I Didn't Know I Was Secretly Dating the Emperor
“Suddenly?”
I had deliberately kept a hazy, uninterested look whenever Edwin brought up his love life because I had zero desire to get involved. Still, I’d picked up on a few things over time.
Even the usually tight-lipped and taciturn Edwin seemed completely overwhelmed by romance. He would occasionally pour out stories about Lina as if he could no longer hold them in.
‘Weren’t things going well?’
A faint spark of curiosity rose in me, along with the willingness to actually listen to his relationship troubles.
Kylus sat down across from Edwin.
“There must have been some kind of trigger. Do you have any guesses?”
It didn’t seem likely that Lina would suddenly declare she hated Edwin without any reason.
‘His radar is completely broken when it comes to romance, so he might have made an unintentional mistake.’
In truth, Kylus considered that possibility the most likely.
He didn’t think Edwin, who was head-over-heels in his first love, would have deliberately hurt Lina.
‘Which means there’s a high chance he doesn’t even know what caused the problem.’
“No, it would be faster if you just explained everything that happened today in chronological order.”
“Well, you see…”
Edwin’s explanation was long. Extremely long.
Even after trimming away all the unnecessary tangents, it was still long.
Only when Kylus’s curiosity had just about burned out did they finally reach the conclusion.
What Lina hated wasn’t him—the man she knew as Everett Rohas.
She hated Edwin the Emperor.
‘This doesn’t seem like that big of a problem.’
Kylus thought so while inwardly mourning the time he had wasted.
Since the “Everett Rohas” Lina knew and the Emperor were ultimately the same person, it was understandable that Edwin felt a bit uncomfortable.
But in the end, didn’t Lina only know Edwin as Everett Rohas?
If he just shifted his way of thinking a little, it wasn’t really an issue.
Kylus secretly rolled his eyes to check the time, then spoke a bit faster.
“Ideally, it would be better if she also felt some affection toward you as the Emperor, but…”
While inwardly worrying about what might have happened at the café while he was away, Kylus offered his advice with a perfectly calm expression.
Though his body remained in the reception room, his mind had already stood up and was racing toward the café.
“Ideally?”
The sharp reply, completely unlike his earlier gloomy demeanor, forced Kylus’s wandering mind back to the present.
Kylus answered with the serious attitude of someone who had never been distracted at all.
“Yes, ideally. After all, Lady Diaz only knows Your Majesty as Everett Rohas.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
At Kylus’s blunt confirmation, Edwin clutched his head with both hands and despaired.
“Someday I have to tell her that I’m the Emperor.”
‘Hmm?’
Kylus, who had only been pretending to be serious, finally began to focus on the conversation in earnest.
“You were planning to reveal Your Majesty’s identity to Lady Diaz?”
“Of course.”
There simply hadn’t been a good opportunity. At least, that was how it felt now—though it sounded like a lame excuse.
Edwin’s answer was quite prickly, sharpened by his frustration over things not going his way.
Kylus smoothly let the sharpness slide and thought to himself.
‘If he intends to reveal his identity, then the premise itself was wrong from the start.’
In truth, Kylus had assumed that Edwin saw Lina purely as a romantic partner, separate from any deeper emotions.
They had been dating regularly for quite some time, yet Edwin continued pretending to be Everett Rohas. That only reinforced his assumption.
‘Free love has become trendy and such things have gone out of fashion, but it used to be quite common for emperors or high nobles to hide their identities and date people of lower status.’
Marriages within the imperial family or among high nobility were rarely based solely on affection. If the relationship was destined to end, it was better for the other party not to know the truth.
Safety concerns were one thing, but the main reason was to avoid disrupting the other person’s peaceful daily life.
‘Not that he had any intention of bringing her into his own world, either.’
It was a hypocritical consideration meant to allow the other person to quietly exit his life once the flames of their feelings had burned out and only ashes remained.
After a moment of careful thought while choosing his words, Kylus asked the most direct question.
“Are you thinking of making her your Empress?”
Up to this point, Edwin’s romance could be dismissed as a personal matter.
