The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 319

319. Not Even Dirt!

“Daughter, who has captured your heart that you’re already making such a fuss about getting married?”

“Lily, come here.”

I adjusted my posture and gestured for Lily to come closer.

“This isn’t something to talk about while sitting on your lap. I’ll say it from here.”

“Ah, okay.”

I can’t quite get used to Lily’s sudden maturity.

Rinel glared at Lily with eyes that seemed to say, ‘This better not be a joke.’

He wouldn’t tolerate anyone disturbing our nights.

Not even his own children were an exception.

His daughter, who was barely about to turn seven, was facing her father’s displeased gaze with a serious expression.

“Alright, Lily. You wanted to announce who you want to marry so badly that you’re disturbing Mom and Dad’s sleep. Who is it?”

Rinel asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“You weren’t sleeping anyway.”

Lily retorted.

Rinel and I both flinched.

Rinel cleared his throat, looking guilty, and changed the subject.

“Ahem, you’re just doing this because you can’t sleep, right?”

“I’m a growing child; there’s no way I’d be like that already.”

Rinel and I held back our laughter at Lily’s words.

“…So, you really have someone you want to marry?”

“Yes, Mom. And this is the problem. I think it’s broken.”

Lily said, pounding her chest with her small fist, then sighed as if the ground would cave in.

“Your heart hurts? Is it hard to breathe?”

Did she overexert herself running around the Imperial Palace and strain her heart?

I felt a sudden fear as I watched Lily continue to pound her chest.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Rinel also looked relieved and asked in a gentler voice.

“It beats too fast. But not always.”

“When does your heart beat like that?”

When I asked, Lily seemed reluctant to reveal the reason yet.

She hesitated for a moment, then smiled softly and said shyly,

“That’s… it happens when I see someone.”

“It must be when you see the wyverns [dragon-like creatures]. Because you want to cause trouble.”

Rinel stated definitively.

Then Lily huffed and raised her voice.

“I’m not Matias, you know?”

Seeing Lily’s serious attitude, I quickly whispered to Rinel using ventriloquism.

“Don’t tease her. You know how long your daughter cries once she starts, right? Do you want to spend tonight just comforting Lily and then go to sleep?”

“That won’t do.”

Rinel erased the teasing expression from his face and asked seriously again.

“So, your heart beats when you see someone, which means our daughter likes that person.”

“No. I don’t like them.”

“You don’t?”

“No. This is love.”

I could feel the conviction in Lily’s tightly clenched hands.

“Cough, keuk, kekeuk!”

Rinel grabbed the water cup on the side table and choked while drinking.

“Are you okay?”

I quickly patted his back and asked.

“Ask your daughter that. If I’m okay.”

Rinel stared at Lily with a bewildered expression and coughed a few more times.

“Who is it that has captured our daughter’s love? Will you tell us?”

Who is it that’s causing such a commotion about getting married in the middle of the night?

I asked with a smile, trying to coax her, and Lily’s tightly closed lips began to move this way and that.

She was being very cautious.

“Alright. Tell me who makes your heart beat like that. This father might be able to help.”

When Rinel joined in, Lily finally confessed the person who made her heart race, the object of her love throughout her seven years of life.

“It’s the Master of the Magic Tower.”

“Alright. What did the Master of the Magic Tower say?”

Rinel assumed that Lily had consulted Bellos about her worries first.

But I immediately understood Lily’s words and grabbed the back of my neck as my blood pressure rose.

“Oh my.”

Lily frowned, realizing that Rinel didn’t understand her words and kept talking nonsense, and she spat out the words again.

“It’s the Master of the Magic Tower!”

“…What are you saying?”

Rinel tilted his head sharply and asked.

“The person I love.”

“…So, who is that?”

“Geez, I just said it!”

Lily shouted at Rinel, as if frustrated.

“L, l, the person you love is the Master of the Magic Tower? The Master of the Magic Tower?!”

Rinel’s eyes widened as if they would pop out, and he repeatedly confirmed with Lily.

“Yes. I have someone I love, so I’m going to get married.”

The seven-year-old daughter went even further, demanding approval for her marriage after confessing her love—no, announcing it.

“Not until dirt goes into my eyes!!”

When Rinel yelled, Lily nodded as if she expected it.

Then, she opened the front pocket of the bag she had brought and rummaged through it, making rustling noises.

“I knew Moiya and Moni were right. How did they know he would say that? I’m glad I prepared in advance.”

Muttering to herself, she took her hand out of the bag again.

Lily was holding something in her hand.

“Lily. What did you take out of your bag? What’s in your fist?”

I had an idea of what it was, so I asked calmly.

“Dirt.”

Lily slowly raised her hand holding the dirt towards her target.

***

Rinel and I couldn’t sleep a wink last night.

Lily did end up throwing dirt at him, but she failed to get it in his eyes.

That’s because I quickly raised the blanket over his head.

Because of this, I received words of gratitude from my husband, saying, ‘As expected, my wife is the only one who cares about me,’ and resentment from my daughter, saying, ‘I’m disappointed that Mother is preventing my marriage!’

Rinel changed his words to ‘Absolutely not until dirt goes into my eyes!’ and Lily was frustrated.

Clutching the bag full of dirt, Lily burst into tears and was kicked out of the bedroom by Sharon.

