The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 262

262. The First Kiss is Hot

2023.07.08.

“It’s a mandatory subject during physical training.”

Hector’s voice was unwavering.

“…Swimming?”

“Yes. Since we’ll be on a ship for a whole day, learning to swim would be… good.”

“Why learn to swim when we’re on a ship? It’s not dangerous unless someone pushes you off.”

“!”

Melanie had just returned from the hot springs and was feeling relaxed, so Hector’s suggestion didn’t appeal to her.

“Can’t we do it tomorrow during the day?”

“Do you think the sea is as safe as the land on the continent?”

Hector raised his voice without realizing it.

“At least you can see who’s pushing you during the day. What if something like that happens at night? Especially with your dark hair.”

“Well, if someone pushes me, you’ll find them and take revenge. That’s enough, right?”

Melanie threw herself onto the bed.

Then Hector burst out,

“Do you think I have so much time to waste?”

“Then why are you doing this?”

*That’s right, why am I doing this when I don’t have time to waste?*

Hector himself couldn’t understand.

But Melanie’s joking question stirred a subtle wave in his heart.

“Isn’t it because you have too much affection for me?”

“…”

Hector, unable to readily answer Melanie’s question, started to scare her with extremely unlikely scenarios.

“There could be storms during the journey, or the ship could hit a reef and sink into the sea.”

“Ugh, that wouldn’t be good.”

“Or you might go out on deck for some fresh air at night and accidentally fall into the sea. What would you do then?”

Hector drove the point home, seeing Melanie look up at him, terrified.

“Don’t say such terrible things!”

“Unless I’m there, what will you do if you wander around like a runaway colt and fall off the ship, especially when you can’t even swim!”

*Without even knowing how to swim.*

Hector poured out his words like a lecture without taking a break.

Melanie listened attentively to Hector’s words like a model student, and then said with a determined look.

“Then I have to learn! But, I want to learn something else besides swimming. Teach me that too. Then I’ll go.”

She jumped up from the bed and made a deal.

“…I think you’re misunderstanding something. This isn’t a deal.”

Hector looked at Melanie’s sparkling eyes and finally asked what she wanted.

“What do you want to learn?”

“That’s… I’ll tell you later.”

She had a suspicious look on her face, but Hector didn’t press further, feeling annoyed.

“But where are we going to swim?”

“Do you think there won’t be a stream in the imperial palace’s forest? Go change your clothes.”

“I hate being cold! I can’t even go into a stream in the middle of summer, and you’re going to put me in a stream on a cool autumn night?”

Melanie shuddered and pretended to be disgusted, so Hector quietly muttered.

“I can’t help it then. We’ll have to go there.”

“Where…?”

***

Hector placed the basket and oil lamp he had brought from Melanie’s chambers on the ground.

The basket contained his change of clothes, as well as a spare dress and towels for her to change into after swimming.

“Let’s start right away.”

Hector took off his uniform jacket and placed it on the ground.

“This is a hot spring… Are you going to teach me to swim here?”

Melanie had her doubts until Hector headed towards the cypress forest.

“You said you hate being cold.”

Hector entered the hot spring first and held out his hand to Melanie.

She didn’t want to, but she had left all the attendants behind, so there was no one to take her side even if she threw a tantrum.

Melanie took off her shoes, grabbed Hector’s hand, and entered the hot spring.

Hector pulled her hand.

“It’s better to go to a deeper place.”

“Can’t you just teach me here?”

“If you’re going to learn, you should learn in a place with deep water.”

“It’s still a bit scary… Oh my!”

When Melanie stopped, Hector picked her up and walked through the water to a deeper spot.

“You won’t die. Don’t be so dramatic.”

Hector lowered her to a depth where the water came up to her chest.

“It’s better to start at this depth. Try floating like this. Put your head underwater.”

Hector said, holding her hands.

Melanie took a deep breath and put her head underwater.

“Haa, you have to float your feet too. Who just sticks their head underwater!”

“I can’t float! What are you doing?”

Melanie’s body floated face down on the surface of the hot spring water.

“I’ll hold you, so kick your feet and move forward. Extend your arms forward.”

Hector said, holding her waist and legs from the side.

“L, like this?”

Melanie followed Hector’s instructions and kicked her feet diligently.

“Yes. Keep going.”

