Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 165

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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 165
“When Father’s condition first manifested, I was still a child and only learned about it through records later. But the early symptoms match those records exactly.”
Ed continued speaking with a grave expression.
The public had been told that the Former Crown Prince died suddenly from an Incurable Disease.
However, those who knew the truth suspected that the late Emperor had been deeply involved in the Former Crown Prince’s death, and that rather than simple illness, he had fallen victim to some unknown poison or Curse.
‘Just like the loose thread the original work never resolved, it was left quietly unresolved—the nature of that poison or Curse was never revealed.’
“Could Coni be in the same situation?”
It was an illness that even the Empire’s greatest physicians had been unable to treat.
My voice grew grave as my mind conjured the worst imaginable scenarios.
Ed fell silent in thought before answering.
“We’ll need to observe for a bit longer. According to my memory, Father showed the same symptoms several more times before experiencing extreme fatigue and the condition began to deteriorate in earnest. For now, I’ll have a physician assigned to her.”
Seeing my expression darken with each word of explanation, Ed tried to comfort me, suggesting it might not be as serious.
“I hope that’s the case.”
Yet some dark imaginings have a way of becoming reality.
* * *
Every other day, Coni’s nose and mouth began bleeding, and she eventually took to her bed.
The exhaustion she experienced matched Ed’s description of what seemed like severe illness—complete fatigue.
Neither the court physicians, nor Ibeta, nor even the poison experts and alchemists hastily summoned on the chance they might help could determine the cause of Coni’s illness.
Moreover, the number of people showing the same symptoms as Coni was beginning to grow one by one.
Rosina, Harper, several of the lower-ranked attendants at the Separate Palace, half a dozen of Ibeta’s guard knights, and numerous people under the protection of the Welfare Foundation.
All of them were people connected to Ibeta.
As those around Ibeta collapsed one by one, even though she knew it was ineffective, she poured out her Holy Power until she grew exhausted.
Meanwhile, once it became certain that the condition was the same as what Father had suffered, Ed had the Medical Records retrieved from the Former Grand Duke’s Residence, now an Imperial retreat.
The records contained everything Ed’s parents had attempted over years, every possible method they could think of.
Physicians and the priests and scholars Ibeta had recruited all pored over the Medical Records, analyzing them.
Desperate to do something—anything—I obtained a copy and read it through several times, but only confirmed that there was truly no adequate treatment.
The cases the Former Crown Princess had uncovered while searching through the Imperial Palace’s library and even the Academy’s secret archives were devastatingly numerous.
The fact that none of them held the answer felt like walking an endless street with not a glimmer of light.
Yet there was one faint consolation in this darkness.
Whether thanks to the fervent Holy Power Ibeta poured out, the progression of symptoms was extraordinarily slow compared to what the Former Crown Prince had experienced.
Even Coni, who had shown symptoms first, remained in the stage of experiencing only extreme fatigue.
Until the day of the Crown Princess’s Royal Marriage Alliance with the true Everett Rohas.
“Coni, I’m sorry. I’ll come back as early as I can.”
Having taken it upon myself to care for Coni, who had no family, I apologized as I handed her a Handkerchief dampened with water for her fevered, cracked lips.
“Why apologize? There are several ailing attendants at the Separate Palace, and with two of the close attendants down, there’s nothing to be done.”
Coni took the Handkerchief and chided me gently.
I forced my lips upward into a smile, but my eyes grew hot with tears.
I couldn’t believe it was really Coni—lips pale and cracked, too weak even to make jokes.
“Should I just not go?”
My voice trembled as I forced the words out, and Coni frowned, telling me not to say such things.
“Go on and change. This time everyone’s been so busy you had to rush the dress preparations.”
Since all the patients were people connected to Ibeta, we had to keep the treatment at the Separate Palace secret to prevent any malicious rumors.
We didn’t know who, but we had to appear unconcerned before whoever had orchestrated this.
For that reason, Ibeta could not miss the wedding of the Crown Princess, who was a state guest.
She had to appear as bright and kind as always, as befitted a Saint.
But the ailing attendants could not accompany her.
Since it was impossible to send only Legia, Bes and I—introduced as having a close acquaintance with Ibeta—were to remain by her side instead.
In the end, leaving Coni behind, I made my way to my room with heavy steps.
I hurriedly changed into my dress and had my hair and makeup done.
Considering my recent emotional strain, this dress was an airy apricot design, and my makeup was heavier than before.
Yet when I looked in the mirror after finishing my preparations, my melancholy showed through.
Fortunately, Ibeta, Legia, and Bes arrived shortly after, having dressed first.
Legia, who had been close friends with Rosina since childhood, surely felt equally troubled.
Yet she smiled brightly, as if painted on, and spoke with elegance.
“All three of us are wearing faces of family hardship. You must smile.”
Legia deliberately showed an exaggerated smile by way of demonstration.
“Like this?”
Bes attempted to imitate Legia’s graceful smile but asked with a comically contorted face.
Bes couldn’t help but let her sadness show through.
Those around Ibeta were also those around Bes.
She and Harper, being the same age, had grown closer lately and now moved about like inseparable companions.
“What is that.”line>
“Bes, your mouth is shaking!”

