If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 81

—————

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 81
***
The Plibie County Estate came into view.
Kaileb Crimson, who had arrived well ahead of the banquet hour, descended from his carriage and surveyed his surroundings.
“Ahhh….”
A satisfied breath escaped from my lungs and dispersed into the air.
The estate was eerily quiet for a place about to host a grand celebration, yet I found this fact rather pleasing.
What sort of coronation ceremony would it be if the child of Crimson were crowned amid such chaos?
It was when only the sound of my footsteps echoed through the halls of the estate that my lips curved upward in satisfaction.
“Kyaaaah-!”
A piercing scream shattered the silence.
An ominous presence suddenly descended upon the space.
Kaileb’s brow furrowed as I turned toward the direction of the scream.
The second floor, south wing—where the Count’s bedroom was located. A maid came rushing out of the Count’s chambers in a panic, shrieking.
“M-Master is… coughing up blood! Call the Doctor! Someone call the Doctor!”
What?
The butler and attendants rushed past me, frozen in place as if nailed to the ground.
It couldn’t be. It absolutely couldn’t be. Basil was supposed to collapse dead at 9 PM tonight.
After designating the heir and when the formal celebration truly began!
I had tested it countless times—the poison Siphron created, the calculations couldn’t possibly be wrong…!
Before I knew it, I had rushed forward and thrown the door open, only to be struck with horror.
“Master! Please, regain consciousness!”
“Heavens, what should we do! Bring cold water at once, the fever is severe!”
Basil, his face deathly pale, lay on the bed convulsing and coughing up blood.
At the sight of Basil, covered in so much blood it was dizzying, I seized the butler by the collar.
“What is the meaning of this? Why already…!”
“Sir?”
Without even realizing my slip of the tongue, my eyes darted about frantically.
“I’m asking what happened. Why is the Count like this!”
“I-I don’t know, sir!”
“Did he meet a priest? Did he drink holy water? Basil Plebiae became a non-believer after his parents died!”
“What on earth are you…!”
The butler, alarmed at how casually I referred to the Count and dared to speak of the deaths of the previous Count and Countess, roughly shook off my hand.
“Do not speak so carelessly! It is true that the Master has not interacted with the Temple since the accident, but even if he had met a priest, what problem would that pose?”
“What?”
“The Master could not possibly be in such a state because of a priest’s blessing or holy water!”
Like cold water splashed on my face, my mind cleared.
Only I would think that holy water or holy power caused Basil to cough up blood.
Only I knew the possibility that the poison’s magical power had dissipated, allowing the toxin to take effect.
Unfamiliar maids and attendants fixed me with strange, penetrating stares.
Only then did Kaileb adopt an expression befitting a situation where his son-in-law was suspected of poisoning.
“…Yes, that’s right. I’ll… contact the doctors I know.”
Kaileb fled the room like a man escaping, and in a secluded corner, he slammed his fist against the wall with a resounding crack.
‘That bastard Basil, right to the end…!’
At least it seemed he hadn’t met with a priest, so that possibility was ruled out.
There was no way a pauper like Basil could have obtained expensive holy water, so that possibility was also ruled out.
Then what on earth could it be?
With trembling hands, Kaileb picked up the communication device.
-Yes, Chairman.
“Send someone to Plibie County Estate right now who can prepare an antidote. Disguise them as a doctor.”
-Pardon? Has something gone wrong with the magical poison? But our mages at Siphron….
“Shut your mouth and send them!”
After cutting off communication with the Magic Tower Siphron in the Northern Region, Kaileb breathed heavily.
He had never actually created a magical poison antidote. So the best course was to summon a mage to examine the condition directly.
The mages of Siphron rarely ventured outside.
While the Magic Tower itself was inherently reclusive, the truth was that these individuals could not walk in daylight.
Most of them were those who had conducted forbidden magical experiments and illegal drug manufacturing before being hunted by the Holy Knight Order. Siphron was where such mages had quietly gathered.
Under assumed names and false identities.
‘But now that things have come to this….’
I had no choice but to drag these rat-like mages out of their hiding places.
I would have to save Basil with my own hands—the very man I had been planning to kill without mercy. I stopped kicking at the innocent wall.
‘No. A will, there’s a will. If I forge a will as if Basil had written it beforehand and designate the child as heir….’
Even if Basil died against all odds, it wouldn’t matter.
Kaileb swallowed hard.
But it wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
‘I need the seal.’
Naturally, important documents like a will had to bear the family seal.
While the contents could be forged, the seals of nobles were registered with the Imperial Family, making crude forgery impossible.
