The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 227

227. Why Are You Here?

March 8, 2023

“Does this mean your memories of Zelda have fully returned?”

Bellos confirmed once more.

“I’m not sure if all of them have returned or if there are still memories missing, but it seems like I’ve regained most of the memories from before the monastery.”

He also mentioned that Zelda’s memories had surfaced only twice.

‘Then, does that mean the memories from the Continental Hunting Competition haven’t returned yet?’

Bellos carefully observed Rinell’s expression.

It seemed he was still unaware that he had lost his memories due to the magic potion Roxana had given him.

However, Bellos knew that Rinell was quite the sly character, so he couldn’t fully trust everything he said.

“Then, perhaps, do you know why you lost your memories…?”

As Bellos cautiously asked, Rinell raised a hand, cutting him off.

“I don’t know about that. But if the third memory surfaces, I might find out then.”

“Ah…”

Bellos felt relieved for the moment.

‘How on earth did his memories return? Could it be a reaction to her blood?’

The most crucial ingredient when creating a magic potion that makes someone forget memories of a specific person is the blood of that person.

Occasionally, there were side effects where memories would intermittently return if the blood of the person who lost their memories came into contact with them.

‘But that’s a very special and rare situation, isn’t it?’

It was known that such side effects occurred when someone deeply loved the person they had lost memories of.

‘Is Emperor Rinell’s love for Zelda that poignant?’

Bellos barely suppressed a hollow laugh that threatened to escape.

He had already given up his desire for Zelda, but he couldn’t help but feel a bitter emotion.

“When your memories returned for the first and second time, did you happen to experience anything in common?”

Bellos asked, wondering if he might have regained his memories through a different route than the method he knew.

“Blood. I didn’t know the cause when the first memory returned, but I found out when the second memory surfaced. Both times, Zelda’s blood touched my hand.”

It was as Bellos had expected.

“Ah, so that’s what happened.”

Bellos nodded and refrained from saying more.

“So, I’ve been thinking…”

He leaned forward, detaching his back from the sofa, and began in a secretive voice.

“I have a feeling that me losing my memories wasn’t a coincidence.”

“!”

Bellos tried hard not to show any agitation at his words.

For some reason, he felt as if Rinell’s sharp, cold blue eyes were piercing through him, seeing everything inside.

“Your Majesty, if it wasn’t a coincidence…”

“I suspect that someone deliberately erased only Zelda’s memories from me… What do you think, Magic Tower Lord?”

Bellos sensed the anger hidden beneath Rinell’s cautious voice.

***

I giggled throughout the carriage ride back to my chambers.

His lisping voice, as he imitated me, kept echoing in my ears.

“Oh? It looks like Lady Rosie and Lady Melanie have arrived.”

Sharon said, looking out the carriage window and spotting the two women lingering in front of the building entrance.

“What’s going on?”

As I got out of the carriage, Rosie approached me.

“We thought you went straight back to your chambers from the West Palace, but did you stop somewhere else in between?”

“Ah, I had some business at the Main Palace… But what’s going on?”

“Just come with us. It’s almost time, but thankfully, we won’t be late. Well, what if we’re a little late?”

Melanie muttered, scanning me up and down, then linked her arm with mine and led me towards the carriage they had arrived in.

Rosie quickly stuck to my side.

“Where are we going anyway?”

“Her Most Noble Highness, the new Empress, has notified the concubines that she wants to have dinner with them,” Melanie retorted in a sarcastic tone, followed by Rosie, who pouted and added.

“I felt like I’d get indigestion if I ate with her, so I took some digestive medicine beforehand.”

“Without any special reason? Just to have a banquet together?”

“Yes, I guess she’s lonely eating alone? Well, she’s sitting on the Empress’s seat, but no one treats her like an Empress except for the concubines from the Aclato Duchy.”

Melanie said, getting into the carriage and taking a seat.

Then, she suddenly burst out laughing and continued.

“It must be boring since only those concubines go in and out of the Empress’s Palace. Besides, seeing His Majesty is as difficult as meeting a god.”

