The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 46

46. I’ll Go Instead

I returned to the bedroom and began looking for a place to store the jewelry box.

“Hmm, I should put it there for now.”

After looking around for a while, the bottom drawer of the vanity caught my eye. It was a place that the maids rarely touched. I went to the vanity, knelt down, and pulled the bottom drawer completely out. Behind the drawer, there was a small recessed space. I put the jewelry box there and closed the drawer. The space behind the bottom drawer of the vanity was also where I kept the magic potion bottles I had received from the ‘Dignified Night’ clinic. I got up again and wandered around the bedroom for a while, silently cursing Prince Tesler. I wanted to throw away the pink diamond ring he had given me right away, but Bonis was wearing it on her pinky finger, so I couldn’t touch it. Why did Bonis have to suffer because of this?

“Vile bastard, cruel son of a bitch…”

I will definitely repay you somehow. I vowed to myself several times. As anger consumed me, my temperature soared instantly. I felt like my body was boiling in a heated pot.

“I can’t breathe. It’s suffocating…”

Pounding my chest with my fists didn’t help. If I didn’t swing a sword, my body felt like it would explode. Knock, knock, knock. Just then, Sharon knocked and came in.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a message from the main palace.”

“What message?”

I tensed up instantly. Was Linelle asking me to have dinner with him? Suddenly, the scene of Prince Tesler’s sword striking Bonis’s pinky finger flashed through my mind. Even though I tried not to think about it, that horrible scene kept popping up. Bonis’s clear, beautiful voice turned into a scream and struck my ears. I quickly covered my ears with both hands.

“Are you alright, Your Majesty? Are you not feeling well?”

Sharon was startled and came closer.

“I’m fine. Keep talking.”

“Yes… The meeting that His Majesty is attending is expected to continue late into the night.”

“Ah, that’s a relief.”

I muttered to myself, as if relieved, and Sharon asked with an even more worried expression.

“Your Majesty, is something wrong…?”

“No, it’s nothing. So, His Majesty can’t come to the Empress Palace today?”

“That’s right.”

“I understand. Go ahead and leave. I need to rest.”

“Um… Your Majesty.”

“What? Ah, is there more to tell me?”

I walked to the bed and turned back to Sharon. She nodded and quickly replied in a bright voice.

“Yes! His Majesty said that since the meeting will be late, wouldn’t it be better for Your Majesty to come to His Majesty’s bedroom in the main palace!”

“Ah…”

What should I do? My head started to ache.

“It seems that His Majesty wants to see Your Majesty’s face in between meetings!”

I couldn’t respond to Sharon’s excited voice. If Grand Duke Martins hadn’t visited, I would have been happy too. But now things were different. There were things I had to be careful about. The more attention I received from Linelle, the more dangerous it could be for Bonis’s safety, as well as his.

“Sharon, you’ll have to go to the main palace yourself.”

I calmed myself down and turned back to her.

“Yes, just tell me what to do!”

“I’m not feeling well… Tell him that I need to rest early in the Empress Palace today.”

The thought of his disappointed expression when he heard this made my heart feel dry.

“Your Majesty, should I call for the palace physician?”

“No, there’s no need. I’ll feel better if I just rest.”

I waved my hand and smiled, but Sharon’s worried expression didn’t fade.

“I have a bit of a headache. I talked to the concubines earlier, and it’s making my head spin.”

I couldn’t think of a good excuse, so I had no choice but to blame the concubines. Only then did she nod and give me a look of understanding.

“Then I’ll go to the main palace and tell him that. Is there anything else you need?”

Sharon asked, checking my mood before leaving the bedroom.

“No. Oh, Sharon?”

I called out to her as she turned around and went out to the terrace with her.

“Do you know where the training grounds are?”

“The training grounds…?”

Sharon asked me back, as if puzzled.

“Yes, I’m just curious. You said it was close to the Empress Palace before, right? That’s why.”

“Ah, yes… As I said, it’s not far from here. It’s around there.”

Sharon pointed to the location of the training grounds, holding onto the terrace railing with one hand.

“Where?”

“If you go around the lake behind the Empress Palace, you’ll find a cypress forest. See it there?”

“Yeah.”

“If you go into that forest path for about 10 minutes, you’ll find the training grounds.”

I repeated Sharon’s explanation several times in my mind. Fortunately, the way to the training grounds wasn’t complicated. The problem was whether I could get to the training grounds without being seen by the palace staff. Fortunately, it was in the cypress forest, so it seemed possible if I could avoid the eyes of the palace staff until I entered the forest path.

