Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 46

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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 46
Many feared him, but Lina’s feelings were not ordinary.
It wasn’t a vague reverence for the Emperor’s authority.
It was something far more specific than that.
‘Why?’
His identity wasn’t the problem.
Edwin’s heart beat with unease.
His instincts felt off.
* * *
I’d done it.
I carefully avoided Everett’s gaze, which seemed troubled for reasons I couldn’t quite name.
‘No, I only meant to give him a warning.’
I’d been worried something might happen before I joined the Blue Hawk and got closer to the important information.
The kind of thing that could be brushed off as idle talk if nothing came of it, but whose true meaning would become clear if something did.
It was during a walk, breathing in the fresh air, that I remembered something I’d overlooked when exhausted—and couldn’t hold back anymore.
‘That adjutant had already made a mistake in another matter and was feeling low about it. While he was in that troubled state, he drank the liquor that Duke Camelot’s subordinate offered him and made another blunder.’
‘He doesn’t have a habit of escaping through alcohol, does he?’
When I asked, probing gently, his answer came in textbook fashion.
If only his response hadn’t come quite so quickly to that half-joking addition, I would have been immediately reassured.
‘Did you memorize interview answers?’
Instead of Everett, I rolled my eyes skyward.
‘Even difficult problems can be solved eventually with help from those around you, and mistakes that would derail important matters… well, everyone makes mistakes, they say.’
The odds that you’d turn to alcohol and be forcibly removed when something happened that was too much for you to handle with such a soft touch are a full 33.3 percent.
Everett was far too composed.
So unlike me, who carried a knot of anxiety even now.
Because of that, my warning gradually took on clearer shape.
I ended up giving such concrete hints that I wondered if I’d already said too much.
And yet.
Everett simply laughed it off.
If Everett hadn’t been right in front of me, I’d have wanted to punch my own chest repeatedly.
My insides felt as parched as eating a sweet potato with not a drop of water.
‘The trials of someone who knows the future—truly.’
On the way home, I wondered if I should stop by for a beer.
‘No, I need to buy it and drink it. I’m about to start spouting nonsense.’
“I heard His Majesty’s been a bit irritable lately. If he won’t tolerate mistakes, what will you do?”
Eventually, the words came tumbling out of my mouth.
It was Everett’s eyes lighting up as though he’d heard something amusing that frustrated me.
Still, it didn’t feel like that sweet potato was finally going down.
When I mentioned his direct superior, Everett asked quietly:
“Do you dislike the Emperor?”
Very carefully.
“The Emperor?”
‘What was I saying right before that?’
Everett’s expression was so poor that I found myself searching back through my words to see if I’d said something severe enough to constitute a Crime of insulting the imperial family.
‘Did I speak too harshly about something that wouldn’t really be an issue?’
After the sword incident and the subsequent adjutant punishment affair, the Emperor had become someone to be wary of in my mind.
And since Everett was stubbornly refusing to understand my warning, leaving me frustrated, my tone as I spoke may well have seemed disrespectful.
It was a one-sided problem between people who knew each other only partially.
‘But officially, there’s no connection between the Emperor and me.’
Which meant there was no reason for my likes and dislikes to show so openly.
I laughed.
It was the kind of smile one paints on socially.
Then, hoping to lighten the mood a little, I asked playfully:
“Rather than dislike, isn’t it hard to like your boss?”
I’d thought to let it pass as a joke, since there are few company workers who actually like their superior.
But it was the wrong choice.
Everett’s expression grew even darker at my joke.
“Why would you dislike him?”
Everett asked, his eyes somehow sad.
As if I’d just said I hated him.
His golden eyes grew oddly glistening, looking forlorn.
Anyone watching would have thought I’d just kicked Everett with something terribly cruel.
“I didn’t say I dislike him…”
I quickly denied it.
The Emperor was a dangerous person, but if I went by personal preference alone, I wouldn’t say I disliked him.