Rinel tossed and turned all night, venting his frustration.

He was very upset, saying that his daughter only knew her father until she was six, so why did she change so much this year?

We greeted the morning with haggard faces.

Rinel said he had completely lost his appetite and barely ate breakfast.

Even when he ate soup, he felt like he was chewing on dirt?

Honestly, I didn’t feel that way, so I listened to him and finished my meal, watching his mood.

“I think I need to meet him.”

“Bellos?”

What was he going to do by meeting him?

We could end up looking foolish.

“How did that Master of the Magic Tower brainwash a child to make her say such ridiculous things?”

“Bellos didn’t brainwash her; Lily is doing this on her own. You know Lily likes shiny things.”

“Are you saying that guy is shiny?”

Rinel turned his head and grumbled that his wife and daughter both had strange taste.

“…I don’t think so, but His Majesty also acknowledged Bellos’s appearance.”

I softened my words while hugging his waist, and his anger subsided a little.

But he didn’t cancel his plan to meet Bellos.

Worried, I followed Rinel to the main palace.

“Raphael, find out where the Master of the Magic Tower is.”

As soon as he arrived at his office, he instructed Raphael.

“The Master of the Magic Tower? I met him in the lobby a little while ago, and he seemed to be going for a walk in the back garden?”

“Really?”

At Raphael’s answer, his body, which was entering the office, retreated backward.

“Your Majesty, don’t ask him directly. Lily might not have confessed yet. Her mind might have changed overnight.”

A child’s mind can change several times a day, so she might want to marry someone else today.

“Zelda. Don’t stop me.”

Rinel left these words and strode down the hallway.

I sighed and followed him.

“Why is he like that, Your Majesty the Empress?”

Raphael came to my side with quick steps and asked quietly.

I told Raphael about Lily’s absurd confession last night.

“Girls that age often like men who seem more mature than their peers.”

I said I was worried that he might be making a big deal out of nothing by meeting Bellos, and Raphael agreed with my opinion.

“But why does the Princess have to like the Master of the Magic Tower of all people?”

It’s not like she could like you.

These words almost came out, but I held them back.

“Bellos looks about 20 years old, so Bellos must have looked good to Lily, who especially likes shiny things.”

“If that’s the reason, I don’t understand even more? The Princess usually sees me more than the Master of the Magic Tower… It’s strange.”

“!”

Raphael has a single flaw, which is that he is too generous in his self-assessment of his appearance.

In any case, it was impossible to catch up with Rinel’s anger-filled steps.

***

Raphael and I inevitably arrived at the greenhouse a few minutes late.

As soon as we entered the greenhouse, Rinel and Bellos were standing face to face, exuding a strange tension.

“What’s going on, Your Majesty?”

“I came for a walk. Why else would I come?”

“It seems like you came to see how handsome I am?”

Bellos said with a disarming smile.

“What?”

Rinel raised one eyebrow, feeling caught off guard.

“I said that because you’ve been staring at my face since a while ago.”

Bellos laughed, saying it was a joke, but Rinel couldn’t laugh.

“You, are you going to keep living like that? Not aging at all?”

“I do age. I just don’t get old.”

Bellos swept his honeybee-colored hair back with his hand and gently creased his eyes in a smile.

Bellos’s face looked particularly striking today.

Rinel seemed momentarily taken aback by Bellos’s appearance, but he quickly shook his head and frowned again.

“Do you see our Lily often?”

Rinel subtly began to probe Bellos.

“She seems to be very curious about magic. She often comes to my lab.”

Seeing that there was no change in expression when Lily’s name came up, it seemed that Bellos didn’t know anything yet.

In other words, our daughter has a crush on him.

Perhaps relieved by this, Rinel’s voice softened slightly.

“Don’t open the door for her if she comes in the future.”

“Yes? Why?”

“Wouldn’t Lily be a hindrance?”

“Not at all? The Princess just sits quietly and goes back quietly.”

There’s no way Lily would be quiet, but she sits quietly in Bellos’s lab and leaves?

I couldn’t imagine it.

Is she shy in front of Bellos?

Rinel’s brow furrowed.

He was shocked by the fact that his daughter, who was like a wild horse with a fire on its butt in front of him, became a gentle lamb in front of Bellos.

It felt like cold air was emanating from behind Rinel’s back.

The atmosphere in the greenhouse suddenly turned cold.

The chirping of the canaries also stopped abruptly.

Bellos looked at Rinel with curious eyes and said he would be leaving now, bowing politely.

“Was Lily really quiet in front of you? Not throwing things like dirt…?”

Poor my husband.

Rinel trembled, remembering Lily’s misdeeds last night.

“Dirt? Ah, she has sprinkled flower petals before.”

At Bellos’s words, I remembered Lily’s appearance as she concentrated on putting dirt in her father’s eyes last night.

Rinel must have thought of that too.

His face slowly turned ashen.

“And she always brings food and flowers when she visits the lab. Hahaha, she’s already become a lady. You might as well send her off to get married early.”

Bellos praised Lily with a smile, but there was no way Rinel could hear those words as praise.

Rinel grabbed Bellos’s arm and shouted.

“I will introduce you to a good noble lady from a good family!”

“…Suddenly?”