The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 235

235. The Emperor’s Morning Sickness

“That is not true.”

I put strength into my voice.

“Even if I was startled by a masked person in the bedroom and wasn’t in my right mind, I’m not so ignorant that I wouldn’t know what would happen if I pulled a sword towards myself.”

Most of the nobles nodded at my words.

“It’s a lie! She clearly grabbed the blade like this and stabbed herself in the heart!”

Prince Tesla even demonstrated with his own hands as he shouted.

“Silence! I will ask His Majesty, the only witness. Is it true that you saw Prince Tesla stab Zelda with his sword?”

The High Priest, sitting on the same platform but at a slight distance from Linell, asked politely, turning his gaze to him.

“That’s right. When I opened the bedroom door, Zelda was already blocking the sword with both hands, and Prince Tesla was about to plunge the sword straight into her heart, but he hesitated when he met my eyes.”

At Linell’s testimony, a look of embarrassment flashed across Prince Tesla’s face.

However, perhaps because it was somewhat expected, Prince Tesla quickly regained his composure.

“Is it true that you hesitated after confirming that the person who entered the bedroom was Your Majesty?”

The High Priest asked Prince Tesla.

“Well, yes, but as I said, I didn’t stab her with the sword!”

“If I hadn’t blocked the sword with my hands, it would have pierced straight into my heart! It was only because His Majesty entered the bedroom at that moment that I was able to avoid harm.”

I continued, looking straight at Prince Tesla’s face, which was facing me directly.

“Besides, the sword that Prince Tesla claims to have found in my chambers was not the Hwansin Sword.”

At my words, the nobles, including the High Priest, stirred.

“Don’t be fooled, everyone! Everything will be revealed tomorrow anyway! Yet, Zelda is mocking the High Priest and the nobles gathered here to avoid this moment!”

Prince Tesla pointed at me and shouted.

I caught Roxana looking at me and snorting in my sight.

I wanted to laugh at them both, but I silently endured.

***

The quarters where Zelda was staying were crowded with guards from the Main Palace and the Empress Palace.

As ordered by the Great Temple, the guards thoroughly searched the old building, looking for traces of the Hwansin Sword.

The servants who worked in Zelda’s quarters were unable to leave and had no choice but to watch the guards moving busily inside.

The head guard from the Main Palace and the head guard from the Empress Palace went straight up to the bedroom floor.

“We must examine this place most carefully!”

The head guard of the Main Palace ordered the guards and then opened the bedroom door.

Sharon and Nancy also followed the head guards into the bedroom.

Sharon, as the head of Zelda’s quarters, and Nancy, under the orders of Empress Roxana, had been following the two head guards to monitor them.

A sense of determination was evident on the faces of the two servants who entered the bedroom.

At that moment, the voice of the head guard of the Empress Palace was heard from inside the dressing room attached to the bedroom.

“I found the sword!”

Sharon and Nancy rushed into the dressing room, competing with each other.

“As Prince Tesla said, there is a Hwansin Sword~?”

The head guard of the Empress Palace said, stroking the ruby embedded in the sword hilt.

“Oh my, Prince Tesla’s testimony was correct?”

Nancy glanced at Sharon and sneered.

In response, Sharon stared at the fake Hwansin Sword without saying a word.

She didn’t forget to wrinkle her face on purpose.

“Now Zelda is in big trouble~?”

The head guard of the Main Palace took out a white cloth that he carried to collect evidence and wrapped the fake Hwansin Sword around it.

Sharon watched Moiya and Moni, who had transformed into head guards, with a pounding heart.

However, both of them were playing the role of head guard more bravely than she had expected.

She was startled when the two of them started dancing their shoulders at the same time after finding the fake Hwansin Sword in the dressing room, but fortunately, Nancy was looking elsewhere, so she got over it safely.

The movements seemed too frivolous and light for the steadfast and dignified head guards, so if Nancy had seen the two baby wyverns’ shoulder dance, it could have aroused suspicion.

Sharon sighed in relief, secretly stroking her chest.

But in a moment of carelessness, a sausage came out of the head guard of the Main Palace’s pocket.

He slightly lifted the sword he was wearing on his waist, cut the sausage in half, and handed half of the sausage to the head guard of the Empress Palace.

Just then, Nancy’s head was turning towards the two troublemakers.

‘I can’t live because of you.’

Sharon quickly covered up the scene of the two people sharing sausages with her body, barely blocking Nancy’s view.

‘Moiya, Moni… please!’

After a while, Sharon looked back at the two head guards and cursed at them with her eyes.

The head guards, who came out of the dressing room with sausages in their mouths, looked down at the dog and cat sitting in the middle of the bedroom.

It was Aoshi and Nana.

“No, humans are handling important matters, but where did this lowly cat come from? How rude, Moiya~?”

“There’s also a wrinkled puppy, Moni~?”

“Head Guard, Nana is the puppy that Her Majesty the Empress is raising……”

Nancy approached the head guard of the Empress Palace and whispered.

“Nana or Nunu, why did you bring that dog here?”

Moni scolded Roxana’s servant in a fairly dignified voice.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it because Nana kept following me. But as you know, she’s so quiet in the Empress Palace that I didn’t think she would be a nuisance.”

“What are you talking about? She doesn’t look quiet at all.”

Moni pouted and glared at Nancy, then glared at Nana again.

Moiya patted Moni on the shoulder as if to appease him.

“Stop it. What crime did the wrinkled sheep commit?”

If there was a crime, it was chasing after Aoshi.

Moiya grabbed Moni’s hand, who had drawn his sword halfway towards Nana, and stopped him.

