The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 278

278. Snatch It Away Immediately

2023.09.02.

I stared intently at the antidote on the tea table before speaking.

“So… Hector really was given an obedience potion?”

“Apparently, the Master Mage’s disciple made and handed over the obedience potion under Roxana’s coercion.”

“!”

“That man is Bonis’s father. Logan, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right…”

“I heard Logan is consumed by guilt. The Master Mage doesn’t look well either.”

Bonis’s last expression flashed in my mind, and my chest tightened.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes… Logan couldn’t help it because of Roxana’s threats. I feel bad for him.”

“I know. Since it’s Melanie’s birthday, you can go to Melanie’s palace tomorrow to meet Hector and give him the antidote.”

“That would be best. It’s much safer than meeting Hector separately. We can avoid Roxana’s or Emperor Adrian’s watchful eyes.”

Linell nodded.

He reached for the antidote, intending to return it to his uniform pocket.

I extended my hand towards him.

“Give it to me; I’ll give it to Hector tomorrow.”

“No, I’ll go with you.”

“Really? Do you have the time?”

“I have time to wish her a happy birthday,” he replied with a smile.

Just then, the antidote bottle, which had been perfectly stable on the table, tipped over and began to roll.

“Uh oh…?!”

I quickly reached out, but the antidote bottle had already fallen under the table. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a short gasp.

However.

“Whew! I almost got an earful from your best friend.”

I opened my eyes at his words.

Fortunately, he had snatched the antidote bottle before it fell onto the marble floor.

“But… why did the antidote, which was fine, suddenly fall?”

“I don’t know. Ah, I have a bad feeling…”

Linell wrapped the antidote bottle in a handkerchief and placed it in the drawer of the side table.

***

After Zelda left Empress Elan’s room, Moiya didn’t follow her orders.

“Master told me to get out of the cutlassfish’s [a type of long, thin fish] body right away, but I’ll stay a little longer. I have something to do.”

Moiya clenched her fists and suddenly started hitting Emperor Adrian’s head.

“Bad guy, bad guy, bad guy needs to be hit!”

“…Mo, Moiya, what are you doing?” Empress Elan asked, startled.

“Elan is taking revenge for you, Moiya~?”

“Huh? Then let’s make the wound on Elan’s neck the same! No. Elan, where is the sword that cutlassfish used? We can just kill him, Moni~?”

Moni flew around Empress Elan’s room, looking for a dagger at Moiya’s words.

“I appreciate you thinking of me, but that won’t do.”

“That’s right. If we kill him here, Elan will be dragged to jail, Moiya~?”

“Ah, I see. Then I should hit him a few times too, Moni~?”

Moni’s small fists began to hit Emperor Adrian’s head mercilessly.

Ironically, the pain of hitting was entirely Moiya’s, who was inside Emperor Adrian’s body.

But instead of telling her to stop, Moiya clenched her teeth and endured Moni’s punches.

Empress Elan, who was blankly watching the scene, burst into absurd laughter.

“Moiya, don’t take too long.”

Empress Elan took a deep breath, preparing to face Emperor Adrian.

“Okay, I understand.”

Moiya assumed the same posture she had taken just before entering Emperor Adrian’s body.

She knelt on one knee in front of the bed and turned her head back to Empress Elan.

“Elan, you were sprawled over there a while ago.”

Moiya pointed to the spot where Empress Elan had fallen.

“Ah. That’s right! Thank you, Moiya.”

Empress Elan went to the place where Emperor Adrian had pushed her and sat down in the same position as before.

When Empress Elan signaled that she was ready, Moiya smiled and nodded.

“Everyone is ready.”

Finally, she checked that Moni, who had turned into a butterfly, and another butterfly that she would transform into and enter, were neatly attached to the wall, then lifted the bed skirt.

A few seconds later, Emperor Adrian’s body trembled.

Empress Elan swallowed hard and steeled her heart.

Seeing black smoke rising from behind her, it seemed that Moiya had left the body.

It was time to start the play.

Emperor Adrian’s hand, which had been lifting the bed skirt, roughly went up.