“I see. Thank you, Sharon.”

“You’re welcome. Then I’ll go to the main palace.”

“Okay.”

I watched Sharon walk towards the bedroom door for a moment, then turned to look at the cypress forest. Even if I could get to the training grounds without being seen by others, there was another problem. I couldn’t go in a dress, so what should I wear? I needed comfortable clothes to go to the training grounds.

“Um, Your Majesty…”

Startled by Sharon’s voice, I turned around, leaning against the railing.

“Yes? Aren’t you gone yet?”

“As soon as you enter the dressing room, there is Your Majesty’s riding suit in the first dress rack on the left.”

“…What?”

Sharon suddenly brought up the riding suit.

“And if you walk along that wall, you’ll find a small door. That door is connected to the stairs leading down to the laundry room on the first floor, which is usually unlocked.”

“…Sharon.”

“The key is kept in the middle of the dresser next to the door, in the fourth drawer. I’ll tell Sollie and Theresa so that Your Majesty doesn’t have to bother looking for it.”

Was it because I brought up the training grounds so suddenly? She realized that I was trying to go to the training grounds secretly.

“If you go down to the laundry room on the first floor, you’ll find a back door that leads directly to the backyard of the Empress Palace.”

“Sharon, when did you realize I was going to the training grounds?”

When I confessed honestly,

“From when you hit Catherine Mama [Mama is a respectful title] in the back of the head in the greenhouse…! Ahem, from then on.”

Sharon waved one hand in the air as she spoke, then lowered her hand again with a look of realization and lowered her voice.

“What?”

“I was expecting you to ask about the training grounds at least once from then on.”

“Ah… I see.”

“Your Majesty, should I bring up some tea that’s good for headaches after I return from the main palace?”

“Okay. And thank you so much, Sharon.”

When I took Sharon’s hand, she smiled shyly.

“See you later…”

“Yes, then I’ll go slowly.”

After she left, the bedroom door opened again a few minutes later.

“Your Majesty.”

“We’ll take you to the dressing room.”

Sollie and Theresa must have already heard about it from Sharon outside. I nodded and followed them into the dressing room connected to the bedroom. As Sharon said, the riding suit was hanging in the first rack on the left as soon as I entered the dressing room. Sollie helped me change into the riding suit, and in the meantime, Theresa opened the dresser and found the key.

“Have a good trip, Your Majesty.”

Sollie said, putting the dress I was wearing on a hanger.

“Yeah.”

I gave a short smile. Just thinking about going to the training grounds made me feel relieved.

“I’ll take you to the laundry room. There might be other maids.”

Theresa said, turning the key in the keyhole.

“Okay, please.”

When she opened the door, a narrow spiral staircase unfolded below.

“Let’s go, Your Majesty. Be careful, the stairs are steep!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t roll down like Melanie.”

Theresa’s playful laughter, which had been going down ahead of me, echoed on the spiral staircase. Fortunately, there were no other maids in the laundry room. Theresa said that it was the Empress’s private laundry room, so other than the dedicated maids, other maids rarely came in unless there was something special. When I opened the back door of the laundry room, there was a support for drying laundry in the sun in front of it.

“Have a good trip, Your Majesty!”

Theresa said to me, clenching her fists as if seeing off a knight after a departure ceremony.

“It won’t take long. And it’ll be dark when I come back, so it’ll be less noticeable than now.”

I said, looking up at the setting sun.

“Yes! I’ll be waiting. But, shouldn’t I accompany you?”

“Huh?”

“Like a bodyguard!”

“Who? You’re my bodyguard?”

I burst into laughter and checked the riding suit I was wearing.

“Well, what am I talking about. I’d be surprised even if I saw a squirrel in the forest, hehe, be careful!”

“See you later.”

I waved to Theresa and sprinted straight towards the cypress forest. It was freedom I hadn’t felt in a long time. It felt like the shackles on my legs had been broken. I ran through the forest path without stopping, as if my lungs would burst. I was out of breath, but my stuffy chest felt like it was opening up. The forest was so refreshing. The scent of cypress trees entered deep into my lungs.

“There it is.”

Just before another side path appeared, the training ground building could be seen in the distance.

***

Main Conference Hall of the Main Palace. The meeting on whether to approve or disapprove of holding the Continental Hunting Competition continued endlessly. If the hunting competition were to be held this time, the country that would be the starting point of the competition was the Rapion Empire of the Northern Continent, so a decision had to be made more carefully. Linelle, who was looking through the opinions of each country, glanced at the ministers who were groaning here and there in the conference hall and closed the opinions.

