This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 249

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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 249

It seems Iturn has the ability to replay the memories and past of whatever enters his belly as if they were hallucinations, and to witness them.
And the way to escape from Iturn’s hallucinations is to realize that they’re not real. The moment I understood that, I snapped back to my senses—I was certain of it.
‘And when I touched Bloden’s body, everything around me changed.’
This time, it seemed I’d been pulled into Bloden’s past memories.
‘Then… I need to wake him!’
I rushed toward Bloden.
I knew he couldn’t see me. But when I was watching the past, I distinctly heard the voices of Dantarion, Crockel, and Heart.
Yet here, their voices couldn’t reach this place at all.
‘But I’m here, at least.’
If I kept speaking, maybe Bloden would be able to hear my voice.
‘Your Majesty! Can you hear me?’
I ran up to him and called out loudly, and Bloden lifted his head. With hope kindling, I pressed on.
‘This is a hallucination! Wake up now!’
But Bloden wasn’t looking at where I was.
“Keeeeee!”
He was watching a white hawk streaking across the empty air, crying out with a long, piercing call.
‘Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Snap out of it!’
-Kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk! No matter how much you call, it’s useless.
Growing frustrated, I called to him even louder, and Iturn sneered at me.
-Those who enter my belly experience the past like reality. Since I only show what actually happened, it’s hard for them to notice it’s a hallucination.
‘You only show things that actually occurred?’
-And specifically, I pick out the day that was hardest to endure and show it. I can watch it too.
Only then did I understand why I’d been shown that particular day.
Before the possession, my body was always tired and weary in that world, so there was nothing shocking about it. But that day was when the hope of living a new life crumbled.
-Even if you wake from the hallucination, there’s no way out of my belly. Kuk-kuk-kuk.
The difference was merely whether you were in a hallucination or not—either way, you’d end up being consumed.
-Do you know how amusing it is to watch minds crumble and suffer in anguish? Thanks to this ability, I’ve accumulated knowledge and know the history of the world.
‘What a perverted, twisted taste. Now that I think about it, you’re even worse than a jellyfish.’
At the same time, I was deeply concerned about Bloden’s state.
‘So this is Bloden’s hardest day ever.’
But there was a contradiction in Iturn’s words. Realizing this, I challenged him.
‘You said you only show the past—don’t lie!’
-If I see all of your pasts, you’ll be consumed and disappear. Why would I lie?
‘His Majesty only became an adult not long ago! And everyone in the world now knows that Nelloa committed an unforgivable act!’
That was when Raven began trying to convince Bloden again.
“It has already been ten years since you agreed to remain as interim empress.”
I pointed to Raven. He was now saying that the empress was Nelloa. It differed slightly from the original story, but it wasn’t hard to understand.
‘Look, just listen to what he’s saying—His Majesty is over thirty years old! There’s no way this is the past! You manipulated it!’
-No! Hallucinations show only the real past, and only in chronological order. That much is true. It is strange, as you said, but I don’t choose what to show.
‘…You want me to believe you?’
-Was there even a single lie in the hallucinations I showed you?
I found myself speechless.
There had been no falsehood in the hallucinations Iturn had shown me.
‘So the scenery I’m seeing now is truly Bloden’s past?’
That was when it happened.
Rumble.
Thunder roared from somewhere.
Looking back, an avalanche was crashing down.
Raven, returning to his true form as a Deathknight, summoned skeletal war horses and bone cavalry, then drew out his Soul Lance and swung it once with tremendous force.
The threatening avalanche was struck by his attack and dispersed in mid-air. With the threat gone, all that remained was the magnificent vista of snow glittering in the sunlight as it spread majestically across the landscape.
“It seems monsters are coming down, Your Majesty.”
Having spoken thus, Raven examined Bloden’s appearance and sighed.
“I had planned to remain here until you fully recover your mana, so it would be best if Your Majesty did not summon a Commander this time.”
At Raven’s words, Bloden rose from his place and drew his sword.
Immediately after, monsters both large and small began pouring out from the Gate.
“Kuoooo!”
“Kieeeek!”
Bloden let out a piercing shriek as he began cutting down the monsters that rushed at him without mercy.
Despite the threatening onslaught, not a single monster made it past the mountain slope.
Once the battle ended, Raven ordered his subordinates to clear away the monster corpses, then began preparing a meal. In the meantime, Bloden took out a Cleanliness Magic Stone and tidied his appearance.
The moment I saw that, my face flushed hot again.
It brought back the memory of that first evening when Baron had come to the house—when I’d made him wash his face and told him to blow his nose, and how utterly flustered he’d been.
‘So that’s why Baron was so meticulously clean, unlike the other children.’
Next, he pulled out a book on how to catch frogs and a pen.
Opening the book, Bloden corrected and added notes to its contents.
‘Ah, so it wasn’t a book about poisonous frogs—it was about monsters.’
Then a sudden gust of wind swept across the mountainside, and my vision went white in an instant.

