‘Damn it……’

Serena realized.

Come to think of it, she was not an assistant now, but a villainess.

“Enough, I don’t want to talk to you anymore. I heard you were going to sign the divorce papers.”

“Ah, yes.”

The content of the conversation changed, and the opportunity to clear up the misunderstanding was lost.

She thought about slowly bringing up the topic again to clear up the misunderstanding, but thinking about the process made her feel lazy.

Moreover, she didn’t want to do that with someone who was exuding irritation.

‘I don’t know.’

After a brief deliberation, she gave up.

She would apologize for crossing the line, but she had no intention of shedding her ‘villainess’ image.

Because she knew the comfort that the image of a ‘villainess’ provided.

No one approaches her, and no one disturbs her mood.

Throughout her time in the reception room today, everyone watched her carefully and moved quietly.

That, for her, was quite comfortable.

Yes.

Today, whenever she sighed, the servants would rush over and ask if she needed anything.

When she yawned slightly from fatigue, they brought blankets and pillows and made the room warm.

When she felt bored, all kinds of refreshments were fully laid out on the tea table.

When she started to say, “Um…”, the servants were already kneeling in front of her, ready to listen.

Pamel would bring her tissues if she glanced at them, and if she thought it was a bit hot and glanced at the window, he would open it.

Damn, the world moved without her saying a word.

So she thought,

‘…Being a villainess might not be so bad?’

Without her needing to do anything more, her reputation was already in shambles and her notoriety was high.

There probably wouldn’t be anyone approaching her in social circles either.

Serena was an extremely introverted person. She seemed to have been extroverted as a fresh undergraduate student.

But when you’re in a state of half-blocked human relationships, being rolled around by professors wearing human masks, being rolled, and rolled again, and endlessly tempered, anyone would come to dislike people.

Serena hated academic conferences.

Serena really hated academic conferences disguised as parties.

Serena f*cking hated academic conferences disguised as year-end and new year parties.

Serena f*cking hated academic conferences disguised as business trips where she had to cater to the professor’s whims all day long, plan schedules for the professor, and even participate in the professor’s hobbies.

Therefore, the situation where everyone catered to her whims was quite pleasing.

So she decided to just apologize for the part that endangered life and leave it at that.

“Here, do it and disappear.”

Magnus put the divorce papers and pen that Pamel had brought on the table and pushed them towards her.

Serena picked up the pen and asked.

“Can I stay here after signing?”

“What? What are you talking about? Of course you have to leave my house when we divorce.”

Magnus frowned.

‘What kind of trick is this?’

Is she trying to stay here aiming for his family and money?

He doesn’t know how much money she has taken and used so far.

Of course, no matter how much she used, it wasn’t enough to shake the Kelahinum ducal family unless she was trying to buy an entire country.

However, her extravagance was always excessive. It was almost at the level of throwing money around.

“There’s a cooling-off period, you know.”

“Ah.”

The divorce cooling-off period was a time to deeply consider whether this divorce should really proceed.

During that time, the two people have to live in the same house.

“Three months. Do that.”

Magnus accepted her sensible words.

“Alright. Then what about alimony?”

“…What?”

“Alimony.”

Usually, when divorcing, it’s common for the party with relatively more assets to give to the party with less assets.

In this era, women don’t bring much except for dowry, so usually the man gives a portion.

“The divorce will proceed according to legal procedures, and I will pay the amount set without deducting a single coin.”

“How about writing a contract?”

Magnus, who had his arms crossed, narrowed his eyes.

What on earth! Those suspicious eyes!

“Are you… thinking that I, the Duke of Kelahinum, would try to skimp on something like alimony?”

Seriously?

For such a small amount of money?

Magnus asked, feeling offended.

“You never know how people’s hearts might change. You could break promises like I did. It’s better for you too to keep evidence, witnesses, and documents for all contracts.”

Serena advised sincerely with a serious face.

The one who knew the dangers of verbal contracts better than anyone was her, the biggest victim of verbal contracts.

Professors are all good with words.

They say that if you just come in as an assistant or aide, you can pluck the stars from the sky.

Thanks to that, Serena as an undergraduate thought that being an assistant was some kind of divine job.

‘It was a cute and fresh time.’

Professor Kim Chul-soo originally had a generous personality to match his benevolent appearance.

When they met on the street, he would buy her coffee and didn’t spare advice on submitted assignments when he called her separately.

Professor Lemerun wasn’t that harsh for the first few days of her work at the academy either.

