Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 65

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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 65
‘I wonder if some Blue Water Bird Tail Mushrooms grow wild somewhere in that garden.’
The Blue Water Bird Tail Mushroom was a rare fungus—one of the ingredients in the Love Potion, whose manufacturing method had been half-forgotten.
A mushroom that supposedly grew only on Snow Mountain had no business being in the Imperial Palace, naturally.
Yet Everett today was strange enough to entertain such an impossible thought.
‘It’s as if he dusted sugar powder on everything.’
Or coated it in chocolate syrup.
I cupped my burning cheeks in both hands, lost in thought.
The Everett I’d met in the garden seemed like a different person from the one I’d known two weeks ago.
‘So that’s why.’
* * *
Making my way through the garden while doing my best to avoid prying eyes, I found Everett waiting for me—someone I hadn’t seen in nearly two weeks.
“It’s been a while, Lina.”
Everett must have arrived earlier than I expected.
He looked like someone who’d endured much and grown weary—or perhaps like a sage who’d glimpsed truth itself.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No.”
At my hesitant question, Everett shook his head in denial.
Then—
He took my hand with familiar ease, and after a brief pause, he lifted it gently, carefully.
His cheeks flushed a subtle pink as his lips brushed my hand.
The touch was warm, soft, and slightly warmer than his own body heat.
‘What—what is this?’
A Hand Kiss was light courtesy in High Society.
I’d never moved in such circles, so it wasn’t familiar to me, but I knew it was a casual greeting performed even between strangers—nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet when his bare lips lingered against my ungloved hand with intent unmistakably present, it felt like far more than a simple greeting.
Even if Everett’s intention was far more innocent than my imagination conjured.
Every nerve in my body seemed to converge on the point where his lips touched my skin.
Heat flooded my face in an instant.
I lost my words, my lips moving soundlessly.
Slowly, Everett’s golden eyes—which had been downcast—lifted to meet my gaze, finding my lips.
I showed no sign of displeasure, and I could see the spark kindling in his eyes grow brighter, spreading like embers fanned by wind.
The emotion in those beautiful golden depths wasn’t direct, but it was unmistakable.
For someone like me, who’d grown accustomed to only faint feelings leaking through the cracks in his hard exterior, this directness was sudden.
His heart was laid bare—no longer hidden, merely composed—and the clarity of it left my mind blank and white.
Startled, my lips that had been moving silently snapped firmly shut.
At that, Everett’s mouth curved upward in a smile.
Still with his lips against my hand.
I felt the movement of his lips against my skin.
Something I couldn’t quite pinpoint tickled.
I flushed red as autumn leaves in their final descent, while Everett seemed to regain his composure entirely.
Watching me flounder, Everett slowly released my hand, his smile widening.
Satisfied, as though he’d obtained exactly the hint he needed to get what he wanted.
Left half-senseless by a simple hand kiss, I snatched my hand away and tucked it behind my back the moment he released it, retreating a step.
My heart must have stopped while his hand held mine.
The moment I put distance between us, my heart thundered so hard I could hear it in my ears.
“Lina?”
Everett called out with an innocent expression, clearly baffled by my sudden awkwardness.
Compared to me—practically a human tomato—he seemed utterly unaffected.
‘Everett just stood there calmly, so I must be the one with the strange thoughts right now.’
Feeling inexplicably wronged, I turned away from him with a petulant expression.
I knew it was an unfair feeling.
Everett’s Hand Kiss was, strictly speaking, only mild flirtation.
‘So just because he sat next to me in the Academy classroom, I’m thinking about proposals. Of all things.’
My excitement far exceeded what his gesture warranted—that was my problem.
‘I must have a real weakness for handsome men.’
As I fell silent, lost in self-criticism, Everett advanced just as far as I’d retreated.
I stepped back even farther.
Now that I’d felt the softness of his lips, I was dangerously curious what they’d feel like against other places.
