The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 136

136. Am I Pretty? (136/347)

April 23, 2022

Was it the cursed wave that had been placed on the ice that was affecting me?

The pain I felt in my palm lasted longer than I expected.

But it wasn’t unbearable, so I kept my hand on the cursed ice and talked with Joseph for a few more minutes.

“I should go now. The Emperor’s inner circle of three must be worried outside the chamber. I should put this back on to ease their worries.”

I put the fur coat I had placed on the floor back over my shoulders and waved to Joseph.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Joseph until I was right outside the chamber.

As soon as I stepped out, questions poured in.

“Are you alright, Your Majesty?”

“Aren’t you feeling any chills?”

“You were in there quite a while, so we were about to go in.”

The worried trio’s eyes were busy scanning my condition.

“I should come here once a day after the hunting competition, and more often in the summer.”

“Yes? Aren’t you cold at all?”

Stian asked immediately, sounding surprised.

“It’s very cool and nice.”

“Are you serious?”

Raphael asked, shivering from the cold air coming from the chamber.

I took off the fur coat I was wearing and handed it to Raphael, replying,

“I’m serious; that’s why I stayed so long.”

My body really felt fine, but my palms, which had touched the cursed ice, still had a tingling sensation.

When I went up the stairs, Linelle was waiting for me there.

“Are you okay?”

He asked, getting up from the stairs.

“Your Majesty, shall I prepare some warm tea?”

Sharon also asked worriedly.

“No, I’m fine, as you can see. Your Majesty, if I’m not seen in the palace, come find me in the chamber.”

I said with a smile to reassure them.

“Everyone, go out first. I’ll talk with the Empress here for a bit and then leave.”

At Linelle’s command, everyone went out beyond the bookshelf in the library.

“How was meeting him? He doesn’t look much like me, does he?”

He leaned against the wall and asked, holding out a hand to me.

“Yes, I think he’ll be much more handsome than Linelle later on.”

I took his hand and placed it on my waist, saying.

He chuckled softly.

“Oh, and he asked me to tell you that he loves you.”

“What?”

“Duke Joseph said he loves you very much. But he thinks he’ll love me more than his brother from now on.”

“Ha, tell him I’m very jealous.”

Linelle scoffed but agreed with what I said.

“Yes. I’ll also tell him that the person you love most in this world is no longer the Grand Duke but me. Is that okay?”

“Zelda…….”

“Will he be hurt? But it’s the truth, so he’ll accept it, right?”

I deliberately joked and made a smug face, and he suddenly pulled me into his arms.

“Thank you…….”

“Duke Joseph seems to like me a lot.”

I patted his back and said proudly.

“Joseph would have just been blinking; how did you know he liked you?”

He stroked the back of my head with a chuckle.

His touch seemed to say, ‘Stop talking nonsense.’

“Do I have to say it? There’s such a thing as feeling. And there’s the look in his eyes.”

“Really? Then guess what I’m saying with my eyes right now.”

He pointed to his eyes with his finger and asked.

“Hmm…… ‘You look more lovely tonight? It’s the day you leave for the hunting competition tomorrow, should I just let you sleep? Or not?’ That’s what you’re saying.”

The more he heard my words, the wider his lips grew.

He didn’t seem to have thought of that, judging by his flustered expression?

He laughed silently and hugged me again, then,

“The first part was right, but the second part was wrong. There’s no hesitation in that part.”

It seemed like he had changed what he was going to say for some reason.

“Ah, so even today…….”

I guess I won’t get a good night’s sleep.

……Hehe, that’s a relief.

***

Several minutes after Zelda left the chamber, something strange happened to the solid cursed ice.

The cursed ice began to crack from the area closest to Joseph’s body.

Joseph witnessed the cursed ice cracking right before his eyes.

The ice, which had been cracking like fine lines, was now cracking like the earth after an hour.

The cursed ice was cracking from the part where Zelda had placed her hands.

Joseph was so surprised that he opened his mouth wide.

‘Huh? My mouth opened?!’

After his mouth, his fingers twitched, and his toes wiggled.

All of this had happened after the Empress, whom Moia called master, had visited.

After two hours, Duke Joseph was able to move his limbs little by little inside the ice.

‘Maybe I’ll get out of here!’

