The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 203

203. Reacting Only to You

December 14, 2022

“What did you mean by saying that only the position would change, but nothing else?”

I asked again.

“You came all the way here at this hour to ask that?”

“Yes. You told me to come whenever I was curious.”

I just didn’t know that ‘whenever’ would be on your wedding night.

“You came all this way just because you were curious? Is that really all?”

“Are you curious?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me first, and I’ll tell you too.”

He looked down at me with disdain at my clumsy attempt to play hard to get, then readily began to speak, “Even if you went from Empress to a concubine, I would still be like a few days ago…”

Knock, knock, knock.

The moment Rinell came closer to me and lowered his head, someone knocked on the bathroom door.

Who is it?

Ugh, who else could it be but Roxana!

The sudden knock made us scramble around, flustered. Then he opened the terrace door.

“This won’t work.”

Below the building, five guards were patrolling and had unfortunately settled down behind the Empress’s Palace building, chatting.

Rinell closed the terrace door again and led me inside.

“What do we do now?”

I asked with my lips, and he suddenly got into the bathtub.

Why is he doing that all of a sudden?

I just blinked and looked down at him, and he grabbed my arm and pulled me in.

“Get in.”

“…Where?”

I looked around the bathroom.

There was no place in the bathroom to hide my body.

“Here.”

He grabbed my waist with both hands and plunged me into the bathtub.

“What, what are you doing?!”

I turned to the bathroom door and retorted in a hoarse voice.

“I can’t think of anywhere else. Just hold your breath for a moment.”

“I can’t. I can’t!”

“Isn’t it better to hold your breath for about two minutes than to lose it altogether? Don’t you think?”

There was no choice.

“Your Majesty…?”

Roxana’s voice was heard as the bathroom door burst open.

I quickly took a deep breath and hid myself in the bathtub.

‘Ah, I should have submerged towards his feet…’

I made the wrong choice of direction.

I thought the tub was so full of bubbles that you wouldn’t be able to see anything inside, but the bottom of the tub was too clear.

I’d rather close my eyes.

It’s better not to see anything.

“What kind of rude behavior is this?”

Rinell said to Roxana in an unpleasant voice.

He gently placed his hand on the back of my head so that I wouldn’t pop up.

“I, I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I knocked but there was no answer, so I was worried…”

I could tell just from Roxana’s voice how embarrassed she was.

“Of course, I would be bathing, what worries? Haha, did you think I fainted in the bathtub?”

He asked Roxana, laughing occasionally as if he was dumbfounded.

“I was imprudent. Please forgive me.”

Roxana apologized to him again.

Please get out of here quickly…

It was getting harder and harder to hold my breath.

“I wish you would leave now.”

“Yes, just… just a moment, Your Majesty.”

I heard Roxana walking this way.

Why is she coming?

Could it be that she noticed me hiding in the bathtub?

What would happen if I got caught sneaking in on the Emperor and Empress’s wedding night?

There was no need to think about it, this was straight to the guillotine.

Roxana’s footsteps grew closer and closer until they seemed to stop in front of the bathtub.

The water rippled above the tub.

I opened my eyes and turned my head to the side, and the tips of Roxana’s fingers were in the bathtub water.

“The water is too cold, Your Majesty.”

With Roxana’s voice of concern for him, her hand went deeper into the bathtub.

What is it? Why do you keep putting your hand in?

I stared at Roxana’s slender fingers moving leisurely in the water with wide eyes.

…Uh?

Roxana’s hand was slowly coming down towards my head.

That hand isn’t coming to grab my hair, is it?

She’s aiming for something, could it be his…?

My eyes glanced down and then looked back up at Roxana’s hand.

Oh my god!

Just before Roxana’s fingertips barely touched my head,

“That’s unpleasant.”

His hand came into the bathtub and pulled out Roxana’s hand.

Phew…

“Where are you putting your hands?”

When he became serious, Roxana said with a flirtatious laugh.

“Hahaha, I’m sorry. The water was so cold that I couldn’t help it…”

“Does the water get hotter if you put your hand in it?”

“Maybe it will.”

What an audacious [shameless] X.

I snorted and inhaled water through my nose.

Ugh! My head started to throb.

“I expect that in bed. So I wish you would leave now.”

He said to Roxana in a secretive voice.

