Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 108

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 108
Edwin changed into servant’s clothes only after a great deal of hesitation.
Longing was not something that could be overcome by willpower alone.
‘Just a glimpse of her face. That’s all.’
But by the time he had steeled his resolve, most of the thirty minutes Kyle had allotted him had already slipped away in deliberation.
Once Edwin checked the time, he was already running.
He couldn’t bear the thought of Lina passing by without seeing him.
Fortunately, by the time Edwin reached the entrance to the imperial palace, Lina was there, clutching a folder and glancing about nervously.
Edwin cast a quick look at the guards posted at the gate, then approached Lina slowly.
“Lina.”
The perception-disrupting artifact Edwin carried did not muffle sound.
So when Edwin called out to her, his voice was barely loud enough to reach the ears of the person standing directly before him.
The palace guards would certainly recognize the Emperor’s voice.
At the familiar sound, Lina turned around.
The artifact’s purpose was precisely to make him imperceptible to everyone except Lina.
Lina recognized Edwin in his servant’s garb at once.
“Ed!”
Startled by the unexpected encounter, her voice came out quite loud.
The guards turned to look their way.
Edwin shifted his body to block their line of sight.
With Lina hidden from view, the artifact’s effect activated again, and the guards’ attention snapped back to the front.
“Shh.”
‘He must have come instead of Oswell.’
Edwin spoke with only his lips.
Lina’s eyes widened and she closed her mouth, nodding obediently.
Her violet eyes traveled from Edwin’s clothes to his face in turn.
Lina gave a deliberate wink, then gathered herself and modulated her voice.
“Oh, I thought you were someone I knew. Good day to you, Mr. Oswell. Count Seymour asked me to deliver these documents to you.”
The folder she had been cradling so carefully seemed to be the excuse Kyle had conjured up.
Lina was playing the part of an errand girl beautifully — distant, professional, detached.
Edwin felt a sudden pang of disappointment.
‘What is this foolishness.’
Every day was precious, and it had already been days since he’d seen Lina.
And now, finally reunited, all he heard was “Mr. Oswell.”
The drive he’d lost to lovesickness had returned a little at the sight of her, but it had taken on a distinctly troubling direction.
Edwin, who had been tenderly matched with his soft-hearted lover and had walked beside her with restraint, suddenly twisted into something else.
‘No, this won’t do.’
Edwin decided to simply indulge the impulse he’d been suppressing for days.
‘The fastest way to quell rumors is to silence those loose-tongued gossips.’
If the rumor of a hidden lover stopped spreading, he wouldn’t have to meet Lina in secret like this, wouldn’t have to flounder about in awkwardness.
‘And next time, I’ll take care of whoever amplified those rumors too, so nothing like this ever happens again.’
What did it matter whether the Temple was involved, or the Western Region, or who had started it all?
‘I’ll simply sweep them both away.’
Neither the Temple nor the Western Region lacked for corruption.
They had simply been waiting for a proper pretext.
‘Do I even need a pretext, though.’
He was not one to concern himself overmuch with reputation.
Even if Lina learned of it later, once she heard of all the crimes they’d committed, she wouldn’t say much.
It was Lina who caught Edwin as he walked smoothly down the path of tyranny.
Lina extended the folder toward him.
“Here.”
Edwin reflexively reached out and took it.
In doing so, their fingertips brushed lightly.
Lina smiled broadly.
As though everything had gone exactly as intended.
And then—
In the moment their hands parted, Lina traced a heart on the back of Edwin’s hand.
The soft touch of her fingertip tickled against his skin as though it had reached not his hand but his heart.
Edwin read meanings into that heart, interpreting it according to his deepest wishes.
‘I love you too.’
Suddenly the colorless world around him became beautiful.
‘Reputation matters, after all.’
Edwin wanted to become a good man for Lina’s sake.
The lives of the Temple and the Western nobility were granted a reprieve.
* * *
Fioni, the crown princess of Bellot, was meeting her fifth husband candidate.
In a charming tea shop on the outskirts of town — the sort of place meant for lovers who genuinely adore each other.
“The Emperor of the Empire seems quite the romantic.”
