If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 16

—————

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

—————

If the Villain’s Secretary Suits Me
Chapter 16
But it was only momentary.
Lenox’s expression grew complicated.
Seeing the new employee’s face made him realize something anew.
“New employee. How old are you?”
“I’m twenty years old.”
He asked despite already knowing from his investigation.
The new employee, answering in a bright voice, was the same age as my younger sister.
‘From what I heard earlier, she seems quite sharp. How did she end up getting involved in something so dangerous?’
That’s what Luther had said.
It seemed likely that the new employee was being blackmailed or had some weakness exploited, forcing her into this spy work against her will.
When I asked why, she said something incomprehensible like “My house is old!” while tearing up, so I dismissed it as nonsense.
‘But if, by any chance, the new employee’s superior is Kaileb Crimson….’
Then perhaps the talk of weaknesses and blackmail wasn’t entirely nonsensical after all.
Lenox unconsciously rubbed his shoulder, which throbbed with a dull ache, unaware that the new employee was staring intently at him.
“New employee, you know how to use the magic communication device, right?”
“Yes, Luther taught me. Both the receiver and transmitter are on.”
“Good.”
After finishing a brief briefing in a shaded spot near the Plaza, Lenox pulled his hat down low.
He looked like an errand boy doing menial work.
“Remember, we can’t look like we’re together. Don’t speak to me directly or acknowledge that you know me until this job is done. Understand? If you find any information, report it through the communicator.”
“Understood.”
“I won’t contact you first, so keep the signal off. We don’t want to draw unnecessary attention.”
“Yes, sir.”
Meanwhile, the new employee, equipped with a magic camera hanging around her neck and a notebook, looked like a journalist covering the auction.
Both of them were dressed in a way that wouldn’t raise suspicion even if they moved about different parts of the Auction House.
“Then I need to meet with the client, so let’s move separately from here on.”
“Yes. See you later!”
As Lenox turned toward the Auction House, he glanced back over his shoulder.
A few steps behind, the new employee was clicking away, photographing the Plaza.
Under normal circumstances, I would have had her follow me for training purposes, but today was different.
She needed to think no one was watching so she’d feel comfortable making contact with Crimson.
‘Kaileb Crimson is the type obsessed with documents.’
The very fact that the former spy Jeremy Sand infiltrated to find the so-called “Black Label Documents” rumored to contain La Mar’s secrets proved that.
Moreover, the activation of my blood contract the moment Kaileb took over the Mage Tower seemed highly connected.
Perhaps he discovered the hidden contract while going through every single document.
‘He distrusts communication, and his usual method is to exploit documents to uncover the writer’s weaknesses. So if the new employee is a spy, she’ll definitely deliver a written report directly to Kaileb’s secretary.’
Lenox adjusted his hat as he surveyed his surroundings.
‘And conveniently, Kaileb’s secretary is here too.’
Moreover, I couldn’t let the newcomer discover that the budget had been increased to 1.8 billion. I needed to move even more carefully.
So Lenox decided to postpone meeting with the client for now and observe the newcomer from a distance in the meantime.
‘…Setting that aside, I’m not particularly keen on being seen with someone suspected of being a spy for Crimson.’
The pain was gradually intensifying.
Lenox rubbed his shoulder and bit his lip. How much longer until the stigma was complete? Two days? Four?
‘Could that kid possibly know about my contract too?’
Lenox turned around anxiously.
But the newcomer, who should have been heading toward Crimson…
‘Why are you following me?!’
…was trailing after me.
At some point, they’d donned a cloak and were following with eyes blazing with determination.
Caught off guard, Lenox quickly concealed himself.
Scaling the outer wall, balcony, and roof with practiced ease, Lenox hastily raised his telescope. What was this about?
But the newcomer’s behavior grew increasingly strange.
‘Why are they smiling?’
They’d been pursuing me with sharp eyes moments ago, but when I vanished, they merely shrugged and smiled with an oddly sinister expression.
Then what?
‘Why are they going there?’
Without hesitation, they swept off the cloak and exited the Auction House entirely.
Wondering if they were meeting someone outside, I noticed them lingering near the carriages in the Parking Lot.
Then they began frantically photographing some gray-haired woman they’d encountered—someone Lenox had never seen before in his life. Definitely not a Crimson operative.
‘What on earth is this…?’
