The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 102

102. 20 Years Old for 250 Years

December 25, 2021

‘You could have just phrased that differently.’ I shot him a slight glare, feeling embarrassed.

“I’ll lead the way, Your Majesty!”

Quick-witted Sharon was the first to shout, and she started walking ahead. Then, Bonnis grabbed the blankly standing Commander Marcrom and began to walk. Seeing Linelle’s attendants and guards following behind them, he wore a satisfied expression.

“It’s always been walking with a string of people behind us, but walking at the very end like this, with no one to be aware of, is much more comfortable.”

He put his hand on my shoulder as we walked, and his hand subtly moved down towards my rear.

“W-What are you doing?”

I was startled and looked at him.

“Ah, sorry. My hand almost wandered there without me realizing.”

“…You already touched it.”

Why is he denying it?

“Did I? I couldn’t really tell where was where because of the dress….”

“What did you say?”

“If you feel wronged, you can touch me too. Oh, but what to do? We’re almost at Rosie Palace.”

He put his hands behind his back and pretended to be sorry. Sharon, Bonnis, and Commander Marcrom, who had been walking ahead, arrived at Rosie Palace first and were looking back at us.

“It can’t be helped. We have to part ways here, go quickly.”

I also kept looking straight ahead and pretended to grab his hands behind his back, subtly pulling one hand back and quickly tapping his butt.

“Zelda…? What is this grateful gesture?”

Linelle shot me a look of amusement with a voice full of joy.

“As Your Majesty said, it’s so nice because there’s no one behind us.”

I smiled brightly and said, looking back. …Oh, wait? There was someone? Raphael was pretending not to notice and walking with his head turned to the side.

“Don’t worry. Raphael may be the open pants of the Imperial Palace [a gossip or someone who can’t keep secrets], but his mouth is always closed. And his lips are quite heavy [he doesn’t talk much].”

Linelle gave me a look of reassurance and shouted at Raphael.

“Isn’t that right, Raphael?”

“I didn’t see anything, Your Majesty.”

“See? His eyesight isn’t good either.”

He winked at me and nudged my arm with his elbow.

*** In front of Rosie’s bedroom, her maid Misha announced my arrival several times, but strangely, there was no sign of anyone inside the bedroom.

“Is she perhaps taking a nap?”

I asked Misha, and she lowered her head deeply and said.

“N-No! Your Majesty the Empress. Rosie must be in the dressing room and can’t hear you. I’ll go to the dressing room and bring her out. P-Please wait here for a moment….”

Misha seemed very flustered, perhaps because I had come so suddenly.

“No. I’ll go into the bedroom and wait.”

“Yes… Yes, Your Majesty the Empress.”

Misha looked quite nervous as she opened the bedroom door.

“Have Commander Marcrom wait here.”

Leaving Commander Marcrom, who bowed, behind, I entered Rosie’s bedroom with Bonnis and Sharon. Misha, who had gone inside first, hurriedly ran into the dressing room connected to the bedroom. Today, as always, the floor of Rosie’s bedroom was covered with so many books that there was no room to step.

“Wow, Rosie must really like books?”

Bonnis showed the same reaction as when I first entered Rosie’s bedroom.

“Yeah, she’s a smart concubine. She’s kind and has a good heart. Oh, and she’s studying healing magic on her own.”

“That’s amazing.”

Bonnis looked at the books on the floor with surprised eyes. While waiting for Rosie, I also looked at the books scattered freely on the floor. Then, a glimpse of red caught my eye. Feeling strange, I bent down and tilted my head to the left. I thought I saw a red light under Rosie’s bed. When I looked under the bed, the red light flickered and disappeared. What’s under there? Ah, Rosie’s kitten!

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Come out here.”

I said, squatting in front of the bed with a happy heart.

“What are you doing, Your Majesty the Empress?”

Sharon also bent down with me and asked.

“Rosie is raising a cat. I think it’s under here.”

“Ah, yes.”

Sharon, not very interested in cats, straightened up again and looked around the bedroom.

“Meow? Come out here. Quickly.”

I put my hand further under the bed and said. *** After parting with Prince Kalvin and his wife in the drawing room, Prince Tesler headed straight to his bedroom. Princess Resilia followed into her brother’s bedroom and questioned him irritably.

“What’s wrong, seriously? We were having a good conversation with Prince Kalvin and his wife!”

“Be quiet. My head is spinning.”

Prince Tesler took the headache medicine brought by the servant and still pressed his temples.

