The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 36

36. A Lady of the Harem, Indeed?

It was clear that Melanie had blurted that out unconsciously. But Rinell coldly retorted,

“Oh my, ‘that’? Is that how you refer to the Empress?”

“I, I don’t quite remember what I said… Ugh, ugh, my head hurts.”

Melanie clutched her head with both hands, feigning a headache. I gave her a generous smile, seeing her flustered and looking at me, and said, “Your Majesty, surely she wouldn’t refer to the Empress as ‘that’? You must have misheard.”

He twitched his cheek when I referred to Melanie as ‘that.’

“Yes, I must have.”

Rinell stated that a lady of the harem would never dare to speak to the Empress like that and even apologized for misunderstanding her. Melanie nodded frantically, her eyes glazed over by his smile, before turning her gaze back to me.

“But why has Her Majesty come to my chambers?”

“Ah, I…”

As I trailed off, Rinell answered for me. “The Empress was with me, and she was worried about the lady of the harem who fell down the stairs, so she came with me. She is truly a benevolent woman.”

*When did I…?* I glanced at him, questioning him with my eyes. I was a little worried, but I had no intention of visiting the lady of the harem’s chambers. Melanie stared at me, her eyes questioning my meddling.

“Melanie, how did you fall down the stairs? Did you really fall?”

Rinell pulled the hand he was holding with mine closer to his chest and took a step closer to her as he asked. Melanie stared intently at our joined hands with an unpleasant gaze. But as the distance between her and him decreased, Melanie’s face suddenly brightened.

“Yes, I rolled and rolled! It hurt! I even cried! Sob.”

“So your body hurts all over? I heard you were on the verge of death.”

“I was! I was on the verge of death until just now!”

“It’s fortunate that your journey was short.”

“…Pardon?”

“I mean you look fine.”

He replied nonchalantly. I couldn’t tell if Melanie was really sick, but he was dealing with her with a rather bored expression, even though she claimed to be in pain.

“No, Your Majesty. I’m not fine! I thought my leg was going to break! Take a look!”

She threw the words out very shyly and then boldly threw off the blanket covering her body.

“Ta-da! It’s terribly swollen. Sob.”

…What is this? Melanie’s slender ankle, which looked like it could be broken with a single chop, had no swelling at all, contrary to her words. She was clearly trying to show him her ankle, but the slip she was wearing rode up to mid-thigh. *Did she not care that I was standing next to Rinell? Ah, it must be the opposite. She must be showing off her crane legs [long, slender legs] to deflate me.*

“It looks like a foot that hasn’t walked all day.”

He glanced down at Melanie’s slender ankle, which was like a wrist, and asked as if he was grilling her.

“Yes? What do you mean, Your Majesty?”

“Melanie, when was the last time you walked on two feet?”

“Until before Your Majesty came…”

“Until before I came? Were you wandering around on the verge of death?”

“No, that’s not it… It’s just that my ankle is so thin that it just looks fine!”

Melanie rolled her eyes and made an ‘oops’ expression, waving her hands and making excuses.

“Really? Well, anyway. You fell while coming to greet me?”

“Yes, isn’t today the day you come to my chambers? So, I was waiting in the bedroom, and in my excitement, I went outside the palace to wait, and then…”

“You fell.”

“Sob, I’m so silly, aren’t I?”

“You are.”

“…”

*Oh, please.* I wanted to get out of this conversation. To say ‘You are’ with a straight face to someone who asks ‘I’m so silly, aren’t I?’ I bit my lower lip tightly to keep from laughing. But even the servants behind me were clearing their throats and trying not to laugh, so it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a straight face. *Don’t laugh. Sad thoughts, painful thoughts! Depressing thoughts, bad thoughts!*

“Sob, but you came to see this silly person because you were worried, right? Right, Your Majesty?”

“Cough.”

In the end, the various sad thoughts I was thinking of were defeated by that silly person’s words. Fortunately, I quickly muffled the laughter and lowered my head just before it burst out. *So, depending on who was listening…*

“Even the silly person isn’t crying, so why is the Empress about to cry? She’s so sensitive…”

That’s how they might think. Rinell patted my back gently. The person who had waited for him and fallen down the stairs was right in front of him, but I, who had walked in perfectly fine, was the one receiving comfort from him in this strange situation.

“Is the Empress so sorry for Melanie?”

It would have been perfect if he had just changed the subject, but Rinell deliberately spoke to me, poking at my funny bone.

“The thought of Melanie’s fragile ankle, sob, falling on those rough stairs while coming to see Your Majesty, sob, I couldn’t help but… !”

What do you know? Laughter burst out. I quickly cut off my words because if I had finished them, I would have had to disguise the laughter I was holding back as a sob.

“…I don’t know what to do with myself, with Her Majesty worrying about me. It’s all my fault.”

Melanie continued, tilting her head to the side to see if I was really crying.

“It’s because I was waiting for Your Majesty like a fool that this happened.”

It was as if she was saying it for me to hear. That she fell down the stairs because of me. That if I hadn’t gone to the main palace, she wouldn’t have fallen down the stairs while waiting for His Majesty. She seemed to think that all of this happened because I suddenly appeared at the main palace.

“Then why were you waiting for me like a fool?”

Rinell asked Melanie in a very gentle tone, but there was definitely a thorn in his words.

“No, it’s not Melanie’s fault, right? The stairs are the fool.”

What is she saying again?

“Well, the stairs are fools. Because they don’t go around like someone else.”

Rinell was making it too obvious that she was… not the sharpest tool in the shed.

*Stop it, I understand.*

I gave him a warning with my eyes.

*Wanna bet? Does she understand?*

He asked with a chin gesture.

“Oh my! Your Majesty, are there stairs that go around?”

