The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 243

243. Lost Maternal Love

2023.05.03.

“There it is.”

We arrived at the bridge spanning the valley in the Kashas Forest, where the knights and Princess Resilia were facing off.

The distance between the bridge and the valley floor was considerable.

Unusually, the bridge had a center point that arched upward in a horseshoe shape.

This design made Princess Resilia, standing in the middle, clearly visible even from a distance.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Princess Resilia held Rams aloft, her hands under his armpits, using him as a shield against the knights.

The unbelievable sight twisted my insides with anxiety.

Rams’s body swayed precariously, like laundry on a clothesline.

“This child is of the Patsha Imperial family! Do you know what will happen if something goes wrong because of you?”

*What on earth is she thinking?*

Rams is in danger because of *her*, and she’s spouting such nonsense?

Only Commander Markrom confronted her on the other side of the bridge. The remaining knights milled about at the bridge’s entrance where we arrived, unsure of what to do.

My party and I pushed through the knights and stood facing Princess Resilia.

“Resilia… you’re completely out of your mind…”

“N, Norton?!”

Princess Resilia’s confident facade faltered when she saw Prince Norton.

“What the hell are you doing! Put Rams down, now!”

As Prince Norton moved to approach her,

“Stay there!”

Suddenly, Princess Resilia threatened to drop Rams, extending both hands over the bridge railing.

“No! Please don’t do this, Princess!”

Rosie was horrified at the sight of Rams’s body swinging like a pendulum outside the bridge railing.

“I, I beg you! Please put Rams down…!”

Rosie pleaded with Princess Resilia, weeping with her hands clasped together as if in prayer.

Whether she understood Rosie’s distress or not, Rams looked at Rosie, smiling broadly, and waved the hand holding a sausage.

*Who gave him the sausage?*

Seeing Rams’s bright, innocent face, Rosie collapsed onto the stone floor and burst into tears.

“Rosie, are you okay?”

I supported her and tried to comfort her.

My own legs felt weak, but Rosie was trembling all over.

“It’s all because of you, you blockhead! ‘But what? Don’t do this? Please? Put Rams down?'” Princess Resilia mocked, her voice sharp.

“Resilia, you’ve already forfeited any right to be a mother. Just looking at this behavior, I won’t let my son be raised by someone like you!”

Prince Norton, usually so calm, lost his composure and expressed his raw anger.

I could fully understand his feelings. Not many people can remain rational when their child’s life is at stake.

“Who will raise him if not me? That pumpkin head? Ha, don’t be ridiculous. He’s my child! My blood flows in him! Norton, let’s go to the Patsha Empire together. Huh?”

Princess Resilia pleaded with a desperate expression, but

“It’s too late.”

Prince Norton’s reaction was naturally cold.

“No. It’s not too late. You just have to change your mind. Then our family of three can live happily ever after!”

“…Our family of three?”

Prince Norton stared at Princess Resilia with undisguised disgust.

“Do you even understand the concept of family? Covering a crying baby with a blanket because you were annoyed and going to sleep in another room?”

Princess Resilia only gaped like a goldfish at Prince Norton’s revelation.

Still, she showed no intention of putting Rams down.

To make matters worse, it started to rain.

*No… Rams could be in even more danger.*

I looked up at the sky, worried. The raindrops seemed to fall one or two at a time, but soon, the rain became quite heavy.

“Rams is going to catch a cold!”

Rosie forced herself to stand and said to the princess with a resentful voice.

“You hypocritical bitch… Shut up! Don’t pretend to care about Rams just to look good to Norton!”

Princess Resilia took a step back.

However, Commander Markrom was standing behind her, cutting off her escape. But her arms were getting weaker, so she briefly rested Rams’s bottom on the railing.

Norton was startled and started to move forward, but she lifted Rams back away from the railing and shouted.

“I told you not to come!”

Unlike Princess Resilia, who was agitated, Rams… looked surprisingly calm.

He didn’t cry at all, even though he was getting soaked in the rain and looking down at the dizzying valley below.

It’s a strange thing to say, but it seemed like Rams was enjoying the situation.

Because Princess Resilia’s hands were trembling, Rams’s body shook violently in the air.

But every time that happened, Rams burst into laughter and seemed to enjoy it.

*I don’t know if I should call this fortunate…*

However, because of the continuous rain, Rams, whose immune system was still weak, began to sneeze repeatedly.

“Achoo, achoo-!”

Even while sneezing, he didn’t let go of the sausage he was holding in his small hand.

*Does he think the sausage is a baby bottle?*

It was hard to believe that he was only a few months old, but Rams’s grip seemed very strong.

Maybe he instinctively thought that the sausage was his lifeline, so he was holding it like a rope…

Thinking about that made my heart ache.

If I feel like this, how much more must Prince Norton feel?

Prince Norton’s and Rosie’s anger toward Princess Resilia was evident on their faces.

Anger and contempt were Prince Norton’s share, and tears and pleas were Rosie’s.

On the other hand, it seemed like Princess Resilia possessed all the stupidity in the world.

