This Emperor Is Running a Marriage Scam - Chapter 83

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 83

If Nelloa was stupid and incompetent, wouldn’t that make her even better to use as a puppet?

‘If the marriage goes well, things will become very convenient. Then maybe I should help her out a bit, even if it takes time.’

One corner of Anna’s mouth lifted up.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never shown her His Majesty’s childhood portrait or given her a tour of the imperial palace interior.”

“Hahaha, Your Excellency the Regent was too harsh.”

At the chief minister’s kind yet joking tone, Anna also nodded leisurely while giggling.

“Right, I was too harsh. Even though her intentions are transparent, I should let this one slide.”

* * *

“Sigh. Primitive civilizations are problematic at times like this.”

Sitting alone after receiving Anna’s reply, Nelloa sighed.

The response to her letter requesting portraits of Bloden and Raven was positive.

However, it would take three months just to produce and send copies.

[The knight order dispatched for the derivative gate will arrive soon. So instead of worrying, wouldn’t the fastest method be for you to return with His Majesty to see the originals at the imperial palace?]

After seeing the alternative Anna proposed, Nelloa crumpled up the letter and burned it.

‘If I could do that, would I have sent such a request?’

She immediately wrote a reply and sent it to Anna.

[I am also very curious, but His Majesty wishes to take sufficient rest rather than return until he comes of age.]

After writing a letter with various excuses saying she would wait for copies of the portraits, Nelloa recalled the state of the derivative gate she had created in the forest near the wheat field.

Making it quickly so that monsters would emerge several times a day was good. However, the gate’s effects were below expectations.

Because there were no casualties at all!

The situation needed to escalate for Bloden to appear.

‘I thought it was big in my own way, but maybe the derivative gate’s scale was too small.’

It seemed she would need to gather more seeds to create a larger gate.

However, she didn’t plan to overdo it like when she created the derivative gate in the forest near the wheat field.

Back then, she used too much power at once and was bedridden with severe illness for a while.

Whether it was her imagination or not, the fine wrinkles that appeared on her face at that time still seemed not to have disappeared.

For that reason, Nelloa was now slowly producing derivative gate seeds. Thanks to quite a few days passing, she now had about twenty seeds.

After estimating when the portraits would arrive, Nelloa sent the orphanage director’s wife home for now. She had decided to stay in Aer for a while and focus on making seeds.

‘Let me make thirty more seeds. That much should be…’

Nelloa recalled the derivative gate hidden on the outer wall of the orphanage storage shed in Snoril.

That place wasn’t inside the orphanage. After careful examination, she had found a location where she could grow the gate without going inside while avoiding other people’s notice.

That gate was still small and had no presence.

‘But if I leave it for about three months, won’t it grow enough for at least one low-grade monster to emerge?’

She planned to return to Snoril briefly when that time came and use all the seeds she had made to maximize the gate’s growth.

After that, she would return to Aer Domain as if she were completely unrelated and receive the portraits that would arrive just in time.

By then, there was no way news of Bloden wouldn’t reach her.

If she was lucky enough to learn of his whereabouts in advance, it would be even better.

* * *

The soybean paste, soy sauce, and red pepper paste were safely prepared. Now I was just leaving them to ferment and waiting for them to mature.

Baron’s academy admission was also proceeding well.

I received news that Baron had qualified for the ‘recommendation letter special admission’ and became one of 40 students after beating a 5-to-1 competition ratio. Raven’s recommendation letter had shown its worth.

With this, Baron had moved one step further away from his death flag.

I was so happy as if I had gained the whole world, so I made foods like tofu and nurungji as gifts for Raven to show my gratitude.

My motivation naturally blazed up.

‘Now all that’s left is securing the tuition!’

Actually, I wasn’t too worried.

I had already calculated how to gather the money, so I just needed to work diligently.

This had happened over a month ago. Only now did I realize that was a misconception.

“This is really strange.”

There was nothing wrong with the weather or tides, but the population of seafood that had been so abundant suddenly dropped at some point and wasn’t recovering. Because of this, my foraging yields consistently fell short of expectations.

Still, there was no problem with Baron and me making a living. The issue was that Baron’s academy admission had hit a red light.

At first, I wondered if there had been drastic changes in the surrounding marine environment, so I discreetly checked how much others were catching.

However, others had no problems at all. That made it even stranger.

“It’s not like someone deliberately cleared everything out, so how does this make sense?”

Even when I sat on the white sand beach for a moment and blankly watched the sea, I kept tracing dates and numbers on the ground with my finger. I was recalculating my expected income.

The more I did this, the more my head throbbed and I could only sigh.

“Sigh, this won’t work… I really need to find other ways to make money.”

Currently, the only thing I could do was run a stall.

I turned my head to look at the wooden platform. Right now, sliced radish and cabbage were drying well on the platform.

These were items I could sell immediately besides seafood.

But there were still barriers to entry.

Dried radish strips and dried cabbage leaves were unfamiliar ingredients in this world. I needed to teach people where and how to use them.

‘Should I add nurungji?’

After thinking for a moment, I shook my head.

Going to the city to run a stall was still too much for me.

Places where business would be good were already packed with all kinds of stalls. I could only try the outskirts with little foot traffic.

Also, according to Ben’s stories, I would need to guard the spot all day.

If business was bad and I left my spot, people would forget. Conversely, if it went well, someone would target the gap when I left.

In other words, whether business went well or not, opening a stall meant I would have to quit foraging.

‘Even when taking on new challenges, I need to maintain my existing livelihood foundation.’

I needed to think of ways to create additional income while maintaining my current lifestyle.

Just then, Baron wrapped his arms around my neck from behind.

“Nuna, what are you doing? It’s been almost an hour since we agreed to go to the night market.”

Today was the first night market in several months. Since it was supposed to be quite fun, we had promised to all gather together and enjoy the night market after sunset.

Ben’s family and Cosette’s family were also planning to join us.

Baron rested his chin on my shoulder, looked at the sandy beach, and chuckled.

“Calculating my tuition again?”

“Ah. Yeah.”

“What’s there to worry about? I just won’t go.”

“Like you won’t go.”

“You said foraging hasn’t been going well lately. How will you get the money?”

“I’ll figure out a way somehow.”

“There is an easy method though.”

Baron pointed at Raven’s mansion with his thumb.

“You could just borrow some money from Raven or Ben, right?”

“Ugh, no way.”

“Ben might charge some interest, but Raven would give it interest-free without hesitation, right? No, since Raven likes me so much, he might just pay for my tuition.”

“Ack! Baron. It’s true that Raven likes you very much, but you can’t use someone’s goodwill like that!”

I waved my hands frantically in shock.

“How much have I already owed you, and now I’m borrowing money too.”

“Still, in this situation, there doesn’t seem to be any other way, does there?”

Baron took a step back and put his clasped hands behind his head as he spoke.

“I’m already so grateful for everything Nuna has done for me, so I wish you’d let go of the burden completely.”

‘Hahaha, this kid. So this is how he’s saying he doesn’t want to go to the Academy.’

I smiled brightly and patted Baron’s head.

“Our Baron will do well at the Academy, right?”

Baron lowered his hands and puffed out his chest.

“Of course. But I hope it won’t be hard on Nuna.”

“Alright, this Nuna will try not to make it hard.”

“Is that possible?”

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