My Boss is the Villainous Grand Duke - Chapter 2

“When I went to the imperial palace this time, this father of yours almost got into big trouble.”

The Count spoke with a gloomy expression, lowering his gaze. It seemed as if he was recalling that moment.

“Big trouble?”

Elena stood up from her chair and approached her father. Although he wasn’t her real father, Elena had come to accept and follow him as her father after 8 years of his care.

“Last year, I pushed forward with a risky business venture, and in the process, there was some friction with a merchant guild. I thought it was well resolved, but it came back to bite me.”

The Count, who was known for his excellent business acumen, had started a new venture last year. Because of that, he had been so busy that he couldn’t even come home for a while.

Elena held back her desire to ask which merchant guild it was. She planned to ask after hearing the rest of the story first.

“I thought the conflict of interests had been well resolved. But that wasn’t the case.”

The reasons for clashes between merchant guilds were all similar. In the end, it was all about moving in a direction favorable to oneself to gain profit.

However, the Jellisto merchant guild was being operated kindly due to Elena’s intervention. So there was no reason to be at odds with others.

“Rumors started circulating that I had embezzled taxes.”

“Someone must have falsely accused you, Father.”

Elena forcibly swallowed a sigh that was about to escape and stroked her father’s wrinkled hand.

The father she knew had never once embezzled taxes.

He had his own principle that transparent business makes many people happy, which was why Elena respected him.

But embezzling taxes!

She was angry at such nonsense. But suppressing her anger, she focused on his words.

“Yes. I denied it, but everything worked against me.”

While the Count explained in detail what had happened in the conference room, Elena examined his face, which had lost weight and darkened under the eyes.

It was evident that he hadn’t been able to sleep properly due to mental distress.

She thought he just hadn’t come home because he went to the imperial palace, but his skin had become rough.

“Father!”

She kept stroking the back of his hand, wanting to comfort him.

She hadn’t looked at her father closely, not knowing such a thing had happened.

“At that time, the only one who became my ally was the Grand Duke.”

As soon as the Grand Duke was mentioned, the dark clouds that had been hanging over the Count’s face receded, and sunlight appeared.

“When everyone distrusted and cornered me, only one person, His Highness the Grand Duke, believed in me.”

Perhaps recalling the emotion of that moment, the Count even smiled occasionally.

“The Grand Duke also revealed that the ledger brought by the baron who betrayed me was false.”

The crime of deceiving the emperor of taxes by creating a double ledger was equivalent to treason against the emperor. The entire Count’s family could have been punished, but the Grand Duke had saved them.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Elena had to admit that even though he would later become the villain, right now he was no different from a benefactor to her father, just by the change in atmosphere.

“I wanted to help him somehow since I was indebted to him, but the Grand Duke said he didn’t need me.”

The Grand Duke’s family didn’t need the power of the Count’s family. They weren’t interested in the Count’s business talents either.

“So I’ve been observing him for the past few days.”

It seems the Count, who wanted to help somehow, had an idea while observing the Grand Duke.

“Father.”

She barely managed to lift the corners of her mouth.

‘Surely, the end of that thought isn’t me, is it?’

As she tried to slowly withdraw her hand with a sense of foreboding, the Count firmly grasped Elena’s hand. She couldn’t even swallow due to the anxiety that felt like it would choke her.

“You should serve Grand Duke Rudfelix.”

‘I must have heard wrong, right? Yes, I must have misheard what Father just said.’

Although she thought this in her mind, her body was honest. Elena shook her head while hugging her arms as if to protect her body that had suddenly broken out in goosebumps.

No matter how indebted they were, it wasn’t right to decide his daughter’s marriage partner so easily.

First, she took a deep breath and started with kind words. After all, the beginning is important in everything.

“Father, give me time to think. I understand that the Grand Duke is a good person if he has shown you kindness.”

“Yes. He’s a very intelligent and impressive man. I hadn’t had much connection with him until now, so I hadn’t seen him closely, but there’s no man quite like him. I understand now what it means when people say they’d want to give their well-raised daughter to him.”

