Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 85

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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 85
“Are you alright, sister?”
Nancy nestled into Ibeta’s arms, her voice trembling with tears.
“I’m fine, don’t worry.”
Ibeta soothed Nancy with a gentle voice, patting the child’s back tenderly.
“Hey, Ibeta?”
I called to her carefully.
Her gaze shifted toward me.
Her blue eyes shimmered with the same mysterious radiance as a Night Pearl, perhaps lingering from the Awakening.
Even after becoming a Saint, the Ibeta before me was exactly the same person I’d been speaking with moments before.
Her eye color hadn’t changed at all.
‘So she hasn’t undergone a Regression after all?’
Ibeta’s Awakening and Regression had been the starting point of the original story.
With only half of it complete now, the original narrative hadn’t fully returned to its proper trajectory, but that was fine.
In the first playthrough, Ibeta had awakened as a Saint only moments before death, after spending four years under the High Priest.
But once the supervising priest responsible for handing her over to the High Priest disappeared, those four years seemed to vanish into lost time.
There were many episodes that would be resolved because Ibeta was a Reincarnator who knew the future, but that was acceptable.
I was remembering them anyway, as a Reincarnator myself.
The High Priest could be dealt with one way or another.
Even if the future changed, the atrocities they’d already committed wouldn’t disappear.
‘A happy ending without suffering—that’s not so bad.’
I pulled Ibeta into a tight embrace and laughed broadly.
“Congratulations, Saint.”
“Thank you.”
Ibeta hugged me back, looking flustered.
“Sister, me too!”
Nancy clung to Ibeta as well, and the three of us huddled together like a single mass.
For quite a while.
After we’d savored the moment long enough, a cough interrupted us.
“We should discuss a few things with the Saint.”
It was Everett, whom I’d momentarily forgotten.
* * *
After sending the still-young Nancy to her room, Everett, Ibeta, and I gathered around a small table.
Everett sat in silence, his expression clouded with conflicting emotions, before he spoke.
“I’d been planning to strike the Temple, but your Awakening has disrupted the schedule.”
At his bluntly candid explanation, Ibeta’s shoulders sagged.
But Ibeta had lived under the shadow of intimidation for so long that while her spirit was weak, her judgment remained sound.
From Everett’s abbreviated account alone, she grasped the situation.
“The Temple will try to exploit me to expand its influence, won’t it?”
In that instant, Ibeta had completed her entire assessment—her changed circumstances and what was to come.
Something had happened that could overturn her entire life, and what lay ahead would be things she’d never experienced before.
Yet Ibeta remained composed, even as fear crept in.
‘Not everyone gets to be the heroine of a romance fantasy, after all.’
I smiled to myself with admiration.
“Exactly.”
Everett nodded as if grateful for her perceptiveness.
“So here’s the thing.”
I felt uneasy from the start for some reason.
I watched Everett’s lips carefully—he had a tendency to speak harshly sometimes.
“We’ll need the Saint’s person to be secured by the Imperial Palace. I’d prefer your willing cooperation.”
‘Why do bad premonitions always come true?’
At his threat-like words, Ibeta flinched.
She had a tendency to fear adult men because of the priests.
“Ed.”
In urgency, I covered Everett’s mouth with my hand.
‘Why are you scaring the child like this!’
Ibeta harbored ill will toward the Temple.
With only the Emperor and the Temple as her choices, she would choose the Emperor’s side, but that didn’t mean choosing him had to be a second-best option.
At my sudden interference, Everett’s ears flushed red, but he obediently closed his mouth as I intended.
Just as I was racking my brain to repair his words, Ibeta opened her mouth first.
“If you’ll hear my conditions, I’m willing to ‘cooperate’ willingly.”
Ibeta’s body trembled visibly, tense with anxiety.
Yet she summoned her courage and proposed a negotiation to Everett.
I gave Everett a meaningful look, silently begging him for understanding, and withdrew my hand from his mouth.
Fortunately, the signal seemed to land, and Everett addressed Ibeta in a slightly gentler tone than before.
“Name your conditions.”