“That’s right, she’s probably trying to show off that she’s the Empress by inviting the concubines to a banquet. We’re going to have a meal together after the concubine selection anyway, though.”

Rosie, sitting across from her, shared the same thought as Melanie.

Rosie’s gaze then landed on my stomach.

“Um… are you feeling okay? You’re not overdoing it today, are you?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Why? Are you sick somewhere?”

Melanie looked back and forth between Rosie and me, then asked, examining my complexion.

“No, it’s not that… I’ve just been feeling a bit tired lately.”

‘I’m pregnant.’

I wanted to tell Melanie about my pregnancy, but I needed to be careful for now.

She wouldn’t deliberately spread the news about my pregnancy, but Melanie always had a tendency to blurt things out unintentionally.

So, it seemed better to keep it a secret for the time being.

The carriage had already arrived in front of the Empress’s Palace.

Other concubines’ carriages were already parked at the palace entrance.

“It looks like we’re the latest.”

As Rosie tried to hurry, Melanie grabbed her arm.

“What’s the rush? The main character always appears last.”

I wasn’t sure who the main character was, but Rosie and I burst into laughter and headed towards the banquet hall at Melanie’s pace.

***

As we entered the banquet hall entrance, my eyes immediately met Roxana’s, who was sitting at the head of the table.

Her appearance was every bit that of an Empress.

However, Roxana was wearing a veiled hat again today.

The three of us were the last to take our seats in the banquet hall.

“You’re late.”

Roxana asked, looking at me.

I didn’t know who had arranged the seating, but unfortunately, my seat was diagonally across from Roxana, who was sitting at the head of the table.

Was it a considerate seat, given that I was the former Empress?

Or was it a seat set up for me to get indigestion?

I tried to compose myself and respond to Roxana’s words, but Melanie beat me to it.

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress. We are late.”

Roxana looked visibly flustered by Melanie’s bright and cheerful voice, which was devoid of any ulterior motives.

Melanie’s true meaning was actually closer to ‘We’re late, so what?’

“…?”

Roxana, who hadn’t fully grasped Melanie yet, seemed unsure how to react and looked perplexed.

“Should Her Majesty the Empress have to wait for the concubines? Please be on time.”

Yulina, a concubine from the Aclato Duchy who had clashed with Melanie a few times before, looked around at the three of us and spoke harshly.

“Yes, of course. Lady Yulina, please try harder to become a loyal concubine,” Melanie said, smiling brightly and subtly mocking her.

Seizing the opportunity, I smiled at Yulina and the twin concubines and said.

“The preparations were a bit rushed. Originally, the imperial customs of the continent require making dinner appointments at least half a day in advance, not two hours before the meal.”

…In fact, there were no such customs in the imperial family.

But did my words, as the former Empress, feel credible?

Not only the concubines from the Aclato Duchy but even Roxana seemed to believe my words.

Rosie and Melanie glanced at me simultaneously.

“Isn’t that right?”

When I asked them for their agreement, the two of them looked at the Aclato concubines and said mockingly, as if they had prepared in advance.

“Yes, isn’t that the first thing you learn when studying imperial etiquette? Ah, I guess you wouldn’t know.”

“Why are you like that, Lady Melanie? Since it’s a country without an imperial family, it’s natural that they wouldn’t know…”

Because their voices seemed devoid of any ulterior motives and their lies were so brazen, no one could get angry.

Catherine and Pesilini also seemed to be trying to recall whether there was such a custom in the continental imperial family at first.

Then, I saw Catherine slightly lower her head and secretly raise one corner of her lips.

Roxana instructed the servants to bring in the dishes, as if trying to change the atmosphere.

Why are so many dishes coming out?

She seemed to be trying to show off her position with food.

A tremendous amount of food, enough to last a week, was spread out on the table.

The other concubines, including me, were busy watching the endless stream of food with wide eyes.

I definitely wasn’t hungry a moment ago, but strangely enough, I quickly became hungry when I saw the extravagant food.