I knew very well that he said that to get Roxana out quickly, but I couldn’t help but feel twisted inside.

“Then… I’ll be waiting in the bedroom, Your Majesty.”

With Roxana’s expectant, sweet voice, her footsteps were fading away.

With the sound of the bathroom door closing with a click, I sprang out of the water like a spring.

“Huff, huff, huff…!”

I covered my mouth with both hands, holding my breath so that the sound wouldn’t leak out of the bathroom door.

Rinell tidied up my messy hair and asked with a pitiful look.

“Slowly, breathe slowly.”

I watched his calm hand movements moving up and down and calmed my breathing, gradually finding stability and asked.

“Huff… but the bathtub water is too cold, aren’t you cold?”

I have to start bathing with cold water in the tub from the beginning due to my body heat to prevent the misfortune of my skin turning red later, but why is he bathing in cold water?

It’s not summer; it’s a pretty chilly autumn now.

“Because today is a special day.”

“Yes?”

“But the water seems to be lukewarm now, unlike before?”

He stirred the bathtub water with his hands and made a puzzled expression.

I got up and sat on the opposite side of him, acting nonchalant.

“It must be because I’m such a hot woman.”

He laughed.

“Why don’t you say you expect it to me?”

“Were you bothered by what you said to Roxana earlier?”

Rinell asked, pushing his wet hair back.

His innocent appearance made me swallow involuntarily.

“I hope the new Empress doesn’t know.”

“?”

“How well you… do.”

“…What?”

“Anything.”

“!”

“Actually, that’s what I came here to say.”

“Don’t worry and go back.”

At his words, spoken with a smile, I got up from the bathtub and wrung out the water from my clothes.

He also got up and brought a long towel, pressing down on the ends of my wet hair and added.

“The things you’re worried about won’t happen.”

“How can you be so sure? Men’s bodies react even if they don’t have feelings if a woman is determined to seduce them, right?”

Rinell raised one corner of his mouth bitterly and whispered in my ear.

“I… only react to you.”

“What does that…”

Is that a beautiful nonsense?

Knowing he was joking, I pouted and glared at him.

But Rinell’s expression was unusual.

My gaze slipped down at his serious eyes.

As before, the towel he wore around his waist looked precarious.

“I want to show you right away, but as you know, it’s a bit difficult here right now.”

He took my hand and led me to the terrace door, looking down at the building.

“I think you can go down now.”

He took off the towel he was wearing around his waist and shook my hair once more, saying.

“Don’t catch a cold. That’s the Emperor’s order.”

“I haven’t caught a cold since I was seven years old.”

Since the red potion fell on my right face and burned me, I haven’t even shivered from the cold, let alone caught a cold.

“That’s a relief. Go carefully.”

“The things I’m worried about won’t happen, right?”

I drove the wedge in for the last time.

Then he hesitated, moving his lips, and said quietly in a weak voice.

“It’s broken.”

“…What? Where is it going?”

“The place you’re worried about.”

“No? You can’t lie when the person who witnessed and experienced it is right in front of you!”

How can you tell such a blatant lie?

“It only reacts to you. I don’t know if you’ll believe it.”

It was a story I wanted to believe.

“Then it didn’t function at all before you met me…”

“It was useless.”

“Then in our married life before that…”

“We both don’t remember, so how can we know what it was like.”

Ah, that’s right. That’s right.

“I didn’t realize I had the power to breathe such life into you!”

I grabbed his hand and was moved.

“…”

“I want to create a miracle again.”

“…Go now.”

Rinell coughed dryly and pushed my back.

“Because if you get caught here before you create a miracle, it’s over.”

***

“Your Majesty. I, I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean…”

Roxana stuttered, shocked by the Emperor’s words she had just heard.

“I said that the function is poor and I am receiving treatment.”

“So that means…”

“It means that no matter how hard the Empress tries, it’s useless.”

Rinell looked up at Roxana, who was leaning down towards him, and said, grabbing her wrists.

He sighed and sat up, and Roxana sat up right away and looked at him with surprised eyes.

‘It’s a body that shouldn’t have any problems no matter how you look at it…’

What? It doesn’t function?

Roxana, who was faced with an unimaginable difficulty, trembled her lips and asked him.

“Did I perhaps make any… mistakes…?”

“No, my body is making mistakes.”

