The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 258

258. Let’s Go Too!

2023.06.24.

Prince Kalbain, who had been sitting on the sofa, suddenly walked to the window.

Princess Consort Jasper put down her teacup, relieved, but also watched Kalbain’s back as he abruptly headed for the window.

“A carrier pigeon.”

Kalbain held up a pigeon on his finger and turned to look at her.

“A carrier pigeon? Who sent it?”

“I don’t know. I’ll find out when I read the letter it’s carrying.”

He quickly untied the letter from the pigeon’s leg and unfolded it.

“……Oh, dear.”

Kalbain’s brow furrowed as he read the letter, and after finishing it, his entire face contorted.

What could it say to make him react like that?

Princess Consort Jasper sat on the sofa, carefully observing his profile.

“Damn it.”

Concern settled on Kalbain’s face.

“What on earth is going on?”

Unable to bear it any longer, Princess Consort Jasper rose from the sofa and approached Kalbain.

“The wyverns have returned to the Gorge of Death.”

“That’s what we expected, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s what we naturally expected, but……”

Judging from Kalbain’s expression, something seemed to be wrong with the wyverns.

“Is that what the letter says?”

“No. It says a Wyvern Lord has appeared.”

“……What?! Does that mean there’s someone who can control the wyverns?”

“Yes.”

Kalbain nodded with a worried expression.

“Does the letter say who the Wyvern Lord is?”

“It doesn’t say, but it seems the sender knows.”

“!”

Princess Consort Jasper wore an incredulous expression.

“Do you really think there’s a Wyvern Lord, as the letter says?”

“It’s hard to believe, but it’s too important to dismiss as nonsense.”

Kalbain was right.

If a Wyvern Lord existed, the continent would experience great chaos.

It was known that adult wyverns could not be tamed, but baby wyverns could be tamed relatively easily by wizards or high-ranking knights.

The combat power of one tamed wyvern was worth dozens, no, hundreds of knights.

Therefore, a country that possessed baby wyverns could not be easily invaded by other countries, and could even aim for the opportunity to unify the continent.

For this reason, a war broke out between the Northern and Southern continents three years ago to seize the baby wyverns.

But, ridiculously, the wyverns left for other habitats during the war.

In the end, the war was suspended, with only human blood shed in their habitat, the Gorge of Death.

Both the Northern and Southern continents had a war with no gains.

After that, when the wyverns returned to the Gorge of Death, each country held continental hunting competitions to understand each other’s movements.

However, in the middle of the competition, an unexpected ambush appeared, and the hunting competition that started in the Northern continent could not continue to the Southern continent.

The allied forces of the Aclato Principality and Tanya Island detained the dignitaries of each country in the monastery and then released them, so each country had no opportunity to exchange or find out information related to the wyverns.

It would have been better if no country could have the wyverns.

But if one country monopolized the wyverns, the positions of other countries would inevitably become very precarious.

If a Wyvern Lord actually existed,

And if that person had ambitions to unify the continent,

Then…… it was truly an emergency.

“They wouldn’t have sent this news only to us. They must have sent carrier pigeons to other countries as well. Especially the Southern continent countries.”

If the contents of the letter were true, they couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.

They had to do something.

Whether it was starting another war or eliminating the Wyvern Lord.

“It could be false. Is the name of the person who sent the carrier pigeon written on it?”

“Oh, it is.”

Kalbain folded the letter and put it in his pocket, replying.

“Who is it?! Is it someone we can trust?”

“I don’t know if we can trust them, but we can’t ignore them either.”

With the imperial coronation ceremony ahead, things were getting complicated in many ways.

Kalbain let out a hollow laugh and pressed his temple with his fingertips.

“Who is it? Could it be…… Prince Norton?”

***

“Oh, his shoulders were firm.”

It was a question filled with a glimmer of hope, but Rosie hesitated to answer and mumbled.

“And here I thought you’d made more progress.”