At Bes’s effort, which had been subdued with worry about the sick, Ibeta and I could manage a laugh.
With the atmosphere slightly lifted, we made our way to the garden where the ceremony was being held at the Separate Palace.
The autumn wind held just the right amount of coolness, and the sky was a clear blue.
It was weather so perfect it seemed to bless the new beginning of two people who had found passionate love late in life.
Bellot, where winter arrives earlier than in the Empire.
Though the wedding had been hastily prepared on the pretext of needing to return home before the cold set in, it showed no flaw in its arrangement.
We arrived deliberately somewhat late and took our seats quietly in our assigned places.
Shortly after Ed arrived last, the ceremony began.
The Crown Princess in Bellot wedding dress still hadn’t recovered from her morning sickness—her complexion was so pallid that even her careful makeup couldn’t fully conceal it.
Yet she looked radiantly happy.
I had thought his impression stern, but today Everett Rohas wore a shy smile that never left his lips.
As for the true Everett Rohas, whom the Crown Princess had called a “country puppy,” there was no question.
‘I had wondered if he could be in the same space as Ed.’
It seemed he had starved alongside the Crown Princess during her morning sickness—the muscular physique that had been nearly as imposing as Ed’s had become far more lithe.
His hair and clothing style were entirely different from Ed’s, as if they had coordinated beforehand.
Yet such measures might not have been necessary.
Seeing them together in one space, their images were so utterly different that it was hard to think of them as resembling each other at all.
‘Ed does smile well enough.’
……In front of me, anyway.
But I couldn’t imagine Ed smiling with such complete engagement of every facial muscle the way Lord Rohas was now.
‘I felt it the first time I saw them, but they’re alike and yet not alike.’
While comparing the differences between Ed and Lord Rohas, I hadn’t realized my gaze had lingered on Lord Rohas for some time.
From the highest guest seats, Ed wore a distinctly displeased expression.
Anyone observing would easily misunderstand that he disapproved of this Royal Marriage Alliance.
Before Ed could spoil the mood of someone else’s wedding with jealousy, I shifted my gaze back to the Crown Princess.
Fortunately, Ed’s expression returned to normal and the ceremony concluded without incident.
An Afterparty Ball followed.
As I went to the assigned rest room to change dresses, my Aunt was waiting for me.
“Aunt? What brings you here?”
Puzzled that my Aunt, who had been assigned her own rest room, was here, she laughed somewhat sheepishly.
“I just stopped by for a moment.”
Then she pointed me toward a table laden with several Jewelry Boxes.
“I have something for you.”
Of about ten Jewelry Boxes, only one lay open.
A set of aquamarine that matched the pale blue dress I had prepared for the Afterparty Ball perfectly.
‘It looks incredibly expensive.’
Sensing my discomfort, my Aunt added:
“It’s just a gift, so do accept it. If you don’t care for it, there are others.”
That only made me more uncomfortable.
“Why all of a sudden……?”
“Your grandfather scolded me thoroughly for neglecting my duty as an aunt when my niece decided to take up social activities, and he prepared this himself. He told me to say it’s from me, but my actual gift is something else.”
My Aunt handed me an entire Checkbook.
“Use it for shopping.”
It was far too generous to be a Debutante gift.
And there were more gifts still.
“I don’t believe we’ve met before, Miss Lina.”
A dance partner had appeared for me—someone who had made her debut alongside a Saint’s Debutante and hadn’t managed to dance even once during the evening.

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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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