The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 314

314. It Is a Gift Indeed

“So soft, Moiya~, isn’t it?”

“If I wore this every day, I wouldn’t even need to do the shoulder dance for Norton!”

Moiya and Moni happily divided the torn silk nightgown, wrapping it around their necks and rubbing it against their faces.

“Even if you don’t need a nightgown for the first night, there’s a big difference between wearing it and taking it off, and not wearing anything at all from the start,” Catherine pointed out sharply.

“That’s true.”

I nodded quietly at Catherine’s words, glancing back at the bathroom door that was about to open.

“What should we do?”

Melanie also looked at the bathroom door, following my gaze, and asked with an anxious expression.

I wonder?

Should I brainwash Rosie to be bold tonight?

Everyone was flustered, just opening and closing their mouths, when the bathroom door opened.

Rosie sensed something strange in the atmosphere between us and opened her mouth with an uneasy expression.

“What’s wrong, everyone?”

“Come and see for yourself……”

I said, gesturing slightly towards the bed.

Rosie, still toweling her wet hair, slowly walked towards us, who were standing in front of the bed.

“Is there something wrong with the bed……?”

At Rosie’s words, the concubines and I split in half, like the torn nightgown from earlier.

As if the curtain of a play stage was being drawn and the main characters were appearing, Moiya and Moni were sitting in the middle of the bed.

“You guys, did you drink?!”

Rosie flared up, looking at the two girls who were staggering from drinking.

And then Rosie’s trembling voice followed.

“W-What is this? Tearing up the nightgown…… and the nightgown to wear on the first night like this, what am I supposed to do!”

Here it comes.

Even if Rosie throws Moiya and Moni out the window tonight, I should pretend I didn’t see it.

Still, thanks to them, I was able to get rid of Princess Resilia easily, so I’m thinking of appealing for leniency once.

“Why is someone who usually doesn’t cause accidents doing this, Aoshi!”

What, who? Aoshi?

Rosie pointed out a completely unexpected person as the culprit.

***

After the wedding reception, Princess Jasper requested a private audience with Norton.

They sat facing each other across the conference table in the main palace office.

Princess Jasper, watching Norton constantly glancing at his pocket watch, spoke first.

“I won’t take up much of your time. And there’s still plenty of time left before you have to go to the Empress, isn’t there?”

“Not plenty…… Haha.”

Emperor Norton scratched his head and gave an awkward smile.

“I have some sense, so I’ll get straight to the point.”

Princess Jasper also smiled softly and replied.

“Ah, no. Sister-in-law. Please, speak freely.”

“I’m planning to leave the palace by the end of next week at the latest.”

“I understand that the Empress has given you a month?”

“Yes, Empress Rosie has kindly considered it, but I want to leave this place quickly.”

“I see.”

Norton readily accepted her intentions.

A moment of silence fell.

Princess Jasper carefully opened her mouth.

“In the meantime, Your Majesty didn’t like me very much, did you?”

“Sister-in-law, that’s…….”

“I know. It’s because I accepted Prince Calvin’s heart. That’s why you left here and joined the mercenary knight order. And that’s how you ended up in the Shato Neil Kingdom.”

“At that time, I thought you had the same feelings as my brother. But you said earlier that wasn’t the case. Then, the reason you stayed by my brother’s side, perhaps…….”

Emperor Norton couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘revenge’.

If it was revenge, he couldn’t help but question Prince Calvin’s death.

But Princess Jasper continued in a voice that had given up everything.

“Don’t be too upset about your brother’s death. He received the price for his sins. Of course, I will also receive the price for my sins.”

She confessed her sins calmly.

Emperor Norton was stunned for a moment.

But he was jolted awake by her meaningful words that she too would pay the price.

“Sister-in-law, what does that mean?”

“I killed Prince Calvin…….”

Emperor Norton raised a hand to stop Princess Jasper’s words.

“No. I mean the words that you will pay the price. What do you mean?”

“Because I am also slowly dying from the same poison.”

Princess Jasper confessed to poisoning Prince Calvin using dried poisonous strawberry powder.

She said that she was dying too, but if she was questioned about the crime of poisoning Prince Calvin, she would gladly accept it.

But Norton didn’t want to do that.

When he learned the truth, he felt pity for Princess Jasper instead.

He knew very well how many people his brother Calvin had killed and how he had taken her.

