The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 208

208. Setting a Trap

December 31, 2022

Roxana turned to look at the oil lamp that had fallen to the floor.

“W-Why did that suddenly fall?”

Her body swayed precariously from the sudden burst of flames.

Seizing the moment, I stoked the flames of the oil lamp even higher.

“N-Nancy… Nancy? Nancy!!”

The fire spread in all directions, quickly engulfing the closet where dresses and accessories were stored.

Roxana dodged the flames that reached her feet and ran towards the dressing room door.

However, the wooden pillar supporting the top of the closet fell towards her.

“Aaaagh! It’s hot!”

Roxana’s scream caused the flames to surge higher.

The fire seemed to react to Roxana’s screams.

“Please… No, no!!”

With Roxana’s painful groans, the dressing room door burst open.

Several maids, coughing from the smoke, supported Roxana and led her outside.

“Fire! Fire!”

“There’s a fire in the dressing room!”

Loud shouts from maids and guards echoed inside and outside the Empress’s palace bedroom.

Even after Roxana left, the fire steadily consumed the entire dressing room.

‘Zelda, now’s the time. You have to get out of here while it’s chaotic.’

“But how can I with such a fierce fire…?”

‘There’s no time to hesitate, hurry!’

The Incarnation’s urging voice pushed me forward.

But I couldn’t bring myself to step out.

‘Fire is not something you should fear. It’s something you must control.’

“I… must control it?”

I stared blankly at the flames raging before my eyes.

Strangely, the fire did not spread to the closet where I was hiding.

“This can’t be. It’s impossible…”

Coming to my senses, I found myself walking leisurely through the fire.

The flames had no effect on me.

I could hear the maids rushing back into the dressing room to put out the fire.

Without even being surprised, I opened the door leading down to the laundry room.

The doorknob was hot from the fire, but my hand was fine.

After locking the door, I hurried down the stairs to the laundry room.

Only after moving the cabinet in front of the door leading to the laundry room back into place did I slip out through the back door.

Hiding behind a large zelkova tree a little away from the Empress’s palace building, I took a moment to catch my breath.

Once my breathing had calmed down, I carefully examined my body.

There was no sign of burns anywhere on my body or clothing.

I looked up at the bedroom floor of the Empress’s palace.

Black smoke billowed from all the open bedroom windows.

The fire that started in the dressing room did not spread to the bedroom, and it seemed that the flames were being contained within.

After watching the smoke disappear into the night sky for a moment, I turned my steps towards the pine tree forest where the training grounds were located.

***

“Your Majesty! Are you hurt anywhere?”

Sharon said, seeing me enter through the window, and stroked her chest in relief.

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

“I was worried because you were later than I thought!”

“I stopped by the training grounds.”

“Why there? Don’t tell me…”

“Yes, I found it.”

“Ah, thank God! You hid the Incarnation Sword in the training grounds? Well, I guess the training grounds are safer than keeping it with you.”

Sharon wiped away tears and lowered her voice.

“Yes, there’s a high risk of being caught if I keep it.”

I plunged the Incarnation Sword into the bottom of the pile of straw in the training ground’s weapon storage.

No matter how I thought about it, there was no place as hidden from people’s eyes and hands as that.

“That’s really good!”

Sharon clasped her hands together in prayer and rejoiced.

Before changing my clothes, I lay down on the bed, closed my eyes, and then sat up again.

“Moya and Moni?”

“I made the rope a little longer, and they went under the bed to sleep.”

I bent down and looked under the bed.

As Sharon said, the two were sleeping with one hand and one foot tied to each other.

“Princess Roxana must know that Moni and the Incarnation Sword are gone now; she must be furious, right?”

Sharon asked, taking off my assassin’s outfit.

“Probably. Sharon, do I have any burns on my body? Or even any scorched marks.”

I asked Sharon, pausing before putting on a gown to go to the bathroom.

Sharon looked at my hair and back and shook her head.

“Not at all. Why do you ask?”

“Really? So that’s how it is…”

The image of me walking out of the blazing dressing room without a scratch came back to my mind.

“There was a fire in the dressing room.”

“Yes?!”

“The Empress’s palace will probably be in an uproar tonight because of the fire.”

I told Sharon how I dropped the oil lamp that Roxana brought into the dressing room and placed on the cabinet, causing the fire.

“Perhaps… Princess Roxana isn’t hurt, is she?”

Sharon carefully opened her mouth and looked at me with pleading eyes.

“…Well, I don’t know about that.”

“Anyway, it’s a great relief that Your Majesty wasn’t hurt. If it weren’t for the Incarnation, you would have been caught by Princess Roxana.”

Sharon let out a sigh of relief with an exhausted expression.

“Now that the fire is out, she’ll know that the Incarnation Sword is gone.”

“She’ll suspect Princess Resilia first, right?”

“That’s the only option for now.”

Roxana will never let this go.

She will try to interrogate Princess Resilia no matter what.

I plan to set the stage for that.

“Are you going to tell the three of them about this?”

The three Sharon was referring to were the Master of the Magic Tower, Commander Macrum, and Empress Elan, who accompanied me to the Thebelo Empire.

“Let’s keep it between us for now. We need to watch the situation a little more.”

“Yes, but will Princess Resilia come to see Your Majesty tomorrow?”

“If it’s Resilia I know, she will definitely come.”

I was sure of it.

“She’ll definitely come, even if it’s just to see the dress I’ll be wearing for the Consort Ceremony and laugh at it, just you wait.”

According to Grand Duke Martins, Prince Tesler and Princess Resilia will visit the main palace audience hall tomorrow morning to meet Linelle.