Melanie showed her disappointment and smirked teasingly.

“What about you, Melanie? Why is Hector the most manly?”

“It’s obvious. Look at his size, what else could it be but muscles……”

But why are you swallowing 침 [Korean word for saliva, implying nervousness or desire]?

“Melanie, what are you going to do?”

I sat her down on the chair and asked seriously.

“I’m going to like him.”

I was momentarily speechless at her firm answer, but I calmly tried to talk to her again.

“……Unrequited love is hard. And he’s Roxana’s aide.”

“I know what you’re worried about…… but it’s not unrequited love.”

“Hector…… likes you too?!”

I was eating the pomegranate Melanie brought when I was surprised by her words, and the pomegranate seeds went straight down my throat.

Rosie, who was stacking books and tying them carefully with string, also stopped and looked at Melanie.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like it yet…… but soon Hector will like me too.”

Melanie’s mouth pursed firmly.

It was a mouth shape that showed a strong will to make it happen.

“What if he doesn’t like you, Madam?”

Rosie asked with a worried look.

“It won’t be easy for him not to like me.”

Melanie smiled brightly, resting both hands on her chin.

Her smile was bright, and her confidence was…… very bright.

“I told you, I’m a woman who captivates great figures.”

“Who did?”

“The most famous astrologer in the imperial palace!”

“Madam, when did you go outside the imperial palace?”

Rosie burst into laughter and asked, and Melanie waved her hand and continued.

“No, before I became a concubine. I was so upset and gloomy that I was the second concubine, not the first, so I went to see an astrologer.”

“And then?”

Before I knew it, my upper body was leaning towards Melanie.

I was subtly curious about Melanie’s future that the astrologer had told her.

“Well, she told me that I was definitely destined to be an empress.”

Melanie hesitated several times, as if she was revealing a big secret, and then whispered.

“Oh, that astrologer is completely bogus.”

Rosie made a sound of air escaping from her mouth and scoffed.

Melanie humbly accepted Rosie’s ridicule and continued.

“Yes, so actually…… I had high expectations after entering as a concubine. But the reality is completely different.”

Melanie complained, brazenly in front of the people involved.

“Oh, His Majesty is completely infatuated with the proxy empress from the Shatoan Kingdom……”

“!”

“The same second concubine is going to remarry as a princess consort of another country……”

“!”

“Only I am in this state.”

I and Rosie were speechless and only stared at Melanie’s constantly chattering mouth.

Melanie, who had been speaking calmly, suddenly burst into anger.

“Ugh! The astrologer definitely said that I was destined to be an empress…… She told me to come back later if her words were wrong, and she said it with such confidence! She even said she could bet her 손모가지 [Korean word for wrist].”

“Go and retrieve that astrologer’s 손모가지 [wrist] soon.”

I said, trying to hold back my laughter.

I ate the remaining pomegranate while looking at the sullen Melanie, and then put down the fork, exclaiming, ‘Ah!’

“What’s wrong?”

“Hector is a king, too, right?”

Although he was the king of a small island nation.

“Oh? That’s right? If the two of you get married, does that mean Melanie will become the queen of Tanya Island?”

Rosie playfully chimed in.

“Good heavens, why didn’t I think of that……?”

Melanie rolled her eyes back and forth and then jumped up from her chair.

She took a deep breath and shouted in a voice filled with conviction.

“This is fate!”

“……Sounds like wishful thinking?”

“His Majesty will gladly send me away like Rosie, right? Could you please say something nice in advance?”

Melanie grabbed my hand and blinked her long eyelashes like a fan.

“Melanie, the problem isn’t His Majesty. It’s Hector’s heart.”

I tried to calm Melanie, who was going too far ahead.

But she seemed to have already decided on her path.

“No, I think that astrologer is right. My fate seems to be the queen of Tanya Island!”

***

Around sunset, I left Rosie’s residence with Melanie.

The blowing wind was nice, so I decided to take a walk to the front of her palace.

