My Boss is the Villainous Grand Duke - Chapter 5

It felt like Rudfelix was forcibly holding back a sigh.

“I will do my best.”

She would assist the Grand Duke only to the extent that he would feel ‘that’s enough’.

“Everyone does their best. There are just those who do well and those who don’t.”

“That…”

Whether one does well or not was for him, the superior, to judge.

“Please observe.”

So she told him to observe. She had to please him as she would have to work like an ox for two years as his aide and then wash her hands of it.

“What does doing well mean?”

A common question in interviews came up. It was the most difficult yet easiest question, so Elena’s face brightened.

“I’ve had various experiences since childhood. Thirsty for direct experience beyond the indirect experiences of learning about the world through reading, I ran around actively by my father’s side.”

She filled in the front and back of her words appropriately to fit this world. Such a standard answer should be given to the question of what one does well.

“So what is that?”

Grand Duke Rudfelix sent a bored look as if he hadn’t even heard a few words.

“…I worked hard at what I was told to do.”

Elena was about to give a unique answer but switched to a safe one.

Rudfelix, irritated by the answer that didn’t resonate at all, just stared at Elena.

With her small, white face containing neatly arranged eyes, nose, and mouth, she didn’t feel like 18 at all.

When she first saw him, she opened her mouth in surprise and widened her eyes. Looking at that, it seemed like the aide position was just an excuse and she came aiming to be the Grand Duchess.

Her answers were just so-so. Should I take her or not?

Rudfelix sighed openly.

He had to address the most important requirement that interfered with his work. Namely, insignificant compassion.

Rudfelix raised his index finger and pointed outside.

“I’ll give you the last question.”

Elena turned her head following his finger.

“If you go out there, there are hungry children. They might die if they don’t eat today. Can you ignore those children when you face them?”

Usually, noble young ladies riding in carriages would throw money to the children out of compassion.

It was not a special question.

Elena kept her mouth shut and thought because it wasn’t an ordinary question. She wanted to raise her finger and put it to her lips, but she held back because the interviewer was in front of her.

“Even if they die today, I won’t throw money at them.”

“That’s cold.”

It was the correct answer. He mercilessly cut off his aides whenever they interfered with his work out of compassion. So he was checking this even before taking her on as an aide.

‘It’s right, but I don’t understand the inside.’

Rudfelix lowered his leg that he was about to raise slightly, intending to ask a bit more.

“Why?”

“If I give them money out of compassion, they might die right away. Because I won’t be able to prevent every threat from people trying to extort money from the child.”

Elena looked outside where Grand Duke Rudfelix was pointing.

“Instead, I will go to a nearby monastery and give them money to provide food for the children.”

Rudfelix stroked his chin with the back of his hand. Understanding what that meant, Quiet silently danced.

“There’s nothing more to ask, so let’s end the interview here. The interview result…”

As though he had grown bored of sitting, Rudfelix stood up from his seat impatiently.

“I’ll decide after seeing you work.”

In other words, does that mean a second interview?

Quiet, who had just stopped dancing, sent a look asking if she hadn’t passed. Ignoring that, Rudfelix circled around the round table.

He walked to the pile of documents he had ordered Quiet to bring and tapped the paper with his index finger.

“How many pages does it look like?”

“It looks like about 2,000 pages.”

Elena’s gaze followed Rudfelix and landed on the pile of documents.

“Classify these documents.”

He told her to classify 2,000 pages of documents by herself.

Third practical test.

“Understood.”

Elena reached for the documents without asking further.

Grand Duke Rudfelix left the room with an expectant look, and Quiet followed with an anxious gaze.

Left alone, Elena flipped through the documents.

“Let’s take it slow.”

There was no set time limit anyway.

Looking at the dates written at the top, about 5 years’ worth had accumulated.

It was a documentation containing the deployment records and personal information of members, including the current members of the Imperial Guard for 5 years.

Elena, who had brought blank paper and a pen, picked up the documents one by one.

The hair that Ginny had tied up to make her look pretty kept falling forward.

