Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 166

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

Episode 166
“Raymond Wolfsen, second son of the Wolfsen Family. The Wolfsen Family branched off as a vassal house from a cadet line of the Renckels Family and has been managing Renckels County for generations.”
My aunt introduced the man with clinical precision.
“I would be delighted if you would call me Raymond.”
Once my aunt finished her introduction, Raymond offered another courteous bow.
The man had an unremarkable face but a gentle expression, and his manner and voice carried such gravity that he was clearly well-educated.
His request to use his given name seemed less a rational appeal and more an intention to treat me as a member of the Renckels Family, to accord me that standing.
Though I had drawn a line between myself and the Renckels Family, I could not bring myself to ignore someone who greeted me so courteously.
“Ah, good to meet you.”
I awkwardly returned the greeting, omitting any proper address.
The moment our strained pleasantries ended, before I could even open my mouth, my aunt turned between Raymond and me and spoke.
“Lina, if I’d warned you beforehand, you’d have refused outright—understand my abruptness. I expected as much, but first you’ll need to change out of that dress. You’ll be late behind the principals. Raymond, I’ll call for you again, so wait a moment.”
Raymond nodded respectfully and departed first.
As if he understood he had been summoned merely to make my acquaintance.
It felt as though everyone but me had already synchronized their movements beforehand.
“Aunt, wait a moment.”
“What is it?”
My aunt, about to give me space to change comfortably, turned to me with a puzzled expression.
‘But Ed is attending the ball too—how can I take a different man as my partner.’
That was something I could not say to my aunt, who did not yet know that Ed was my lover.
“I came as more of an attendant to the Saint, so it would be more convenient to have no partner. I came without one deliberately, so I’ll simply accept your goodwill.”
If Ed had not existed, it would have been quite a thoughtful and welcome proposal, but the timing now was all wrong.
Yet my aunt smiled as if pleased and persuaded me in a gentle voice.
“Raymond knows you have an important duty. I didn’t bring him to formally partner with you. I simply don’t want to see you become a wallflower.”
“No, please. I—I want to be a wallflower.”
My true feelings spilled out in my urgency.
“I’m… not very skilled at the Social Dance.”
“Just one dance. You must observe propriety.”
From that point on, every excuse I offered—about dancing, my condition, anything—was met with items my aunt had prepared in advance or immediate alternatives. All of it clean and practical.
As if she had anticipated her niece’s tactful refusal to accept the prestige of the Renckels Family, my aunt’s preparation was thorough.
Now a seasoned countess, my aunt worked with such gentleness and naturalness to draw a positive answer from me.
And knowing that her proposal stemmed from a genuine desire to see me thrive in society made a firm refusal all the more difficult.
In the end, I decided to retreat halfway.
“If I find I need a partner during the party, I’ll seek out Raymond.”
“Very well. I’ll have him stay nearby for you throughout.”
As long as I didn’t go about linked arm-in-arm like a formal partner, it would amount to a meaningless promise—though I made it nonetheless.
‘I’ll leave with Ed in the middle anyway. I can apologize later and say we didn’t need a partner in the end.’
Once my satisfied aunt left, the attendants who had been waiting came in.
With their help, I hurriedly changed into my dress.
By the time I finished dressing, my aunt was right—I would arrive just in time.
‘So that’s why they give such a long interval between the wedding ceremony and the Reception Ball.’
* * *
Recently, the Welfare Foundation run by Ibeta had also seen a sudden surge of patients exhibiting the same symptoms as Coni.
To accommodate the rapidly growing number of patients and the medical staff needed to treat them, some were to be housed in the Secondary Palace.
Work began by cleaning out Secondary Palaces that had long gone unused, and by emptying one that was still in use but housing people of low importance.
And among those vacated was a journalist who had been investigating Lina’s background after hearing rumors that the Emperor had a hidden lover.
The journalist Legion had been detained in the Security Force’s holding cells for several days on the pretext of being disrespectful to a Guard Knight, and since his release, he had been detained in this Secondary Palace.
For Legion, who had expected only a simple dismissal, it was a most unjust situation.
