The Blue Hawks Join the Conspiracy
The Blue Hawks had no intention of ignoring Kylus's warning to watch their mouths.
An angry Kylus was every bit as terrifying as the Emperor himself.
They had simply cherished Lina as a colleague from the very beginning.
Though it was only today that they had decided to express those sincere feelings outright.
Just then, Lina returned from the detached palace.
Right before the office door opened, the Blue Hawks exchanged glances, promising fair play.
But silent vows rarely last long.
“Have you arrived, my lady? I mean—have you arrived?”
Derek, still rattled from earlier, slipped up and earned a sharp smack on the back from Lucy before being shoved aside.
Lucy swiftly claimed his spot.
“Was it hot outside?”
She handed Lina an apple juice with ice cubes floating in it and beamed with affection.
Nadan, who had been preparing ice water, accepted defeat and downed the whole glass in one go.
In the quiet that followed, the sound of him crunching ice echoed through the room.
Lucy sneaked a smile at Nadan behind Lina’s back.
Lina sipped the juice with a faintly suspicious expression and asked, “You weren’t talking about me behind my back, were you?”
Her tone was playful. She seemed more puzzled by their sudden change in attitude than convinced they had actually been gossiping.
“What? How could we possibly dare…”
Derek malfunctioned again.
This time Nadan quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
Grateful for the quick save, Derek voluntarily retreated to the corner. Better to stay silent than risk another blunder.
“We would never talk behind your back. We just felt guilty that we were the only ones relaxing in this cool office,” Sophia said smoothly, subtly shielding Derek with her body as she steered the conversation elsewhere.
“By the way, how has Beth been doing?”
“Oh, yes! She mentioned she’d drop by with the Saintess soon.”
The wisdom of experience was truly formidable. Sophia had cut off Lina’s suspicion before it could take root.
And her performance didn’t end there.
“Oh, that’s perfect. Lucy is a follower of the Minos Church, you know.”
Sophia pulled Lucy—the quickest thinker among the remaining three—into the conversation.
“I’ve been wanting to visit at least once, so I’m delighted to hear she’s coming. Do you think it would be all right to ask for a blessing?”
Lucy picked up the thread with perfect naturalness.
While Lina and Lucy chatted, Sophia silently disciplined Derek and Nadan—mostly warning Derek with sharp looks not to open his mouth.
After surviving one crisis, the Blue Hawks had learned the proper limits of kindness they could show a favored colleague.
But their true ordeal was only beginning.
Lina appeared puzzled by her colleagues’ sudden surge of friendliness.
Not uncomfortable or awkward—just genuinely unaware.
It was clear she had no idea they knew she was dating the Emperor.
The letters delivered by the errand runner were still addressed to the “anonymous knight,” and Derek continued to report that Edwin met Lina after work every day, always with his face hidden beneath a black hood.
As members of the Emperor’s personal intelligence unit, their instincts were sharp.
Though it took them varying amounts of time, they all reached the same conclusion within a few days.
‘Excluding the people involved, huh?’
No matter how they looked at it, Lina herself seemed completely unaware that she was dating the Emperor.
Eventually, on a day when Lina left the office to teach Ivetta the ancient language, the Blue Hawks called another secret meeting.
“Doesn’t it feel off to you?” Lucy began.
Derek and Nadan nodded quietly in agreement.
“So we all sensed the same thing,” Sophia added, and the four of them fell into grim silence.
They had joked about getting close to the future Empress, but their fondness for Lina was real—separate from her connection to the Emperor.
“I never thought His Majesty would act like this,” Lucy said, the one closest to Lina, her eyes irreverent.
Even Sophia, who usually kept Lucy in check, stayed quiet. She was making the same irreverent face.
“I didn’t realize the fashion of highborn men hiding their identities from lowborn lovers was still in style,” Sophia said, clearly disappointed.
“Shouldn’t we tell Lina?” Derek suggested cautiously.
“Tell her what?”
“That the person she’s dating is hiding his status?”
Derek answered without noticing how deathly silent the office had become.
“That would be a problem.”
“Eep.”
Derek finally realized Kylus was there.
This time, the other three made no attempt to throw him under the bus. Not for Derek’s sake, but for Lina’s.
“Kylus, you knew as well.”
Sophia, who was close to Kylus’s mother, stepped forward as their representative.
“It’s not as if I wanted to know,” Kylus answered with a sigh. Sophia’s eyes grew even sharper.
“But once you learned the truth, you should have stopped it.”
Kylus’s sigh deepened at her words.
“By the time I found out, it was already too late.”
As he spoke, Kylus pulled a staff from his subspace pouch.
“This time you’ve learned something you truly shouldn’t know.”
His voice had taken on a solemn weight.
‘He’s going to cast memory distortion magic on us?’
On his own allies?
The Blue Hawks recoiled in silent horror at the extreme turn.
With a gloomy expression, Kylus chanted the trigger word.
“Silence.”
Unexpectedly, it was a spell that simply prevented sound from escaping the room.
“Now, shall we have a proper, heartfelt talk?” Kylus smiled, his face slightly pale.
“Why are you pulling out a staff for a basic spell like Silence!” Lucy snapped, jolted out of her brief daze.
“What else can I do? Barrier magic inside the imperial palace makes casting difficult,” Kylus grumbled, putting the staff away.
“Even this time, it was all heard from outside.”
“We were really quiet, though.”
“I have excellent hearing.”
Kylus answered without shame.
He had clearly installed some kind of alert magic tool in the office that reacted to specific keywords or situations. It was only natural for someone in his line of work not to trust people easily.
“This was a secret I planned to carry alone, but now that it’s come to this, it can’t be helped.”
Kylus smiled brightly, though his tone was full of regret.
It felt ominous. Like sinking into a swamp.
But before they could cover their ears, Kylus began explaining the situation.
“Lina knows His Majesty as Everett Rohas.”
Straight to the point.
After hearing the general circumstances, the Blue Hawks felt relieved that the Emperor wasn’t deliberately deceiving her.
“Still… how long can this possibly last?” Sophia murmured, worry still lingering in her voice.
Kylus seized the opening. “Exactly. Even I don’t think he can keep it up much longer. A month or two at most. That’s why I need all of you to help actively.”
It seemed he had been planning this from the moment he decided to explain things to them.
“Us?”
The Blue Hawks tried to backpedal, but it was far too late.
“We’re all in the same boat now, aren’t we?”
Nadan muttered that he got terrible seasickness and hated boats with a passion. Kylus pretended not to hear him.
“I’m not asking for anything grand. Just keep acting like you don’t know anything, as you have been. And Lina seems quite afraid of His Majesty—that’s actually a rather large problem. So please tell her about His Majesty’s good qualities.”
Kylus delivered the difficult order in a deceptively casual tone.
“We’re scared of His Majesty too,” Derek said, as if stating that the sun rose in the east.
Kylus smiled at him. “Derek, try imagining that terrifying Emperor being rejected by his first love. Then you might understand how I feel.”
Kylus didn’t find deceiving Lina comfortable either.
But after watching Edwin’s chaotic first love unfold right beside him, he had realized one thing clearly: his own peaceful future rested in Lina’s hands.
The Blue Hawks had witnessed the Emperor’s dramatic courtship as well.
What strengths does he even have? Well, he’s extremely handsome, for one…
And just like that, they gained four more allies.