Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 22

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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 22
After arranging a new date with Everett to return the Handkerchief, I came home and sprawled across the bed kicking my legs wildly.
Only after burying my face in the pillow and screaming did I finally calm down.
I carefully got up so my shoes wouldn’t touch the bed and paced circles around my cramped room.
‘This has to be a green light, right?’
I’d already made my move, and now the doubt was creeping in.
What if I was being pushy?
My mood swinging by the minute, I felt like I’d become a deity of chaos.
‘Still, once we meet, things will sort themselves out one way or another.’
Sitting on the edge of my worn desk, tugging at my hair, I tried to comfort myself before giving up and going to bed early.
‘Come on, let’s just—’
It was cowardice, plain and simple.
* * *
The next day.
Flooded with dopamine, I woke earlier than necessary.
By the time I’d finished getting ready, I still had plenty of time left. I decided to head in early.
‘Might as well tackle the backlog.’
I even walked to work instead of taking a shared carriage, but the office was completely empty.
I brewed a strong cup of tea and settled at my desk.
The moment I took a sip before starting work, as if on cue, the office door opened and Coni walked in.
“Lina, you’re here early?”
After confirming I was the only one inside, Coni threw both hands up and waved.
“Yeah, so are you.”
I waved back timidly, but Coni came straight toward me.
“Perfect timing.”
Coni’s grin turned sly, like she had something up her sleeve.
It was the kind of wicked smile that made me instinctively step back.
“Perfect timing for what?”
I edged backward, but Coni closed the distance just as quickly and linked her arm through mine.
“I couldn’t sleep all night yesterday, I was so curious.”
Something about her opening already felt ominous.
“That man you went to the restaurant near the Fountain with yesterday afternoon—who is he?”
Coni gripped my arm like she was binding me down.
“Restaurant? Man?”
It was 100% certain she meant Everett Rohas, but I denied it anyway.
“Lina, you’re keeping secrets from me too?”
Coni released my arm and planted hers on her hip, huffing dramatically.
“I have proof. You know Hether, right? My friend from back home? She said the kid who used to live next door saw you.”
“That was you! Hether’s house was next to the Temple.”
“Exactly, I saw everything. So spill.”
I let out a deep sigh, thinking: ‘Of all people, it had to be Coni who caught me.’
“Is that man Sir Everett Rohas?”
Coni had good instincts.
She’d guessed Everett Rohas’s identity on the first try.
“Are you two dating?”
And just like that, she treated mine and Everett’s relationship as a done deal.
I waited for Coni to calm down a bit, then carefully denied it.
“It’s not like that.”
“You’re telling me you go alone with someone to a restaurant known as the Lovers’ Sanctuary on a day off and you’re not dating?”
It seemed she’d picked up interrogation techniques from the knights during her days in the Imperial Palace Temporary Detention Facility.
Coni’s cross-examination was surprisingly sharp.
“So if I eat with someone once, I’m dating everyone at the Academy?”
But I couldn’t just let this go either.
‘We’re not actually dating yet, anyway.’
“Well, you didn’t share a Couple Set with them at the Lovers’ Sanctuary like you apparently did.”
For a moment, I thought Coni had actually tailed us and watched the whole thing.
When she pinpointed the exact menu we’d ordered yesterday, I couldn’t help but flinch.
Coni caught my reaction and grinned wickedly again.
“So you did order the Couple Set?”
I’d just handed Coni another card by involuntarily reacting to her random guess.
‘She definitely came back from the Detention Facility with interrogation training, she really did.’
My resentment quickly pivoted toward Duke Camelot.
‘If he’d just lived decently, Coni wouldn’t have picked up these mind games, and my Couple Set with Everett wouldn’t have been exposed!’
But my evasion tactics ultimately crumbled under Coni’s pressure.
“Wait, wait, Miss Carolina Diaz, your eyes are looking everywhere except at me. Are you thinking about Sir Everett?”
“I’m not, I said.”
When I bristled, Coni burst out laughing.
After laughing for a while, she suddenly lowered her voice.
