The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 122

122. The Unwelcome One Arrives

March 5, 2022

“What? Did anyone see her?!”

My heart pounded, worried someone might have spotted Moiyya.

“Yes! She transformed into a honeybee.”

“Transformed… into what?”

“The Great Wyvern has doppelganger abilities [the ability to shapeshift or impersonate others].”

I remembered hearing some wyverns could impersonate people; was this what they meant?

“What about Rosie? Rosie doesn’t know you’re here either, does she?”

Moiyya avoided my gaze, confirming she’d come secretly.

“Orange Hair is busy taking care of the human hatchling [Aoshi, the baby dragon].”

“So, Black Hair came all the way here without a care in the world?”

I tapped Moiyya’s small head with my index finger as I asked.

“Baby Wyverns are smart and can do anything by themselves!”

Moiyya covered her head with both hands, boasting.

“If you were so smart, you wouldn’t have come here. What if someone else had seen you?”

“Oh, come on, that’s why I transformed into a honeybee, remember?”

Ah, right.

“Still, you always have to be careful. Just look at how I found you under the bed, right?”

“That was because of that stupid cat….”

“Are you talking about me? You shouldn’t talk like that when there are no friends around.”

“It’s not an insult, it’s the truth. Humans teach that you have to be honest, right?”

“……Being too honest isn’t good either.”

Moiyya retorted, wearing the most innocent expression in the world. If she was this cheeky with me, who she called ‘Master’ and showered with hearts from her eyes, I could only imagine how much she talked back to Rosie.

“Rosie must have a hard time.”

I sighed, and Moiyya sighed in the same way, saying,

“That’s right, so I’m helping her a lot.”

For a moment, Moiyya strangely overlapped with someone else. Hmm, she’s somewhat similar to Melanie…….

“His Majesty will be here soon. Leave before you’re discovered.”

“Oh, my legs.”

Moiyya suddenly plopped down on the bed.

“My legs hurt, maybe because I had a hard time getting here. Master, can’t I leave tomorrow?”

“You flew all the way here, so why do your legs hurt?”

“Umm, that’s…….”

Moiyya’s ruby eyes darted around. Unable to come up with a good excuse, she started to act stubborn.

“Aaaagh, this is annoying. I don’t want to go!”

“Why don’t you want to go? Aoshi is at Rosie’s place, and there’s cute Ramses too.”

I coaxed Moiyya gently, pulling her up by the hand.

“Ramses is so loud! He’s the lowest in the hierarchy, and I can’t sleep at night because of him. I even have dark circles, Moiyya~.”

Moiyya pointed to the area under her eyes, looking upset.

“You’re already dark, so it doesn’t even show.”

“!”

“So, don’t worry about unnecessary things.”

“……I think what you said earlier is right.”

“What?”

“That honesty isn’t always a good thing…….”

Moiyya looked at me with eyes of respect, as if she had gained a great realization, then started acting spoiled again.

“I’ll be quiet. Okay? I can’t be discovered by the cold body [referring to Emperor Linell]! Please don’t send me back, okay?”

Watching Moiyya lying on the bed, flailing her short arms and legs, gave me a headache.

‘She’s putting on a real show.’

My inner spirit suddenly chimed in. Since no one else could hear what the spirit said, I looked at Moiyya and chuckled. But Moiyya stopped flailing her arms and legs for a moment. Was she upset because I laughed when she was being serious?

“What did you just mutter?”

Moiyya looked straight at my face and asked. When I flinched, Moiyya waved her hands.

“I wasn’t talking to Master, I was talking to the spirit.”

What, she heard what the spirit said?

“You can hear? What the spirit is saying?”

“Yes.”

Moiyya replied briefly, then her expression turned fierce again.

“It’s true I fell, but I wasn’t putting on a show! You jerk!”

“!”

“Oops, I didn’t say that to Master just now.”

It’s real. She really heard what the spirit said?

‘Why is she just as ill-tempered as when she was in the egg?’

The spirit said grumpily.

“Have you two… met before?”

I asked,

‘Unfortunately,’

“Unfortunately.”

The spirit and Moiyya answered at the same time.

***

At the same time. Prince Tesler sneaked into Pessilini’s chambers.

“I heard from Lesilia. How are you feeling?”

The prince had heard from Princess Lesilia in the carriage returning to the detached palace after the banquet that Pessilini had been retching in the drawing room. At first, he casually dismissed it, thinking, ‘She probably just has indigestion.’ But the expression on his sister’s face as she told him was unusual. If it wasn’t indigestion, there was only one reason a woman would be retching.

“I’m fine…….”

