Chapter 13
About twenty minutes later—
“Um, Senior. I’m finished organizing everything.”
Aaron peeked his head out from behind a towering mountain of documents.
“Oh! Great work. Thank you. Please deliver the documents to the Duke’s office. After that, the Duke will give you further instructions directly.”
“Ah, yes.”
So… I’m finally meeting the Duke.
I tried to forcibly calm my wildly pounding heart. I’d been hired as the Duke’s secretary—if I reacted like this every time I saw him, I’d end up with a nervous breakdown.
Despite the nerves, I was also looking forward to it. Just how much of a complete trash personality would he show today?
‘Please teach me something today as well, Duke!’
Knock, knock.
I knocked on the office door full of ambition, but no answer came.
I cautiously opened the door and peeked inside.
‘He’s not here.’
As expected, the office was stark and desolate. A space that belonged to someone who did nothing but work.
There wasn’t even the cliché family photo on the desk—no trace of personal taste whatsoever.
As I set the stack of documents on the desk, I turned my head at a familiar scent.
Steam was still rising from the teapot, as if he’d stepped out only moments ago.
‘But… the tea leaves have been steeped for way too long.’
Not to brag, but I’d spent my life running tea errands for my uncle.
‘If I served tea like this to my uncle, he’d have torn into me about lacking the refinement of a noblewoman and not knowing the basics of tea etiquette.’
After debating for about five seconds over whether this was overstepping, I re-brewed the tea.
Managing what goes into your boss’s mouth is part of a secretary’s job too, right?
‘Perfect.’
Satisfied with the perfectly golden tea, I checked the clock again.
‘But why isn’t he coming…?’
I’d just brewed it—was I going to have to throw it out again?
As I wandered around the office aimlessly—
‘Ah, dust.’
The moment I spotted dust on the window frame, my hand moved automatically.
There was no uncle here to scold me for failing to discipline the maids, yet my body reacted on its own.
Only after wiping away the few offending specks of dust did I glance at the clock again.
‘…Seriously, when is he coming?’
That was when—
“Why is the door open? Your Grace, here’s the report—oh! Miss Violet!”
Aaron entered the office and widened his eyes when he saw me.
“It seems His Grace still hasn’t returned. Oh dear, you must have been waiting all this time. The meeting appears to be running long—give me the documents and go rest for now. I’ll review them in his place.”
“Ah, yes! Here you go.”
I quickly handed the documents to Aaron.
After checking the first page, his expression turned strange.
“…Hm? Miss Violet, this is…”
He trailed off, then made a baffled sound.
“…Huh.”
Excuse me?
“…Huhhh?”
What is it?!
His hands trembled as he flipped through the pages one by one.
My heart began trembling in sync.
‘Nothing’s wrong… right?’
This was the first task I’d been entrusted with since officially starting work. I desperately wanted to do well.
And today, I’d left Pipi at home to rest, which made me even more anxious.
“Miss Violet. Th-this…”
Aaron looked back and forth between me and the documents.
“How many minutes did it take you to organize these?”
“About twenty minutes…”
As I answered nervously, Aaron muttered in a daze, “Twenty minutes… twenty minutes…”
“Miss Violet, for now, please go rest in the lounge. You can look around the magic tower if you like.”
“…Pardon?”
“A-hem. There’s something I need to discuss privately with His Grace. I’ll call you again if needed.”
“Ah… yes! Understood.”
Something about this felt off, but one never disobeys a senior.
I nodded quickly and left the office.
Creak.
Cayen opened the door to his office with a hardened expression.
His finely sculpted forehead—like carved ivory—was deeply creased with fatigue and irritation.
The moment he stepped inside the quiet office, he paused.
‘What is this?’
A vague sense of discomfort washed over him.
Unable to pinpoint it, Cayen scanned the room.
Then he realized what felt off.
‘It’s… clean.’
Usually, dust lingered in unnoticed places—window frames, between bookshelves.
It annoyed him, but he’d been too tired to summon servants and scold them.
Yet today, every surface gleamed like a model home.
‘Did they hire a new cleaner?’
Whoever it was, their professionalism pleased him.
Thinking that, Cayen sank into his chair and took a sip of tea.
‘…Hm?’
His hand froze midair.
Was the tea always this clean-tasting?
The fresh yet deep aroma gently dissolved the remnants of his unpleasant fatigue.
His tightly knit brow relaxed without him realizing it.
Just then, hurried footsteps thundered closer.
“Y-Your Grace! You’re back!”
Cayen looked at the breathless Aaron with irritation.
“Why don’t you just roll in? Might be faster.”
“Your Grace, about Miss Violet—the one newly hired as your direct secretary!”
At that name, Cayen recalled yesterday.
Her fluent command of the imperial language, her bright eyes.
In a magic tower full of shrieking monkeys, it had been a rare moment of hearing actual human speech—memorable, to say the least.
“What about the rookie? Did she already cause trouble?”
Cayen’s baseline trust in humanity hovered near zero.
Even Frisia, whom he’d judged to have above-average intelligence, was no exception.
“Trouble? Not at all! Please—look at this!”
Aaron slammed the thick stack of documents onto the desk.
Cayen raised one eyebrow.
“This morning, I asked Miss Violet to sort these documents in ascending order. They were completely mixed up!”
Reports calculating elemental mass had been neatly ordered from lightest to heaviest.
Far more readable than simply arranging them by experiment sequence.
“She recalculated every formula and sorted them by value—in just twenty minutes! Only twenty!”
Aaron snorted like an excited rhinoceros.
“And she restored all of yesterday’s destroyed data overnight! There’s no doubt her mind is extraordinary!”
“Hm.”
Cayen lazily traced the edge of the documents with his fingers.
Indeed.
This was nothing like the work done by monkeys earning high salaries while causing one disaster per day.
“And Your Grace—here is the investigation report you ordered on Miss Violet.”
Aaron handed him another file, his expression grave.
“As you can see, during her academy years, Miss Violet barely avoided failing and spent all her time following her fiancé around—a pitiful female student.”
If Frisia had heard that, she would’ve cried on the spot from sheer accuracy.
Aaron shook his head.
“It doesn’t make sense. Someone this brilliant nearly failing academy exams? I believe there’s a secret here.”
“A secret?”
Lowering his voice, Aaron spoke solemnly.
“What if Miss Violet has been hiding her genius all along?”
A genius rookie hiding her power.
Cayen narrowed his eyes at Aaron.
Had his subordinate finally gone insane from secretly reading fantasy novels?
“Did the rookie get kicked in the head by a horse? Why would anyone do something so pointless?”
“As you know, women still struggle to be acknowledged in the Empire. Perhaps she intended to realize her ambitions by elevating her husband instead. Our investigation shows she devoted herself entirely to supporting her fiancé.”
As he spoke, Aaron nodded, convincing himself.
“But it seems that fiancé was a complete scoundrel. So she judged him no longer worth the effort, left him—and joined Your Grace as your secretary!”
“…And why me, specifically?”
“Isn’t it obvious?!”
Aaron shouted, eyes blazing.
“She fell for you!”
“…What?”
Cayen’s hand, which had been massaging his irritated brow, froze in midair.