But if it developed into something deeper, it could no longer be treated as merely Edwin’s private affair.
Because he was the Emperor.
“That’s…”
No proper answer came from Edwin.
Yet his expression conveyed a far more complicated meaning than words ever could.
‘I don’t know how the other party feels, but at least on this side, it seems they were dating more seriously than I thought.’
Having interpreted Edwin’s nonverbal cues as easily as drinking cold soup, Kylus’s brain busily ran through various scenarios.
As he had thought before, there would be nothing bad about Lina becoming Empress.
She was of Renkels County blood despite having cut ties with them, and she was competent in her own right.
To be completely honest, if he had a vote, he would gladly cast it for Carolina Diaz. That was how highly he thought of her.
‘Still, it’s not really my place to butt into someone else’s love life.’
Even though he had grumbled dozens of times about how pathetic it was, Edwin was someone he had practically grown up with since they were babies.
And this was the first time Kylus had ever seen Edwin look this utterly devastated.
Kylus’s stance quickly tilted in one direction.
‘Please understand that I may be a little biased, Lady Diaz.’
Having organized his thoughts, Kylus spoke again.
“You said Lady Diaz seems to fear and avoid Your Majesty, correct?”
No answer came, as if Edwin didn’t want to affirm it.
But Kylus paid no mind and continued the one-sided conversation.
“Most citizens of the Empire probably fear Your Majesty. Even if Lady Diaz is part of that majority, it wouldn’t be strange at all.”
Edwin’s public image was that of a cruel tyrant.
The rumors that spread after he executed the previous Emperor and the nobles who supported him—done in the name of revenge—had snowballed throughout the war.
‘Half truth, half exaggeration, though.’
Since half of it was true, calling him a wise ruler would be a stretch, but it was also awkward to dismiss it entirely as a false accusation.
Edwin himself had never cared about it until now.
He was the type who wouldn’t bat an eye no matter what others thought. But if that “other” included Lina, the situation was completely different.
Having taken a precise hit at the right moment, Edwin wilted like a vegetable scalded in boiling water.
Once again, Kylus didn’t even blink as he continued speaking.
“If you reveal Your Majesty’s identity right now…”
Kylus paused briefly to recall the information he had gathered on Carolina Diaz, then continued.
“Given her tendency to trust what she sees with her own eyes, her opinion might change. She has had no contact with Your Majesty, but she does hold affection for ‘Everett Rohas.’”
The first impression might not have been great, but enough narrative had built up between them to more than make up for it.
The Edwin who existed as “Everett Rohas” had been a blunt but sincere dating partner.
At Kylus’s positive assessment, Edwin’s face brightened ever so slightly.
However, Kylus’s real point came after that.
“But Lady Diaz has a modest nature. She will likely feel burdened by becoming entangled with Your Majesty. If she had known from the beginning that you were the Emperor, I doubt she would have let you get close at all.”
It was speculation, but a highly probable hypothesis—one Kylus would stake the honor of the information guild’s leader on.
Knowing that Kylus’s predictions were usually accurate, Edwin’s face turned pale again.
Yet Kylus continued without mercy.
“If she finds out after she’s already deeply involved without knowing… she might even try to run away. She’s usually rational, but she does have a tendency to cause big incidents from time to time.”
He was the type to raise his lord with tough love.
By now, Edwin’s face looked like a storm cloud right before heavy rain.
“For the time being, it would be best not to reveal Your Majesty’s identity.”
It was advice given as both the Emperor’s advisor and his friend.
“But.”
Edwin, who had been quietly listening, pushed back.
Now that he had become aware he was deceiving Lina, it seemed to weigh on his mind.
It was as if he was shocked to hear from someone else just how serious the consequences of all the things he had casually overlooked could become.
‘If that’s how you feel, you should have said something sooner. This is why imperial family members are…’
Having learned how to rule people, he was naturally weaker when it came to actually interacting with them.
Kylus maintained a neutral expression while inwardly scolding Edwin.
‘If you had, you never would have started dating in the first place.’
It was a surge of friendship—the thought that if she was going to reject him anyway, it would have hurt less if it happened early on.