When were they supposed to meet with Crimson? And who was this woman?
As Lenox watched in bewilderment while the newcomer continued photographing the gray-haired woman in the Parking Lot, the bell chimed.
The auction was about to begin. It was time to meet the client.
Descending from the roof as if flying, Lenox located the client.
But the client was standing near a Street Stall, not at the Fountain where they’d agreed to meet. What was this?
“Director Walton? I’m Lenox from La Mar.”
“Oh? Oh! Quite the polite one, aren’t you? The representative said you were a dependable employee, and it seems he was right.”
Approaching, Lenox properly introduced himself and offered his business card.
But instead of accepting the card, the client pressed a handful of candies he’d bought from the Street Stall into Lenox’s hand.
‘Tate 81’—they supposedly wanted it desperately, yet here was a client without a shred of urgency.
It was then that Lenox stood bewildered, holding the candies.
“But there’s no need to greet me every time we meet like this, haha.”
“…Pardon?”
“Ah, were you perhaps changing your clothes to inform me of that fact? Earlier you were wearing that black hat that covered your entire face.”
As I watched the affable client smile, a chill ran down my spine.
“I’m meeting you for the first time, Director. But you’re saying you met me earlier?”
“…Huh? Just a moment ago, you greeted me and gave me your card, didn’t you? You even informed me in advance that the auction procedures had changed….”
As Lenox accepted the business card the bewildered client offered, his face went pale.
It looked identical to his own, but the signature on the back and the business card’s material were subtly different.
A forgery.
‘No way!’
Lenox asked urgently.
“The auction procedure has changed? What do you mean by that?”
“La Mar obtained the information in a rush and told me about it. ‘Tate 81’ auction risked overheating, so we decided to proceed with a first-come, first-served closed-bid format. That’s why you need to submit your maximum bid amount faster than your competitors….”
The client, who had been speaking in confusion, stopped abruptly.
“W-wait, then that was a lie? Does that mean my budget of 1.8 billion Gold…!”
“Yes. …It appears to have been leaked.”
Crimson had approached the client first.
They impersonated me and extracted the information.
Lenox’s heart sank.
‘This is my mistake.’
It was clearly my own fault.
Aden had certainly said that securing the bid was the priority.
Yet I carelessly let my guard down, thinking that with the increased budget, I could easily win the auction.
After consoling the self-reproaching client and sending them back to their seat, I picked up the communicator.
Luther was monitoring Crimson’s movements, and Aden had stepped away from the office on other business.
‘Then the only person I can request support from is….’
There was only one.
Somewhat strange and deeply unreliable, but at least the new recruit ‘Iliana Grecia’ hadn’t been seen making contact with Crimson today.
Lenox pressed the communicator urgently.
But there was no response.
“I won’t be contacting you first, so keep the signal off. We don’t want to draw unnecessary attention.”
“Understood.”
Desperately, at that very moment, the bell announcing the opening ceremony of the charity auction began to ring.
‘This can’t be happening!’
***
—it appears to have been leaked.
“Pfahahaha!”
The man listening through the wiretap laughed with shameless glee.
It had been installed near the Street Stall in advance.
The man, cackling away, flipped open the blue envelope. A slip of paper reading [1.8 Billion Gold] tumbled out.
“Even those La Mar bastards never thought of this! That Jeremy would steal the method of how the client makes contact!”
“Indeed, Secretary Norbert.”
The subordinate who had disguised himself as Lenox with an apricot-colored wig and black hat fawned over him smoothly.
The man called Norbert cleared his throat.
“Jeremy may have embezzled, sure! But it’s not our money anyway. In any case, Jeremy managed to bring back the business card format and even a rough understanding of the La Mar operatives’ role assignments, so, ahem, we can say he’s not entirely incompetent as a spy.”
Norbert’s defense of Jeremy was of course not meant to support him.
Since Norbert was the one who had recommended Jeremy as a spy, he was simply trying to diminish his own culpability by inflating minor achievements.
As secretary, he had been receiving criticism from Kaileb Crimson over the Jeremy matter these past few days.
“Still, now that we’ve learned Walton’s final budget is 1.8 billion gold, we should be able to secure ‘Tate 81’ without difficulty.”
So he had to pull off this job and prove his competence.
But it felt as easy as taking candy from a child—or rather, from an old man.
‘Our total budget is 2.3 billion gold after all!’
Norbert laughed with contempt.

—————

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

—————