If You Are Suited for the Villain's Secretary - Chapter 9

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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 9
‘Luther?!’
Jeremy Sand feared Luther far more than Aden.
His unofficial title was “Fixer,” and more than anything, the sheer muscle visible on his frame was no joke.
In comparison, the Guild Master seemed almost insignificant.
A desk-bound man with a pallid complexion—had he ever actually used his body for anything?
And lacking confidence in his own strength, wasn’t that precisely why he kept a hulking bodyguard like Luther at his side?
‘S-still, it’s fine. Luther’s an idiot anyway.’
At least there was this consolation: Luther was a fool who wandered about laughing vacuously.
If I could talk my way around him cleverly enough, I might escape. Jeremy’s mind raced as he raised his voice.
“Luther! Is that you?!”
“….”
“Let me out of here, would you? That trainee girl tied me up and ran off!”
Actually, this worked in my favor.
Hadn’t I already exposed that trainee—Iliana or whatever her name was—as a spy?
She’d knocked me unconscious with a broom, sure, but she’d obviously panicked and fled, terrified of being caught.
So why not pin everything on that girl?
Even my own misdeeds!
“She kept lurking suspiciously in front of the Document Storage Facility, so I tried to talk to her, and she suddenly came at me with a broom. My instincts were right!”
“….”
“She was definitely plotting something. Otherwise, why would she have attacked me…!”
Click.
At the sound of a button being pressed, Jeremy’s eyes widened slowly.
[I had a bad feeling, so it’s good I came quickly.]
The very moment the situation unfolding in that corridor reached his ears, the figure standing with his back turned rotated slowly around.
[Who sent you?! The Chairman? Did he send you to spy on me?]
[N-no, I think there’s been some misunderstanding. The Chairman…?]
“D-Director…?”
“Jeremy Sand.”
[Fine, good! Let’s see what you’ve got!]
[Just a moment, please calm down first….]
Click.
Aden switched off the recording device and spoke in a flat voice.
“Do you have any other excuses?”
“W-well, you see…”
“Something more credible than that drivel. Something worth actually listening to.”
It was strange.
The Guild Master’s frame, which I’d thought was unremarkable, was actually this… imposing?
And his eyes—had they always been this cold and desolate?
The moment I faced Aden, questions like ‘When did he install the surveillance magic tool?’ ceased to matter entirely.
Since the interview, I’d had no real opportunity to speak face-to-face with the Guild Master, which only made matters worse.
Jeremy was barely managing to open his mouth when—
“I’ll pretend I know nothing.”
“W-wait, Director! That’s not what I meant! I, I really—!”
Is this what a prey feels standing before a predator?
The pressure radiating from him was so suffocating I could barely breathe.
I’d been laboring under a terrible, terrible misunderstanding.
Jeremy’s instincts whispered urgently.
“I was wrong! Director! P-please, I’ll tell you everything!”
If I wanted to live, I had to confess it all.
But as always, Jeremy’s intuition was wildly off the mark.
“Tell me what? That you established a shell company called Ronan Logistics and embezzled three hundred million gold? Or that you’ve been demanding regular kickbacks and entertainment expenses from subcontractors?”
“That, that’s—!”
“Or perhaps that the Chairman’s original task for you was simply to steal the black-label documents from the Document Storage Facility?”
Jeremy’s mind went white.
“You’re probably wondering how I found out, but I don’t need to explain that. However, I can tell you when I discovered it.”
Click.
Aden, clad in black leather gloves, suddenly slammed Jeremy’s body against the wall.
“Ugh!”
No—it wasn’t the wall.
When Jeremy lifted his head, trembling and gasping in pain, what he saw was—
“H-how is this possible…?”
An empty document cabinet.
Only then did Jeremy understand.
The Document Storage Room he’d gone to such lengths to infiltrate actually contained—
‘Could it have been a trap all along?’
Nothing at all from the very beginning.
His vision blurred. Jeremy begged without even realizing he was crying.
“Please, spare me! Whatever you command, I’ll do anything, so please!”
“Why would I dirty my hands?”
Then?
Jeremy’s eyes snapped open with a thread of hope, only to meet Aden’s face—composed yet somehow weary.
The same expressionless mask as always.
“You’re not worth the effort. That’s the Chairman’s responsibility.”
“Ah, ah—!”
“Think carefully about what the Chairman will believe when he sees you return alive despite being exposed as a spy.”
He would think I’d betrayed him.
He would surely believe I’d confessed everything and bought my life with information!
But Jeremy was given no time to dwell on this realization.
“Of course.”
The last thing Jeremy Sand saw
“was that I never promised to send you back ‘unscathed.'”
Those eerie violet eyes drew closer, whispering like the reaper itself.
***
Some time later.
“….”
Aden returned to his office and tossed the blood-stained leather gloves into the trash bin.
The series of motions—straightening his clothes and settling back into his chair—possessed the ritualistic precision of ceremony.
He was tilting the hip flask he always carried to his lips when the mechanical chime drew his attention.
A communicator.
“Yes, this is Aden.”
-Director? It’s Lenox! I’m calling to report, but first, how have you been? It feels like it’s been ages since we last met! I’m sure you’re not curious, but I’ve been doing well these days….
The cheerful voice of the man introducing himself as Lenox crackled through, accompanied by the cry of seagulls.
Aden answered curtly.
“Get to the point.”
-Right, understood. So, you know that Jeremy fellow? I found his safe and recovered every last gold coin he’d embezzled and extorted from the subcontractors!
“Were there any complications?”
-You instructed us to tag all the money paid to that bastard so it could be traced, remember? Jeremy tried to be clever and rented a safe under an alias, but honestly, that was child’s play.
Despite the good news of recovering over 300 million gold, Aden’s expression remained unmoved.
It was exactly as I had anticipated.
Rather, I was calculating when the tags I’d placed on money given to someone else would begin to move.
Specifically, the 3 million gold congratulatory bonus I’d given to the new trainee.
-By the way, I heard another spy got hired as a new recruit? Goodness. Director, why do you have so many enemies? In my opinion….
“Just the essentials.”
-Yes, sir. Anyway, the location of the safe Jeremy set up under an alias and Sirena, where the new recruit stayed, aren’t far apart, so I arrived just a moment ago.
If Luther was a fixer, then Lenox was a tracker.
I had instructed Lenox to make contact with Mason, the president of the Mason Trading Company, Iliana’s former workplace.
-Well, it seems this person Mason has fled somewhere. And quite recently, at that.
Hm.
My brow furrowed slightly.
“For what reason?”
-The problem is, this town is full of elderly folk, so it was difficult to conduct inquiries discreetly. Rural harbor cities spread rumors quickly and are naturally suspicious. So I went straight to Mason’s residence.
A groan came through from the other end.
-There were no signs of life whatsoever. So I took a chance and broke in….
“Mason wasn’t there, then.”
-That’s not all. The house was an absolute mess! Clothes scattered everywhere, valuables box left open. Do you think he fled in the dead of night?
Of course, if Iliana had heard this, she would have pressed her palm to her forehead.
Mason had simply left on a retirement trip, and he was naturally terrible at cleaning and organizing—which was precisely why he’d hired young Iliana in the first place.
But Lenox, unaware of these facts, added with utmost gravity.
Director, I must say… this spy doesn’t seem to be an ordinary person.
Aden turned his gaze toward Iliana within the scrying device.
Watching her laugh softly as she tapped at the creaking floorboards, Aden nodded slowly.
“I share that assessment.”

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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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