He gently comforted her when she was confused and calmly explained things.

He was still somewhat kind until she tried to submit her resignation, feeling suffocated by the increasing work and feeling a sense of crisis from Lemerun overlapping with Professor Kim Chul-soo.

Why the expressions of seniors listening to her when she praised the professors as an undergraduate looked like they were looking at someone with a terminal illness, why seniors tried to give her something every time they met, patting her shoulders… why they showed her such precious exam papers for free…!

Damn it, if only she had noticed a little sooner…!

Anyway, the professors she experienced were mostly liars as soon as they opened their mouths.

“Oh, if you just do that much, I’ll give you a few days off to rest~”

“Ah, what to do. The deadline suddenly got moved up? I’ll give you a week after you finish this.”

“…A week? Me? What are you saying in such a busy time! How can you be so inconsiderate?”

That bastard Kim Chul-soo did that.

“…The salary is low, Professor.”

“Huh? Why? That’s a lot for that much. You know there’s no budget. I’ll give you more when it increases.”

“No, you should at least pay as much as stated in the employment contract.”

“Don’t you get room and board here?”

“I do.”

“Don’t you do experiments in my lab?”

“I don’t have to.”

She didn’t even want to. It was forced employment. She was just doing everything he ordered instead.

“But you do. That’s all deducted. That’s how this field is. It’s written in the employment contract that research material costs and such are excluded and deducted. That’s why you should read contracts carefully before signing. Hehehe!”

“…You, you, son of a…!!”

“Huh? Did you just say, son of a…?”

“The g-gum… I was chewing, I just remembered I accidentally dropped it on the floor. It’s a bit… frus…trating…”¹sorry I can’t translate the joke properly. It’s wordplay. 씹 is a derogatory word and she tried to cover it up by saying “씹……던 껌을” in which 씹던 (씹다) means ‘to chew’

“Oh, if my beloved assistant says so, I should give you a special break. Come back in 10 minutes. Bring soft marshmallow ice cream when you come back.”

Lemerun smiled broadly as he told her to buy ice cream that was only sold in front of her dormitory, a 20-minute round trip walk away.

That damn Lemerun did that.

So Serena didn’t believe in verbal contracts.

Words passed from mouth to mouth couldn’t possibly have any credibility.

At the very least, you must always leave a trace in documents.

That was the truth she had personally realized over the past 18 years.

“…Pamel.”

Magnus was now not just displeased, but starting to get a little angry.

He glared at her with a sunken face and called the head butler.

“Yes, Master.”

“Bring paper and a pen.”

Serena’s eyes sparkled.

She thought it would take a few more exchanges.

Because professors always did that.

When asked to leave a notarization or document for what was promised, they would hem and haw, beating around the bush.

She looked at him with some emotion.

‘What, you’ve grown up to be quite nice…’

As expected, the extremely kind sub-male lead in the novel is different.

She felt that even her anger at his misunderstanding melt away.

Thud!

He scribbled something, even stamped it with the family seal, and handed the paper to her.

Serena quickly took it and read it.

<Divorce Contract>

1. The divorce will proceed according to legal procedures.

2. During the divorce cooling-off period, ‘Serena Lavernia’s’ safety will be protected by the ‘Kelahinum ducal family’. ‘Serena Lavernia’ will receive equal treatment as the Duchess until the divorce is approved.

3. The alimony at the time of divorce will be calculated according to the standards set by law and paid in full when ‘Serena Lavernia’ leaves the ‘Kelahinum ducal family’ after the divorce is approved, in the manner ‘Serena Lavernia’ desires.

4. Even during the divorce cooling-off period, ‘Serena Lavernia’ as the Duchess and ‘Magnus von Kelahinum’ as the Duke will do their best in their roles.

No frills, clean, and even without room for other interpretations, no meaningful or ambiguous words.

It’s truly clean!

Serena read the contract over and over again, deeply moved.

“Any more you need?”

“No, you’re quite naive, aren’t you?”

It’s perfect so there’s nothing more to say, you used to be blunt but you’ve grown up quite well to become such a nice adult! Aren’t you too naive?

Having been too moved, she had too much to say so it was somewhat compressed, but Serena smiled brightly, conveying roughly that meaning.

“……”

“……”

As the kindness shown suddenly turned into a dispute, Magnus and Pamel fell silent.

Of course, it was somewhat unfortunate that since this was all happening in her head, to other people’s ears it could be interpreted as something like ‘You’re doing everything I ask, are you a pushover?’