I sent the carriage from my residence to Melanie’s palace first and then slowly started walking.

“Do you think Rosie will pack her dresses and accessories?”

“What if she doesn’t? There must be plenty of pretty dresses in the Patsha Empire.”

“That’s true, isn’t it? So, when I arrive in the Patsha Empire, I’m going to go to the dress shop run by the most famous designer and sweep up all the pretty ones.”

“It’s not too late to worry about that after you’re on the list of congratulatory envoys.”

I deliberately dampened Melanie’s spirits and laughed.

Then she spoke to me in a rather serious tone.

“I’ve been working so hard to build up my strength with the wooden sword Hector gave me!”

“Really? Hector even got you a wooden sword?”

“Yes, he subtly takes care of me, you know?”

Melanie’s eyes sparkled with mischief as she spoke boastfully.

“And you know how sly I am? I even pretend to be bad at it on purpose and lean on him. Then he scolds me, but he still holds me so I don’t get hurt.”

Melanie, who called herself a fox, was quite lovely.

“I should tell Hector about your slyness.”

“Oh, no! We’ve only just started bumping into each other! Oh? Look over there.”

Melanie grabbed my arm with both hands and pleaded, then raised one finger and pointed somewhere.

“Isn’t that Yulina?”

“It looks like it……”

Yulina got out of the carriage and was entering Pessilini’s palace entrance.

“What’s going on at Pessilini’s residence?”

Could it be that she found out that Pessilini was pregnant?

If she knew, did she hear it from Roxana?

“What do you think she’s really here for?”

“Were they close?”

“No, not at all. Should I go?”

Melanie stopped walking and said.

“What?”

“I’m curious. Why did she suddenly come to visit when they’re not usually close? And Yulina’s attendant is holding something, so it looks like she even prepared a gift.”

But why are you clenching your fist?

I chuckled as I looked down at Melanie’s small fist.

It showed her determination to find out why Yulina had come to visit Pessilini.

“I’ll go find out and tell you later. Go back safely!”

Before I could stop her, she took her attendant and quickly walked towards Pessilini’s palace.

“Madam Melanie is really a woman of action.”

Sharon, who was following behind, came up to me and said quietly.

“I know. She’s always going straight ahead.”

***

The next day.

Today was the day the Magic Tower Master was coming to my residence for a morning checkup.

I was leisurely drinking tea and waiting for the Magic Tower Master.

Sharon came in with a knock.

“Are they here?”

I asked Sharon, assuming that the first visitor to my residence today would naturally be the Magic Tower Master.

“Yes, a guest has arrived, but it’s not the Magic Tower Master, it’s Madam Melanie.”

“What’s going on with Melanie from the morning?”

“Madam Zelda!”

As soon as I put down my teacup, Melanie’s excited voice echoed through my peaceful bedroom.

“Let’s go to the hot springs too!”

Melanie came in with a box in her arms and shouted like a sulky child.

What is she talking about?

“Where are we going?”

“Empress Roxana and the concubines of the Aclato Principality are going to the hot springs later, leaving only us out!”

“There’s a hot spring in the imperial palace?”

I shifted my gaze to Sharon and asked.

“Yes, there’s a hot spring near the training grounds in the cypress forest.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but it’s not available all year round, and the hot spring water only comes out from autumn to winter, so it’s only available then.”

“The hot spring in the imperial palace has been used only by the imperial family for generations. Even nobles can’t soak in it.”

Melanie put the box she brought on the table and approached me.

“I’ve been waiting for autumn to come! But it looks like the first use will be taken away by people from the island?”

Melanie kept talking without resting.

She explained how good the hot spring water in the cypress forest was for the skin, and that the previous emperors and empresses enjoyed bathing in the palace with hot spring water during the winter.

“We can go next time.”

“No!”

“……Why?”

“Madam Pessilini is going too.”

Ah, was that why Yulina visited Pessilini’s palace yesterday?