The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 202

202. Missing You

2022.12.10.

Once I made up my mind, I immediately knew what I needed tonight.

“I need clothes that will allow me to move discreetly. Can you get them for me?”

I asked Rosie quietly.

“I’ll have a servant get them while we’re having tea. Just tell me what you need.”

Rosie said with a happy face as she moved towards her chambers.

“Um… something that doesn’t stand out. Like what an assassin would wear.”

“…Assassin’s clothes?”

Rosie’s eyes widened as she double-checked my words.

When I nodded, Melanie looked around and asked secretly.

“Oh my, is someone going to die by Her Majesty’s hand today?”

Melanie’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

“That’s for later.”

I replied, looking towards the Empress’s Palace.

At my answer, Rosie’s eyes grew even wider, and Melanie’s eyes shone even brighter.

“I have other business today.”

“Really… are you thinking of going to the Empress’s Palace?”

Rosie whispered, moving closer to me.

“Yeah, there’s something I need to check.”

***

After having tea at Rosie’s chambers, I even had dinner with the two of them.

I wanted to leave earlier, but

‘On days like this, it’s better to eat together than alone.’

‘That’s right, you have to eat even if you don’t have an appetite!’

I couldn’t resist Rosie and Melanie’s urging, and only after having a hearty dessert was I able to head to the main palace.

The garden path leading from the West Palace to the Main Palace was known as the most beautiful place in the Imperial Palace.

But even walking this beautiful path, my heart felt like a wasteland.

I would have felt less awful if he had just been Nellie, whom I met at a tavern, instead of the Emperor.

Or if I hadn’t met him at the tavern at all.

Somehow, my feelings deepened strangely quickly compared to the time we spent together.

I thought it was too much of a pull.

Even if he was erased from my memory, I wondered if my subconscious was still holding onto him.

Was it the same for him?

Surely, we must have had our first night after the wedding, right?

I tried to remember what our first night with him was like.

At times like this, my head tickles as if I’m about to sneeze.

Linelle probably doesn’t remember what our first night was like either, right?

Will only the first night with Roxana remain in his head now?

The word ‘first night’ lingered in my mouth, and suddenly my imagination began to explode.

I looked at the Empress’s Palace in the distance.

I didn’t like any of the thoughts that came to mind.

Tonight, I was jealous of even the meaningless glances they exchanged.

I arrived at the main palace and quickly climbed the stairs to the bedroom floor.

I stared at the Emperor’s bedroom for a moment before trudging to my room.

***

“You’re just arriving.”

Bellos had been waiting for Zelda in her room for an hour.

“How did you get in here? Ah, with teleportation?”

“…There are many ways besides teleportation.”

“Is that so? How’s Sharon doing?”

“Don’t worry. It will take some time for the wound to heal, but she will be able to resume her daily life in a day or two.”

“Thank you. For everything.”

Zelda said in a weak voice.

“You’re welcome. Are you alright?”

Bellos approached her with a worried expression and asked.

Then she laughed hollowly and replied honestly.

“I don’t know what you’re asking about, but overall, I’m not alright.”

“Yes, of course, you wouldn’t be. You’ve become the Emperor’s concubine without any memories.”

“?”

‘Oh right, the Master of the Magic Tower doesn’t know that I met Linelle again….’

Should I tell him?

I spent a night with a man I met at a tavern while sober and coolly ran away the next day, but then I met him again at the Imperial Palace and started dating.

But it turns out he’s my ex-husband?

Zelda hesitated for a moment and then decided to keep her mouth shut.

Nothing would change in her situation now even if Bellos knew the truth.

Bellos, who didn’t know this fact at all, just felt sorry for her.

“But it was unexpected. I never expected Emperor Linelle to demote the Empress to a concubine.”

“Me neither. I thought I would be in prison for a few years at best.”

“So we were planning to escort the Empress and flee if His Majesty ordered the death penalty or imprisonment.”

Bellos glanced at the door and lowered his voice.

“Were you really making such plans?”

“Yes, if you were to live in prison in the Imperial Palace, would Roxana’s forces stay still? Besides, it’s more dangerous because we can’t take care of you directly in prison.”

“Thank you all. But I hope you don’t risk your lives because of me.”

“The Director of Marcrom, Lady Elan, and I all have our reasons for protecting the Empress, though they are different. Don’t worry about it.”

“What’s your reason, Master of the Magic Tower?”

Zelda tilted her head and asked.

The Director of Marcrom was her bodyguard during her time as Empress, so it could be attributed to a sense of duty.

In the case of Lady Elan, Zelda had once said that she was repaying the favor of saving her life twice.

On the other hand, wasn’t the Master of the Magic Tower just someone who accompanied her to heal her?