Basil would have hidden that seal away carefully.
‘But Odette… she would know where the seal is. She has control of finances and has even conducted contracts on Basil’s behalf several times.’
The Butler would know as well, but asking him carried too much risk.
But Odette was different. Odette was my daughter, after all.
‘Odette will find it strange that I’m asking for the seal while Basil is on death’s door.’
That was why I hadn’t asked Odette about the seal’s location beforehand.
But now that circumstances had unfolded this way, what could Odette do even if she discovered my intentions?
First, I had to coax and cajole her into securing the seal. Having finished my deliberations, I grabbed a passing maid.
“Where is the Countess?”
Now that I thought about it, despite all this chaos, Odette was nowhere to be seen.
“Yes? Um….”
The maid, who had been deliberately dragging out her words as if intentionally trying to irritate me, answered at a leisurely pace.
“Well, I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen the lady since breakfast…”
“What?”
Kaileb Crimson pushed past the stammering maid and headed toward Odette’s chambers.
Her bedroom was empty.
He searched the reception room, the study, the garden, and even the grounds beyond, but Odette was nowhere to be found.
When he grabbed the servants rushing about with Basil’s affairs and questioned them, they could only offer confused denials.
Kaileb’s insides were about to turn inside out when the maid he had pushed away moments earlier approached hesitantly.
“Chairman?”
Kaileb, who had been about to explode in fury while trying to reach Odette on her communicator, froze when he saw what the maid held in her hands.
“A man told me to deliver these documents to you, Chairman.”
Shadow?
“He said you must read them alone.”
“I understand. Now get out.”
Kaileb snatched the envelope from the maid and waved her away dismissively before turning.
With the communicator still pressed to his shoulder, its signal continuing to sound, he tore open the envelope.
He found the contents surprisingly light—there was only a single sheet of paper inside.
What is this?
Kaileb’s brow furrowed as he withdrew the paper and examined its contents.
The communicator slipped from his shoulder and fell.
[Parsent Street Warehouse No. 9]
Beneath the brief address on the paper was a single small photograph.
“No. This can’t be. This is impossible!”
It was a photograph of Odette, bound tightly with rope and lying unconscious.
***
Kaileb Crimson, who had been gnawing at his fingernails, caught sight of the carriage approaching from afar and dashed toward it without hesitation.
The man who descended from the carriage was Marquis Vito. His expression was decidedly irritated.
“There’s still plenty of time before the banquet, isn’t there? And now you’re summoning me here and there. You pleaded so earnestly that I wondered what on earth had happened, so I came—but I shall not forget this rudeness…”
“Aden has kidnapped Odette.”
Vito paused momentarily at those words, but his face crumpled again as Kaileb dragged him relentlessly toward a secluded corner of the garden.
“Look at this.”
Vito glanced at the photograph of Odette and folded his arms across his chest.
“Are you certain this is the work of La Mar?”
“…What do you mean by that, sir?”
“Well, isn’t it common knowledge that you cherish your daughter?”
Vito gestured dismissively at the photograph.
“So you’re saying La Mar is the only one who would want to kidnap your daughter and make a fool of you? How many trading companies and rivals have you toppled over the years?”
“…”
“And you know as well as I do that Aden was dragged off to the Central Investigation Bureau yesterday. How could a man in custody commit such a reckless act?”
His gesture bore a striking resemblance to the way Kaileb had dismissed the maid earlier.
He was treating this as a tedious matter. Or perhaps.
‘Well, regardless of what I say, it’s obviously La Mar’s doing. He must be seeking revenge. But if I play hard to get like this from the start, it’ll loosen Kaileb’s purse strings considerably.’
A calculated move to extract more in exchange for his assistance. Or.
‘He wants to borrow my private soldiers.’
Vito had been cultivating private soldiers to handle unsavory tasks. Of course, this remained confidential to the outside world.
Maintaining a private military force beyond the scale permitted by the Imperial Family was illegal under imperial law.
But Kaileb knew this secret.
‘He must think he needs proper manpower to rescue his daughter. The Shadow that Crimson employs is just a band of vagrants, but my soldiers have received far more systematic training.’
However, Vito overlooked two critical facts.
That this matter involved Crimson—not a typical negotiation—and,
“If something goes wrong with Crimson, do you think you alone will fall?”
“…What?”
“Why did the previous Count Plivier and his wife die in that carriage accident? Who was it that tampered with the carriage they rode in…?”
The secret they shared was not merely his private soldiers.
“Do you think I cannot expose it, Marquis?”
Kaileb’s smile turned chilling.

—————

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

—————