If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 47

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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 47
This time, there were other passengers in the first-class car besides us.
True to his word about “public transportation,” it seemed we hadn’t chartered the entire car on the return journey.
As a result, Aden and I found ourselves sitting across from each other—he facing backward, I facing forward.
Just as I was about to offer to switch seats, Aden, holding his communication device, shook his head lightly and pointed at the paper before him.
“Yes. I’m listening, Luther.”
Delilah had remained in Cassis due to container transport work, while Luther stayed behind to handle Randolph. It seemed Luther was the one calling.
I wondered what had happened.
[No meaningful confession obtained from Randolph Maurel]
Ah, so it was as I’d feared.
According to the information his long, pale fingers inscribed with fluid grace, even Luther had failed in his interrogation.
Luther’s report continued from the Investigation Bureau. Randolph, Tessa, and the Countess Noel were being investigated cooperatively, he said.
Among them, it was Tessa’s doing that the Countess Noel had been indicted. Unwilling to let only herself and her husband rot in prison, she had exposed all of the Countess’s misdeeds using various ledgers and correspondence she’d secretly stashed away as leverage.
But the investigation into the “real” crime was proving difficult. The bombing terrorism, that is.
[Suspicion concentrated on Randolph Maurel, arrested as the perpetrator]
When questioned about the mastermind, both Randolph and the Countess Noel cried out in pain and collapsed foaming at the mouth, so it appeared the case was being wrapped up with Randolph, the executor, taking the fall alone.
Crimson, the true body and mastermind, had slipped away.
‘The investigators also suspected the “Blood Contract,” but they were at a loss without evidence.’
I was equally at a loss for the moment.
To use the method I’d employed on Lenox, I would need to know the exact terms of the contract, but the mouths of the two people who could tell me were sealed shut by that very contract.
They were both perpetrators and witnesses, so Crimson had to be prevented from harming them. Legal experts including Scott had suddenly become busy again, this time ensuring the safety of the Maurel Couple and the Countess Noel.
“Understood. Once the initial investigation concludes, we’ll leave the rest to Branch 3 and return.”
After ending his communication with Luther, Aden rolled the pen between his fingertips and slowly added another line.
This time it wasn’t information sharing. It was a question.
[How did you know at once that a “Blood Contract” was involved?]
I’d been wondering when he’d ask.
A “Blood Contract” wasn’t something anyone could make.
Among mages, only those with abundant magical power like Delilah could use it, and due to its slave-contract-like nature, it had been condemned by the Temple and was now nearly obsolete.
In other words, those who witnessed Randolph’s symptoms would think of curses or magical potions first—not a “Blood Contract.”
Unless they were an investigator or an underworld figure—someone like Aden—most people didn’t even know of its existence.
But since I’d identified it immediately, it was suspicious enough. So I decided to,
[I’d investigated it once before due to debt issues.]
I decided to trade on my notorious family circumstances.
I couldn’t mention Lenox or the original story, after all.
[You know those body-waiver documents? I was terrified Father might carelessly sign something like that, so I frantically studied all sorts of low-quality contract methods that loan sharks use. The “Blood Contract” was among the things I studied back then.]
[So when you saw Uncle’s symptoms, you were able to catch on immediately?]
[Yes. It really does pay to learn everything—you never know when it’ll be useful.]
Aden’s eyes narrowed faintly.
Soon after, he wrote a brief response.
“Is that so.”
He then covered the papers and retrieved another stack of documents from his briefcase.
What did that “is that so” mean? It didn’t sound like agreement—more like he was letting it slide for now.
Was my evasive attitude making him suspicious?
‘Normally I would have been delighted, thinking “Aden suspects me!” but now…’
Finding Father was important, but I couldn’t forget what Tessa had said.
“There was a massive bruise on his neck! Like someone had tried to strangle him…!”
“You’re saying there was a bruise that looked like strangulation marks while he had no memory?”
“Yes!”
That was undoubtedly the symptom of Aden’s “mana backflow” as recorded in the original story.
A harbinger of “mana rampage” and a sign that the suppressant’s effectiveness was gradually diminishing.
It was happening earlier than the timeline mentioned in the original. So my course of action was clear.
‘I have to obtain “holy water” somehow and get Aden to consume it before the first mana rampage occurs.’
A substitute for the mana suppressant. That was precisely high-purity holy water extract.
However, in the world of “Legacy of the Black Sea,” holy water was extraordinarily rare.
Only high-ranking priests could handle it, making it nearly impossible for ordinary commoners to even see it. During baptism ceremonies, they used water diluted thousands of times over, and even then, the imperial family monopolized most of the supply.
For someone like me with no connections to high priests or royalty, it was an impossible treasure to obtain. At least through “legitimate” means.
‘There’s exactly one way to obtain holy water without going through the Temple.’
But even if I somehow managed to acquire it, one major obstacle remained.
How could I make someone drink it when he wouldn’t even eat the chocolate I gave him?
Moreover, I couldn’t reveal that it was holy water.
‘Aden must know too. That holy water is the last resort. But the fact that he’s still enduring with the suppressant instead…’
Aden was a man with many dislikes.
He disliked noise, formality, unexpected incidents, and aristocratic society—and he also despised the Temple.
So much so that he would choose a suppressant nearly as toxic as poison rather than use the Temple’s holy water to suppress his mana.
Lost in thought, an announcement crackled through the speakers.
—Attention passengers. This train will soon arrive at Blight Duchy.
Monique Ivette Blight.
She had borne a son without marriage. By imperial law, it was hardly something to be proud of, so she raised him in secret.
That son experienced his first mana backflow at ten years old. Upon awakening from the episode and seeing his mother’s horrified face, he voluntarily followed the priests into a secluded Temple Prison.
Believing that someday his mother would find a cure and rescue him.
But at fourteen, that son faced his mother again. Coincidentally, it was the day he had experienced another mana backflow and awakened with no memory.
His mother told him she would give him a small island so they could live together alone. The son, who believed her—or wanted to believe her—boarded a boat with her. It was a stormy night.
And that mother…
“…It’s for your sake, Calix Arden Blight.”
With those words, she pushed her son into the vast sea.
What the Black Sea had swallowed—the heir of the Blight Duchy, a bastard, a docile boy who trusted and followed his mother—was what it spat back out as
“Director.”
“Yes.”
the man standing right before my eyes.
Aden.
There was only one thing I could do for him right now.
“…Would it be alright if I closed the curtains?”
Aden’s pen paused briefly as he looked down at his documents.
“I’d appreciate that.”
Despite the sunlight streaming in, the bleak landscape of the Blight Duchy vanished from our view as the curtains drew shut.
The room grew dim.
Aden seemed at ease in that darkness. Yet my heart had grown strangely complicated.
***
It was fine that I’d returned to the Capital City with such bold determination to obtain the holy water.
But I’d momentarily forgotten something.
My identity was that of an extra office worker.
‘I don’t have time to go find the holy water…!’
Someone once said it.
There are magical girls who save the world, but there’s a reason there are no magical office workers who do.
Truly, sincerely, I was far too busy.
‘If I just had two more days. Then I could go get the holy water and come back!’
I was even coming in on weekends, so I literally didn’t have the time.
So for days now, I’d been skipping even my lunch breaks and pushing through my work as fast as possible. Determined to secure this weekend no matter what.
“…Did the performance bonus end up being too much.”
I seemed to hear The Director mutter something like that behind my back a few times.
Unaware of my circumstances.

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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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