If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 5

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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 5
A sudden sense of helplessness washed over me, but having already made my decision, there was no turning back.
‘Let me wash my face first. I need to clear my head.’
I removed my glasses and splashed cold water on my face.
When I lifted my head, the mirror reflected a face that had grown gaunt over the past few hours, with bloodshot teal eyes staring back at me. Painfully clear.
In truth, my eyesight was not poor.
‘If anything, it’s quite good.’
Yet I wore glasses regardless. It had become a habit.
The first reason was to avoid being underestimated, having entered the workforce at such a young age.
The second was that debt collectors had pursued me so relentlessly that hiding my face had become second nature.
And the third reason was….
“Your eyes are….”
Something Father had once said to me.
His voice echoed faintly in my ears, but I had no time for nostalgia.
I patted my cheeks sharply, put my glasses back on, and left the Restroom.
‘An irritating employee. An incompetent employee.’
Creak, creak.
The Document Storage Room was located in the corridor connecting the Restroom and the Office. The floorboards seemed worn, creaking with each step.
Aden didn’t seem to like loud noises, so what if I deliberately stomped through this corridor?
As I pondered this, an irritable voice cut through the air.
“Why do you keep wandering around?”
“Oh, my apologies.”
“Tsk.”
The voice belonged to Jeremy.
‘Wait, hold on.’
As I returned to my desk after the rebuke, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Even if it’s not Aden, couldn’t I just make the other employees dislike me?’
Become the “that person” in “I absolutely can’t work with that person!”
Sensing an opportunity, I headed toward Jeremy’s desk to test my theory.
“Um, Jeremy.”
“What. What is it. Speak from there.”
As my voice drew closer, Jeremy suddenly straightened up, positioning himself to block his desk.
“Is there anything I should start with? Any handover information…?”
“What? Handover? You’re supposed to figure that out on your own!”
“Then is there anything I could help you with?”
“Help? A trainee helping? Don’t bother me. If you’re bored, dust off that cabinet over there!”
Oh.
An unexpectedly convenient example of incompetence was right in front of me.
Incompetent people typically bullied their subordinates with talk of “reading the room.” Jeremy was exactly that type.
And on top of that, his personality is terrible too?
If I actually thought of him as my senior, I’d be sighing constantly—but that’s not who I am now. Inwardly, I celebrated.
‘Perfect. I’ll just keep playing the clueless, bothersome new hire!’
I cleared my throat.
With deliberately naive inflection, I asked him a question.
“So what should I do after I finish dusting everything?”
“Do I really have to explain every single step? Just read the documents in the cabinet! Though honestly, I doubt you’ll understand them anyway.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t talk to me until you’ve finished reading!”
“Understood.”
“Ugh, why would the director assign me someone like this as a trainee…”
Hearing him complain already, this might actually work.
Suppressing my laughter, I picked up the duster and cloth, heading toward the cabinet.
‘Come to think of it, Jeremy’s supposed to be my mentor, but did he never hear that I have experience working at the Merchant Guild?’
Even if our duties were different, I’d worked there for seven years—yet he assumed I wouldn’t understand anything.
And why did he cover his desk earlier?
Of course, it made sense not to show confidential Guild documents to a trainee, so I understood the reasoning.
‘Luther mentioned it earlier—Jeremy’s only been working here for about six months.’
Despite Aden’s terrible personality, most of La Mar’s employees had remained loyal to him until the end.
It was less about his charm and more about how generously he spent money, but regardless.
For that reason, I remembered the names of the key staff members who stayed by Aden’s side up until a year later.
But “Jeremy” wasn’t among them—despite holding such an important position as an office secretary.
‘Did Jeremy cause some kind of incident within that year…? Oh dear.’
Lost in thought, I snapped back to attention at the squeaking sound.
Since there wasn’t much dust anyway, I could have just pretended to dust, but I found myself scrubbing the cabinet vigorously out of habit.
Habits really are terrifying, aren’t they.
“I’ve finished cleaning the office cabinet. Should I clean the desk, or maybe the Document Storage Room cabinet?”
“What?! The storage room—trainees aren’t even allowed in there! I told you to read the documents! And I said don’t talk to me until you’re done reading!”
“Oh, right. My apologies.”
“Ugh!”
While I was at it, I’d thoroughly cleaned Jeremy’s temperament too. I opened the cabinet.
The inside was terribly disorganized.
‘Why is the classification such a mess? The index labels are just slapped on randomly… Ah, Jeremy must have done this.’
Recalling Jeremy’s equally chaotic desk, I shrugged.
Jeremy’s work habits weren’t surprising, but it was somewhat surprising that Aden tolerated this.
Unlike the Document Storage Room, this cabinet didn’t contain important documents, so perhaps Aden had simply left it to Jeremy and didn’t pay attention?
‘I’ve been curious about how La Mar operates at this point in time.’
La Mar was a Merchant Guild that Aden had established deliberately to extend his reach into high society. In other words, it was for image laundering.
Before he could dominate the aristocratic circles, he needed to avoid getting caught, so it was being operated precariously within the bounds of legality.
I’d been wondering what they were making money from at this stage, and if so, how much.
‘Why don’t I take a look at this?’
I was in the midst of sorting through documents and reading them carefully, moving through them almost mechanically, when it happened.
My hand froze mid-page turn.
‘Wait. This…’
Something was wrong.
No matter how many times I looked at it—truly, no matter how many times—this was.
‘…A shell company.’
If La Mar had actually been a shell company defrauding others, I could have accepted it.
But it wasn’t.
Shockingly, it was the opposite.
‘Someone is defrauding La Mar?!’
Who on earth would be audacious enough to make an enemy of Aden…?
This was the first time I’d ever been curious about the sheer audacity of someone whose name I didn’t even know.
‘This is insane. Whoever they are, they’re really committed to this.’
The evidence that Ronnen Cargo Handling Company listed in the documents was a shell company wasn’t just one or two things.
First of all.
The cargo handling schedule listed in the documents.
‘Port conditions can change schedules, sudden weather shifts can delay or accelerate shipping schedules—so how could the schedule be this perfectly consistent? It makes no sense.’
Second was the disposal costs.
When transporting cargo, defects and losses are inevitable. But.
‘Transporting lumber—not agricultural products—with a loss rate approaching 7%? What, did they have a campfire on the ship? That’s absolutely impossible.’
Third was the labor costs.
‘Every time claiming the port was congested, schedules were delayed, and additional workers were needed? At least show some effort in varying your excuses!’
Shockingly, the amount they’d stolen in just the first half of the year was 300 million gold.
Moreover, the invoiced amounts had been increasing recently. At first they’d been testing the waters, but now that La Mar hadn’t caught on, they were clearly planning to make a massive haul.
When did this even start?
As I hurriedly flipped through the documents, I didn’t notice the approaching footsteps.
“Hey, trainee.”
“Y-yes?”
I nearly yelped at the sudden call, but barely managed to restrain myself.
When I looked up, Jeremy was staring down at me with an expression that was half-bewildered, half-annoyed.
“I’m going to grab lunch, so don’t slack off while I’m gone.”
Not ‘come grab lunch with me,’ but ‘don’t slack off.’ Even during lunch break, he was still pushing me around.
I hadn’t expected him to invite me anyway, but being pressured even during meal time left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Fortunately, I had just the perfect way to turn the tables on Jeremy.
“Yes, sir. Oh, by the way, would it be alright if I ‘walked around’ and looked at the other offices? There are still a lot of areas I haven’t seen yet.”
You hate it when I wander around, don’t you?

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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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