The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 327

327. Finally Succeeded!

February 06, 2024

Lams hesitated to speak.

“That’s right. He is Prince Lams,” Lily, standing beside him, answered demurely.

Resilia’s gaze was solely focused on Lams. ‘Yes, he is my son. He has grown up so well…’

“Did you come to find your mother first?” Resilia burst into tears. “Sob, sob…”

“Ah, I just went out for a while… just…” Lams stammered, embarrassed. Resilia quickly wiped away her tears.

“No matter the reason, I am so happy that you came. I’ve been waiting, always praying for our son. Don’t just stand there; let’s go inside and talk.”

Resilia grabbed Lams’s hand and looked back at her attending priest. The priest quickly produced a key, opened the door, and stepped aside.

Lams was swept along, led by Resilia into the room. Lily, Moniya, and Moni followed. Resilia eyed the three of them warily.

“Who are they?” Resilia raised her eyebrows, questioning Lily.

Lily, as if anticipating this moment, delicately lifted the hem of her dress, ready to formally introduce herself. But Lams spoke first.

“They are friends…”

For some reason, Lams felt it best not to reveal to his birth mother that Lily was a princess of the Lapion Empire. He vaguely recalled palace whispers about a strained relationship between Empress Zelda and his birth mother.

It wasn’t just Zelda. He also remembered hearing that his birth mother harbored intense animosity towards Empress Rosie, who raised him.

“…Friends? I see.”

“Yes.”

Only then did Resilia truly examine Lily’s face. She then gestured towards the middle-aged couple standing in the hallway.

“Then who are those people?”

“They helped me come to see my mother. I hired them temporarily.”

Lams offered the excuse, and Resilia readily accepted it. *’He must have bribed some retiring palace staff to sneak out and see me,’* she mused, observing the couple.

Her gaze returned to Lily.

“Friends with our son?”

“Yes! Please, call me Lily.”

Quick-witted Lily surmised that there must be a reason Lams introduced her merely as a friend, not as a princess. So, she only revealed her first name to Resilia for now.

*’Her eyes are confident and shining; she doesn’t seem like a maid. What is she?’* Resilia wondered.

Nobles and royals often had playmates, so she figured Lily might be something similar for Lams. If she were a noble’s daughter, she wouldn’t be wandering around so late without a guard.

Still, just in case, Resilia pointed to the middle-aged couple and asked Lily, “Are they your parents?”

“They are like parents to me.”

Lily hesitated slightly before answering. Resilia found Lily’s answer somewhat odd, but since Lams was her priority, she didn’t dwell on it.

“Okay, Lily, you may come in. You two wait outside.”

Moniya and Moni briefly replied, “Yes,” and obediently stepped back from the door.

Inside the room, only three people sat around the round wooden table. Resilia sat Lams next to her, stroking his face repeatedly.

“You’ve grown up so well. You look a lot like your mother in her younger days. I guess blood is thicker than water. When you were a baby, you had blonde hair like your father, but it’s gradually changing to my hair color.”

Resilia admired Lams, observing him closely as if he were a precious work of art. Lily, sitting across from her, felt practically invisible.

After a moment, a knock sounded, and the attending priest entered with a tray.

“This is warm citron tea.”

Resilia’s attending priest placed teacups with sugared lemons in front of the three of them. He poured hot water from the teapot into the teacups and then retreated.

“I believed that you would come to find me someday. I heard that you were visiting the Lapion Empire this time. I was trying to find a way to meet you, but you came to me first…” Resilia’s tearful outburst began anew.

“Where did you… hear that I was coming here?” Lams asked, puzzled.

His birth mother was a prisoner, moved from one monastery to another. If she had obtained information about his whereabouts, it meant someone around him was helping her.

“…There is a palace person who knows your mother well. Thankfully, they told me about your visit this time.”

“Which palace person is working in the Lapion Imperial Palace?” Lily, who had been itching to speak, was secretly pleased that someone her second mother-in-law knew was inside the Lapion Imperial Palace.

She resolved to befriend that person in the future and make a good impression, asking, *’I need to know who it is and make a good impression in advance so that my actions can reach her second mother-in-law’s ears.’*

However, Resilia took Lily’s question as impudence.

*’How dare you interrupt when I’m finally reuniting with my son after eight years?’* She glared at Lily with a displeased face. Unaware of her inner thoughts, Lily met Resilia’s gaze and smiled brightly.

“You seem to know a lot of people in the Lapion Imperial Palace?” Resilia asked sarcastically.

“Well, there are more people who know me than I know.”

“Ha?” Resilia scoffed at Lily’s answer and said sternly, “Young lady, I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak before I asked you to.”

“It’s Lily.”

“…Yes, Lily. If you interrupt the conversation one more time, I will have you wait outside.”

“Ah, yes. I’m sorry~.” Lily thought that unlike Rosie, her second mother-in-law was only pretty and had a rather prickly personality, and she shut her mouth tightly. However, she wasn’t intimidated.

Lams was very displeased to see her treating Lily so rudely. The vague expectations he had for his birth mother were gradually shattering.

“Um… but, I will try to ask His Majesty to make things more comfortable for you in the future,” Lily blurted out again, wanting to make a good impression on Resilia.

*’What can you do to the Emperor Rinell? Who is your father?’* Resilia sneered.

“Lily? You are disturbing the conversation with my son, so you should go outside.” The order to leave had been given.

*’Ah, I can’t leave like this now!’* She became anxious.

“Actually, if I were to tell you about myself…” As Lily opened her mouth, Lams shook his head, telling her not to speak. However, Lily ended up revealing her identity.

“I am a princess of the Lapion Empire. I will formally greet you again. I am Princess Lily Gardion Edpa.”