Fioni, who had arrived at the empty tea shop first, looked around and scoffed.
A seat was prepared in the center, as if to say sit here.
Once she was seated, Everett Rohas arrived shortly after.
“My apologies for my lateness.”
He was a man with dark hair and deep golden eyes — the Eastern bloodline ran thick in him.
“It’s fine.”
Fioni answered curtly, observing Everett’s face.
“The portrait was better.”
“The painter must have been kind to me.”
At her blunt assessment, Everett laughed sheepishly.
It was common enough for betrothal portraits to be somewhat flattering, so Fioni harbored no ill will toward him for it.
Honestly, his real-life appearance was a bit different from the portrait — and she found she preferred it.
Everett suited Fioni’s tastes better than the Empire’s Emperor.
Though their features were similar, the difference in expression and demeanor made all the difference in how one perceived a person.
“I did wonder how the Empire’s Emperor could appear in two battlefields so far apart at the same time.”
Fioni spoke in a voice loud and clear enough for Everett to hear, as though thinking aloud.
She was signaling that she had deduced his role as the “Shadow Knight.”
Everett’s homeland lay near the border between the Eastern Region and Bellot.
Because of this, the culture and customs bore more similarities to Bellot than to other parts of the Empire.
That was also why Fioni knew of the “Shadow Knight” — something not widely known in other regions.
“Your tea will grow cold.”
Everett simply smiled and offered her the cup.
He suspected that anyone kept close by that Emperor would be no pushover.
But Fioni had judged Everett to be rather soft — a simple country boy with the Emperor’s face, lacking cunning.
Since the Emperor had promised Everett’s dowry on the condition that “the two hearts would be in accord,” Fioni had more than enough will to try to achieve that accord.
Yet her last remark seemed only to have raised his guard.
‘I misjudged.’
Shadow Knights typically met unhappy ends.
Because the situation was unstable enough to require a shadow knight, deaths during missions were frequent.
Even those who survived often possessed too much sensitive knowledge; when they were no longer useful, they were silenced — permanently.
Everett Rohas had at least survived the battlefields.
What remained for him was the danger of elimination to ensure his silence.
Fioni believed that being set aside as her consort was the Emperor’s mercy toward him.
She merely wanted to let Everett know that she had grasped his situation, to help him make a swift decision.
Fioni viewed her own country with remarkable objectivity.
All it had were monsters — a poor nation.
The position of Bellot’s consort was a title impressive in name only, devoid of substance — a face-saving gesture, nothing more.
It was still summer, so conditions were tolerable, but in a few months winter would arrive.
Fioni wanted to finish the marriage before winter came and return to Bellot.
The other four candidates were men who wished to hide behind the Empire’s power and rule Bellot themselves — leaving Fioni with only one choice.
After a moment’s hesitation, Fioni extended her hand first.
“The war is already over, so what does it matter now.”
At Fioni’s words, Everett’s expression softened slightly.
“I have no intention of being at odds with the Empire. His Majesty the Emperor surely knows this.”
Fioni believed her greatest strength lay in her insight.
Among Bellot’s royal family, everyone but her was hopelessly unrealistic and foolish.
She was no great king herself, but among Bellot as it stood now, she was the best option available.
‘At the very least, I understand that for the next hundred years Bellot cannot stand against the Empire.’
The Emperor, who had kept Bellot to serve as a breakwater against monster waves, would know this too.
“Then someone like me should be more than adequate as your consort bride. So marry me.”
It was an extraordinarily blunt proposal.
But Everett, for all his years, had virtually no experience with women, and his face flushed crimson.
Fioni found herself liking him even more.
Above all, unlike the other four candidates, he showed no contempt for Bellot.
Everett Rohas muttered something about needing to meet a few more times.
It was not a rejection of marriage with her.
The Emperor’s words about “if the two hearts accord” seemed to mean exactly that — in the truest sense.
The people of the Empire seemed to be more inclined toward romance than Fioni had expected, but she did not dislike it entirely.
In that moment, Everett Rohas was decided upon in Fioni’s heart as the worthy consort of Bellot.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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