“Episode 25”
“Anyway, you and I were never of the same value from the beginning.”
As Catherine muttered her biting remarks, the atmosphere in the bridal waiting room quickly turned chilly.
“Catherine! Do you think becoming the first concubine makes you the empress?”
Melanie turned and grabbed Catherine’s arm, turning her around as she yelled nervously. Just then, the door to the bridal waiting room opened.
“The ceremony will begin shortly.”
It was the Emperor’s secretary, Raphael, who entered. Raphael, upon relaying the message to the concubines, sensed the tense atmosphere in the bridal waiting room.
“Ladies, please prepare to enter.”
“Understood.”
Catherine replied to Raphael with a relaxed smile.
“Yes, then I’ll be off…”
As Raphael left the bridal waiting room, a few minutes later, the sound of organ music began to fill the temple sanctuary.
“Melanie, can you ease up a bit? You’re making yourself look worse than the empress with that grimace.”
Catherine, still holding Melanie’s hand, brushed it off as if dusting it off, mocking her. Melanie’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out, and her lips trembled slightly. Catherine laughed as if she enjoyed Melanie’s anger.
“Shall we go out now?”
Catherine said to her maidservant. As she started walking towards the door of the bridal waiting room, she glanced back at the concubines.
“From now on, it would be wise for you all to show respect to me as the first concubine. If you don’t want to know how harsh my hand can be.”
Catherine warned the three concubines in turn.
“Hmm, they’re all formidable. I’m worried about Her Majesty the Empress.”
Rosie Adelheid quietly observed the chaotic situation from a corner of the bridal waiting room. She was the concubine who was chosen last, following Catherine, Melanie, and Persilini. Furthermore, like Melanie, she had also been selected as one of the empress’s maids. Rosie was an eccentric maid who enjoyed reading books and studying healing magic alone in her room at Adelheid Manor. However, after seeing the empress’s face for the first time at the emperor’s wedding, she decided to become one of the empress’s maids. Rosie had worked in the preparation room of “Confident Night” clinic, run by the healer Vic, where she made various magical potions in addition to aphrodisiacs. On the eve of the emperor’s wedding, she was still working in the preparation room. There was a small window in the door that connected the preparation room to Vic’s consulting room. Through that window, Rosie saw the empress’s face for the first time. And the burn scar on her right. Rosie was greatly surprised when she saw that burn scar. She had seen a similar picture in a book written in ancient language from the Southern Continent, about a wyvern. Although she didn’t understand the Southern Continent’s ancient language, the picture that looked like a mark intrigued her. Moreover, the energy she felt from the empress was clearly special. While her skills were not yet perfect, Rosie had learned the ability to sense the energy of others while studying healing magic. The empress had an energy that was not felt from ordinary people. So far, Rosie had met only one person in the Rafion Empire who emitted such a strong energy. Emperor Lynel Gideon Edpa. Now there was one more person. And they became a couple. Rosie was both worried about how the two people with different powerful energies would get along and excited. Standing with the maids, Rosie couldn’t take her eyes off the emperor and empress as they ate together. When the two conflicting energies met and mingled, a new energy was created, and the opposite energies swirled around each other as they clashed around the two people. Rosie wanted to get close to Empress Zelda on a human level. But she felt like she had already failed in her first impression as a maid to the empress. She didn’t even receive the empress’s gaze during tea time.
“Given time and trust, maybe she’ll open up to me,” Rosie comforted herself. However, unexpectedly, she heard absurd news from her father, Baron Adelheid.
“Rosie, you’re going to become the Emperor’s concubine now. What an honor for our family! Haha, the years of grumbling about having useless daughters must feel embarrassing now.”
An imperial concubine? Rosie despaired. She thought it was now completely impossible to become close to the empress. No matter how compassionate the empress may be, there would be no empress who would open her heart to the concubines the emperor installed from across the continent. However, she couldn’t refuse her father, Baron Adelheid’s orders. There was a threat to burn all the books her mother, who had been a magician, left behind as inheritance. There were still many magic books that she hadn’t even looked at. And the treasure her mother had asked her to protect before she died was also in the secret room. They were more precious to her life than jewels. Rosie accepted reality and decided to find a way to approach the empress. It would be easier to approach the empress once she became a concubine. Whether the empress would like her or not was uncertain. In such circumstances, Rosie was thinking differently from Catherine and Melanie, who were competing and raising their voices.
“I wonder what Empress Zelda is doing now. She must be feeling uneasy.”