“If you don’t come clean……”
Coni paused for effect, building the tension.
“I’m going to schedule plans with you every day off.”
Her wicked expression looked like it wouldn’t back down easily.
I heard footsteps in the hallway outside the office and quickly whispered back to Coni.
“We’ve just met a few times. We’re not dating.”
“So you’re not dating, but you’re about to start dating?”
Coni, who’d been needling me right up until the door opened, suddenly started whistling and returned to her seat.
I would’ve been grateful to see even Donovan walk in right now, just starting his day at the mines with a pickaxe.
‘But it’s Andrew Nofen.’
My relief lasted less than a second.
* * *
The moment lunch hour came, Coni disappeared and returned, dragging her chair next to me to whisper.
“I looked into it a bit—Sir Everett Rohas.”
Worried someone might overhear our conversation, I quickly covered Coni’s mouth.
Coni made muffled sounds and tried to break free.
“Excuse me, Constance.”
I whispered urgently against her ear.
“We’re not dating. What are you doing spreading rumors?”
I wanted to grab her by the collar and shake her.
Coni raised both hands in surrender.
Only then did I remove my hand from her mouth.
Coni exhaled and lowered her voice.
“I’m not that tactless. Why would I ask about someone you’re openly dating? I heard it the other way around.”
About his existence.
Coni continued, watching my expression.
“I said I was curious about what kind of person he was since he’s close to His Majesty, like I was fishing for gossip or connections.”
Fortunately, by tomorrow morning, rumors that Everett and I were getting married next month probably wouldn’t be spreading yet.
‘Damned bureaucracy.’
This was a place where if you inquired about a good doctor because you weren’t feeling well, rumors would be flying by the day after tomorrow that you’d quit and were reapplying to the Academy Medical Department.
Coni, watching my face, whispered like a demon tempting prey.
“Aren’t you curious? What I found out?”
Honestly, I was.
Coni crossed her arms triumphantly.
“Should I go tell everyone else?”
I pretended to give in and followed Coni outside.
She dragged me to the most secluded spot in the garden behind the Ministry of Finance Building, looked around, and finally spoke.
“First off, Everett Rohas is thirty years old.”
“What?”
He was older than I’d expected.
‘I’m twenty-two, so that’s an eight-year gap?’
Coni added something, seeming to want to soften the blow based on my reaction.
“But he enlisted right after turning eighteen, so there shouldn’t be any scandals.”
I pretended not to care and kept listening.
“He’s from the Eastern Region, originally a serf.”
Most commoners in the Empire were Freemen, but in regions where feudalism still had its grip, serfdom remained.
Since serfs were bound to their lords, they occupied the lowest rank even among the common classes.
But Coni, who knew well that I wasn’t overly concerned with status, glossed over this part quickly enough.
“Still, he earned distinction in the military and received a Knighthood, and I heard he’s about to get his Fief. And this next part—I got it from someone who knows Sir Rohas personally.”
Coni puffed up her chest, showing off her information network.
“According to my objective and subjective sources, he’s tender-hearted and……”
‘Tender-hearted?’
The image of Everett sending a rogue to the grave overlapped in my mind.
‘His manners are fine, but he seemed more like the prickly type to me?’
But regardless of my doubts, Coni’s monologue continued.
“He’s close to the Emperor, and for someone that handsome, his romantic life is apparently quite clean.”
I could’ve let the tender-hearted part slide.
People’s personalities can shift depending on the relationship, after all.
But there was one part I couldn’t just brush off.
“Did you just call that face ‘moderately handsome’?”
I reacted without thinking, as if I’d just been told the moon was split in two, and Coni let out a snort.
“Why don’t you just say it outright—’In my eyes, he’s the most handsome man in the world’?”
Coni rubbed her arms, claiming goosebumps.
‘It’s pretty much accurate, isn’t it?’
But I’d already missed my window to object.
‘If that face is just moderately handsome, the Empire should change its name.’
‘Beauty Welfare State’ or ‘Paradise for the Eyes.’
I felt deeply wronged.

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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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