Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 9

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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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Episode 9
“It’s nothing much.”
I broached the subject carefully.
Finding courage as I confirmed that Kyle was listening to me with genuine attention, I continued.
“A friend of mine got caught up in this matter and was arrested. I want to save her.”
“Arrested……”
Kyle echoed my words with a subtle inflection.
“Sentence Negotiation isn’t my domain.”
With that, he drew a cold line.
Something in the way he spoke about Coni as if she were a criminal made my blood boil.
‘Stay calm. Getting pulled in means losing.’
I steadied myself and feigned composure.
“We don’t need Sentence Negotiation. She’s innocent.”
Kyle gestured with his eyes for me to continue.
“So you could introduce me to someone who could help prove her innocence, couldn’t you?”
“So it seems Miss Diaz trusts this friend of hers quite a bit.”
“Yes.”
His words, which kept trying to drive a wedge between Coni and me, wore on my nerves.
I answered firmly to signal him to stop, and Kyle broke into a smile.
It felt as though that subtle, irritating demeanor had vanished in an instant with that single smile.
“My profession makes me a touch suspicious by nature. Very well. Let’s consider this deal struck.”
Kyle gathered up the Documents I’d set before him.
“In four days—or rather, the same time next week—do visit this place once more. Until then, I guarantee Coni’s safety personally.”
Seeming to account for my difficult schedule, Kyle had set their next meeting for the weekend, and now asked if I needed a coffee refill.
The message was unmistakable: time to go.
“Thank you, but I’m fine.”
I stood abruptly, eager to head home.
Kyle saw me off with what looked like genuine regret.
Worried he might call me back, I hurried away from the café at a brisk pace.
‘Wow, you have to be that ruthless to run the Information Guild.’
I found myself hoping that coffee was merely the gateway to making a request.
‘I can’t drink any more of it.’
* * *
After Lina left, Edwin emerged from the real office of the guild connected to the café, where he’d been watching them both.
In his hands were Lina’s personal records, which Kyle had investigated.
“Do you think it’s just coincidence again?”
Edwin asked, more to himself than anything.
Kyle locked the café door and answered.
“Hard to say. It’s certainly peculiar, though.”
Kyle took the seat across from Edwin, who was sprawled carelessly across the nearest chair.
“You did investigate properly, didn’t you?”
Edwin fanned through Lina’s personal records with a flutter of his hand.
“I did my utmost.”
Under normal circumstances, Kyle would have bristled at the implication of doubt, but this time he had no answer but to affirm his diligence.
For he himself was troubled by the question—whether something unusual might be hidden about Miss Diaz.
“The investigation itself turned up nothing extraordinary.”
Edwin flipped through the documents he’d already reviewed countless times.
An orphan by birth, her father had been acknowledged for his talent and became a ward of a noble house.
Her mother was the second daughter of a renowned Count’s house—a woman who, against her family’s wishes, had married a commoner after their eyes met.
Her father had later been appointed a full professor at the Academy and received the title of Baron, but that was all.
The family circumstances were somewhat complicated, but such matters barely made a week’s worth of gossip in noble circles.
“The wedding process on her parents’ side was grand, but they’ve lived quietly ever since.”
Having severed ties with House Renkels, she had no connection to other noble families.
Even Carolina herself had forgone a Debutante and worked at the Imperial Palace directly after graduating from the Academy.
Her life was closer to that of a wealthy commoner than a true noble.
There were no remarkable points or gaps in her record.
“Every encounter she’s had since coming to the Capital appears to be pure chance.”
Edwin’s face was not yet widely known.
Before his ascension, he’d been confined by the previous emperor’s suppression, and after ascending the throne, he’d gone straight to the battlefield.
Even after coming to the Capital, he was skilled enough to protect himself, so he traveled without a personal guard.
‘The likelihood of information leaking is low, and there’s nothing suspicious about Carolina Diaz’s movements either.’
Rickel Street was a place frequented by those who worked at the Imperial Palace after their shifts.
Grizel Park was directly in front of her residence.
The third encounter was near the Imperial Palace itself, and when they’d met near Kyle’s café, the investigation had confirmed she’d merely been visiting her usual grocer.