Pessilini replied demurely, smiling shyly. Prince Tesler was convinced of her pregnancy by her smile. If it were just simple indigestion, she wouldn’t have shown such a shy smile.

“You’re… pregnant, aren’t you?”

At the prince’s question, Pessilini nodded even more emphatically than before. Although Pessilini was a concubine of Emperor Linell, there was no need to ask her if the child was his. It was clear that the child in her womb was his. Before Pessilini became a concubine, the two had been secretly meeting near the border between the Shattonil Kingdom and the Lapion Empire. Prince Tesler had spent a long time courting her, the daughter of Marquis Astoto, who led the largest merchant guild in the Lapion Empire. He thought she would be useful to him someday. The prince coaxed and persuaded Pessilini to become Linell’s concubine and be his eyes and ears. As Prince Tesler wished, she became a loyal dog, bringing him news about the Lapion imperial family and Empress Zelda. But things had gone awry.

‘Damn it, I gave the hunting dog too much affection.’

Prince Tesler’s chronic headache began.

“I was careful, but how did this happen?”

The prince unconsciously spoke in a tone that shifted the blame to Pessilini.

“I’m sorry…….”

Pessilini apologized as if she had committed the fault alone.

“Haa, since when?”

“Yes?”

“The symptoms, I mean.”

“I only found out a few days ago.”

“Are you sure you’re pregnant?”

“Yes.”

Pessilini replied briefly, smiling slightly. Prince Tesler clenched his fist at the sight.

‘A burden, a burden.’

A hunting dog that doesn’t do its job properly is just a burden.

“Only my family’s longtime physician knows. I haven’t told my father yet. I asked the physician to keep it a secret for the time being.”

For the time being? That was quite a disturbing statement. Prince Tesler frowned deeply.

“Are you sure no one knows besides the physician?”

“Yes, I haven’t even told my maid.”

“Good. Telling anyone won’t help us in the current situation.”

Prince Tesler stroked her arm, pretending to be affectionate.

“If you need anything, tell Lesilia or Sir Ken. And don’t see your family’s physician anymore.”

Prince Tesler decided he would have to order Sir Ken to eliminate Pessilini’s family physician.

“Yes, but…… I heard the hunting competition lasts about a month. Won’t it be hard on the baby?”

Pessilini asked, rubbing her still-flat stomach.

‘Ah, I didn’t think of that.’

The expression on Prince Tesler’s face, which had been frowning, slowly relaxed. The road to the Southern Continent has quite a few areas with treacherous terrain. In other words, there are plenty of opportunities and places to discard the burden.

‘I’m lucky after all.’

Prince Tesler thought to himself as he hugged Pessilini.

“Our child will be smart, like the prince, right?”

Pessilini asked in a voice filled with happiness.

“Of course.”

Prince Tesler answered, touching the back of her head.

‘Don’t you think it will be stupid like you?’

The words swallowed inside only lingered on Prince Tesler’s face for a moment before disappearing. ***

“It’s been 250 years since I saw that jerk.”

Moiyya crossed her arms and spoke coldly.

“It’s been a long time.”

250 years ago was when the spirit came out of the body of the mage who originally housed it.

“I’m not happy to see him again at all.”

Moiyya pouted her small mouth.

“Hey jerk, you don’t know how much Bellos cursed you after you disappeared, do you?”

“Bellos?”

Ah, that must be the name of the magician who housed the spirit.

“The human who had me first. That human later passed me on to Rosie’s mother.”

That’s right. Rosie’s mother also trained in the magic tower. The spirit cleared its throat and said to me.

‘Bellos already had that wyvern egg before I parasitized that body.’

“Bellos, the person you mentioned, is that the magician who has the spirit sword?”

‘Yes. Moiyya or Doi-iya…… You, did you say you were in the egg for 400 years?’

The spirit asked Moiyya.

“Hey jerk, watch your tone! It’s 300 years, okay?”

Moiyya put her arms on her hips, huffing and puffing.

“Why are you raising it? It makes you look old!”

Even though she had the ability to perceive everything in the egg for 300 years, getting upset over trivial words was at the level of a child under 7 years old. Besides, even though she was talking to the spirit, she kept glaring at me and talking, which made me feel strange for no reason. Moiyya seemed to notice my uncomfortable expression, and she always added, ‘I’m not talking to Master,’ at the end of her sentences.

‘300 years or 400 years, it’s all the same. And you haven’t been born for long anyway, so you’re young.’

“Ooh? That’s right. I’m a cute baby.”

Moiyya nodded and smiled brightly. The spirit didn’t praise her, but was she happy to be called young?