“A, a, a…choo!”

Princess Resilia also sneezed after Rams.

Just then, Rams suddenly pulled Princess Resilia’s hair.

The strength of the small hand was so surprising that Princess Resilia let out a scream.

“Ah!”

Princess Resilia frowned.

Then, she turned her head to the side to pull out the hair that Rams had grabbed.

Her foot slipped on the slick stone floor due to the pouring rain, and her body twisted awkwardly. She grabbed the railing with her free hand to maintain her balance and prevent herself from falling.

“…Ah!!”

The two hands that had been holding Rams’s armpits were now in precarious positions.

I closed my eyes.

It happened in an instant.

Even after seeing Rams disappear under the bridge railing, there was nothing I could do.

The screams of everyone watching echoed loudly in the forest.

Princess Resilia herself did not fall because she desperately grabbed the railing, but she had dropped her son.

It was a situation where she lost even her maternal love.

“Rams!!”

“No!!”

Only the voices of Prince Norton and Rosie calling for Rams echoed.

“…Ah, no. No! Aaaaaah!”

Princess Resilia, who had been standing blankly, trembled and sat down on the floor.

The princess, who belatedly realized the reality, screamed, tearing at her hair.

The knights all looked down at the valley below.

Because of the sound of the heavy rain, the sound of something… falling into the valley could not be heard.

“Lady Rosie!”

Eventually, Rosie lost consciousness and fainted.

Prince Norton barely supported Rosie’s body as she fell to the floor and sat down with her.

“Everyone, go down to the valley right now and search, now!”

I ordered the knights in a hurried voice.

The falling rain hid my trembling voice.

“Yes!”

The knights ran into the forest path to go down to the valley in an orderly manner.

*I have to come to my senses for Prince Norton and Rosie, who are sitting there in shock.*

Ironically, the rain was getting heavier and heavier.

Visibility was poor due to the rain.

The valley water will also rise soon…

I wanted to shake off the bad thoughts, but anxiety kept creeping in.

I felt my pulse quicken and lowered my head under the bridge railing.

I heard Prince Norton sobbing behind me.

It felt like my heart was being dug out.

As I sensed Prince Norton’s unimaginable loss, tears began to flow from my eyes uncontrollably.

I couldn’t even make a sound of crying.

The tears were washed away by the rain as soon as they fell.

“I can’t see anything!”

After a few minutes, a knight’s voice was faintly heard from the valley below.

At that sound, I lost strength in my legs.

“Zelda!”

At the same time as my knees buckled, I turned my head at the familiar voice.

It was Lignel.

He picked me up and hugged me silently.

Seeing him, the tears I had been holding back poured out.

“…Did you come?”

I cried in his arms for a while and then raised my head.

I didn’t know what to say to him in this situation.

“Yes. But I came too… late.”

Lignel also said with a painful expression.

He looked down at Prince Norton, who was still sitting on the floor, with pity.

Even though he was the emperor, he couldn’t easily approach the prince who had lost his child.

He took off the raincoat he was wearing and put it on my shoulders, then put the hood on my head.

After that, he ordered the knights he had brought to tie up Princess Resilia.

Princess Resilia, whose arms were held on both sides by the knights, was being led closer to Lignel and me, passing by Rosie, who had fainted, and Prince Norton, who was sitting blankly and sobbing.

“Your Majesty? You are a fair person, right?”

Princess Resilia pushed my shoulder and grabbed Lignel’s arm, complaining in a tearful voice.

“…So?”

“You can’t judge based on what they say. The knights threatened me, and Zelda kept screaming and distracting me… I lost my son!”

Lignel listened to Princess Resilia’s words with an expression of disgust, as if something dirty had touched his arm, and gestured to the knights holding the princess to take her away quickly.

But I couldn’t let Princess Resilia go like this.

“You will be punished as your brother was.”

I stopped the princess who was passing by me and grabbed her arm tightly, as if to break it.

“Aaaaah, it hurts! Let go…!”

Princess Resilia twisted her body in pain.

“It hurts? Does this much hurt?”

Rams fell under the bridge!

I swallowed the curse and glared at Princess Resilia as if to kill her.

I really felt like doing that.

“I, it was an accident!”

“…What?”

“Rams pulled my hair… It was an unavoidable accident!”

Princess Resilia whispered in my ear, grinding her teeth.

I knew from the beginning that she was a person who was not worth dealing with.

But I really didn’t think that she would threaten with her own child as a hostage and then lose his life so pointlessly…

I didn’t want to waste even a little energy on Princess Resilia.

But I couldn’t let her use her cunning to weasel her way out of this situation like a loach.

Slap-!

I raised my hand and slapped Princess Resilia’s cheek hard.

The sound of my wet palm against Princess Resilia’s cheek was quite loud.

“Ugh!”

Princess Resilia fainted from the force of the slap.

There was no one to support her as she fell to the floor.

“Get rid of her.”

Lignel looked down at Princess Resilia as if looking at something repulsive and gestured to the knights.