“You were frowning alone during an important conversation. Is your headache such a big deal now?”

“Shut your mouth!”

Princess Resilia was startled by Prince Tesler’s outburst and closed her mouth. After a while, there was a knock, and one of the prince’s knights entered.

“Did you call for me?”

“What happened with the order I gave last night? You haven’t completed the job yet, have you?”

The knight was startled to see Princess Resilia in Tesler’s room and glanced at her before answering Prince Tesler.

“Yes, but at the latest, it will be finished by today….”

“Tell the head of the assassin guild! I’m canceling the job I requested, stop it immediately, immediately! Ah, has Sir Ken not returned yet?”

Prince Tesler urgently ordered the knight and looked for Sir Ken.

“Yes, not yet.”

“Okay, you may leave.”

“Brother, what is all this about?”

After the knight left, Princess Resilia frowned and asked Prince Tesler.

“Why the assassin guild? Could it be…? Is it about Rams?!”

Princess Resilia was excited and panting, and Prince Tesler hesitated before speaking.

“Don’t worry. Nothing will happen.”

“What? Did you hire the assassin guild to kill Rams? Is that it? We decided to send him to a monastery in the Kingdom of Shato Neil if we found him! But why did you hire the assassin guild?”

“Don’t get excited. Nothing has happened yet.”

That’s what he said, but Prince Tesler was also uneasy at heart.

“You know what will happen if something happens to him, right? The opportunity will fly away. It can’t go wrong, absolutely not!”

Princess Resilia clenched her teeth and glared, and Prince Tesler grabbed both of her shoulders and calmed her down.

“He’ll be safe! Your child, who will become the Emperor of the Partsha Empire in the future….”

*** Did the cat get scared? I coaxed the cat and put my hand deeper under the bed. The moment something touched my fingertip, the dressing room door burst open.

“Y-Your Majesty the Empress!”

At Rosie’s voice, I stood up again. But she was holding something in her arms.

“Wah… Waaah.”

“Ooh, did I scare you by shouting? Sorry, peek-a-boo?”

Before I could even ask what she was holding, I was speechless at the sight of the being that revealed its identity on its own. I closed and opened my eyes several times at the unbelievable sight. When I heard the baby’s whimpering sound again, my legs faltered momentarily without me realizing it.

“W-What on earth is this….”

“Your Majesty the Empress!”

Perhaps because my body was leaning too much to the side, Sharon, who was nearby, quickly wrapped her arm around my shoulder and supported me.

“Are you alright, Your Majesty the Empress?”

Rosie also quickly approached me, soothing the baby she was holding. I stared blankly at her pale face and then looked down at the crying baby’s face. Rosie soothed the child in her arms while constantly moving her lips with a very nervous face.

“Sharon, you’ll have to hold that child for a moment.”

At my command, Sharon, who had been just as dazed as I was, regained her senses and approached Rosie.

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress. Rosie, I’ll take good care of him.”

Sharon stretched out her arms and asked Rosie for her understanding, and Rosie, judging that it would be better to explain the situation, readily handed the baby over to Sharon. Rosie took a deep breath and looked up at me. She had a determined look on her face. I was also nervous because I didn’t know what she was going to say. Even so, the red eyes that occasionally appeared from under the bed continued to enter my vision.

“Your Majesty the Empress… I’m really sorry for surprising you. I-I was going to tell you soon anyway!”

“Rosie, do you even know how huge this is right now?”

“Yes… Of course.”

Rosie swallowed hard, her voice trembling, and replied.

“Could it be that it’s your child…?”

“Oh, no. Your Majesty the Empress. I’m just taking care of the child for a while!”

“Who in their right mind would entrust a child to a concubine?”

“That person is out of their mind….”

Rosie implied that it was someone I also knew.

“Who is it?”

“Prince Norton.”

“…What, who? That child is Prince Norton’s child?!”

“Yes, his name is Rams.”

I stared intently at the child whimpering in Sharon’s arms again.

“Wait, wait a minute.”

Come to think of it, the moment I first saw the child, I suddenly thought he resembled someone……. I looked at the child’s face again and met Bonnis’s eyes.

“Um, Your Majesty the Empress, I’m sorry to suddenly say this, but this child… doesn’t he look a bit… a lot like Princess Resilia?”

I was thinking the same thing as Bonnis.

“Princess Resilia?”

Rosie moved her head repeatedly, looking back and forth between me and Bonnis, and asked. I briefly introduced Bonnis to Rosie for now. Even in this absurd situation, the two greeted each other happily. I paused for a moment and told Rosie about Prince Norton.

