The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 186

186. A Family Where the Husband Cheats

October 15, 2022

Everyone opposed my plan to infiltrate the Imperial Palace tomorrow night.

“It might be too soon, Your Majesty,” Commander Markrom said, shaking his head. Elan also expressed a negative opinion.

“That’s right. It’s better to observe the situation in the Imperial Palace a bit more before acting.”

I had somewhat anticipated the group’s reaction.

“Please wait just one more week. Once I replenish my depleted magic, I will escort you with teleportation magic.”

The Magic Tower Master had been talking about teleportation magic ever since I mentioned infiltrating the Imperial Palace from the Thebelo Empire.

Using teleportation magic consumes a considerable amount of magic, and I heard that when I broke the demon’s barrier in the monastery, a large amount of magic was depleted along with my life force.

Moreover, there must have been energy consumption while healing my body, which was infected with the energy of evil.

I shook my head at the Magic Tower Master.

“It’s better to save teleportation magic for emergencies.”

“But Your Majesty…….”

“Since I’m only going to see Rosie and Sharon, as long as I don’t run into the guards near the secret passage, and since that place isn’t far from the West Palace, there’s little risk of getting caught.”

“What if someone recognizes Your Majesty…….”

The Magic Tower Master trailed off, giving me a worried look.

I almost blurted out, ‘I’ll just kill them,’ but I held back.

“No one would think that the proxy empress [a temporary or substitute empress] would enter the Imperial Palace dressed as a maid. So, rest assured.”

Everyone was at a loss when I casually mentioned the words ‘proxy empress.’

“Don’t worry. As I said, I’m not going there to seek revenge right now. I’m just going to check how the Imperial Palace atmosphere is and whether Rosie and Sharon are safe.”

When I insisted, the three exchanged glances.

The Magic Tower Master made a face as if trying to stop me would be useless, and the other two seemed to reluctantly agree.

I turned to Moiya, who was still shouting ‘sausage’ from the bed, and said,

“Moiya, you go into the Imperial Palace first tomorrow night.”

“Oong? Is that okay?”

Moiya peeked out from under the pillow, her ruby eyes sparkling.

“Yes. Go to Rosie and tell her that I’ll be visiting her chambers at night, and tell Sharon as well.”

“If I tell them everything, can I eat sausage and come back!”

“Yes, tell Sharon to bring all the delicious sausage.”

“Should I go right away, Moiya~?”

Moiya shrugged her shoulders and flapped her wings.

“Go tomorrow.”

“My tummy says I have to go today because of someone.”

Moiya stared at me, blaming me for not buying her sausage.

Moiya narrowed her eyes and looked around the room before fixing her gaze on a fly that flew in from the balcony.

“Not today. Tomorrow night, Moiya.”

I didn’t want to stop her since I forgot to buy Moiya sausage because I was distracted by the first man I saw, but I thought it would be better to move tomorrow.

“Okay…… then I’ll just go play and come back. My wings are itchy.”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

“I’ll be back, Master!”

Moiya’s red eyes flashed as the fly flew nearby, and she instantly transformed into the fly’s body and entered.

“Fly around quietly. Don’t cause any trouble.”

The Magic Tower Master instructed Moiya.

“Hmph, you take care of yourself!”

Moiya snapped at the Magic Tower Master, then politely greeted me, saying she would go play and come back, before flying out of the balcony.

“I will get the Imperial Palace maid’s uniform early tomorrow morning.”

When Elan said to me, Commander Markrom interjected.

“There is a costume shop in the Imperial City that sells the clothes of palace people. I will guide you.”

“That’s great, I’ll ask you.”

I looked at the three of them in turn and expressed my gratitude.

“And thank you all.”

***

“Welcome.”

Nancy greeted Hector politely, who had come to see Roxana again today without fail.

When I was in the Aclato Principality, he was just like a barbarian and scary, but after living in the Rafion Imperial Palace, he became a great support.

Emperor Linel, who was about to remarry Roxana, had only visited her a handful of times while she was suffering from a fever.

But Hector came to see Roxana’s condition at least once a day.

So, Nancy’s evaluation of him, Roxana’s maid, could not help but change.

Unlike his appearance, Hector was a person with deep affection and warmth.

Even though her master made Hector drink the obedience potion, when she looked at his eyes looking at Roxana, who was wandering in the afterlife, it seemed that he was sincerely worried about her regardless of the obedience potion.