Rosie just took off the elaborate pin her maid had just put in her hair.
“I don’t want to look pretty.”
The ceremony held in the temple sanctuary was splendid, but the procedure was simple. When the bride entered, all four concubines entered together. Emperor Lionel, who was waiting to receive the concubines in front of the sanctuary, greeted them by kissing each of their hands in turn. Lionel and the four concubines all knelt in front of the sanctuary, raised their hands to the temple, and recited words of God’s blessings before standing up. The grand sound of the organ echoed again in the temple sanctuary. The key attendants at the ceremony and attendees from various noble families applauded. Lionel felt much more uncomfortable with the ceremony with the concubines than the strategic marriage he had faced with the empress, whom he had not even seen before. Although both marriages were made for political reasons, the marriage with the Kingdom of Shattoin was entirely in accordance with Lionel’s will, so he didn’t feel as awkward. While exchanging kisses with the concubines one by one, he only thought of one person.
“Zelda, what is she doing now?”
The tedious ceremony finally came to an end. Before returning to the palace, Lionel rested in the waiting room of the temple sanctuary for a while. As soon as he entered the waiting room, he took off his formal jacket and threw it away. Unbuttoning his formal shirt, he lay on the sofa. Then, he raised one arm to his forehead and closed his eyes. Closing his eyes, Zelda’s face naturally appeared. She tasted the pie he gave her ten days ago, opening her rabbit-like eyes and poking her thumb. She was cute. No, she was lovely.
My expression, which had involuntarily been frowning, relaxed and my mouth turned up at the corners.
“You seem to be in a good mood? I only started to feel relieved after the ceremony ended,” Lionel said, opening his eyes to a familiar yet uncomfortable voice. Catherine was standing in front of the waiting room door, smiling brightly.
“What’s the matter?” Lionel asked again, annoyed by the familiar tone used to address his newly-wed concubine.
“I heard that according to the concubine hierarchy, tonight the most senior concubine should enter my bedroom first.”
Catherine felt a pang of wounded pride at the Emperor’s indifferent attitude, but she didn’t show it.
“Raphael informed me before the ceremony.”
“I see. I’m not sure if Your Majesty remembers, but the first time we met when we were both ten years old was in the bedroom.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. At that time, you came to the hunting grounds near our Marquisate with the late Emperor and stayed overnight at the Marquis’s castle.”
“I remember something like that.”
“Back then, when you came to my room to play, you were just a young boy, but tonight, as you’ll meet me in the bedroom…,” Catherine’s voice trailed off suggestively.
His grown-up gaze looked sexy yet dangerous like a hungry beast. Catherine looked directly at his well-defined upper body muscles through the unbuttoned shirt. Lionel briefly glanced down at his exposed body that Catherine was blatantly staring at, then looked back at her. His gaze seemed to say, “How dare you stare at me like that?” Catherine shyly averted her gaze.
“If you’ve had enough fun, you can leave now.”
“You’ve changed a lot. You weren’t so beast-like when we were engaged, were you?”
“Perhaps my patience has become as lacking as a beast.”
He said with a growl, approaching Catherine. As he approached, Catherine slowly lowered the shoulder line of her wedding dress. She felt like melting away as he came closer to her. Although they were in the waiting room, she wouldn’t be able to refuse him if he tempted her now.
“Show it here. Your impatient, beast-like…appearance.”
“I came unarmed.”
After snorting, Lionel picked up the jacket he had thrown on the floor.
“…What? No, that’s not what I meant…”
“I said leave. It’s not fun.”
He lifted the shoulder of Catherine’s lowered wedding dress and straightened her back.
“I wonder if the concubines have gone to their quarters by now?”
I checked the time and stood outside on the terrace, feeling the cool night breeze. Fortunately, there was no order for the empress to attend the ceremony today. I don’t know how I spent the afternoon. I barely ate dinner and returned to the bedroom early, spending time in the bath with water. Still, time passed slowly. I kept walking back and forth between the terrace and the bedroom, but it wasn’t time to sleep yet. Then, Sharon’s voice came from outside the bedroom door.
– “Are you speaking now? Ah, yes. It’s not time for you to sleep yet. Please wait a moment. I will inform Her Majesty the Empress.”
Who could be visiting tonight? Perhaps… A strange sense of anticipation arose. The sound of talking stopped, and then I heard a knock immediately. When I ordered her to come in, Sharon opened the bedroom door.
“Your Majesty, Empress…”
“Who…is it?”