“…Gone?”

Emperor Adrian shouted nervously and lowered his head further to look under the bed.

“I told you there’s nothing there,” Empress Elan said carefully.

Emperor Adrian turned his head and shot her a sharp gaze.

Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened his mouth.

“Strange… ?”

Faintly, he felt the aura of a wyvern [a mythical winged creature, similar to a dragon] in Empress Elan’s room.

“Was it a wyvern, not that Zelda wench?”

At Emperor Adrian’s words, Empress Elan hid her embarrassment and asked, “Y-yes?! That can’t be. A wyvern would never come to my room, let alone Zelda Mama’s residence.”

“Yes, that’s right. But it’s definitely the aura of a wyvern.”

“Perhaps… Your Majesty usually tries to communicate with them in the wyvern language, so they came to the call? Of course, I didn’t see it…”

Empress Elan’s hastily made excuse was quite plausible.

Emperor Adrian couldn’t help but be swayed by her opinion.

In fact, he was constantly using the wyvern language in his mind, and coincidentally, he was muttering the wyvern language as a habit even before coming to Empress Elan’s room.

“But why in your room?”

“…I-I think they mistook it for being right next to Your Majesty and wandered around before leaving.”

Empress Elan’s words were plausible this time as well.

“Yes, it may be that they have finally started to respond to my call,” Emperor Adrian said, bursting into laughter with a hopeful expression.

His thoughts flowed as he wanted to believe.

“Come to think of it, my body feels a little strange too…”

Emperor Adrian walked to the mirror.

He looked at his face reflected in the mirror, then raised his hand and stroked his head.

“Wait, what’s this bump on my head… ?”

Emperor Adrian didn’t notice at all that Moiya had entered and left his body.

He just tilted his head, touching the bump on his head.

***

In the early morning hours before dawn, Fesilini avoided people’s eyes and went to the detached palace where Grand Duke Martins was staying.

Grand Duke Martins was surprised by the unexpected visit, but he let her into the room.

“I’m sorry to surprise you. I kept hesitating before coming.”

“Mama came to me because of Prince Tesler, right?”

Fesilini shook her head.

“Then what brings you here?”

She said the reason for her visit in a trembling voice. “As Your Highness Grand Duke already knows, His Majesty intends to raise this child as a prince.”

Fesilini put her hands on her stomach, revealing her slightly swollen belly.

“Yes, it must have been a difficult decision.”

“Yes, I am grateful just for saving my and my child’s lives, but a prince of the Lapion Empire… It’s too much consideration.”

Grand Duke Martins stared intently at Fesilini’s face.

He seemed to know why she came to him and was saying these things.

“I want to raise this child in the Shato Neil Kingdom. Of course, if Your Highness Grand Duke allows it.”

As expected.

Grand Duke Martins’ hunch was right.

And Fesilini was also guessing that Grand Duke Martins would become the new ruler of the Shato Neil Kingdom.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I have no desire to raise him as a royal bloodline. Just help me and my child live safely. Please.”

Fesilini knelt before Grand Duke Martins.

“As long as Empress Roxana exists in the Lapion Imperial Palace, I will not be able to raise this child safely.”

“Do you think it will be safe in the Shato Neil Kingdom?”

“It’s better than Empress Roxana.”

Fesilini seemed to have concluded that she was a better human being than Roxana.

Even if she won, she didn’t feel pleasant at all.

“If I give birth like this, this child will be the first in the Lapion Imperial Family, and that would be a sorry thing for Zelda Mama too.”

Fesilini’s words also made sense.

Grand Duke Martins’ worries deepened.

The plan was to transfer Prince Tesler to the Shato Neil Kingdom in a few years and dispose of him when the time came.

But Fesilini and the child in her womb were not in his plans.

Emperor Linell said he would take care of them, so he decided not to interfere.

However, leaving the Lapion Empire and Prince Tesler’s bloodline growing up in the Shato Neil Kingdom?

Complicated situations could arise in the future.

As Fesilini’s expression, who was in trouble, opened her mouth as if she had been waiting, Grand Duke Martins’ expression deepened.

