If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 87

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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 87
“The plan is this.”
Just as Iliana had said, events unfolded smoothly.
The moment Odette heard that the Holy Knight Order had arrived, she rose to her feet. She saw no reason for an uninvited guest like herself to remain in what was essentially a well-orchestrated tragedy.
Marquis Vito was finished. Crimson was finished. Vito and Kaileb Crimson would tear each other apart and perish together.
“…Once this is over, Father will go to prison, won’t he?”
“Yes.”
“He’ll never come out…right?”
“…Yes.”
But if Crimson’s end was merely imprisonment, wasn’t that too lenient?
Iliana seemed concerned for me, but that question stemmed from a different reason entirely.
…So I poisoned Father’s glass.
Kaileb Crimson had taught me that true vengeance meant returning the same measure.
If struck on one cheek, strike back on both. If someone tripped you, cut off their leg. That was how one should live.
“So I’m returning the poison too. …Instead of Basil.”
You should know fear.
You should feel the terror of death as your body burns with fever and you cough up blood.
Just like those you tried to harm, those you did harm. …Like Basil.
Muttering such things to myself, I poured wine into Kaileb Crimson’s glass.
I felt anxious and guilty about doing this without Iliana and La Mare’s knowledge, but the moment Kaileb Crimson took a sip, those thoughts evaporated.
I’m taking revenge on behalf of everyone. I’m soiling my own hands to end you. This is right….
That’s what I had thought.
‘Did it taste good?’
But the moment I saw Kaileb Crimson’s frightened expression for the first time, my breath caught in my throat.
His face twisted in fear was exactly the same as what I had always seen reflected in my mirror.
“Ugh….”
Nausea washed over me. Bile rose in my throat. I couldn’t bear the sight of myself.
Even if Kaileb Crimson died, it wouldn’t bring back Basil’s lost parents.
The fact that all the comfort I had enjoyed as the daughter of Crimson was the fruit of sin—that remained unchanged.
It was merely self-deception.
Just a pitiful scrap of comfort to convince myself that I was somehow different from Father….
A hypocrite who poisoned Father’s glass with poison Father himself had created.
A liar.
‘The Princess of Crimson’.
That was who I was.
“Is this really right….”
The noise from the Banquet Hall was swallowed by the fierce wind, reaching me only as a distant murmur.
Heavy raindrops pelted mercilessly against the back of Odette’s hands as she gripped the railing of the Bell Tower.
She closed her eyes tightly. Her body began to tilt slowly….
“Odette!”
But then.
With a voice that seemed to express utter exasperation, Odette’s nape was suddenly seized and yanked upward.
It was a merciless, resolute grip—as if catching a lost puppy by the scruff of its neck.
“What—what is this!”
Sliding backward abruptly, Odette found herself awkwardly braced against the railing as she spun around in bewilderment.
It was her. Iliana.
With her dress hem firmly clutched in her grip, she looked even more astonished than I felt.
“What are you doing at the Bell Tower? I thought I’d die searching for you!”
Her voice carried subtle emphasis on certain words, though Odette failed to notice.
Still struggling, Odette eventually grabbed the railing and pulled herself upright.
“I was watching through a magical artifact, and when you suddenly disappeared, Lenox started searching from below while I came from above, and when I found you like this—do you have any idea how shocked I was?”
“L-let go of me.”
“At least I found you right away. By now, Lenox is probably searching through the basement, ugh.”
“I said let go!”
She was the type who only said what she wanted to say. Iliana finally released her grip on Odette’s nape.
After flexing her fingers a few times, she suddenly asked.
“Were you trying to die?”
Odette was horrified.
Of course, she’d noticed the way Iliana had grabbed her like a puppy, but how could she be so insensitive?
Odette gave up and answered bitterly.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why? Well….”
“Because you felt sorry? Because you despised yourself? Because you were becoming like the father you hated?”
Iliana casually voiced the reasons that had emerged from deep contemplation and anguish, driving her point home.
“So you wanted to poison your father and run away?”
Odette held her breath.
It wasn’t that Iliana had discovered she’d put poison in the cup.
The solemn chains of atonement that had filled her mind moments ago became flimsy at the single word Iliana uttered: “run away.”
That I was trying to escape.
That I couldn’t bear reality, so I was trying to close my eyes. …Just like when I fled the Count’s Residence not long ago.
Seeing Odette clench her fists, Iliana sighed softly.
“I won’t say it’s okay. The victims of Crimson don’t all think the same. Some might hate you as much as they hate Kaileb Crimson. They might find you abhorrent.”
She brushed back Odette’s rain-soaked hair and spoke quietly.
“But I…want you to live.”
“….”