“Everyone, please enjoy,” Roxana said, gracefully raising a hand and inviting the concubines to eat.

‘Let’s see, what should I eat first?’

I asked the baby in my belly in my mind and looked at the food carefully.

The first thing that caught my eye was the lobster with butter sauce, with its flesh neatly removed.

My salivary glands were going wild, so I quickly reached out and grabbed a plate.

However, Pesilini, who was sitting right in front of me, grabbed the same plate at the same time as me.

“Ah, please, go ahead,” Pesilini said, letting go of the plate first and yielding to me.

“Let’s share it,” I said, first taking half of the lobster with butter sauce onto my plate and then passing the plate to Pesilini.

She thanked me and took the plate, eagerly starting to eat.

During the banquet, almost all the conversations came from the mouths of the concubines from the Aclato Duchy and Melanie.

Half of the conversations were about luxury goods, and the other half was about comparing how different the party culture was between the continent and the duchy.

I could feel Roxana, who was sitting close by, constantly staring at my flamboyant fork movements, but it wasn’t enough to stop my voracious appetite, so I didn’t pay much attention.

Whenever I put down my fork and knife for a moment, thinking that I was eating too much food by myself, I found comfort in looking at Pesilini, who was sitting in front of me.

She was constantly eating, almost inhaling the food.

What was interesting was that Pesilini and I kept reaching for the same food.

Not only the dishes but also the fruits and even the drinks overlapped quite a bit.

Each time, we had no choice but to divide the food on the plate in half.

Exchanging smiles while passing the food back and forth.

“The two of you have similar tastes?” Celine, one of the twin concubines sitting next to Pesilini, asked with interest.

Then, Melanie burst out laughing and said jokingly.

“Oh, really? You’re eating so well, just like pregnant people.”

The problem was that the sound she said jokingly was actually true in my case.

“Cough, cough…!”

I put a large green grape in my mouth and was about to burst the juice when I choked upon hearing Melanie’s words.

What was strange was Pesilini’s reaction.

She also took a large piece of steak with a fork and immediately dropped it on the plate.

Roxana frowned and looked at me and Pesilini.

It wasn’t so much that she sensed something strange but rather that she was annoyed by the chaotic atmosphere.

“I apologize for interrupting the meal, Your Majesty the Empress,” I said, apologizing, and Roxana’s expression softened when I called her ‘Your Majesty the Empress.’

“Is pregnancy something you do alone? I heard that His Majesty visited Lady Zelda’s chambers, but has Lady Pesilini ever served His Majesty?” Yulina asked Pesilini.

“No. Not yet…”

“Then there’s no chance that Lady Pesilini is pregnant. Hohoho,” Yulina said, scoffing and laughing, and the twin sisters deliberately chimed in, teasing her.

“Oh? Who knows? Maybe there are circumstances we don’t know about?”

“That’s right. You never know.”

Pesilini’s cheeks began to turn red at the jokes the twin sisters threw without thinking.

I suddenly remembered the incident where Prince Tesler was caught by Commander Marcrom behind the concubine’s chambers while fleeing to the West Palace.

I didn’t know why Prince Tesler suddenly came to mind.

Pesilini’s expression hardened.

It would have been better to just laugh it off, but it was a somewhat incomprehensible action.

“Pesilini, why do you have that expression? You look like you’re really pregnant,” Roxana said, and the atmosphere suddenly became strange.

“…Yes? Ah, I’m sorry. I, I was just lost in thought for a moment… I, I definitely didn’t get pregnant with His Majesty’s child!”

Pesilini’s answer, which somehow became strangely twisted, caused Roxana’s suspicious gaze to narrow.

“Pesilini, could it be…?”

Pesilini took a deep breath at Roxana’s voice, which was filled with murderous intent.

I was also nervous and about to put down my fork when…

The banquet hall door opened, and Chief Steward Stian’s voice echoed.

“His Majesty the Emperor enters!”

‘What?! Who enters?’