My Boss is the Villainous Grand Duke - Chapter 8

While Elena took care of the Count, healing his trauma, time had already passed.

By the time the Count overcame his pain and stood up, Elena had also adapted to the world.

And she was able to gradually create the life she wanted.

“Father.”

Elena just raised her head while still in his embrace.

“About Grand Duke Rudfelix.”

“What about him?”

“No, seeing him today, he was incredibly handsome. Weren’t you worried about sending me as his aide? What if I fell for him?”

“Hm?”

The Count didn’t understand Elena’s words.

“Compared to you, he’s far lacking, isn’t he?”

“How is he lacking compared to me?”

“Compared to your pretty, cute, and lovely face, the Grand Duke just looks fierce.”

Elena waved her hand in front of the Count’s eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

How could she say it was because she thought he might not see other things well due to the blinders of love?

“So, did you find him handsome?”

“Yes. Extremely.”

He was the first person she had stared at in a daze since coming to this world, based on looks alone.

“Did you fall for him?”

“No. He seems to have a fierce personality, so I didn’t fall for him.”

“Well done.”

“Hehe. Then I’ll go up and rest.”

Elena, who had rephrased the Count’s description of a fierce face, smiled broadly while saying she had no other feelings. After saying she would focus only on work from now on, Elena returned to her room and lay on the bed with a sigh.

She was worried about how her life would change from now on.

The problem was that she felt cool about the Grand Duke, whom she had tried to avoid unconditionally because he was a villain, after asking him an unnecessary question.

And…

“Was I really crazy?”

Why on earth did she blurt that out so directly?

[How can those sensual eyes be 25 years old? And what about that languid, seductive voice? We all breathe the same, but why does only Your Highness’s breath exude such allure? That sound you just made, it wasn’t a moan, was it?]

Recalling what had happened earlier, Elena closed her eyes. As regret washed over her strongly, she became rather calm.

In that state, she pulled the blanket. She thought about covering herself up to her neck, but her hands didn’t stop.

Rather, as she was about to pull it over her head…

“Aaaah!”

She screamed and kicked off the blanket wildly with her feet.

After struggling alone under the blanket for a while, Elena stopped flailing when she lost strength.

Slowly lowering the blanket to her neck, she stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. It must be her imagination that Grand Duke Rudfelix’s face was embedded in the ceiling.

“How am I going to go to work tomorrow?”

* * *

Rudfelix remained in that place for a long time after Elena left.

He wondered what he had heard, but soon her words were repeated without missing a single one.

[How can those sensual eyes be 25 years old? And what about that languid, seductive voice? We all breathe the same, but why does only Your Highness’s breath exude such allure? That sound you just made, it wasn’t a moan, was it?]

At the end, her voice rose and even mixed with irritation. It was clearly so.

The sudden situation made both Elena, who shouted it, and himself, who was called seductive, freeze. Elena, who belatedly realized what she had said, stepped back while covering her mouth with both hands.

With eyes desperate to run away, she bowed her head awkwardly and then turned and fled.

“My eyes are sensual…”

Rudfelix chuckled and brushed back his hair. It wasn’t the first time he had heard such words, but it felt different.

It felt like he approached with the intention of handing over bread out of sympathy, only to have his lips stolen by a thief who then ran away.

“I saw wrong.”

It was all a misunderstanding to consider her a child just by looking at her face.

“She’s just wearing a very youthful shell, but the inside is properly ripe.”

From the fact that she felt such emotions without any actual exchange of erotic feelings between them, she was no ordinary 18-year-old.

It’s understandable to be dumbfounded after calling such a woman a lump of flesh.

“I think I left something behind… Grand Duke?”

Quiet, who had been concerned about Elena, entered with an excuse but then discovered Rudfelix.

“Why are you here?”

Wondering if this was why he had been sent away first, Quiet lightly grabbed the doorknob.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“What about the thing you left behind?”

“Ah. Come to think of it, it wasn’t here.”

Quiet scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. He felt awkward being caught by his superior while trying to look after the new junior aide.

