The Stand-In Empress's Wedding Night - Chapter 23

“I… I am……”

“Ha, hahaha! ‘I am your wife.’ Is that phrase so awkward that you’re hesitating?”

He spoke in a disappointed tone.

Ah, how surprising.

“You suddenly asked who I am, what my identity is, so of course it’s like that.”

“Couldn’t you have just said it as it is? No. Maybe I asked too forcefully.”

Fortunately, he found the reason for my hesitation in his sudden question.

“But why did you suddenly ask such a question?”

“Watching you order the servants about things I need made me feel strange.”

“Did I perhaps give wrong instructions?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Ah, there was one wrong instruction.”

“Which one?”

“Wine. A glass of wine would have been better than warm lemon tea?”

“Ah, I’ll go tell them again.”

As I turned my body towards the bedroom door, he grabbed my wrist.

“In the Raphion Imperial Palace, one person bothering the servants is enough. It’s fine, just lie down.”

I smiled slightly at his words and climbed onto the bed as he wanted.

Inside the blanket, coldness flowed as if entering an ice cave.

It’s cool.

“Indeed, it’s getting warm. I wonder if it would warm up faster if I held you in my arms?”

Feeling the opposite of me, he stroked my hair.

“Come here.”

He pushed one arm under my neck and spoke while roughly patting his chest.

I brought my face close to his chest.

My shoulders hunched up as my heart pounded.

“You were chattering away earlier, why so quiet now?”

“Chattering?”

For a moment, I lifted my head and asked, irritated by his words again.

“No, was it chirping?”

“It was probably twittering?”

When I replied indifferently, he laughed.

“Huh, you only respond when provoked like this.”

I’ve been tricked.

Seeing his pleased expression, I couldn’t help but smile too.

Then my smile faded at his somewhat strange gaze.

As if filled with affection…

It must be my imagination. I hope it’s my imagination.

That way it will be less difficult when I leave him.

“Do you find teasing me fun?”

“Very much so. When you show such a sulky response, I feel more satisfied than winning a war.”

As I looked at him with an exasperated expression, he laughed, shrugging his shoulders.

His chest muscles also moved along with it.

“Now that I’ve found something more fun than war, maybe wars will decrease from now on. Zelda, as long as you’re by my side.”

My heart stung at Rinel’s words.

Even though I knew it was just a joke, my heart occasionally pricked my conscience.

“If I disappear then…”

“I’ll have to live as a war maniac again, what else can I do? I’ll have to raise the heat in my body that way.”

He answered seriously to my words that weren’t even a proper question.

Is he sincere? Maybe he is.

But soon he will welcome four beautiful concubines.

Moreover, when he sees the dazzlingly beautiful Princess Resilia, he will inevitably fall in love.

There will be many things to raise his temperature in his life besides me in the future.

Then naturally, his interest in me will fade.

“Don’t distance yourself from me.”

“……”

Rinel spoke quietly to me in a warning tone, as if he had just entered my thoughts.

I carefully raised my head to look up at his handsome face.

Unlike his solemn voice earlier, he smiled brightly when our eyes met.

Has there ever been someone in my life who smiled at me so radiantly first?

Even Prince Tessler, who babbled about cherishing me the most, never smiled without any ulterior motive.

Why does this man…

“If you want peace on the continent, it would be better not to leave my side.”

He spoke again with a serious expression, putting strength in his voice.

“But won’t I be away a lot because of the concubines? That’s not my fault, so please don’t associate it with war later.”

Such a retort was possible because he was closing his eyes, smiling, and wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

“Ah, I forgot. As you say, there will come days when we’re apart because of them.”

He replied in a voice that was starting to drift off to sleep.

“Don’t fight with the concubines.”

Rinel spoke as if giving an order.

Although he seemed to have already fallen asleep, there was a will to convey that message accurately.

I felt slightly hurt by his commanding tone.

I guess he means not to treat the concubines carelessly because they’re the Emperor’s women?

I just nodded my head while in his arms, keeping my mouth shut tight.

“You are the Empress, and my wife. You’re different from them…”

“…Yes.”

I answered softly.

A smile formed involuntarily.

“It’s warm, so I’m getting sleepy. Zelda, you’re not glaring at me now, are you?”

Rinel asked me with his eyes closed.

“No, I’m not.”

“Good. Originally, what’s mine doesn’t need to fight with others… So the Empress shouldn’t…”

Rinel’s words trailed off, and his hand that was wrapped around my shoulder fell onto the pillow.

Only then did I look at his sleeping face comfortably.

You’re not even holding my hand today?

…Don’t tell me I’m feeling disappointed right now?

I shook my head and timidly hugged his waist with both hands.

So that he could sleep more warmly.

That was all.

Really.

[This is the timeline separator]

It’s morning.

My eyes opened to the feeling of someone touching my hair.

Rinel was already awake before me.

But unlike usual when he woke up alone, today he was beside me.

He replaced a morning greeting with a smile.

Somehow I felt a bit embarrassed thinking about him staring intently at my face from such a close distance.

I wriggled my head and hips, trying to create some distance from him.

Then a groan escaped from his mouth.

“Hnnng, now I can live.”

“…Pardon?”

“Zelda, I thought I was going to die from my arm falling asleep.”

Rinel slowly folded his arm that had been stretched out on the pillow, frowning.

“Are, are you alright?”

I asked, gently placing both my hands on his sturdy forearm like a cat raising its front paws.

