The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 109

109. I Got Caught, Moiya

2022.01.19.

It definitely had red eyes when I first met him in the Empress Palace garden, didn’t it? What happened? The appearance is definitely this cat, but it’s really strange. Are there perhaps two cats?

“Ah, that could be.”

I put the white kitten down on the floor.

“Is your friend in there too? He has red eyes. Right?”

I glanced under the bed and spoke to the cat, but it was just me talking to myself. But the cat backed away and slipped under the bed as if running away. What, suddenly?

“Tell the friend who met me then to come out.”

I chuckled and said to the cat that went under the bed.

“Come out.”

I tapped the marble floor with both hands and called for the red-eyed cat that I held in my arms in the Empress Palace garden.

“Yes, yes. Come out here.”

I could see red eyes flickering in the dark under the bed. So there are two cats after all. I spoke as soothingly as possible so that the cat I met in the Empress Palace garden wouldn’t be scared.

“I came to see you. So come out. Huh?”

The two red eyes hesitated and stayed in place for a while before slowly revealing themselves from behind the bedpost.

“That’s right, come here… Huh! W, what is this…?!”.

The red eyes that timidly revealed themselves from behind the bedpost were not a cat but a baby wyvern. …A wyvern? Yeah, that’s a wyvern, right? I suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed sideways, plopping down.

“M, Master! Master-nim?!”

The baby wyvern ran to me with a worried face and shouted.

“Oong? Master’s butt must hurt a lot, Moiya~”.

“Gasp!”

I was really on the verge of fainting. Am I hallucinating right now? The wyvern is even talking… I looked up at Bonnis and Sharon. Not only me, but the two of them were also sitting on the floor with their mouths wide open, staring intently at the baby wyvern. Haa, I’m not seeing things. Still, just in case, I rubbed my eyes with my hands. The baby wyvern was still staring at me in front of me. At that moment, the bathroom door opened.

“H, Your Majesty the Empress!”

Rosie, holding Ramses, came out and looked back and forth between the baby wyvern and me, then screamed and called me as she slid to the floor and knelt. A situation similar to when Ramses was caught yesterday was unfolding.

“Your Majesty the Empress! Are you okay?”

Rosie said the same thing as the baby wyvern, looking at me with a very nervous face. As soon as Rosie came out of the bathroom, the baby wyvern hid behind the bedpost again, only sticking its head out to the side and openly looking at me.

“How are you going to explain today’s events?”

I gestured with my chin at the baby wyvern behind Rosie. Rosie turned her head to the baby wyvern. Then, the baby wyvern lowered its head and took a step back, trying to sneak under the bed.

“Stop! If you understand me.”

I quickly pointed at the baby wyvern with my hand. Surprisingly, the baby wyvern put the hind feet that had been stretched back forward again and hugged the bedpost again. Oh my gosh, it really understands what I’m saying.

“That bright red, no, that pitch black, no… that baby wyvern. Explain, Rosie.”

Even while talking to Rosie, the baby wyvern kept coming into my sight. I don’t know why it’s looking at me with such desperate eyes.

“That’s… well….”

“It’s okay, don’t be nervous. How is there a wyvern in the Imperial Palace? Especially in your chambers.”

Rosie nodded at my words, swallowed hard, and opened her mouth.

“Do you remember the big egg that you saw when you visited here before, Your Majesty?”

“Ah, the one that rolled under my feet?”

“Yes, the egg that you were going to eat for lunch, Your Majesty.”

“Don’t tell me… that egg hatched? That’s, that’s him?”

“That’s right, Your Majesty.”

As soon as Rosie finished speaking, the baby wyvern behind her rubbed its belly and said to me.

“I almost went into Master’s belly, Moiya~”.

Rosie turned her head to look at the baby wyvern and told it to be quiet, saying ‘shh’. Then, the baby wyvern, who had been touching its belly, closed its mouth again and stood at ease. Ah, now that I think about it, didn’t Emperor Adrian jokingly call me the Queen of Wyverns? And he asked if I knew that there was a wyvern in the Imperial Palace. Did Eun-galchi [Emperor Adrian’s nickname] really notice the existence of that baby wyvern already? If so, how does Eun-galchi know?

“Rosie, how did you have a wyvern egg?”

“My mother originally kept it, but she entrusted it to me before she passed away.”

“How did Rosie’s mother get it?”

“My mother… was actually a magician, and I heard that she received it from her teacher.”

“Haa, Rosie. You know very well that the Northern and Southern continents waged war to take possession of wyvern eggs, right? If it becomes known that this baby wyvern is inside the Lapion Imperial Family…”

I lowered my voice.

“Of course. But that egg that you saw, Your Majesty, hadn’t hatched for 300 years. So that baby wyvern is not the wyvern egg from the Valley of Death. Ah, his name is Moiya.”

“…Okay, Moiya.”

I glanced at the baby wyvern and called its name. For some reason, Moiya had been looking at me with hearts pouring out of its eyes since a while ago.

“Moiya was trapped in an egg for 300 years and hatched a while ago.”

“Is that, is that even possible?”

“In the wyvern world, yes. I don’t know why Moiya couldn’t hatch from the egg for 300 years, but what’s certain is…”

Rosie paused for a moment, took a breath, and continued.