I heard that the obedience potion between men and women only works for those who have spent the night together.

As Nancy remembers, she felt that Hector’s eyes looking at Roxana had changed a lot from the beginning, even before he drank the obedience potion.

‘Only our lady didn’t notice.’

From the day after Roxana arrived at the monastery, the obedience potion began to circulate in Hector’s body in earnest, and his attitude changed drastically from then on.

Hector carried out everything she said without complaint.

I don’t know what kind of conversation the two had in the room, but the relationship between the two was clearly different the day after arriving at the monastery.

Hector’s subordinates thought this was strange, but they had no choice but to follow their lord’s words.

Some subordinates who became dissatisfied with Hector, who suddenly moved according to Roxana’s will, had their heads cut off by Hector’s hands or became food for Galaco.

Nancy felt a little sorry for Hector, who had fallen into Roxana’s escort knight overnight.

In addition, as Emperor Linel’s coldness grew, Hector’s loyalty to Roxana felt more grateful.

“How is the princess’s condition?”

Hector asked Nancy before entering the room.

“There is no improvement. The fever is still the same…….”

Nancy opened the door and replied quietly.

“The Emperor?”

Hector asked, just in case.

As expected, Nancy smiled bitterly and shook her head.

Hector’s expression became subtle.

In some ways, it seemed like a pity, but in other ways, it seemed like he was relieved.

“I came again today.”

Hector, who entered the room and stood in front of the bed, sat on the chair that had become his exclusive chair and looked down at Roxana.

Hector took the washcloth placed on Roxana’s forehead, soaked it in the water in the washbasin next to him, wrung it out again, and placed it back on her forehead.

“I allowed you to speak informally when we’re alone, right?”

Hector said, holding Roxana’s hand.

“I still don’t understand. Why are you trying to marry a cold-hearted guy like Emperor Linel, and why am I following your words…….”

Roxana’s closed eyes twitched as if responding to Hector’s voice.

Even though she was wandering in the afterlife, it seemed like she was listening to Hector’s words.

“Why don’t you come to me now? Even if it’s not the Rafion Empire, I think I can wipe out the Shattonil Kingdom and give it to you.”

The hand holding Roxana’s hand tightened.

At that time, Roxana barely opened her eyes and put a firm word on her heavy breath.

“I hate it.”

***

Linel, who returned to the Imperial Palace, took a shower in his bedroom and went back down to his office.

He realized Raphael’s absence only after his chief of staff, Stian, said, “Where is the secretary? Are you returning alone?”

“Hasn’t he come back yet?”

“Did you order him to return to the palace first?”

“No, we got a little separated in front of the tavern.”

At Linel’s words, Stian replied with a slightly worried voice.

“Then wouldn’t he still be waiting there?”

“Raphael isn’t a pure romantic. He might have gone to the bathroom and followed a woman he liked.”

He said, subtly comparing it to his own actions today.

“Ah, well, that’s true. But he’s not the type to follow just any woman. What crazy person would abandon his party and follow a woman he met for the first time and not come back until this time?”

Here it is.

The crazy guy who abandoned his party and followed a woman he met for the first time.

Linel thought inwardly, avoiding Stian’s gaze.

“Surely he didn’t follow a strange woman, did he?”

“There’s no way!”

“……Yes?”

He stopped walking down the stairs at Stian’s words and shouted.

“What do you think of me? I’m not someone who has no eye for people!”

“Why, why are you doing this, Your Majesty? I was talking about the secretary?”

“……Ah, really? I’m so tired these days that I couldn’t hear you properly, ahem.”

He cleared his throat and patted his neck with his palm for no reason.

“By the way, Your Majesty. You look very good after going out to the Imperial City. Did something good happen?”

Something good…….

Linel recalled the face of the woman he met at the tavern.

Her clear pink eyes and bright smile.

That’s where the normal stuff ended.

The memory after that was her staggering walk while drunk.

Her boldness in taking his hand and taking him to a regular inn.

The words she spat out without hesitation and the even more unrestrained actions in bed.

I thought she was just running away with the money for the drinks, but she took the body and mind of the emperor of this country as she pleased, and even had the coolness to disappear without a word.

In the end, a woman who left only a sense of futility and loss.

“You have a very well-rested face.”

Stian’s eyes were sharp as he was a close aide who had been watching the emperor’s every move for a long time.

