Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 91

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 91
At first, I thought I was seeing things.
‘Come on, why would His Majesty be at the lakeside? And with Lina of all people?’
Lina being at the lakeside known as the Lovers’ Sanctuary was fine enough.
The Emperor being there too… well, that wasn’t necessarily a problem.
But Lina and the Emperor together? That was…
Even as Lucy tried to deny what he was seeing, the Emperor brought Lina’s hand to his lips.
Faced with an impossible scene unfolding before his eyes, Lucy rubbed his eyes frantically.
Yet the forms of Edwin and Lina did not disappear from his vision.
‘This is real.’
And the Emperor was smiling shyly, no less.
‘What is this? I’m terrified.’
Lucy clapped his hand over his own mouth to stifle an escaping shriek.
“Darling, what’s wrong?”
His Romantic Partner—cute but not particularly perceptive—looked at Lucy with confusion as he displayed this sudden strange behavior.
“Shh.”
Lucy pressed a finger to his Partner’s lips, silencing his typically loud voice.
Then, like a person who’d stumbled upon a wild animal, he held his breath and carefully began backing away.
Only once Edwin had shrunk to the size of a pea in the distance did Lucy’s hand finally drop from his Partner’s mouth.
“You didn’t see anything, right?”
Lucy’s lips trembled with anxiety.
‘A shy His Majesty. What in the world.’
It felt like he’d witnessed something he was never meant to see, and the discomfort gnawed at him.
Lucy shuddered, suddenly feeling chilled despite the summer heat.
And for good reason—Lucy had spent six years as a knight in Edwin’s direct regiment.
He’d retired from active duty after sustaining injuries in combat and transferred to clerical work instead.
Which meant Lucy understood better than most of his colleagues in the Inspection Unit how much of the Emperor’s reputation was truth and how much was exaggeration.
The people of the Empire believed the Emperor had staged his coup out of righteous indignation at the previous ruler’s tyranny.
‘Officially, yes. But in reality…’
Those who had served Edwin since childhood, Lucy among them, knew the truth.
Edwin’s coup was driven entirely by vengeance.
Yet his target, the previous Emperor, had died far too easily.
Incomplete as his revenge was, the newly crowned Edwin had been unstable—dangerously so.
He’d burned what remained of his fury on the battlefield.
As Emperor, he sought out only the most perilous wars, always charging ahead.
The citizens reading victory reports might have seen heroism in it, but Lucy, who’d witnessed him directly, had a different impression.
‘On the battlefield, I was just grateful he was on our side.’
More than once, he’d wondered if Edwin actually enjoyed the sight of blood.
‘Though that wasn’t quite it.’
From age fifteen to twenty-one, watching Edwin through his most turbulent years, Lucy had known him as an incredibly harsh and frightening commanding officer.
But now that Emperor was in a relationship with Lina.
Lucy tried to think positively.
‘Well, I suppose two adults can date.’
Both Edwin and Lina were well into adulthood.
And they seemed to get along well enough.
‘But why?’
Doubts kept creeping up on him.
‘She’s probably been dazzled by that handsome face of his.’
Having reached this conclusion on his own, Lucy offered a silent elegy for Lina.
But if he acknowledged what he’d seen or let rumors spread, his life expectancy wouldn’t improve one bit.
Lucy decided to erase this incident from his memory entirely.
“What didn’t I see?”
His Romantic Partner, suddenly dragged along with his mouth covered, pouted indignantly.
“I ran into someone from work. Didn’t want it to get awkward between us.”
Lucy tried to soothe his Partner, doing his best to suppress the lingering image.
‘Mm, I really don’t want to go that way.’
Not that he was desperate to avoid meeting His Majesty—it was just a terrible premonition.
As he attempted to brainwash himself,
Lucy swept his eyes across locations where Edwin and Lina would have absolutely no interest in venturing.
“That’s it.”
This lake had several small row boats where couples could take a cozy ride together.
It was practically a mandatory attraction here.
But it was mid-summer now.
During the hottest part of the day, row boats weren’t popular.
“Darling, let’s take one of those.”
“Won’t it be hot, Lucy?”
“Summer’s always hot.”
Lucy pulled his Partner toward the row boats.
