The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 318

318. Daughter, Knock First

“Your Majesty!”

A court lady, carrying a basin and heading to the bathing chamber, was startled by the Emperor who rushed into the bedroom.

Those gathered before the bed also bowed their heads, looking at Linelle.

“The bleeding is already too severe; there’s nothing more we can do…”

Just then, the palace physician spoke to Bellos, who stood beside him.

Linelle felt like his breath was being squeezed out of him.

“Pesilini, don’t lose your mind. Okay?”

It was Zelda’s voice.

He had completely forgotten that he was holding his breath until her voice made him exhale sharply.

‘Then who is lying on the bed now?’

The relief was fleeting.

Another sense of foreboding drew him to the bed.

The baby’s face was visible among the court ladies.

The person holding the baby was Pesilini’s lady-in-waiting.

‘So, Pesilini gave birth?’

However, the expressions of the ladies-in-waiting and the palace physician who had assisted in the delivery were grim.

From Zelda’s sobbing, he could tell that Pesilini’s condition was serious.

As Bellos pushed past the palace physician to check Pesilini’s energy, her hand fell limply off the bed.

This, too, was a scene from his dream.

Linelle stopped walking and pressed his hand to his forehead.

‘The woman from the nightmare was Pesilini?’

“Your Ladyship, please come to your senses! Your Ladyship!”

The baby, startled by Bellos’s voice, burst into tears.

“Why, why is this happening? Ah, no!!”

Zelda sat on the bed and shook Pesilini awake.

“Your Majesty, Empress, please calm down. You need to rest. What if your stomach cramps up again? Please!”

Sharon supported Zelda, weeping.

Zelda had been struggling with stomach pains while Pesilini was giving birth, so Sharon was terrified.

But Zelda continued to shake Pesilini’s shoulders.

“It’s a very beautiful daughter. The baby is crying; you need to hold her. You need to feed her… okay?”

Pesilini did not respond to Zelda’s words.

Then Zelda began to get angry.

“How dare you continue to lie in the Empress’s bed? Get up now! That’s an order! Quickly!”

At Zelda’s wailing, the court ladies surrounding the bed also sniffled and cried aloud.

Bellos lowered his head deeply and stepped back from the bed.

“Master Mage Tower!”

Bellos turned around at Linelle’s call and shook his head.

It was already too late, his expression said.

Linelle ran a hand over his face and approached.

Finally, the palace physician specializing in childbirth took Pesilini’s wrist and checked her pulse.

Linelle looked down at the physician.

The physician held Pesilini’s wrist for about a minute before rising and bowing to Linelle.

“I am sorry, Your Majesty.”

No long explanation was needed.

The baby cried even more sorrowfully, as if knowing her mother had died.

Pesilini’s lady-in-waiting soothed the baby while weeping even louder than the infant.

Linelle’s heart was heavy.

His nightmare had become a reality.

He was relieved that the protagonist in the nightmare was not Zelda, but Pesilini’s death was also heartbreaking for him.

He quietly embraced the grieving Zelda from behind.

“Your Majesty, the Empress’s condition is very poor. She keeps having stomach cramps.”

Sharon said quietly to Linelle.

“We must move her to another room.”

Bellos added with a worried expression.

Linelle picked up Zelda, who was exhausted from crying, and left the bedroom.

***

I woke up the day after Pesilini died.

According to Bellos, I had a high fever all night.

Linelle had worked hard to cool me down with cold towels instead, causing him a lot of trouble.

From that day on, I decided to stay in the main palace until childbirth.

Linelle would come up to the bedroom several times a day from his duties to check on me.

Even after confirming that there was nothing wrong, he would hold me close for even just a few minutes, saying he was worried, to lower my fever before going back down to his office.

Pesilini’s death was first reported to Duke Martins of the Shatonil Kingdom.

Duke Martins rushed to the Rafion Empire as soon as he heard the tragic news.

Pesilini’s funeral was held on the day the Duke arrived.

Except for Catherine in the Rafion Empire, Rosie and Melanie were informed of Pesilini’s death after the funeral.

This decision was made out of concern that everyone might be shocked before their deliveries.

Like me, Catherine struggled throughout the funeral and eventually had to stay in bed for several days.

The day after the funeral, Duke Martins requested an audience with him and me.

“I will take the baby.”

Duke Martins’s request was unexpected.

“Duke, if Pesilini were alive, I would have sent her to the Shatonil Kingdom as she wished, but the situation is different now.”

Linelle said with a cautious expression.

He was right.