…On my forehead, or my cheek.
‘At this rate, I’ll be naming grandchildren.’
To preserve what little dignity remained, I desperately wanted to back away all the way home.
I thrust both palms forward toward Everett as he tried to close the distance again.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I spoke in a rush.
“I just remembered something urgent.”
It was, of course, a lie.
If I returned to the Office, there would be nothing but documents I’d already seen a dozen times to review.
But if I stayed in the same space with Everett any longer, I felt my heart might burst.
‘Or my face might explode instead.’
Or I’d cause some kind of accident.
I spun on my heel and ran without waiting for Everett’s response.
I heard his voice calling from behind, but I pretended not to hear and kept running.
Everett was terribly bad for my heart.
* * *
My heart quieted for a moment, then began racing wildly again.
Sitting at my desk, I felt like I was running a series of interval sprints—bursting forward, stopping, repeating.
I was grateful my heartbeat wasn’t audible to others.
I moved my quill absently, pretending to make notes now and then, and spent the afternoon in a daze.
My mind returned to reality only when the errand boy I’d sent to Coni came back.
The boy—whom I’d now seen three times today—grinned widely and handed me a thick envelope of documents.
“This time it’s the reply from the Ministry of Finance.”
“You brought it so quickly. Thank you.”
I pressed another handful of snacks into the audacious boy’s hand.
As though dousing cold water on my still-unsettled mind, I opened the envelope immediately.
Inside was a short note, generously decorated with honorifics.
It explained how, for someone like me who was still unable to request swift support here, they’d made special arrangements to prepare things quickly.
The kind of message that promised future trouble if ignored.
I laughed at Coni’s consistent approach and shook my head.
“Would you deliver one more message for me?”
“Of course.”
I handed the errand boy a reply—a simple “Thank you. I’ll treat you to dinner” stretched across twenty lines—and returned it to him.
“Should I give it to Coni at the Ministry of Finance again?”
“Yes.”
The errand boy left with the message and snacks.
The rest of the thick envelope contained documents relating to Camelot Castle, which Coni had cleverly gathered in just a few hours.
It seemed she’d prepared everything she could find without knowing exactly what I wanted—the volume of materials was far more than I’d anticipated.
There were overheads, blueprints, intelligence documents from the kingdom’s era, even maps marking the castle’s troop deployments.
I silently offered Coni my admiration.
‘She’s really outdone herself.’
Some of the materials were even beyond what her security clearance normally permitted.
I slowly pushed Everett’s lingering image from the center of my thoughts and spread out the documents.
Carelessly gathered and poorly organized, I sorted through them one by one, eventually picking out the maps with the most detailed interior layouts.
‘The entrance to the secret chamber was inside the lord’s study.’
After scrutinizing every map showing the lord’s quarters, I finally found what I could use.
‘Found it. This should work.’
It was enough to back up the story of “I happened to think there might be a secret space, so I looked into it, and, well, I found this suspicious area.”
I carefully set aside two maps.
‘Kyle said he’d stop by again later.’
I planned to show him the maps then.
I was mentally organizing what I’d say when Kyle—looking haggard—entered the Office shortly after.
“How is everyone? It feels like I haven’t seen you all in a year.”
Kyle walked over with a wan smile and a shallow jest, settling into his seat with a heavy sigh.
For only a few seconds did I notice the faint worry in the gaze he cast toward the staff—those who’d seen his worn face.
Quickly recognizing the signs, the other employees’ eyes returned to the documents on their desks.
Accustomed to such reactions, Kyle paid them no mind and lazily shuffled through the papers before him.
It was clear he knew work needed doing but lacked the energy for it.
‘What happened in just a few hours?’
I held my concern for Kyle a few seconds longer than the others, but that was all.
I waited for the right moment to approach him.
As I drew close, Kyle—who’d been shuffling papers reluctantly—belatedly noticed me and asked.
“Is there something you need, Lina?”

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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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