I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 2

Chapter 1: The Contract Daughter-in-Law

“Give me the money now! I said, give me the money!”

At seventeen, Judith’s situation was dire. She was, quite literally, an orphan with nothing left but debt.

“If you don’t at least pay the interest by this Thursday, you’ll regret it!”

It felt like she had heard that same threat about twenty times now.

Judith Ailan sighed, closing her eyes as she sat there in her disheveled state. After her father, Paul Ailan, had taken his own life, she, his only daughter, had become Baroness Ailan.

But calling her a baroness was a joke—she was left with nothing but a mountain of debt.

To make matters worse, her mother had run off with everything of value.

Together with a servant she had grown unusually close to, her mother had stolen all of Judith’s jewelry and disappeared.

The only thing left behind was Judith.

“What am I supposed to do?”

Judith, clad in a tattered dress, let out a heavy sigh. Her father, who had been so consumed by gambling that he rarely even came home, was dead. And her mother, who had always been too busy spending time with the servant to pay attention to Judith, had fled. But these things felt like they had happened to someone else, not to her.

It was more like a vague premonition she had harbored for a long time had simply become a reality.

What she couldn’t handle with the same indifference, however, was the debt that now rested squarely on her shoulders.

“What am I going to do…?”

She didn’t have any friends anymore either. After her father’s death, she had gone around to her friends trying to borrow money, but in the process, she had lost them too.

But Judith couldn’t even blame them. Her debt was so overwhelming that it was no surprise they had cut ties with her.

If she couldn’t pay the interest, she would be dragged away by loan sharks. In situations like hers, noblewomen typically either took their own lives to protect their honor or were sold off to wealthy old men who would pay their debts.

To put it bluntly, Judith was trapped.

But she had one thing—something special. When her father died, she suddenly remembered her past life.

It was on the day she had been kicked out, unable to see the face of the friend she thought she was close to, that she realized she had reincarnated into a novel she had read in her past life.

‘Hmm, even if I want to use the original story to my advantage, this is way before the start of the plot.’

She knew when the story began because, unlike the Judith in the novel, she had not yet sold off the barony in an auction or moved into the rundown boarding house.

The opening scene of the novel was when the entire street, including that boarding house, burned to the ground.

The title of the book she had been reading right up until her death in her past life was A Flower Blooms in the Ruins.

It was a story about a resilient flower shop owner, the female protagonist, who lost everything when the street burned down, yet persevered through adversity and found love.

Judith could remember every detail of the story, even though she hadn’t paid it much attention.

As soon as she recalled her past life, Judith went straight to the flower shop owned by the female protagonist in the story. The female protagonist was…

Twelve years old.

There were three years left until the fire, and eight years until the female protagonist would start getting involved with the men of the story.

‘Surely… surely there’s something I can take advantage of?’

Thankfully, Judith could remember every word of the novel without error. But no matter how much she combed through the heroine’s and hero’s stories, she couldn’t find a good solution.

‘Then maybe there’s something on the villain’s side… though the villain is probably still a kid too. Oh, wait!’

The villain who harbored twisted emotions for the heroine and tormented her, Karl Mayus.

‘The Mayus Ducal House!’

Karl Mayus had a backstory that explained his villainy. He had been secretly abused by a temporary contract daughter-in-law brought into the family when he was still a child.

Already emotionally unstable after his older brother, whom he adored, had gone missing, Karl was unable to tell his parents about the abuse and had no choice but to suffer in silence.

His personality became deeply twisted, and eventually, he grew into the villain…

‘What if I became that contract daughter-in-law? The Mayus family didn’t care who it was, after all.’

In the novel, the Mayus family had brought in a maid as a stand-in, claiming she was pregnant with their missing son’s child, just to delay declaring him officially dead.

Of course, the Mayus family could have forced the issue using their power, but that carried significant risks.

‘Besides, the imperial family hates the Mayus family. If they force the issue, it might give the imperial family an excuse to step in.’

So, even though it was a charade, they needed someone to officially register a marriage with their eldest son, leaving a record of the marriage. For that, the Mayus family was willing to pay handsomely.

‘The eldest son never returns in the story anyway. Later, they just claim she had a miscarriage and send her off with a big payout…’

Judith’s eyes gleamed with thought.

‘What if I took that spot? I wouldn’t abuse the young villain, and I’d just leave with the money. That way, everyone wins, right?’

Even if he was a villain, no child should have to suffer abuse. If Karl didn’t experience abuse, maybe he wouldn’t become a villain after all. That would be a good outcome too.

Judith made up her mind as she thought of the young female protagonist she had observed in the village.

In three years, if she approached the Mayus family at just the right time, it wouldn’t be too hard to secure the position of contract daughter-in-law.

The Mayus family would surely reward her handsomely, just like in the novel, and that would be the end of her enormous debt.

‘Of course, unlike the maid in the novel, I won’t be offered the position directly, so I’ll have to be clever… but still…’

The only problem was that she had to survive for three years. Three years until she could approach the Mayus family.

‘How will I manage until then? I need to at least pay the interest on my debt.’

She could survive on odd jobs for herself, but that wouldn’t be enough to cover the interest payments. Judith clasped her head in frustration.

She searched through the novel again, remembering every detail. The only thing she had that others didn’t was information. Limited information, but still…

‘…Oh! Information! I know things!’

Her eyes sparkled with a new idea.

‘There’s an information guild in this neighborhood too.’

In the novel, there was a line about the main office of the Grey Information Guild, which had been thriving in the capital, burning down along with the rest of the street. Everyone had died, leaving the male protagonist regretting it later…

‘Couldn’t I sell the information I know?’

There wasn’t much in the form of flashbacks in the novel, so her knowledge of the events before the story started wouldn’t fetch a huge price. But still, it was something.

‘The name was Grey Information Guild, right?’

Judith sprang to her feet and headed out into the street.

‘I need to meet the Master. If the Master doesn’t recognize the information, it won’t be worth anything.’

***

The information guild wasn’t located in a secretive place. It looked just like a neighborhood shop with a sign outside. The only problem was that it was hard to meet the Master.

The Grey Information Guild was a newly emerging guild that had been growing rapidly in recent times.

Many people sought out the Master, but the Master rarely showed their face. From what Judith had heard around town, no one had ever actually seen the Master’s face.

“I’m here to sell information.”

So, when she arrived at the Grey Information Guild, Judith made up her mind to deal directly with the Master.

The attendant at the entrance smiled and said, “Please tell me what you have. I will relay the information to the Master.”

“I’d like to tell the Master myself.”

“It’s against policy. If you share the information with me, I’ll pass it along and give you the money.”

“Ah.”

Judith had anticipated this. She had already thought of a way to get around such policies. Smiling, she raised her chin and spoke confidently.

“Is it because I’m young that the Master won’t see me?”

She knew that it wasn’t because she was seventeen that she wasn’t being treated like a customer. She had mentioned her age to set up what she would say next.

“As far as I know, the Master is also a minor.”

Sure enough, the attendant hesitated, looking a bit flustered. He didn’t know what to do.

Judith stood there, her face brimming with confidence, waiting through the awkward silence. Finally, a door behind the attendant slowly opened.

And at that moment, a young man wearing a mysterious mask appeared.

“Well.”

She couldn’t see his expression through the mask, but the amusement in his voice was unmistakable.

“It seems we have a rather interesting guest.”

This was her first meeting with the enigmatic Master, with whom she would continue trading information for the next three years.