“Wait, why didn’t Moiyya hatch from the egg when that magician Bellos had her? You were in that magician’s body back then, too.”

Since the spirit had no substance, I looked at Moiyya and asked the spirit.

‘At that time, Bellos was great as a magician, but his fire ability had not yet manifested. It was even weaker than your current skill.’

“That’s right, that’s right.”

Moiyya nodded, agreeing with the spirit’s words.

‘If I had stayed in Bellos’s body longer, Moiyya would have eventually awakened and hatched to Bellos.’

“So, because you left that person’s body, Moiyya couldn’t come out of the egg?”

‘You could say that.’

“I didn’t like Bellos very much. I like our Master better, Moiyya~.”

Moiyya flapped her wings and put her hands together, bringing them to her cheeks.

“Why? Why didn’t you like that magician?”

“He’s always showing off. He’s not humble like me.”

Moiyya didn’t seem to know the meaning of the word ‘humble’ yet.

“What did the magician say?”

“Ahem, ahem.”

Moiyya cleared her throat and began to imitate the voice of the magic tower master.

“‘My face shines so brightly today, but you can’t see it because you’re in the egg, can you? But you’ll be very happy when you come out of the egg. Because you’ll be serving such a handsome master,’ he always said things like that, Moiyya~.”

Moiyya shuddered as if she was disgusted just thinking about it.

“……Did he really say that?”

When I asked with a suspicious look, Moiyya frowned and shouted, ‘Really, really!’

“Goodness.”

‘Puhahaha, Moiyya, you really sound just like Bellos!’

Seeing even the spirit say that, it must be true.

“The Great Wyvern remembers everything!”

Wow…… What was life like when the magic tower master, the spirit, and Moiyya lived in the same space? At least Moiyya, who was in the egg, couldn’t talk, so it was less chaotic.

‘Anyway, it’s nice to see you again.’

The spirit, for once, greeted Moiyya in a gentle voice. But.

“Who are you? I don’t associate with things that move around here and there, hmph.”

Moiyya sneered at me. Then she put her small head between my arm and side and snuggled up.

“I’m sorry, Master. I’m talking to the jerk, but I keep glaring at Master.”

“Stop fighting, both of you. It’s making me dizzy. The magic tower master who used to be your master must have had a hard time.”

“No? That guy is the weirdest.”

‘For the first time in hundreds of years, she’s saying something right.’

It was the first time Moiyya and the spirit’s opinions coincided. Was that magic tower master such a strange person?

“Moiyya, go back now. Where’s the honeybee you transformed into?”

“I don’t know? It probably flew back to collect honey.”

Moiyya shook her head, covering her ears.

“It’s almost time for His Majesty to come, hurry up and find something to transform into.”

I started to feel anxious.

“That jerk is always with Master…… Why do I have to go? Sniffle.”

Moiyya crawled into the blanket, pretending to cry.

‘Hey, I disappear when the Emperor shows up too, okay?’

“I don’t care, I hate you!”

‘Zelda, she only calls you Master and is already climbing all over you. Are you going to let her get away with that? You have to catch things like that early.’

The spirit provoked Moiyya, fueling her anger.

“Moiyya, I can’t hate you. Rosie will be worried too.”

“I didn’t say I hated Master.”

“Then you’re talking to the spirit?”

I asked, holding back a laugh, and Moiyya came out of the blanket again, her eyes blazing, and said clearly.

“Li, nell, is.”

“Is His Majesty your friend? You should use honorifics.”

……I said that, but it was funny to be saying these things to a wyvern.

“Who said I’d be friends with him? I hate the cold body!”

Moiyya clenched her small fist tightly and glared at the bedroom door.

“Hmph, the unwelcome one has arrived.”

No way! My heart sank at Moiyya’s words.

“Ah…… No…….”

A chilling feeling washed over me, and at the same time, the bedroom door clicked open. The cold body! No, Linell had returned to the bedroom.

“Zelda, who are you sitting on the bed waiting for so prettily?”

He leaned against the bedroom door for a moment, looking at me intently.

“Ah…… well…….”

Linell didn’t seem to have seen Moiyya yet. I thought I should hide Moiyya, but my hands wouldn’t move. I had to be careful because moving my hands rashly could make her even more noticeable.

“If you’re spacing out so beautifully, I can’t resist.”

He threw off his uniform jacket, giving me a suggestive smile. At that moment, Moiyya clicked her tongue and muttered softly.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, the unwelcome one is even horny.”

His steps, which had been slowly approaching the bed while unbuttoning his shirt, stopped abruptly. His gaze, which had been fixed on my face, turned downwards.

“!”

Linell’s expression instantly hardened. He had seen Moiyya.