The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 294

294. I Don’t Wear Stolen Things

“W-What did you say?!”

Roxana looked up at the man who had stabbed her, her eyes filled with dismay.

For a moment, everything seemed to freeze into silence.

As the wind blew, the hood of his robe fell back, revealing his face.

“Logan…”

The man she had seen on the ship carrying Hector’s army was indeed Logan.

Bellos also called out Logan’s name, but his gaze was fixed solely on Roxana.

Roxana, her face stricken, shouted at Logan again.

“Are you crazy? Do you know what you’ve done?!”

“There is no baby.”

“What? What makes you spout such nonsense!”

Roxana looked as if she wanted to tear Logan to pieces right then and there.

“Ugh.”

The bleeding from her abdomen looked severe.

The sword Logan had stabbed her with must have been deeply embedded.

“You are not worthy of bearing life; the gods would never allow it.”

Logan spoke with contempt.

“Do you think the gods will let you get away with harming a new life?”

Roxana seemed convinced that something had gone wrong with the baby in her womb.

“You’re not listening, are you? You never had a baby. You’ve only been experiencing a phantom pregnancy.”

“A phantom… pregnancy? What nonsense are you talking about!”

“I mean you were never pregnant.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. The court physician clearly said I was pregnant! He even took my pulse, and my body…!”

“Yes. Not only the symptoms but even the physical reactions would have been the same as a pregnant woman’s.”

“That’s impossible…”

“I mixed a little bit of hope into the potion you’ve been taking.”

“T-That can’t be. That can’t be true!”

Roxana shook her head wildly, clutching at her hair.

“Do you understand now what an empty and hollow feeling is like? How does it feel to have your hope disappear?”

“You crazy bastard!”

“You only lost a baby that never existed, but my daughter, Bonis! She really disappeared.”

Logan, who had been expressionless, began to get extremely agitated as he spoke about Bonis.

“You shouldn’t have touched my daughter. You should have threatened only me!”

“I didn’t kill Bonis! If only Zelda hadn’t left for the Tevelo Empire, Bonis wouldn’t have died!”

Roxana pointed at me with her finger and whispered to Logan.

“I know that you threatened Bonis to drink a potion that would make her lose her memory, all without Zelda’s knowledge. That’s why my daughter followed her.”

Roxana, after hearing Logan’s words, glared at Bellos.

It was a story Logan couldn’t have known unless Bellos had told him.

I, too, felt uneasy hearing that story.

As I sighed, Linelle put his arm around my shoulder.

“Roxana, all the misfortune started because of you. If it weren’t for you, Bonis wouldn’t have been hit by an arrow from the allied forces!”

“No. No! All of this is because of Zelda, not me!!”

Roxana’s hatred poured out toward me.

Logan scoffed at Roxana and threw off his robe.

He had a bow strapped to his back, and a long leather quiver filled with arrows.

“How should I avenge my daughter? I endured with only that thought in mind. Just like she died with an arrow in her back, I’ll put an arrow in your back too!”

Logan grabbed his bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed at Roxana.

“Logan! Stop it. We can hand her over to the court.”

Bellos tried to stop his disciple.

“She will pay for her sins. But I must end this evil woman with my own hands. Only then will I be able to visit Bonis’s grave!”

“You don’t need to become a murderer. Trust me and put down the bow.”

This time, Linelle persuaded Logan.

Even though Roxana had ascended to the Empress’s position through coercion, she had not been dethroned. If Logan killed her in this state, he would become the one who assassinated the Empress.

Even if Logan didn’t step forward, Roxana would have a hard time avoiding the death penalty anyway.

And her testimony was needed to hold Emperor Adrian accountable for his crimes.

Moreover, with the fact that I am a Wyvern Lord revealed to all nations, punishing Emperor Adrian without due legal process could lead to a continental war.

Logan seemed to hesitate for a moment at Linelle and Bellos’s persuasion, but in the end, he let go of the hand pulling the bowstring.

The arrow flew straight toward Roxana’s heart.