“Stop it. Please! There must be an antidote. Ah, the Master of the Magic Tower is also staying here, so let’s get you examined!”

At Emperor Norton’s words, her pupils shook slightly.

“No. It’s already too late. I was already dead the day I sent off the First Prince. Revenge is the driving force that connects my life.”

But now that she had finished her revenge, there was no reason to continue living.

“Sister-in-law!”

“I thought that helping the two of you get married smoothly was my last mission. Now I feel like I can leave really carefree.”

Princess Jasper’s mind was firm.

“Which city are you thinking of going to?”

“Don’t ask me where I’m going.”

She was already doomed to die soon anyway.

Princess Jasper wanted to quietly end her life.

“Sister-in-law, let’s talk again tomorrow.”

Emperor Norton also needed to sort out his thoughts.

“Okay. There’s plenty of time until I leave.”

Princess Jasper finished the conversation for now and got up from her chair.

Her vision blurred, and she had the illusion that the ground was rising in front of her.

It was the same symptom that Calvin had told her about shortly before he died.

‘I don’t have much time left either…….’

But she didn’t show it and slowly walked out of the office.

***

The ones who tore the nightgown were them, but Rosie caught the wrong Aoshi.

We, who were standing facing the front, all turned around to look behind the bed.

The silk nightgown was stuck in Aoshi’s four claws, and Moiya and Moni were lying down with pillows, their eyes unfocused, and their big eyes were wide open with harmless expressions.

“When did you get dragged up there?”

Melanie tilted her head, seeing Aoshi in her arms on the bed.

“Miyaong-!”

Aoshi just cried out long as if he was wronged.

“Rosie, actually the nightgown…… I was the one who did that, not Aoshi.”

Melanie confessed with a sorry face.

Rosie’s eyes, which had been glaring at Aoshi with her mouth pouting, moved to Melanie.

“Melanie tore the nightgown in half like that?”

“Aoshi was lying on the nightgown, so I was trying to stop him, but…….”

At Melanie’s words, Aoshi closed his eyes and started pretending to sleep.

“I’m really sorry, what should I do?”

Melanie apologized in a barely audible voice.

Rosie looked like she wanted to do something to Melanie right away, who was asking ‘What should I do?’

In the meantime, the two girls took Aoshi and flew out the window.

“Your Highness, no…… His Majesty might like it even more.”

I cut in between the two and started mediating.

“Why?”

Rosie’s eyes, which had been in despair, flashed.

Why?

“Because you can shorten the time.”

“……Yes?”

Although she asked back, Rosie had already noticed what I meant, and her face was turning red.

“S-Shall we just wear the nightgown I wore before?”

Rosie asked, fanning herself.

“Absolutely not!”

“Are you crazy?”

The concubines and I shouted at the same time.

We all knew what style Rosie’s nightgown was, so we strongly dissuaded her.

“It’s not the second day, it’s the first night. It’s worse than not wearing anything.”

I was reminded of the big and small ribbons attached to Rosie’s nightgown.

In particular, the large ribbon attached to her butt like a tail was the highlight.

If she was going to wear a design that a 5-year-old girl would like on her first night, I would have to tear up the nightgown this time.

“He said it was cute…….”

Rosie muttered regretfully.

“Did His Majesty?”

“Yes. He said it suits me well.”

Rosie, do you believe that?

“……He really loves you. But don’t even think about wearing that nightgown.”

I said more firmly on purpose.

Otherwise, she seemed like she was going to take out that nightgown that looked like it had ribbons poured on it.

“But I can’t just be naked.”

“Who said to take everything off? You can just wear that gown.”

“I think it would be better to wear the nightgown I used to wear than to wear this.”

Rosie started to be stubborn.

“Are you going to wear that ribbon nightgown no matter what?”

“Of course. It’s prettier than this gown…….”

Her taste is really firm.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Ah, I have a good idea!”

I suddenly had an idea.

“Bring that ribbon nightgown. And needles and thread too.”

I turned to Rosie’s maid and Sharon and ordered.

The other concubines stamped their feet, saying that it would be better to spend the first night in a dress than to have that ribbon nightgown put on her.

“I’m just going to take these ribbons and use them. Sharon, Misha. Put that silk nightgown side by side.”

“Your Majesty, are you thinking of attaching these ribbons sparsely to the silk nightgown?”

