The Stand-In Empress’S Wedding Night [EN]: Chapter 66

66. I’m the Crazy B*tch of This Area

The real recognize real. Perhaps sensing a similar energy, the two women cautiously circled each other clockwise. They looked as solemn as knights before a duel.

“This is Princess Resilia of the Shatoanil Kingdom.”

As the atmosphere turned frigid, Prince Norton introduced Princess Resilia to the imperial concubines.

“It is an honor to meet the Princess of Shatoanil.”

Rose, flustered, greeted her first. Princess Resilia gestured for Rose to wait a moment, continuing her standoff with Melanie. Feeling awkward, Rose stepped back and observed Melanie’s expression. Melanie must have heard who she was circling, but she didn’t seem to care at all.

“I’m a princess of the Shatoanil Kingdom, you know?”

Finally, as Princess Resilia completed a circle and returned to her starting point, she irritably shouted at Melanie. Melanie simply nodded briefly and retorted confidently,

“I’m a concubine of His Majesty the Emperor of the Lapion Empire.”

“Wh-what? A concubine? A con-cu-bine…?”

“!”

“!”

Rose and Prince Norton were equally taken aback by Melanie’s short, intense self-introduction.

‘What kind of crazy is this?’

Princess Resilia couldn’t take her eyes off Melanie.

“The Empress of the Lapion Empire has a very dirty grip on discipline, doesn’t she?”

The princess, who had been momentarily stunned, scoffed and mentioned Zelda.

‘If you had seen our Empress blow Catherine’s mind, you wouldn’t say that,’

Rose thought, looking at the princess with a sulky expression.

“Your high-.”

Melanie, with a smiling face, flicked her index finger and spoke to Princess Resilia as if scolding her.

“What?”

“Not ‘Lapion Empress,’ but ‘Her Majesty the Empress.’ You have to say it like that.”

Rose, standing next to her, quickly tucked her lips inward at Melanie’s tone, as if scolding a child. The atmosphere was so tense that even a small smile seemed inappropriate.

“A concubine keeps speaking informally? Where did you learn to treat a distinguished guest like this?”

Princess Resilia questioned, her face flushed with anger. Melanie, with a resolute expression, made an X with her arms and replied,

“Not informal.”

“…Huh? Then what’s with that way of speaking?”

Princess Resilia retorted with an absurd expression.

“It’s an abbreviation. Like someone else. Hmph!”

Melanie answered primly, turned her head sharply, and suddenly began humming a tune. Princess Resilia, experiencing an unprecedented insult in a bizarre way, became furious and tried to approach Melanie, but

“Everyone, calm down.”

Prince Norton grabbed the princess’s arm, restraining her actions.

“And, Your Highness, you shouldn’t lower your speech either.”

Princess Resilia spoke to Prince Norton as if whining, but when he gave her a look, she belatedly added the title.

“Melanie, Your Grace, please show respect to the Princess as well.”

Instead of answering Norton’s attempt to resolve the situation, Melanie stared intently at his face and exclaimed, “Ah!”

“This is the one! Right? The one Rose mentioned.”

Melanie looked back and forth between Prince Norton and Rose, then smiled brightly.

“Did Rose mention me?”

Prince Norton asked Melanie with a curious look. Rose tilted her head at her fuss.

‘What did I say about the Prince that makes her act like this?’

…At that moment, she thought, ‘Oh no,’ and raised her hand to stop Melanie’s mouth, but

“That he’s handsome.”

It was already too late.

“She said he’s as handsome as our Emperor, or even more so?”

Melanie laughed, adding a bit more exaggeration than what Rose had said.

“Wh-when did I say that?!”

Rose immediately flared up. She felt like jumping into the lake in front of her to cool down her burning face.

“Well, I may have embellished it a bit, but it’s true that she said you have an excellent appearance, Your Highness. Ohoho!”

Melanie laughed so hard that her head tilted back, as if she found Rose’s embarrassed face hilarious. Princess Resilia glared at Melanie disapprovingly, then glared at Rose with an even more unpleasant gaze.

‘Who do you think you are, talking about who’s handsome and who’s not?’

