Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 2

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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 2
He was like a masterpiece a great artist had spent a lifetime crafting.
His forehead, half-concealed by black hair, was neat and refined; his unblemished white skin gleamed like marble.
His thick brows and the elegant line of his nose were as beautiful as if sculpted by divine hands.
His reddish lips were captivating, like the final stroke of a brush bringing life to a statue.
But what seized my gaze most powerfully was his eyes.
They were slightly elongated, lending a mysterious quality, and their irises gleamed with the glow of pure gold.
Here was a man who appeared to be in his early twenties, beautiful in face yet bearing in his eyes both allure and seasoned authority.
For a long moment, I found myself mesmerized by those golden eyes, subtly tinged crimson by the night market’s lamplight.
The gaze stretched long enough to seem impolite, until he finally broke it to ask the merchant’s child if there were any other vendors selling Freesia.
“Is there perhaps another merchant selling Freesia?”
Urgency threaded through his voice, and it seemed he needed Freesia quite badly.
“Well…”
I called out to him carefully.
His gaze turned toward me again.
I offered him the bouquet of Freesia.
“I don’t know what brought you here, but it seems you need these flowers far more than I do.”
The man stared at the bouquet I held out for a few seconds, then accepted it with care.
“I’ll repay you.”
‘Is he nobility? Speaking without honorifics to a stranger.’
His manner of speech didn’t sit well with me, but I’d already offered my kindness.
I gave a light shrug and replied.
“Then buy me another flower for my vase instead of the Freesia.”
I had no intention of extracting a grand reward for a bouquet worth a few coins.
“Will that suffice?”
He asked as if inviting me to name something more substantial.
“Really, just one bouquet is enough.”
When I smiled, he instructed the merchant’s child to wrap up all the remaining flowers.
“I don’t need this many.”
But seeing the child’s delighted face at this unexpected fortune, I didn’t have the heart to protest further.
‘This much should be fine.’
After thanking the man, I waited patiently while the child packaged the flowers.
“Here you are. I’ll arrange them in a basket so they’re easy to carry.”
The child showed impressive thoughtfulness, placing the wrapped bouquets into what appeared to be the same basket used to bring flowers to the night market.
“Thank you.”
The flower basket I received was surprisingly heavy.
After settling the payment, the man nodded once more in farewell and vanished into the crowd.
‘How taciturn. That clipped way of speaking—he seems like a soldier.’
I watched his retreating figure only briefly.
“At this rate, I’ll miss closing time.”
I carried the heavy flower basket toward the pub.
* * *
[The shop is closed for a while—the proprietor’s daughter is ill.]
“Great. Really, nothing’s going right today.”
I exhaled sharply at the notice posted on the pub’s door.
I trembled, clenched my fists to wish the child a swift recovery, then turned slowly and trudged away.
‘I should head home.’
I had no will to search for another pub.
“I’ll just get some early sleep.”
From Rikel Street to my place was a fair distance, but walkable.
‘Besides, I doubt I’ll catch a shared carriage anyway.’
I made my way home, moving against the tide of festive crowds.
Everyone from the empire seemed to be out celebrating, but as I neared the beginning of Indar Street where I lived, the crowds thinned noticeably.
‘Not many people visit a cemetery-park on a night like this.’
The massive Grizel Park dominated most of Indar Street; aside from that, there were only a few humble townhouses, standing apart from the festival’s bustle.
In the distance, the green-roofed house where I rented a room came into view.
‘First, I’ll wash as soon as I get inside…’
Because the rent was cheap for a place with communal water, whenever another resident’s bathing time overlapped with mine, the water would trickle out like a spring.
I was checking my wrist watch and mentally calculating the other tenants’ arrival times when a familiar-looking man emerged from the adjacent alley.
‘The Freesia one?’
It was the man I’d encountered at the flower stall.
‘He must be heading to Grizel Park.’
The man carried the Freesia bouquet and a wrapped box from a toy shop.
While I’d made the fruitless trip to the pub, he’d visited the toy shop, and our arrival times happened to coincide.
‘That direction won’t work.’
He was heading toward the front entrance of Grizel Park, but it was currently under construction.
‘He’ll waste his time.’
Since the cemetery-park occupied nearly an entire street, if he went to the main entrance only to find it closed, he’d have to walk all the way to the temporarily opened side entrance—quite a detour.
‘And there won’t be much time left for him to actually enter the park.’
After giving up my Freesia bouquet, I didn’t want him to make a wasted journey.
‘What’s one more busybody move.’
While I was thinking, the distance between us closed.
