The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 178

178. Let’s Have a Baby

September 17, 2022

“Heok, that’s amazing!”

Moya exclaimed, her voice filled with awe as she slightly lifted Linell’s gown.

“…What exactly are you looking at now?”

He lowered his gaze and asked quietly.

“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing.”

Moya carefully covered his gown again.

“It can’t be *that* amazing, Moya~”.

Moya chuckled quietly to herself, looking very pleased.

“It seems useless without my master present…”

Linell stared at the area around his lower body and asked Moya what she meant by her mumbling, but Moya feigned ignorance, repeating that it was nothing.

He watched the suspiciously smiling Moya and then glanced at the bottom of the juice glass he had inadvertently emptied.

*Did she put something in here?*

He considered grabbing Moya by the neck and demanding answers, but then decided against it.

*Wasn’t he the one who drank a magical potion to induce partial amnesia?*

Even if Moya *had* put something strange in the juice, it didn’t really matter to him now.

He listlessly placed the empty juice glass on the table.

Moya, noticing his expression, tilted her head and asked.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“It’s fine.”

“Oong? What if I had put poison in it?”

“As long as I can see your master off tomorrow, I wouldn’t have cared if it was poison.”

“Tch, acting tough.”

Moya pouted and fluttered her wings towards the window.

“Moya.”

“Why are you calling me, cold body?”

“Come back here.”

Linell tapped the table with his fingertips.

“Funny, why are you ordering me around when you’re not my master?”

Even while grumbling, Moya involuntarily flew to the table Linell tapped, folded her hands, and sat down.

“It wasn’t poison…”

Moya muttered timidly.

She thought Linell was calling her back to question her about what she had put in the juice, so she preemptively confessed.

However, he said something unexpected.

“Will you stay with me tonight?”

His eyes were so earnest that Moya, who was about to unleash a torrent of curses, paused for a moment.

“…So creepy! Why are you being so weird?”

Moya quickly rubbed her goosebump-covered arms with both hands.

“Just keep me company.”

“Our master is sleeping, aren’t you going to sleep, Your Majesty?”

“I will. Once today is over…”

“…What are you saying? Aren’t you sleepy? Your expression already looks like you’re asleep.”

Moya twirled a finger in front of Linell’s eyes and asked.

He simply raised one corner of his lips briefly.

“Strange. Why are you suddenly making a face like you’ve never had a sausage in your life?” [referring to a lack of experience or enthusiasm].

“What?”

“Why are you acting pathetic when it doesn’t suit you?”

Moya clicked her tongue, seeing his darkening gaze.

“Fine! I’ll stay up all night with you. You have to give me lots and lots of sausages when I go to the Imperial Palace later. Got it?”

“I will.”

“Um… and also… even if you get angry with me, you have to forgive me once.”

Moya’s eyes darted around as she glanced down at his lower body.

Linell, completely unaware that he had drunk juice with an impotence drug, readily nodded.

“I will.”

“Promise!”

Moya grabbed Linell’s pinky finger and forcibly hooked it with her own.

He readily made the promise.

“Ah, and I’m going to follow my master tomorrow.”

It wasn’t a request, but a notification.

Seeing Linell’s expression now, Moya cautiously brought it up, as it seemed like he would agree to anything.

She expected him to tell her to stay here and quietly stay by Rosie’s side, but he unexpectedly nodded.

“Do so. Though it’s unlikely, if anything happens to Zelda, you must protect her. Understand?”

“Of course! I’ll protect Master.”

Moya put her hands on her waist, puffed out her plump belly, and answered confidently. Linell smiled faintly.

“Seeing you talk to the Devil in the wine cellar this time, our master is terribly inflexible.”

“…Was she?”

“Yup! If it were me, I would have just made a deal with the Devil, but Master is as stubborn as a wyvern’s tendon [a mythical dragon-like creature, known for its toughness].”

“Hmph, then you should protect her well from the side.”

“Don’t worry! Your Majesty should take care of your own body. Though you’ll have no choice but to protect it even if you don’t want to, kekeke.”

Moya leaned over the table and once again slightly lifted his gown.

“Why have you been looking there since earlier…?”

Linell asked in a displeased tone.

“Hehehe, just because. Because it’s cool.”

Moya grinned slyly, patted his thigh, and gave a thumbs up.

***

Late at night, Roxana went to the Magic Tower to meet Logan.

“What exactly… did you say you needed?”

Logan asked Roxana again, doubting his ears.

“That magic potion that Emperor Linell drank. I need one more.”

“Surely… you’re not going to use that on Empress Zelda…?”

Roxana nodded lightly at Logan, who couldn’t finish his sentence.

Logan closed his gaping mouth and calmly said again.

“I can’t make it for you without the Magic Tower Lord’s permission. Especially if it’s related to Empress Zelda, who the Magic Tower Lord considers his destined partner.”

“I’ve already spoken to Crow about it.”

Roxana made an annoyed expression at Logan’s uncooperative reaction and touched her forehead with her hand.

“Then, come back when you have the Magic Tower Lord’s permission.”

Logan politely refused.

“It’ll be good for the Magic Tower Lord as well as me, so just do as you’re told.”