“Ow ow ow…? Don’t touch it.”

He flinched, shrugging his shoulders in disgust.

It was amusing to see someone who could easily cut off others’ arms, legs, and even necks on the battlefield making such a fuss over a mere numb arm.

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?”

“You think I didn’t try?”

“No way, did I keep sleeping even when you tried to wake me?”

“I thought you might be dead. You wouldn’t wake up no matter what I said.”

“You should have shaken me awake.”

“You think I only tried shaking? Check your arm. There should be a few blue bruises.”

Even though I knew Rinel was joking, I found myself unconsciously examining my forearms.

My skin was only paler from soaking in the bathtub for a long time last night, with no trace of him pinching me anywhere.

He carefully said “Hey” as if starting a conversation.

“I slept really warmly and deeply, how about you?”

“I also slept coolly and deeply.”

“Just wait. In midsummer, you’ll be begging that you can’t sleep alone without me.”

He spoke as if proud of his hypothermia curse in summer.

“I look forward to it.”

“Oh, and I told them to bring breakfast here. Is that okay?”

“To the bedroom?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Sharon or the head servant Stian must have entered the bedroom while I was asleep.

I felt slightly embarrassed that I had been sleeping so deeply that I didn’t notice someone entering the bedroom.

And I would have been sleeping in Rinel’s arms, too.

I slowly got up.

When I tried to drink water, I saw that the water glass was placed on the bedside table on Rinel’s side.

“Where are you going?”

He asked in a regretful tone, watching me leave the bed.

“I’m going to drink some water.”

As I walked around the bedpost towards where he was lying, he chuckled.

“You could have just asked me for it.”

“It’s okay. I need to change clothes anyway.”

I replied to him, naturally lowering my gaze to the marble floor.

Instantly, my smiling face froze.

I couldn’t move, just a few steps away from the bedside table with the water glass.

Rinel looked at my stiffened form.

Then he put both arms behind his head and opened his mouth, glancing down at the floor.

“Ah, while sleeping, it felt really stuffy, like something was pressing on both my legs.”

The towel he had wrapped around his waist yesterday was sprawled on the marble floor.

His sleepwear from the main palace had arrived only after Rinel fell asleep, so I had deliberately let him sleep without waking him.

“Then, right now…”

I couldn’t finish my sentence and pointed at the blanket he was covered with.

“What, want me to lift the blanket?”

Rinel casually lifted the blanket he was covered with slightly.

After peeking inside the blanket himself, he continued speaking in an utterly nonchalant voice.

“It’s a bit inconvenient right now.”

“…Are you perhaps.”

“That’s right, I’m naked.”

“Since when have you been naked?”

“Since someone hugged me too tightly in their sleep?”

I had no idea.

I didn’t even notice.

The fact that he was naked.

It’s a bit unfair…

No, no. What am I thinking right now?

I quickly shook my head to shake off the strange imagination.

Rinel stared at me with a strange look, then said:

“Don’t worry.”

“About… what?”

“I won’t eat breakfast in this state.”

“!”

He stretched out his long arm and handed me the water glass on the bedside table.

“Here, drink. This is why you came all this way, right?”

I took the water glass he handed me with a grin and gulped it down in one go.

I’m not sure if I drank it in one shot because I was thirsty, or if I drank it all at once because I felt I would get thirsty if I didn’t.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Finally entering the Imperial Palace.”

Catherine Calios stood in front of the large full-length mirror in her room.

It was the day to try on the wedding dress she would wear for her upcoming marriage to the Emperor.

Although it was annoying to have the ceremony together with the other concubines, Catherine didn’t mind much.

What mattered was that she would become Rinel’s woman again.

“Right, it doesn’t matter.”

After all, the three concubines were just her bridesmaids.

Traditionally, concubines wear cream-colored dresses at the Raphion Imperial wedding ceremony. Only the Empress can wear a pure white wedding dress.

But Catherine didn’t care about that either.

“As long as I’m more beautiful, that’s all that matters.”

Catherine wore a confident expression as she thought of the cream-colored wedding dress she had commissioned from the top designer in the Raphion Empire.

Among this batch of concubines, only Catherine would be elevated to the position of First Concubine.

Originally, the position of First Concubine was reserved for concubines who bore princes, but since the previous emperor, it became a position that could be attained through the emperor’s favor or political reasons.

Catherine was able to become First Concubine thanks to the power of her father, Duke Ett Calios.

It was also a benefit that arose because Emperor Rinel had taken a woman from another country, not from Raphion, as his empress.

Catherine herself didn’t think she had received any benefits at all.

On the day of Emperor Rinel’s wedding, when she saw Zelda from the Shattonil Kingdom, her desire for the position of Empress grew even stronger.

‘That insignificant woman became the Empress?’

Catherine was convinced that day, upon seeing Zelda, that she could easily seduce Rinel just by becoming a concubine, without much effort.

He would fall for her seductive gestures alone.

“The Empress position was originally mine.”

So I must reclaim it.

Catherine resolved.

The designer brought the dress she would wear for the ceremony.

She put on the corset with the help of her maids before trying on the wedding dress.

“The waist needs to be more slender! Do you understand? You stupid things!”

At her irritated command, three maids clung to her and began tightening the corset.

Catherine gritted her teeth and grabbed the bedpost while shouting at her maids.

“Tighter, I said! More, more, more!”