Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 151

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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 151
When he looked at me, he managed a smile, but his gaze toward Kyle was sharp enough to cut.
It wasn’t that Ed suspected Kyle and me of anything—he simply didn’t like me being around another man.
‘Oh, what a jealous one.’
I stepped forward before any sparks could fly Kyle’s way.
But the moment I drew near Ed, I caught the scent of morning dew on wood.
‘Surely he didn’t spray cologne?’
His hair wasn’t even fully dry, and yet he’d done this?
Kyle caught the scent too—his expression turned sour.
While I suppressed a smile and drew a deep breath, he looked as if he’d caught a whiff of something foul.
“I’ll be taking my leave.”
Kyle shook his head deliberately, his eyes cold, and walked straight out of the office without another word.
As though he couldn’t bear to spend another minute in the same space with us both.
Ed’s jealous fire cooled just as swiftly at Kyle’s resolve.
‘Besides, I’d said what I needed to say anyway.’
There was still a little time before work hours began.
I glanced around the empty office, then pulled Ed into my arms.
“Did you spray cologne?”
At my blunt question, Ed’s ears flushed red again.
“Just a little.”
Ed mumbled out the excuse sheepishly.
I buried my face against the nape of his neck.
“I prefer it when you don’t. So don’t next time.”
Ed nodded readily.
We made small talk in the empty office.
Holding each other the whole while.
What felt like a brief moment together slipped away far too quickly, the way time always does before work.
I checked the clock and realized I was cutting it dangerously close to being late, so I said goodbye.
“See you tonight.”
Seeing how reluctant he looked, I kissed his cheek and lips a few times before he finally loosened his arms from my waist.
It was truly time to go.
* * *
I hurried to the Blue Hawk office and arrived right on time, pausing at the door to catch my breath.
The thought that my secret relationship with Ed was already exposed to everyone at the Blue Hawk made it hard to step inside.
‘Just act normal. That’s all. Just act normal.’
I steeled myself and opened the door. Sophia, Lucy, and Derek—whether they’d come in early or hadn’t left the night before—looked startled at the sound.
After a moment, an awkward greeting was exchanged.
“Oh, ah… Lina, did you have a good vacation?”
“…Yes, thanks to your concern. I hope everyone’s been well?”
“Oh, we’ve been fine, of course.”
It sounded like a sample dialogue from a foreign language textbook for learning the Empire’s language.
During that stiff exchange, I could tell one thing clearly.
These people knew not only about my relationship with Ed—they knew everything that had happened during this vacation.
And they’d also noticed that I knew they knew.
Once the awkward greeting ended, an intense battle of wits began.
In that brief span, after a fierce internal debate played out silently in our eyes, we all reached an unspoken agreement: pretending not to know was better than making things even more awkward.
“Wow, it felt so strange coming back to work after so long.”
Being the cause of this whole situation, I broke the ice first, speaking as naturally as I could. Lucy picked up from there.
“Still, you look wonderful—clearly the vacation agreed with you.”
My face, which usually looked pale from rarely seeing sunlight, had merely caught a light tan from Dietar’s sun, but Lucy’s compliment was gracefully put.
Thanks to Lucy, the conversation began to flow more freely.
Everyone stopped looking uncomfortable and began offering me a word here and there.
After a brief chat, fortunately, the Blue Hawk staff had almost returned to treating me normally.
It was clearly the result of effort, which made me grateful.
Soon everyone returned to their desks to work, and settling into my own seat for the first time in a while, I felt a wave of relief and dove quietly into my tasks.
‘I need to work even harder now.’
The vacation had been quite long, and I’d created quite a mess, so there was a considerable pile of work waiting.
I became absorbed in it, and by the time I’d been working for a while, lunch hour was approaching.
Nathan stood up like a cuckoo clock and announced loudly:
“Time for lunch!”
Lunch was the highlight of an office worker’s day.
No matter how much of a workaholic the Blue Hawk staff was, they never missed mealtime.
Everyone began tidying up their work to leave, and I also finished organizing the documents I’d been handling all morning.
That’s when the Errand Boy appeared at the office door.
“Hello. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
The diligent boy greeted me warmly.
“It really has been ages.”
Since I’d delivered Ed’s letter saying he wouldn’t be able to see me for a while, the Errand Boy had had no reason to visit me.
I handed the boy some snacks, as had become our habit.
He accepted them happily and handed me a letter.
In that instant, the employees who’d stood up to go to lunch froze mid-step, as if time had reversed, and sat back down in their chairs.
‘Ah, so this is exposed too.’
I thought I’d been discreet about our exchanges…
They clearly knew exactly where this letter had come from.
Considering changing my contact method with Ed, I carefully tucked the letter into my drawer.
As though it were nothing at all.
Though we were both pretending otherwise, Ed’s letter seemed to have become like an imperial decree to my stiffened colleagues, and I couldn’t open it here.
‘I’ll read it secretly later.’
I casually urged everyone to go have lunch.
The colleagues who’d acted awkwardly for a moment regained their composure, led by Lucy and Sophia.
Again, it was clearly a product of their effort.
After finishing lunch without incident, I returned to the office and carefully opened the letter.
It said to meet him briefly in the garden near the Empress Palace whenever I could—he’d wait.
‘If I’d known it was just this, I should have checked earlier.’
Since he hadn’t written a specific time, he must have been waiting ever since sending it.
Thinking of Ed standing in the heat, waiting for me for nearly an hour, I jumped up from my seat and headed toward the garden.
Walking a path I’d grown so familiar with, a question suddenly occurred to me.
‘But can the Emperor really afford to be away from his post this long?’
When I’d thought he was just a guard knight, I’d assumed the knights worked shifts and coordinated their time accordingly.
But now it seemed he came to meet me whenever he had a spare moment.
‘A guard knight could get away with it, but the Emperor shouldn’t.’
Ed—that is, the Emperor—was an incredibly busy person.
And yet we’d been meeting seven times a week.
I could hardly fathom how he was managing to find the time.
‘I should suggest we meet a little less often.’
With that firm resolution, I made my way to the abandoned garden.
As expected, Ed was waiting for me in the garden.
Dressed in a guard knight’s uniform from his days as Everett Rohas.
And wearing the Recognition-Blocking Necklace as well.
It was an outfit that took into account my discomfort with a public relationship.
Suppressing a smile, I greeted him with the same formal courtesy as when we’d first met.
“Hello, Sir Rohas.”
Ed watched me with a puzzled expression, his brow narrowing.
He clearly didn’t like it when I called him by Everett Rohas’s name.
Pretending not to notice his displeasure, I called out to him again.
“What is it? Sir Rohas.”
Ed’s expression shifted moment by moment.
Uncertain, then suspicious, then utterly flustered.
“Just… remembering when we first met here.”
At my childish prank, I grinned like a mischievous brat enjoying myself, and Ed’s face fell.
“You’re starting to enjoy teasing me.”
He was right, but if I admitted it, he’d sulk.
“I wasn’t teasing. It’s my way of showing affection.”
At my words, the corner of Ed’s mouth twitched.
His face might look expressionless to others, but to me, his emotional shifts were crystal clear.
I abandoned the distance between us and pulled him into an embrace.
Ed held me back with one arm.
Just one.
His other arm moved busily for some reason.
‘What’s he doing?’
My eyes drifted toward where his free hand was moving.

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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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