“Well, that’s true. Actually, I kind of wanted to ride a boat anyway.”
His Partner, half-dragged along, pretended he was walking of his own volition.
Having worked among the male-dominated Knight Order, he was the type who’d grown tired of macho men and had weak self-assertion.
The two reached an easy agreement and boarded a row boat.
Couples who’d rented row boats early in the morning were about to return anyway.
Lucy’s strategy had worked perfectly.
In this sweltering, shadeless time of day, they were the only couple with a boat on the water.
Lucy’s flowing chiffon summer dress and ribbon-trimmed hat proved surprisingly effective against the sunlight.
The crown of his head was warm from the blazing sun, but it was bearable.
If anything, the absence of people around made the atmosphere nicer.
As if they had this famous lake all to themselves.
Lucy’s racing heartbeat gradually settled back to its proper rhythm.
Then, at that very moment, he spotted a row boat preparing to depart from the dock.
“Oh no.”
It was Edwin and Lina.
He hadn’t expected anyone else to take out a boat at this hour.
He’d certainly never expected it to be Lina and Edwin.
Lina, wearing a wide-brimmed hat, boarded the row boat with Edwin’s assistance.
Edwin climbed in after her, then removed the outer robe he’d been wearing, revealing a thin white shirt beneath.
He even rolled up his sleeves.
The way he was leaning toward Lina made it obvious he was making excuses about how his summer clothes were inconvenient for rowing.
‘And here’s a man who was marching around just fine in full plate armor, claiming formal summer wear is uncomfortable.’
Lucy’s eyes narrowed at Edwin’s obvious move.
‘Men.’
He never would have imagined grouping Edwin in with the other male knights.
As Edwin gripped the oars and began to row, his arm muscles swelled and contracted in waves.
The summer shirt was so thin it displayed every contraction of those muscles.
Lucy could see how Lina’s gaze kept drifting subtly toward Edwin’s forearms and chest muscles.
Edwin, sharper than most, had certainly noticed Lina’s stare—yet he pretended not to, continuing to row with exaggerated diligence.
True to form for an Aura Master with natural talent for physical prowess, he’d quickly grasped the technique of rowing.
After Edwin exerted himself a few times, the boat carrying the two had reached the center of the lake.
It was now close enough to Lucy’s boat that a loud voice would carry between them.
Lucy pushed his hat down lower on his head first.
Edwin and Lina seemed too absorbed in their own world to notice another boat beside them, but the gesture was for Lucy’s own peace of mind.
Edwin set down the oars and asked Lina if she wasn’t hot.
His face was completely dry, not a bead of sweat to be seen.
It was an utterly transparent ploy.
“Say you’re cold. Come on, say you’re cold. It’s winter, isn’t it?”
Lucy silently cheered Lina on under his breath.
If Lina admitted she was hot, he’d probably start unbuttoning his shirt.
From his years in the male-dominated Knight Order, Lucy had inadvertently become well-versed in men’s flirting techniques.
‘These knights think women go crazy over muscular bodies.’
They were right.
Maybe not ‘crazy’ exactly, but most women did like them.
Even Lucy usually told his knight colleagues to just take their shirts off whenever they came to him for dating advice.
Their brains seemed to have turned to muscle along with all their training—they had no sense of subtlety, just good bodies.
Transparent and hackneyed as the ploy was, it apparently worked on Lina, who had the typical taste for muscular men.
Lina, with a subtly eager expression, said she was indeed hot.
Lucy couldn’t bear to watch Edwin strut like a peacock anymore.
‘Ugh. Flirting in the Imperial Palace lake, no less.’
Lucy sighed and grabbed the oars.
Then he rowed with all his strength and left the lake behind.
“Wait, darling?”
Being a former knight, Lucy was faster with the oars than his bookish Partner.
The boat reached the dock at a speed far greater than when they’d set out.
“Sweetheart, I suddenly feel motion sickness.”
Lucy made excuses after the fact.
“Oh, our Lucy got motion sickness, so we rushed back?”
Though bewildered, his Partner was naive enough to accept this explanation readily. Lucy led him toward the shade of a secluded grove of trees.
Apparently his and Edwin’s taste in dating spots overlapped.
“Again?”
Lucy swallowed back the crude remark that had almost escaped his lips.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————