My Boss is the Villainous Grand Duke - Chapter 6

“I was looking at the documents.”

“On the floor?”

“The round table was too small to classify the documents.”

At first, Elena had tried to do it on the table too. Soon, as she put them down one by one, she ended up on the floor.

Since it was clear at a glance that the range of documents spread out exceeded the size of the table, Rudfelix didn’t ask further.

Instead, he pointed outside with his index finger.

“It’s late at night.”

‘That index finger really…’

Elena, who secretly glanced at the Grand Duke’s index finger, tried to get up but sat back down as her legs were numb.

She patted her legs, feeling the effects of sitting for a long time.

“Should I have told you to go home?”

Rudfelix’s discomfort was evident. It was like he was asking why she was enduring until night.

Elena glanced out the window and answered.

“I thought I should leave on my own, but I continued because if I left now, the flow would be interrupted.”

“It looks like you were planning to stay up all night.”

“I was going to work until I felt sleepy.”

As Elena spoke nonchalantly, the Grand Duke was even more dumbfounded.

“Are you defying me?”

Elena momentarily touched her ears, thinking if she heard a growling sound somewhere.

She thought about which aspect of hers seemed like defiance.

“I was just doing what Your Highness told me to do. At which point in this process did I defy you?”

“The Count will be worried, go back.”

“It’s alright. This happens often, so he won’t look for me.”

Rudfelix’s eyebrow twitched at ‘often’.

“Often?”

“Yes.”

“Have you worked hard as someone else’s aide?”

Not an aide yet. Anyway, Elena realized her explanation was lacking and shook her head.

“This is the first time I’ve come to be an aide for Your Highness. I was just referring to when I studied in the library or research room.”

As Elena was answering, her hair tie suddenly broke, and her hair flowed down like a waterfall.

While Elena picked up the fallen hair tie and casually tied the ends together, Rudfelix pulled up a chair and sat down.

She ties her own hair, picks up the fallen tie herself. It was the first time he saw someone reuse a broken tie instead of throwing it away.

Was there another young lady like this?

“Don’t you have a maid?”

“There is one at the Count’s residence.”

Elena immediately thought of Ginny. Although she was a bit anxious about taking her around, she nodded since there was one anyway.

But it didn’t seem to be the answer Rudfelix wanted.

“Continue.”

“Are you planning to stay here too, Your Highness?”

“I said continue without minding me.”

As Rudfelix crossed his arms and closed his eyes, Elena couldn’t ask further and sat back down on the floor.

‘How can I not mind when it’s so distracting.’

A person with such a strong presence.

Elena read the documents with her back very stiff.

Even though she was sitting on the floor, it felt like she should act as a noble young lady. Earlier she sat wherever she pleased, but with one more person in the room, her body suddenly felt tired.

It was a world where nobles sitting on the floor was considered an extremely vulgar act.

‘How long can I endure like this?’

“Were you referring to Sir Brahms when you said it was a pity earlier?”

“Yes.”

Sir Brahms, who had been in the Imperial Guard for nearly 10 years, was someone who couldn’t see the light because he came from a fallen noble family.

And Rudfelix also knew that he was ostracized by his colleagues because his skills were good despite his family’s weak power.

“With this level of skill, he could lead a team, so I said it was a pity.”

“If he becomes a team leader, who would join his team as a member?”

Rudfelix also acknowledged Sir Brahms’ skills. However, no one wanted to be under him. If team members were forcibly selected, it would cause a rift within the guard.

Elena held up a document and pointed to one place.

“But his record of participating in special missions is impressive.”

“I know that too.”

Elena couldn’t understand why he asked when he said he knew everything.

“Then can I continue working?”

Feeling there was no more conversation to be had, Elena quietly picked up another paper.

As the Grand Duke didn’t say anything, Elena started her work again.

‘Should I just go home?’

In fact, her flow had been interrupted since the Grand Duke arrived.

“I too thought it was a waste to keep him as a regular member. So I offered him the position of team leader, but he refused. Saying who would come under him.”

