The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 288

288. Open the Door

“Has Ao been here?”

Rosie came to Melanie’s room.

“No, why? Did she say she was coming to me?”

Melanie, who was practicing swordsmanship with a wooden sword, asked with a giggle.

“Where could that little one have gone? Sharon doesn’t know either……”

Rosie plopped down on a chair and muttered.

Since boarding the ship, Ao had been disappearing and reappearing several times a day.

But she had never been gone for hours like today.

Even if she went out again after a few tens of minutes, she would scratch at the door of the room at snack time or mealtime and sit quietly in front of her bowl, but this was strange.

Today, she hadn’t shown up even though it was past snack time and mealtime.

“She’s probably playing with those troublemakers, Moia and Moni.”

“No. They went to the Valley of Death before boarding the ship. They said they would come on the last day, so they will come tomorrow or so. And if they came back, they would have gone to Sharon first to get sausages.”

“Then she’s just wandering around and playing by herself. And she’s on this ship anyway.”

“That’s true, but this is the first time this has happened.”

Rosie’s shoulders drooped.

Ao was smarter than ordinary cats, but she was still a kitten, so she seemed worried.

Melanie put down the wooden sword and pulled Rosie’s arm.

“Let’s look for her together. We have time before dinner.”

“Really? Thank you, Melanie, Your Grace!”

“You know there’s a party on the ship tonight, right? I need to change into a dress for the party, so I’ll help you find her until then. The servants will be back by then, right?”

“Yes. Misha said that today they only help with cooking, and the cooking department servants do the carrying. So everyone will be back by then.”

Since boarding, the palace maids had been helping out in the kitchen for a couple of hours at every meal.

Rather than being with their masters all day, they preferred to gather among themselves, secretly eat delicious food, and chat while working.

Today, in particular, there was a dinner party on the ship, so they had gone to the kitchen an hour earlier than lunchtime to help.

The two left the room and began searching for Ao, looking around the hallway together.

“It’s better to split up than to go together. I’ll go downstairs, and Your Grace can go upstairs.”

When they couldn’t find Ao after 30 minutes, Melanie suggested, and Rosie agreed.

“Yes, that would be better.”

“If we can’t find her before dinner, let’s have dinner on the ship first and then look again. My brain doesn’t work when I’m hungry.”

“Let’s do that. Then I’ll go upstairs and look.”

Rosie nodded.

She wanted to say that there was no need to use her brain to find a cat, but she was grateful for Melanie’s kindness, so she didn’t point that out.

“See you later! Ah, but I feel like I’ll find Ao first. I have a great sense for these things.”

Melanie said confidently and hurried down the stairs.

***

“I think they said there’s a cargo hold and a food storage room here……?”

Melanie went down to the lowest level of the ship.

Suddenly, she remembered what her maid, Hedon, had said.

‘This is a secret, Your Grace. I heard it from the kitchen maids. There’s a food storage room on the lowest floor, and the maids secretly have affairs and steal expensive wine there.’

What a great place to be.

“I wish I had known sooner.”

Melanie grumbled regretfully, thinking of Hetor.

While opening each cabin door, she spotted a knight in the distance, untying a tightly wound chain in front of a large door.

Is that it?

“Hey! Is that the food storage room?”

She shouted, raising one hand toward the knight.

“Oh, my!”

The knight, who had been untying the chain that had been wrapped around the doorknob for what felt like two hours, was startled by her clear voice and turned around.

What? It’s Empress Linell’s palace maid?

The knight recognized Melanie and looked at her with a puzzled expression.

“Why are you so surprised? Judging by your attire, you’re not a knight from the Lapion Empire, but from the Tebello Empire?”

Melanie approached with quick steps, scanning the knight’s attire.

“……Yes, Your Grace. What brings Your Grace to such a humble place?”

“Isn’t this where you store food and fruit?”

“That’s right, but……?”

“You shouldn’t describe such a place as humble! These are the things that go into our mouths. Don’t you think?”

The knight scratched his head at Melanie’s sudden scolding.

“Ah, I apologize. I misspoke, Your Grace.”

*I thought he was a bit dim-witted with his unfocused eyes, but he’s surprisingly picky?*

The knight re-evaluated Melanie.

“Okay. Have you seen a small white cat?”

Melanie asked, roughly showing the size of Ao with her hands.

“A cat? No. I haven’t seen it.”

“Really?”

“Why, Your Grace?”

She thought she would just turn around after hearing the answer, but Melanie stood there blankly, staring at the food storage room door.

“Why are you standing there? Don’t you have business here?”

“……Yes? Ah, yes, I was ordered by His Majesty Emperor Adrian to bring a bottle of wine that he usually enjoys, so I stopped by briefly.”

The flustered knight came up with a suitable excuse.

In fact, the knight serving Adrian had come down to vent his anger on Hetor, whom he had failed to deal with earlier, taking advantage of the time left before the ship party that would be held shortly.

Since he was going to die anyway, he thought it wouldn’t be a big problem if he hit him a few more times and broke one of his bones.

But he didn’t expect such an unexpected nuisance to appear.

“Open it.”

“Yes? Aren’t you leaving?”

“I told you I’m looking for a cat, right? I’m going to look around and come out. So hurry up and unlock it.”

Melanie pointed to the lock that the knight had been trying to unlock with her finger.

The knight hesitated.

The place where Hetor was tied up was behind a space where sacks were piled high, so even if she looked around here, she wouldn’t find him.

But what if Hetor woke up from the anesthesia in the meantime?

That would be quite troublesome.

“Your Grace, please wait here.”