Besides, his mission had already ended in the Thebelo Empire.

Zelda couldn’t understand why Bellos was still staying by her side.

“Are you curious?”

“Yes, I know why the Director of Marcrom and Lady Elan are with me, but you don’t have to be by my side.”

“I love you.”

“……Excuse me?”

“I… I said I love the Empress.”

Zelda didn’t understand Bellos’s words properly.

She froze for a moment and then burst into laughter.

“Hearing those words on a day like today is a bit comforting.”

‘She thinks I’m joking.’

Bellos’s face flushed.

“You don’t believe me.”

“!”

Zelda pressed her cheekbones, which had risen from laughing, with both palms and composed herself at Bellos’s serious gaze.

“Are you serious?”

Bellos nodded at her question.

“How did this happen……?”

Bellos strengthened his voice at Zelda’s sighing murmur.

“Let’s go with me after we retrieve the Avatar Sword.”

Bellos began to organize the words he would confess to her in his mind.

In fact, I was going to make you my partner to retrieve the Avatar.

I first appeared before you for that reason, but I didn’t know I would develop these feelings.

So leave the Lapheon Empire with me…….

“I’m okay. Really.”

Bellos’s thoughts were cut off by Zelda’s soft voice.

The words he was about to confess to her lost their motivation and disappeared in an instant.

“Yes?”

“I overcame it all when my face was burned and I suffered from a fever because of the red potion, when the nobles frowned at my burn scars, and when I was infected with the energy of evil.”

“The burn scars haven’t completely healed yet, have they?”

“Ah, that’s true……”

Zelda touched her right face with her hand and made a bitter expression.

“I told you before that there is a cure on Akrato Island that can completely remove burn scars. Do you remember?”

“Of course, I remember. It was an herb called ‘Kelbarn,’ right?”

She nodded with a desperate look.

“That’s right. If you leave the Lapheon Empire with me, I will definitely make a cure and remove the burn scars.”

“What if I don’t?”

Bellos flinched at Zelda’s sudden question.

“If I stay here, won’t you make the cure for me?”

“……First, please seriously consider my offer.”

Bellos avoided her gaze and evaded the answer.

An awkward silence flowed between the two.

“Do you perhaps pity me?”

Zelda looked at Bellos with a serious gaze.

“Do you think I said these words out of sympathy?”

“I wish you did.”

“Why…….”

“Because I think I’ll feel too sorry if you’re serious.”

It was a clear rejection.

She put it indirectly, but the rejection was certain.

Bellos’s mind went blank.

“But life here will be more difficult. You’ve become a concubine of someone you don’t love, and if Emperor Linelle ever…….”

Bellos couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.

Instead, he brought up the words he had offered her earlier.

“There’s nothing to fear if we just retrieve the Avatar Sword. So let’s leave this place together.”

“I don’t think I can do that. Besides the Avatar Sword, there’s one more thing I need to find.”

“What…… is it?”

At Bellos’s question, Zelda just smiled.

***

I left the main palace and headed to the Empress’s Palace.

I know it’s an impulsive act.

I also know it’s not a wise act.

But it was better than sitting still and spending the night imagining all sorts of bad things.

Fortunately, the black clothes that Rosie had gotten for me fit well, and my movements were light.

I safely arrived behind the Empress’s Palace, choosing the farthest and darkest routes in the back garden to avoid the eyes of the palace people and guards.

I looked up at the bedroom terrace.

‘It seems like they haven’t gone to bed yet?’

I felt a little relieved to see the soft lighting in the bedroom.

I had originally planned to come earlier, but time was delayed because the Master of the Magic Tower was waiting in the room.

It took about 30 minutes to come all the way from the main palace to here through the back garden.

I took out my pocket watch and checked the time.

10 PM.

I wonder if it’s about time for them to spend their first night?

I looked at each of the bedroom windows, and then I saw a light inside the terrace door attached to the bathroom.

Is the person who went into the bathroom now Linelle? Or Roxana?

In any case, it meant that one of them was in the bathroom and the other was in the bedroom.

Then it was a good opportunity to meet Linelle even for a moment.

‘What if they’re both in the bathroom?’

I felt anxious for no reason.

First, I decided to go up to the bathroom terrace and check.

I carefully pulled the mask up to below my eyes again and climbed up, stepping on the sculptures that were sparsely embedded in the Empress’s Palace building.

My body climbing towards the bathroom terrace was light, but my heart was endlessly heavy.

As soon as I safely climbed onto the terrace, I heard the sound of splashing water from inside the bathroom.

It was possible because the structure didn’t allow you to see directly into the bathroom even if you opened the terrace door.

As soon as I entered, I leaned against the wall where I could hide.

