This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 248

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

Episode 248

“Oh my, Sojung! Are you dozing off right now?”
Someone beside me chided me and gave me a sharp poke, and I came to my senses, but my entire body felt sluggish and heavy, as though submerged in a swamp.
The area around me was deafening with the roar of machinery. A wave of hot steam hit my face.
When I opened my eyes, hot soybeans were pouring out of the steamer’s outlet in great quantity, and in my hand was a large spatula.
‘…What?’
I was making meju at the Traditional Food Factory.
“If you fall into the beans like that, it’ll make some expensive meju. Pay attention, now.”
I turned my head. There stood an elderly woman in work clothes, an apron, and a sanitation cap.
“Oh? Team Lead Park? What brings you here?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? You’re still half-asleep, I see.”
Park, the factory floor supervisor, struck my back hard, then snatched the spatula from my hands and stirred the pile of beans.
“Ow! That hurts!”
“That’s how you snap awake. What were you doing yesterday, stumbling around like a sick monkey?”
“Yesterday I was just with Serch and Heart and…”
As I was answering, I suddenly grew confused and fell silent.
‘I was with Camen in the Gate Passage… Wait, was that a dream?’
Suddenly I felt as though unseen eyes were watching me.
Then Team Lead Park spoke in a worried tone.
“Serch? Yesterday the tide came in at two in the morning—did you go clam digging at that hour again to help pay off your father’s debts?”
Team Lead Park cursed our absent father for a moment, then let out a long, deep sigh.
“Never mind. Pull yourself together and get back to work.”
I took the spatula and quickly stirred the beans. But even after I’d returned to my work, Team Lead Park didn’t leave.
“Is there something you wanted to tell me?”
“Um, how do you feel about… meeting someone?”
“Pardon?”
“The Kang family in the house downstairs asked me to ask you about marriage.”
They raised cattle and had an unmarried son who was forty years old.
“He’s a bit older, sure, but he’s a good man. If you just agree to marry into his family, they’ll pay off all the debt you have now.”
It was, in practical terms, a quite lucrative proposal. But I didn’t want to be married off because of debt—I wanted to fall in love and marry a man who suited my taste.
“I’m grateful for the thought, but…”
“I know, I know. I’ve seen the world. But surely you understand that a debt problem isn’t something to take lightly? Isn’t it difficult?”
“Still, I think I’ll be able to pay it all off by the end of next year.”
My father promised to quit gambling and work day and night. So once this debt was paid, I planned to save money properly and live a new life.
“I hope it works out that way…”
“Team Lead Park!”
“Coming! Hold on!”
Someone called for Team Lead Park, who answered loudly and left while muttering to herself.
“Goodness, with that troublemaker’s temperament, I doubt she’ll keep all her fingers.”
‘Huh?’
The moment I heard those words, a sense of déjà vu washed over me.
‘Wait—didn’t I die the day Team Lead Park said that?’
That day, while I was eating lunch, I had a nosebleed, and Team Lead Park sent me home early, telling me to go to the hospital. Then I stopped by the house to wash off the blood and ran into my father surrounded by thugs.
It turned out my father hadn’t quit gambling—the debt had only grown.
After barely convincing the thugs, who’d threatened to sell off all my father’s organs, to leave, I wept bitterly and raged with fury. Afterward, instead of going to the hospital, I reached for a side project I’d kept piled up in the house.
‘When I opened my eyes again, I was alone in a crumbling cottage…’
I furrowed my brow.
‘That old cottage.’
The moment I recalled the bleak interior of that cottage, my heart grew warm for some reason.
‘Sister!’
A voice that brought happiness just by hearing it seemed to ring in my ears.
I missed it, and the memory felt distant and hazy.
As I was lost in thought, I finally remembered black hair, violet eyes, and a two-syllable name.
“Ba…ron?”
At that moment, many questions flooded my mind.
‘Wait, I’m Hailey, aren’t I? Where is my Baron?’
Beep-beep-beep!
Just then, amid the clamor of machinery, a long electronic bell signaled lunchtime.
The noise was so unbearable that I pressed both hands over my ears, but in that same moment, a familiar voice cut through sharply, accompanied by the metallic ring of something striking metal.
“Nuna! Master!”
‘Bloden? … No, something feels different about it.’
“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
‘Crockel?’
“Screee! Screee!”
‘Ah, Heart.’
“Hey! Camen! Don’t just make faces—say something! Nuna loved you the most!”
Hearing those words, I felt a surge of frustration.
‘Why are they scolding our sweet Camen like that?’
“Hey! Serch! If you just keep blinking, how will Nuna and Master ever know what’s going on? You scream too!”
“Goodness! Camen and Serch can’t speak! Besides, where is our Baron?”
I was about to shout into the void in exasperation.
That was when I realized the place I was in was real and yet not real at all.
“What? I thought my powers weren’t working right… but looking at everything now, this world is completely different from where we live.”
The moment I heard Iturn’s voice, everything around me went dark.