I quickly threw a flame to hit the arrow shaft and change its direction.

“Agh!”

However, because I didn’t put much force into the flame, the arrow didn’t fly far, only slightly changing direction and piercing her arm.

It was a deliberately caused accident.

I felt Linelle and Bellos’s gazes on me at the same time, but I pretended not to notice.

“Ugh!”

Roxana glared at me.

It felt like arrows were flying from her eyes.

Why is she still making a fuss even after I saved her?

I should have just let it go straight to her heart.

But Logan didn’t give up and pulled out another arrow.

This time, Bellos stepped in.

As Bellos waved his hand several times, the arrow in Logan’s hand and the remaining arrows in the leather quiver were bound by golden threads and scattered all over the floor.

Logan threw down his bow, knelt, and finally burst into tears.

In that gap, Linelle gave some instructions to Commander Makrom.

Commander Makrom quickly took the knights and separated Roxana and Logan far apart, placing them under surveillance.

“Ah… I’m in so much pain!”

As the situation began to settle, Melanie groaned.

“We need to treat Melanie’s wounds first.”

I said to Linelle.

He instructed Bellos to treat Melanie and then ordered Hector to move her to a cabin first.

Hector rushed to Melanie.

Roxana, who was close to Melanie, began to plead with Hector, looking at him with pitiful eyes.

“Hector… you’re alive. Do you know how much I looked for you after hearing that Emperor Adrian was going to get rid of you? I’m so glad. That you’re alive! Thank you. For being alive like this!”

Roxana reached out her hand to Hector, crying sorrowfully.

But Hector ignored her and checked on Melanie’s condition.

“Are you okay? Wake up.”

“Ugh… are you really coming to me? Did you ask me, not her?”

Melanie pointed at Roxana with her finger and asked Hector.

“Yes, Melanie.”

“Did you hear that? Me. Not you.”

Melanie said to Roxana mockingly.

Roxana made an expression of disbelief and then lowered her hand that she had extended to Hector.

Then, she pounded her chest with her fist, bursting with frustration.

“Melanie, don’t lose your mind. Okay?”

Hector didn’t even make eye contact with Roxana and carefully picked up Melanie.

“I’ve been out of my mind since the beginning. But I keep getting sleepy…”

“Open your eyes. Wake up!”

“Am I not going to die? I can’t die like this because I’m so wronged?”

Melanie, whose eyes were slowly closing, raised her voice again.

Judging from her clear voice and the way she was rolling her eyes, her life didn’t seem to be in any danger at all.

“Who said you’re going to die? You’re not dying. You can’t die.”

As Hector spoke soothingly, Melanie’s whining began.

“But my stomach hurts so much.”

“Of course it hurts since you were stabbed by a sword.”

“I’m bleeding too much.”

“It would be strange if you weren’t bleeding.”

“Ah, this dress is expensive.”

“Your life is more expensive. I’ll let you wear a more expensive dress later.”

“I don’t want to wear stolen things…”

Melanie groaned and told Pirate King Hector her beliefs.

“…Do you really want to say something like that in this situation?”

Hector asked Melanie in a ventriloquizing voice.

“Of course? Even if there’s a hole in my stomach, I’m still a noble!”

Hector kissed Melanie’s lips, who was flustered, and she fainted.

She fainted with a smile, so I wasn’t too worried.

Hector hurriedly carried her and headed for the stairs leading down to the cabin.

Bellos also took Logan and followed behind him.

Linelle had the knights give Roxana first aid and then kept her under surveillance on the deck.

“Where is Empress Elan? Tell me.”

I approached Roxana, who was receiving first aid, and said.

“I don’t know either.”

“Looks like you don’t remember, so I’ll help you remember.”

I grabbed Roxana’s arm, where the arrow was stuck, tightly with one hand.

“Agh!”

Roxana screamed and glared at me as if she wanted to kill me, then asked me with a crazed expression.

“Do you think you’ve won?”

“No.”

“?”

“I never competed with you, so I don’t think I’ve won either.”

