The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 159

159. It’s Not Betrayal

July 13, 2022

Roxana clutched the amethyst in her hand.

“Who are you really? Why did you pretend to be a kitchen servant to Her Majesty the Empress?”

With Bonis relentlessly pressing her, Roxana briefly considered disappearing altogether, but she quickly dismissed the thought.

Roxana turned to Bonis, who was sharply questioning her, though with a relaxed smile.

“Do you know how to make lemon tea?”

“Wh-what?!”

“If you do, make some for me. I need to take it to Her Majesty the Empress.”

“……No, what kind of crazy…!”

Bonis recalled the incident yesterday when Rosie’s maid, Misha, was attacked by someone.

A suspicion crossed her mind that Roxana might be involved in that incident, but she remembered being told that the person who attacked Misha was a burly man, so it couldn’t have been the maid in front of her.

Bonis pondered Zelda’s words that she had met Roxana in front of the Magic Tower Master’s room.

‘Did she change into a maid’s clothes to enjoy a secret rendezvous with the Magic Tower Master?’

Looking at Roxana’s confident demeanor and tone, it was quite a plausible guess that she might be a VIP [Very Important Person].

Bonis’s thoughts were branching out in various directions.

“Do you know how to make lemon tea?” Roxana asked again.

“You, do you even know who I am to be giving me such orders?”

“Logan Epin. Logan is your father, isn’t he?” Roxana said, raising one corner of her mouth.

“Who are you! Who are you to know my father?!”

“You resemble him. Your father is very worried about you.”

“What nonsense! My father died a long time ago…….”

…died.

Bonis thought her missing father was already dead.

“You’ll find out soon enough, but let me tell you in advance, your father’s life is in my hands.”

That also meant he was still alive.

Seeing Bonis’s wide eyes, Roxana added, “If you don’t believe me, ask Bellos later.”

“The Magic Tower Master?”

“Yes, he’s been working as a butler in his Magic Tower ever since he escaped from the Shatoanil royal family.”

Bonis stared intently at Roxana.

“I am Roxana. A princess of the Akrato Principality. Have you heard my name?”

“Ah.”

Even if she didn’t recognize the name, Bonis knew of the existence of the princess of the Akrato Principality.

‘Why is the princess of that island nation here? How is she here?’

Moreover, wearing a maid’s dress?

‘She couldn’t have fallen from the sky, could she?’

Bonis couldn’t believe Roxana’s words, but she couldn’t ignore her because she mentioned her father, Logan.

Moreover, Roxana’s face was arrogant, but she didn’t seem to be lying.

‘My father is alive……!’

Bonis placed her hand on her pounding heart.

“I asked Logan for a deal. But he was so stubborn that he insisted on seeing blood that he didn’t need to see—your father.”

“What did you do to my father!”

She had been thanking God just for him being alive, but Bonis’s heart sank.

“I politely asked Logan to make something for me, but I was rejected. Ah, it’s not life-threatening. Just a bit inconvenient for the time being? He’s a magician, so he’ll heal himself well.”

Roxana calmly replied, looking around the kitchen.

At the same time, she casually explained to Bonis how she came to this villa from Akrato Island.

And gave a brief update on Logan.

Listening to the story about her father, Bonis realized that Roxana’s words were not nonsense.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought of her father, whom she had buried deep in her heart.

Her mind was in a mess with the sudden news about her father.

“It would be better not to tell the Empress about me, right? I believe Miss Bonis is wiser than her father. And you should meet your father soon, shouldn’t you?”

It was a clear threat, but it didn’t feel so cruel because of the anticipation of being able to meet her father, whom she thought was missing, no, already dead.

“What…… do you want from me?”

Bonis, who had been넋이 나가 [넋이 나가 is a Korean expression that means to be in a daze or to be absent-minded] for a while, asked Roxana.

“First of all, lemon tea.”

Roxana looked around the kitchen, but she couldn’t find where the lemons were at all.

Bonis took a deep breath, calmed herself, and started looking for lemons.

After searching here and there in the kitchen, Bonis easily found lemons and honey.

She had seen Sharon make lemon tea before, so she thought she could roughly imitate it.

Thus, two cups of lemon tea made by Bonis were placed on the tray.

“If you make the drug I want, Logan will be safe. I promise you that.”

Roxana said to Bonis, looking down at the finished lemon tea.

“If you have anything to say to Logan, tell me. I’ll pass it on. I’m planning to visit him tomorrow.”

Bonis opened her mouth at Roxana’s words, but she couldn’t readily speak.

She had so much to say to her father. No, she had more questions to ask.

But she put all those words aside. Her foremost wish was just for him to be safe until they met again.

“Please tell him to take care of his health…… to stay healthy until the day we meet again…….”

She didn’t want to cry, but tears streamed down her face because the time of longing had been too long.

Roxana stared at Bonis for a moment and then nodded.

She found the love for a father that she didn’t have strangely fascinating.

“I’ll tell him that.”

“I can’t betray Her Majesty the Empress.”

Bonis blurted out.

“I didn’t ask you for anything, what are you talking about? Should I take that to mean that your loyalty to the Empress is more important than your father’s life?”