“That’s actually true.”

“Is that so? As expected…… but where did you sleep?”

Linel, who was momentarily speechless, went back up the stairs without saying a word.

“Didn’t you hear me? Your Majesty, Your Majesty?”

Stian asked persistently.

“I dozed off at the tavern.”

“Hey, how can you joke that you fell asleep at the tavern?”

Stian smiled and immediately recognized Linel’s lie.

Does this guy know something?

Linel stared at his chief of staff’s smiling face and then turned his gaze back to the front.

He was about to tell Stian that there are people who grab someone else’s glass and take a shot at the tavern, so why wouldn’t there be someone who dozes off for a while, but he stopped.

“You didn’t go somewhere to rest, did you?”

Linel’s blue eyes shook at Stian’s words.

“Do you think I, the emperor, would have slept in a place like an inn?!”

“……?”

Stian’s eyes began to tilt to the side with a question mark at his sudden inn remarks.

Our Majesty, I smell something fishy?

The emperor’s face, which had been listless for a month since returning to the monastery, is now full of life.

How long has it been since he got so angry over nothing?

Stian was puzzled by the emperor’s atmosphere, which had changed somewhere, but on the other hand, he remembered that he had visited the magician Big’s clinic and returned.

Did you take a nutritional supplement to restore your energy?

Stian didn’t ask any further and laughed and matched his mood.

“Of course. Who would force our noble Majesty to rest in a place like an inn? Yes, that’s right.”

At Stian’s words, Linel turned around, emitting cold air from his eyes.

“What’s wrong with the inn…….”

“?”

Linel said in a voice so cold that it would freeze Stian and went into the office.

“……What did I do wrong?”

Stian scratched his head and muttered at the emperor’s overreaction just now.

***

“It was just comfortable.”

Linel quietly muttered to himself only after sitting at his desk in the office, the last words he couldn’t say to Stian.

About an hour after he entered the office, there was a knock and Raphael came in.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”

“I’m sorry, Raphael.”

The two thought that they had abandoned each other at the tavern.

So, as soon as they returned to the Imperial Palace and reunited, they both offered sincere apologies at the same time.

“What am I…… sorry for?”

I’m the one who got stood up?

Raphael asked as if it was strange.

“Why are you sorry? Since I am the emperor, you, the secretary, should speak first.”

He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Ah, yes. My lower abdomen was in severe rebellion, so I couldn’t be with you because I had to keep going to the bathroom. And I had to inevitably move the bathroom several times, so I couldn’t even tell you.”

Raphael, who added that he was sorry for keeping him waiting for a long time, now made a face telling His Majesty to speak.

Raphael couldn’t bring himself to tell him that he had seen the Magic Tower Master and Commander Markrom in the square and followed them to a shabby inn.

It was a judgment that it would be better to inform him after he had observed the situation further.

“I drank a few glasses of alcohol, got drunk, completely forgot about you, and went to rest for a while…… no, I wandered around the square for a while and came back.”

Linel also couldn’t bring himself to say that he had followed a woman he met at the tavern and had an accident at a shabby inn.

To be exact, it wasn’t an accident.

It was a deliberate and active choice.

Of course, there were no regrets. At least he did.

“Were you drunk and wandering around? Haa, I’m sorry. Today, I became the open pants [a slang term for being caught off guard or making a fool of oneself] of the Imperial City in a different sense, leaving Your Majesty lonely.”

Raphael rubbed his stomach with both hands, bowed his head, and apologized.

Linel said it was okay and changed to a look of deep thought.

“Raphael.”

He, who had been silent for a while, opened his mouth seriously.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“There is someone to find.”

“Suddenly who……? Yes, tell me, Your Majesty.”

“It’s a woman.”

He ended with that one word and fell silent again.

Raphael, who couldn’t stand it, asked first.

“……And?”

Raphael felt like he was going to be given a difficult task.

“Listen carefully.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Raphael came closer and focused as if Linel was telling him important information about the person he was trying to find.

“Look for a family in the Imperial City where the husband is seduced by another woman and tries to remarry. In short, find a woman who has been abandoned by her husband.”

He said solemnly and added as if he was pathetic.

“There probably aren’t many families with such stupid husbands, so you should be able to find them easily, right?”

Linel recalled her face and whispered to Raphael.

“!”

‘There’s a family like that here too?’

Raphael’s throat and fingers wriggled towards Linel.