Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 129

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

Chapter 129
“When we met at the Guild before, I thought we’d never see each other again. That’s why I didn’t correct you when you called me Everett.”
A scene flickered through my mind at his careful excuse.
“Thank you, Rohas.”
“You called me Rohas?”
His question carried a note of genuine bewilderment.
“Wasn’t that right?”
“I see what happened, roughly. Not that it matters much.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Actually, call me Lord Rohas instead.”
The moment I realized this entire farce had begun with something so trivial, the anger drained away, leaving only hollowness in its wake.
It was like being heated to a boiling point, then plunged into ice water.
Some people grow calm in extreme circumstances.
I’m one of them.
My mind, which had been a mess of negative emotions, began to clear bit by bit.
Only then did it occur to me that we were discussing secrets that shouldn’t be known—standing on Indal Street, thick with Imperial Palace administrators, in the middle of evening when people were still out and about.
If I’d been in my right mind, I should have sent him away and called it all a lie, told him his excuse didn’t cut it.
Because hiding your identity was nearly as bad as two-timing.
But if what he said was true, then I was the only victim this time.
The shock of him two-timing someone, of fathering a child with another woman, had been so staggering that his hidden identity felt almost secondary by comparison.
Honestly, the moment I saw his face, my resolve had weakened. I’d been steeling myself by thinking of the Crown Princess.
Once I became aware of it, I could feel it.
Gazes were gathering.
Several windows of the row houses around us were open more than usual.
When I glanced around, I caught shadows hastily retreating from the windows.
‘Mom, Mom—I think your daughter really is a fool.’
“Look, I need to hear exactly what you’re trying to say. Starting from the beginning.”
I took him inside on that pretext.
As we climbed the stairs and I opened the door, only the bleakness of our footsteps echoed.
I’d thought that if I brought a lover home for the first time, the atmosphere would be softer than this.
But right now, it was unmistakably an interrogation.
I laughed dryly at myself and unclasped the Necklace Artifact that allowed Short-distance Teleportation, holding it in my palm.
He pretended not to notice the gesture.
Since I lived alone, even my sofa was a single seat.
I sat on the sofa and gestured to him with my chin.
“Sit.”
I meant for him to grab one of the dining chairs and take a seat.
But instead of doing that, he dropped to both knees in front of me, as if I’d commanded “Kneel.”
I startled, my eyes snapping toward him without thinking.
He looked up at me with an anguished expression.
This was nearly the first time I’d looked down at him, and he was beautiful even now.
“Give me a chance to apologize.”
He reached for my hand, tense as a servant attending a noblewoman, and leaned down to kiss the back of it.
“Whether you get a chance or not is my decision.”
I pulled my hand away before his lips could touch it.
He couldn’t hide how wounded he looked at the repeated rejection.
‘What did he do to deserve this?’
It was no small transgression—better than two-timing, perhaps, but not something to forgive easily.
“What’s your real name?”
I couldn’t keep calling him the nickname, so I asked.
“Ed.”
I hated that knowing even one true thing about him made me feel a little better.
* * *
Edwin had been the Imperial Crown Prince from birth.
After his father renounced the succession, he’d lost that title, but he remained second only to the Crown Prince in the Imperial Succession Order—still an Imperial Family Member of the highest standing.
Which meant that since the day he was born, a noble being, he had never knelt to anyone.
Until today.
Edwin had resolved to tell Lina the truth, steeling his heart.
He was ready to do anything if it would help him earn her forgiveness.
But before seeing Lina, Edwin doubted whether he could pull it off.
Recently, Edwin had been acting uncharacteristically—either trying to impress Lina or else caught in emotional storms he’d never experienced before.
But Edwin knew this about himself.
He possessed a considerable amount of pride and sharp, stubborn edges.
In other words, his resolve was a discipline he imposed on himself: don’t let foolish pride ruin the situation any further.
But the moment he stood before Lina, he realized all those concerns had been needless.
Lina speaking to him casually, almost cursing at him—Edwin was aware this wasn’t the time for such thoughts, but there was something new about it that moved him.
Even her fierce rejection, even the way she pushed him away—he could bear it because he was paying the price for deceiving her.
When she raged and struck at him with her soft fists, his only worry was whether those delicate hands might hurt themselves against his unyielding body.
Kneeling? It was nothing.
If Lina would only forgive him, Edwin could kiss her feet like a slave if she asked him to.
Because right now he wasn’t Edwin, Emperor of Regencia—he was Lina’s ‘Ed.’
But even Edwin couldn’t endure Lina’s tears.
Meeting her gaze, he had to watch helplessly as tears pooled in those violet eyes, violet like pansies.
It felt like his heart was being carved away.
It felt like he was paying the price for deceiving her.
“Don’t cry.”
Edwin spoke, his voice desperate.
It was almost a plea.
But instead, the tears welled faster in Lina’s eyes.
They glistened, ready to spill over any moment.
Edwin reached to wipe them away, then stopped.
She wouldn’t want him to.
While Edwin wounded himself with that judgment, tears began to fall from Lina’s eyes.
To Edwin, that single moment when her tears hit the floor felt like an eternity.
Lina blinked several times, letting the tears fall freely.
Then, after a long hesitation, she asked in a faint voice:
“You’re really not going to marry the Crown Princess?”
Edwin seized desperately on that small opening she offered.
“No.”
“How am I supposed to believe that? You’re a liar.”
Lina’s lip curled as she spoke sullenly.
“I’ll bring you the real Everett Rohas. And the Crown Princess too.”
Edwin hesitated slightly, then added, his ears reddening:
“I’m… chaste.”
The probability of him having a child was zero.
In his life, there had been only Lina, and there would be only Lina.
If he never earned Lina’s forgiveness, Edwin had already decided he would simply live alone, missing her.
‘What do I care about an heir?’
If Edwin hadn’t crawled through battlefields like a dog, the Empire would have fallen long ago.
He genuinely believed he’d done more than enough by buying time until his death.
* * *
Surprisingly, his ears turning red while claiming his ‘chastity’ proved far more effective than kneeling.
Childishly, my anger cooled a little.
Even as I regarded the Crown Princess as the greater victim of his two-timing, I secretly felt jealous.
‘He only kissed me,’
but he’d fathered a child with the Crown Princess.
It seemed like the piece she held was larger than mine.
If this were someone else’s story, I would have condemned them for being insane.
It was such a petty thought.
But I could only admit how base my jealousy was after learning that Everett wasn’t Everett.
The emotional storm had been so fierce that I could barely acknowledge it until I had no reason left to be jealous of the Crown Princess.
It rivaled, almost equally, the betrayal I felt from ‘Ed.’
When one of the two feelings that had been holding me up vanished, I collapsed weakly into its place.
The wall I’d carefully built crumbled down.
When the wall made of pride, stubbornness, and guilt came down, what emerged was a version of me blinded by love.
‘He’s mine.’
The timing was terrible—realizing I loved Ed with overwhelming intensity right now.
My emotions were rocking like a ship caught in a storm.
Possessiveness filled the space where jealousy had been.
I wanted to have him completely, even if I had to throw myself away to do it.
“Do you love me?”
I asked before surrendering myself entirely to the single emotion of love.
I told myself the answer would determine everything, but it seemed the conclusion was already written.

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