“That’s not what I mean!”

“Then just shut up.”

Bonis flinched at Roxana’s emotionless words.

“I just told you to keep my existence a secret for now. I didn’t tell you to kill the Empress, why are you acting like this already?”

Roxana said with an unpleasant expression.

‘Already?’

Bonis felt a sense of foreboding in those words.

But she judged that it would be better not to upset Roxana for her father’s sake, so she immediately lowered her gaze.

Realizing that her father’s life depended on her, Bonis was afraid of Roxana’s existence.

“I’ll take this up.”

Roxana said, holding the tray with the lemon tea.

She left the kitchen first.

Bonis sat down on a chair in the kitchen and kept staring at the kitchen door.

‘Let’s get a grip.’

Bonis shook her head, got up, drank a glass of water, and composed herself.

“The important thing is that my father is alive…….”

He was alive, but why hadn’t he come to see her all this time?

The questions that started from there led to resentment towards her father that she had kept buried.

But in the end, her heart was full just because her father was alive.

‘If he lived with the Magic Tower Master, he wouldn’t have had a hard time.’

It was a relief. Even that was something to be grateful for.

But should she really not tell Zelda about Roxana’s existence?

“If I tell, my father will be in danger.”

She just had to pretend not to know about Roxana’s existence.

‘So it’s not betrayal.’

Bonis convinced herself like that.

“I just didn’t hear anything.”

But even as she made that decision, her heart was not at ease.

Bonis didn’t know why Roxana came here using teleportation, so her anxiety was even greater.

And what kind of drug did she ask for that her father refused?

Could that be related to Her Majesty the Empress?

Bonis thought she should go up to the second floor and see Zelda.

She opened the kitchen door and went outside.

As she was walking towards the stairs, Prince Tesler was staggering towards her from the opposite hallway.

He probably had a heavy drinking session with the VIPs in the drawing-room and was heading back to his room.

“Who is this, isn’t it my mistress?”

Prince Tesler twisted his lips and approached Bonis, trying to pick a fight.

***

Knock, knock-.

Roxana knocked on the door of the room where the Emperor and Empress of the Lapion Empire were staying.

A moment later, the door opened.

The chest muscles with his gown half-open came into Roxana’s view.

“What is it?”

It was Emperor Linelle.

Roxana didn’t expect him to open the door himself.

“Ah…… Her Majesty the Empress…….”

She was at a loss for words when she faced him.

Linelle’s face, seen up close, was much brighter than when she saw it through the crystal ball.

Even though his eyes were not kind, all the nerves in her body seemed to stop functioning under the blue eyes that looked down at her.

Roxana just blinked her lips like a fool and looked up at him.

“Did the Empress tell you to bring it?”

Linelle looked down at the lemon tea Roxana was holding and asked.

“Yes…… Your Majesty.”

“Give it here.”

He tried to take the tray directly.

Linelle’s fingertips brushed against Roxana’s hand holding the tray.

‘It’s cold.’

Just like last time, Roxana felt a chill from Emperor Linelle.

It wasn’t even winter, but could there be someone whose hands were so cold even in the middle of summer?

Roxana remembered reading rumors about Emperor Linelle in a gossip magazine sometime ago.

The nobles of the Akrato Principality basically have admiration for the imperial families and nobles of the continent.

As a result, magazines that report news from each country on the continent are popular, and an article about the Emperor of the Lapion Empire was once published in that magazine.

He was handsome, but he kept women at a distance and had a very cold personality, and people who actually met him described Emperor Linelle as having a really cold wind blowing from him, describing him as an ice human.

At that time, she thought they were just writing it as a joke, but now it seemed to be a fairly credible article.

‘If I hand over the tray like this, the door will close, right?’

Roxana unconsciously put strength into the hand holding the tray and said.

“I…… I’ll put it down, Your Majesty.”

Roxana glanced at the table and said to him.

“There’s no need for that.”

Linelle refused firmly and was about to take the tray, when Zelda’s urgent voice echoed from somewhere.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

At Zelda’s scream, Linelle and Roxana, who were facing each other, simultaneously turned their heads towards the direction of the voice.

Her voice seemed to be coming from inside the bathroom.

“Zelda, what’s wrong!”

Linelle took his hand off the tray and rushed into the bathroom like an arrow.

“I slipped! Oh, my back…….”

Listening to her groaning, it was clear that Zelda was still lying on the bathroom floor in the same position she had fallen.

“Oh, dear……!”

Linelle Emperor’s worried exclamation was heard.

Roxana came into the room and put the lemon tea on the table.

Then, as she was heading to the bathroom, she found a magic potion bottle on the dressing table that she had seen in Bellos’s room.

It was a bottle that hadn’t been drunk yet.

From what she had overheard in Bellos’s room, the medicinal herbs that go into the magic potion were said to be in the Tebello Empire in the Southern Continent.

Roxana glanced at the bathroom.

It seemed that the amount of potion was definitely not enough.

That’s why he said time was running out.

If that’s the case, what if one of those magic potion bottles disappeared…….

‘What will happen to Empress Zelda?’

Roxana quickly put the magic potion bottle into her dress pocket.