Roxana’s voice rose as she looked around the shelves displaying herb bottles.

To create a magic potion that induces partial amnesia, the blood component of the person whose memory is to be erased is needed.

After Zelda was infected with the evil energy, Bellos collected her blood to create a healing potion.

And Linell, who was holding her when she blocked the will-o’-the-wisp [a ghostly light often associated with danger] with her hand, could not rule out the possibility that he was also infected by the sparks, so his blood was also collected.

However, Bellos never expected it. That Zelda’s blood would be used in a magic potion to erase her from Linell’s memory.

And now, Linell’s blood was about to be used on Zelda in the same way.

Logan knew that he couldn’t refuse Roxana’s orders, but on the other hand, he was genuinely curious.

“Is it really necessary to do that to the Empress as well?”

Roxana’s eyes flashed coldly at Logan’s words.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry, isn’t it? The Magic Tower Lord won’t object either. It’ll be easier for him to take Empress Zelda as his destined partner that way.”

It wasn’t wrong.

Logan also knew that Bellos couldn’t afford to be at odds with Roxana now.

“But still…”

Roxana flared up at the hesitant Logan.

“There’s no time! Tomorrow morning, Hector’s pirate crew and our duchy’s knights will arrive in the Northern Continent. There will be a bloodbath soon.”

Roxana, who had been spitting out words irritably, lowered her voice and mentioned Bonis.

“Your daughter is there too…”

At that, Logan’s hand, which had been organizing the herb bottles, stopped.

“I trust that you will protect my daughter’s safety as you promised before. Do you remember?”

“Of course. But remember that my promise is based on your cooperation, right?”

“!”

“If you’re worried about Bonis’s safety, then make that potion. I think the Magic Tower Lord gave you Emperor Linell’s blood back then, didn’t he?”

Logan had no choice.

He felt sorry for Zelda, but he had no choice but to cooperate with Roxana for the safety of his daughter, Bonis.

*Maybe it’s a good thing. Yes, it’ll be better for Zelda too…*

Emperor Linell will also lose his memories of Zelda, so it would be much better for her to not remember him either than to live with that sadness.

Thirty minutes later, Bellos, who had heard the news from Crow, returned to the Magic Tower using teleportation.

He was in a very unpleasant mood, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell Logan, who was already making the magic potion under Roxana’s orders, to stop.

“You’ve arrived just in time. I was just about to go there for a moment.”

Roxana said, shaking the completed magic potion bottle.

Bellos silently took Roxana and arrived back at his room in the monastery using teleportation.

Roxana borrowed Bellos’s black robe to avoid being seen by others.

Then she asked where Bonis’s room was.

As Roxana opened the door and was about to leave, Bellos closed the door again and quietly spoke.

“Tomorrow morning, I will go to the Tevelo Empire with Her Majesty the Empress. It is said to those who accompany her that she is going to find herbs for the potion she is taking for her healing and burn scars.”

Roxana nodded, twitching her face at Bellos’s explanation.

“I expected it. That Emperor Linell would send her far away before the allied forces led by Hector stormed in. In the end, she’s going to the Tevelo Empire?”

“Bonis will also accompany her.”

“Ah, then things will be much easier.”

Roxana smiled brightly.

***

“What… is this?”

Bonis was horrified to see Roxana suddenly enter her room late at night, then asked, looking at the potion bottle she had placed on the table.

The liquid in the small potion bottle sloshed around.

“A way for everyone to be happy, perhaps?”

Bonis looked back and forth between Roxana and the potion bottle with an ominous gaze.

“Have you thought about why Emperor Linell is suddenly trying to send the Empress to the Tevelo Empire?”

Roxana asked with a secretive expression.

“It’s for Her Majesty the Empress’s treatment, of course.”

Roxana burst out laughing at Bonis’s answer.

“Oh dear, where should I start explaining…?”

Roxana muttered, twirling her temple with her fingertip.

“Empress Zelda will be healed even if it’s not the Tevelo Empire.”

Bonis breathed a sigh of relief, but she tensed up again at Roxana’s words, which felt like she had some ulterior motive.

“Really?! Then why the Tevelo Empire…?”

“Emperor Linell made a deal with me to save the Empress and my younger brother.”

“What kind of deal? What did you do!”

“I told him to abandon the Empress in exchange for saving those two people’s lives.”

Bonis took a few steps back with her mouth wide open.

“Emperor Linell will soon lose his memories of Empress Zelda. But I thought it would be too cruel to have only the Empress long for him while he lives on, forgetting her?”

Roxana said in a tone that seemed very worried about Zelda, drooping the corners of her mouth.

“So, shouldn’t you, as her close aide, help her?”

Roxana’s wicked scheme was driving Bonis to hell.

*No way! This is crazy!*

Bonis’s stomach began to churn.

“I can’t do it!”

“If you don’t, your father will die.”

Roxana said coldly.

“And Logan aside, do you think I’ll let you live, now that you know this secret?”

Bonis stared at Roxana for a long time, then looked at the potion bottle on the table.

Bonis thought of her father, who must have made this magic potion under Roxana’s threats.

