Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 117

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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 117
I gently ushered out the Dressmaker, who remained suffused with emotion.
“I’ll change myself.”
Taking off the dress proved easier than putting it on.
Since I’d done it once already, I could manage alone.
The Junior Maidservant, aware that I found being attended to somewhat uncomfortable, readily withdrew after promising to collect the dress later.
Once I’d sent away both nocturnal visitors, I made for the Reception Room to meet the other guest I’d been expecting.
I stepped out onto the connected Terrace and opened the door, whereupon Everett’s gaze snapped toward me as if he’d been waiting.
His eyes widened.
Everett froze for a few seconds like someone who’d witnessed something utterly astounding, then his face flushed scarlet.
Noticing the heat rise to his face, he glanced toward the Garden as if by accident—but only for a moment.
Soon his gaze returned to me, spellbound.
Though the sun had set, the light from the Magic Stone Lamps in the Garden and the glow spilling from the Reception Room made every shift in his expression vivid and clear.
“Well? What do you think?”
I asked bashfully.
His expression alone told me the answer already, but I wanted to hear it from his lips.
After all, I’d deliberately sent the maidservant away so I could change alone—precisely so I could show Everett.
‘They all said from the start it looked like a dress made with me in mind, and that it was beautiful.’
The young maidservants, Ibeta, Bes, and even the Dressmaker—all had spoken in one accord.
Their praise had been generous, and the Dressmaker was a merchant, so I couldn’t take every word at face value.
Yet I’d chosen to show myself in it, hoping their words held at least some truth.
“You’re beautiful.”
His single declaration made me happier than six eloquent compliments.
“But are you just going to stare like that? I feel like I’m about to burn through.”
I grumbled from embarrassment, though I didn’t really mean it.
“Can I come in?”
Everett tore his eyes from me at last, his tone almost pleading.
“Come in.”
I stepped aside slightly, granting permission.
This time too, Everett vaulted over the Terrace railing and drew me into his arms the moment he landed.
Like a man unable to find release for the heat burning inside him, he kissed me again and again.
His lips were scorching—pressing against my arms, my forehead, my cheeks, my mouth in breathless succession.
After kissing me for some time, Everett belatedly asked,
“Is it all right if I hold you?”
“You’re already holding me……aren’t you?”
I answered playfully to his request for permission while already in his embrace, then suddenly caught myself—wondering if he’d meant something else.
“No! I didn’t mean it like that!”
Everett startled in denial as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
‘Though I was hoping a little.’
I felt a twinge of disappointment.
But Everett had already retreated far from me.
By the faint light spilling from the Reception Room alone, I could see his face burning with heat.
If I teased him any further, he might actually burst.
“I’ll come again tomorrow.”
Everett mumbled something and simply leaped down, vanishing into the darkness.
As if there were some intimate reason he could no longer remain with me.
I watched his retreating form disappear swiftly, then my eyes met two pairs of eyes that had been watching from below with bated breath.
* * *
Ibeta and Bes happened to witness the Dressmaker leaving after delivering the finished Dress to Lina.
Calling over the Junior Maidservant who came out shortly after, they heard that Lina’s Dress had been completed.
“The dress that was already beautiful became an even more beautiful one that you couldn’t take your eyes off.”
The Dress, made with Saint Ibeta in mind, was designed to emphasize holiness and restrained elegance.
Since Ibeta’s hair and eyes were bright and her impression youthful, the ornamentation had been minimized to add weight.
But now that the wearer had become Lina, the Maidservant added that the decoration had become somewhat more ornate.
Hearing the Junior Maidservant’s vivid description, Ibeta and Bes, full of anticipation, decided to go view it at Lina’s room at once.
What they witnessed, however, was Lina kissing some dark-haired man.
Ibeta, glimpsing the lovers’ intimate exchange a step ahead of Bes, gasped in surprise and covered Bes’s eyes first.
‘Minors shouldn’t see things like this.’
Though they were only months apart in age, she was an adult while Bes was not.
Playing the role of older sister, Ibeta ensured Bes caught only a glimpse—that the man kissing Lina had black hair.
Only after covering Bes’s eyes did Ibeta cover her own mouth with her other hand.
A brief moment passed before the man leaped from the Terrace.
Then he disappeared at tremendous speed.
In that instant, his face caught in the light of the Magic Stone Lamp was someone Ibeta recognized.
‘Isn’t that Lord Everett Rohas?’
But before Ibeta could observe the man she presumed to be Everett Rohas more carefully, Lina noticed them.
“Ibeta? Bes?”
Lina called out their names as if doubting her own eyes.
Bes brushed away Ibeta’s hand that had been covering her eyes, met Lina’s gaze, then raised it back again.
An awkward silence filled the Garden on this summer night.
Save for Bes, whose eyes Ibeta covered, the gazes of two people crossed in the empty air.
All three were flustered, but Lina, being the eldest, recovered the fastest.
“Come inside for now.”
Lina called them into her room.
Ibeta and Bes lacked the athleticism to vault over Terraces like that man.
It took them a bit longer to reach Lina’s room.
Knock, knock.
Ibeta knocked carefully.
The door opened as if it had been expected.
Lina peeked her head out, a faint flush still lingering on her face.
* * *
‘Oh, I’m so embarrassed.’
The moment our eyes met with Ibeta and Bes looking up from the Garden, goosebumps rose across my entire body.
It had been such a long time since I’d felt this mortified.
I regarded Ibeta and Bes as younger sisters.
So being caught kissing Everett felt as embarrassing as being discovered with my actual sister Anika.
‘If I only considered their age, they really are twins.’
Their mental maturity seemed to resemble our household’s precociously wise youngest member.
For reference, Anika’s mental age was slightly higher than the twins’.
Even if I tried to distract myself with other thoughts, what had already happened wouldn’t simply disappear.
I was an adult. I needed to handle this.
“Come inside for now.”
First, I cautiously invited them both into the room.
I was planning to ask them to keep silent about this Secret Romance.
While Ibeta and Bes made their way around the small Garden to my room, I agonized endlessly over how to broach the subject naturally.
Knock, knock.
A soft knocking sounded.
I’d been lingering outside the door and opened it immediately.
Ibeta and Bes shuffled in hesitantly.
“It’s just…… we weren’t trying to see that.”
As I’d been mulling over what to say, they too seemed to have been deliberating, and Ibeta offered an explanation the moment she entered.
“We heard your Dress was finished and came to ask if you’d show it to us.”
I was still wearing the Dress.
Their objective had been fulfilled, at least.
Though the atmosphere wasn’t one for innocent admiration.
‘Kissing on the Terrace was us being careless.’
Even without Ibeta and Bes, the Separate Palace had strict guards and many servants.
I’d known passersby could see, so I should have been more cautious.
But Ibeta and Bes weren’t the type to spread rumors.
“Just keep it secret for me. It’s a Secret Romance, after all.”
I smiled and extended my pinky finger, and Ibeta and Bes each linked theirs with mine in turn.
“We’ll absolutely keep it secret!”
“You can trust us completely.”
“Thank you.”
Seeing the atmosphere wasn’t bad, Ibeta carefully asked,
“That person—is he Lord Everett Rohas, the one who came with you to the Temple before?”
Now that she mentioned it, Ibeta had seen Everett and me together several times.
“Yes, that’s right.”
I admitted readily.
“Huh? Lord Rohas?”
Bes seemed startled, only now learning the identity of my lover.
“Yes. So you know Lord Rohas too, Bes.”
“I……do.”
Her answer carried an oddly unclear tone.

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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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