Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 191

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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 191
“The High Priest and the Black Magic practitioners have escaped!”
News of the High Priest’s jailbreak reached us immediately.
“The criminal is a defenseless man in his sixties. Is there a collaborator inside?”
Edwin questioned the knight who brought the report with stern gravity.
“That’s not the case, Your Highness. The Sacred that the High Priest possessed was apparently a Black Magic Artifact. He used it to attack the guards and then fled with the Black Magic practitioners.”
The Sacred was both the High Priest’s symbol and a sacred relic of the Minos Religion.
It seemed the Imperial Family had allowed him to keep it out of concern that confiscating the relic would provoke backlash.
‘A Black Magic Artifact disguised as the Sacred.’
Whether you called it a cunning strategy or a low blow, it was hard to say.
Edwin looked as dumbfounded as I felt, but he recovered quickly.
“What about casualties?”
“No deaths, but four guards are seriously wounded and over twenty have minor injuries.”
At the mention of victims, Edwin’s expression turned glacial.
“Take the seriously wounded guards to the Separate Palace where the Saint is staying. Tell them it’s at my request.”
With Ibeta’s Healing, the seriously wounded would regain their health within minutes.
Edwin’s cold face twisted into a thin smile.
“Good thing we prepared for the worst.”
“Indeed. The hidden Recording Artifact is going to be very useful.”
The Imperial Palace Underground Prison had never allowed a single escaped prisoner in its entire history.
There was only one entrance, the cells were arranged like a maze, and it was protected by dense magical barriers that made it impossible to destroy through either magic or brute force.
On top of that, the High Priest and the Black Magic practitioners each wore Restraints that suppressed their Holy Power and Mana respectively.
The reason Edwin and I had made preparations anyway was a lingering suspicion: since Black Magic operates differently from ordinary magic, they might use some unknown method to escape.
We’d thought it excessive caution, but thanks to it, we’d managed to capture footage of the High Priest using a Black Magic Artifact to break out.
“The rumor that Edwin framed the High Priest to suppress the Minos Religion will vanish now.”
We’d had to postpone the High Priest’s execution because of the fanatics of the Minos Religion who defended him.
“I’ve just hastened his fate.”
Edwin’s lips curved into a smile.
The Magic Tower Master had also personally planted a tracking spell on the High Priest and the Black Magic practitioners.
If they hadn’t left the Capital, we could have captured them within three or four hours.
“We won’t even need to divert attention with the Harvest Festival.”
Edwin said he would make the High Priest’s use of the Black Magic Artifact public immediately after the Harvest Festival and execute him on the spot.
“There’s no need for a long delay. Bring him in within three days. If you let the deadline pass or allow him to escape the Capital…”
Edwin trailed off, reading my expression, but the knight who’d come to report snapped to attention with a stiff bow.
* * *
Apart from the High Priest’s escape, the Harvest Festival proceeded smoothly.
The festival spanned four days in total. On the first day, a prayer ceremony was held to give thanks for the year’s harvest and to pray for abundance in the coming year.
Ordinarily the High Priest would have presided over the ceremony, but this year the presider was Ibeta.
Ibeta stood at the altar dressed in the Saint’s formal vestments.
Only months ago, Ibeta would have shown signs of nervousness standing before so many people, but she’d grown stronger through the trials she’d endured. Her smile before the crowd gathered to witness the ceremony came naturally and easily.
Ibeta conducted her first large-scale prayer ceremony successfully.
Standing high on the altar as she channeled her Holy Power in prayer, she looked like an idealized Saint who had stepped down from a sacred painting.
Edwin, who usually preferred dark clothing, wore robes of white—the sacred color of the god Minos—with gold embroidery for the ceremony, which was quite the spectacle in itself.
After the prayer ceremony ended, we were to move to the location where the main event of the Harvest Festival—the hunting competition—would take place.
The Empire did not have many Monster habitats, but most of them were distributed near the Capital.
So every year we would inspect the Monster habitats and select a location in need of large-scale subjugation for the hunting competition grounds.
This year it was Jascaria Mountain.
