If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 27

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

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If the Villain’s Secretary Suits Me
Chapter 27
***
Mother passed away the year I turned six.
Father held her funeral alone.
Too young to attend the ceremony, I asked Father when he returned home.
“Does this mean I can never see Mom again?”
“No, sweetheart. This isn’t the end. If Iliana lives a good and righteous life, someday… you’ll be able to see Mom again. Do you understand?”
I understood what it meant for people to die.
I’d learned it from storybooks. I’d also heard the Doctor who came to visit Mother speak of it.
But I couldn’t voice that thought.
Father’s tears, as he held me close, were soaking my shoulders.
And Father, telling that lie, looked even sadder to me.
“…Okay. I’ll be a good girl. So when I see Mom again, I’ll definitely… tell you all about it, Dad.”
“Yes, my daughter…”
And so I chose to believe in Father’s lie.
Perhaps I wanted to believe it.
I was only six years old, after all. There might truly be a way to see Mother again that I simply didn’t know about yet.
So I became a good girl.
I greeted people politely, never told lies, diligently picked up trash from the beach,
“Dad, sleep in bed…”
and gently draped blankets over Father’s back as he slept at the dinner table, clutching Mother’s keepsakes, whimpering softly.
Father still tried to pull himself together.
A former sailor, he found other work, saying he couldn’t leave me alone and board a ship.
Father worked hard. He saved money desperately, determined to raise me without want.
“What? Brother, what do you mean…!”
But it seemed far too easy to swindle a former sailor who’d spent his life at sea, ignorant of the world’s ways, yet possessed of some savings.
The investment opportunity introduced by Father’s brother—my Uncle—was, in short, a fraud.
Uncle claimed he’d known nothing about it and erupted in anger. Then he cut off contact, saying he didn’t like being suspected.
…I knew that a truly innocent person wouldn’t react that way.
“Please, help us however you can. Please, Brother!”
“How am I supposed to help your stupidity? You should have judged carefully and invested wisely, regardless of my introduction.”
“Brother, think of our Iliana…!”
“Hah. It’s you who isn’t thinking of the child. You knew you’d be refused, yet you came all this way with her in tow. Do you think I’m so well-off that I’d just hand over money? …I won’t help, so don’t come back again.”
Uncle, who sent us away with those words, lived in a fine and magnificent house near the Marquis Estate.
It was after that day when Father first stepped into the swamp of gambling.
It was after that day when Father began to avoid my gaze, unable to look me in the eye.
Shame. Humiliation. Regret. Guilt at seeing me, who resembled Mother so closely.
Perhaps that was why I could understand Father.
“Your eyes torment me so. Why do you keep taking me back to that day when your mother left? Why…?”
But the moment he said that, I found it difficult to love Father the way I once had.
That day, I ran to the sea and wept for a long time. After that, my memory grew hazy—perhaps I had simply cried myself to exhaustion.
The Neighbor found me collapsed on the beach and discovered me when I awoke in her home. I borrowed an old pair of glasses from her.
“You have perfect eyesight—why the sudden need for glasses?”
The next day, Father seemed to have forgotten what he had said.
“…Just because. They look cool.”
It was the first lie I had told since Mother passed away.
The “good child” Iliana vanished just like that, so pathetically.
What was truly absurd was how a single layer of glass could possibly—
“Haha, you’re something else.”
That day, Father had stroked my head for the first time in ages.
***
After seeing the Doctor off, I returned home, wearing the glasses once more.
I never believed those glasses possessed any special power.
They were simply ordinary spectacles, borrowed from the Neighbor who had cared for me.
‘He probably just found it amusing that a child had suddenly started wearing adult glasses. Or perhaps he hadn’t fully sobered up yet.’
Even after that day, Father continued to avoid my gaze.
Of course he did. His words had simply meant that it pained him to see me, who bore Mother’s likeness so completely.
Yet I continued to wear the glasses. They were not for Father’s sake, but a mask for myself.
