Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 89

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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 89
Kyle led us to a small reception room, saying he would tell us now what he’d promised to explain later.
Kyle walked at the front, with a dejected Everett trailing behind.
I followed closely behind Kyle, but seeing Ibeta eagerly at his heels, I let myself fall back slightly.
“Everett.”
I called his name, gently squeezing his hand before letting go.
He didn’t notice until I drew near, but at the sound of my voice, his gaze shifted toward me.
“Lina.”
Everett, who was usually arrogant and brimming with confidence, looked thoroughly defeated.
‘He’s still bothered by what happened earlier, isn’t he?’
Except for the beginning, this was the first time Everett had ever raised his voice to me.
‘It’s fine, though.’
Earlier, I’d wondered why Everett was so involved in imperial matters, but now that he looked so downcast, my chest felt heavy.
Realizing I was worried about him, Everett forced his lips upward into a smile.
But even under the fading moonlight, it was unmistakably a sorrowful one.
My heart gave a painful throb.
‘Mother used to say a man only needs to be okay until he starts looking attractive.’
Once he started looking cute, that’s when things became dangerous—and if he looked pitiful, it was all over.
And right now, Everett looked both cute and pitiful to me.
I’d never cared for men who got pouty over a disagreement, but Everett was different.
I admitted it cleanly to myself.
‘I’m done for.’
I beamed at him and took his hand again.
“Everett.”
I called his name and stopped walking; he stopped too.
After confirming that Kyle and Ibeta were far enough ahead, I kissed Everett.
A soft peck.
Still childlike, barely a kiss at all, but his lips touched mine for the second time.
“Let’s make up.”
I blurted it out, watching as life suddenly flooded back into Everett’s marble-like features, my own face flushed.
“W-what are you—”
Everett stammered, caught off guard, his hand flying to his lips.
His face blazed crimson.
“Why would you ask that!”
I was embarrassed too.
I scolded him in a whisper at his ear, then strode purposefully ahead as if nothing had happened.
As if that brief moment had never been.
I worked to cool my flushed face, worried that Ibeta and Kyle might turn around.
It was some time before I heard his footsteps following behind me.
* * *
Once we were seated in the reception room, Kyle’s gaze swept across Everett and me in turn.
Lingering especially on Everett.
It was the same look I gave my mischievous twins when they’d caused trouble.
I wondered if he’d caught us, but Kyle had no eyes in the back of his head, so he couldn’t have.
I decided to brazenly ignore the guilt and move on.
“What I wanted to say was…”
As I broached the subject directly, Ibeta—who had heard a hint of this from me beforehand—went rigid.
She tried to shrink back as if desperate to escape, but sank deeper into the soft cushions of the sofa instead.
Kyle observed her reaction carefully.
“What did you want to say?”
Then he focused his attention on my words.
Everett seemed to have left his soul back on that roadside; he wasn’t really listening. But that was fine.
‘All that matters is Kyle hears it, since he’ll relay it to the Emperor.’
I glanced at Ibeta once more, then explained my plan again.
As I expected, Kyle was entirely unbothered by the fact that Ibeta was an illegitimate child of House Robertus.
He concerned himself only with the feasibility of my plan.
‘Even in the original story, Kyle and the Emperor didn’t care about Ibeta’s family background.’
Since the Emperor’s other close associates had already accepted Bes’s existence, there seemed little reason to expect major opposition this time.
‘Being a half-sister is one thing; becoming empress is another.’
If the Emperor and Ibeta came together with the knowledge that she was an illegitimate child of House Robertus already established, objections would be fewer.
If I was thinking long-term, a measured approach wasn’t a bad strategy at all.
“Seems fine to me.”
Kyle examined the button I’d handed him carefully, as if appraising it, and rendered his judgment.
“I’ll inform His Majesty myself.”
Kyle spoke while looking at the painting behind Everett.
“He’ll need to hear it properly.”
