Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 23

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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 23
Ignoring my reaction, Koni tilted her chin up like a haughty judge and spoke.
“This time it’s not a flirt who left a betrothed back home to burn through his youth at the Academy, not some fool betting on the odds of an earldom falling to you, and not a pervert either.”
Koni counted off my failed romantic history on her fingers.
“I’d say that’s acceptable.”
Koni brought her clenched right fist down against her open left palm several times.
Like a judge’s gavel.
Despite Koni’s favorable ruling, I shrank from the parade of dark history passing before me.
Koni patted my shoulder as if to console me.
“Do well. This time it seems like the best choice you’ve made.”
Koni’s encouragement couldn’t quite land—my dark history was far too murky.
* * *
“Did you have a nightmare, sister?”
Anika, the youngest of the four Diaz siblings and my only sister, asked while watching me spread butter on bread with vacant eyes.
“I didn’t sleep well, I suppose.”
I answered while keeping my eyes as wide open as possible so the child who’d just entered the Academy wouldn’t worry.
I had indeed had a nightmare.
Before coming home on leave, I’d talked with Koni about our Academy days, and my dark history came streaming into my dreams.
‘To dream of myself screaming and shrieking and wailing—all things I did while perfectly sober. How cruel.’
It was a truly harsh dream.
In the time I’d postponed coming home several times, claiming to be busy, I began to wonder if some malevolent spirit had attached itself to my room.
‘Should I go to the Storage and fetch the silver dinnerware for the party?’
While I eyed the butter knife and contemplated the existence of a curse, Anika took her seat across from me.
Since entering the Academy, she’d begun using an adult-sized chair.
But because she was on the shorter side for her age, her legs still dangled beneath it.
“You didn’t overwork yourself to come home, did you?”
Anika stretched out her hand and grabbed her portion of dinnerware as she asked.
“Not at all.”
I rearranged the bowl so it was easier for her to reach as I answered.
This time it wasn’t empty reassurance meant to spare her worry—it was genuinely true, so I spoke with confidence.
‘The work environment improved dramatically once Donovan was dragged away.’
With my superior—who’d prioritized his own moods over work efficiency—gone, a great deal of pointless labor had disappeared.
‘Arnold, who took on the department head role temporarily, was cautious but not overly authoritarian, so he was easy to work with.’
Besides, somehow a rumor had spread that I had connections to ‘those high-ranking officials above,’ so the staff watched my expression more carefully than they did Arnold’s.
‘Or rather, if I’m being honest, the connections are real enough.’
Everett was the Emperor’s aide-de-camp, and Kyle was the Emperor’s only friend.
By any measure, they were among the powers that be—the Emperor’s closest inner circle.
‘I always thought I couldn’t even be an extra. But maybe I’ve become a minor extra with one line of dialogue?’
While I was taking stock of my own position, Anika shrugged.
“Then I’m glad.”
She was the youngest—a precocious child type who’d been unfazed since birth.
Once I’d assured her I was fine, the conversation ended quickly.
After that, the Dining Room fell silent except for the sounds of eating.
A weary office worker and a child both needed fuel.
Only after our bellies were reasonably full did conversation resume.
“How’s Academy life treating you?”
The topic I’d chosen happened to be rather unfortunate.
Anika’s fork stopped mid-motion.
“No. I miss when I didn’t know anything, back when I was younger.”
A twelve-year-old shook her head with a sigh.
“How much younger? Eleven? Ten?”
When I asked teasingly, Anika set down her fork and slumped forward onto the table, burying her face.
Her soft cheeks pressed against the wood.
“You don’t understand anything, sister.”
Anika’s eyes seemed hazy and distant, wandering through a past from a year or two ago.
‘She wouldn’t actually have a real problem, would she?’
My youngest was resourceful enough to find her way home even if dropped in the middle of a marketplace, but worry still gnawed at me.
“What is it? Too much homework? Or don’t you like the other children in your class?”
I asked the kinds of problems that would rank first or second among first-year Academy students, but the child’s head refused to rise.
“Well, if I had to pick, it’d be the second one.”