“I think it would be better for the baby to be raised in the Imperial Family. Of course, she could grow up well in the Shatonil Kingdom, but I don’t want her to be raised by an unfamiliar nanny.”

At my words, Duke Martins, who had been fiddling with his teacup, spoke again.

“Melody.”

“Yes?”

“The baby’s name. I have been exchanging letters with Pesilini. She had already named the baby a month ago. If the baby born is a son, Kane, if a daughter, Melody.”

Melody…….

Before Pesilini closed her eyes, she kept moving her lips, could it have been that she was calling the baby’s name?

My heart ached.

“That’s a pretty name, Melody… it suits her well.”

“Isn’t it? I named Melody.”

His expression seemed to say that he wanted to take responsibility.

“I plan to formally go through the adoption process after inheriting the throne.”

Surprisingly, Duke Martins seemed to have made that decision even before arriving here.

“Please don’t say anything to Prince Tesler about Pesilini and Melody. He will find out in due time, but I want to keep it a secret as much as possible.”

“Of course. But Duke, wouldn’t it be better for the child to be raised in the Rafion Imperial Family, as the Empress said?”

“No.”

Duke Martins’s determination was firm despite Linelle’s persuasion.

“Pesilini would also prefer Melody to grow up in the Shatonil Royal Family.”

Just then, Sharon entered the office holding Melody.

As Duke Martins received Melody, the baby, who had been crying all along, stopped and stared at the Duke’s face.

“Let’s get along well in the future, Melody……”

As Duke Martins called her name, Melody smiled, surprisingly.

It was the first smile she had shown since birth.

***

7 years later.

“Your Majesty, something terrible has happened.”

Raphael said as he entered the office.

Linelle looked at the desk clock.

Raphael had come in yesterday at a similar time saying the same thing.

“Terrible things seem to be happening every day lately.”

He closed his eyes briefly and rubbed his eyebrows while reading the report.

“Were they preparing another rebellion today?”

“Yes, we raided the scene today.”

The conspiracy was always centered around Linelle’s 5-year-old son, Mathias, and Moiya and Moni [presumably, dragons or dragon-like creatures].

“Then did you catch the rebels today?”

“We missed them……”

“Have you ever seen such incompetent guys?”

“I’m sorry. But the rebels are so fast.”

“I thought the leader of the rebels didn’t have wings?”

Linelle called Mathias the leader of the rebels.

“We can’t do anything because the wyverns [a type of dragon] carry His Highness the Prince away every time.”

Other wyverns besides Moiya and Moni were also becoming Mathias’s wings.

“Come up with a plan.”

“It’s not as easy as it sounds? As Your Majesty knows, His Highness is always at the center of the rebellion, so we can’t control him forcefully.”

“Hmm, Mathias. He doesn’t have wings, but he keeps flying in the sky. It’s a problem, a problem.”

He was too fearless.

This was all because Moiya and Moni had been ‘secretly’ raising his daughter and son since they were babies.

“Rather, isn’t it a bigger problem that he’s only 5 years old and keeps plotting rebellion?”

“What kind of bizarre conspiracy was there today?”

“They say they will overthrow the Rafion Empire and establish a new empire.”

“……I think until last week they were going to occupy the Imperial kitchen?”

The scale was getting bigger and bigger.

“Are they even building an empire of wyverns?”

“No.”

“If not that, then?”

“It’s a sausage empire.”

“Ha? I’m going crazy.”

“He was planning it quite specifically.”

“Tell me.”

“They will put all kinds of sauces in all the fountains of the Imperial Palace so that they can dip sausages at any time, and create sausage families in the empire to check other noble families.”

Raphael chuckled in the middle of reporting, but Linelle’s brow did not unfurl.

“Ah, my head. What does the leader of the rebels say?”

“His Highness Mathias was just happy.”

“Was Lily not there?”

“Yes, Her Highness the Princess is busy with other things these days.”

Linelle felt uneasy at Raphael’s words.

He gave love to his son and daughter without discrimination, but these guys were causing the same amount of trouble regardless of whether they were sons or daughters.

Still, he had hopes for the firstborn Lily, who would soon be 7 years old, because she had her own principles and was smarter than Mathias.

“Is she busy studying?”

“She has big dreams, Your Majesty.”

Linelle also said it just once and was embarrassed, so he quickly added.

“They’re both smart. It’s just that they don’t study.”

At the same time, he subtly added that even though the kids were causing trouble every day, they were kind-hearted.

It’s originally difficult to judge your own children objectively.

