I don’t yet know what happened to her. Don’t jump to conclusions.’
At that moment, Raven raised his hand and slapped Bloden across the face.
“Snap out of it, Your Majesty! You need to go rescue Hailey!”
Crack!
A sharp sting of pain shot through him, and his lip split.
Seeing Bloden’s stunned expression, Raven stepped back awkwardly and muttered.
“Ah, I seem to have misjudged the situation.”
Bloden let out a long breath. It was his own fault for appearing so shaken.
He clenched his fists until the knuckles turned white, gripping himself firmly back to purpose. Then he summoned the Spirits who were likely guarding his house in Snoril at that moment.
“Ignis Fatuus, Camen.”
He needed both of them—one to illuminate the darkness and hide from the Monsters while searching swiftly.
“……?”
But Bloden sensed something amiss. Ignis and Camen had refused his summons.
Bloden summoned them again, but once more, the answer that came back was an unmistakable refusal.
‘Is it possible they’ve both been secretly following her around?’
The Spirits had clung to Hailey like pets, so it was entirely plausible.
In that moment, hope began to bloom in a corner of Bloden’s heart. If all three Spirits were now in one place, Hailey’s chances of survival would be far greater.
“Master! We have arrived!”
“Sister! Sob-sniff! Siiiiister!”
Just then, Kimarise and a tear-and-snot-streaked Dantarion came bursting through the entrance.
“Every last one of them dies! Sister! I’m coming!”
Bloden had clearly ordered Dantarion to suppress the rebel forces. But Dantarion ignored this entirely and, upon seeing the Derivative Gate, threw himself directly into it, shouting.
“Mutt! Stop slinking around—follow me!”
“Grrrrrowl!”
—Dare you order me around?
Crockel bristled at Dantarion’s command, affronted, yet charged without hesitation into the Derivative Gate.
“Arf-arf-arf!”
—Master! I shall bite every single one of those beasts to death for you!
Soon, the sound of fierce combat echoed from within the Gate.
Bloden, having surveyed the interior, summoned his blade and issued orders with the weight of granite.
“Kimarise, confirm whether there are any people inside this palace and evacuate them all. Secure Anna Beldenburo’s person.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Raven, seal the Imperial Palace immediately and take all necessary measures.”
“I shall obey your command, Your Majesty.”

* * *

“So Nelloa, you’re saying you’ll kill His Majesty and conquer the world?”
I summarized the lengthy nonsense Nelloa had been spouting, and she laughed mockingly in response.
“If you just listen to me, even the Monsters will kneel before you. Surely you’re not going to throw away such a golden opportunity just because you’re infatuated with some man?”
“Ah.”
I nodded and held up my middle finger to Nelloa.
“Is this it? ‘Please save me, or I’ll live my whole life looking like this’?”
“W-what?”
“Go suck on candy. I’d rather die clean than spend a lifetime smoothing out your wrinkles. Besides, you’re not nearly important enough for that fantasy to even be possible.”
I pushed myself to my feet and gripped the hem of my dress tightly in both hands—no intention of being gentle about it.
“And here you are, begging me to cook for you, acting all confident about it. I don’t get it.”
“That so? Let’s see if you sing the same tune after a little torture.”
At my words, Nelloa snorted and barked an order to the monsters surrounding her.
“Bring her in alive.”
Massive creatures surged forward with a terrifying presence.
“Serch. Heart. Camen.”
The three spirits turned to face me.
“Nelloa is after me anyway. You don’t need to put yourselves in danger—go back to His Majesty.”
Heart’s eyes narrowed to inverted triangles, and he shook his head firmly. A clear refusal.
At the same moment, a red glow began to swirl around Serch and Camen. But both spirits twisted their bodies rapidly and shook off the crimson light. The moment it swirled around them again, they performed the same dodge.
‘What on earth is happening?’
While I was puzzling over this, Camen drew on its body with chalk—angry eyebrows, a furrowed brow, and a mouth full of fangs.
I’m furious! I’m going to bite everything!
It was almost as if I could hear Camen’s voice.
Serch sauntered toward the approaching monsters and fired a beam of light.
Zing—
That was all.
I couldn’t tell what had happened, but in the next instant, three massive monsters’ bodies were split clean in two.
Boom!
“Kyaaah!”
Watching the severed bodies of the monsters fall with heavy thuds, Nelloa went pale and scrambled backward, shrieking.
“Kill those things first! Kill them now!”
Heart swelled even larger. The moment intense flames blazed across Heart’s entire body, the space around me was engulfed in stone walls. Camen had shielded me.
The surrounding area erupted into the screams of monsters and the chaos of battle.
Darkness enveloped everything, but small holes dotted the walls, letting me see what was happening outside.
Monsters touched by the inferno Heart unleashed melted away in flames. Every beam Serch fired cut monsters in half. From Camen’s massive form, stone spears shot out and pierced through the creatures.
Whatever distance separated us from above, the sounds of battle didn’t reach down here. Yet corpses of monsters continued to rain down through the gate opening above.
Bloden and the Commanders were fighting fiercely to descend to this level.
‘Bloden rushed here right away!’
Given the situation, our side seemed to be winning. I clenched both fists.
‘Can we escape if we play this right?’
But after a couple of hours, I realized this was a hollow hope.
The spirits endured for more than two hours, stubbornly keeping the monsters from reaching me.
The corpses of monsters had already piled up like a mountain. There were so many falling bodies that the passage above was in danger of being blocked.
Yet the number of living creatures barely diminished. If anything, even larger monsters than the already-enormous ones were streaming in.
‘At that size, they could be called dinosaurs.’
I bit my lip and peered through the breathing holes scattered around me.
Apart from the gate opening above, the passage itself was enormous. Looking at it, it didn’t seem to be something Nelloa had created—more like a pre-existing passage that was connected to the gate.
Given how far down we’d descended, it seemed possible this was the very bottom of the gate.
‘What if we just never knew? What if gate passages were connected all along to the deepest depths of not just the Imperial Palace but the entire Empire?’
As I pondered this, I noticed something strange.
Small holes were beginning to form all over the ceiling near the gate opening above.
‘What is that?’
Crack!
In that instant, half of Camen’s body crumbled away.
“Kyaak! Camen!”
“Squeee!”
At my scream, Heart shrieked too, positioned himself between Camen and the monsters, and breathed fire at them. Serch, panicked, circled through the air before beginning to fire beams from above Camen.
But Heart’s flames were slowing, and the speed of Serch’s beams was diminishing.
All three were exhausting themselves.
‘This is terrible.’
Watching them wring out every last bit of power, my heart broke and tears spilled down my face.
‘Are Heart and Camen and Serch going to die here like this?’
Then the holes that had been forming near the ceiling of the passage above expanded further, and one appeared in the wall behind me. I hadn’t noticed from a distance, but up close it was two meters high, and a passage was spreading out behind it.

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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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