Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 5

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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 5
I left Grizel Park and walked about two blocks.
There was a grocery store near Indar Street where I lived, but the one I was heading to now had much cheaper prices and far greater variety.
‘I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t restocked, so there’s more to buy than usual.’
I arrived right at opening time, and the shop was nearly empty.
I filled my basket methodically.
“That comes to 1 Gold, 47 Silver.”
‘It came to that much?’
I’d bought a bundle of eggs for 2 Silver, plus potatoes and tomatoes for stew and various other things, but I didn’t think I’d picked anything especially expensive!
Still, when I mentally tallied up the prices of everything I’d purchased, the sum was indeed exactly 1 Gold, 47 Silver.
‘I still can’t wrap my head around how ten items at 10 Silver each makes 1 Gold.’
Working with numbers all day only made my skepticism deepen.
‘But eggs were only 1 Silver two years ago, weren’t they?’
I left the store acutely aware of how prices seemed to creep upward every time I went shopping.
‘Now that the war’s over, maybe food prices will finally drop.’
As I walked along carrying the heavy basket, for no reason I could name, my cheek began to itch.
‘What is it?’
It was a sensation too insistent to ignore.
I set the basket down and, standing there, scratched my cheek.
And as I habitually glanced around, my eyes met a pair of golden ones—like molten gold poured into a mold.
“Wow…….”
An exclamation of astonishment escaped me unbidden.
‘Again?’
I wondered if the Capital was really this small.
‘Did I pray for frequent eye-cleansing opportunities upon seeing Edwin, and the heavens are making it happen?’
With no one in the Capital more beautiful than him, we kept crossing paths.
Once Edwin and I became aware of each other’s presence, we both awkwardly stopped in our tracks.
Next to the grocery store was an old, specialized bookshop, and it appeared Edwin was just emerging from there.
We’d run into each other several times by coincidence, but we weren’t close enough to warrant greetings.
“Ha ha.”
I let out an awkward laugh and bent to pick up the basket I’d set down.
Then I walked briskly toward home, acting as though I hadn’t seen Edwin at all.
‘I didn’t like it when he avoided me earlier like I was some strange person.’
I felt what might have been his gaze on the back of my head, but I didn’t turn around to confirm.
‘This time…… I got ahead of him!’
My lips curved upward with this small triumph.
My contemplation of these repeated coincidences scattered as I began putting my purchases into my empty cupboards.
All that remained in my mind was the thought that I needed to finish the cleaning I’d fallen behind on and get some rest.
* * *
Edwin watched Lina’s receding figure until it became a tiny point and disappeared.
Until her form had completely vanished from his sight.
Like a sailor enthralled by a siren, Edwin stood motionless for several minutes before he finally moved again.
Instead of heading back to the Imperial Palace, Edwin changed course and made for a small café with an impressive interior of floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Welcome.”
At the cheerful chime of a small bell, a man in a brown apron emerged alone to greet him.
With sun-drenched chestnut hair, warm green eyes, and an expression full of quiet warmth, he was the sort of man who fit perfectly with the café’s cozy atmosphere.
“Mm.”
Edwin answered curtly and sat at the nearest visible table without ceremony.
The man hovered anxiously around the emperor sprawled across the chair in such a lax pose.
“The materials Duke Camelot requested still aren’t compiled.”
“I’m not here about Duke Camelot’s business.”
Kyle, Edwin’s long-time friend and the head of the emperor’s secret intelligence unit, finally released a breath of relief.
“Still, I’d like to see the results within a few days.”
As Edwin added this, Kyle considered the remaining work for a moment before answering.
“Four days will suffice. I’ll present it to you as soon as it’s complete.”
Edwin nodded lightly.
After finishing their brief business talk, Edwin, who had been silent for a moment, spoke to Kyle.
“Kyle.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe in fate?”
“Fate?”
Kyle repeated the question, struggling to grasp its context.
“Yes, fate. Like, say, repeatedly running into a certain woman.”
Edwin’s gaze, which had been directed at the wall, shifted toward Kyle.
“Are you suspecting that woman of being an assassin or a spy, Your Majesty?”
Kyle’s voice lowered slightly, wondering if there were a spy he hadn’t detected.
“I don’t know.”
Edwin hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“Judging by her behavior, I don’t think so.”
The woman’s arms had only the minimum muscle necessary for survival—they were soft.
‘The moment I took her wrist, I could tell she had no intention of attacking.’
