If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 88

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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 88
***
Clang—
The sword fell.
Kaileb Crimson couldn’t believe what his own eyes had witnessed. Trembling violently, he rotated his wrist.
“Th-th-this… what….”
Yet the bullet embedded in his wrist was an undeniable truth.
“This can’t… this can’t be real….”
And beyond it, the owner of that bullet was equally impossible to deny.
From the Garden, someone had fired with such precision that the bullet lodged itself into Kaileb Crimson’s wrist—all the way from atop the Bell Tower—and now slowly lowered their gun.
It was Aden.
“Ugh, u-ugh, uuuaaa—!”
Pain arrived belatedly.
Blood sprayed forth like a fountain. Kaileb Crimson collapsed to the ground, writhing with his wrist clenched, his entire body convulsing.
Had he ever felt such agony? No—he didn’t think so. Like an insect curling inward, he wept at this first taste of such exquisite suffering.
Iliana, gazing down at Kaileb Crimson with a click of her tongue, glanced briefly toward Aden in the Garden.
Aden, who had raised both hands to show the Holy Knights approaching at the sound of gunfire, had given her a signal moments before.
It was characteristically concise.
-Left.
When she blocked Odette, when Kaileb Crimson suddenly appeared—Iliana had felt no anxiety.
She had maintained constant communication with Aden ever since he left the Fountain.
And as always, she had trusted that he would come.
-‘Self-defense,’ as you can see.
Iliana let out a soft laugh at Aden’s emotionless voice through the communicator, then ended the transmission and signaled Odette with her eyes.
Odette was watching her father howl like a beast on the ground.
The massive wall that had encircled her entire world her whole life—now collapsed by a single bullet—lay writhing in the rain.
“…Hah.”
Her eyes reddened and her lips trembled, yet Odette managed not to collapse.
The fierce rain and wind lashed at her cheeks, but instead her mind grew clearer.
Odette wiped away her blurred vision. Kaileb Crimson looked up at her, extending his hand.
“Odette….”
Her father’s voice, laden with pain, was pitiable.
Perhaps he was mustering his last strength, deliberately making himself sound pitiful.
“It was all… all for you….”
Kaileb Crimson did not love Odette Crimson.
Kaileb Crimson loved ‘Crimson.’ In the end, it was self-love.
That phrase he repeated like a habit was nothing but a reiterated confession of himself.
‘All of it was for ‘me.”
Odette drew a deep breath and answered.
“Yes. I understand.”
“….”
“So for my sake, never leave the Prison for the rest of your life.”
Odette, who had spun around without a chance to be stopped, paused at Iliana’s whisper.
She laughed softly and lifted the hem of her dress.
“I have something to tell you—I got divorced yesterday. From Basil. That’s why the seal was in my safe.”
Kaileb Crimson’s eyes widened.
Yet Odette spoke as though it were nothing of consequence.
“So because so many things went wrong, even if Father’s plan had succeeded, he would have gained nothing. And you see.”
Ezekiel and the Holy Knights, who had arrived at the Bell Tower in haste, pinned Kaileb Crimson down.
As he writhed, his gaze fixed upon his father as though nails had been driven through his eyes, Odette offered a farewell smile and….
“The truth is, Father’s plan was doomed from the start, regardless of La Mare.”
“….”
“What was inside my belly wasn’t a baby—it was cotton stuffing.”
She tossed the cushion that had been wrapped around her abdomen.
“Fooled you, didn’t I?”
Odette, laughing like a child, never looked back again.
Watching her descend the Bell Tower with Iliana, Kaileb Crimson exhaled as though all the air had been knocked from his lungs.
“…Ha.”
All that remained at his side was a cushion, a knife, and a single bullet lodged in his wrist.
That was all.
Ha. Haha. Laughing like a sigh, Kaileb Crimson offered no further resistance.
As he bowed his head, the charges fell upon him along with the rain.
It was absolute defeat.
***
I descended from the Bell Tower and walked through the Corridor, asking her a question.
“Feeling a bit better now?”
“…Yes.”
Odette nodded.
Before coming down from the Bell Tower, I had whispered to her—asking if there was anything she wanted to say one last time.
As someone with experience in the field of “nearly being killed by a relative,” it was advice I absolutely had to give. The last words matter.