Yet Legion, confident that the Emperor truly did have a hidden lover, waited quietly for his opportunity.
After all, this sort of thing was commonplace at his workplace, the Weekly Society, and it was hardly his first encounter with such circumstances.
The treatment he received was better than the time he had been dragged away while investigating the mistress of a certain count who had inherited his title as a son-in-law.
Three full meals of good quality arrived each day, and though the windows were boarded shut with nails, the space where he stayed was clean.
So it was that the moment of liberation finally arrived for Legion, who had endured while anticipating his exclusive story.
The knight guarding the house where he stayed approached him.
“You.”
This was the knight who had treated him like a ghost throughout his stay.
When the knight called to him in a heavily lowered voice, Legion sensed something momentous was about to happen.
“Yes, yes.”
When Legion answered obediently, the knight laid out warnings in a cold voice about what would happen if he spoke carelessly, and made him sign a non-disclosure agreement.
That was when Legion understood.
‘The day to break this exclusive story has finally come.’
His cheeks ached from suppressing a broad grin.
As a tabloid journalist, he had considerable skill in stabbing people in the back.
He spouted obsequious assurances with convincing sincerity, and true to his word, he was indeed released.
With his eyes covered so he could not discern where he had been held, he was deposited in a quiet alley near his apartment, the carriage driving away once he had disembarked.
Legion watched the departing carriage’s rear end with a bitter smile.
‘Keeping my mouth shut—to hell with that.’
His journalist’s instinct spoke to him.
This was an exclusive story that would come only once in his lifetime.
Legion was a journalist so obsessed with exclusives that he would dig through trash if necessary, pose as a servant to infiltrate a noble house where a party was being held, and would not even balk at disguising himself as a beggar.
The list of charges he would face for breaking his oath came to mind readily enough, but his hunger for the exclusive outweighed his fear.
And the next morning, he returned to work with great satisfaction, for the first time in days.
To a place where his colleagues, equally mad for exclusives, were waiting.
* * *
After hearing the rumor of the Emperor’s hidden lover, all the journalists of the Weekly Society had thrown themselves into investigating whether it was true.
But after Legion was arrested for some reason and a stern warning from the Imperial Household followed, the Weekly Society was forced to shut down.
Yet the journalists of the Weekly Society were people for whom nothing was frightening if they could break an exclusive.
After some time had passed, they gathered again and established a new newspaper.
They named it Friday’s Society.
The name was inspired by the fact that the Weekly Society published every Friday.
Even so, fearful of the Emperor, they conducted themselves with restraint.
They wrote so carefully that no one could tell whether they were tabloid journalists or reporters for an Imperial organ, lying flat in service only to stories favorable to the Imperial Household.
It was hardly living.
The Crown Princess’s State Marriage at least provided material for a decent story.
The fact that the person who would become the queen-consort of Bellot had once been a Serf was a subject engaging enough to capture the public’s interest.
They merely had to present it as if praising some dramatic reversal of fortune.
They set about preparing a special feature with genuine effort.
The day before the Crown Princess’s wedding, as the journalists were making a final check of the articles to be published, they encountered Legion, who had appeared for the first time in days.
“Exclusive, exclusive story!”
“An exclusive?”
The members of the former Weekly Society, now Friday’s Society, their brows furrowed with strain, came alive like plants greening after a drought.
“What is it?”
Clamor erupted from all sides.
“I’ve uncovered the Emperor’s hidden lover!”
Legion shouted, brimming with triumph.
“Print it now, now!”
“This is a real exclusive!”
“Legion, we knew we could count on you!”
They were all madmen drawn to flame.
They printed Legion’s hastily written articles as an Extra Edition and distributed them through the night.
The response was explosive, as expected.
Servants from noble houses who had read the newspaper rushed to their masters and mistresses who had been invited to the Crown Princess’s State Marriage ceremony and handed them copies.
Because of this, everyone invited to the State Marriage learned of the scandal before the Reception Ball even began.

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