Perhaps because her body was naturally light, Melanie floated well on the water for the first time.

About 30 minutes passed.

Hector slightly released her waist and legs, but her body maintained its position and didn’t sink.

She might not have a talent for swordsmanship, but fortunately, she seemed to have a knack for swimming.

Melanie, energized by her kicking, gradually swam to the deepest part of the hot spring.

Hector completely let go of her body and watched her.

After a while, she lifted her head, out of breath, and shouted excitedly.

“Isn’t this pretty good for the first time? Let me go now. I think I can do it alone.”

“You’re doing it alone now. Just keep doing that.”

“…What?”

Melanie turned her head in the direction of Hector’s voice.

*It’s true?*

*I’m really swimming alone?*

Hector was quite far away.

*But I think this is where they said my feet won’t touch the bottom?*

She remembered what a knight had said when she came to the hot spring during the day.

Panicked, Melanie lowered her feet without realizing it.

Her feet couldn’t reach the bottom.

She struggled, and her head went completely underwater and then came back up.

“S, scary…!”

She frantically waved her arms, but the more she did, the more water kept entering her mouth and nose.

“Damn it.”

Hector swam to her in an instant and pulled her up from the water.

“Hey, wake up! Can you hear me?”

He slung Melanie over his shoulder and repeatedly patted her back.

She had only been underwater for a few seconds, but had she already lost consciousness?

A strange thought crossed his mind, but self-reproach was greater.

He came out of the hot spring and laid the limp Melanie flat on the ground.

Without hesitation, he tilted Melanie’s chin upwards, opened her lips, and blew air into her mouth.

“Hoo-woo!”

After blowing air in a few more times, he pressed down on her chest with both hands.

Then.

“Ah, it hurts! You’re going to break my sternum!”

Melanie rubbed her chest with her eyes closed, then made eye contact with Hector, lowered her hand again, and closed her eyes.

“…You weren’t unconscious?”

At Hector’s words, she closed her eyes even tighter.

“Get up and sit down. Can’t you hear me? I said get up!”

The surprised heart turned into embarrassment, and eventually, anger.

Hector nudged Melanie’s arm.

But she didn’t move.

Out of spite, Hector picked her up and threw her back into the hot spring.

“Oof-oof! What are you doing!”

Melanie shouted along with a loud splashing sound.

“Looks like you’ve finally come to your senses? Why did you pretend to be unconscious?”

“I was surprised because my feet didn’t touch the bottom. I did drink water too! But… we just kissed, right?”

Melanie asked, touching her lips.

“Are you saying you pretended to fall into the water on purpose?”

*To kiss like that?*

“Why are you looking at me so scary? It was just a joke.”

“What are you trying to get out of seducing someone like me?”

*Hmm, to get remarried like Rosie.*

*Even though she would be the queen of a savage island nation, it would still be a hundred times better than being a chaste imperial concubine.*

However, Melanie couldn’t bring herself to reveal her grand dream.

Instead, she revealed her emotions.

“It’s because I want to experience love too, why!”

Once she said the words, she felt sad.

“His Majesty has never been interested in me from the start, Rosie is even becoming the crown princess of the Partsha Empire, and this is still a secret, but Catherine is also in a relationship with Count Ethan, the head of the imperial palace’s smithy…”

“!”

“It’s just me, only me!”

“…So. You chose me of all people?”

Hector scoffed in disbelief.

“Our Majesty isn’t that strict. He only needs Zelda. So, if I like someone, he’ll send me away like Rosie.”

“Why are you telling me that? Melanie, don’t push it too far.”

*You don’t even know what kind of person I am…*

Hector ran his hands through his hair and frowned.

“Do you hate me? Why? Am I stupid?”

She wasn’t stupid. Just a little thoughtless.

Hector shook his head without realizing it.

“Or am I not pretty enough?”

“You’re enough.”

He was startled to say the words without realizing it.

Melanie, who had been chattering loudly, also became quiet.

Hector broke the silence by going back into the hot spring.

“Keep swimming.”

“Teach me something else besides swimming. You promised before we came here.”

“What is it you want to learn?”

“How to kiss…”

“Did you drink too much water and lose your mind?”

“We did kiss just now, but teach me again.”

Uncharacteristically, Melanie said the words and then looked at his face.

Hector stared intently into her eyes and then scoffed.