‘After all, I still feel satisfied whenever I remember the words I hurled back at Randolph….’
In any case, it seemed Odette had found some relief, which was fortunate.
I cleared my throat and was about to bid her farewell.
Odette needed to go to the Investigation Bureau to give her testimony, and I had mountains of work waiting for me.
“Well then….”
That was when it happened.
Without warning, Odette embraced me.
Caught off guard, I stiffened, but then I realized her body was trembling slightly.
“…Thank you.”
I raised my hand and slowly patted her damp back as I asked her a question.
“For what exactly?”
“…Do all people from 【La Mare】 need to have answers for everything like you do?”
“If you’re curious, come visit sometime.”
Odette lifted her head slightly, peeking up at me.
“…Is that really okay?”
“Well, it might be difficult to be welcomed by everyone.”
Odette’s eyebrows drooped instantly. Looking down at her with a smile, I added.
“But I’ll welcome you.”
“….”
“Next time, let’s have tea together. Understood?”
“…Yes….”
It was while I was patting Odette.
Something dark was approaching from far away. I narrowed my eyes to look, then smiled. I didn’t need to look closely—it was Aden.
But as he drew closer, his appearance was far from his usual composed self.
His hair, wet from the rain, was disheveled across his forehead, and one or two buttons of his shirt—which were always fastened neatly—were undone.
Had he come running straight from the Garden to find me? And in such haste, too.
…That assumption seemed to be correct. When our eyes met, he stopped.
Odette, who had lifted her head at the sound of footsteps, looked as though she’d seen a ghost when she saw Aden.
“Ah, um, sorry, sorry….”
After observing the flustered Odette for a moment—apparently thinking he would be hostile toward her—Aden opened his mouth.
“A carriage sent by the Investigation Bureau is waiting at the Main Gate. Sir Oswald, the Paladin Commander’s aide, will personally oversee your escort.”
His tone was characteristically businesslike yet courteous.
“Th, thank you.”
Odette, who had answered somewhat awkwardly, seemed to have finally come to her senses.
She cleared her throat and lowered her head.
“And I’m sorry—no, I apologize. This isn’t something I’m saying to evade the situation. As Odette Crimson, I will take responsibility for whatever parts I can, cough, in whatever way necessary. I’ll offer a proper apology later, I promise.”
“For now, giving your testimony properly is probably the only ‘responsibility’ you can take on.”
“That’s… that’s right.”
The man who had cut her off so decisively watched Odette for a moment before adding,
“But I will be waiting for that apology.”
Odette’s pallid face brightened slightly at those words.
She nodded, promising to do exactly that, then rushed toward the Main Gate.
Aden, who had been watching until Odette completely disappeared down the Corridor, finally turned to look at me once we were alone in the hallway.
His gaze slid downward. Aden’s brow furrowed faintly as he took in my fingertips dripping with water and my clothes clinging wetly from the rain.
“Sit down.”
He then seated me in a chair that had been placed as hallway decoration and removed his jacket, draping it over my shoulders.
“Oh…”
“Even if it’s heavy, wear it for a while.”
Aden’s low voice settled into my ears as he bent down to arrange the jacket around me.
I could only see his chest, not his face—we were that close. I had always known his voice was pleasant, but had I ever heard it from this distance before?
I didn’t think so. It was as if someone were drawing the lowest string of a perfectly tuned instrument right beside my ear.
But this Director with the lovely voice didn’t step back.
Tap, tap.
With the same hand that had placed the jacket, he slowly brushed down the collar, then knelt on one knee before me.
Confused and tilting my head, I felt Aden’s hand—which had grazed the jacket—gently grasp mine. His body heat was intense.
“…Director?”
“You’re trembling.”
Only after hearing Aden’s words did I realize it.
That my hand, held in his grip, was shaking.
Embarrassed by my pathetic trembling, an instinctive quip tumbled out.
“I-I think it’s because I’m cold.”
It was summer rain. It was damp, but not cold.
Aden, who had been watching me intently, nodded.
“Yes. I suppose that’s it.”
Then he murmured,
“…Seeing me like this, I suppose I am too.”
Aden leaned forward and rested his forehead against the hand he held.
As if he had been holding it back for a long time, a long, trembling sigh poured out onto me.

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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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