Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 126

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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 126
After confidently announcing my plan, I sent Bes and Ibeta ahead with a flimsy excuse.
Before leaving this morning, I’d left a note on the Terrace in case I was delayed.
Something came up, I’d written. I’ll be back tomorrow.
Enough time had passed for Everett to have found the note.
‘He must have gone back.’
The communication that had flowed between us through an errand boy had shifted now to one direction—Everett coming to me.
I had no way to reach out to him first.
Even though I wanted to curse him as a bastard and slap his face, I had no choice but to wait for Everett to come again tomorrow.
‘How could I have trusted him so utterly…… What is this.’
Right now, I didn’t want to go back to the Separate Palace.
I didn’t want to become the pathetic figure waiting for a two-timing lover.
Bes and Ibeta turned back to look at me repeatedly with worried faces.
The guards who had been keeping their distance stepped forward, apparently sensing the mood had grown serious.
When a few of the escort knights offered to stay with me, only then did the two of them board the carriage.
Though I wanted to be alone, if I sent the knights away, I sensed Ibeta and Bes would never leave first.
I made a show of forcing a smile all the way to the end and waved goodbye.
The moment the carriage disappeared from sight, the tears I’d been holding back spilled over.
Among the escort knights Ibeta had left behind, the only female guard asked with concern.
“Shall I fetch you a handkerchief?”
Helen.
The same woman who had helped me when a Yellow Journal reporter tailed me before.
I’d only seen her twice until today—still a stranger.
“No, thank you. The dust must have stirred up when the carriage left.”
So I held back the tears welling up inside.
It wasn’t that I was unusually proud.
It was far too shameful to stand in the middle of the street weeping over a man who was two-timing me—and not just with another woman, but one carrying his child.
Fortunately, Helen pretended not to notice me childishly clinging to my dignity.
Once I seemed to have collected myself somewhat, Helen asked carefully.
“Shall I take you home?”
Since I had no desire to go to the Separate Palace, home would be better.
Yet the words wouldn’t come easily to my lips.
On days when he had time, Everett always drove me home.
Even at home, I’d think of Everett.
‘If that’s the case, the Separate Palace might be better.’
At least burying my face in the Separate Palace’s silk pillowcase while crying quietly seemed more dignified than soaking my own bed.
‘I don’t even want to go home.’
If things continued like this, I’d cry every time I came home from work.
‘I need to move.’
Not because of Everett.
I’d already been considering moving anyway.
“No, I’ll go to Kiritto Street.”
Coni lived on Kiritto Street.
She was the only person who would take it if I suddenly barged in and cursed out Everett while crying.
It was also a place I’d never been to with Everett.
The guards drove me to the front of Coni’s house and only left after confirming I’d gone inside.
“What did you do?”
Coni asked, eyeing the guards as they slowly retreated with suspicion.
She appeared to be on the verge of sleep, wearing only a robe over her nightclothes, and was yawning with half-closed eyes.
“For a moment I thought you were still in the Imperial Palace Detention Center.”
Then, as sleep seemed to clear from her eyes a bit, Coni scratched her cheek and corrected herself.
Though her familiar nonsense and the absence of anything reminiscent of Everett in her surroundings should have meant nothing, tears came anyway.
“Are you crying?”
Startled by my sudden tears, Coni fumbled for words.
“You were right. Everett’s two-timing. That bastard.”
I couldn’t say anything more after that curse and simply wept.
After all, Coni had witnessed my dull love life firsthand from right beside me.
There was nothing shameful to hide from her.
My pride had long since been liquidated at a discount.
Coni grasped the situation from my curt explanation alone.
After waiting for me to calm down somewhat—me standing at the door, tears and snot streaming—Coni led me into her room with a grave expression.
“Come inside first.”
Coni seated me in a chair.
Seeing my face a mess in the lamplight, she looked around, grabbed a towel, and handed it to me.
“Ugh, you look a bit frightening in this light. Wipe your face.”
I rubbed my tear-soaked face roughly.
Only after scrubbing around my eyes until the delicate skin stung did the tears finally pause.
After watching quietly for a moment, Coni asked.
“Can I get you something to drink? Though I only have water.”
There were no other options.
“Don’t you have alcohol?”
I pouted, being picky.
“I only have champagne.”
Coni answered, as if troubled.
Champagne wasn’t the mood for celebration, but it was better than water.
“Give me that then.”
As I uncorked the bottle, it burst open with a pop and foam surged upward.
The perfect way to open champagne—as if I should cheer and raise a toast.
“Ah, it’s what was left over from a party…… Someone must have shaken it.”
The table and chair were instantly soaked, but Coni carelessly wiped them down with the nightclothes scattered on the floor.
Coni and I shared a bottle of champagne, and for lack of better food, I chewed over Everett Rohas instead.
“If someone can scheme a two-timing arrangement so meticulously, why does his face blush just from holding hands? Why does his heart race like that?”
Everett Rohas should have been an actor, not a knight.
With that face and acting skill capable of deceiving both the Crown Princess and me, he could have easily claimed the lead role at any theater.
‘Built like a puma but acts like a country dog,’ they said.
I recalled the Crown Princess, pallid but happily bragging about her lover.
I thought I’d cried it all out, but my nose stung again.
Coni handed me the towel she’d carelessly thrown aside.
This time too, I scrubbed my eyes roughly.
“Should I put in a request with the Mercenary Guild? Tell them to break both his legs.”
Coni suggested.
A laugh escaped me at how she wore the same expression as Bes and said something similar.
“I just heard the same thing from someone else.”
“And you came here without stopping by the Mercenary Guild?”
Coni huffed theatrically.
“Yeah.”
I mocked myself.
My coming to Coni’s house was ultimately an act of avoidance.
The truth was, saying I had no way to contact Everett was just an excuse.
If I asked around, there’d surely be someone who knew where Everett lived.
Or I could have followed when Ibeta returned to the palace, met with the Crown Princess, revealed the truth, and arranged a three-way confrontation.
Even if Bellot was a minor nation, it remained an ally of the Empire.
The Crown Princess wouldn’t tolerate the insult, and the Empire would condone her retaliation.
I could have made him pay a price far greater than hiring the Assassination Guild.
It wasn’t as though these methods hadn’t occurred to me until now.
I simply didn’t want to do it that way.
Only after being so thoroughly betrayed by Everett did I realize—or rather, admit—that I loved him deeply.
Much as I hated him enough to kill, I didn’t want him to actually die.
“Wahhhhh.”
Perhaps because I’d never experienced a proper breakup before.
I wept at how foolishly I was behaving.
“Sigh. You don’t have to go to the Mercenary Guild. Tomorrow—or rather, when the sun rises—I’ll go with you.”
Seeing me start crying again, Coni grew flustered.
As she looked around to find me another towel, I raised the one I’d been gripping and scrubbed my eyes again.
I’d cried so much the towel was soaked.
He was already the fourth.
Whoever I chose turned out strange.
‘I can at least say the first three were young.’
Besides, I’d only been on a date or two with each of them.
So I moped for just one day before moving on.
But Everett….
A great hole had opened in the center of my chest, and cold wind blew through it.
Coni shook the last of the champagne from the bottle into a glass.
“Just drink more.”
* * *
When we arrived at the Separate Palace, Kyle was indeed waiting for Bes.
It was only natural—despite the Mana’s Oath binding his mouth, he’d tried several more times.
“Bes, what have you been doing out?”
Kyle smiled brightly.

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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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