*How could she think of that as a kiss?*

“Who kisses by blowing a bunch of air into their mouth?”

“Then?”

“When you kiss, you don’t need air. You just need this.”

“What? …Mmph!”

A soft sensation entered between Melanie’s lips.

It felt like her entire mouth was submerged in the hot spring.

Her first kiss was very hot and rough.

***

I was deeply troubled.

I thought and thought again.

Whether it would be better to tell Linelle about what happened at the hot spring today, or to keep it a secret forever, practicing the saying ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you.’

If the concubines were people I would never see again, I wouldn’t have told him about today’s events.

But since they were people I would continue to see in the imperial palace, it could never be a secret.

Someone might be taking a walk and accidentally meet him, playfully saying ‘Your Majesty, peek-a-boo?’ as a greeting, or a concubine might appear, approaching him while doing the shoulder dance he did.

So, I waited for him to return to his chambers after finishing his evening duties.

The moment Linelle came out of the shower and slowly untied the strings of his gown, trying to kiss me, I struggled to push him away.

Instead of his lips, I held his hands and calmly recited the highlights of Monica’s performance after entering his body at the hot spring.

Even though I only mentioned the key highlights, he was deeply distressed.

After he emptied half a bottle of liquor, he summoned all the aides who had been at the hot spring into the bedroom.

“Everyone, sit down.”

Linelle ordered, sitting in the middle of the bedroom floor.

Sharon, Raphael, the troublemaking baby wyverns, and I looked at each other and looked down at him sitting cross-legged on the marble floor.

It felt like the same heat as the hot spring was rising above his head.

“Zelda, bring a cushion and sit down.”

I was grateful that he was taking care of me even though he was angry.

“I should bring a cushion too, Monia~.”

“Bring mine too.”

“You guys just sit down!”

Linelle’s anger echoed through the bedroom.

At this, the two innocent humans plopped down on the floor, and the baby wyverns, who had caused the trouble, went under the bed, brought out their personal cushions, and stubbornly sat on the floor.

No one told them to kneel, but seeing them both kneeling, it seemed they were aware of their wrongdoing.

It was probably the minimum effort to appease him, realizing that Linelle was in a very bad mood.

They didn’t seem to be deeply remorseful.

Everyone, including Raphael, another victim, and Sharon, who had been caught up in the situation, sat in a circle.

“A report has come in.”

Tension filled the circle at his words.

“I heard that Jim danced at the hot spring?”

“Ang! It was very exciting, Monia~.”

Monia, not grasping the situation, raised both arms and wiggled her shoulders.

Linelle gritted his teeth, with a look that said he could imagine what he must have looked like, and mentioned the next outrage.

“Not only that, but you even played peek-a-boo with the concubines…?”

“Everyone was having so much fun, the atmosphere was really good, Monia~?”

Linelle ground his teeth, his eyes conveying that he knew exactly what he must have looked like.

He took a moment to bow his head and sigh deeply.

In that gap, Monia narrowed her eyes and whispered to Sharon.

“Sharon, look me in the eye. Did you snitch?”

Sharon made an unfair expression and shook her head from side to side, then stopped when she met my eyes.

Monia, catching that moment, asked me with resentful eyes.

“…Is the master the informant?!”

“Quiet.”

Thankfully, he cut off Monia’s words and continued sternly.

“It’s not important who the informant is. What’s important is that you two disgraced Jim in front of the concubines today.”

“It wasn’t disgrace, just the chest muscles were showing?”

“Tsk-.”

I frowned at Monia, who was repeatedly grasping and missing the atmosphere, and gave her a look.

“But I’m upset, Monia~? Moni was the one who danced and played peek-a-boo. Why are you glaring at me?”

“You pushed me, you. After coming into my body.”

Raphael took this opportunity to flick Monia’s forehead and scolded her.

“Oong?! You dared to hit this great wyvern, human? Kwaaak-!”

Monia, enraged, suddenly breathed fire at Raphael.

“Eek!”

Raphael quickly leaned back to avoid the flames, but the flames from Monia’s mouth went quite far.

The fire slightly touched Raphael’s clothes.

“…Uh, uh? Oh, no!!”

The tip of the fire that Monia spat out happened to attach to Raphael’s zipper area.

The Hwangseong’s [Emperor’s] open pants began to burn.