Surely Melanie herself must have said it unconsciously.

However, Rinel coldly asked her.

“My, ‘this’? Are you referring to the Empress just now?”

“I, I don’t quite remember what I said… Ow, ow, my head.”

Melanie clutched her head with both hands, pretending to have a headache.

I gave a generous smile to her as she looked at me nervously, not knowing what to do, and said to him.

“Your Majesty, how could she possibly have referred to the Empress as ‘that’? You must have misheard.”

When I called Melanie ‘that’ while speaking, he twitched one cheek.

“Right, that must be it.”

Rinel even apologized to her, saying he must have misunderstood, as a concubine wouldn’t dare speak that way about the Empress.

Melanie nodded her head frantically with a dazed look in her eyes at his smile, then turned her gaze back to me.

“But what brings Your Majesty the Empress to my chambers?”

“Ah, I…”

As I trailed off, Rinel answered her on my behalf.

“The Empress was with me, and when she heard a concubine had fallen down the stairs, she was worried and came along. Truly a compassionate woman.”

When did I…?

I glanced at him sideways, questioning with my eyes.

I was a bit worried, true, but I had no desire whatsoever to come to a concubine’s chambers.

Melanie stared at me blankly.

Her eyes seemed to ask, ‘What’s with the unsolicited concern?’

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

Rinel asked as he pulled our clasped hands towards his chest and took a step closer to her.

Melanie stared intently at our joined hands with an unfriendly gaze.

But perhaps because of her closeness to him, Melanie’s face suddenly became animated.

“Yes, I tumbled down and down! It hurt so much! I even cried! Hiing.”

“So your body hurts all over? I heard you were at death’s door.”

“I was! I was at death’s door until just a moment ago when I woke up!”

“Fortunate that your journey was short.”

“…Pardon?”

“I mean you seem fine.”

He replied indifferently.

Whether Melanie was really in pain or not, I couldn’t tell, but he was treating her with quite a bored expression in front of someone claiming to be hurt.

“No, Your Majesty. I’m not fine at all! I thought my leg was broken, you know? Take a look!”

She spoke very shyly, then boldly threw off the blanket covering her body.

“Ta-da! It’s terribly swollen. Hiing.”

…What is this?

Contrary to her words, Melanie’s thin ankle, which looked like it could break from a single slap, showed no signs of swelling whatsoever.

She clearly meant to show him her ankle, but the slip she was wearing had risen halfway up her thighs.

Does she not care that I’m standing next to Rinel?

Ah, it must be the opposite.

She must be deliberately flaunting her crane-like legs to put me down.

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

He glanced down at Melanie’s wrist-like thin ankle and asked accusingly.

“What? What do you mean by that, Your Majesty?”

“Melanie, how long has it been since you last walked on both feet?”

“Until Your Majesty arrived…”

“Until I arrived? Did you wander around death’s door while walking?”

“Th-that’s not it… It’s just that my ankles are so thin they look fine!”

Melanie rolled her eyes with an ‘oops’ expression, then waved her hands and made excuses.

“Is that so? Well, anyway. You fell while coming out to greet me?”

“Yes, isn’t today the day you visit my chambers? So, I was waiting in the bedroom, but in my excitement I tried to go out to the palace gates to wait, and then…”

“You fell.”

“Hiing, isn’t it foolish?”

“It is.”

“…”

Oh, please. I wanted to be excluded from this conversation.

To respond with a straight face “It is” to someone who asks “Isn’t it foolish?” while smiling.

I bit my lower lip hard to keep from laughing.

But even the attendants watching this scene behind me kept clearing their throats and making sounds of suppressed laughter, making it increasingly difficult to maintain a blank expression.

I mustn’t laugh.

Sad thoughts, painful thoughts!

Gloomy thoughts, bad thoughts!

“Hiing, but you came to check on this fool because you were worried, right? Right, Your Majesty?”

“Khuhuph.”

In the end, all the sad thoughts I had been conjuring up were defeated by that fool’s single sentence.

Fortunately, just before laughter burst out, I quickly muffled the sound and bowed my head deeply.

So depending on who was listening, they might think the opposite:

“The fool isn’t crying, so why is the Empress about to cry? Really, to be so delicate…”

Rinel gently patted my back.

Ironically, while the person who had fallen down the stairs waiting for him was right in front of us, I, who had walked in on two feet, ended up being comforted by him.

“Is the Empress so pitiful of Melanie?”

He could have just changed the subject, but Rinel deliberately spoke to me, triggering my laughter.

“Thinking about how Melanie’s fragile ankle khuph, tumbled down those rough stairs while coming to meet Your Majesty, krk, I couldn’t help but…”

Burst out laughing, you mean?

If I finished the sentence, I would have had to disguise the laughter I was holding back as a sobbing performance, so I quickly cut myself off.

“…I’m at a loss for words, knowing that Her Majesty the Empress is so concerned. It’s all due to my shortcomings.”

Melanie tilted her head to the side, trying to see if I was really sobbing, and continued speaking.

“Like a fool, I got tired waiting for Your Majesty and this disaster happened.”

It seemed like she was saying it for me to hear.

That it was because of me that she fell down the stairs.

That if I hadn’t suddenly appeared in the main palace, she wouldn’t have fallen down the stairs waiting for His Majesty.

She seemed to think this whole incident occurred because I suddenly showed up at the main palace.

“Why were you waiting for me like a fool?”

Rinel asked Melanie in a rather gentle tone, but there was clearly a barb in his words.

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

What is she saying now?

“Well, the stairs are fools too. They don’t turn like someone.”

Rinel was speaking too obviously about her lack of intelligence.

‘Stop it, she’ll understand.’

I gave him a warning look.

‘Want to bet? Whether she understands?’

He asked with a chin gesture.