Melanie asked in surprise. We both stared at her intently. She didn’t realize at all that Rinell was mocking her intelligence and was saying something completely irrelevant. He glanced at me with a smug look, as if to say, ‘See?’

“It won’t be a problem to walk, right?”

At Rinell’s question, her expression returned to that of a seriously ill patient.

“There’s no major problem, but I think someone needs to support me from the side…”

Melanie raised her arms forward and shook her shoulders and hands pitifully towards him. Wow, how does she do that? Her hands and shoulders fluttered like thin pieces of paper. It didn’t seem like she was asking him to pull out her arms, was she asking Rinell to lift her up? Is that kind of behavior a woman’s way of appealing to her weakness? Rinell stared down at her hands and opened his mouth instead of taking them.

“Have you become a ghost already?”

Come to think of it, Melanie’s appearance of holding up her hands and swaying looked like a ghost. Her expression, which had been like a seriously ill patient, became truly ghostly at his words.

“Your Majesty! A ghost? Where would you find such a pretty ghost?”

Melanie’s lower lip protruded forward like a drawbridge being lowered.

“Sob!”

*Sob?* She’s doing that again. I’ve been watching her say ‘sob, sob’ since a while ago, and I wondered if she was possessed by a horse. That, that, shaking her head from side to side also looked like a bridle. My arms were getting goosebumps from her excessive cuteness, but I tried my best to manage my expression so as not to frown.

“I heard the court physician visited?”

Rinell pointed at Melanie and asked her maid.

“Yes, Your Majesty! The court physician examined her right before Your Majesty arrived and left.”

“But why is her condition… Ah, was there no mention of her hurting her head when she fell down the stairs?”

He looked back and forth between Melanie and her maid with a very serious voice.

“My head? Is my hair messed up? I combed it well before lying down.”

At his words, Melanie quickly swept her long hair to one shoulder with both hands and looked up at him. Unlike her first impression, Melanie was a very pure soul.

“So that’s what she really looks like… Amazing.”

Rinell raised one hand to his forehead, sighed deeply, and muttered. I wanted to get out of Melanie’s chambers right now and run to a place where no one was and laugh out loud. I prayed inwardly that at least one of the two people who kept poking at my funny bone would restrain themselves.

“Have the court physician examine you again tomorrow.”

He said in a sincere tone.

“I feel like I could fall down the stairs again because Your Majesty is so worried about me!”

She exclaimed with a touched look.

“There’s no need to deliberately fall down the stairs again. Unless you have something urgent to do.”

“Cough.”

At Rinell’s words, I lowered my head again. A strange sound that was neither laughter nor crying leaked from my mouth. *I’m going to die, really.*

“The Empress must be very tired. She’s snoring while standing.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and pretended to wake me up by shaking it slightly.

“Still, you should sleep lying down, Empress.”

“!”

Please stop! I nudged his waist with my elbow.

“If you’re tired, why don’t you return to the Empress’s Palace first? I’m really fine now.”

Melanie seized the opportunity and tried to get me out of her bedroom, pretending to care for me.

“Empress, Melanie says she’s fine now, so it would be good to go back.”

Rinell agreed with her.

“I should, it’s late.”

I replied to him, looking at Melanie’s face. Her dull expression brightened in an instant.

“Please return safely. Your Majesty!”

Melanie gave the most sincere greeting she had ever given me.

“Yes, you are the Emperor’s lady of the harem, so I hope you always take care of yourself. Your Majesty, then I will return to the Empress’s Palace first.”

I left a queenly greeting to the two and turned around.

“It’s quite dark, so I’ll go with you since you’re afraid of the night.”

Rinell snatched my hand.

“I’m not afraid.”

“I am.”

“Yes?”

“I mean me. I’m afraid of the night.”

*Let go of this hand!* I had a small argument with him without saying a word. Rinell let go of my hand and grabbed my arm this time. Unfortunately, he grabbed the robe that was hanging on my shoulder, and one shoulder that was wearing the robe slipped down. It was the side where he had torn off the entire sleeve.

“Oh my? Your Majesty’s dress?!”

As expected, Melanie was surprised to see my bare right shoulder. I looked at her and Rinell at the same time. I glared at him, and he turned his gaze away, pretending to be calm.

“Your Majesty, what happened to your dress?”

Melanie asked, frowning.

“Ah, this dress is…”

*The Emperor, whom you’re eagerly waiting for, tore it off.*

I was briefly contemplating whether to tell her the truth…

“This style, you said it’s a design that’s popular in the Empress’s home country, the Kingdom of Chattonil, right?”

He said, shamelessly stroking my bare right shoulder.

“!”

*What? Who would believe that?* He was making excuses that were completely absurd. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Really? That’s unique? It looks like a strange design to me.”

…Ah, she was right in front of me. A fool who believed his words. Surprisingly, Melanie seemed to believe his nonsense because he was the Emperor.

“Why? It looks unique and beautiful to me.”

He dismissed Melanie’s opinion, looking at me with a deep gaze. Then her eyes changed. She stared intently at my dress with one sleeve torn off, as if observing it. I quickly put the robe back on my bare right shoulder. While I was doing that, Rinell said goodbye to Melanie.

“You must be very surprised, so get some rest. We’ll be going now.”

His tone and eyes were almost like an order. It sounded like a threat that if you don’t rest now, something will happen later that you won’t be able to rest even if you want to. But there was no way Melanie could grasp his nuance.

“Your Majesty! You came all the way here, are you really just going to leave?”

“Well, if I’m bored of just leaving, I might as well fall down the stairs on the way.”

Melanie jumped out of bed almost as if she was jumping.

“Th, then when will we have our first night together?!”

She stretched out one hand towards Rinell and screamed.