How dare you covet what’s mine. That’s what the princess’s eyes were saying. Princess Resilia, her face contorted, smiled faintly, but her voice was filled with pity as she said,

“It’s truly astonishing. I should offer some comfort to the Empress. How can her subordinates be such a mess…?”

The princess whispered to Prince Norton, but not so quietly that the two concubines couldn’t hear.

“Oh my, Princess Resilia! Have you already met Catherine, Your Grace?”

Melanie clapped her hands once and asked.

“It’s Resilia, not Gesilia…”

Rose poked Melanie’s back and quickly corrected the princess’s name.

“Ah, sorry. Anyway, have you met Catherine, the concubine?”

“Who…?”

Princess Resilia was about to get angry at Melanie’s intentional rudeness, but she couldn’t help but ask back because of her sudden question.

“I guess not? Oh well, I thought you were saying that after meeting Catherine…”

Melanie muttered to herself and crossed her arms.

“Why is that concubine asking me?”

Princess Resilia couldn’t resist her curiosity and asked.

“It’s okay if you haven’t met her yet. I just said that because there’s another concubine who’s the biggest mess.”

Melanie waved her hand as if she couldn’t be bothered to explain and glossed over the words.

“You two… seem to be having a good conversation. Next time, let’s have a boat ride together on this lake.”

Prince Norton, wanting to escape this situation quickly, tried to wrap things up by promising the two a future meeting.

“No, what if sharks come out?”

Sharks in the lake? Is she joking? Prince Norton and Rose simultaneously opened their mouths and stared at her at Melanie’s words.

“Puhaha, are you serious right now?”

Princess Resilia also burst into laughter, mocking Melanie.

“Why?”

“Would there be sharks in the imperial lake?”

“Wouldn’t there be?”

Melanie asked back as if arguing. Princess Resilia glared at her sharply, as if saying, ‘I don’t want to talk to someone as ignorant as you anymore.’

“Of course not. They would have filtered them all out!”

“…”

“…”

Melanie looked slightly intimidated by the princess’s scolding tone, and Rose and Prince Norton stared blankly at the two with dumbfounded faces.

‘These two are real! Really weird.’

Rose also wanted to get out of this place quickly. She gathered her old book and knee blanket, trying to put them in the basket, but dropped the old book. Prince Norton picked up the fallen book for her.

“Ah, thank you.”

Rose held out her hands to him. Prince Norton, smiling, handed her the book, and then inadvertently opened the folded part of the book, raising one eyebrow.

“Hwashin Sword?”

Rose was startled by Prince Norton’s small mutter.

“Um… Your Highness, do you know the ancient language of the Partsha Empire…?”

***

I hoped it wasn’t… The drawer where I had hidden the magic potion bottles was slightly open. And on the dressing table was a pouch containing the magic potion bottles. I ran to the dressing table and picked up the pouch. What is this? Part of the pouch was damp. I quickly opened the mouth of the pouch and checked the magic potion bottles inside. Damn it! The cork of one of the three magic potions I received from the ‘Confident Night’ clinic was open.

‘That bastard is not human, really!’

I clenched the mouth of the pouch tightly in one hand and approached Prince Tesler. He shrugged with a nonchalant expression and opened his mouth.

“I just wanted to take a look.”

“What on earth are you doing!”

Because the servants were waiting outside the bedroom, I couldn’t raise my voice as much as my anger dictated. Prince Tesler, as if taking advantage of that fact, smiled weakly and replied leisurely.

“I’ve never seen what a magic potion bottle that removes burn scars looks like, so I took it out to take a look, and then…”

“How did you know this… was behind the dressing table drawer?”

I gestured to the dressing table and asked. Then he took something the size of his palm from his chest. It was two silver rods connected to each other. There was a transparent bead at the end of the rod, and liquid sloshed inside.

“If you put the magic potion you want to find and a potion that tracks its location in these two beads, it will find the place where the ingredient is. It acts as a kind of detector.”

