Chapter 43
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Water Park
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"Haa... Do I really have to go out wearing this?"
The first to make her appearance was Empress Yeonhwa.
A red bikini formed a striking contrast against her porcelain-white skin. The scant fabric barely covering her ample bosom swayed precariously with her every movement, while her slender waistline and the curves of her hips were exposed in all their glory. The sheer destructive power born from the mismatch between her noble imperial dignity and the decadent bikini was truly immense.
"Wow, Your Majesty! You look absolutely stunning!"
Snowflower Princess followed, letting out an exclamation of admiration. She was dressed in a yellow underboob bikini that highlighted her smooth legs and her cute yet sexy charm.
Finally, Nangong Soyeon stepped out.
Her entrance was overwhelming.
Toned abs honed by years of training without a hint of excess fat, firm thighs, and skin as white as snow in stark contrast. The black bikini seemed made just for her, like a perfect embodiment of pure innocence fused with wild allure.
Cheonwi lounged obliquely on a sunbed, savoring the sight.
"Kuh... This is paradise on earth. Meanwhile, Emperor Big Brother's flailing around in his VR machine with fake data scraps in his dreams."
He slid his sunglasses down slightly, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.
The real emperor of this reality was right here, while the nominal one thrashed about inside his VR device.
"Come on, why are you all hesitating? The water's nice and warm."
At Cheonwi's urging, the heroines cautiously entered the pool.
Though they initially huddled in embarrassment, once in the water, they began frolicking like children.
"Oh my! The water's so warm!"
"My body's floating! This is amazing!"
Cheonwi tossed them tubes and beach balls.
Beautiful women in bikinis playing with beach balls in the rear garden of the imperial palace—a surreal sense of spacetime distortion washed over him, but with it came an exhilarating thrill of taboo that spiked his dopamine levels.
"Oppa! Let's try that one! Over there!"
Growing accustomed to the water play, Snowflower Princess pointed at the water slide.
"Of course, Princess. Go on up."
Snowflower Princess scampered up the stairs. Moments later, her voice rang out from the top.
"Here I gooo!"
Shwoooosh!
Riding the tube, her body hurtled down with the forceful spray. The rush of speeding through the gaps between the tiled roofs was intoxicating.
"Kyaaah! It's too fast!"
Splash!
She plummeted into the pool, sending up a massive spray. Looking like a drowned rat, her face nonetheless bloomed with a radiant smile.
"Puha! That was fun! So much fun!"
As she swept back her wet hair and ran over, Yeonhwa and Soyeon's eyes wavered.
"M-Me too..."
"Hmph, just to satisfy my curiosity..."
In the end, the empress and sword sovereign cast aside all decorum and joined the slide queue.
The rear garden of the imperial palace echoed endlessly with the women's screams and laughter.
Cheonwi took a sip of the sorghum liquor that mimicked a mojito, placed by his sunbed, and muttered to himself.
"So peaceful."
But the peace didn't last.
The old fogey radar network had detected the commotion in the palace.
"This won't do! What is this outrageous racket?!"
In the distance, at the garden entrance, the prime minister led a horde of conservative ministers charging in, accompanied by escort warriors.
Cheonwi furrowed his brow.
Uninvited guests had crashed the party.
"What?! Practically naked in the sacred rear garden of the palace...!"
"Heavens, is that the empress? My eyes are rotting!"
"What a lamentable state! The dignity of the nation has fallen to the dirt!"
The ministers shrieked and covered their eyes. But their fingers were splayed wide, and their greedy gazes greedily scanned Yeonhwa and Soyeon's bikini-clad bodies.
Yeonhwa yelped in horror and ducked into the water.
"Kyaa! Why are those old geezers here?!"
Soyeon reached for her sword with murderous intent, only to remember she was in a bikini—no sword.
Cheonwi slowly rose from the sunbed. His chiseled upper body gleamed under the sunlight.
"Noisy bunch. Didn't I post a 'No Old Fogeys Allowed' sign at the entrance?"
Draping a towel over his shoulders, Cheonwi strode toward the ministers.
"You bastard Cheonwi! Is this your doing? Forcing the ladies into such indecent attire! We must throw you into the imperial prison at once..."
The prime minister jabbed a finger and bellowed.
Cheonwi stopped right in front of the prime minister's nose, lowering his sunglasses to fix them with a chilling glare.
"Elders."
His voice was low, laced with bone-chilling cold that seeped into their marrow.
"Take good care of your eyes. That filthy ogling of my women was quite the spectacle."
"W-What did you say? Your women? How dare you refer to the empress as..."
"Oops, slipped my tongue. I mean our 'VIP clients,' of course."
Cheonwi smirked and pulled a slim ledger from his back pocket. Its cover bore no title.
"By the way, ministers, instead of coming here to nitpick people's outfits, shouldn't you be keeping tabs on your own households?"
"What nonsense is this?!"