Moni looked displeased at Moiya, who was subtly protecting Nana.

‘Huh? Is this stupid wyvern having a crush on that wrinkled thing, Moni~?!’

***

“It seems they found the Hwansin Sword in the dressing room.”

Hector told Roxana what he had just heard from his adjutant.

“Are you sure? Did they confirm that there was a red jewel embedded in the sword?”

Roxana couldn’t hide her excitement, and her voice rose.

Hector nodded.

He believed Prince Tesla’s words, but he also had great doubts. But to think that Zelda really had the Hwansin Sword.

Roxana couldn’t hide her joy.

“You didn’t see it wrong, did you?”

“Our head guard found it himself, so it must be certain.”

Roxana burst into laughter at Hector’s words.

She was also convinced that the sword found in the dressing room was the Hwansin Sword.

“But… how was she hiding the Hwansin Sword? When we moved the luggage from the Main Palace, I clearly ordered the servants to search all the luggage, didn’t I?”

Hector raised a question.

“Well, a third person could have been keeping it and secretly sneaked in at night like Prince Tesla to deliver it.”

Hector shook his head and retorted at Roxana’s words.

“There’s no one who would take such a risk……”

Besides, under Roxana’s orders, Hector had been thoroughly monitoring even the people around Zelda since Zelda was demoted to a concubine.

In fact, Hector’s guess was correct.

It wasn’t a person who delivered the Hwansin Sword to Zelda, but baby wyverns.

Zelda anticipated Roxana’s surveillance and hid the Hwansin Sword in the training hall warehouse on the night she retrieved the Hwansin Sword from the Empress Palace.

It wasn’t a person who brought it back to Zelda’s quarters, but Moiya and Moni, who had transformed into guards.

“Who brought the Hwansin Sword, what does it matter? What matters is that it can come back into my hands.”

Roxana shrugged and didn’t think much of it.

In addition, if the Hwansin Sword is submitted as evidence in tomorrow’s trial, it will be revealed that Zelda’s claim is false.

In many ways, Zelda’s position will be narrowed.

So, it didn’t matter to Roxana at all who had put the Hwansin Sword in Zelda’s quarters.

***

Fatigue washed over me as soon as I returned from the Great Temple.

I lowered myself into the cold bathtub.

After the head guards of the Main Palace and the Empress Palace found the fake Hwansin Sword in the dressing room and took it away immediately after the trial, the atmosphere in the noisy quarters was somewhat depressed.

But that was only the atmosphere among the servants, and the atmosphere in the bathroom where he and I were now was quite different.

“Isn’t the water too cold?”

He sat on the edge of the tub, stirring the water with one hand and asked with surprised eyes.

“This is the perfect temperature for me to take a bath. The water warms up quickly, you know? Did you forget?”

“Ah, that’s right. Even though I know, I keep forgetting because it’s the opposite of my body temperature.”

I grabbed his hand, which was out of the water.

“Your hands are about to freeze. How can you put your hand in cold water without even remembering your own body temperature?”

“I guess I knew you would hold my hand like this, huh?”

My body tingled at his shy smile.

“Where are you keeping the sword you took?”

“There is a separate storage room for evidence used in trials inside the Great Temple. I put it there, entrusted to our proud head guard.”

“Did Moiya go all the way there himself?”

“The head guard of the Empress Palace, who fell in love with me, also went with him.”

“Did Moiya and Moni behave well here earlier?”

I asked worriedly.

“The way they came to my office and reported to me was plausible enough.”

He seemed to have more faith in the two of them than I did.

“But both of them will be out of the head guards’ bodies after the trial, won’t they think it’s strange?”

“Ah, I asked Moiya earlier, and he said that he could inject the head guards with memories of the past.”

“Really? That’s a relief, but I still think they’ll feel a little strange.”

“Even so, they won’t even suspect that wyverns were inside their bodies. There’s nothing to worry about.”

He stroked my hair and then got up.

“Are you leaving?”

“Why, do you want me to watch you take a bath?”

“No!”

I crossed my arms and hugged my shoulders without realizing it.

His eyes narrowed as he looked down at me.

“I’m sorry. I misspoke. I can’t even help my pregnant wife; I’m just talking nonsense.”

“……Yes? Uh? What are you doing now? Why are you coming in here?”

Linell came into the increasingly hot tub with his clothes on, hugged me from behind, and sat down.

The water in the tub splashed and overflowed.

“I’m going to wash you.”

“No, I can wash myself!”

I’m not pregnant enough to be uncomfortable yet, so why is this man already like this?

“Our baby might like being washed by his father more.”

He stroked my stomach with both hands.

At his unexpected skinship, my temperature rose sharply, and the temperature of the tub water rose. But strangely, my stomach felt comfortable.

When his body touched my back, I felt like all the muscles in my body that had been tense were loosening, like a ribbon being untied.

“Ugh!”

I heard Linell gagging behind me.

“Why are you doing that? I didn’t wash my hair today……”

Is that why he’s gagging?

Feeling guilty for no reason, I honestly confessed and turned to look at him.

“I think it’s morning sickness.”

He said, slowly removing his hand that had been covering his mouth.

“Your Majesty……?”

“Yeah, I feel nauseous for no reason, and then suddenly I think of something I want to eat, so I’m pretty sure it’s morning sickness.”

I remembered hearing somewhere that husbands get morning sickness instead of their wives.

“……What do you want to eat?”

I turned my head and asked out of curiosity.

“First of all, this.”

Linell devoured my lips with hungry eyes.