“I want you to live and prove it, even if it’s difficult. That you’re different from your father. That you’re not the same.”
Iliana stepped closer.
Her teal eyes shone even in the lightless night. Odette stared at them, dazed.
It was truly peculiar. Whenever I gazed into this woman’s eyes, I felt as though I were being enchanted.
Her words seeped into my ears like rainwater—slowly, and with warmth.
“If you live that way… just as I did yesterday, and as I do today, there will be someone who extends their hand to you.”
And those words took root deep within Odette’s heart.
Like a song that would never be forgotten.
‘…She means it sincerely.’
For some reason, tears threatened to spill.
Iliana, watching Odette’s glistening eyes, let out a soft laugh.
She added with deliberate exasperation, saying she had devised a plan where no one would die.
“And you should also think about Count Basil, who will be left behind.”
“…But Basil is…”
“Think about it—he endured bone-melting agony just to hold that press conference and return, only to hear that you attempted to poison Kaileb Crimson and took your own life out of guilt. That would plunge Count Basil into hellfire, not atonement. What atonement could there possibly be…”
That was when it happened.
Odette’s expression, which had been listening to Iliana’s words, suddenly hardened, and she yanked her behind her.
“…Ah.”
Finding herself hidden behind Odette, Iliana slowly peered over her shoulder.
“Today truly is a special day.”
“…Kaileb Crimson.”
“Seeing a dead woman come back to life and all.”
Kaileb Crimson.
He stood there, a sword gripped in his right hand.
The face that might have looked benevolent when smiling now bore no color, no vitality.
His eyes had already rolled back, the whites completely bloodshot and ruptured. He looked like a corpse that had been exhumed from its grave.
‘Did he hear everything?’
Iliana sighed at the thought.
The ‘poison’ Odette had placed in the glass. That was the problem.
Realizing he could not approach Holy Knights who possessed holy power, Kaileb had apparently decided, contrary to La Mare’s expectations, to stake everything on punishing his own daughter rather than devoting himself to his calling.
“Do you think I alone will crumble?”
Iliana cried out, recalling his words that she had heard through the listening device.
“Put the sword down.”
Kaileb, staring at Iliana with an eerie gaze, did not answer and abruptly turned his eyes away.
What was truly terrifying was that the moment Kaileb’s eyes fell upon Odette, he smiled broadly.
“Our princess.”
Odette flinched.
“Is it true? Did our princess… really poison daddy?”
His tone was less that of speaking to an adult daughter and more like coaxing a five or six-year-old child.
“Did that girl standing behind you make you do it? Or… did that bastard Aden make you do it? Hmm? Answer me, our daughter.”
“…”
“Answer me!”
Kaileb shouted and drew steadily closer.
Odette shook her head and stepped backward. But the Bell Tower was cramped, and she and Iliana quickly struck the railing.
Kaileb chuckled darkly, raising his left hand to grip Odette’s shoulder with brutal force.
His eyes bore into her with the gaze of someone observing a broken toy—not a daughter.
“Don’t cry. My masterpiece, my princess. I’ve known for a long time that you’re beautiful but foolish.”
“…Father.”
“You’ll have to pay the price for choosing the wrong friend. Won’t you?”
Kaileb pressed down on Odette’s shoulder with deliberate force.
Iliana’s body tilted backward along with her. Witnessing this, Kaileb let out a chilling laugh.
“How unfortunate. I wanted to kill you right before Aden’s eyes, but in the end, I couldn’t manage it. You’re his most precious commodity, aren’t you? But I can at least achieve half of it….”
Kaileb whispered softly to Iliana, whose eyes were squeezed shut, as he raised his blade high.
He had barely managed to pursue Odette while evading the Holy Knights’ sight.
The moment he learned the will had been switched and poison consumed. The moment he saw the Paladin Commander himself among the Holy Knight Order. The moment he saw the secretary who should have been dead standing before his eyes.
Kaileb understood. Everything had been a trap to capture him, and there was no longer any way out.
If he couldn’t turn back… he would move forward. Even if it meant crossing the line.
‘I’m the only one who can destroy it.’
The Merchant Guild Crimson, which he had built by endlessly eliminating competitors. The name “Crimson” he had wanted to forge with the blood of true nobility.
Since he had begun it, only he could end it. Only he.
Kaileb intended to stab all three of them and fall together.
Then.
Iliana’s eyes snapped open, and she grinned wickedly.
“I see. I can achieve half of it.”
Watching the momentarily stunned Kaileb, she seized Odette’s nape and rolled to the left.
A gap opened. And at that same moment,
“Just the part about ‘before Aden’s eyes.'”
Bang—
A deafening gunshot filled the Bell Tower.

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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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