* * *

“It’s late at night. You should go back and rest for tomorrow, oh no.”

Quiet slapped his forehead.

Rudfelix, who had been staring ahead, looked at him.

“I mean the new aide. I didn’t tell her when to go home.”

“She would have gone back on her own.”

She didn’t seem like the foolish type to stay until told to leave.

“She’s not an aide yet.”

“Then I’ll call her a prospective aide.”

The Grand Duke’s work is inherently plentiful. So he had forgotten about Elena.

“That’s enough, go back.”

“But shouldn’t we go check just in case?”

As he waved his hand to dismiss him, Quiet hesitated, unsure if he could leave like this.

“I said go.”

“I’ll come back tomorrow.”

When the Grand Duke mentioned it once more, Quiet left without another word.

He intended to get rid of the aide if she became a hindrance rather than helping with his work.

“Did he really send his daughter with pure intentions?”

Rudfelix’s muttering echoed in the empty space. It was the first of Count Jellisto’s unexpected moves among the actions that he had observed so far.

Unlike others, the Count had never forcibly tried to get close to him and was a person who lived diligently in his place. Liking his straightforward nature, he had cleared his false charges, and now he had pushed his daughter in as an aide.

He wondered if the Count had revealed his hidden intentions under the pretext of help.

“We’ll see as we watch.”

Rudfelix was about to return to his room when he looked at the place where he had left Elena earlier.

He wondered if she might not have left, but he couldn’t help but be concerned.

“Ha. If she didn’t leave, she really is a lump of flesh.”

She’s truly a child if she needs to be looked after for everything.

“I hope that’s not the case.”

He had no talent for childcare, so he couldn’t take care of her in every detail.

Rudfelix walked to the reception room, openly showing his annoyance.

Light leaked through the slightly open door of the reception room.

If no one was there, the lights in the reception room would have been turned off, which meant Elena was there.

The Count would misunderstand that he was working her hard from the first day since she hadn’t returned until late at night.

“I didn’t know she’d be this foolish.”

Rudfelix, who was entering by slightly opening the door, paused.

The person who should have been sitting near the table wasn’t there.

The documents were spread out everywhere, and she had just gone home. It seemed she had left the reception room lights on because she hadn’t finished organizing the documents.

For a moment, Rudfelix wondered why he had come here.

“This person is suspicious.”

As he was about to close the door again, Rudfelix’s senses caught a small sound.

Rudfelix, who opened the door again, took one step inside. The carpet absorbed the sound of his footsteps.

“Woa, how can there be so little information?”

Elena gathered her hair into one bunch while looking at a single document. She was planning to tie it up and work again as the hair that kept falling forward was getting in the way.

With the tie in her mouth, her pronunciation was muffled as she talked to herself.

After gathering her hair by running her fingers through it, Elena tied it with the tie she had been holding in her mouth and held up the document she had just been looking at.

“How can there be so little information for an imperial guard working in the imperial palace?”

It was too modest for the empire’s intelligence capabilities. It was far from enough to deal with the continent beyond the empire. Thinking this was too strange, Elena put that document to her right.

The documents spread out in a radial pattern around Elena may seem randomly placed, but there was a certain order to them.

“This person should see the light, it’s a pity.”

Elena clicked her tongue at the personal information that had notably more content than others.

“This goes to the left…”

While Elena was contemplating where to put it, her gaze caught someone’s feet.

As she raised her head following the feet, she unintentionally scanned the entire body.

Long, straight legs, then a firm abdomen, chest, and broad shoulders.

‘Legs, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and…’

Out of courtesy, she went straight from the legs to the abdomen and then stopped at the face.

A man with his arms crossed looked at her with very displeased eyes. She almost let out an exclamation at the light playing in the man’s blue eyes.

It was such a waste that such a man would die before reaching 30.

Why did they make such a handsome man, even to her eyes, a villain?

“Why are you still here?”

He looked at the documents Elena had spread out. He was giving off an atmosphere of being bothered by the mess on the floor.