The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 177

177. Because I’m Master’s Mate

2022.09.14.

“Did you do something… you feel sorry about to me?”

Sensing something was off, I pulled away from his embrace, glared at him, and asked.

“I’m sorry I can’t go with you.”

He pinched my cheek lightly, his eyes still heavy with sleep, and said.

“But will the Master of the Magic Tower really accompany us?”

“I’ve already arranged it.”

“Did you threaten him? Tell him you’d make him regret it if he didn’t find a cure for me?”

“Of course. I told him I’d kill him.”

He answered calmly.

As expected of my man.

“Then I’ll definitely be cured, right?”

“That’s right. Otherwise, I really….”

Linelle clenched his jaw, a visible determination to murder the Master of the Magic Tower if he failed to cure me.

I felt relieved.

It was an expression that made my steps lighter as I turned to leave.

Seeing his anger directed at someone else makes me feel proud and… good.

Suddenly, he seems so, so lovely.

Is this a side effect of being infected with evil energy?

He relaxed his expression, took my hand, and asked.

“Besides the Master of the Magic Tower, we need to choose people to accompany you to the Thebelo Empire. Who would be best?”

“Well….”

***

Rosie, Sharon, and Bonis had been engaged in a heated debate for an hour, arguing over who would accompany Zelda to the Thebelo Empire.

“The Empress will be most comfortable if I’m there to attend to her needs,” Sharon said confidently.

“You can’t be sure of that, Sharon,” Rosie immediately retorted.

“Right. When it comes to comfort, I’m the most comforting, right?” Bonis, standing next to her, nodded in agreement.

The three of them had gathered in Rosie’s room after being summoned by Linelle and Zelda to the Emperor and Empress’s room an hour prior.

Linelle had told them what he had told his close aides: that it was impossible to arrive in the Thebelo Empire during the Continental Hunting Competition. Therefore, the Empress and the Master of the Magic Tower would leave for the Thebelo Empire first to collect ‘Yakante’ [a rare medicinal herb], the main ingredient for the magic potion she was taking.

Of course, he also included the lie that there was an herb in the Thebelo Empire that would cure Zelda’s evil energy infection.

They all agreed with Linelle’s decision and eagerly volunteered to accompany Zelda.

However, due to Galaco’s sensitive hearing, only a minimal number of people could go.

Only one of Zelda’s three close aides could accompany her.

Rosie, Sharon, and Bonis each insisted they should be the one to go.

Ultimately, they couldn’t reach a conclusion in front of Linelle and Zelda, so they decided to gather separately and come to a decision.

But for an hour, each of them had stubbornly insisted on going to the Thebelo Empire with Zelda, refusing to yield.

“No matter how I look at it, I’m the most suitable! I need to take care of the Empress, and I’m afraid the two of you might have a little… difficulty,” Sharon emphasized again.

Rosie readily acknowledged that point and nodded, but Bonis disagreed.

“Sharon, Rosie might be like that, but I’m different. I’ve been with the Empress like close sisters since the Shatonil Kingdom. Wouldn’t I be better at attending to her than you?”

If she brought up how long she had known Zelda, Rosie and Sharon would have no argument.

“Ah, that’s true, but… still… Haa, can’t we just ask them to take all of us?”

Sharon asked, her face tearful.

“They said that’s not possible. We’re going with the minimum number of people so as not to attract attention,” Rosie replied sullenly.

Rosie was resigned to the fact that she wasn’t as helpful to Zelda as the other two.

‘Oong? Master is leaving tomorrow morning?’

Moya, who had returned from playing with the butterflies in the forest, perked up her ears when she overheard the three people talking in Rosie’s room.

‘Then I have to follow Moya~?’

Moya flew straight to the monastery kitchen.

Before leaving for the Thebelo Empire, she had to eat all the sausages left in the kitchen and fill her stomach in advance.

“Sniff, huh? That smell is sausage?!”

Moya, flying outside the dark monastery building, stopped flapping her wings in front of a window and flared her nostrils.

Several knights were bustling about, tilting their glasses in the room where the smell of sausage was coming from.

Moya trembled, clenching her fists with an unbelievable look.

“Those guys brought my sausage!”

Sausages were laid out on the table as snacks.

Moya slowly opened her mouth.

A serious consideration began as to whether or not to breathe fire on the knights and bake them all to a crisp.

Fortunately, the drinking party was coming to an end before she could summon the fire from deep within her stomach.

The knights left one by one.

Now only two knights remained in the room, sitting face to face at a round table, chatting.

On the table, four whole sausages that they hadn’t eaten were left on a plate.

“That’s mine. Just try to eat it….”

Moya’s burning ruby-colored eyes were practically cooking the sausage with her gaze.

The two knights sitting face to face thankfully didn’t seem interested in the sausage.

They continued talking, pouring the remaining wine into silver glasses that appeared to have been used by the priests of the monastery.

“Do you know what this pill is?”

The larger of the two knights took a small vial out of his pants pocket and placed it on the table.

“What is it?”

“It’s medicine my wife gave me before I left for the hunting competition.”

“Really? You should share good things like that.”

The smaller knight smiled, holding out his palm to the larger knight.

“Do you know what kind of medicine this is?”

The larger knight laughed heartily.

“What kind of medicine is it?”

“It’s medicine that makes my lower body… not function.”

The larger knight looked down at his groin, then patted his thigh and said.

“…What, what? No, why would she give you medicine like that?!”

“So I don’t look at other women during the Continental Hunting Competition.”

“But if you take that medicine, your wife will end up losing out, right?”

When the smaller knight asked seriously, the larger knight smiled and shook his head.

“This… it excludes the last person I was intimate with. So it’s a medicine that prevents me from reacting to other women except her. Instead, it makes my desire surge even more when I see the last person I made love to, I guess?”

