Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 45

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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 45
‘I should have told her before Lina found out.’
I’d been careless.
If I’m being honest, when Lina first called me Everett Lohas, I let it slide because I hadn’t anticipated things between us would ever become like this.
I thought there was no need to correct her misunderstanding—we’d never meet again anyway.
But as we kept meeting, the awareness that I was using an alias grew fainter with each encounter.
And after things had developed to this point, I was too caught up in enjoying the present moment with Lina to think it through.
Recently, Edwin had been desperately busy. The time I spent with Lina was carved out from a schedule divided into minutes, and this had simplified my thinking considerably.
Get through it quickly, and I’d have time to see Lina—that was the extent of it.
There were days it nagged at me, but only briefly.
Since my feelings for Lina were genuine, I’d thought it trivial.
There were even days I found it romantic—the way our relationship deepened as we saw only each other, indifferent to status.
My perspective had been too narrow to consider how Lina might actually take this.
Like a horse wearing blinders.
Edwin glanced sideways at Lina’s complexion.
‘Would it be better if I told her first?’
It wasn’t intentional, but she might be upset.
‘Especially if she found out some other way.’
Coming clean now would disappoint her less.
As Edwin wrestled with the decision, Lina spoke first.
“Lord Lohas, is something troubling you?”
Edwin’s eyes wavered sharply.
‘Yes. Just now, in fact.’
Like how to open the door and confess my true identity to Lina.
Her words felt like a final chance—as though she already knew everything and was offering him the opportunity.
Looking back, his relationship with Lina was like hardened sugar syrup.
Sweet, but fragile.
He was grateful it hadn’t shattered yet.
‘Have I become too reckless, careless for a moment? It’s not something worth dying over.’
Edwin reproached himself.
He composed his thoughts carefully, as though preparing for confession.
But strangely, Lina still called him “Everett Lohas.”
Another man’s name, though he’d been wearing it like his own lately.
‘Was my guess wrong?’
If the woman before him had been any other noble lady instead of Lina, he would have thought she knew everything and was being sarcastic about it. But this was Lina.
Direct anger suited her better than sarcasm.
‘That’s actually a relief.’
He’d been given the chance to confess before the worst-case scenario.
It hadn’t bothered him before, but now that he was aware of it, the way Lina called him “Everett Lohas” weighed on him.
While Edwin speculated about her intentions and regretted his choices, the silence between question and answer stretched longer.
Before the quiet could deepen further, Edwin rushed to answer.
“Nothing in particular.”
He wanted to add an asterisk saying ‘not yet,’ but he swallowed the words.
Lina gazed at the visibly tense Edwin with a sympathetic look.
Perhaps because of that, he felt a little braver, as if she would forgive his faults generously.
‘Should I confess the truth now?’
This might be the opportunity.
‘Lina doesn’t seem to dislike the idea.’
Wouldn’t an emperor be more suitable than a knight of common birth?
‘As a dating prospect.’
His heart thudded without restraint.
Up to this point, Edwin had never once considered the possibility of being rejected.
That was simply what being royalty meant.
Having steeled himself, Edwin prepared to reveal his true name to Lina.
“Lina.”
“Lord Lohas.”
But as if fate were playing tricks, their timing overlapped once again.
All the courage he’d mustered, yet Edwin yielded the floor to Lina without hesitation.
“You go first.”
“It’s nothing serious.”
Lina wrinkled the bridge of her nose awkwardly.
But sensing that she had something important to say, she accepted his concession.
Choosing her words carefully, Lina began.
“I may not be of great help, but I’ll do my best to assist you. If anything comes up, please confide in me too.”
Something about it seemed pitiful, yet also like she was steeling herself for something.
‘Why would she say that?’
This was nothing like what he’d anticipated.
Edwin paused, trying to understand the situation.
‘Has she figured out I’m not really Everett Lohas?’
Lina added a word of concern to the slightly bewildered Edwin.
“Don’t brush this aside. I mean it.”
Struck by the force of Lina’s determination, Edwin found himself responding without thinking.
“I will.”
An answer carefully tailored to Lina’s particular way of being.
Edwin possessed power, wealth, and martial prowess all at once.
There was almost nothing he couldn’t resolve or anything he’d truly need her help with.
But the answer Edwin thought was best didn’t seem to satisfy Lina.
She emphasized her point again, masking her true feelings beneath a lighter tone.
“You promised, didn’t you? Whether it’s work that’s difficult, or even trivial things like that.”
“Work?”
Edwin picked up on the particular weight given to that word and echoed it back.
For a moment, he wondered if there was something troubling Lina that she wasn’t telling him.
‘She did seem deeply worried.’
The subtle sense of dissonance that had nagged him throughout their walk in the Summer Rose Garden suddenly clicked into place.
The completed puzzle seemed almost plausible at first glance.
‘Was there something unusual in the Treasury Department?’
He couldn’t think of anything specific.
When they’d discovered Camelot’s slush fund scheme, he’d already handled the cleanup appropriately, and according to Kyle’s assessment, the new chief of Lina’s department was someone who knew how to keep his head down.
Still, Edwin didn’t let his guard down easily.
It might be something too minor to reach his level.
But it could be worry enough for Lina.
Edwin studied Lina’s expression carefully.
“Yes, work.”
At the same time, Lina was also watching Edwin.
But caught up in observing each other, neither noticed the other doing the same.
Still, the conversation continued somehow.
Each interpreting the other’s words through their own thoughts.
“What exactly?”
Edwin cast out his line first.
He was prepared to turn the Treasury Department upside down if she so much as asked.
Their inner thoughts were symmetrical like mirror images, yet nearly identical to what Lina secretly wanted.
Lina answered carefully, hoping not to seem too rude.
“Working in the Imperial Palace means you have all sorts of tasks, doesn’t it? You might face problems so difficult they seem unsolvable, or make a crucial error that ruins an important mission.”
Edwin carefully noted the hints she was offering.
Gathering all his kindness and tenderness, he offered them to her.
“Difficult tasks can eventually be solved with help from those around you, and important work that might go wrong—people make mistakes. That’s just how things are.”
Edwin wasn’t usually the forgiving type about mistakes, but every word he spoke now came from the heart.
Yet Lina, hearing his answer, seemed only slightly reassured.
“That’s a good attitude.”
After the praise came a caution.
“But drinking won’t solve your problems, no matter how hard things get. Right?”
Edwin wasn’t the type to drown his stress in alcohol.
More precisely, he was cautious about alcohol clouding his judgment.
“Right.”
When Edwin agreed readily, Lina actually looked frustrated instead.
As if he’d answered an important question in a dismissive way.
She seemed to need a moment to compose herself, looking up at the sky for a few seconds.
It didn’t seem to help much.
Unable to voice what she wanted to say clearly, Lina had hesitated several times before finally bursting out.
“Especially during important missions!”
Edwin found himself laughing, feeling oddly like a husband being managed by a stern wife.
“Don’t laugh.”
Displeased by his frivolous attitude, Lina pouted slightly.
“I hear His Majesty has been rather sharp-tempered lately. What if he won’t tolerate mistakes?”
She’d spoken lightly at first, almost in jest, but as she continued, Lina’s expression hardened.
As though the very thought of the Emperor frightened her.

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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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