Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 47

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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 47
“All of a sudden?”
Kyle had kept his expression deliberately distant, unwilling to meddle in Edwin’s romantic affairs, yet he’d picked up on enough over the months to sense something was brewing.
Edwin, taciturn and reserved as a rule, had let their conversations overflow with talk of Lina—as though his heart, usually locked tight, could no longer bear the weight and had to pour it out to someone.
‘I thought things were going well?’
A faint spark of curiosity kindled, and Kyle found himself willing to hear Edwin out on his romantic troubles.
Kyle settled into the seat across from Edwin.
“There must have been some trigger. Can you think of anything that might have prompted it?”
It seemed unlikely that Lina would have suddenly declared her distaste for Edwin without reason.
‘He’s hopeless when it comes to matters of the heart—he probably made some unintended mistake.’
In fact, Kyle rated this possibility quite high.
Edwin, so thoroughly besotted with his first love, didn’t strike him as the sort to wound Lina deliberately.
‘If that’s the case, he probably doesn’t even know what went wrong.’
“Actually, it’ll be faster if you just walk me through what happened today, in order.”
“Well, it went like this…….”
* * *
Edwin’s explanation was long.
Even after stripping away the irrelevant tangents, it was still long.
Kyle’s curiosity had nearly worn to nothing by the time a conclusion finally emerged.
It wasn’t him—not Everett Rohas—that Lina disliked.
It was Edwin the Emperor.
‘That’s not really a major problem, is it?’
Kyle reflected, regretting the wasted time.
The Everett Rohas that Lina knew and the Emperor were one and the same person; it made sense Edwin felt some unease.
But Lina only knew him as Everett Rohas, didn’t she?
A slight shift in perspective would solve most of it.
Kyle checked the time with a quick glance, careful that Edwin wouldn’t notice, and spoke with deliberate speed.
“Though it would be ideal if she came to regard Emperor Edwin favorably as well…….”
Inwardly fretting that something might have gone wrong at the cafe during his absence, Kyle offered his counsel with an outward show of calm detachment.
His body remained in the reception room, but his mind had already risen from his seat, turning toward the cafe.
“Ideal?”
The sharp edge in his reply—all gloom gone now—pulled Kyle’s wandering mind back from the direction of the cafe.
Kyle replied with the gravity of someone who’d never once let his attention slip elsewhere.
“Yes, ideal. After all, Miss Diaz knows His Majesty as Everett Rohas, doesn’t she?”
“That’s precisely the problem.”
To Kyle’s confirming remark, Edwin clutched his head in both hands, despairing.
“Eventually, I have to tell her I’m the Emperor.”
‘Hmm?’
Kyle, who’d been merely affecting seriousness until now, began to genuinely focus on the conversation.
“So you were planning to reveal your identity to Miss Diaz?”
“Of course.”
There simply hadn’t been the right moment yet.
Though by now, it was nothing but a feeble excuse.
Edwin’s response, sharpened by frustration over matters he couldn’t control, came across rather brusquely.
Kyle let the irritability pass over him without comment, his mind already working.
‘If he intends to reveal his identity, then the whole premise is flawed.’
Until now, Kyle had assumed Edwin regarded Lina merely as a romantic interest, separate from any deeper concern.
They’d been dating regularly for quite some time, yet he’d continued to pose as Everett Rohas—which only reinforced that assumption.
‘Free love may have fallen from fashion, but it’s quite common for emperors and high nobles to keep their identities secret while courting those of lower station.’
Imperial and noble marriages weren’t built on affection alone, and if the relationship had an expiration date, it was kinder for the other party to remain ignorant.
Security concerns played a role, but the greater motivation was the desire not to upend the other person’s peaceful life.
‘Not that he ever intended to draw her into his world anyway.’
It was a hypocritical kindness—a way to quietly disappear from her life once their passion burned to ash.
Kyle fell silent for a moment, choosing his words carefully, before asking the most direct question.
“Do you mean to make her Empress?”
Edwin’s romantic entanglement could be dismissed as a personal matter.