He was simply someone I needed to be cautious of, someone I preferred to keep at a distance.
‘But why is he asking why…’
Honestly, I hadn’t expected this reaction at all, and I was flustered.
As my mind made that association with his question, the original novel’s events flashed past like a panorama—all the things the Emperor planned to purge over the next six months.
‘If Everett knew what was going to happen, he wouldn’t find it easy to like him either.’
Upon his ascension, he’d purged a quarter of the nobility roster, and another quarter is scheduled to fall during those six months before the female lead appears.
‘And there’s a 33.3 percent chance that Everett might be among that second quarter.’
That’s why I couldn’t bring myself to like the Emperor lately.
As I added unspoken reasons in my thoughts, Everett’s spirits sank lower and lower.
He looked like someone who’d been deeply wounded by the fact that I wouldn’t say I liked his master.
‘Knights really are loyal, aren’t they.’
Is it that they regard their lord’s honor as their own?
I felt a bit of regret for not handling things more tactfully.
A silence as humid as monsoon air settled between us.
As we walked through the summer rose garden again, I tried several more times to speak to Everett.
Each time, he smiled sadly, forcing his lips upward.
He answered my questions, but clearly his mind wasn’t on the conversation at all.
Eventually, I gave up trying to talk to Everett.
‘Next time I’ll write you an ode to loyalty or something.’
Or maybe I’ll memorize some book like ‘One Hundred and One Ways to Respect Your Office Manager.’
The full bloom of roses didn’t enter my eyes at all.
I simply walked toward the garden’s exit, watching Everett trudging along beside me.
It was an extraordinarily awkward walk to end on.
As the entrance came into view, I exhaled like someone finishing hard labor.
“It’s getting late. Let me see you home.”
Everett escorted me home, his eyes still glistening.
I thought perhaps I could go alone today, but Everett was already leading the way.
Everett remained silent on the way to my house, as if lost in some deep thought.
His eyes still glistening.
‘I really did wonder if the distance from the Imperial Palace to my house was that far.’
After meeting Everett, I was genuinely glad to get home for the first time in a while.
As I opened the front door, I made a silent vow never to utter even the first syllable of “Emperor” in front of Everett again.
* * *
Unable to muster the energy to return to the Imperial Palace after seeing Lina home, Edwin headed for Kyle’s Cafe.
“Welcome.”
Hearing the bright chime of the door bell, Kyle turned from where he stood and greeted the customer with a smile.
Though still not impressive, the coffee had improved greatly enough that customers were slowly increasing.
Kyle’s smile welcoming customers was bright and unblemished.
But the moment he confirmed that the person who’d walked through the door was Edwin, that smile vanished.
Edwin trudged into the cafe without sparing Kyle even a glance.
Kyle sighed upon seeing his liege and friend, moving about with all the gloom of dark clouds hanging overhead.
“Pardon me for a moment.”
Kyle, leaving the cafe in Emily’s care, approached Edwin.
“Would you like to step inside?”
It was more efficient than casting a soundproof spell when customers had grown to such numbers.
Edwin, apparently wanting to unburden himself to someone, readily followed Kyle.
Kyle’s destination was the guild’s reception room, a dark gray space furnished only with a seating set.
The moment the door closed, Edwin collapsed onto the sofa, and simultaneously Kyle asked:
“Has some great disaster struck somewhere?”
Perhaps he was reminiscing about some distant memory as he stared at the sofa.
By my estimate, the odds of that were low.
‘I’d wager this cafe that it’s something to do with Miss Diaz.’
It was more like telling him to stop looking so forlorn just because it gives me the creeps.
But Kyle’s words had the opposite effect of what he intended.
Edwin, who’d been silent since entering the cafe, began to pour out his troubles like he’d been released from a curse spell.
And he started with the part that had been haunting him the whole time, regardless of context or preamble.
“Miss Diaz says she dislikes me.”
Edwin spoke with a face heavy with dejection.

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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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