If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 79

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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 79
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The employees of Crimson, colloquially known as “Shadow,” were individuals who harbored no qualms about soiling their hands with dirty work.
Even if they numbered ten against a single twenty-year-old woman, they possessed no awareness that such an act might be considered cowardly.
Having designated a desolate forest within Plebiae County as their rendezvous point, they conversed while awaiting the secretary’s arrival.
Most of their exchange consisted of vapid jests and banter, though one among them spoke with distinctly nervous inflection.
“Shouldn’t we have brought a mage with us?”
The others scoffed at him.
“What, are you actually afraid that woman reported us to those La Mar bastards? When her own life and her father’s are on the line?”
“Hey, Ronald. If that were the case, why didn’t you just stay holed up in the office?”
True to their epithet as “Shadow,” they all wore masks across their faces.
One of them, leaning against a tree and twirling a blade between his fingertips, spoke with derision.
“Or perhaps you’re afraid the Holy Knights have sided with La Mar? After all, didn’t those knights come to rescue the secretary? But that only happened because Norbert was foolish enough to abduct the woman right in front of the Investigation Bureau.”
“Exactly. They wouldn’t just sit idle after a kidnapping occurred on their own doorstep. That idiot Norbert.”
One standing nearby pulled down his mask and spat before continuing.
“Besides, I heard the Director of La Mar was taken into custody yesterday. There’s no chance they sided with us.”
“The underlings captured by the knights are all dead, so there’s no one left to testify that it was Crimson’s doing. It’s unsettling, certainly, but the knights prioritize imperial decree regardless. It was the same during the Emperor’s time.”
The inspection order issued from the Imperial Family had yet to be rescinded.
No knight would dare defy an imperial command, so even if suspicious details remained, they would sweep them under the rug and move forward.
Though the order came from Crown Prince Helios rather than the Emperor, and the current Paladin Commander was Ezekiel of the Marquis Lask Family, the outcome would be little different, the Shadow operatives believed.
In essence, this was a matter of politics.
‘The Crown Prince must have already seen through the pretext of the attempted murder of Marquis Vito.’
So the Crown Prince merely had to make his choice.
Would he side with the Central Region nobility and Crimson, or with La Mar, which possessed no foundation whatsoever?
Anyone would choose the former and sacrifice the latter. It was simpler, more convenient, and far more efficient.
“You haven’t heard the story about Jeremy.”
While the others chuckled, the man called Ronald remained anxious.
“Ah… you left Jeremy at the Mage Tower, didn’t you? But what does that have to do with anything?”
One of the Shadow members replied flatly.
Jeremy, who had infiltrated La Mar only to fail spectacularly, now served as an experimental subject at Magic Tower Siphron.
Yet thanks to what had been administered to him, they had discovered the appropriate proportions for magical poison, which in a sense contributed considerably to Kaileb Crimson’s plan. It was Ronald who had brought Jeremy to the tower.
“Because Jeremy was beaten by the Director of La Mar? That man’s in custody now anyway, isn’t he?”
“No, according to Jeremy, that secretary girl seems to possess some sort of unusual ability.”
The Shadow members facing him suddenly burst into raucous laughter.
Their demeanor suggested they had heard something utterly ridiculous.
Yet Ronald pressed on with unwavering conviction.
“The moment he met her eyes, his body went limp, and he couldn’t think of anything except ‘I must remain still.’ It was as if he’d been bewitched in an instant! He couldn’t move at all and ended up taking a broomstick to the head. No matter how much he thinks about it, something feels off.”
He swallowed hard before adding.
“So basically, like the Lorelei of legend….”
He was the only pirate among this group.
But another Shadow cut off the nervous Ronald’s words with a mocking laugh.
“Good grief. I know you believe in every superstition under the sun, Ronald, but why would you be frightened by such nonsense? It’s obvious you’re just making excuses because you don’t want to admit you got caught by a single woman wielding a broomstick.”
“Well, in any case, we won’t suffer Jeremy’s fate.”
One of them spoke with a sneer, tilting his chin.
“This time, there’s no broomstick.”
From the edge of the distant forest, someone in a robe was walking toward them.
Iliana Grecia, clutching a large bag and glancing nervously around, froze upon seeing the numerous Shadows gathered there, then cautiously approached.
“Iliana Grecia? Did you bring the documents?”
The woman’s honey-colored hair spilled out from beneath the hood.
“You’re certain you’ll give me the antidote once I hand over the documents, right?”
Her voice trembled with fear, becoming almost a whisper.