"They say the darkest place is under the lamp. Don't tell me you have no idea where your wives and daughters sneak off to every night, or who they meet."
The prime minister's eyes flickered. The ledger in Cheonwi's hand looked far from ordinary.
Cheonwi flipped through it with a rustle, murmuring.
"Let me see... I got bored and did some digging. Your principal wife, Lady Jo, wife of Prime Minister—five visits just last month to a shady gambling den west of the capital. Blew enough in one night for ten oxen, they say."
"H-Huh?! G-Gambling den?!"
"And she fell head over heels for some young clown there. The silks and jewels she showered on him as 'support' were staggering."
The prime minister's face drained of color. Cheonwi turned to the Minister of Rites beside him.
"Minister of Rites. Do you know your third concubine has been padding her own pockets behind your back? Detailed records here of her siphoning public funds to cover her brother's gambling debts."
"K-Kh-hm! No way that's..."
"Shall I make the ledgers public? Dates, times, embezzled amounts—all meticulously documented. Plaster it on posters everywhere, and your family bliss will make for quite the show."
Cheonwi shook the ledger, and the ministers' faces turned ashen.
They preached moral values above life itself, yet their hypocritical filth had all been snared by Cheonwi's intelligence network.
"Or... would you prefer to quietly withdraw and attend to state affairs?"
Cheonwi's tone turned overtly threatening.
"Choose. Humiliation here and family ruin, or slink away like dead rats."
The prime minister's lips trembled. But Cheonwi held cards too strong to counter. A scandal of his wife's gambling and affair would end his political life.
"T-This time... we'll let it slide! Let's go!"
The prime minister spun on his heel in haste.
"Prime Minister! You're just leaving?!"
"No more chatter—follow me!"
The ministers tucked tail and fled. Gone was their incoming bluster; they scampered off like dogs desperate for a leak, utterly comical.
"Tch, no fun."
Cheonwi pocketed the ledger again and turned back.
The three women in the pool gazed at him with eyes mixed of awe and reverence.
"Oppa... What was that just now?"
Snowflower Princess's eyes sparkled as she asked.
"Adult circumstances, Princess. You're barely an adult yourself, so no need to know yet. Now, with the buzzkills gone, shall we play some more?"
Cheonwi flopped back onto the sunbed.
The sun blazed hot, the water was cool, and before him were bikini beauties.
Imperial authority? Palace decorum?
Screw that. In this moment, Cheonwi ruled the palace.
And so the wild water play continued until the sun dipped low on the horizon.
Magical lamps installed throughout the water park glowed softly as night fell.
With the temperature dropping, the heroines who had been enjoying the water began to feel the chill one by one. Moreover, their unused muscles ached fiercely from the intense activity.
"Aigoo, my back..."
Yeonhwa rose from the sunbed, rubbing her waist.
"We overdid it... My legs are wobbling."
Snowflower Princess looked thoroughly spent. Soyeon appeared fine on the surface, but the way she massaged her shoulders betrayed otherwise.
Cheonwi watched them with a meaningful smile.
"You all pushed too hard. Can you even get up tomorrow morning like this?"
"You take responsibility, Oppa. This was your idea."
Snowflower Princess pouted.
"Of course I will. That's why I've prepared. After water play comes the essential next course."
Cheonwi stood, beckoning them.
"Follow me. I've specially prepared the finest 'aroma oil'."
"O, Oil...?"
Yeonhwa's eyes widened.
"Nothing beats oil massages for loosening tight muscles. I don't have a certification... but I've got the technique dubbed the hands of god."
Cheonwi wiggled his fingers suggestively. The blatant gesture flushed the three women's faces simultaneously.
But they couldn't refuse.
They instinctively knew the pleasure his touch brought. And their bodies, exhausted from the all-night water play, desperately craved warm hands.
"Massage... It will just be a massage, right?"
Yeonhwa eyed him suspiciously, but her feet were already following Cheonwi.
"Who knows. Depends on the attitude of the recipient, doesn't it?"
Cheonwi winked and led the way.
The 'VIP Exclusive Massage Room' in a detached palace annex.
Soft golden lighting enveloped the interior, exotic aroma candles flickering to create a dreamy atmosphere. The air was thick with mingled scents of lavender and ylang-ylang, a sweetness that dizzied the mind just from inhaling.
In the center stood large massage beds crafted from premium silk and goose down, lined up in a row. Upon them lay the empire's premier beauties, prone.
Empress Yeonhwa.
Snowflower Princess of the Frost Palace.
Sword Sovereign Nangong Soyeon.
The afterglow of water play lingered; they still wore their daring bikinis. Damp hair cascaded over shoulders, colorful bikini strings precariously accentuating white backs and hips.
A scene worthy of the term 'wine pools and meat forests'.
This was a forbidden realm accessible only to Cheonwi, a pleasure sanctuary he had meticulously designed.
Creak.
Cheonwi entered, oil bottles in both hands. His rolled-up sleeves revealed sinewy forearms.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, VIP clients."