“Excuse me!”
I hurried forward and carefully reached out to touch the edge of his sleeve as he passed.
Or rather, I tried to.
The instant my hand was about to brush his wrist cuff, he seized my wrist.
“Ah!”
Caught in his firm grip, I went rigid, my expression stunned.
I felt as helpless as a frog before a snake—unable to move.
“You.”
After a moment, once he’d registered my face, he released his hold.
I gently rubbed my captured wrist with my other hand.
‘That really hurts.’
He hadn’t seemed to apply much force, yet my wrist was already turning red in the shape of his handprint.
‘I’m definitely going to bruise.’
Since it was I who’d grabbed a stranger walking by, I couldn’t resent him entirely.
I pulled my sleeve down to hide my wrist and smiled.
“We ran into each other on Rikel Street earlier—do you remember?”
The words sounded like something a libertine would say, and goosebumps rose on my arm, but if I stayed silent now, things would grow even more awkward.
The man examined my wrist as he replied.
“You gave up your Freesia bouquet for me.”
Fortunately, he proved quite cooperative in conversation.
* * *
Edwin was carefully observing Lina’s wrist, which looked as though it would soon bruise.
‘I was too quick to react.’
Edwin reprimanded himself tersely.
The war that had erupted shortly after he ascended to the imperial throne had ended eight years later.
In victory for the Regencia Empire.
Now there was no need to live perpetually vigilant, senses razor-sharp as he once had—yet habits carved into the body died hard.
The moment he’d sensed movement in his peripheral vision, he’d subdued the threat as he would an assassin.
The instant he’d seized the woman’s wrist, he’d known.
It was the wrist of someone who ought to be holding a pen at most, not a weapon.
The moment he’d recognized her as no enemy, he’d loosened his grip—but it was already too late.
‘The Freesia woman?’
Edwin recognized her at once.
He remembered how she’d gazed at him as though mesmerized by his face.
She was rubbing her wrist, checking for pain.
He’d released his grip partway through, true—but he could have shattered bones with his bare hands.
For a moment, he worried whether he’d inflicted serious injury on her.
She was not an enemy combatant, nor was she a knight who could be handled roughly.
If anything, she was someone he ought to protect and shield.
While Edwin was considering how to make amends, the woman pulled her sleeve down to cover her wrist and asked.
“We ran into each other on Rikel Street earlier—do you remember?”
“You gave up your Freesia bouquet for me.”
When Edwin answered coolly, the woman smiled with apparent relief and glanced up at him repeatedly.
“It’s nothing much, but are you by chance heading to Grizel Park?”
The accuracy with which the woman identified his destination made Edwin’s brow furrow slightly.
In those early days after he’d claimed the throne, his appearance had been so unripened that his beauty blurred the boundaries of gender.
On the battlefield, such looks invited mockery from enemies.
Fearing he might dampen his own troops’ morale with his youth, he’d fought at the forefront, becoming crueler and more vicious to compensate.
It had been tedious work.
Which was why Edwin had never cared for those who saw his half-pretty features and threw flattery his way.
Edwin began weighing the woman’s kindness against his displeasure.
“If you go this way, you’ll only reach the front entrance of Grizel Park.”
Sensing his sudden coldness, the woman hastily added.
“I grabbed you because I meant to tell you it’s under construction.”
Her voice grew quieter toward the end.
The gaze that had clung tenaciously to some part of his cheek dropped away.
“If you want to get to Grizel Park now, you’ll need to use the side entrance instead.”
Edwin’s scales, which had been teetering in balance, tipped decisively to one side with this additional kindness.
“Thank you.”
When Edwin offered brief thanks, the woman waved him off.
“It’s nothing, really. I’ve said my piece, so I’ll be going.”
Embarrassed, she spoke hurriedly and picked up the flower basket she’d set down a moment before.
She then gave him a slight bow and moved to leave.
“Wait.”
Edwin stepped into her path.
“Your wrist.”
“My wrist?”
“Let me see it.”
When Edwin gestured with his chin, the woman tucked one hand behind her back.
“It’s fine.”
“Do you mean to make me a scoundrel?”
Only after he pressed again did the woman hesitantly extend her wrist.
It didn’t appear to be fractured.
“Let me tell you something—come morning, find the nearest Temple. Give them my companion’s name: Everett Lohas. That will suffice.”
After providing his adjutant’s name, Edwin turned away.
He didn’t know it then.
He didn’t know that the woman would think his name was Everett Lohas.
And he didn’t know what misunderstanding that would set in motion.

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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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