That was the truth.

Roxana looked very offended by my words.

“Just answer the question. Where is Empress Elan!”

“I don’t know. I received the red jewel and immediately sent it to Emperor Adrian.”

“Where did he take her?”

“He said he would take her to his cabin. I really don’t know after that.”

“Where is Emperor Adrian’s cabin?”

Linelle, who was listening to the conversation behind me, asked Raphael.

“Room 4 on the second floor, Your Majesty.”

Raphael answered immediately.

“Makrom, you guard this place. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Linelle took my hand and headed for Emperor Adrian’s cabin.

***

“This is the place.”

Raphael, who was walking ahead, stopped in front of a cabin on the second floor.

The cabin door was locked.

“Elan, Empress Elan!”

I knocked on the door and called her name, then put my ear to the door.

I couldn’t hear anything.

Linelle had me step back, then kicked the doorknob of the cabin door.

The doorknob dangled with just two or three kicks, and he pulled the doorknob out with his hand, then opened the cabin door and went inside.

But Empress Elan was nowhere to be seen.

He opened the bathroom door and the closet, but she wasn’t there.

“I can’t see her? Could he have taken her somewhere else?”

“That’s strange. He wouldn’t have been able to take her somewhere else without being seen by others…”

I lowered my body and looked under the bed.

As expected, my hunch was right.

“Elan!”

She was under the bed.

Linelle and Raphael pulled her unconscious body out from under the bed.

“She’s unconscious. Don’t worry.”

He said, putting his hand on Empress Elan’s neck.

I couldn’t control the anger that surged as I saw Empress Elan’s disheveled face.

“Since Bellos’s cabin only has one bed anyway, Elan should be entrusted to Rosie and Sharon for now.”

“That would be good.”

At Linelle’s instruction, Raphael picked up Empress Elan.

He went to Rosie’s nearby cabin and laid Empress Elan on the bed. He told them to take care of her for a while and said he would send Bellos soon.

Linelle and I were about to go up to Bellos’s cabin when he was coming down the stairs.

It seemed like he had come down to find us.

But Bellos’s expression was unusual.

“Something terrible has happened, Your Majesty!”

“What is it?”

“Grand Duke Joseph…”

“What about the Grand Duke?”

“The servants in charge of my cabin said that Emperor Adrian’s knights seemed to have kidnapped Grand Duke Joseph earlier. They saw them moving something wrapped in black cloth from the Grand Duke’s room, and it was definitely the Grand Duke’s voice.”

“How could that be?!”

There were definitely many knights guarding Grand Duke Joseph’s cabin?

It was an unexpected variable.

“What are Joseph’s escort knights doing!”

“It seems that Emperor Adrian’s side gave them sleeping pills in advance.”

“Damn it!”

Linelle ruffled his hair wildly.

I grabbed his hand and calmed him down.

The hand I held was trembling slightly.

“Go to Hector and tell him to move our ship and come over in about 5 minutes. Emperor Adrian will think Hector is tied up in the food storage, so it’s good for him to appear later. That way, he’ll think he can control Hector’s army as he pleases and feel relieved. If Hector shows up now, Joseph could be in danger.”

He said to Raphael with a heavy expression.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

“And entrust the treatment of Melanie and Empress Elan to Logan, and Archmage, you come with me.”

“Yes, I will.”

***

We hurried to the ship with Hector’s army.

On the deck, at least a hundred soldiers were surrounding the entire ship.

Grand Duke Joseph was seen at the end of the deck.

“Joseph!”

“Grand Duke!”

He and I shouted at the same time.

The curse ice was covering above Grand Duke Joseph’s ankles.

The curse ice, which had risen from his toes, was gradually increasing in volume.

It pained me to see Grand Duke Joseph experiencing the same curse for the second time.

It felt like someone was squeezing my heart with their hand, and I couldn’t breathe properly.

“What have you been doing to come only now? Not even knowing that the young Grand Duke is trembling and freezing like this.”

Emperor Adrian smirked with a joyful face.