Rudfelix’s gaze, staring at him, seemed to pierce his face.

“Honestly, I was worried she might not come back tomorrow if she was worked until closing time.”

Quiet’s pouting lips substituted for the previous resentment of losing precious colleagues due to a tyrannical superior. At first, they had meticulously selected aides through second and third interviews, but after everyone ran away, they were now accepting anyone who’s willing to be an aide unconditionally.

Even then, they kept running away, so he came because he was worried it might happen again, but finding his superior sitting there made him anxious.

But Rudfelix, lost in other thoughts, let his words slide.

“Do I not look 25 years old?”

“You don’t look that age because you’ve suffered from a young age, but thinking again, that doesn’t seem right either. You look my age, and you’re originally younger than me, so sometimes you seem childish, but then again not really. If we’re just talking about appearance, I wonder if we’re friends or not, that’s what I’d like to know…”

Quiet was about to say that he obviously didn’t look 25, but then subtly changed his words.

There must have been countless incidents, but the atmosphere suggested that speaking directly wouldn’t be wise.

“Who mentioned Your Highness’s age?”

“Ah. Just recalling things I’ve heard often.”

Rudfelix waved his hand. When he said he was just recalling words he previously heard, Quiet thought hard about who might have said such things in the past, then brightened and answered.

“Do you mean those words about being intoxicated by your gaze?”

When asked with a disbelieving look, Rudfelix gave no answer. This time, thinking he had caught the mood properly, Quiet excitedly said,

“There was Lady Jude who said she might lose her senses to Your Highness’s scent, and the viscount’s daughter who said she felt dazed by Your Highness’s gestures, and also the one who said that any place with Your Highness immediately becomes a bedroom…”

“Enough.”

Quiet, who tends to chatter excitedly once he starts talking, closed his mouth.

“I’ll be quiet.”

“As I always say, do it in moderation.”

“Understood.”

Quiet hung his head. Talkative as he was, he became sulky again for being cut off mid-sentence today.

After glancing at Quiet, who was good at his job but always had issues with his mouth, Rudfelix turned around.

He looked at the organized documents on one side. The documents, stacked in two categories, looked neat and systematic at a glance.

She was good at her job, thought of good alternatives, and even felt her superior’s seductive atmosphere while pretending not to, then burst out with that unexpectedness.

“I wonder what face she’ll show tomorrow?”

Rudfelix was curious about what Elena would say as soon as she saw him tomorrow.

It was the first time he was curious about the inner thoughts of a young lady seven years younger than him.

* * *

She wished today would never come.

But time cruelly sent Elena back to the imperial palace.

“His Highness will be staying in the imperial palace for the time being, so you should adjust the schedule accordingly.”

Elena looked around nervously, worried that Rudfelix, who hadn’t appeared, might suddenly show up.

Quiet kindly explained various things to Elena, who had become his junior.

“Have you ever worked as an aide before?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“Then not only the work but also our relationship is new. So, I’m not your superior, strictly speaking, we’re colleagues.”

Quiet scratched his head.

Even though she came as a new aide, she was maintaining proper etiquette as a count’s daughter, but he was hoping she would soon become comfortable.

“To think that His Highness has a new aide besides me…”

Quiet wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.

One might think he was touched that the well-raised Grand Duke was so capable that he now had two aides, but,

“Now I don’t have to take on all the work alone. Sob sob.”

It was purely personal joy.

With his arms covering his eyes and his shoulders shaking, he looked like he was crying, but his mouth was smiling.

“Haven’t you had other aides until now?”

“Of course we have.”

“Then why are you the only one left, Senior Quiet?”

Quiet’s mouth twitched at Elena’s use of ‘senior’.

One might wonder if this was something to be so happy about, but Quiet forcibly erased his smile and answered quite seriously.

“We kept having aides, but they couldn’t endure and left, so I ended up being the only one left.”

Quiet added that it had been about 3-4 years since he started working as Rudfelix’s aide after he took office as Grand Duke.