Raphael nodded outwardly, but shook his head inwardly.

“Should I have expectations for the third child when it comes to academics?”

He seriously pondered, mentioning the third child who hadn’t even been born yet.

“Your Majesty, you should discuss that with Her Majesty the Empress.”

Raphael replied sullenly.

The fame of the Imperial Castle’s open pants [a reference to the Emperor’s relaxed attitude] was long gone.

Raphael, who had not yet married, was simply envious of the Emperor’s third child plan, who had not even been born.

“Okay. Anyway, what is our firstborn busy with these days?”

“Her Highness the Princess is busy following the Master Mage Tower.”

“The Master Mage Tower? Why.”

“Well, isn’t it because she wants to manifest her fire abilities faster?”

Lily also knew how to handle fire like Zelda.

Although it was still weak, she had the ability to increase or decrease the flames.

She often burned the necks of dolls because she couldn’t gauge her strength, but she also often did good deeds by going around the servants’ quarters and raising the flames in the fireplaces.

“That’s commendable. She’s better than my son, who’s always plotting rebellion.”

Linelle said with a pleased expression, and Raphael, who was watching him, burst out laughing.

***

“Zelda, how about we have our third child today?”

Linelle’s hand stroked my leg as he whispered.

I wondered why he had been giving me such sticky looks since earlier.

“Hmm…… I’ll think about it.”

“Why think about it? You said it’s not hard to give birth at all.”

“That’s right. It’s over if I just give strength a few times.”

Rosie, Melanie, and Catherine all met God once because it was so hard to give birth, but I just shouted ‘Ack!’ and gave strength, and the baby came out right away with a ‘Wah!’

The first child screamed three times, and the second child only screamed twice.

If I were to have a third child, there was a high possibility that it would come out with just one scream this time.

“Then why are you hesitating?”

“It’s not the giving birth that’s the problem. It’s the kids I give birth to.”

“They’ll get better as they grow up.”

“Do you really think so?”

“No.”

Linelle immediately apologized and burst out laughing.

“The third child might be quiet.”

“Or they might be even more troublemakers.”

But as I was talking, I suddenly became curious about the third child’s face.

The first child, Lily, is a spitting image of me, and the second child, Mathias, looks exactly like Linelle.

I had a feeling that the third child would look like a half-and-half mix of us.

“Should we try giving birth first?”

I whispered, pulling his neck towards me.

“But, what if a real prankster comes out?”

“We have a fourth child, don’t we?”

With those words, I couldn’t say anything more.

Before I knew it, my chin was tilted back, and he was taking my breath away.

A coolness spread throughout my body following Linelle’s touch.

A ticklish yet tingling sensation permeated everywhere.

“Zelda……”

“Linelle……”

Desire swelled up in an instant.

The moment our hot hearts were about to open, the bedroom door opened first.

“I have something to tell you!”

It was our firstborn, Lily, who was about to turn 7 tomorrow.

“I’m not taking it, go away.”

Linelle said solemnly.

It was an order that felt like the Emperor’s dignity for once.

“And daughter, couldn’t you knock?”

“Got it?”

At his nagging, Lily ran to the bedroom door and knocked.

“Mathias didn’t come?”

He always barged in together, but today it was just Lily alone.

“Your son is busy plotting rebellion.”

He replied with a serious face and looked at Lily again.

“What did I say to do if your father opens the door without knocking?”

“You said you’d hang me on the door. I came in prepared.”

Lily said firmly.

“Are you excited about the birthday party that will be held tomorrow?”

“It’s a birthday that comes every year, so what.”

Until last year, she was so excited a week before her birthday that she couldn’t sleep and jumped around?

“Hmph, okay. What’s the matter?”

I snorted and asked again.

“I’m going to get married.”

It’s not that she’s asking to get married, she’s saying she’s going to do it.

This is just a notification.

“……Okay, do it. If you have someone you love.”

He replied indifferently to Lily’s declaration and pointed to the door with his finger, telling her to leave.

Instead of leaving the bedroom, Lily took another step closer and said.

“I have someone. So I’m going to do it.”

Our daughter, her voice is quite determined.

I watched this situation with a smile, holding back my laughter.

“Daughter, you’re very serious. Even though you have chocolate on your cheek.”

Linelle said teasingly.

Then Lily’s expression changed sharply like a veteran minister.

“Father, no, Your Majesty. Don’t laugh, is marriage a joke?”

Lily asked seriously.

“!”

At the 7-year-old daughter’s remark, Linelle straightened his posture without realizing it.