Only our quick-witted Sharon understood my thoughts.

“Yes. There’s no need to sew it tightly, just…… about 5 ribbons on the front and back.”

“It’s my favorite nightgown, absolutely not!”

Rosie hugged the ribbon nightgown and stepped back.

“It will be much more seductive if you connect it with ribbons.”

Melanie said, taking the ribbon nightgown from Rosie.

“Yes, it’ll be like a human gift, it’ll be good, right?”

When I said confidently, Rosie seemed a little tempted.

In the meantime, I quickly took the nightgown and started working.

The maids and I quickly reattached the torn silk nightgown with ribbons and hurriedly put it on Rosie.

“Rosie, don’t breathe too deeply. It’s not sewn tightly, so it will tear easily.”

“Y-Yes…….”

Rosie answered, holding her breath.

Knock knock knock-.

Judging from the expectation in the knocking sound, it seemed like Emperor Norton.

“Oh my, he’s already here!”

Melanie whispered, looking at the cautiously opening bedroom door.

Rosie reached out her arm towards the chair where she had thrown her gown.

Why is she trying to wear that gown again?

This won’t do.

“Quickly, get Rosie to the bed.”

As soon as my order was given, the concubines quickly laid Rosie on the bed.

Rosie’s strength was not ordinary, but it was not enough to handle four people at once.

Rosie, who was lying on the bed in a daze, was lying still like a corpse.

“Did I come too early?”

Emperor Norton looked at me and the concubines and was embarrassed.

“No, we stayed too long.”

I covered Rosie well with the blanket up to her neck and said to Emperor Norton.

He glanced at Rosie, who was already lying on the bed, and narrowed his brows.

“Is she sick?”

“Ah, the Empress is not sick, but she is hiding a gift in the blanket, so she had no choice but to lie down in advance. A surprise gift, shall we say? Hohoho.”

I unknowingly hurried my steps and shouted, blocking Emperor Norton who was approaching.

It was an excuse that I made up in a hurry, but when I thought about it, it seemed plausible.

I gave the concubines a look to add a word each.

Then, starting with Catherine, the three concubines smiled as if they had been waiting and said to Emperor Norton.

“That’s right. You’ll like the gift.”

“Open it quickly, there are a lot of ribbons, Your Majesty.”

“Have a good night, you two.”

With my words, we all left the bedroom at the same time.

Before closing the bedroom door, I made eye contact with the human gift lying on the bed.

She was just blinking her eyes like a person with her body tied up, and she was obediently looking up at Emperor Norton, who was getting closer and closer.

***

‘Why are you giving me this ordeal and leaving!’

Rosie resented Zelda for the first time.

“But, what is the gift in the blanket?”

Norton asked with an expectant face.

Rosie felt like a voice softer than silk was wrapping around her body.

“There’s no gift, everyone was just joking…….”

Rosie swallowed nervously.

“Then is there really something wrong with you?”

Norton looked down at her, who was stiff, with a worried look.

“N-No, it’s not that.”

“Then why are you still lying down? Get up. We have a lot to do tonight?”

“Your Majesty! Please take a bath first.”

Rosie raised her voice as Norton approached.

She thought it would be less embarrassing if she had a gown on in the meantime.

“I already did. I was a little impatient…….”

Norton replied shyly and took off the robe he was wearing over his shoulders and put it on top of the gown that Rosie had taken off.

Then he stared at Rosie and started to take off his shirt.

Even after Norton took off his top, Rosie couldn’t move.

The only thing that moved was her eyes.

Norton, who thought this was strange, quietly looked down at Rosie and suddenly lifted the blanket.

“Ah?!”

Rosie didn’t know what to do and covered her face with both hands.

‘Ah, I should have covered my body, not my face!’

But it was too late to lower her hands now.

“Seeing that there are so many ribbons…… it is a gift indeed, my wife…….”

On Norton’s impressed face.

At his words calling himself his wife.

Rosie’s heart was pounding.

“Besides, it’s a gift I wanted.”

“……Yes?”

“Can I untie the ribbons? Or should I tear them off?”

Norton asked, pushing the blanket further away.

“Ah, well, why did it turn out like this…….”

“Shh. Thank you, gift. I’ll take it well.”

Norton bent down and kissed her, taking off the ribbons one by one.