Prince Tesler kissed the bead and put the silver detector back into his chest. I would have felt less disgusted if he had frowned at me and threatened me. Seeing him threaten me with a smiling face twisted my insides. A vile and petty bastard. If I had known this would happen, I should have strangled the magician Big at the clinic that day and gotten more magic potions! No, even if I had, that bastard would have found it anyway. The potion I drank in the ‘Confident Night Clinic’ treatment room the day before the national wedding had a slightly larger dose, and the effect was said to last about three weeks. The magic potions I received had a smaller dose, and the effect of each bottle lasted about a week. It was also said that the time when the burn scars reappeared could vary slightly depending on the person. I drank one of the four magic potions I received from the clinic this morning. It was time to take it again, and I felt a high fever in my right burn scar last night, so I needed to drink it. So there were a total of three magic potions left, and that bastard wasted one potion bottle by spilling it in the pouch. Now I only have two magic potions left.

“I don’t know what I did wrong? I thought I was faithfully carrying out my mission.”

I asked in a voice that suppressed my anger as much as possible, but my eyes were already bloodshot.

“You’re doing your role very well…”

Prince Tesler scanned my body up and down and spoke as if admiring, but his expression quickly turned hard.

“But there’s something I’m a little confused about.”

“What are you suspicious of?”

“That position you’re temporarily holding instead of Resilia, I’m wondering if you’re becoming more and more greedy for that position. That’s why you wanted to look good to the Emperor. So the ruthless Emperor started to feel affection for the Empress? That kind of suspicion.”

I don’t know how many times I swallowed curses while listening to Prince Tesler’s words. You’re wrong about something. Linelle Gardion Edpa Emperor. I want to sleep next to that man, I’m happy that that man calls my name and hugs me, I like that look in his eyes so much that he waits for me to laugh while making ridiculous jokes in a serious and deep bass voice… That’s why I’m starting to get greedy for him. Not because I’m greedy for the Empress’s position. You stupid bastard.

“It’s unfair. To tamper with the terms of our deal based solely on suspicion.”

I wanted to laugh back at Prince Tesler in the same way, but I couldn’t even laugh.

“That’s why I left two in case, didn’t I?”

Prince Tesler said that he was too soft-hearted and spouted nonsense that I couldn’t sympathize with at all.

“You can just get more of those potions from the magician Big, can’t you? Take the strength out of your eyes, Empress.”

Yes, I can just get more magic potions from the magician Big. So it was even stranger. If that’s the case, there’s no need to do this, is there? It’s too weak for a warning. I had an ominous feeling that there was something else going on.

“Ah, I also have a word of advice.”

“It’s a plentiful morning. Receiving an unfair warning followed by advice.”

Prince Tesler burst into laughter at my words, then looked at me with a pitiful expression for a moment. His expression was so fake that my hair seemed to stand on end.

“You can’t trust a man’s heart. But there’s something you shouldn’t trust even more than that. What could that be?”

I didn’t ask because it was a question I didn’t want to know. When I tilted my head and just looked at him, the prince spoke again.

“A man’s eyes. These eyes.”

Prince Tesler emphasized by tapping the side of his eyes with his finger.

“What do you mean?”

“If Linelle Emperor sees the Empress’s true appearance, will he still give you a foam kiss with such affectionate eyes?”

“…”

“He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t foam at the mouth in surprise.”

He chuckled. I almost argued that my burn scars weren’t that hideous.

“Originally, you should meet someone who loves your true self. The masquerade party ends when the time comes.”

Prince Tesler’s words were as painful and stinging as flesh being cut by a blade. Without realizing it, I was imagining Linelle’s face being surprised by my burn scars.

“Enjoy the masquerade party as much as you want. But when the party is over, you have to come home.”

The prince spread his arms like wings, as if the place I should return to was his arms.

You’re kidding me.

“Isn’t it supposed to be freedom after the proxy Empress’s mission is over? I’ll decide where to go back to.”

Knock knock-. The moment Prince Tesler scoffed at my words, a knock was heard from outside the bedroom. Surprised by the knock, I exchanged glances with the prince. I gave Prince Tesler a look telling him to hide somewhere quickly. While I was hesitating in confusion for a few seconds… Clang-. The bedroom door opened.