Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 181

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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 181
* * *
A few days later, the plague began to spread from a small village in the Northern Region.
The Capital received word of it without delay, thanks to physicians and knights already stationed at key locations throughout the north.
‘The good news was that the physicians and knights we’d positioned beforehand contained the outbreak effectively in its early stages.’
The Temple twisted it to their advantage.
They said the Saint with Foresight had saved the north.
“If the Emperor truly calls the Saint with Foresight a fake, then why did he send physicians to the Northern Region?”
I read the final sentence of an article from a newspaper favorable to the Temple and the Nobility Faction.
With no one yet aware that the Temple had caused the plague, the words sounded devastatingly plausible.
“We fell for it.”
Ed twisted his mouth in a sneer.
“They’ve taken the Empire’s northern citizens as hostages—we have no choice but to dance to their tune.”
I laughed hollowly.
We’d allowed one attack to land, but in the end, it wasn’t entirely without benefit.
‘There will be plenty of chances to turn the tide, but those who died won’t come back.’
I wished the plot unfolding in the south would be this sort of trap as well.
If we could reduce meaningless sacrifice, I was willing to be used.
‘A reversal victory hits harder anyway.’
Of course, we already had a strategy for that reversal built into our plans.
“I’ve done my thinking, but this is only useful if the False Saint’s Foresight hasn’t been tampered with.”
I smiled with confidence.
“No matter how well they’ve hidden the evidence or the witnesses, surely the Blue Hawk can uncover it?”
“We’ll find it.”
Ed smiled back.
Yet the evidence to attack the Temple fell to us not from the Blue Hawk, but from an unexpected person—and in an unexpected form.
* * *
Ibeta’s Holy Power lessons had been suspended some time ago, since our falling out with the Temple.
But today, Udaph, the junior priest who had been teaching Ibeta Holy Power, arrived unannounced at the Separate Palace.
Though his features were somewhat indistinct, he had a kind face and gentle demeanor, getting by well enough within the palace.
He’d even once given us a tip that among those from the Orphanage, there was a Temple informant.
When Udaph clung to us, saying he had something he must tell the Saint, the knight guarding the Separate Palace eventually told Ibeta, who was with me drinking tea.
Soft-hearted Ibeta seemed to be wavering about whether to at least hear him out.
I thought for a moment, then gently pushed her in the direction she seemed inclined to go.
“It should be fine if the guard knights are present.”
Even if Udaph came on the High Priest’s orders, there wasn’t much he could do in the current situation.
‘At most, play a double agent? After all, the High Priest personally inserted himself as Ibeta’s Holy Power teacher.’
If anything happened to Ibeta while I was away, the opportunity we’d so carefully cultivated would vanish.
The High Priest’s schemes didn’t seem so shallow as that.
‘If I stay vigilant, I might even extract information that works to our advantage.’
Emboldened by my words, Ibeta admitted Udaph to the reception room.
After a brief wait, Udaph—usually impeccably dressed in priestly robes—appeared looking disheveled.
His complexion was ashen, his cheeks sunken.
As if he’d been hunted for a long time.
The pitiful sight made Ibeta flinch.
“What has happened to you?”
As Ibeta spoke with unconscious concern, Udaph threw himself prostrate and cried out.
“Saint, please save my sister!”
His voice was desperate, almost anguished.
So much so that Ibeta, who’d been warned repeatedly before admitting him, felt moved to pity.
Sensing Ibeta’s reaction, Udaph continued.
“Ella—that is, you know her as the Saint with Foresight, Astella. She is my younger sister.”
Now that he mentioned it, the indistinct features and gray-toned eyes did bear resemblance.
Even as I studied his face carefully, searching for similarities to the False Saint, Udaph paid no mind and laid out his words in theatrical fashion.
“Astella is not a Saint. I know this as her brother. She’s merely being exploited by the High Priest. If you would only save her, I don’t care what becomes of me…”
His expression was that of an older brother whose heart shattered at the mere thought of his sister being used.
Udaph’s eyes had by now grown quite red.
‘It might be true that the False Saint is his sister.’
Yet watching his eyes, I became only more wary.
‘But this man—sacrificing himself for someone else?’
Udaph was, beneath his social grace, fundamentally selfish.
Even if the False Saint were truly his sister, he was no man to abandon his own security for her sake.
“And so?”
I stood positioning myself as a shield before Ibeta, asking Udaph directly.
Doing my best to suppress a wave of distaste.
Udaph’s lips lifted slightly at my guarded response.
“It’s only natural you don’t trust me. I myself know how shamelessly I’m asking you to save my sister out of the blue.”
Gone was the tragic protagonist of moments before; now his tone toward me was plainly measured.
When I offered no particular reaction, Udaph bowed his head deeply.
Then, looking back at Ibeta, he asked.
“Can those around you be trusted?”
He spoke with the gravity of someone who’d made a momentous resolve.
When Ibeta affirmed it at my glance, Udaph clenched his fists so hard his nails dug into his palms and spoke.
“Then… I’ll tell you the truth. My sister has been brainwashed. By the High Priest. She’s now a puppet, moving as he commands.”
The guards, usually soundless, couldn’t help but stir at this startling revelation.
Udaph’s gray eyes flickered with cunning light for an instant, thinking his ploy had worked.
But soon they returned to their pitiful gaze.
Only I, who’d known his true nature from the start, witnessed that momentary shift.
“It’s not only my sister. There are more junior priests who have been brainwashed.”
Udaph paused, as if holding back a surge of emotion, before adding.
“I myself barely escaped before being brainwashed myself.”
Usually in such cases, one saves the most critical information for last.
That he revealed his own escape last suggested his nature was exactly as I knew it to be.
The others—the knights and Ibeta alike—seemed to catch the shallow self-interest now trickling out as circumstances grew dire.
The sympathetic mood cooled noticeably, and all eyes turned toward me, silently seeking judgment.
‘What to do.’
He was hardly trustworthy.
But the fate of the brainwashed junior priests was crucial information for me.
It was a problem I’d known about for some time but had been turning a blind eye to, lacking any means to address it.
After deliberation, I chose to accept Udaph.
“We’ll need to verify whether what you’re saying is true.”
Purely as a matter of mutual use.
The moment I said I would accept him, Udaph forgot the noble brother scheme entirely and brightened.
Everyone’s eyes toward Udaph grew considerably colder.
* * *
If Udaph was an unexpected windfall, the information the Blue Hawk uncovered was exactly as anticipated.
There were accounts of a suspicious foreigner visiting the small northern village where the plague first broke out.
‘And the Temple only evacuated high-ranking priests beforehand.’
It wasn’t definitive proof, but it was worth weaving together.
Ed ordered the Blue Hawk to collar the southern operation before it could happen and bring back solid evidence.
But whether it was achievable remained uncertain.
‘Would the Temple have the mind to do anything in the south?’
Because we were about to launch our full counteroffensive.

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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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