“Prince Norton once hid his identity and joined a mercenary knight order.”

“Aha! No wonder his face is pretty, but his body looks solid.”

“…Well, anyway. A year ago, monsters appeared in the largest diamond mine in the Kingdom of Shato Neil, so they hired that mercenary knight order to stay in the royal palace. But when I saw them at the banquet this time, I realized that the two knew each other.”

I didn’t bother to add, ‘The night you confessed to Prince Norton, the two were supposed to meet in front of the opera palace.’

“I know they’re friendly with each other. I once went on a picnic to the lake with Melanie, and I saw them both then. But even so, it’s a bit much to assume that she’s Rams’s mother….”

Rosie’s surprised expression was gradually darkening. Bonnis was also surprised. She knew that Princess Resilia had eloped with a mercenary knight, but she didn’t know that the mercenary knight turned out to be a prince.

“Your Majesty the Empress, the mercenary knight who ran away with the princess back then… is he really a prince of the Partsha Empire?”

When I nodded to Bonnis, Rosie asked this time.

“Princess Resilia eloped with a mercenary knight?”

I nodded again this time. All eyes in the bedroom were on Rams. Looking at him again, the child had a face that was half Prince Norton and half Princess Resilia.

“What’s going on? Prince Norton said that Rams was in danger and asked me to take care of him for a while….”

Rosie said with a confused face.

“He really said that?”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress.”

Could it be that Prince Tesler is threatening the child? Because he thinks Rams is hindering Princess Resilia’s future? ***

“Since you two are having an important conversation, all of you go out to the hallway. Tell Commander Marcrom outside as well.”

Rosie’s maid, Misha, came out of the bedroom and immediately sent all the maids in the waiting room out to the hallway. Then, for a while, she put her ear to the bedroom door and eavesdropped on the Empress and Rosie’s conversation. After a few minutes, she went to the arched window, opened it, and whistled. Misha’s whistle sounded very similar to a bird’s song. As she took out paper and a quill from her pocket, a crow flew in from somewhere and landed on the window. Misha glanced at the bedroom door and quickly wrote something on the paper, then folded the paper again and tied it to the crow’s leg.

“Go.”

She stroked the crow’s head and gave the order, and the crow flew away again. Misha closed the window as if nothing had happened and stood close to the bedroom door again, continuing to eavesdrop on the Empress and Rosie’s conversation. *** Aklato Island beyond the continent. A crow flew into the window at the top of the magic tower. A man with thick, curly, honey-colored hair untied the note tied to the crow’s leg and read the contents written inside.

The wind blowing in through the window ruffled his hair, but when he raised his hand over his head and lowered it, his hair became neat again.

“Unfortunately, it seems that my partner still hasn’t noticed the existence of Moiya today.”

“But she will soon.”

“That’s right. It makes my heart flutter.”

“Master, are you going to move soon?”

“Logan, how many years have we spent together, and you still call me so stiffly? Just call me Belos.”

Belos said with a rather aggrieved tone.

“Hahaha, how dare I call the Tower Master by his name.”

It had already been 15 years since Logan fled the Kingdom of Shato Neil and came to Aklato Island, where Belos was. And since that day 15 years ago, Logan had become the butler of Belos Brodian, the owner of this magic tower, instead of the court magician of the Kingdom of Shato Neil.

“According to the note, your daughter, Miss Bonnis, seems to have come as my partner’s maid.”

“I see….”

Logan nodded with a wistful look.

“Don’t you want to see her?”

“I’ll meet her when the time comes.”

“Yes, both you and I will soon meet the people we miss.”

Logan smiled at Belos’s words, and deep wrinkles formed around his eyes. In comparison, Belos’s appearance was the same as when he first met Logan 15 years ago. Belos Brodian, the Tower Master of Aklato, an island nation, had always looked the same since 250 years ago when he was 20 years old. After the incarnation inside Belos disappeared, his time stopped. Zelda von Trova. She is now the Empress of Lapion, but soon she will be the woman who will become his partner. If only she was by his side, he could find the incarnation that had left his body again. Then his stopped time would flow normally again. Moreover, although Zelda has not yet awakened her abilities, she already possessed the ability to control fire with the incarnation inside her. Belos had no doubt that if Zelda and he joined forces, they could move the wyvern and take over this world.

“I should go and meet my partner in advance before the hunting competition begins.”

Belos said shyly as he walked towards the mirror.