It was about five hours away by carriage from where the prayer ceremony had been held.
I climbed into the carriage with Edwin.
Only after we’d closed the door did I voice my impression in a small voice.
“I thought the Guard uniform was the best look, but this one suits you well too.”
Edwin enjoyed the way I gazed at him as if entranced and spoke with deliberate provocation.
“Should I keep it on? Or would you prefer to take it off for me?”
As he smiled with a suggestive narrowing of his eyes and began to dishevel his clothes, the carriage suddenly filled with a heady atmosphere.
I shut my eyes tight to resist Edwin’s temptation.
“What are you saying in front of people!”
For a moment I wondered if his logic meant what we did inside was acceptable, and felt a twinge of self-recrimination, but I pushed it aside.
When I opened my eyes wide and put on a resolute expression, Edwin’s smile deepened.
“So inside is allowed? Say, in the bedroom?”
My own earlier thought had come back as a question.
Caught off guard, I missed my chance to answer.
Edwin gazed at my face as if tasting it and whispered.
“I think it’s allowed?”
In the end, I clamped my mouth shut and swatted Edwin’s forearm repeatedly.
Meaning: don’t ask such direct questions.
* * *
By evening, we reached the base of Jascaria Mountain.
The hunting competition had become a Monster Subjugation operation decades ago.
Below Jascaria Mountain in a safe zone stood the Imperial Family Villa, built specifically for the hunting competition.
After a brief rest in our assigned rooms, a banquet was scheduled.
The room assigned to me was connected to Edwin’s—or more precisely, was his room’s connected chamber.
By any standard, it was a married couple’s bedroom.
“What is this?”
I opened the door connecting the two rooms and asked Edwin about it.
“Well, a door?”
Edwin pretended not to understand my intent and played dumb.
It was obvious from his expression that he’d had a hand in the room assignments.
“We haven’t even had our betrothal ceremony yet.”
Though people already treat me like a married woman, I was legally still unmarried.
When I pressed the point, Edwin’s eyebrows shot up dramatically.
“So, separate rooms.”
He sounded so melancholy, as if the betrothal ceremony delayed by the rebellion of the nobles weighed heavily on him.
Unable to find words against such a sorrowful expression, I’d already lost the argument.
“When we marry, it won’t be separate rooms but separate palaces anyway?”
I only muttered it under my breath.
Still, the door connecting the two rooms could be locked from either side, as if respecting the wishes of couples.
“I won’t leave my door unlocked.”
“Mine will be open.”
“I won’t come in anyway.”
We’d been bickering childishly when the banquet time arrived.
The great banquet hall was filled with long tables draped in white linens.
Our fooling around had delayed our arrival, and everyone else was already seated.
Edwin escorted me to our seats, and aperitifs and appetizers were served.
Edwin lifted his glass and spoke casually.
“Eat well.”
But the words that followed carried a weight that couldn’t be ignored.
“Tomorrow’s hunt will be arduous. It won’t feel worthwhile to have come so far unless you each bag about twenty Rabbit Monsters.”
At the announcement of the quota, sighs erupted from various tables.
Jascaria Mountain was a primary habitat of Rabbit Monsters.
But this creature, despite being called a Rabbit Monster because its appearance resembled a rabbit, was nearly as large as a grown dog.
‘Twenty of those beasts.’
The previous emperor who had converted the hunting competition into a Monster Subjugation exercise was unmistakably Edwin’s ancestor.
The banquet proceeded mostly in silence.
The participants in the hunting competition were intently focused on calorie intake in preparation for the clearly difficult ordeal ahead.
And those not participating in the hunt were having their own fierce competition.
After the banquet ended, the Attendants and young noblewomen approached me along with Ibeta and Bes.
“Lina!”
Ibeta and Bes called out my name with sparkling eyes.
They also seemed to be participants in some kind of wager, and they looked far more excited than I, who’d been nervous and practicing in advance.
“Yes, Ibeta, Bes.”
The moment I answered their call, ladies began gathering around as if it were a signal.
Regia smiled with a knowing glint in her eye and explained.
“It’s time to divide into teams.”

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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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