Slightly, that is.
Still, it seemed Ibeta’s tension eased somewhat, which wasn’t entirely ineffective.
Ibeta bit her lower lip firmly and spoke with grave determination.
“The other children from the Orphanage must come with me!”
The condition she blurted out in nervous haste was, honestly, rather modest.
I could see Everett deflate, having expected something about wealth or titles.
‘Our heroine is so humble—what do we do.’
The original Ibeta had possessed a decisive temperament, but that must have been altered by those four years.
I decided to step in as her representative and negotiate on her behalf.
“First, we need guarantees regarding Ibeta’s treatment.”
Though the High Priest leads the Temple, that’s only in the absence of a Saint or Sage.
A Saint or Sage is regarded as the Minos God’s representative on earth.
The Minos Religion boasted more followers than any other faith not just in the Empire but across the entire Continent.
‘By influence alone, her power would rival the Emperor.’
“According to custom, you’ll provide her with ceremonial treatment equal to a crown prince of a friendly kingdom.”
The Imperial House wouldn’t slight a Saint they’d just secured, but the difference between having formal guarantees and lacking them was significant.
When I intervened, both Ibeta and Everett turned to stare at me.
But in this moment, I was firmly on Ibeta’s side, so I smiled only at her.
Ibeta’s eyes widened, and Everett’s brow furrowed.
“If you’re going to make demands, you might as well make them substantial, Saint.”
At the example I’d offered, Ibeta nodded in understanding and clenched her fist with determination.
“Then I need a home where all the Orphanage children can live together, and monthly living expenses—no, a hundred Gold per month!”
But Ibeta’s ambition didn’t grow much from there.
‘Only twelve hundred Gold a year?’
The monthly living expenses of a poor family subsisting on cheap black bread and wearing clothes remade from discarded rags was about ten Gold.
She seemed to think she’d asked boldly by multiplying it tenfold, but this was a Class System society where prices varied drastically by station.
A hundred cheap black loaves of bread would cost less than a single white bread that nobility ate.
‘Even if we set the baseline to what ordinary commoners eat to get by, if there are more than twenty children, that money will fall short fast.’
Ibeta clearly couldn’t fathom how much money went into providing treatment befitting a crown prince of a friendly kingdom.
I silently sighed and stepped in once more.
“Guarantee full support and protection for all the Orphanage children until they reach adulthood, and ensure they have access to quality employment once grown. By Imperial standards, of course—not Ibeta’s.”
I intended to handle the financial aspects competently, compensating for Ibeta’s modesty.
‘The Emperor wouldn’t be petty over something like this.’
“And finally, ask him to find the children who were sold away from the Orphanage.”
Before I’d even finished, Ibeta’s blue eyes brimmed with tears.
“Can they be found?”
Her voice trembled badly.
“It may take time, and we might not find all of them, but if Ibeta makes it a condition of this negotiation, we’ll do our best.”
Probably Kyle.
‘The original did it, so we can manage it this time too, right?’
It was one of the events the Emperor orchestrated in the original story, always concerned about Ibeta’s regret for the Orphanage children she’d lost touch with as a youth.
It was also the turning point where Ibeta began to feel genuine emotion, having entered into some form of contract romance with the Emperor but unable to develop real affection.
‘I didn’t know about the details, only that they’d been sold away.’
“Find the children. Then… then…….”
Tears streamed down Ibeta’s face.
Her voice shook uncontrollably as she pleaded.
Sensing she was about to stake something disadvantageous, I handed her a handkerchief and gently cut off her words.
‘You don’t need to offer anything more. This trade is already unfair as it stands, Saint.’
While Ibeta dabbed at her tears, I pressed Everett, who held the real authority, to confirm his agreement and close out the negotiation.
“This much is manageable, isn’t it? Ed.”
I’d deliberately set the bar at a level the Emperor’s adjutant could decide on.
“That much is fine.”
Everett nodded readily.
The handkerchief grew damp faster, and the Saint clasped the Emperor’s hand once again.
This time, in a very different way—and far sooner.

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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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