I reflexively covered my face with both arms, and when the wind cleared, Bloden and Dantarion were sitting in that exact spot.
Bloden, who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, sat with his legs crossed, watching a white hawk cutting through empty air with lifeless eyes.
Soon Kimarise approached him and handed over a letter with a bow.
“My lord, word has come that Raven Aner has suppressed the rebel forces and executed their leader, Lord Kail Frediky, by summary judgment.”
‘Ah, so Kail was the Captain of the Knights mentioned in the original spin-off.’
The fact that this news had come now meant another ten years had passed since the past I’d just witnessed.
Bloden accepted the envelope with only a slight nod, his expression unchanged. Beside him, Dantarion’s brow furrowed.
“What? A Deathknight of all things, and it couldn’t subdue a mere human without killing him?”
“The Captain of the Knights wasn’t exactly ordinary. He was the one who rebuilt his entire house after earning such distinction that his clan should have been exterminated.”
Kimarise spoke with a wry smile as Bloden opened the letter.
“Empress Nelloa has written a detailed report in that correspondence, sir.”
I found myself curious about what Nelloa had written.
Unable to resist my curiosity, I moved behind Bloden. And reading the letter over his shoulder, I was so flabbergasted that I cursed Nelloa at thin air.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me—were you a bald-head here too!’
So much for a detailed report; the letter contained only requests.
She needed funds to restore the Imperial Palace and hoped to rebuild everything from scratch while they were at it, and since military forces were insufficient and would take time to properly replenish, she was asking him to send the Knight Order that was stationed at the Military Encampment Below Northern Mountains.

[Since the work there is handled by the Commanders anyway, I judge that the encampment requires only supplies.]

Bloden exhaled softly through his nose and handed the letter to Kimarise.
“Proceed as written.”
“As you wish.”
Another wind gust came howling through.

When my vision cleared enough to see again, I was genuinely startled.
Bloden’s atmosphere had become devastatingly somber. The military encampment below the mountain lay buried in snow, and no people were visible at all.
Gathered in front of the house on the mountain slope were all the people Bloden and I knew.
Raven and Dantarion, Kimarise and Crockel, and the three Spirits.
It was deeply reassuring to see them, yet something felt wrong.
The expressions of Raven, Dantarion, and Kimarise were all gloomy. Moreover, the others didn’t quite match the atmosphere I remembered.
‘Why do they all look like that?’
The Crockel and Heart I knew had remarkably varied expressions. Serch and Camen expressed their emotions in their own ways too.
But the Crockel and Spirits present now all seemed utterly expressionless.
“Your Majesty.”
Raven spoke as if grinding his teeth.
“Surely there’s no need to choose to leave not even a bone fragment behind?”
Bloden shook his head.
“The monsters from the Gate are infinite, and my Mana has limits. It’s better to let one side survive than to watch all of you consumed.”
Bloden’s eyes were completely hollow.

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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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