IBTLW Chapter 3
Because of the many bad deeds Leah had already done, Lauren seemed to doubt what she was saying.
“No, that’s fine. You just have to say it. Sir, do you know where your fault is? Whether or not I told you to bring a minor, you shouldn’t do things against the law just to make me look good. Right?”
She decided that if she stumbled onto Leah’s mess again, she would put some sense into it.
“Y-yes!”
The knight was terrified by her respectful words, which was unlike Leah, and with the head maid’s urgent attitude.
“Yes, if you did something wrong, you should be punished.”
Lauren immediately objected, thinking she was going to say, “Cut his neck!”
“No execution. The ministers will rise like bees and attack the Empress’s Palace!”
Oh, my. I won’t kill you. I’m not going to kill you though my rationality will scare you!
“Your Majesty the Empress, save me—”
“Take off your clothes.”
She cut him off and put on a proud expression.
She was a sensible empress, threatening him with her title instead of his life.
“Ah.”
“Save me—ah.”
Indeed, Lauren and the knight were immediately relieved.
She folded her arms and nodded. They begged for their lives to be spared instead of just asking for forgiveness. Unfortunately for them, Leah was no longer a scumbag but an empress who was sensible.
However, she spoke too soon.
“What, what, what are you doing?”
“I will heed your order, Your Majesty. Had you told me earlier, I would have escorted you to the bedroom.”
Soon after, Lauren left and returned to the head maid’s office, rolling her eyes.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty. I didn’t know about this and came wearing old underwear…”
The knight then began to undress.
He had the attitude of a noble paladin. No matter how much he was bullied in the Empress’s Palace, he did not treat the disgrace as such.
“Hey, what are you doing?!”
When she said, “Take off your clothes,” she meant to drop his title! Couldn’t they think normal?!
“…Your Majesty doesn’t like my underwear too, right? Then I’ll take it all off…”
“Akh!”
Within an hour, a rumor was spread in the palace. The empress was said to be not satisfied with the men in the harem and even ate the imperial knights.
She heard that the maids who admired the knight swallowed their tears and chewed hard on the empress in private.
In the end, Leah’s fame gained one point today. Of course, it was in a bad way.
She swallowed her tears.
It’s really hard to live as an empress…
Usually, outside the imperial palace bedroom, the escort knights stood guard at a distance. This was probably due to the emperor being one of the most skilled swordsmen in the empire.
However, during the day of sharing the bed where the empress was also present, the knight would be relatively close because they did not know what would happen.
In addition, recently, the emperor’s insomnia had worsened, turning more severe.
“In the last two sharing beds, the Empress has been screaming. Because of that, the Emperor became very violent. So, please refrain from screaming this time.”
Lauren finished her long explanation, along with her silent notice that if she screamed again this time, a comfortable night would be washed away by the water forever.
Hearing all the secret stories, she only felt one thing.
The emperor… Was he that kind of person?
*
After the commotion, she barely managed to return to her room. She could not finish cleaning up the harem because of the sudden rumor.
‘All of them put them out at once. If you don’t, I’ll cut you off for exposure!’
‘Yes?! I have a fiancé, please don’t..!’
‘Argh! No!’
Whenever she spoke, people always misunderstood.
She thought this was karma for suddenly overturning the table.
Ah, I’m so tired.
She was desperate for her soft bed.
While sorting out the situation, she was informed by the person looking after the harem that there were still a few men left.
Those who were still sleeping at that time and those who went out for a while.
She had already suffered mentally and visually, so she decided to kick out the rest of the men the next day.
After all, she reduced the number of men from a few dozen to one hand. The goal was already achieved.
“Your Majesty, would you like to sleep until nightfall? I will first prepare an aroma oil massage and a light dinner.”
“I’ll just eat and go to bed.”
She needed healing.
With a groan, she collapsed on the bed, but head maid Lauren looked troubled.
“Uh, so tonight…”
She sat up and tilted her head. She was supposed to ask about the event this evening before it was interrupted.
“What’s going on tonight?”
Leah was a unique person, so she was curious about her evening schedule.
She whined inwardly while Lauren spoke cautiously.
“Her Majesty seems to have forgotten. Tonight is the night you share the bed with His Majesty the Emperor.”
For a moment, a loud noise could be heard on my mind.
Same bed? Did she want to sleep together with the emperor? With the tyrant male lead?
I didn’t read this in the original novel?!
Actually, “As Long As It’s Not Me” was not even a romance novel, so there was no way to describe the events in the bed of the tyrant male lead.
Perhaps there were a few backgrounds and settings omitted from the original novel. She would need to wrap her head around things.
“…I think I have some alcohol dementia. I don’t remember.”
“Pardon?”
Lauren put on a strange expression as if asking what she was talking about.