The knight finished untying the chain and turned to her.

“Why?”

“Since it’s a food storage room, rats may be running around.”

“What? There are rats?!”

Melanie frowned and shuddered.

“Yes, anyway, I have to take out the wine, so I’ll check for the cat and come out instead.”

The knight said with a friendly smile.

“Ugh, I really hate rats……. Okay, then please do me a favor. But look for it thoroughly.”

Melanie took a step back from the food storage room door.

“Of course, Your Grace.”

The knight opened the lock and stepped inside,

“Miyaaong-!”

The cat’s cry was heard.

“Oh? Ao, are you here? I heard there were rats, so were you playing here because of the rats?”

Melanie burst into laughter, saying that her intuition was right.

“What are you dawdling for? Hurry up and open it!”

*‘Oh, damn it, what should I do?’*

The knight frowned, rolling his eyes.

It was something that would get him killed by Adrian if he found out.

If he hadn’t come down here again, Melanie would have just turned around after seeing the door locked with chains and a lock.

The knight began to worry with a troubled expression.

“Oh, why are you blocking the way like this? Move aside.”

In the meantime, Melanie pushed the knight, who was blocking the food storage room door, to the side and strode into the food storage room.

***

“Will the plan proceed without a hitch?”

Before attending the ship party, Roxana visited Adrian’s room.

Adrian was briefly flustered but quickly spoke.

“Yes, the party on the ship shortly will be the last banquet for the congratulatory delegation. ‘Tomorrow evening’ will be the Galaco’s banquet.”

“What does that…… oh.”

Only then did Roxana realize that his Empress, Elan, was sitting in front of Adrian.

*‘I almost made a mistake.’*

Because of the high-backed chair, Empress Elan’s upper body was not visible.

Adrian was playing a card game with Empress Elan.

Elan put away the cards and rose from her seat, paying her respects to Roxana.

“I greet the Empress.”

Roxana nodded at her and shifted her gaze to Adrian.

Adrian opened his mouth with a face that had regained its composure.

“Two hours ago, I also reminded Hetor about tomorrow’s plan, so don’t worry. You can enjoy ‘tonight’ without any worries.”

She almost said that it was the plan before the change, but Roxana noticed Adrian’s intention and agreed.

“Yes, tonight will be the last party for the congratulatory delegation, Empress Elan…… I’ll see you again at the ship party shortly.”

Roxana said to her, sitting in the chair.

It was a signal to leave the seat.

“……Yes, then I’ll see you again shortly, please talk comfortably.”

Empress Elan bowed to Roxana and glanced at Adrian.

“Okay. Go and enjoy the party first.”

Adrian kissed Empress Elan’s hand and gestured for her to leave.

After Empress Elan left, Roxana leaned forward and asked quietly.

“You don’t trust her. You’re deliberately leaking false information.”

The plan was scheduled to be executed shortly at the ship party.

Less than an hour was left until Galaco was released.

But Adrian deliberately leaked the changed plan to Empress Elan.

“I’m throwing bait.”

“Do you think Empress Elan is in contact with Zelda?”

“I don’t know yet. But I’ll know shortly.”

“You’ve put a tail on her?”

At Roxana’s question, Adrian raised the corners of his mouth, showing a pleasant expression.

“Hetor…… I hope he was taken care of well?”

Her expression sank as she asked Adrian for confirmation.

“Yes. There will be nothing to interfere with our plan.”

Hetor was currently unconscious from the anesthetic, so it wasn’t wrong.

However, Roxana, who had asked Adrian to kill Hetor before the plan, naturally took it to mean that he had been killed.

“Was there no pain?”

Roxana’s voice was slightly choked.

Perhaps because he was the father of her child, she felt uneasy when she heard that Hetor had died.

“The pain wouldn’t have been long.”

Adrian shrugged and said.

He used the anesthetic to knock him out as soon as he hit him in the head with a wooden stick, so that wasn’t wrong either.

***

After finishing the secret meeting, Linell and I returned to the room and changed into clothes to go to the ship party.

“I wonder why Hetor didn’t come to the meeting?”

“I know. I told him the exact time…… Did something go wrong? He might not have been able to come because of Roxana and Adrian’s surveillance.”

“That’s probably more likely, right? I’ll have Melanie find out what happened at the party later.”

Knock knock knock-.

The moment I finished speaking, a timid knock was heard.

The room door opened with my words to come in.

“Zelda, Your Grace…….”

“What’s wrong, Rosie?”

Rosie carefully entered the room.

“I was wondering if you had seen Melanie, Your Grace, around an hour ago.”

“No. I haven’t seen her today, why?”

“Actually, Ao has been missing for several hours, so I decided to split up with Melanie, Your Grace, to look for her, but Melanie, Your Grace, hasn’t been seen for an hour.”

Rosie became more and more tearful as she spoke.

She added that she was worried that something might have happened to Melanie, especially after the Pesilini incident yesterday.

At first, I listened without much thought, but when Rosie mentioned the Pesilini incident, my heart also became heavy.

“I wonder if she’s with Hetor.”

Linell muttered, rubbing his chin.

“Ah, that could be it.”

I chuckled and explained to Rosie, who was curious about what he meant.

“Hetor was also supposed to come to the secret meeting today, but he didn’t show up.”

“Ah, really?”

Rosie’s eyes widened.

“I think there’s a high probability that they’re together now.”

He said confidently and smiled.

It was as if there was nothing to worry about.

Like he said, Melanie might have met Hetor somewhere and was spending a cozy time after finding Ao or while looking for Ao.

But what if that’s not the case?