*My father must have been threatened the same way! You bad woman, you devilish woman! But in the end, I’m the same…*

She hated Roxana, but she couldn’t shake off her self-loathing.

She was appalled by her current situation.

“There’s nothing you can undo here. When the Emperor falls asleep and wakes up, there will be no memories of Empress Zelda left in his head. It would be better for both of them to erase their memories of each other and live on, wouldn’t it?”

Roxana spoke as if she were doing a good deed.

“You’ll be punished by heaven!”

“If I’m being punished for committing a sin, then so be it.”

Roxana replied with a pleased expression.

“What?”

“I’ve been punished my whole life without committing any sins, so I don’t mind being punished for committing a sin.”

Roxana said, recalling the whip scars engraved on her back.

“Do you think His Majesty will remarry you if you do this?”

“Bonis, that’s none of your concern.”

“You’re a devil! The devil isn’t possessing Empress Zelda, it’s possessing you!”

“Oh dear, use your head a little. This is good for Empress Zelda too, you know?”

“Stop talking nonsense…”

“Do you want her to live her whole life longing for Emperor Linell? Even if she comes back to the Lapheon Imperial Palace to get revenge on me, there’s nothing she can do. She’ll just die a meaningless death.”

Roxana said quickly with a cold expression.

“His Majesty will remember our Empress!”

“How? Do you think he’ll fall in love with her again? What if he finds out that she’s a surrogate empress who deceived him before feelings even arise? And if the fact that she was a surrogate empress is revealed to the vassals [a person or state that is subordinate to another], will they stand still?”

“Th, that’s!”

“And what about me? Will I, who will remarry him, stand still?”

Roxana looked like she had already achieved everything she wanted.

“Don’t you want Zelda to recover and live comfortably without pain?”

“St, still, I can’t let her lose her memories!”

“She’s only losing her memories of Linell. Her memories of others will remain intact.”

“Is that… really true?”

Bonis asked with a suspicious tone.

“Yes. Anyway, her life as a deposed empress won’t change… well, it’s good to have old memories, right? Consider it a gift from me?”

A gift?

Bonis burst out laughing.

The word ‘gift’ clearly had a different meaning for Roxana.

“After the Empress’s party leaves tomorrow, all the VIPs here will be surrounded by the allied forces of the Aclato Duchy and Tanya Island. If you can’t accept this… stay here. And die honorably. That’s all you have to do.”

“!”

She wanted to say she would. But Bonis couldn’t get the words out.

“See, you don’t want that either, do you? If you don’t have the courage to do that, don’t pretend to be honorable and just take this.”

Roxana directly placed the potion bottle in Bonis’s hand.

***

Linell stayed up all night with Moya.

To be exact, he watched Moya doze off.

Whenever he was so sleepy that he couldn’t bear it, he would sit on the table and poke the soles of Moya’s feet, who was constantly bowing [nodding off] to him while dozing off, to wake her up.

“Keoeok, um? Where was I?”

Then Moya would nonchalantly open her eyes again as if she had never dozed off and continue the story she had been telling.

That’s how Linell endured the night, listening to Moya’s stories that she had experienced while living in the egg for over 200 years, stories that he didn’t even need to hear.

“I learned human curses from Rosie when I was in the egg. Even when I was with the Magic Tower Lord in the Magic Tower, I hadn’t heard anyone curse like Rosie for over 100 years? I was surprised once by Rosie’s curses in the egg, and twice by Rosie’s face when I came out, Moya~”.

Moya chattered away even while blinking her eyes.

But as she continued to reveal things about Rosie, she eventually started dozing off again.

Linell didn’t wake Moya up anymore and left her alone.

It was about time to wake Zelda up.

He turned his head and looked towards the bed. She was sleeping soundly, even while shivering.

Linell watched her like that for a while with a satisfied expression, then got up from the chair and approached Zelda.

He sat on the edge of the bed and stroked her soft blonde hair.

Long, soft hair slipped through his fingers.

Before all of her hair slipped out, he unknowingly clenched his hand tightly.

It was because he felt like she was slipping out of his life, just like Zelda’s hair slipping through his fingers.

“Ah.”

Perhaps because he had gripped too tightly, Zelda narrowed her brows and opened her eyes.

“Did you wake up?”

“How could I not wake up?”

Zelda answered curtly and glared at him, who was holding her hair in his hand.

“Why are you grabbing my hair from the morning, especially on the day I’m leaving for a long journey?”

Linell chuckled.

Zelda’s tone had changed since she was infected with the evil energy.

Her kind and cheerful tone had changed to a curt and cold tone, but even that side of her was lovely.

Linell released Zelda’s hair that he had been holding between his fingers.

It was time to do so.

“You need to get up and prepare to leave. There’s not much time.”

He said, forcing a cheerful expression.

“You know, Linell…”

Zelda cleared her throat, slightly grabbing his gown sleeve.

“Yeah?”

“If we meet again in the Tevelo Empire, then at that time…”

Zelda, who had sat up, gazed at his face seriously.

Seeing her expression, it seemed like she was going to say something very important, so Linell quietly looked at her face.

“Let’s have a baby.”

Zelda said with hopeful eyes.