I pleaded with him with a face asking for sympathy, my hands clasped together.

“It seems today is a busy day for your legs?”

Rinel’s lips curled into a smile as he touched his lips.

“Ah! Too much!”

As if he was getting revenge on me, he deliberately poked my tingling leg with his hand.

Once again, my foot nearly flew towards his face.

One minute later, the tingling sensation in my leg completely disappeared.

The laughter and chatter between us also disappeared.

‘Try to tempt me now.’

Rinel’s eyes seemed to be urging me to do so.

“So… why did you come to my bedroom?”

Our conversation returned to where it started.

All of Rinel’s features were focused on my lips.

His eyes were so filled with expectation that I couldn’t lie.

“I wanted to see you.”

Of all the numerous excuses I had prepared in my mind on the way to the palace, the most plain answer jumped out.

“Is that all?

A disappointed look crossed Rinel’s face.

“I don’t think so.”

When I answered playfully, his eyes softened again.

He was quite enjoying this situation.

He didn’t look like someone who had just been ‘mouth smacked’ by his wife with a foot.

I regretted again, looking at his lips curling up beautifully.

What on earth had I done to those beautiful lips!

I felt even more sorry all of a sudden.

“I’ve been uncomfortable all along since you left my bedroom last night.”

“So, is that all?”

He asked in a disappointed tone, as if my answer was not sufficient, but he looked much happier than before.

“You’ve come to see me at the palace in the middle of the night because you’re uncomfortable? Wouldn’t my bedroom be more uncomfortable?”

“I missed you the most.”

“Hoo……”

Rinel let out a long sigh, glanced at me, and immediately followed up.

“I finally heard it.”

He said quietly, looking relieved.

“I’ve seen your face now.”

He lifted my chin slightly and scrutinized my face with a thoughtful expression.

“How should I treat you, who have come to my bedroom? I…”

It seemed not a question to me, but a question he asked himself.

“What do you want to do?”

I also tilted my head and asked in a whisper.

“Would you be surprised if I said it?”

Melanie finished her bath and got up after doing a full makeup in front of the vanity.

“Oh, right.”

Melanie turned her body round and round back to the vanity as if she had forgotten something, and sprayed perfume all over her body while humming a song.

She practically poured the perfume on herself.

The scent was too overpoweringly strong, and the attendant next to her slightly turned her head and surreptitiously wrinkled her nose.

“I wonder what time His Majesty will come to my place?”

Melanie looked at her lascivious slip dress in the mirror and said with satisfied eyes.

“Hasn’t the child who went to see the situation in the palace come back yet?”

Melanie, who had been looking at herself in the mirror for a while, asked the attendant behind her through the mirror.

“He should be back by now, Mama.”

“Is that so? Ha, if I had been the first concubine like Catherine, I would have spent the first night among the concubines! Huh, if that had been the case, the world would have changed by now. Well, there’s nothing we can do. Just need to give birth to the prince first.”

Melanie walked towards the bed with a confident demeanor.

Then another attendant who had gone to see the situation in the palace entered the bedroom with a troubled expression.

“Mama, I have returned……”

“His Majesty? Is he coming this way now?”

Melanie swept all her long hair to one shoulder and asked with an excited voice.

“Well, that’s……”

The attendant who had gone to the palace had a very dark complexion.

“What, don’t tell me he’s gone to Catherine again today?”

Melanie had assumed that Emperor Rinel naturally spent the night with Catherine last night.

So when her attendant hesitated, she had a bad feeling that maybe he had gone to Catherine’s palace again today.

They were former betrothed, so it was entirely possible.

“Why aren’t you speaking? I’m asking if that wicked wench Catherine has intercepted His Majesty in the middle!”

Melanie roared at the servant.

“No, His Majesty didn’t go to Madam Catherine…”

“You don’t mean to tell me he went to that bookworm Rosie, skipping over me?”

Melanie shook the servant’s shoulder violently with a more irritated voice than before.

“He didn’t go to Madam Rosie either!”

At the servant’s answer, Melanie stepped back, blinked with a flustered expression.

“Oh, did he go to Pescilini then?”

“No, Madam.”

“Why the hell… hasn’t he arrived at my place yet?”

“CuCurrently, Her Majesty the Empress is in the main palace bedroom!”

“Who?!”

Melanie wore a dumbfounded expression at the fact that the person who interfered with her first night was not Catherine but the Empress.

“That can’t be, you must be mistaken!”

Melanie, who was yelling at the servant, stumbled over the hem of her long slip and flailed her arms.

“Be careful, Madam!”

The servant next to her quickly caught Melanie’s arm and helped her stand, she pushed the servant holding her aside with an irritated face.

“Get out of my way!”

Melanie paced frantically around the room, starting to tear her long hair with both hands.

“Are you sure the Empress is in His Majesty’s bedroom?”

“Yes, Madam…”

“Aaargh!”

At the frustrated scream of Melanie, the servants huddled together, their heads bowed, trembling.

“Was the Empress a fox? Despite being from the Kingdom of Shat’Onil?”

Having a headache from the cunning first concubine Catherine alone, even the Empress she thought insignificant was blocking her path.

“Did I underestimate her too much?”

Melanie began to roll her hair tightly between her ten fingers.

“If His Majesty does not come to my place tonight, how much would that giant Catherine ridicule me?”

As it is, Catherine has risen to the first concubine position alone and her pride is soaring.

“In this situation, having my first night stolen by a foreign born Empress.”

For Melanie, it was truly a blow to her pride.

“Could it be a trick of that wench Catherine?”

Yes, something definitely went wrong in the middle.

Melanie had suspicions that Catherine might have interfered somehow.

“It could be. That wicked woman lied to His Majesty that I’m sick, or she used the Empress to prevent His Majesty from coming to my place tonight.”

Melanie was almost accepting her speculation as fact.

It didn’t seem likely that the Empress, who didn’t even stop the first night of Catherine, who was the first concubine and the Emperor’s official wife, would suddenly block her own first night as the second concubine.

“It’s definitely Catherine’s doing. She’s that kind of woman.”

Melanie gritted her teeth.

The servants all pressed their backs against the wall at Melanie’s angry appearance.

They held their breath in fear, not knowing when the sparks would fly their way.

“Do you think I’ll just let it slide?”

Melanie’s eyes flashed menacingly.

Biting her fingernails, she paced restlessly in her bedroom.

“What should I do? What should I do?”

She had to quickly think of a way to make the Emperor come to her place tonight.