Unbeknownst to Me, I am Secretly Dating the Emperor - Chapter 96

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

Chapter 96
The elderly gentleman who had passed his noble title to his daughter—the Former Count Renkels—approached our table with his mouth clenched tight, looking every bit as furious as a man could be.
Mother remained frozen in her posture of turning to look at the server.
“I’m sorry. But we can’t go on like this forever. Father wanted to let the past rest too.”
My aunt apologized repeatedly to Mother, who was still caught off guard by the sudden turn of events.
Mother snapped to attention, about to lash out at her sister, but then she saw me and held herself back.
“Alisa Renkels.”
She merely spoke my aunt’s full name in a low voice.
While Mother glared at my aunt, the Former Count Renkels drew ever closer.
I glanced at Mother, then Aunt Alisa, then Grandfather in turn, and rose from my seat.
“Pleased to meet you, Grandfather. I’m Carolina Diaz.”
I smiled brightly at the Former Count Renkels and greeted him.
It was rare for an adult to be angry at a smiling child, and a child’s ignorance of the room’s tension was its own form of privilege.
The Former Count Renkels’ gaze softened just slightly as it turned toward me.
But it turned cold again the moment it shifted back to Mother.
The Former Count Renkels pretended not to hear my greeting and spoke only to Mother.
“How pathetic.”
His violet eyes raked over Mother’s worn Grey Dress with unmistakable disdain.
Mother bit her lips tightly, as if only then realizing what she was wearing.
But the hesitation was brief.
Mother straightened her back and thrust out her chest as though the garment were a ball gown.
“It’s my favorite dress, though?”
Seeing his daughter smile so brazenly, as though she meant every word, the Former Count Renkels’ face flushed crimson with rage.
“Father.”
At my aunt’s careful call, his anger subsided, barely.
After simmering in silence for some time, the Former Count Renkels finally spoke.
“Divorce that wretched man and come home.”
Then he added, as though bestowing a favor.
“You may bring the children. I’ll enroll them in the Renkels Countdom’s registry.”
But when Mother heard this, her anger flared into an inferno.
“Why would I ever go back to that house!”
The Former Count Renkels, barely cooled moments before, ignited in fury to match hers, and the tea shop became a battleground.
Fortunately, there were no other patrons present.
As the atmosphere grew hostile, my aunt clamped her hands over my ears.
I heard everything anyway, but the warmth of her palms against my head made it feel somehow less terrifying.
My aunt bent down to meet my eyes and spoke.
“They have identical temperaments. Both of them lose all reason when they’re angry.”
Her voice carried the weight of long years of resigned experience.
In truth, I was forming similar conclusions myself.
Unlike Father, who grew more composed the angrier he became, Mother had a fiery nature.
At that moment, my impression of the Former Count Renkels was not quite at its worst.
I simply felt grateful that my younger siblings weren’t here, and noted that Mother truly did resemble her father.
“That house? Your mother designed it herself from the ground up—that house?”
“Why do you keep bringing up Mother!”
Both their voices were thunderously loud, though their quarrel had a somewhat childish quality to it.
But in the next moment, I came to dislike the Former Count Renkels.
In the midst of his heated argument with Mother, the Former Count Renkels pointed at me.
“Wicked child! When will you stop thinking only of yourself? Do you mean to keep your children commoners their whole lives?”
At that time, Father had become a full professor at the Academy and received a Sub-Baron title, and even though the Renkels Countdom was an ancient and prestigious noble house, it couldn’t grant a title to all four of us siblings.
In other words, some of us would remain commoners regardless, yet Mother found herself at a loss for words.
Seizing the advantage, the Former Count Renkels repeated his offer.
“So come home while I’m willing to take you in.”
Even in his magnanimity, Father remained outside the scope of what the Former Count Renkels would accept.
“No.”
After a long pause, Mother rejected his proposal in a quiet voice.
The Former Count Renkels laughed in exasperation.
Then he turned his gaze to me—something he had done only twice before.
“Do you feel the same way?”
When an adult man’s untempered anger reached me, I felt a chill of fear.
As I clutched my aunt’s hand, the Former Count Renkels scoffed.
“Father, what are you saying to a child?”
My aunt protested, but the Former Count Renkels continued.
“Promise to follow me. Then you shall become a future Count.”
My aunt had by then already sworn to live out her days alone, longing for her deceased betrothed, so his boast would likely come true.
But it didn’t seem he was speaking from a genuine desire to pass his title to his granddaughter.
I sensed that all of his attention was fixed on Mother—as though he waited solely for her reaction.
The moment the Former Count Renkels’ gaze turned to me, Mother, who had been on high alert, bit her lip again.
Our eyes met in the empty space between us, but Mother said nothing.
“In exchange, your family would be no one but me and Alisa Renkels after that.”
Seeing Mother’s mouth clamp shut, the Former Count Renkels drove in his wedge.
In a society governed by rank, the difference between having a title and being a commoner was vast. Mother, who had lived through that difference, would feel its weight more keenly than most.
Complex emotions flickered in Mother’s violet eyes.
I smiled at Mother.
My grandfather was proving to be a rather petty man, I thought.
“No.”
Far firmer than Mother’s refusal.
Even as a child, I understood that a Count was someone of great consequence.
But I didn’t believe a countdom title was worth trading away the small world I called my own.
If I had to choose my family, the answer was already decided.
And that choice never changed, even after I grew into adulthood.
The Former Count Renkels’ face flushed crimson again as he faced a second consecutive “no” from a small child.
Before he could rage again, Count Renkels moved faster.
“Father! Say nothing more. We’re leaving.”
Count Renkels practically dragged the Former Count Renkels out of the tea shop.
Long after they left, Mother remained seated in the tea shop.
“Will you regret it?”
Finally, on the way home, Mother asked me carefully.
“Regret what?”
I tilted my head, playing the innocent child.
Only then did Mother’s expression relax.
Mother and I never spoke of this incident to anyone.
And after that day, I never saw any member of the Renkels Countdom again.
* * *
“When I was young, I gnashed my teeth at the thought that if the title ever came to me, I’d return it straight to the Imperial Palace.”
Children on the cusp of adolescence tended to be proud and extreme in their thinking.
Now that I was an adult, I no longer felt the necessity of returning the title.
‘Returning the title would only profit the Emperor.’
If I declined the title, one of my siblings would inherit it according to the line of succession.
Whether Count Renkels fell in love again later or adopted a child from a cadet branch didn’t concern me.
I was sufficiently content with my life as it was.
I returned to the Office, thinking over how to move through the Separate Palace without crossing paths with Count Renkels.
“I’m back.”
The Office was oddly quiet.
‘Everyone’s here, though?’
People who looked exhausted, as though they’d endured some great ordeal, stirred from their scattered positions and rose one by one.
They greeted me in an extraordinarily awkward tone.
“Welcome, Your— I mean, welcome?”
As Derek stumbled like a malfunctioning machine, Lucy gave him a sharp smack across the back.
“Ow!”
Derek writhed like performance art, pain flaring across the center of his back where Lucy’s hand had landed.
Lucy nudged Derek gently toward the wall.
While Derek pressed his back against the cool wall, Lucy smiled broadly and handed me an Apple Juice with ice floating in it.
“It’s hot outside, isn’t it?”
“It is, but…”
For some reason, it felt like there was something in the juice besides apple, water, and ice.

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