“Let’s take a 10-minute break and continue the meeting.”

When Linelle got up from his chair, the ministers also got up after him. Everyone moved their stiff bodies from the long meeting and stretched.

“Um… Your Majesty.”

Duke Carios, the father of the First Concubine, Catherine, and the minister with the most private soldiers, approached him as he was about to leave the conference room.

“What’s wrong, Duke Carios?”

“I heard that you haven’t visited the concubines’ residences yet after the ceremony.”

“So?”

“You should share your favor evenly in your wide embrace so that peace can be maintained in the imperial family.”

“Has Duke Carios ever been in my embrace?”

“…Pardon?”

“How do you know if my embrace is wide or narrow and say such a thing? Is it your experience that giving favor evenly will bring peace?”

“No, that’s not what I mean…”

“Not what you mean? Then just stay still.”

Linelle dusted off Duke Carios’s shoulder with a terribly cold look and continued.

“I’ll decide who to embrace in my arms, whether to share my favor evenly, or to give it all at once.”

“But, the concubines are also clearly Your Majesty’s women, and if you don’t visit them like that…”

“My women… Yes, they are my women because they had a ceremony with me. So, Duke Carios, why don’t you stop paying attention to other people’s women?”

“Your Majesty! If you only favor the Empress, it could cause trouble in the future… Ugh!”

Swish-. Linelle drew his sword from the scabbard of his secretary, Raphael, who was next to him. He held the blue blade to Duke Carios’s neck.

“The Empress is my wife. The word favor doesn’t suit the Empress. Isn’t that right?”

“Y-Yes, Your Majesty…”

“Yes. It’s natural for the Empress to receive my love, it’s not favor, it’s not an emotion that can be shared with the concubines.”

Duke Carios looked up at the Emperor’s cold face. It seemed like the Emperor might cut off his neck like this.

“Do you understand, Duke Carios?”

“P-Please forgive me. I was short-sighted.”

Cold sweat formed on Duke Carios’s forehead.

“Calm down, Your Majesty. This is the conference hall…”

Raphael, the secretary, grabbed Linelle’s arm holding the sword and whispered. The other ministers were also buzzing here and there with tense expressions. When Linelle’s gaze turned to the ministers, they all closed their mouths and lowered their heads. He put the sword he had held to Duke Carios’s neck back into Raphael’s scabbard and left the conference hall to head to his office.

***

“Your Majesty, you were a bit too much earlier. There were many eyes watching, you didn’t have to go that far…”

“The meeting will end within an hour.”

Linelle said indifferently, pretending not to hear Raphael’s nagging.

“But you decided to continue the meeting until midnight today…”

“The meeting will be reopened tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, I’ll tell them that.”

Raphael couldn’t argue with Linelle’s words anymore. Knock, knock, knock-.

“Your Majesty.”

Chief Steward Stian entered the office.

“What’s wrong?”

Stian conveyed the message from the Empress Palace to him.

“The Empress said that she is not feeling well and will have to go to bed early in the Empress Palace today.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Then I’ll go, I guess.”

Linelle said concisely.

“…Pardon?”

Stian exchanged glances with Raphael, who was next to him, in embarrassment.

“Since we’ve decided to end the meeting within an hour anyway, I’ll go to the Empress Palace as soon as the meeting ends.”

“But, if Your Majesty goes, the Empress won’t be able to rest comfortably?”

Raphael advised cautiously, but

“I need to see for myself what’s wrong.”

He was adamant.

“Your Majesty, the meeting will be long tomorrow as well, so it would be better for Your Majesty to just rest in the main palace today…”

Stian also tried to stop him, but

“Seeing the Empress is rest.”

It was no use.

“…”

So Raphael and Stian gave up trying to persuade him.

“Wait, is she very sick? I should just end the meeting right now and go to the Empress Palace.”

“Your Majesty, please stay still!”

“And let the Empress rest a bit!”

The two shouted at the same time.

“Okay. Then in 30 minutes.”

Linelle showed the two his pocket watch and said firmly. With an expression that he couldn’t postpone it any longer.

‘What should I do!’

Sharon, who was secretly eavesdropping on the story outside the office, gasped and quickly pursed her lips.

‘His Majesty is coming to the Empress Palace in 30 minutes?’

Zelda was still at the training grounds.

‘This is a disaster! I have to go and tell her quickly!’

Sharon raised the hem of her dress and hurriedly began to run to the Empress Palace.