But anything deeper than that couldn’t remain merely personal.
He was the Emperor, after all.
“That is…….”
No clear answer came from Edwin.
But his expression conveyed something far more complex than words could.
‘Whatever the other party thinks, this one, at least, seems to be taking it quite seriously.’
Kyle’s mind worked methodically, decoding Edwin’s unspoken communication with the ease of one drinking cold soup—calculating probabilities.
As he’d thought before, there was nothing wrong with Lina becoming Empress.
Though she’d renounced the Renfels line, she carried their blood, and she was capable in her own right.
More honestly, if Kyle had a vote, he’d gladly cast it for Carolina Diaz—he genuinely thought she was that suitable.
‘But interfering in someone else’s love life isn’t my place.’
Yet for all his inward grumbling over the past, Edwin was someone he’d grown up with since infancy.
This was the first time Kyle had ever seen him this thoroughly defeated.
Kyle’s judgment swiftly tilted toward one conclusion.
‘I may be somewhat biased, Miss Diaz, but I hope you’ll forgive me.’
Having gathered his thoughts, Kyle spoke again.
“You mentioned that Miss Diaz seems frightened and averse to His Majesty, yes?”
Edwin seemed reluctant to confirm this, and no answer came.
But Kyle paid no mind and continued his one-sided discourse.
“I suspect most of the Empire’s citizens are afraid of His Majesty. If Miss Diaz is among them, there’s nothing strange about that.”
Edwin’s public image was that of a tyrant, brutal and merciless.
Rumors had been born from his executions of the former Emperor and his noble faction for revenge, and the war had rolled them into a great snowball of legend.
‘It’s half true, half exaggeration, but.’
With truth in the mix, it was difficult to call it mere slander, though impossible to fully admit to the worst characterizations either.
Edwin himself had never cared until now.
He was the sort to dismiss others’ opinions as trivial—but if those others included Lina, the matter became considerably different.
In fact, struck at just the right moment, Edwin had wilted like a vegetable scalded in boiling water.
Kyle didn’t blink and simply continued saying what needed to be said.
“If you revealed your identity to her right now.”
Kyle paused briefly, recalling what his investigation of Carolina Diaz had turned up, then resumed.
“Given that she trusts direct experience more, her feelings might change. She had no prior connection to His Majesty, and she does hold affection for Everett Rohas.”
The first impression may have been poor, but the two of them had built enough shared history to more than compensate.
The Everett Rohas version of Edwin was taciturn but sincere in his courtship.
At Kyle’s optimistic assessment, Edwin’s expression brightened slightly.
But Kyle’s real point came after that.
“However, Miss Diaz has a simple nature, so she’ll likely find the prospect of entanglement with His Majesty burdensome. Had she known from the start that you were the Emperor, I doubt she would have accepted your company at all.”
It was speculation, but the sort of hypothesis that the Information Guild’s master could stake his reputation on—highly probable.
Edwin, who knew Kyle’s predictions were usually accurate, felt his face drain of color again.
Kyle pressed on regardless.
“If she were to discover, too late, that she’s already tangled with you……would she flee? She’s generally rational, but she has a tendency to act rashly when provoked.”
He made a habit of tempering his liege with firmness.
Edwin’s face now resembled the darkening clouds just before a downpour.
“For now, I’d recommend keeping your identity concealed, Your Majesty.”
It was counsel offered as both the Emperor’s strategic advisor and his friend.
“But.”
Edwin, who’d been listening in silence, raised an objection.
Now conscious of the deception, he clearly felt a weight pressing on his conscience.
Things he’d casually overlooked before suddenly took on a graver significance when voiced by another—and surprise flickered across his face.
‘You should have said so from the beginning. This is why the Imperial family……’
In learning how to command men, one tended to grow weak at actual human connection.
Kyle maintained his expression while reproaching Edwin silently.
‘Then again, if you’d felt that way, you wouldn’t have started dating her in the first place.’
It was the voice of friendship—wishing that if they had to end it, a clean break early on would have caused less hurt.

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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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