‘I just need to check his back.’

I slightly moved my head to the side and peeked at the place where the bathtub was.

‘Huh?’

The sound of water that had been heard from inside the bathtub just now stopped.

The bathtub was also empty.

‘Did he leave already?’

I took my back off the wall and leaned my body a little more towards the inside of the bathroom.

At that moment, from right across the wall I was leaning against,

“What are you looking for.”

Linelle’s voice was heard.

I hurriedly turned my head towards the direction of the voice.

He was looking down at me with only his head sticking out.

“I found you!”

I unknowingly let out a sigh of relief.

“Did you…… come to see me?”

He asked.

Then would I have come to see Roxana?

I took my back off the wall and stood facing him.

“……Ah.”

Linelle was completely soaked.

He had only hastily come out of the bathtub, so he was only wearing a towel around his waist.

The towel hanging around his waist like the last leaf on a dry branch looked quite precarious.

This wasn’t the appearance I had expected, but it was worth risking my life to come.

“It looks like you were taking a bath to go to sleep?”

With Roxana in the same bed.

“Don’t you think you’re wearing the towel too carelessly?”

I asked plainly, calming my wandering eyes.

“If I’m an assassin, I have to take the towel right away and use it as a weapon.”

He said, putting his hands on his waist.

Wow, he was thinking of subduing an assassin with just a towel.

“If I’m an assassin, can I see His Majesty’s naked body?”

“What does it matter if you’re going to die anyway?”

Well, I guess so.

But I wasn’t an assassin who was about to die, so my mind was complicated in many ways.

It would be nice if I was the only one seeing that appearance…….

It was a figure I never wanted to share with anyone.

Why was he born so perfectly, tsk.

“What are you looking at and clicking your tongue now?”

At Linelle’s words, I finally realized where my gaze was going.

“……It’s not that I clicked my tongue because I didn’t like that place.”

It was this reality that I didn’t like.

“Hmm, what is this? What are you going to do if you get caught? I barely saved you.”

He asked with a dissatisfied tone, closing the bathroom terrace door.

“Because I missed you.”

I revealed my true feelings and lowered my head in embarrassment.

Then he slightly turned his lower body to the other side.

“No, it’s not that I came because I wanted to see that……!”

When I waved my hands and explained, he grabbed my wrist.

“I don’t care even if that’s the reason.”

“That’s really not it!”

He smiled and said.

“And…… there’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is it.”

“You said 3 days ago that only the location has changed, but nothing else has changed.”

Linelle smiled silently with an expression that said, ‘Ah, is that what you came to ask?’

“What exactly did that mean?”

***

Roxana was staring at the bathroom door where Linelle had gone into the bathroom.

Tension and anticipation were mixed together, and her heart was pounding.

‘In the end, I did it.’

Roxana raised the corners of her mouth with a triumphant expression.

She had finally risen to the position of Empress of the Lapheon Empire as she wanted.

But she wasn’t just happy.

Although Empress Zelda was deposed, she was demoted to the Second Concubine instead of being executed.

This was something she hadn’t expected, and it shouldn’t have happened.

Even though the two of them had lost their memories of each other, there was a need to be wary.

Now she was the Empress, and Zelda was a concubine.

Not even the First Concubine, but the Second Concubine.

Roxana was determined to show Zelda how scary the power of authority was from now on.

Besides, many things would change after spending the first night with Linelle.

She was so sure and walked to the dressing table and stood in front of the full-length mirror.

Her appearance reflected in the mirror looked seductive even to herself.

She was proud that any man would want to hold her.

It was when Roxana, full of confidence, turned back towards the bed.

A rattling sound was heard from the bottom drawer of the dressing table.

‘I must have misheard.’

Roxana frowned and turned her body again.

But at that moment, the rattling sound was heard again.

The bottom drawer of the dressing table was where Roxana had put the wyvern egg that she had owned for her entire life.

‘Could it be……?’

Roxana bent down, knelt down, and carefully opened the bottom drawer.

The rattling sound was heard several times while opening the drawer.

But as soon as she opened the drawer, the movement of the wyvern egg stopped.

She wondered if it was a misunderstanding, but Roxana shook her head.

‘I’m sure. The wyvern egg was moving.’

Roxana thought, touching the wyvern egg with her palm.

‘I haven’t had any reaction all this time even though I took the red potion and had a fever, so why did it suddenly move?’

If there was anything that had changed…….

‘Emperor Linelle?’

Roxana’s gaze turned to the bathroom door.

She closed the drawer again, got up, and slowly walked to the bathroom door.

Knock knock knock-.

She knocked on the bathroom door, but there was no sound from inside.

Roxana opened the bathroom door with a strange thought.

“Your Majesty……?”