Her guard seemed weak, and the way she had eagerly grabbed at him and stared directly at his face was… rather like a small white puppy that some noblewoman had raised for beauty alone.
“But every time I venture outside the palace, I encounter her.”
Edwin began explaining his chance meetings with Lina in order.
“The first time was the day I entered the Capital early to make Bliss’s memorial.”
He hadn’t wanted to visit his only younger sister for the first time in eight years empty-handed.
The first meeting had been while searching for Freesias, which Bliss loved.
I’d chosen a toy suitable for a young girl and headed toward Grizel Park where Bliss was resting, and met her a second time in that vicinity.
“And the third time was the last time I stopped here before returning to the Imperial Palace. I don’t think the woman noticed me then, but in any case, I should count that as an encounter too.”
She’d boarded a shared carriage with a pallid face and vanished immediately, so it was somewhat ambiguous.
Up through this third coincidence, Edwin himself had thought merely that the Capital was surprisingly small.
“But today alone, I’ve run into her twice more.”
That made five times in total.
It was far too many for mere coincidence.
“It certainly is a bit odd,” Kyle agreed, stroking his chin.
Kyle nodded thoughtfully as he considered.
“I need to determine whether these coincidences are God’s will or human design.”
Kyle bowed sharply at Edwin’s command.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
While Kyle was away briefly writing letters to his informants, a couple of customers entered the café.
Kyle, who took his side business quite seriously, welcomed them with a warm smile.
As soon as Kyle turned away to take their order, the young women, barely past girlhood, squeaked and huddled together whispering into each other’s ears.
The consensus was that the café owner was delicious and the coffee was kind.
“Your beverages are ready.”
Kyle smiled even more sweetly toward the customers.
Like a genuinely courteous café owner.
‘That bastard hears everything and pretends not to,’
Edwin ruthlessly mocked his old friend’s affected smile.
After serving coffee and sweet cakes to the customers, Kyle offered Edwin a cup.
“Coffee isn’t necessary. Do you have whiskey?”
Edwin refused Kyle’s coffee without hesitation.
“Well, sir, this is a café.”
Kyle grumbled lightly.
“You’re missing ‘abominably tasteless’ in the name.”
The moment Edwin took a sip of the coffee, he made a sour face toward the customers.
“We’ve improved it somewhat. It’s not quite ‘abominable’ anymore.”
Kyle muttered in protest.
It seemed to be his last source of pride.
Edwin, unbothered, maintained a slight smirk and continued his assault on Kyle.
“I thought all coffee tasted like bilge water.”
Coffee had only been imported from the Southern Continent about a decade ago.
What had been the drink of a niche group of enthusiasts interested in exotic goods had only recently spread enough for several cafés to open on the Capital’s streets.
“Even if the Empire is a coffee wasteland compared to the Southern Continent, this level is harsh.”
Kyle, who by appearance seemed to have been born under a barista’s star, was spectacularly clumsy.
Before opening this café, he’d spent months learning how to brew coffee from a barista who’d emigrated from the Southern Continent, and he hadn’t improved much at all.
“Why didn’t you just open a pub like everyone else? You’re just suffering for nothing.”
Edwin lowered his voice, speaking almost in a whisper.
Kyle, who was costing him an extra 2 Silver, nearly wept.
“At least, in terms of unexpectedness, it was a decent choice.”
Edwin attempted damage control before his only friend became completely sullen.
“Passing customers avoid it entirely thanks to your coffee alone.”
The attempt at repair had utterly failed.
Kyle’s eyes, who’d been hoping for his side business to boom, grew slightly more moist.
“I’ve really improved, I tell you.”
Genuinely sulking, Kyle disappeared, determined to prove his skill.
Edwin laughed like a mischievous child, watching Kyle’s retreating back.
Steeling himself to drink yet another remarkably ‘tasteless’ cup of coffee, despite using only the finest ingredients.
* * *
After enjoying three days of sweet rest, I returned and became a cog in the machine again, spinning and grinding.
‘Still, if I get through the Treasury Ministry’s business report today, I’ll have cleared one major hurdle.’
Early in the morning, the head of the Treasury Ministry went to the conference hall with documents laden with his employees’ souls like garnish, his face firmly set.
The remaining staff were praying only for things to go smoothly.
‘Please let it go quietly! I don’t want to come in this weekend!’
But prayers went unanswered.
“I will arrest those guilty of accepting bribes and creating slush funds for Duke Camelot!”

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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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