Lily stood up from her chair and paid her respects with restrained movements befitting royalty. Resilia’s eyes were about to pop out.

*’If she is a princess of the Lapion Empire… is this child Zelda’s daughter?!’* Looking at her again, the child looked quite similar to Zelda in her younger days.

Lily continued to smile brightly as she looked at Resilia, who was in shock. Resilia suddenly remembered the smile Zelda used to give her in the old days. Even though she had nothing special, she smiled so brightly back then.

Zelda shouldn’t have been happier than her, a princess. She shouldn’t have smiled so brightly, and she shouldn’t have been so generous.

Resilia hated that smile and wanted to make sure she never smiled again. That was why she poured the red potion on Zelda’s face. Those who are unhappy should have unhappy expressions.

But reality was not fair. She was now deprived of her status as a princess and wandering around the monasteries of the Shato Neil Kingdom and the Partsha Empire, while Zelda was being treated as an empress and raising a child.

*’That was originally my place!’* She also had a son?

Resilia’s face twisted. The more she looked at Lily, the more she resembled Zelda in her younger days. Zelda was probably around that age when she got burned on her right face, wasn’t she?

“Our son is eight years old, so the princess must be seven years old now.”

“Yes, Mother.”

…Mother?

Resilia twisted her lips and asked Lily, “Yes. Is the princess’s mother… still doing well?”

“Yes, Mother is healthy and always lives like newlyweds with Father. I also want to live like my parents when I get married in the future.”

“I see.” Resilia forced a smile.

Looking at Lily, an uncontrollable rage towards Zelda erupted. *’What would it be like if that fair face was burned like Zelda’s?’* Resilia became very curious.

Would that child overcome her fate like Zelda? Would she still be able to smile brightly?

“I should ask them to bring some cookies. Oh, and more water for the teapot.” Resilia stood up with the steaming teapot in her hand.

Lily, feeling a little hungry, looked at Lams and smiled, mouthing, *’I was actually hungry.’* Lams’s tense heart relaxed a little as he looked at Lily’s bright smile.

At that moment, Resilia stumbled and leaned towards Lily.

“Oh my!!” Just as she was about to fall, the lid of the teapot in her hand fell off, and all the hot water poured onto Lily’s right face.

Hot steam rose into the air.

“Ah, it’s hot!” The scream came from Resilia, not Lily. Resilia scalded her hand while pouring the teapot on Lily.

“Princess!” Lams jumped up from his chair. Leaving his birth mother, who was shaking her burned hand and groaning, Lams checked on Lily.

“Are you okay, Princess? Let’s quickly go to the palace doctor, no, the Master of the Magic Tower, to get treatment! Quickly!”

“I’m fine, Prince. I’m alright?” Lily said, wiping her right face, soaked with hot water, with the back of her hand.

Unlike Resilia, who was making a fuss, Lily felt refreshed, as if she had just washed her face with cold water.

“Oh, what happened?” Lily really wasn’t burned. His birth mother’s hand had already turned red, but Lily was fine.

“You, what are you!” Resilia shouted, glaring at Lily.

“Mother, I have a very small talent.” Lily thought of this as an opportunity to show off her abilities to her second mother-in-law and earn points, and she opened her mouth with determination.

“I can control fire because of my mother’s influence. Other than lighting the fireplace or raising the temperature of the water, I’m fine even if I touch or come into contact with hot water or objects. Heehee.”

Lily never thought that Resilia had deliberately poured the hot water from the teapot on her.

“Why, why are you hanging out with our son?” Resilia, momentarily stunned, snapped at Lily.

Lily, thinking that what was coming had come, made a serious expression and opened her mouth. “I’m going to marry Prince Lams.”

“!”

What?!?

After being surprised for a moment, Resilia immediately became serious and shouted, “That can’t happen! Never, never until I have dirt in my eyes!”

She had no intention of welcoming the daughter of her enemy as her daughter-in-law. Lily’s face, which had been smiling all along, hardened.

*’Adults really make things difficult,’* Lily thought.

Lily put her hand into the bag she was carrying, took it out, and quickly and accurately threw dirt into Resilia’s eyes.

“Aaaah!!” Resilia’s scream echoed in the room.

*’Success!’* She had tried it on her father and failed, and she didn’t need to throw dirt at her first mother-in-law, Rosie, so she stopped, but this time she finally succeeded.

“Dirt is in your eyes, so please allow it,” Lily demanded confidently to Resilia.

Resilia was in pain, unable to open her eyes properly because they were full of dirt.

“Like mother, like daughter! You’re just like her, uneducated! You’re just as violent!” Resilia began to spew curses.

“Mother, you’re going too far!” Lams raised his voice at Resilia.

“Son! I can’t even open my eyes properly because they’re full of dirt, but why are you taking her side?” Resilia asked in a rather hurt voice.

Just as Lams was about to open his mouth slowly in embarrassment, the door burst open.

“Lily!” Zelda and Velos rushed into the room. They had heard the scream from outside, and their hearts had dropped.

When they came into the room, Resilia was closing her eyes, tearing up, and making all sorts of faces, and Lily’s right face and hair were completely wet.

“Oh, Mother…” Lily lowered her head.

“What’s going on? Lily, why do you look like this!” Zelda’s eyes flashed with fire.

“It’s nothing. Resilia stumbled and accidentally poured the teapot on my face.”

It wasn’t a tattletale. She really didn’t care and was just trying to reassure Zelda. She thought that her mother, who was strong against all hot things including fire, would understand.

However, contrary to Lily’s expectations, Zelda frowned. She reached out and wrapped her hands around the teapot on the table. Even though there was no water, the outside was still hot.

It was a mistake…?

The anger did not subside easily.

“Velos, take Prince Lams and Lily out of here,” Zelda ordered Velos, staring at Resilia’s face.