* * *

I opened my eyes but could see nothing.
‘What a strange dream.’
After thinking for a moment, I felt around my clothes. I found the Pocket Dimension and pulled out a Mana Stone Lamp.
As the surroundings lit up, I saw Bloden sprawled against the slanted wall nearby, unconscious.
“Your Majesty!”
I scrambled to my feet in alarm, but the ground beneath me was slick and slimy.
“What is this?”
I looked around me. The rounded walls on all sides were covered in a viscous, slimy substance.
Large holes connected both above and below, and strangely, the structure felt familiar.
“Screee! Screee!”
“Nuna! Master!”
“Growl! Clang!”
“You little jellyfish! Get out of the way! Spit! I said spit! Cough up Nuna and Master right now!”
Outside again, I could hear the voices of Heart, Dantarion, and Crockel.
‘Now that I think about it, my memory goes blank right after we emerged in the place where Iturn was.’
It seemed we must have fallen into Iturn’s belly at that moment.

“What? I thought my powers weren’t working right… but now I see, this world is different from where we lived.”

‘Was that dream just now also Iturn’s power?’
But there was no time to dwell on it.
A sickly green liquid began to slowly rise from the floor. Though the pace was sluggish, it looked disturbingly like gastric fluid, and a terrible dread crept over me.
‘If we can’t get out of here, we’ll be digested to death?’
If that was the case, there was no time to hesitate.
“Your Majesty! Wake up!”
I cried out to Bloden with all my strength, but he didn’t stir no matter how many times I called.
‘Surely he’s not… dead?’
I wanted to rush to Bloden, but the floor was so slick already, and now it was trembling besides, so it was far too risky to simply walk across it.
‘If I touch that gastric fluid, something terrible will happen. If I stumble and fall…’
As I was thinking of how to reach Bloden, I pulled out the Pocket Dimension again. I turned the opening downward and emptied everything I could remove—all the furniture and miscellaneous items, leaving only the jars, water, and medicine.
Everything tumbled out in a cascade.
Furniture and odds and ends piled onto the surface of the gastric fluid, creating a path for me to reach Bloden.
“Your Majesty!”
I stepped across the objects and made my way to Bloden.
The moment I reached him safely and grabbed his body to shake him awake, I felt a sudden pulling sensation, as though being drawn toward Bloden.

* * *

A shrill whistling.
The sound of wind—so piercing it seemed to cut through me—filled my ears. Strangely, though, I felt no cold.
As I remained still, the landscape before my eyes gradually transformed into a dazzling snowy mountain.
I stood halfway up the mountain. At the peak loomed an enormous Gate, and below it stretched a Military Encampment where soldiers were stationed.
‘Could this be the Main Gate? The Northern Mountains?’
It seemed impossible, yet that’s exactly what it appeared to be.
I wondered if Bloden might be down there in the Encampment.
“Your Majesty, I really don’t think this is the right course of action.”
The voice was unmistakably Raven’s, heavy with concern.
‘Wait—she wasn’t here a moment ago, was she?’
I turned around to find a sizable campfire and a neat Single-Story House had appeared on one side.
Two fur-lined chairs sat before the fire, and Bloden—who looked to be about thirteen—sat beside Raven, the two of them sipping tea.
‘Your Majesty! There you are! Are you all right?’
Delighted to find him, I hurried over and tried to speak with him.
But Bloden didn’t see me. Even when I waved my hand in front of his face and leaned in close, he gave no sign of acknowledgment.
He only stared at the steaming teacup with an expression of melancholy I’d never seen on him before.
I turned to Raven instead.
‘Raven?’
But she didn’t answer either.
‘It seems they can’t see me.’
Raven gazed at Bloden for a long while, her eyes troubled, before finally releasing a sigh.
“Depose Nelloa now.”
“Enough.”
“Then you’re truly accepting Cloy as the Imperial Princess? She isn’t even of your blood!”
“Nelloa is still better than Beldenburo.”
“This is a matter of Imperial Succession! You must establish a true heir.”
“I have no woman my heart inclines toward. What can I do?”
“Your Majesty, since when does an Emperor follow his heart? Lady Lienda will be devastated!”
“Why are you bringing Mother into this?”
“Do you think she won’t notice? If you mean to keep Nelloa as Empress, you might as well share her bed and produce a legitimate heir!”
“No.”
Bloden’s immediate refusal came with a furrowed brow.
“Nelloa is merely a replacement for Anna Beldenburo. We already agreed she would remain only temporarily until I formally take an Empress. That was the arrangement.”
‘What in the world are Bloden and Raven talking about?’
It was nothing like the original story I knew.
Lost in thought, trying to make sense of the situation, I felt the sensation of unseen eyes watching me again. Before, I hadn’t known who they belonged to, but now I thought I understood.
I cried out into the empty air.
‘Jellyfish! Is this your ability too?’
When I didn’t know better, he’d seemed like some kind of Hydra, but that title was far too grand for this creature!
Soon I heard Iturn’s tickled laughter.

-You’re quick on the uptake.

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