‘They were perfect for hiding my expressions. And as a bonus, the neighbors seemed to find me clever and adorable.’
Wearing my old mask, I stared at my reflection in the mirror.
A pair of teal eyes, as if lost in deep thought, gazed back at me.
“If you won’t sign, I’ll drag you away by force and sell you off… uh.”
I had been replaying Jack’s hesitation yesterday and the moment Jeremy Sand had stopped himself from attacking me.
Once might have been coincidence, but twice? It felt distinctly odd.
Could I possibly have some hidden power? Was this some kind of transmigrator’s blessing or something?
…I had been pondering this, but—
“Do I look pitiful? Or too pathetic to hit…?”
Nonsense. It was a pointless worry.
The Doctor had looked directly at my eyes without any reaction.
I had even asked him, just to be sure.
“Is there perhaps something… unusual or strange about me?”
“Ah, yes.”
“…What is it?”
“Your eyesight is exceptionally good.”
“…”
“Other than that, there’s nothing particularly unusual. Your ankle should heal in about three days, but you’ll need to wear a splint in the meantime…”
I received only a compliment about my eyesight.
When I thought about it, countless people had seen my bare eyes throughout my life.
Even the optician who fitted my glasses had surely seen my bare eyes dozens of times. Yet nothing had ever happened.
‘I’m embarrassed just thinking about it—the transmigrator’s advantage, they call it….’
Knowing the original story’s contents is the transmigrator’s edge, after all.
Though it came with the pain of bearing that knowledge, the world operates on the principle of equivalent exchange anyway, so I can’t complain much about that.
After concluding that I simply happened to look rather pitiful, I made my way to the window, intending to put my excellent eyesight to good use.
My gaze, surveying the Plaza below, came to rest on the Fountain at its center.
“I’ve never seen Lorelai decorated this beautifully before.”
Atop the Fountain stood a statue—a beautiful woman seated upon a rock.
The Medior Empire held many legends connected to the sea.
Among them, the tale of Lorelai, who supposedly sat upon reefs and lured sailors to their doom, was the most famous.
The people of my Hometown, Sirena, took the story of Lorelai—described as a sea spirit, a monster, or a witch—quite seriously.
But in the Capital City, where sailors were few, it seemed to be treated merely as a fantastical fairy tale.
‘I think it’s superstition myself, but seeing her displayed like some tourist attraction mascot feels rather strange.’
In the Southern Region, closer to the sea, people were careful with their words about her. They treated it as taboo.
As I recalled the Southern sea, I narrowed my eyes slightly.
‘They tried to take me from the Marquis Estate in the Southern Region.’
Jack’s words had been unpleasant, but truthfully, many would have been tempted by the opportunity to become a Marquis’s wife.
Yet the Marquis Estate spent money and even hired people in their attempt to seize me.
As if I were irreplaceable. What could the reason be?
‘Among the Marquises in the Southern Region, the only one I know is… the Noel family. The lord of the Marquis Territory where my Uncle lived.’
I had severed ties with my Uncle long ago.
So I don’t know what he does for a living now. But given my Uncle’s character, it seemed unlikely he earned money through clean means.
Could this incident possibly be connected to my Uncle?
I clenched my fists and bit my lip.
‘Come to think of it, there was something related to the Southwestern Region in the La Mar business proposal.’
Coincidentally, the Noel Marquis Territory was located in the Southwestern Region of the Empire.
‘I need to review that business proposal again when I go to work.’
After spending my vacation and weekend that way, I returned to work.
“Good morning, Director….”
“You have a business trip scheduled for four days starting this afternoon. Iliana Grecia must accompany you as well, so familiarize yourself with the details beforehand, pack your belongings at the Company Residence, and meet me at 1 o’clock in front of the Train Station. I’m heading out now.”
‘Why are you handing this to me….’
I was ushered out of the Office while holding that very business proposal Aden had just given me.

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

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