“I’ve managed to accept things up to this point.”
Edwin stroked his chin lightly.
“But what about this?”
Edwin gestured with his chin toward the Documents Lina had left behind.
Setting aside suspicion of Lina, it was information that had arrived at the right moment, perfectly necessary.
There was sufficient motive to justify it.
But in a period when coincidences kept piling up, this information had arrived as if on cue.
Even for Edwin, it gave pause.
“What if Carolina Diaz is actually a shadow operative of Duke Camelot in disguise?”
Edwin knew the words sounded absurd.
Yet he couldn’t help but find the theory that Carolina Diaz was the true mastermind more plausible than believing all of this to be mere coincidence.
“Surely not.”
Kyle denied it with an uncertain smile.
“The relationship between Count Renkels and Duke Camelot is far too poor for that.”
“Come to think of it, there was a rumor that Duke Camelot killed Count Renkels’s fiancée.”
Edwin recalled a rumor that had circulated almost as fact.
The current Count Renkels was Olivia Diaz’s sister.
Which meant she was Carolina Diaz’s aunt.
Though the late Count Renkels had passed on the title while retaining real power in the family, and so Olivia Diaz did not openly associate with her sister, the two sisters were very close.
“Even if Olivia Diaz and Count Renkels are close, that doesn’t necessarily mean Carolina Diaz stands with Count Renkels in the same way. Still, given how deep the bonds of House Diaz run, one would have to classify her as being in friendly relations with the Count.”
Kyle added this with a thoughtful expression.
“She could even inherit the Renkels title without doing anything, so why would she bother serving Duke Camelot, his rival?”
The late Count Renkels had completely stripped his daughter of her inheritance rights and cast her out for contracting a Marriage Between Different Social Classes.
But whether time had softened him or he wished reconciliation with his daughter, he had left the succession rights of Olivia’s grandchildren intact.
Since his fiancée’s death, the current Count Renkels had lived as a perpetual bachelor, taking no other lovers.
In other words, if the current Count Renkels died without an heir, it was highly probable that the Renkels title would pass to Carolina Diaz, the eldest daughter of Olivia Diaz.
“Duke Camelot couldn’t very well hand a countship to his subordinate, could he?”
“Hardly. Count Renkels would be absolutely furious if Carolina Diaz had even the most trivial acquaintance with Duke Camelot.”
“It’s still strange, though.”
Edwin cradled his head lightly between both hands.
After a moment of theatrical groaning, Edwin seemed to reach a decision and asked Kyle,
“You said the meeting with Carolina Diaz is next week?”
“Yes, that’s correct, but—”
“I’m going.”
A faint but unmistakable glimmer of curiosity kindled in Edwin’s golden eyes.
* * *
A week passed quickly.
I grasped the door of the café that masqueraded as an Information Guild and pulled it open carefully.
At the sound of the bell, Kyle, who had been aligning the angles of tables and chairs, turned toward me.
“You’ve arrived at just the right time.”
Kyle greeted me with a smile and guided me deeper into the café.
“We have customers today.”
At his words, I glanced back to see young girls with youthful faces eyeing us while eating cake.
I’d been wondering if Recognition Concealment Magic might be in effect, but apparently not.
“So it is a place where customers can come.”
At my seemingly idle remark, Kyle hesitated.
“It’s an operating café, after all.”
His tone was oddly sulky.
“Please have a seat and wait. Someone will be arriving shortly.”
It was a room with dark gray walls and nothing but a reception set.
I sat obediently as Kyle instructed.
‘Who could it be?’
According to the original story, Kyle was the son of the imperial tutor who had raised the orphaned emperor—his closest confidant.
With such an introduction, it might be someone quite important.
‘Perhaps the emperor’s personal aide, even.’
I was steeling myself not to be intimidated when the wall I thought was solid opened, and someone entered.
It was a large man wearing a hood.
‘Wait, that silhouette is so familiar—’
Surely not. I rose from my seat.
At the same moment, the man pulled down his deeply drawn hood.
“We’ve met before, haven’t we?”
Those beautiful golden eyes, striking even when seen many times, gleamed alluringly beneath the dim lighting.
‘It really is Burrett Rohas again.’

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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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