It felt like he would be able to move his body freely by tomorrow.

***

I returned to the bedroom and soaked in the tub with Linelle.

I wanted to wash comfortably alone, but he stubbornly came into the tub.

He said there might not be any days to go into the tub together during the hunting competition, so we had to take the last bath together in the Imperial Palace?

When I asked if we could take a bath together again when we returned to the Empire, he said, ‘You never know what might happen,’ and stubbornly sat down in the tub.

As Linelle entered the tub, the water, which had been gradually warming up from lukewarm, suddenly turned cold.

I started to raise the water temperature for him.

Then his soft laughter reached my neck.

“When I lower the temperature, you raise it again. It’s fun.”

He muttered, scooping up the water in the tub with his hand.

“Didn’t you think it was strange before……? That the tub water was always warm.”

“I thought it was strange, but I never imagined it was because you had the power of fire.”

I nodded and chuckled quietly.

“Hot and cold mix to become lukewarm, but let’s not…… let’s not do that.”

He added, like a confession, that he hoped our relationship would always be hot.

As soon as I heard those words, my body immediately heated up, and the water temperature, which had been slowly rising, suddenly increased.

“We have such extreme body temperatures that we have to be together like this to maintain a normal body temperature, right?”

“Did it happen like this so we wouldn’t be apart? Well, God must have had a plan.”

“I thought you said you didn’t believe in God? I remember exactly what you said on our first night.”

“I might start believing from now on.”

His voice felt heavier than before.

“Why suddenly?”

“Because God makes miracles.”

“Do you need a miracle?”

There was no answer.

“Is it a secret?”

When I asked again,

“I’ll tell you when the miracle happens.”

Linelle replied, his arms and legs wrapping around me from behind as if to tie me up.

“Is that all we are to each other? Tsk, keeping secrets.”

I deliberately pouted and turned to look at him.

“Zelda, who was the surrogate empress, shouldn’t you be the one saying that?”

“…….”

That’s right, I shouldn’t be the one saying that, since I had so many secrets from him.

I had forgotten for a moment.

I politely and quietly changed my words.

“I’ll pray for the miracle to happen. I believe in God, so He’ll grant Linelle’s wish for my sake.”

“I really hope so…….”

I could feel his earnestness.

I felt like I knew what Linelle’s wish was, so I didn’t bother asking.

He probably wanted the curse on Grand Duke Joseph, trapped in the ice, to disappear quickly, right?

“Ah, actually, it doesn’t matter if a miracle doesn’t happen.”

He said, embracing my stomach with both hands after a moment of silence.

“Why?”

“Because I’m fine as I am.”

Huh? Wasn’t it a wish about Grand Duke Joseph?

“Are you really not going to tell me what your wish is?”

“You don’t need to know. Actually…… it’s not that important.”

He wants a miracle for a wish that isn’t important?

Something didn’t add up, but if that’s what he said, then that’s what it must be.

He seemed to want me to just let it go.

I nodded, then turned my head and held my face out to him.

“Why, what do you want me to do.”

“Am I pretty?”

“Why are you asking such a question?”

Linelle raised one eyebrow and asked.

Why else?

I’m asking because your eyes looking at me say, ‘My wife is pretty’?

Actually, it was something I had wanted to ask for a while, but I’m only asking now.

Besides, it was a question that suddenly popped out of my mouth when I was trying to change the somewhat somber mood.

“That’s what women are like; they want to be reassured of their love.”

“If I didn’t love you, why would I be all over you every night like a starving beast? Do you have to hear it in words?”

“Hmm, maybe you only love my body?”

“……What?”

Linelle grabbed his ear with an expression that he couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

I found that amusing, so I held back my laughter and asked again.

“Am I pretty?”

“I don’t know.”

“……What did you say?”

I grabbed my ear like Linelle and asked the same question.

His laughter echoing in the bathroom was quite annoying.

I used my strength to loosen his arms holding me and pushed him away, glaring at him properly.

He was still laughing even though I kept glaring at him, but he wouldn’t say the one word, ‘I’m kidding.’

Does he really think my face is not good?

Well, loving me and thinking I’m pretty might be different issues.

“Empress, there’s no time to ask strange questions. Today, we’ll wash up quickly, go out and love each other quickly, and sleep well. Do you understand?”