The answer came from the direction of the twins descending the stairs for breakfast.
“It’s been a while, sister.”
Emit waved halfheartedly.
“Hey.”
Jayden peeked his face over Emit’s right shoulder.
With their faces so unnaturally alike for identical twins, they looked like some sort of Cerberus.
“You’re making a commotion. Come sit down.”
I gestured, thinking at least it wasn’t triplets, and Jayden and Emit quickly approached and took their seats.
“You barely made it in time, young masters.”
Emma, who served as cook and cleaner, set food before them both with a smile.
“Emit was dragging his feet.”
“You woke up late too.”
Emit and Jayden bickered as they picked up their forks and knives.
The brief sparring match ceased once they began eating.
It was nearly the end of breakfast anyway.
The Diaz household had no rule requiring everyone to gather for meals.
‘If you don’t feel like eating, you don’t have to.’
But if you wanted to eat, you had to come to the Dining Room within the designated time.
‘If you miss a meal, you make do with leftover bread or go hungry.’
This rule—devised to lighten the burden on three employees and correct the irregular habits of a family with stubborn streaks—was maintained with the backing of the household’s supreme authority, our mother.
‘Even when our parents were away.’
And Emit and Jayden were at an age where they ate heartily enough that skipped meals weren’t an option.
“What do you mean by ‘the second one’?”
Emit, eating diligently, belatedly added an explanation to his earlier answer for me.
“She’s sad because she’s in a different class from Nayson.”
Nayson was Anika’s childhood friend—a boy with adorably curly blonde hair.
Whether or not Emit was correct, Anika’s cheeks pressed even more flatly against the table.
“Apparently she begged to transfer to the Knight Department but failed.”
Jayden added with a teasing note.
“I didn’t beg. I simply asked politely whether a transfer was possible.”
Anika’s lips puckered like a chick’s beak.
“But you can’t even lift a Wooden Sword.”
Jayden’s merciless finishing blow went unacknowledged by Anika.
“The Academy separated me and Nayson.”
It was a soliloquy worthy of some tragic heroine in a play.
Emit and Jayden, having discovered the fun of teasing their little sister, grew more animated.
“Nayson’s been looking awfully cheerful lately, though.”
“He really has.”
The Magic Department, where the twins studied, was on the opposite end of campus from the Knight Department.
There was no way their paths could overlap with a first-year like Nayson and graduating students like themselves—it was a made-up story to torment Anika.
“Really?”
But Anika, lost in her role as the tragic heroine, had momentarily lost her judgment.
Her eyes widened as she asked again, and Emit and Jayden flinched.
The intensity was unbelievable for a twelve-year-old.
As Emit and Jayden stumbled over their response, Anika took their hesitation as silent confirmation, and her violet eyes grew slightly misty.
I shot sharp looks at Emit and Jayden in turn.
‘If Anika cries, you two better be ready.’
Finally, Emit broke down and confessed.
“No. We were joking.”
“We haven’t seen Nayson since entrance day.”
As Jayden finished speaking, Anika realized she’d been pranked and let out a roar.
“Liars! You two are goblin boogers! Orc tooth tartar!”
It was custom-made insults for the twins, who’d become obsessed with Monster Studies and entered the Magic Department despite having no magical aptitude.
“Emit, you want to be orc tooth tartar?”
“No, I’ll just be goblin booger in order.”
Which made it even less effective.
These two spent their lives wanting to study creatures like orcs and goblins—monsters that others avoided because of their appearance.
‘Though tartar and boogers are still a bit much, aren’t they?’
As Emit and Jayden played rock-paper-scissors over who got to be the goblin booger, Anika puffed out her cheeks and appealed to me for backup.
“Sister! They’re teasing me!”
‘That’s why they need to know when to stop.’
I reached over and lightly stroked Anika’s hair.
Then I spoke loud enough for Emit and Jayden to hear.
“Won’t you cut them some slack, sweet Anika? We can’t have exam students copying scripture as punishment.”
Now it was Emit and Jayden’s cheeks that puffed out.

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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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