Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 86

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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 86
“Then we leave before the priests arrive.”
Harcan was already on his way to inspect the Temple anyway.
‘He’ll probably get here sometime today.’
Since Harcan had noticed Ibeta’s Awakening, he might arrive even sooner.
There was no good in letting the Saint cross paths with the High Priest and his associates.
‘Moving to the Imperial Palace quickly will make it easier to protect Ibeta too.’
“I’ll look after the children with Ibeta. Ed, could you go borrow a carriage from Orso?”
“Will do.”
Once Everett left for the lord’s manor, Ibeta and I woke the children and gathered them in the Temple courtyard.
Dragged from deep sleep, they rubbed their eyes and whimpered.
“Sister, I’m sleepy.”
“Mm. Can’t we just go back to bed?”
Ibeta and I scrambled to soothe them.
Nancy, the only one still awake after receiving an early explanation, raised her voice to the others.
“We’re moving!”
“Moving? All of us together?”
“Why?”
“Where are we going? Again?”
At Nancy’s words, the children forgot their whimpering and peppered us with questions.
“We’re going to the Capital. We’re all going to live somewhere much nicer than this place now.”
As Ibeta explained calmly, the children who I’d expected to jump with joy instead grew quiet.
For them, the Orphanage was their entire world—and now that entire world was moving somewhere else. The anxiety showed on their faces.
The children huddled together quietly, watching Ibeta and me for reassurance.
As if afraid they might be left behind if they strayed from the group.
It was a pitiful sight, but time and their new surroundings would heal them.
Thanks to the children’s cooperation, we finished our preparations before Everett returned with the carriage.
‘Oh, wait.’
I’d almost forgotten something.
“Just a moment!”
I asked their pardon and hurried toward the inner Temple.
My destination was the head priest’s quarters.
‘Where could it be?’
I searched through drawers and among the decorations.
Fortunately, I found what I was looking for quickly.
As I’d felt before, he really was careless about hiding things.
‘No wonder—typical of a minor villain written off early in the story.’
I gripped my find and returned to the courtyard where the children waited.
While I’d been searching the head priest’s room, Everett and Ibeta had arrived and were loading the children into the carriage.
I tucked my findings safely into my pocket and helped them get the children aboard.
Then we headed straight for the Ancient Teleportation Magic Circle.
* * *
We woke the sleeping mages and teleported to the Capital as soon as dawn broke.
“Welcome.”
Kyle greeted us the moment we arrived.
It seemed Everett had contacted him as well.
“A Saint, then…”
Kyle regarded Ibeta with an appraising gaze.
He had a gentle appearance but was actually formidable in character.
Ibeta’s small shoulders shrank further under the weight of his scrutiny.
‘These people.’
In my ‘protect our heroine at all costs’ mode, I stepped between Kyle and Ibeta and spoke up.
“You’ve arrived at just the right time. The children will need a place to stay right away.”
At the mention of work, the workaholic Kyle’s attention immediately pivoted.
“The Simor house will shelter the children. Of course, the Saint must go to the Imperial Palace.”
At the prospect of separation from the children, Ibeta grew anxious.
“Isn’t there any way I could go with them?”
“All eyes will be on you.”
He meant it was for the children’s sake.
Understanding that the situation was precarious, Ibeta accepted his reasoning readily.
“My mother once worked as a nursemaid. Don’t worry—I’ll care for them well.”
Once he promised regular visits, Ibeta finally felt assured.
Kyle coaxed the crying children away from Ibeta with all the finesse of a kidnapper.
“If you ride in that carriage, you’ll go to a place full of toys and delicious sweets.”
But it worked.
“Is there chocolate?”
“There’s even a chocolate fountain.”
“Really?”
Entranced by the promise of toys and desserts, the children readily climbed aboard.
They departed in the carriage Kyle had arranged from the Simor household.
Ibeta’s eyes grew misty watching them go, worried about the children.
The three remaining adults boarded the carriage bound for the Imperial Palace first, giving Ibeta time to compose herself.
It was a plain black carriage without the Imperial seal to hide its origins, though spacious inside.
Ibeta’s seat left empty, Everett, Kyle, and I sat in a row.
We resumed our discussion of the road ahead—the one we’d paused in front of the children.
“So everyone with Sacred Power knows about the Saint’s Awakening?”
Kyle confirmed the current situation.
Everett flinched at the question, then closed his mouth.
‘What’s wrong? Did they fight?’
I hadn’t seen Kyle and Everett together many times, but I’d assumed they were fairly close.
Now, seeing them try to avoid even speaking, I wondered if my judgment had been wrong.
Instead of the awkward Everett, I spoke up.
“It seems that way. We probably can’t hide the Saint’s Awakening, so we need a different strategy.”
Everett nodded in agreement, though he kept his mouth firmly shut.
“The High Priest will demand the Saint’s return. This is going to be troublesome.”
Kyle, too, seemed uncomfortable meeting Everett’s eyes and spoke only to me.
Even an emperor with absolute power couldn’t completely ignore the Temple’s demands.
If the Temple insisted that the Saint, as Minos’s representative, must remain in the Temple, the Emperor’s position would be weak.
‘The information about Ibeta’s Awakening has already reached their side, and time is running short.’
The manner of Ibeta’s Awakening had been far too spectacular.
‘I don’t think there’s any precedent in history for a Saint or Saint’s Awakening being revealed this way.’
Even in the original story, Ibeta’s Awakening had happened far more quietly than this.
‘In the original, the head priest noticed that Ibeta, having regressed to her eighteenth birthday, had awakened as a Saint, and happily reported it to the High Priest.’
The High Priest had come down to Feram himself to take her away.
He’d tried to win her favor as a Saint, though it was futile.
‘To Ibeta, who carried the memories of her first loop in all its pain, the High Priest was an evil to be destroyed.’
As Ibeta waited and watched for a chance to escape the Temple, playing the dutiful, obedient Saint the High Priest wanted, her opportunity finally came.
She was invited to attend the New Year Festival, hosted by the Imperial Household.
The Emperor was the only force capable of standing against the Temple, which had been rising in power since the Saint appeared.
At the Festival, Ibeta managed to evade the watching priests and meet the Emperor in private.
‘And she proposed they join hands.’
The Emperor in the original story was already considering how to crush the Temple, so their alliance formed easily.
But even then, the Emperor’s pretext for protecting the Saint was weak.
‘That’s why they decided on a contract romance.’
The Emperor and Saint publicly announced they’d fallen for each other at first sight and were courting.
The Saint remained in the Imperial Palace as the Emperor’s fiancée.
‘Honestly, it’s the best option available.’
I presented the original story’s solution as my own idea.
“Your Majesty is unwed, after all.”
The moment I brought up the Emperor, Kyle and Everett both startled.
Everett especially.
‘Why are they so surprised?’
The unexpected reaction puzzled me, but Kyle spoke before I could dwell on it, and the strange reaction slipped from my mind.
“He is unwed. But what does that have to do with our current situation?”
‘It has everything to do with it. If he were married or had a betrothed, the contract romance strategy wouldn’t work!’
Though the sharp Kyle had said this much, his failure to deduce the contract romance strategy seemed odd, but I put it down to the early hour and moved on.
“Well, it’s a pretext for the Imperial Household to protect the Saint. What if the Emperor and the Saint were said to have formed a romantic bond?”
Everett’s face grew stern, his voice rising.
“Absolutely not!”
If anything, Everett was reacting even more forcefully than the Emperor himself would have.

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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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