So, under the pretext of checking the wedding dress for the last time, I intend to have the wedding dress put on a dressmaking mannequin in a room close to the audience hall and wait for her.

Princess Resilia will hear this fact from Grand Duke Martins before coming to the audience hall.

“If only Resilia would act as usual, things would be much easier…”

***

At the same time, the Empress’s palace.

Fortunately, the fire did not spread elsewhere and ended in the dressing room.

Thanks to the swift actions of the maids, the fire in the dressing room was quickly extinguished, but the Empress’s bedroom, which was close to the dressing room, was in a state where she could not stay there for the time being due to the traces left by the fire.

A pungent smell filled the bedroom.

The maids quickly prepared a room where Roxana could stay temporarily.

Hector, who had rushed over after hearing the news of the fire, took Roxana, who had fainted and was being carried out on the back of a guard, into his arms.

Hector moved her to the room where she would be staying for the time being.

“Call the court physician quickly!”
Hector ordered Nancy as he laid Roxana on the bed.

“Yes! I’ll be right back.”

Nancy looked at Roxana with tears in her eyes, quickly wiped them away, and opened the door.

“No!”

Roxana, who had regained consciousness at that moment, suddenly shouted.

“What do you mean no? Are you out of your mind? We need to call the court physician right now! Quickly… we need to treat you!”
Hector hid his surprise at Roxana’s condition and tried to soothe her.

But Roxana did not budge.

“No imperial court physician. Bring one from outside the capital.”

“…Why can’t we use the imperial court physician?”

“Linelle must not know.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t want him to know this fact, that I was burned…! Do you understand?”

Roxana grabbed Hector’s collar with both hands.

Hector was reluctant, but he had no choice but to order Nancy again.

“Tell Falto, my adjutant outside. Tell him to bring a doctor from outside the capital right now.”

“Yes, yes… Hector!”

Nancy hurriedly left the room.

“The maids said that the fire started because an oil lamp fell?”
Hector asked Roxana, deliberately looking elsewhere.

“I put it properly on the cabinet, but I don’t know why the oil lamp suddenly fell.”

Roxana burst into resentment.

Roxana, who had no idea that Zelda had hidden in the dressing room, could only think that the fire in the dressing room was due to her carelessness.

“Why did you go into the dressing room late at night?”

“Haa, the wyvern egg is gone.”

Roxana said, clenching her teeth.

“What?!”

“So I went in to see if the Incarnation Sword was gone too.”

“Did you… check?”

“No. Before that, the fire got stronger… So, I was wondering if you could go and check it yourself now. To see if the Incarnation Sword is there.”

Roxana asked Hector with anxious eyes.

“Okay, I will.”
Hector nodded in response.

However, if the wyvern egg was gone, there was a high probability that the Incarnation Sword was also gone.

“I’ll be back. Get some rest.”

“Am I… badly hurt?”
Roxana looked up at Hector, who was getting up from his chair, and asked cautiously.

She didn’t have the courage to look in the mirror herself.

“It will heal if you get treatment.”

At Hector’s words, Roxana closed her eyes and nodded, then choked up.

“The fire is the fault of the one who stole the wyvern egg!”

In the end, she burst into tears and screamed.

“I’m going to kill them! I’m going to burn their skin all off and kill them!”

The only outsider who visited the Empress’s palace today was Princess Resilia.

***

The next day, morning.

Linelle looked at Roxana, who had appeared in the audience hall without notice, with a puzzled expression.

“What brings you here?”

Linelle stared at her face for the longest time since he had faced Roxana.

Roxana appeared wearing a black veil that covered half of her face.

He was uncomfortable with Roxana’s appearance on the day of the Consort Ceremony, which was reminiscent of a funeral, but he did not show it.

“The dignitaries from the Shatoanil Kingdom have attended the Consort Ceremony, so it is only polite for me, as the Empress, to greet them with Your Majesty.”

He didn’t believe her words, but he approached to escort her anyway.

“I received a report that there was an unfortunate incident at the Empress’s palace yesterday.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. On the very day that guests from the Shatoanil Kingdom came.”

Roxana’s hateful gaze turned to the siblings from the Shatoanil Kingdom.

‘Why is she glaring at me like that? Tch, is it because I’m prettier than her today?’

Princess Resilia looked at Roxana, who was glaring at her as if she wanted to kill her, and snorted inwardly.

“The veil suits you very well, Your Majesty.”

Princess Resilia deliberately flattered her, feeling that the atmosphere was becoming awkward, and Roxana bit her lower lip tightly.

“If you like it, I should give one to Princess Resilia as a gift.”

Roxana barely endured the smiling face of the princess and replied.

“I would be honored. Oh, by the way, Your Majesty! I heard that Consort Zelda is having her wedding dress altered in a room on the same floor as this audience hall, did you hear about it?”

Princess Resilia conveyed to Roxana the story that Grand Duke Martins had casually mentioned.

“Not in the bedroom?”

Roxana tilted her head and asked again.

However, she didn’t find it particularly strange, thinking that she might be doing so in a slightly larger room than the bedroom to prepare for the ceremony.

“Yes, I asked a palace servant who was passing by in the hallway before entering the audience hall, and they told me which room it was. So, I was wondering if I could meet Consort Zelda for a moment…”

Princess Resilia looked back and forth between Linelle and Roxana and asked for permission.

“Of course. I heard that you and Consort Zelda have been close since the Shatoanil royal family. You should definitely meet her.”

When Roxana readily agreed, Linelle nodded lightly.

“Thank you.”

Princess Resilia smiled secretly at Roxana and left the audience hall.