Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 204

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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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Side Story 6
Having repeated “a jealous man is unattractive” more than once, Ed was trying hard to appear composed.
“How petty of you.”
But his expression was far too honest to hide what he truly felt.
I decided to offer up a bit of my own dark history for my lover’s sake of mind.
“I was fourteen.”
Dating at that age amounted to nothing more than wandering around the Academy grounds on weekends when we had no classes.
Yet Ed’s expression remained unchanged.
“I would have been jealous even if you were four.”
Eventually, Ed laid bare what was on his mind.
“What kind of thing is that to say?”
I laughed aloud, teasing him.
Ed’s ears flushed slightly from embarrassment, but he didn’t correct what he’d said.
He simply averted his eyes and played dumb.
My irritation at seeing Reyhar had eased considerably.
I linked my arm through Ed’s and whispered.
“Had you ever dated anyone before, Ed?”
When we’d gone to see the first exhibition together, Ed had behaved like someone clearly on his first date.
I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway, just to be sure.
“No, I hadn’t.”
Ed didn’t hesitate for a single second before giving the expected answer.
I pressed down the corners of my mouth to hide my childish delight.
And before Ed could turn the question back on me, I quickly changed the subject.
“Reyhar did.”
Ed’s golden eyes immediately took on a displeased cast.
“……Why?”
In the brief silence before he spoke, it seemed he’d swallowed countless words.
I smiled mischievously and spoke.
“Everyone else in that family is fine.”
The Marquis and Marquise Reyhar and his five older brothers were all humble and dignified people.
That one was the sole exception.
“And?”
Ed pressed me to clarify my meaning.
“There’s only one person in that entire household I hold a grudge against. The rumors about him are absolutely dreadful.”
Ed certainly wouldn’t let this pass without doing something about it.
Once we returned to the Imperial Palace, he’d act without my knowledge.
‘And I have no intention of stopping him.’
If he’d done it where I wouldn’t see, that would be one thing, but now that I’d noticed, there was no way I could simply let it go.
“Something about him straddling married women, seducing young ladies he can’t even remember the age of.”
Understanding my meaning, Ed smiled along with me.
Then he spoke in an affectionate tone.
“There’s a small monastery in a fief called Semilera at the far south end.”
“Is that the place where they isolate the troublemakers from important families?”
“Yes, that one.”
Ed confirmed it.
“I suspect the Marquis Reyhar himself would prefer his son—the one tarnishing the family name—to spend the rest of his life in that monastery.”
I met Ed’s eyes and smiled wryly.
The combination of a libertine and a monastery delighted me.
* * *
As I spent more time at the Imperial Palace, it turned out Ed and I were together almost the entire day.
In the process, I came to realize that Ed put on quite a lot of false modesty.
‘I thought he was this prickly when we first met, so I figured that was just how he was.’
But it had been his version of treating me like a lady.
For instance, there was the time Ed and I went to observe a joint training exercise of the Knight Order.
To my untrained eye, the knights looked nothing but magnificent, but apparently Ed saw otherwise.
When he saw a knight make a small error, whether from nerves or oversight—
“Did the war ending make you think you could slack off? You train every day, so why exactly is your skill degrading? ……Work harder.”
He’d growled this out in a low voice, then—noticing I was beside him—hastily finish with sudden encouragement.
I watched the commander mode of Ed that flickered on for just a moment with a dull expression.
Instead, I spared no comfort and encouragement for the knights, their spirits completely deflated.
Apparently wanting to become truly adorable since I’d kept saying how cute he was, Ed seemed bothered by having raised his voice in front of me earlier, keeping a step back to gauge my reaction.
‘Honestly, what a fraud.’
I didn’t tease Ed until after the Knight Order training observation was finished and we’d returned to the Office, out of concern for his public image.
“Ed, I thought you were a gentle, considerate man, but it turns out you’re quite scary?”
Ed flinched, knowing that my ideal man originated from my father.
“That…….”
After a brief silence, Ed smiled beautifully and spoke.
“To you, I am a gentle man.”
Combined with his beauty, it was quite a decent response.
I’d decided to stop teasing Ed, but at the same time, I’d become a bit more curious.
What Ed was like when I wasn’t around.
I had the feeling I didn’t know the full picture.
And that opportunity came sooner than expected.
* * *
I’d been gradually taking on work related to the Imperial Family as practice for my future Crown Princess Duties.
Mostly it amounted to extending the financial management I’d been doing to more delicate areas, but the sheer volume of Imperial Family Private Assets kept me occupied.
In the long list of assets were also artifacts, and among them was a necklace that looked oddly familiar for some reason.
“How many additional functions are on it?”
I’d known that the necklace Ed wore on dates had Recognition Obstruction Magic on it, but I’d never realized it was such a valuable item.
‘Ed just tossed it carelessly into a small box on his desk.’
I glanced at Ed’s desk.
Just as I remembered, it was indeed lying there carelessly.
I didn’t have the nerve to leave even a single fief lying about on a desk.
‘This won’t do.’
That thing needs to go to the treasury too.
As I was about to move it along with its box, curiosity stirred because of one of the additional functions: “doesn’t work on me.”
I slipped on the necklace, looked in a mirror, and still saw my own face.
‘Does the effect work even when I’m wearing it? Or does the effect not apply to Ed’s own face even when he wears it?’
I was pondering this idle curiosity when the Office door suddenly opened and Kyle entered.
“Who……?”
Kyle narrowed his eyes and asked.
But the moment he asked, he began casting both Attack Magic and Alarm Magic simultaneously, so it didn’t seem he was waiting for an answer.
“It’s me!”
I hastily deactivated the Recognition Obstruction Artifact.
“Oh, Lina!”
Kyle, recognizing me only then, made a fuss about being startled.
“But why were you wearing a Recognition Obstruction Artifact? Do you have some covert outing planned?”
Since Ed and I had only recently returned from a private trip to the Northern Region, Kyle spoke with wariness.
It seemed I’d been branded as a troublemaker.
I attempted damage control with an awkward laugh.
“It’s nothing, really nothing. I was just curious since it doesn’t work on me.”
I asked Kyle about the mechanism of the Recognition Obstruction Artifact.
“Oh, I see—so the wearer’s own appearance appears blurred to them, does it?”
Kyle, explaining it kindly enough for someone like me who’d only studied basic magical theory, took the necklace as if to show an example and put it on himself.
Yet to my eyes, he still looked only like Kyle.
“I’d like to be impressed, but I can’t see any difference, unfortunately.”
When I wrinkled my nose and laughed, Kyle replied as though joking.
“Why don’t you ask His Majesty to give you one as a gift? You’ll be going outside the Palace often from now on.”
So far only the Capital and its surroundings knew my face, but after the wedding, people across the entire Empire would likely come to know it.
It was a tempting suggestion.
When I said I’d think about it, Kyle returned the artifact and left the necklace on Ed’s desk, then departed with the documents he’d brought.
They appeared to be urgent matters Ed would need to review upon returning from morning training.
I organized the documents that Kyle had hurriedly set down, tidying up the slight mess.
Just then the door opened again and Ed entered.
“Who is it?”
His voice was colder than anything I’d heard from him before.
‘The artifact is still active!’
Since I was hearing the question for the second time in quick succession, I responded swiftly.
“I am Hether from the General Affairs Department, Your Majesty.”
‘Hether, I’m sorry. I’m borrowing your name for a moment.’
I felt my eyes gleam at the prospect of playing a prank on Ed.
The Recognition Obstruction Artifact—said to have the souls of Magic Tower mages as its topping—worked beautifully.

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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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