The Shadow who inwardly scoffed at such a ridiculous ability answered without enthusiasm.
“Yes. So hand over the documents. Once I verify them, I’ll give you the antidote and your father.”
“H-here it is….”
The Shadow who snatched the heavy bag frowned.
The bag was locked.
“What’s the password?”
“…I’ll tell you once you hand over the antidote.”
“Hah.”
A hollow laugh escaped. It was absurd.
The lock could simply be forced open, yet the woman was acting as though it were some major bargaining chip.
She must have concocted this scheme out of fear that he might just take the documents and flee.
As the Shadows laughed, the woman began backing away hesitantly.
“W-why are you laughing… Kyaaah!”
One of the chuckling Shadows grabbed her shoulder as she retreated, his grip firm.
“You did think, but only halfway, didn’t you? You should have said you brought the documents but hid them elsewhere. Then you might have seen a bit more of this world’s light.”
“What?”
“Unlike your La Mar, we in Crimson work very efficiently. A lock like that is nothing—we just break it.”
Crack!
The sound of the lock shattering in one blow echoed out.
The Shadow whispered to the startled woman.
“A secretary who makes trouble isn’t worth negotiating with—we just kill them. You’re pretty stupid, aren’t you?”
It was when the Shadow, glancing at his nine companions gathered around the document bag, pulled down her hood.
Slip.
“The stupid ones are you.”
A clump of honey-colored hair fell to the ground with a soft thud.
What was revealed beneath was pink hair.
“You didn’t even do a basic identity check, and you dare speak of intelligence?”
The woman, her face flushed from the effort of suppressing her laughter all this time, swept her hair back.
At the same moment, a sound erupted from behind.
“What in the—!”
Inside the bag was.
[You fell for it?]
A single sheet of paper and a magical artifact bomb designed to detonate if the bag were forced open.
Boom—
The ear-splitting blast and the shockwave of mana bursting from the bag swallowed the forest’s silence whole.
The nine Shadow operatives near the bag were hurled in all directions at once.
“Ahhhhh! My leg!”
“My eyes! My eyes—!”
“I told you! That secretary is no ordinary woman!”
“Just grab her! Seize her!”
Screams like tinnitus pierced the air.
The Shadow operative who had been standing in front of the woman, opposite the bag, staggered and barely regained his senses.
Though he had evaded the direct hit, the impact alone had nearly shattered his bones, yet with trembling hands he drew his sword.
‘Come to think of it, this woman never asked a single question about her father.’
Amid the chaos, a realization struck the operative’s mind.
Then this woman was not the secretary Iliana?
‘No, that’s not it.’
And even though he had shielded her, how was the woman before him completely unscathed from the explosion’s aftermath?
Such thoughts lasted only a moment.
“You dared pull such a trick!”
The operative gritted his teeth.
As if savoring the chaos unfolding behind him, he swung his sword at the woman standing leisurely with her arms crossed.
The gleaming blade was mere inches from the woman’s throat.
Then.
“Ugh, uaaahhh—!”
Someone burst from the brush and snapped his wrist in an instant.
The movement was so swift and sharp he barely perceived it. As if—.
“You’re not hurt, Delilah?”
“Of course not. Who do you think I am? I had impact-absorption magic woven into my robe just like your poncho.”
Like a ‘Tracker’.
The one who had broken the operative’s arm was Lenox. Despite his slender frame, his grip was formidable.
But it did not end there.
“That bomb is an inverted application of impact-absorption magic, you see? I’ve only tested it before, never used it in actual combat, but it’s quite effective, isn’t it? If all goes well, I could even supply them to the Holy Knight Order. I’ve shown you its power firsthand today.”
“Well, what you showed directly wasn’t just the bomb’s power, though.”
The woman called Delilah said she had shown them directly.
Suspended half in midair, gripped by Lenox, the operative turned his head with creaking sounds.
What he saw were Holy Knights, already binding his comrades with practiced efficiency.
They were the ones who had approached from another direction while Delilah drew attention.
“What in the—!”
Thwack—
Before he could finish speaking, Lenox struck the back of Shadow’s neck, rendering him unconscious, then hurled him aside and brushed his hands clean with a decisive clap.
Shadow’s limp body tumbled ungracefully across the dirt ground before coming to rest at a knight’s feet.
Lenox cleared his throat.
“Situation resolved. All ten members of Crimson’s Shadow unit are now in custody.”
“….”
“Now you’ll need to file your report, won’t you, Oswald?”
Oswald nodded, his expression still half-dazed.

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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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