For just a moment, a flicker crossed Kyle’s eyes—that same look he’d shown when observing my troublesome twins.
But it vanished just as quickly.
Kyle refocused on what he was saying and opened a subspace.
“But just in case something goes wrong…”
What emerged was a Paternity Verification Magical Device.
‘I have no idea why that’s in there.’
But it worked out perfectly.
Kyle himself was a distant branch of House Robertus.
‘A Paternity Verification Magical Device will respond to any blood relation.’
Like Bes, Ibeta would be a distant relative of Kyle’s, so the device would work.
It was more efficient than summoning Bes, who was probably sleeping soundly by now.
Kyle placed the device on the low table, then produced a Silver Needle in turn.
Blood from both subjects was necessary to activate the magical device.
“It’s normally used to test for poison, but this one is brand new and has never been used.”
Kyle repeated the exact same words I’d heard on the day I signed my contract with the Blue Hawk, and handed a needle to Ibeta.
“Just prick your fingertip and let a few drops of blood fall on it.”
He added the explanation lest Ibeta be unfamiliar with how to use the device.
“Oh, okay.”
Ibeta squeezed her eyes shut and pricked her fingertip with the needle.
Once several drops of Ibeta’s blood fell onto the device, Kyle let his own blood flow into it as well.
When he channeled his magical power into it, a pale blue light appeared.
It was the response that occurred when a blood relation was established.
‘When we activate the device with Bes, the light will probably be a deeper shade of blue.’
“There’s no one on Mother’s side of the family unaccounted for, so this checks out,” Kyle said.
He put the device back into the subspace.
His gaze flicked toward the painting behind Everett for an instant, then returned.
“Let’s just start with the paperwork, shall we? We should finish it all today.”
“You’re not going to report this to His Majesty?”
I asked to confirm, struck by the change in his tone.
“Well, no, I don’t think that will be necessary.”
Kyle spoke as if it were of no consequence.
Then he called out to Everett.
“Lord Lohas.”
Everett, lost in his own thoughts, didn’t respond to his name.
“Lord Lohas!”
Kyle called to him again.
This time, raising his voice slightly.
Only then did Everett seem to register that Kyle was calling him.
“What?”
His voice was hoarse, and his words trailed off.
Kyle laughed brightly at him.
“Would you mind fetching Bes for me?”
Everett’s brow furrowed slightly, as if he were in a daze.
He seemed to have mishear something.
But a moment later, as understanding dawned, he relaxed his expression and got to his feet, saying he’d go fetch her.
Everett’s footsteps as he headed out were heavier than usual.
Like someone who was angry.
* * *
“So what you’re saying is, that one’s my half-sister?”
Bes, summoned shortly after, listened to Kyle’s explanation with a calm, unsurprised expression.
After confirming the blood relation with the Paternity Verification Magical Device, she obediently signed the documents Kyle presented—both for official recognition and for granting her a title—still half-asleep.
Kyle took the documents from Bes and hurriedly left the reception room.
“Are you all right, Bes?”
I was worried because she seemed too indifferent.
‘Could she be in shock at the sudden appearance of a half-sister?’
“Of course I’m all right. I’ve seen this sort of thing before.”
Bes, still half-asleep, referred to Ibeta as “this sort of thing.”
Timid Ibeta seemed to take it as hostility and shrank into herself.
“Bes just talks like that; she doesn’t actually dislike you, Ibeta.”
I vouched for Bes, the way the Blue Hawk members had done for me.
Bes, not wanting to make a bad impression on Ibeta, quickly corrected herself.
“No, I meant that the Marquis Robertus had more illegitimate children. They’re all dead now, but you’re my first sibling.”
Only then did Ibeta’s shoulders relax a little.
‘Good job, Bes.’
I praised her silently.
Then I corrected one thing Bes had gotten wrong.
“Actually, Ibeta is the older one.”
Even if they were born only a few months apart.
“Why is she the older one? She’s so tiny.”
Bes cried out in protest.

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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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