TECMF 01

Chapter 1

“Well, as long as the water is good, it doesn’t matter.”
“Thank you! I’ll bring back the good stuff!”

I had asked the seafood street vendors if they would buy seafood if I caught some, and one skinny, pot-bellied man rolled his eyes suspiciously before answering. After bowing my thanks to him, I walked away with a spring in my step.

Somehow, his positive response made me feel light enough to fly.

‘Once I sell seafood and make some money, I’ll buy soap, clothes, and food.’

Screech—

Just then, the cry of a flying seagull sounded pleasant. The distant blue sea, glittering under the sunlight, was incredibly beautiful.

Today marks the second day since I possessed the world of the romance novel This Princess is a Marriage Scammer.

When I first opened my eyes, I was alone in a shack that was practically a ruin.

The reflection in the dusty mirror showed a face that, though thin, was beautiful, and it was clear from every angle that this person had no family to speak of.

‘Perhaps I possessed someone who just starved to death due to poverty.’

Still, a hopeful hum escaped my lips.

“Since the sea is right in front of the shack, at least I don’t have to worry about survival.”

In my previous life, I worked my fingers to the bone at a traditional food factory in a seaside village, and even did side jobs like tide pooling, selling my catch to scrape by.

Even then, I died weighed down by my father’s gambling debts.

Whether before or after possession, the financially difficult situation was the same… but at least here, there’s no family to drag me into the abyss!

‘To think the tide pooling I did as a side job would be useful here too. It’s true, it’s never bad to learn something.’

Moreover, I was lucky enough to quickly figure out which novel I had possessed.

“Long live the Ilpein Empire! Long live His Imperial Majesty!”

Thanks to the cries of a newspaper boy I had just encountered.

“Buy a paper! Read all about His Majesty’s glorious victory in eradicating the magical beasts of the northern mountains!”

The boy, with an impassioned expression, was zealously selling papers while praising the empire.

The Ilpein Empire. Eradication of magical beasts in the northern mountains.

That was it.

The novel I possessed was the romance This Princess is a Marriage Scammer, where the female lead,  Nelloa,, who possesses a book, offers to break the curse of the male lead, Emperor Bloden Ilpein, in exchange for marriage.

And this place was Snow rill, a small port city in the Ilpein Empire.

The very region that was the backdrop for the serial kidnapping case of unaccompanied children, a case in which the male lead, Bloden, would personally intervene.

The kidnapping case came to light when criminals, disguised as commoners, mistook a noble child out on an outing for an orphan and took him. Bloden, while investigating this case, first meets the female lead,  Nelloa,…

‘Well, that’s the original story.’

The important thing was who I was and what role I played in the novel.

‘My name is Hailey, but it was never mentioned in the novel.’

Unfortunately, I hadn’t recalled this body’s memories. I only learned my name from a bakery owner who called out to me while I was walking around town.

Hailey..

It was a decent enough name, but dwelling on it also made me think of that bakery owner, which put me in a bad mood.

As soon as he saw me, he shoved bread into my hand, saying I must be so hungry and tired all alone.

I thought he was a good person, but then he mentioned his wife had gone to her parents’ house and suggested we talk quietly, just the two of us.

He said he’d hire me at his bakery and provide identity verification at the same time.

In the original work, there was a description that hiring someone without verified identity was illegal.

So, it was a proposition full of ill intent.

I shoved the bread right back in his face and gave him a piece of my mind, but thinking about it again still made me angry.

“Ugh, let’s just think positive thoughts. I secured a buyer, didn’t I?”

Muttering to myself, I glanced at my reflection in a shop window.

It was my second day since possession, and the more I looked, the more I liked this pretty face.

With each step, my platinum hair cascaded in long waves, scattering light spectacularly. Set against paper-white skin, my two clear, sea-like eyes shone like jewels, which made it even better.

Even dressed in a worn brown dress and being skin and bones, I looked this good. I wondered how I would look once I gained some healthy weight and wore decent clothes.

‘Great! Let’s eat well, sleep well, and get healthy! I’ll see for myself just how beautiful I can become!’

But for now, I was penniless.

“To eat well, I need money first.”

I recalled the coastal terrain in front of my house.

One side was a tidal flat, and the other was rocky, so it was likely teeming with various shellfish like octopus, sea cucumber, crabs, conches, pen shells, and sea snails.

Now that I had a buyer, once I made some money from seafood, I should fence off the empty land near the house and raise chickens for eggs.

‘I need to buy beans and peppers to make sauce. Ah, would geese be better than chickens?’

The food culture of the world I lived in before and this one was different, but since I saw beans and peppers for sale in town earlier, finding them wouldn’t be a problem.

‘If I tough it out for two or three months, I’ll solve the food problem somehow. To fix up the house and make the place livable, I’d probably need a full year, though.’

Just as I was making my own calculations and heading out to the sparsely populated outskirts, I heard it.

“Hey now, looks like our little friend here is lost?”

A man’s voice, pretending to be kind but sounding brazen.

“Let go!”

If it had just been that, I wouldn’t have paid attention. But it was followed by a child’s shrill cry, making my head turn automatically.

There, two burly men were holding the arm of a boy who looked about six or seven years old.

The boy, with short black hair and wearing shorts, was clearly wary of them. But the men just laughed, undeterred.

“We’ll help you find your parents. Where are they?”
“I said let go!”

Even as the child resisted, the men paid no heed.

“Ugh, this kid’s got a short way with words.”
“We’re taking you to your parents, okay?”

The boy looked around. As if hoping to call for help from someone.

That’s when I realized I’d seen this pattern in the original work.

‘This is a kidnapping scene!’

I hurriedly ran toward the child.

The original work mentioned that the perpetrators of the serial kidnappings only took children who appeared to be orphans.

‘Which means, if family is visible nearby, they won’t lay a hand on the child!’

If I were younger, I might have been kidnapped too, but thankfully, this body was clearly an adult of at least twenty years old. That should be enough to look like an older sister with a much younger brother.

“Max! There you are!”

Pretending to have been running, I gasped for breath and pulled the child into a tight hug.

Simultaneously, I was startled.

My goodness.

Even though his black hair was a bit disheveled, its texture was incredibly fine. His skin was as white as milk, and both cheeks were like freshly pounded rice cakes.

‘What kind of child looks like this…?’

His eyes, widened in surprise at my intervention, had no double eyelids and were a clear purple. Despite his youth, he had a high nose bridge, and his lips, tinged with a healthy color, were appropriately full and plump.

It was a neat, cute, handsome, pretty, and elegant face all at once. It was impossible to gauge how handsome a man he would grow up to be.

‘I hope he doesn’t have an awkward phase.’

That thought lasted only an instant.

Then, I snapped back to reality as the child’s brow furrowed slightly.

Now wasn’t the time to be mesmerized by a kid’s looks.

I also scowled deeply and quickly pretended to check the child’s condition.

“I was so worried when you disappeared! Are you hurt anywhere?”

Then I discovered a scrape on his knee. It looked like he’d grazed it somewhere—perfect.

“Oh my! ! Did you fall already? I told you to watch where you’re going!”
“…Huh?”

A note of confusion was evident in the child’s voice. Being young, he seemed to lack awareness for now.

I couldn’t let our family act be exposed as a lie.

I conspicuously spanked the child’s bottom pang pang.

“You little troublemaker!”

As the child gasped and swallowed hard, I quickly continued.

“Ugh, so frustrating! You, when we get home, you’re in for a serious scolding from your sister, you hear me?”