Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 109

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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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Chapter 109
* * *
My brief meeting with Everett was like a surprise gift.
The brevity of it made it all the sweeter.
I handed over the documents and turned to leave, but my feet felt heavy—I didn’t want to linger during his mission.
I walked slowly, reluctant to put distance between us.
I felt his gaze following me, but I didn’t turn around.
If I had, I would have run straight back to him and kissed him.
I didn’t want to put Everett in an awkward position while he was working.
Instead, I distracted myself with scattered thoughts to resist the urge to look back.
The first thing that came to mind was a question I’d forgotten in my eagerness to leave early.
‘So Kyle helped me out with that sudden errand?’
At first I was grateful, then doubt crept in.
Kyle, of all people?
Why?
Kyle was one of the most three-dimensional characters in the original story.
He was on the protagonists’ side, but he wasn’t simply a good person.
His pragmatic nature meant he sometimes straddled the line between good and evil, which gave him an awkward dynamic with Ibeta.
The reason Kyle was the most popular supporting character despite this was the contrast—his unwavering loyalty to the Emperor.
‘His way of thinking revolved entirely around the Emperor.’
His efficiency was calibrated to whatever served the Emperor best.
In other words, unless the Emperor commanded it, he wasn’t the type to voluntarily trouble himself helping a subordinate’s romance—that would be inefficient.
Inefficient, after all.
‘But it doesn’t seem like the Emperor ordered it either.’
The Emperor was a largely indifferent man about those around him.
He might not even know Everett Rohas’s age.
It seemed unlikely he’d order Kyle to help a subordinate with his love life.
‘So Kyle must have acted on his own.’
But why?
Everett and Kyle did seem close.
Though mainly Kyle appeared to be the one playing tricks on Everett.
It wasn’t strange that Kyle had noticed we were dating.
Everett and I had crossed paths with Kyle several times, and Kyle was perceptive.
‘But are they really that close?’
If Kyle and Everett were close enough subordinates for Kyle to take on inefficient work without complaint, it would have been mentioned in the original story.
Generally, when business arose, the Emperor commanded Kyle, and Kyle selected people capable of handling the task.
The Emperor’s subordinates appeared frequently in the order Kyle preferred to delegate to them.
Everett was not among them.
‘Maybe he just helped because it seemed amusing.’
After all, the Kyle I’d come to know pursued amusement with almost the same fervor as efficiency.
But that explanation didn’t entirely settle my doubts.
A stone had been thrown into a calming lake once more.
It wasn’t large enough to overflow, but it sent ripples across the surface.
* * *
“We’ll prepare a debutante ball for the Saint.”
Edwin, having just met with Lina, let this slip out after a productive stretch of work.
Kyle, who had been handling his tasks with uncharacteristic ease while Edwin was finally attending to business, belatedly asked for clarification.
“A debutante ball for the Saint, sir?”
He seemed to have heard correctly but needed confirmation—his tone suggested the context wasn’t quite clear.
Edwin, considerably more gracious after seeing Lina, readily elaborated.
“The Saint has come of age now. It’s time she had her debutante ball.”
Edwin spoke like a thoughtful older brother.
“Well, the Saint did come of age this year, but…”
Kyle’s response was lukewarm.
It seemed odd that Edwin knew the Saint’s exact age.
But this too was Lina’s influence.
Since Lina took an interest in the Saint, the information had naturally lodged itself in Edwin’s mind.
“If she’s going to have a debutante ball, it should be grand.”
She wasn’t going to withdraw from public life, so she needed to enter society.
A grand debutante ball would significantly lower the difficulty of navigating high society.
It wasn’t for nothing that nobles bankrupted themselves preparing their daughters’ debuts.
Edwin wouldn’t hold the Saint to worldly standards, but nobles did value propriety above all.
“Make it dazzling. Have every eye in the Empire turn toward the Saint.”
Edwin emphasized that cost was no object—just make it spectacular.
For someone who disliked—or rather, hated—grand celebrations, this was strange talk from Edwin.
During his eight years on the throne, there had been no imperial balls.
The war had been his excuse.
Even after the war’s end, he’d only attended the victory celebration properly, and for his own birthday ceremony, he’d had Everett Rohas stand in as his proxy to escape.
So when Edwin ordered a grand ball, Kyle’s confusion was understandable.
“I’ll inform the Saint. We’ll need to find a chaperone first.”
Once the order came down, Kyle’s mind instinctively began cataloging what needed to be done.
Even so, he kept studying Edwin’s expression, trying to divine his true intent.
Edwin’s expression grew increasingly mischievous—Kyle was beginning to suspect the Emperor had eaten something strange.
Edwin, whose only experience with something strange to eat had been Kyle’s coffee, nearly erupted in anger but held himself back.
The small heart Lina had drawn on the back of his hand still worked its charm.
But neither willing to face Kyle’s insistent, burning scrutiny—and certainly not Lina’s—Edwin yielded and revealed his hidden motive.
“The rumors of a secret lover of mine need to fade. I’ll give them something more interesting to discuss instead.”
If one were to name the two people whose names appeared most frequently on people’s lips throughout the Empire at present, the first would be the Emperor himself, and the second would be the Saint, Ibeta.
He couldn’t start baseless rumors about the Saint having a lover, but a debutante ball was inevitable regardless.
A high-level debutante like a princess’s or a duke’s daughter would fill tabloid pages for months.
Every detail was gossip fodder—which designer made her dress, what jewels she wore, who she danced with first.
Particularly because the Empire had few female heirs, and the last imperial debutante had been held decades ago.
The spectacle was guaranteed.
People had already lost interest in the Saint’s miraculous deeds from her first public appearance.
Keeping her as a fixture of public attention would benefit them both—him and the Saint alike.
Once Kyle heard Edwin’s plan, he nodded in understanding.
“Yes, I’ll prepare something truly splendid.”
* * *
The days were long enough that evening was still quite bright, but the afternoon sun heading toward dusk was fundamentally different from the midday heat.
I felt the fierce sun on my way home from work, warmer than usual.
But the moment I left the Imperial Palace grounds, I sensed someone following me.
I stopped as though looking around to see if our paths had simply overlapped, and the footsteps behind me stopped too. That wasn’t normal.
‘Am I being tailed?’
I remembered what Kyle had said about Hazard Pay when he first proposed joining the Blue Hawk.
‘Now I see why they gave me a defensive artifact.’
It was actually useful.
I casually placed my hand on the Necklace Artifact, which allowed Short-range Teleportation.
If necessary, I’d activate it and escape.
If I teleported near the Imperial Palace and caused a commotion, either the Security Force or the palace guards would come running.
But whoever was following me seemed amateurish—quite clumsy, actually.
They hid behind trees and building corners as they followed, so obvious that I had to actively avoid turning around to keep up appearances.
‘What is this?’
My mental picture shifted abruptly from thriller to something else entirely.
Wait, could this be…?
‘I fell for you at first sight. Will you tell me your name?’ That sort of thing?
But I was quickly proven wrong about my self-absorbed imagination.
The man following me had a purpose I couldn’t have anticipated.
The moment he realized I’d noticed him, he rushed toward me.
He was holding something that glinted in his hand.
“Miss Carolina Diaz. I’m a reporter for Weekly High Society. I have some questions I’d like to ask you.”
What he held was a Recording Mana Tool, its light flickering to indicate it was active—and Weekly High Society was the Empire’s most famous tabloid.
‘A reporter?’
While working for the Blue Hawk, I’d been fortunate not to become anyone’s target for sabotage, but why would a reporter suddenly chase me down?
‘Especially a tabloid reporter focused on high society gossip.’

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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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