He spoke of the time when he had offered the team leader position despite considering the potential rift in the guard, but Sir Brahms had refused.

As this wasn’t in the documents, Elena raised her head.

It was important that he had already offered the team leader position.

“So you can make Sir Brahms a team leader, right?”

“Does it matter whether he becomes a team leader when he doesn’t have team members?”

Rudfelix crossed his legs. As he tilted his head to the side, a strange atmosphere flowed out.

‘It seems like he’s getting irritated talking to me, but why is there a sexy charm coming along with it?’

Elena hid her inner thoughts and nodded her head.

“You can make him a team leader without assigning team members.”

“A team without members?”

As if Rudfelix’s patience had run out, he kicked the documents at his feet.

As a dozen or so papers fluttered, Elena pulled the papers towards herself.

How could he just kick around documents that had been organized so carefully.

‘A person with short patience and a quick temper.’

You have to answer faster to a person like that. If their patience was short, you just had to converse quickly.

While figuring out the Grand Duke bit by bit, Elena met his eyes.

“It’s possible if temporary team members are assigned only when going on missions.”

“Keep talking.”

“Since everyone knows Sir Brahms’ skills anyway, if it’s okay for the knights to be deployed on missions to become team members only at that time, they will follow him.”

“So you’re saying to create team members only when there’s work.”

“Yes. It might be good to set a name like Special Team or Temporary Team.”

Rudfelix closed his mouth.

While he was thinking about something alone, Elena quietly put Sir Brahms’ personal information on the table.

‘The handling of Sir Brahms is done.’

There were examples like Sir Brahms in her trading company too. When they put a commoner-born administrator as a temporary department head to fill a vacancy, another group of people left saying they didn’t like it.

Instead of persuading and bringing them back, she found people to work as temporary contractors.

Anyway, since the work changed depending on what instructions were given from above, there wasn’t a big problem.

‘I really didn’t want to call back people who left abruptly without properly handing over to others.’

They left knowing it would cause damage to the company. So this was the alternative she came up with.

As there were still many documents to process, Elena decided to wait until the Grand Duke opened his mouth.

“Not bad.”

She knew he was a person who expressed praise indirectly instead of genuinely complimenting. So Elena accepted it nonchalantly.

“Thank you.”

“As a form of praise, I’ll take one question. If you have something you’re curious about, you can ask.”

‘Doesn’t praise usually come with money?’

She wondered if he was someone greater than money, but this time Elena was also tempted.

She glanced at him slightly, but flinched when she met his gaze staring directly at her. He was the first person in this world who made her uncomfortable every time their eyes met.

“Will you answer anything?”

“As I please.”

Given the Grand Duke’s personality, he wasn’t the type to take two questions.

To extract as much information as she wanted from one question, she had to carefully choose her question.

When Elena lowered her head for a moment to think, a brief smile appeared and disappeared on Rudfelix’s lips.

‘Interesting.’

Whenever he saw Sir Brahms, he always felt uneasy, unable to do anything, but now it felt like drinking cool ice water.

Until now, when a team was formed, it was basic for it to continue as is until new members were recruited. Therefore, Aide Elena’s idea was both special and not.

With a simple solution, an unprecedented special team was about to be created in the Imperial Guard.

‘There was a reason the Count was confident.’

Looking down at Elena, Rudfelix sent a gaze that said ‘not bad’. He also realized that the young-faced woman before him was by no means an ordinary young lady.

The Count had assured him that if his daughter could help, things would go much more smoothly than before, and indeed, he had raised her well.

[If she had been born a son, I would have handed over the trading company long ago. It’s regrettable that I couldn’t do so.]

At that time, the Count, valuing his daughter’s abilities, had told him to trust him and take his daughter as an aide.

‘I’ll acknowledge it this time.’

While Rudfelix was scoring Elena’s abilities, Elena was also choosing her question.

It seemed as if the sound of her small head rolling could be heard even in Rudfelix’s ears.

After pondering for a while, rolling her eyes, Elena suddenly raised her head.

“What do you think about villains?”

Rudfelix frowned at the unexpected question.