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

Melanie asked in shock.

We both stared at her intently.

She had completely failed to notice that Rinel was mocking her intelligence and made an absurd remark.

He glanced at me with a smug look that seemed to say, ‘See?’

“You shouldn’t have any trouble walking, right?”

At Rinel’s question, her expression returned to that of a critically ill patient.

“There’s no major problem, but I think I’ll need someone to support me…”

Melanie raised her arms in front of her and pitifully shook her shoulders and hands towards him.

Wow, how does one do that?

Her hands and shoulders fluttered like thin sheets of paper.

It doesn’t seem like she’s asking to have her arms pulled off, so is she asking Rinel to help her up now?

Is this the kind of aegyo women use to appeal to their frailty?

Rinel stared blankly at her hands for a moment, then spoke instead of taking them.

“Have you already become a ghost?”

Come to think of it, Melanie with her raised hands and swaying motions did look a bit like a ghost.

At his remark, her expression, which had looked like that of a critically ill patient, turned truly ghost-like and frightening.

“Your Majesty! A ghost? How can there be such a pretty ghost?”

Melanie’s lower lip protruded forward like a drawbridge coming down.

“Hiing!”

Hiing?

There she goes again.

I had been wondering if she was possessed by a horse or something, with all her “hiing, hiing” sounds since earlier.

The way she shook her head from side to side also looked just like a horse tossing its mane.

Though her excessive aegyo was making my arms break out in goosebumps, I tried my best to manage my expression and not furrow my brows.

“I heard the royal physician came by?”

Rinel pointed at Melanie and asked her attendant.

“Yes, Your Majesty! The royal physician examined the madam and left just before Your Majesty arrived.”

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

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

“My head? Is my hair messy? I combed it well before lying down…”

Melanie quickly smoothed her long hair over one shoulder with both hands and looked up at him at his words.

Contrary to my first impression, looking at her now, Melanie seemed to be the owner of a very pure soul.

“Then this must be her original state… Remarkable.”

Rinel put a hand to his forehead, sighed deeply, and muttered.

I wanted to run out of Melanie’s chambers right now to somewhere no one was around and have a good laugh out loud.

I silently prayed that at least one of the two people who kept triggering my laughter would restrain themselves.

“Have the royal physician examine you again tomorrow.”

He said with genuine concern.

“Your Majesty is so worried about me, I feel like I could fall down the stairs once more!”

She cried out with eyes full of emotion.

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

“Keuph.”

I bowed my head again at Rinel’s words.

A strange sound that was neither laughter nor crying escaped my mouth.

I’m really going to die.

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

He put his hand on my shoulder and shook it gently, pretending to wake me up as he spoke.

“But you should lie down to sleep, Empress.”

“!”

Please stop!

I gently pushed his waist with my elbow.

“If you’re tired, Your Majesty the Empress should return to the palace first. I’m really fine now.”

Melanie, seeing her chance, pretended to be considerate while trying to send me out of her bedroom.

“Empress, since Melanie says she’s fine now, it might be best if we head back.”

Rinel also agreed with her words.

“We should, as it’s getting late.”

I replied to him while looking at Melanie’s face.

Her gloomy expression instantly became radiant.

“Please return safely, Your Majesty the Empress!”

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

“Yes, as you are His Majesty the Emperor’s concubine, I hope you always take care of yourself. Your Majesty, then I shall return to the Empress’s palace first.”

I left a queenly farewell to the two of them and turned around.

“It’s quite dark, and the night road is scary, so let’s go together.”

Rinel grabbed my hand.

“I’m not scared.”

“I am.”

“Pardon?”

“Me, I mean. I’m scared of the night road.”

Let go of this hand!

I had a silent tug-of-war with him.

Rinel let go of my hand, but this time he grabbed my forearm.

Unfortunately, he also grabbed the robe draped over my shoulder, causing the robe to slip down on one side.

It happened to be the side where he had torn off the entire sleeve.

“Oh my? Your Majesty the Empress’s dress?!”

As expected, Melanie was shocked to see my bare right shoulder.

As I looked at her, my eyes also met Rinel’s.

When I glared at him, he pretended to be nonchalant and turned his gaze away.

“Your Majesty the Empress, how did your dress end up in such a state?”

Melanie asked with a furrowed brow.

“Ah, this dress…”

‘His Majesty the Emperor, whom you’ve been waiting for with bated breath, tore it off.’

As I was briefly considering telling her the truth,

“This style is, I believe, a design trending in the Empress’s home country of Chatonil Kingdom?”

He shamelessly caressed my bare right shoulder as he spoke.

“!”

What are you saying?

Who would believe such a statement?

Even when making excuses, he made such an implausible one.

I couldn’t help but let out a snicker.

“Really? How unique! It looks like a rather strange design to me.”

…Ah, there she was. A fool who believed his words.

Surprisingly, Melanie seemed to believe his nonsensical words, perhaps because they came from the Emperor.

“Why? To my eyes, it looks original and beautiful.”

He gazed at me with deep eyes as he dismissed Melanie’s opinion.

Her eyes changed at that.

She stared intently at my dress with one sleeve missing, as if examining it.

I quickly draped the robe back over my bare right shoulder.

Meanwhile, Rinel bid farewell to Melanie.

“You must have been quite startled, so rest well now. We’ll be going.”

His tone and gaze were almost commanding.

It sounded like a threat that if she didn’t rest well now, something would happen later that would make her unable to rest even if she wanted to.

But Melanie was unlikely to grasp his nuance.

“Your Majesty! Are you really leaving after coming all this way?”

“Well, if it’s too boring to just leave, maybe I’ll tumble down some stairs on my way out too.”

Melanie almost jumped out of bed in that moment.

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

She cried out, stretching one hand towards Rinel.