He picked up the soap that was placed next to the tub and started rubbing it on my back.

“Raise your arm, the other side too.”

I was making a sulky face, but I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at his flamboyant soaping on my back and arms.

“Now, turn around and put out your legs, Empress.”

***

After finishing the bath, I came out and sat side by side with him, leaning against the head of the bed.

Linelle said he had something to tell me before spending the last night in the Imperial Palace.

He told me about how the hunting competition would roughly go and what to be careful of in the forest.

But my head had been filled with other thoughts since earlier.

He sings songs about how much he loves me, but he doesn’t think I’m pretty?

“Are you not concentrating?”

Linelle pinched my cheek slightly when he saw my serious expression.

Don’t you look at my face properly either?

I stared at him intently, questioning him with my eyes.

“What again.”

He asked me, making a deflated sound.

Seeing that, the words I had only been thinking inside suddenly popped out.

“Who do you think is the prettiest among the concubines, including me?”

“…….”

Linelle suddenly became silent.

Is there no one? Am I so outstanding in there?

“Ah, I’ll broaden the range of choices. Among the people participating in this hunting competition. Objectively.”

I even brought up objectivity to avoid looking petty and broadened the range of choices.

“Objectively?”

“Yes, without any personal feelings. Objectively, when judging only by appearance.”

“Hmm…….”

His expression became even more serious than before.

Why, why is that?

Is he agonizing now for the sake of objective judgment, or is he struggling whether to say ‘You’re the prettiest’ with a benevolent lie?

I added the afterthought of asking for an objective judgment in the sense of evaluating fairly, but I became uneasy for no reason at his cold gaze trying to apply a truly objective standard.

“No. I don’t want to hear it.”

I waved my hand at his prolonged agony.

Yes, it’s better not to hear it at all than to get hurt.

“Why, I was about to say it now. The person I think is the prettiest…….”

Catherine? Melanie? Surprisingly, Rosie?

Why does the atmosphere feel like it’s not me?

Could it be Princess Resilia?

Oh, crap. Yeah, that could be it.

I clearly said the premise was ‘only the face,’ right?

“Ah, it’s okay. Don’t say it.”

I didn’t want to hear the words ‘When it comes to faces, Princess Resilia is the best, no matter what’ from Linelle’s mouth.

And I would definitely continue the question after hearing those words.

‘Who’s second?’

It’s a question that I can’t help but ask, even though I know it’s just a messy situation that only leaves scars. But I’m not confident that I won’t ask it again.

So let’s not hear it at all.

But he already had an expression on his face that he had listed the faces he thought were pretty in his head and ranked them.

“What kind of case is it to ask a question and not listen?”

“I suddenly became not curious.”

“No? You have a very curious face?”

“Not at all? Haaam.”

I yawned forcefully and lay down.

“Was it because you objectively knew that you weren’t number one?”

Linelle muttered to himself as he lay down following me.

At those words, my body automatically bounced up.

“What?”

“You surprised me. Did you think you were number one?”

“Yes!”

Wow, it’s my voice, but my voice is too confident.

Both he and I were surprised by the very firm cry.

The shame is my share, and the surprise is his share.

Since I can’t take back the words I’ve said, I have no choice but to ask openly.

“Who do you think is the prettiest?”

Who the hell is it?

I tried not to put strength in my eyes, but it seems I’ve already failed, seeing as my eyeballs are getting sore.

“Sorry. The gap between 1st and 2nd place was too big to switch the rankings with affection.”
Huh, why are you apologizing in a way that hurts my pride?

How great is the beauty of 1st place that you can’t switch it even with affection, why, why can’t you?

Oh my, look at this recklessness. I emphasized ‘objectivity,’ didn’t I?

Well, that’s good.

I’ll cherish this ruined mood and unleash it at the hunting competition.

I smiled as if I didn’t care.

But there’s constantly strength in the area under my eyes?

I thought my aegyo sal [bags under the eyes that are considered cute in some cultures] under my eyes might look like a gruesome flesh, so I closed my eyes altogether.

“So, who’s number one?”

Since my mood is already ruined, let’s hear it.

Linelle said with a very confident expression, as if he had been waiting.

“Number one is…….”