“Are you perhaps saying that on purpose to avoid me?”

“If you don’t believe my words, ask the court physician separately.”

Rinell shook his head and maintained a serious voice.

“If you still don’t believe it, I’m willing to be examined by the court physician again in front of the Empress.”

Roxana stared at him with her mouth wide open.

She was barely holding back from constantly looking down.

He didn’t seem like the type of person to lie about something that involved a man’s pride.

Roxana was very embarrassed by the Emperor’s unexpected terrible confession.

She wanted to ask him how he had used his body to make it that way.

“When did the symptoms start?”

“Well, about a month ago… I think it happened after I got stressed.”

“Didn’t you eat something wrong?”

“I’ve always eaten the same food. I don’t remember consuming anything particularly different from usual.”

Roxana flinched at his words.

Rinell may not remember, but he drank the magic potion she gave him.

She wondered if the potion she gave him had caused the side effects.

Should she go find the Master of the Magic Tower attached to Zelda now and ask him?

Or did Logan tamper with the magic potion that the Master of the Magic Tower gave him?

Feeling upset, Roxana sighed deeply.

“It’s late, let’s just sleep for now.”

Rinell lay down on the bed again.

The two slept far apart from each other.

Strangely, when Roxana tried to get close to him, she felt a chill in her body.

She wondered if the place she was lying down was strange, so she lay down a little further away from him, and the cold was much less.

It was a colder and cooler bed than usual.

Even though she was covering herself well with the blanket, her whole body was shivering as if she was standing outside in the middle of winter wearing only a gown.

It seemed to be due to Rinell’s hypothermia.

After enduring the red potion, her body temperature rose higher than before and she didn’t know what cold was…

‘Was it just a temporary phenomenon?’

Roxana suddenly felt uneasy.

She couldn’t fall asleep easily as she became troubled in many ways.

He couldn’t fall asleep either, and he tossed and turned.

Then, around 5 a.m., he got up.

Roxana was dozing off and watched him getting out of bed with half-closed eyes.

Rinell quietly put on his clothes and left the bedroom.

Roxana didn’t stop him.

As soon as he left the bedroom, the bedroom quickly warmed up.

Only then did Roxana’s body warm up again and she fell asleep.

***

Before the sun rose, Rinell left the Empress’s Palace and headed to the main palace.

He had to drink a potion to raise his body temperature right away.

He had deliberately not taken the potion to raise his body temperature before the wedding.

And today, he endured the pain of freezing to the bone and soaked his body in cold water.

It was an intention to keep Roxana from coming near him by lowering his body temperature, which was already hypothermic, even lower.

That was how much he wanted to keep his distance from her.

In fact, he couldn’t spend the first night with Roxana even if he wasn’t hypothermic.

Leaving aside his feelings, it was physically impossible.

Rinell knew that he really had a functional problem until he met Zelda at the tavern.

He had consulted with the court physician and even visited the magician Big’s clinic and had a thorough examination, but the cause was unknown.

Zelda had also lost her memory of him, so she couldn’t tell him what he was like in the past.

Rinell returned to the main palace bedroom and opened the bedside table drawer next to the bed.

His hand trembled slightly from the cold.

After drinking the potion to raise his body temperature, he pulled the blanket up to his nose and lay down on the bed.

Because he hadn’t taken the potion on time, the effects of the medicine came up slowly.

“This won’t work.”

Rinell got up again.

Instinctively, his body left the bedroom and headed somewhere.

It was the room where Zelda was temporarily staying.

He carefully opened the door and went inside.

***

‘Reacting only to you.’

I had been repeating Rinell’s words over and over since I came back from the Empress’s Palace and fell asleep.

Perhaps because of those words, the anxiety that he might spend the first night with Roxana had disappeared.

A cool breeze blew from somewhere.

It seemed to cool down my body, which had been hot before I fell asleep.

I woke up with a refreshing feeling.

I turned my body to the side, stretched, and slowly opened my eyes.

“Nelly… no, Rinell…?!”

He was on my bed, in front of my eyes.

He was huddled up, shivering, with the blanket pulled up to his neck.

“Is this a dream?”

I rubbed my eyes and reached out to touch his face.

Then, Rinell burrowed into my arms like a child.

“Please… hug me…”

His body was as cold as a huge block of ice.