“Moiya hatched after you visited, Your Majesty.”

“…What?”

“I think Moiya was awakened by your voice or energy, Your Majesty.”

I was so dumbfounded that I burst out laughing. At the same time, though,

-‘Queen of Wyverns!’

Those words that Emperor Adrian said to me in his mind kept repeating.

***

‘Finally, you know about Moiya’s existence!’

Misha bathed Ramses with Rosie, then discreetly left the bedroom and sent all the servants in the waiting room outside the bedroom to the hallway, just like yesterday. She had to inform Bellos Brodean, the master of the Magic Tower, who was her original master, of this fact. She opened the window and whistled to call the crow. Before the crow arrived at the window, Misha took out a piece of paper from her pocket and wrote that the Empress had finally met the baby wyvern. Even before she finished folding the paper, the crow flew to the window frame and raised one of its feet.

“Today is the day to deliver the important news you’ve been waiting for.”

Misha smiled as she tied the paper to the crow’s raised foot.

“Go quickly.”

At Misha’s words, the crow flew back into the sky.

***

“Is that perhaps…”

Emperor Adrian, who was taking a walk near the detached palace, shielded the sunlight with his left hand and raised his head. A crow was flying away. The crow, which was crossing the sky, disappeared into thin air at some point. Seeing that, Emperor Adrian was convinced that it was the crow used by Bellos Brodean.

“Did you already know everything? Well, it was originally your egg.”

The crow was bound to head to Akrato Island, where the Magic Tower was located.

“Master of the Magic Tower, are you finally going to make a move?”

Emperor Adrian muttered, glancing at the buildings of the concubines in the West Palace in the distance.

“You’ve cut off the energy of the wyvern so that I can’t feel it from here.”

So he couldn’t know which building in the West Palace the wyvern was in.

“It’s definitely somewhere there…”

Emperor Adrian continued his walk, moving his steps again.

***

That wyvern awakened through me? No matter how much I think about it, I can’t accept it.

“Right now… is there anyone who understood what Rosie is saying?”

I looked back and forth at Bonnis and Sharon and asked. The two of them still couldn’t close their mouths that had been open a while ago. At that time, the baby wyvern slyly raised its hand. Seeing that, Rosie scolded Moiya as if rebuking him.

“Tsk, I told you to stay still.”

Moiya scratched his wing as he lowered his hand, and

“Miyaong.”

The kitten, who had crawled back under the bed, cried and approached Moiya, licking his wing and sitting down.

“His name is Ao-ssi, Master.”

Moiya told me the cat’s name when I looked at the cat. Why are the names of both the wyvern and the cat like that? Ao-ssi trembled as before when he met my eyes. Anyway, the title ‘Master’ that Moiya calls me is very annoying. Emperor Adrian, who called me the ‘Queen of Wyverns,’ must know something too… My head was a mess. First of all, I thought I should hear a more detailed explanation from Rosie.

“Rosie, why did that wyvern, no, Moiya, awaken to me?”

No matter how much I think about it, it’s a part I can’t understand.

“Master called me, Moiya~”.

Before Rosie could open her mouth, Moiya flapped his little wings and interrupted. I ignored Moiya’s words and asked Rosie again.

“You said your mother was a magician, what kind of magician was she?”

“Before marrying my father, my mother trained as a healing magician at the Magic Tower on Akrato Island. And I heard that the Master of the Magic Tower entrusted her with the wyvern egg.”

“Is your mother from Akrato Island?”

“Yes. Ah, and wyvern eggs can usually hatch on their own even if the mother doesn’t hold them, but special wyverns can only hatch by a specific power.”

“You’re saying Moiya is such a case?”

When I asked Rosie, Moiya behind her nodded and smiled shyly.

“But Moiya hatched after I visited. What power do I have?”

“I don’t know that well…”

“Rosie, you really don’t know?”

I looked over the numerous books that were laid out like stepping stones on her bedroom floor and asked as if I were pressing her. There was no way that she, who was usually a bookworm, hadn’t looked into this matter. As I expected, Rosie touched her lips with her hand and made a hesitant expression.

“It’s okay, tell me anything you know. Ah, and Bonnis and Sharon are okay.”

I reassured her in advance, thinking that she might not be able to speak easily because of the two of them. Since they had already witnessed Ramses and even the wyvern, there was nothing more to hide from them.

“But it’s not certain yet…”

“Tell me even a guess.”

Only then did Rosie nod her head greatly and open her mouth.

“In my short thoughts… I cautiously guess that you might be a Wyvern Lord, Your Majesty.”

“I’m… what?”

I pressed my sternum with the tips of my fingers and asked again. Now, even a hollow laugh didn’t come out. What nonsense!

“One who controls fire. Will become the Lord who moves the Wyvern.”

“What?”

“Those are the words my mother told me. And my mother gave me an ancient book written about Wyverns, and in that book…”

Rosie trailed off again and looked at me.

“Keep talking, quickly.”

I tried to maintain my composure.

“I saw a picture with a certain mark drawn on it. That mark seems to appear to those who control fire… It was quite similar to the burn scar on your right cheek, Your Majesty.”

I froze at Rosie’s words. Rosie knows my burn scar… When, how did she see it?!