“I know what Your Highness is worried about! I will never use the child to aim for the throne or be greedy for anything! I swear on my life!”

Fesilini desperately clung to Grand Duke Martins.

“If you think that I or my child have even a little bit of impure intentions in the future, then kill us without mercy.”

“The issue of Mama coming to the Shato Neil Kingdom is not something I can decide alone,” Grand Duke Martins said, finishing his worries.

“Then…”

“I will decide after discussing with His Majesty Linell. Get up now.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Fesilini staggered as she stood up.

“Leave before the sun rises.”

“Yes.”

Before opening the door, Fesilini turned back to Grand Duke Martins and stared at him blankly.

“Why are you doing that?”

“I’m sorry to say this… Ah, no. Nothing.”

Fesilini tried to say something but closed her mouth again.

“Speak.”

“Later. There will be another chance to talk while going to the Partsha Empire, right?”

“What kind of story is it that you’re doing that?”

“It’s a precious story only to me, so I think I can tell Your Highness later.”

Fesilini smiled slightly.

Saying that made Grand Duke Martins, who hadn’t thought much about it, curious.

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

Fesilini politely apologized, put the hood of her robe on her head, and left the room.

Looking at her smiling, it doesn’t seem like a bad story.

“What is it, what kind of story is it that you stop talking… ?”

Grand Duke Martins scratched his head with an uneasy feeling.

***

The next day, Linell and I had lunch and headed to Melanie’s palace together.

We went to see Hector first before meeting Melanie.

Hector was very embarrassed by the sudden visit.

He couldn’t turn away the emperor, so he told us to come into the room, but Hector’s suspicious expression didn’t go away.

As soon as Linell sat down on the chair, he explained the reason for his visit.

“I should have come with the Master Mage, but as you know, there are eyes watching.”

He said, placing the antidote on the table.

“What is this?”

“The antidote for the obedience potion.”

“Are you saying that I… am under the influence of an obedience potion?”

Hector’s face, which had almost no expression, crumpled.

“Didn’t you notice? That’s why you went to the Master Mage and asked.”

“…”

Linell pushed the antidote bottle a little more in front of Hector and continued, “It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. The Master Mage heard it directly from his disciple, so it must be true. Listen to the detailed explanation from the Master Mage separately, and drink the antidote first.”

At that moment, Hector’s door burst open.

It was Melanie, dressed in a way that made it obvious she was the birthday person today.

“Aren’t you here to celebrate my birthday?”

“…That’s right. I was about to go now,” I said, hiding my embarrassed expression and smiling brightly at Melanie.

“But why are you all here? Oh? What is this?”

Melanie picked up the antidote placed in front of Hector.

“Th, that’s… a health tonic!” Linell said, hesitating slightly before blurting out the words.

“Really?” Melanie asked, looking at the antidote bottle here and there.

“Of course! It was specially made at the request of the Master Mage for the stamina of the escort knights. Hahaha,” Linell said, coming up with a plausible lie, and I nodded diligently next to him.

“Don’t you have one for Melanie? I’m also running out of energy. And today is my birthday…”

“I don’t,” Linell said firmly.

Melanie’s lips began to protrude forward like a duck, and she said as if determined, “Then I’ll drink this.”

“What?”

“Why?”

Linell and I asked at the same time.

“I wanted to eat something good for my body before leaving for the Partsha Empire, so this is good. I’ll count this as my birthday present,” Melanie said, opening the cork of the potion.

“Melanie, I’ll make you something separate…!” I quickly got up and reached out to take the antidote.

But Melanie quickly stepped back and poured the antidote into her mouth in one gulp.

“No! Don’t swallow it!!” I shouted, and Melanie blinked at my shout.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like she had swallowed the antidote yet.

“Hey, what are you just looking at!” I urged Hector this time.

“…Y, yes?”

“Snatch it away immediately! Hurry!” Linell shouted.

Then Hector, who had a blank expression, hurriedly got up from his chair, grabbed Melanie’s face with both hands, and…

“Eueup?!”

…kissed Melanie as if he would swallow all the antidote.