“Good heavens. So did you eat it? Oh, the medicine bottle hasn’t been emptied, so you haven’t taken a single pill?”

“Of course not! Am I crazy? Aren’t you curious? What do women from the Southern Continent feel like?”

The larger knight licked his lips and said.

“Hahaha, your wife figured you out and gave you a castration drug! But how did you know this medicine had that function?”

“At first, she gave it to me as a nutritional supplement. But I felt uneasy, so I went to a nearby clinic to find out, and guess what? It was a medicine that prevented me from reacting to other women! I almost got tricked.”

The larger knight wiped his forehead with his hand, pretending to wipe away sweat, and joked.

The smaller knight looked at the medicine bottle with curious eyes.

“It doesn’t completely lose its function, but it’s a castration drug that only reacts to the last person you were intimate with… that’s amazing.”

“I have to pretend to my wife that I know this is just a nutritional supplement and that I ate it all. That way I can live more freely.”

The drunk larger knight turned his waist, got up from his chair, staggered, and opened the door.

Then the smaller knight shouted, holding the medicine bottle.

“Hey! Are you just throwing this medicine away? What if other people eat it if you leave it here!”

“That’s what I want. Hahaha!”

At the larger knight’s words, the smaller knight also burst into laughter, put the medicine bottle back on the table, and followed him out.

“Oong? A castration drug, Moya~?”

Moya, who had been secretly watching the two knights from outside the window, slipped inside as soon as they left.

Moya flew straight to the table and picked up the small medicine bottle that the large knight had thrown away.

She looked at it this way and that with a profound expression, then smiled.

If you eat this, you can’t mate with anyone else, right?

“Then I have to feed it to the cold body [Linelle] and go, right?”

Before chasing after Zelda tomorrow morning, she had a gift for Linelle.

Moya, excited, chewed on the sausages left on the plate with both hands and danced her shoulders.

‘I heard that it’s a drug that doesn’t react to anyone except the person who had a relationship with you last.’

The words of that big knight came to mind again.

The cold body is our master’s mate. So,

“You have to wait quietly until Master comes back, Moya~.”

Moya stuffed all the remaining sausages into her cheeks, held the medicine bottle tightly in her hand, slipped out of the window, and flew to the room where Linelle and Zelda were staying.

***

“Haa… It’s nice to love like there’s no tomorrow….”

It was around the time when their rough breathing subsided.

Zelda said, caressing his sweaty bangs.

At her whisper, Linelle said something terrifying: “Not enough yet….” Surprised, she shook her head and pulled the blanket over her chest.

“Please love me when you come to the Thebelo Empire. I’ll be waiting.”

Her sweet voice struck his heart.

‘Yes.’ It was hell because he couldn’t say that simple word.

So, instead of a promise he couldn’t make, he gave her a truth that needed no explanation.

“I love you, forever….”

Even if you are erased from my memory, my soul will continue to love you.

He could be sure.

Zelda was falling asleep, enveloped in his love.

“Are you having a hard time? We still have….”

There’s so much to share.

There are still so many things I want to share and give.

Linelle shook her shoulder slightly to wake her up.

“Umm… I think that’s enough now….”

Zelda mumbled sleepily.

In fact, he was also feeling sleepy.

He had stayed up all night for two days straight.

But he would hold on as long as he could.

However, unlike his determination, he was already reaching his limit.

That’s because he had poured all his energy into Zelda, so he was more physically exhausted than usual.

When she was awake, he didn’t let her out of his arms.

Except when he was talking, Linelle’s lips were always touching somewhere on her body.

The smell of her skin, her smiling lips.

Her kind eyes that slightly glare when he talks nonsense, but eventually turn into crescents.

The wrinkled forehead she makes when she frowns slightly when she’s playfully arguing and feels like she’s at a disadvantage, the laughter that starts quietly and gradually grows louder.

The expression she makes when she winks and acts coquettish whenever she wants him.

The strength of her rough and strong grip on his shoulder as she calls his name when she is filled with joy while making love.

I have to remember all those things… I want to remember them….

Will there be even one thing left in my head?

Linelle was afraid every time he blinked.

In that fleeting moment, he was afraid that he might fall asleep.

Whether he sleeps for a few seconds, a few minutes, once he falls asleep and wakes up, that’s it.

Zelda disappears from him.

The fact that doesn’t seem possible will soon become a reality….

Did I tell her to be healthy?

I’m sure I said I loved her.

Linelle quietly began to organize the words he had already said to Zelda and the words he wanted to say but couldn’t say in the end.

Ah, I couldn’t tell you that you were actually the prettiest of the women I’ve seen.

I have to tell her before I leave tomorrow.

Yes, I have to tell her.

Linelle took her hand.

Her body was trembling slightly even in her sleep.

His strongly determined heart also trembled.

Morning is coming.

A morning waiting for farewell….

He let out a long sigh as heavy as his sadness.

Linelle, choked up at the end of her sigh, carefully got up from the bed.

He picked up the glass of orange juice that he had left over from drinking with Zelda at dinner.

He closed his eyes and took a sip of the juice, then stopped.

He opened his eyes in surprise when he tasted something subtly different from before.

Moya was staring at him with her ruby eyes blinking right in front of him.

“Drink it all up, drink it all up.”

“!”

Linelle was about to pull the glass away in surprise. Then Moya held the juice glass with both hands and said to him as if soothing a child.

“Moya, when did you come in… Ugh?!”

Linelle was speaking with the wine glass to his lips when Moya lifted the end of the juice glass with her hand, and all the juice left in the glass went down his throat.

“Now I’m relieved, Moya~.”

Moya muttered, slightly lifting the bottom of the gown Linelle was wearing.