He said she now understood why the nobles around him kept saying ‘Grand Duke, Grand Duke’.

“Even so, marriage so suddenly? I’ve never even had a conversation with the Grand Duke. I don’t want to become his wife like this, as if I’m being sold off.”

Elena lowered her eyes and turned her head. She wanted to ask if marriage was the only way to repay the favor, but she kept her mouth shut, not wanting to push her father.

That wasn’t something to do to a father who raised her with love.

Elena squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them, trying to hide a sigh. She should repay her father’s love, but marriage wasn’t something to decide for such a simple reason.

‘Is he disappointed?’

When neither said anything, the suffocating silence was growing longer.

Just as she was wondering if she should explain further and ask for understanding, her father’s words dropped abruptly.

“Who said to marry the Grand Duke?”

“Pardon?”

As Elena raised her eyes with a feeling of disbelief, the Count looked back with an even more incredulous gaze.

“I said to serve him as your superior.”

“… But you said if you had a well-raised daughter, you’d want to give her to him?”

There’s a well-raised daughter right here, so what else could that mean if not marriage?

“That was just what people around me were saying.”

“Then what do you mean by telling me to serve the Grand Duke…”

“The Grand Duke is so busy with many affairs that he has only one aide. When he mentioned always being short-handed, I thought of you.”

‘If that’s the case, you should have said to serve him as a superior from the start.’

Elena, who had been relieved it wasn’t marriage, suddenly raised her head.

Honestly, even serving him as a superior isn’t very appealing. But the shock from the misunderstanding that she might have to marry him was so strong that she felt momentary relief.

“You want me to become the Grand Duke’s aide?”

“Yes.”

I believe you’ll do well. Her father’s unspoken words were heard.

Elena withdrew from the Count and sat down as if collapsing.

Clearly, until this morning, she had been happy to be Elena, smiling joyfully.

She had been smiling in the mirror under the brilliant sunlight, but that beautiful morning shattered and flew away like a momentary dream.

Elena ran her fingers through her hair, messing it up.

‘What are you asking me to do?’

To serve the Grand Duke, but more precisely, to serve the Grand Duke who would be branded as a villain and die in the not-too-distant future.

‘This is like sticking my head into a tiger’s mouth.’

It’s like saying, ‘Please chew and eat me deliciously.’

Until now, she had only heard rumors about him but never sought him out, precisely to avoid forming even the shallowest of connections. But now all those efforts were becoming meaningless in an instant.

Elena, who knew the contents of the novel all too well, let out a silent scream.

‘So you’re telling me to become his subordinate and assist in his evil deeds?’

* * *

[Since he’s said to be staying at the Imperial Palace, go there.]

Elena recalled the Count’s words as she sat in the carriage heading to the Imperial Palace.

“An aide?”

To assist the Grand Duke.

Elena rubbed her face with her hands, feeling frustrated. As she did so, her hair, tied in a single bundle, fell loose and tickled her face.

“Miss, you shouldn’t rub your face like that.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like there’s anyone I need to look pretty for anyway.”

Ginny, the maid who had accompanied her, brushed Elena’s hair back as she admonished her. But Elena paid no mind and leaned her arm against the window.

When the Count first said he would send his daughter as an aide, the Grand Duke had refused, she heard.

‘How could he trust and take on someone he’s never even met as an aide?’

Elena understood the Grand Duke’s thinking, but apparently, the Count did not.

[Be by the Grand Duke’s side, just as you were there to help me back then.]

There was a time when many of those working under the Count had quit en masse to start their own trading company.

At that time, there were moments when the Count struggled to handle all their roles alone. Seeing her father working late into the night for days on end, Elena finally threw off the mask of a well-behaved noble young lady and stepped into the company’s affairs.

First, a division of labor was necessary. She promoted those who had been working in the departments regardless of their status and introduced a performance-based system.

Since their vacancies weren’t the end of it, Elena took her place beside the Count.

From reviewing account books to classifying priority tasks, she took charge of everything to help the Count proceed with work smoothly.

She scheduled meetings and met with clients to ensure the company didn’t lose its greatest virtue: trust.