But she was Leah now. A bad-tempered empress who liked alcohol and men, and did everything she wanted.
She did not know anything. She could not just cry because she forgot!
“Yeah, that sleeping together, when did we do that?”
Married couples usually slept together, but she thought that the emperor and the empress would be different. When first woke up, her bedside was without any warmth, as if she was using it alone.
And her expectations were correct, as Lauren explained with a detached face, looking like a professional.
“The sharing of bed with His Majesty the Emperor happens once a month. It was one of the things Duke Celeste requested from the imperial court—to sleep together at least once a month.”
Duke Celeste. He was Leah’s father. She traced back the memories of Leah.
Cromwell Celeste.
He was the current head of the noble Celeste family, who contributed to the founding of the empire and produced several ministers of diplomacy and negotiations with the Sword Master.
But what kind of nobleman would decide the frequency of sharing the bed of his son-in-law and own daughter?
Is it because it’s an arranged marriage?
She got married by arrangement, but what if she did not sleep with him, not even once a month?
She searched further on Leah’s memories. She had to figure things out before she was pushed into a room with the tyrant emperor. She needed a clue.
Hah.
Nothing came to her mind. Embarrassed, she searched hard for Cromwell Celeste and the arranged marriage, but she still got nothing.
As if it was blank from the beginning.
She had some doubts.
Is it because it didn’t appear in the original novel?
She hoped that she was not left to her own devices. It would be too much; she was just a human!
She let out a cry that could not reach the writer and sighed.
Yeah, what do you want? To the person who shot the 9,999 comments and finished it off.
For some reason, Leah was a bit strange for an empress of the novel. She guessed it was the Author’s arbitrary decision that led to the character’s lack of details.
To put it simply, it was a child who had been put out—a character that had been put out.
In this rough novel, I can only trust myself.
In the end, she ended her memory scavenger hunt, which only had only basic information, and then she looked at Lauren.
“Oh, that was today. Then what should I prepare?”
“Prepare as usual, Your Majesty.”
“I have a bad memory lately because of the hangover. So, what did I usually do?”
Then Lauren gave her a strange look, a suspicious look.
However, as the head maid of the ferociously fickle empress, she quickly calmed down and gave her the answer.
“Your Majesty just needs to calm your mind and body. The Emperor likes quiet things, so as long as Her Majesty doesn’t go against his will, you’ll be fine.”
Lauren began to explain the rules that should be followed unconditionally to avoid trouble.
The emperor was a very sensitive person at night. She must remain silent and never cough or laugh.
Even the maids and knights guarding outside the bedroom watched over their mouths and kept silent.
*
She entered the bedroom with a frown.
This was not her mint bedroom in the Empress’s Palace, but a cozy bedroom in cream tones designed exclusively for married couples.
“If Her Majesty waits, His Majesty the Emperor will arrive soon. Please put your mind at ease.”
She did not want to be alone in this bloody place.
She looked at Lauren desperately, but the professional head maid already closed the door and walked away.
After all, the world where she lived now was cold, and the emperor was the boss. She pouted and sat on the bed.
“But what did the emperor do to make the empress scream?”
Leah’s liver was big, so she thought she would not be scared at all.
If it still made her scream even after hearing that the emperor hated loud noises, then it would seem that the tyrant emperor was not normal.
No, what am I saying! not that!
It was all because of those rumors that ended up misunderstanding people and making a show!
She licked her lips and climbed onto the bed.
There was basic information and life patterns in Leah’s memory that the author put out.
But her memories of her father, Duke Cromwell, and her husband, the tyrant emperor, were blank.
So her response to this dangerous bedtime was…
“I should fall asleep first.”
She quickly occupied one side of the bed, covering herself with a feather duvet.
Since the emperor did not like loud noises, she would sleep first then. There would be no screaming, no tangled noise for nothing!
Should I touch the sleeping person? No matter how much of a tyrant you are.
She had no idea because she could not remember what happened before.
Still, she was able to get an indirect answer from Lauren.
The relationship of the emperor and Leah was like any other arranged marriage. They were not close physically or psychologically.
So she decided to go to sleep first. She was also tired because of what she went through earlier this day.
Let’s go to sleep quickly!
The emperor was coming soon, so she must drain herself to sleep.
One sheep, two sheep…
After about thirty minutes of counting sheep, her body was tired, and her mind was weak.
Good.
It was at the moment when she was about to let go of her faint smile and contentment…
Thud.
Her ears caught the sound of the bedroom door opening and closing. At the same time, heavy footsteps approached the bed.
Bum bum, bum bum.
She got chills down her spine.
She knew instinctively.
It’s the Emperor.
-To be continued
Translator: Byoun
Editor: Kofeibean
