The Secretary of the Northern Grand Duchess Has Run Away

Chapter 9:  The Time of the Banquet (1)

The long-awaited first practical training had ended.

However, most of my fellow trainees wore expressions that had rotted and crumbled away.

Twenty-year-old youths overwhelmed by the brutal atmosphere of the Grand Duke’s house, something they had only heard about in rumors.

Perhaps they didn’t even have the energy left to bother tormenting me, because everyone hurried off, shuffling toward the dormitory.

I also opened the dormitory door and stepped into the room at the very end.

After that, before going to work, I lay down on the bed I had neatly arranged.

“……”

I stretched my palm out toward the empty air.

One by one, I moved my fingers with the same supple motion as playing piano keys.

‘To think I really came back to life.’

Judging by the vivid sensations I could feel, this was no fleeting illusion before death.

All the past figures’ actions had completely changed according to my choices.

Especially Echina and Debier, who were at their most sensitive age, had smiled at me.

Compared to the pain I felt when Tobang’s group beat me up, their expressions felt far more real.

“Then… does that mean I can change the dog’s death I suffered in the Grand Duke’s house…?”

Once that conviction took hold, I abruptly raised my body from the bed.

Then I quickly went over the plans for the future that I had devised during the day.

‘First goal is to get out of the Grand Duke’s house.’

Once Duke Luton died, the family would be thrown into a tremendous inheritance war.

The most important thing was to retire before this incident exploded.

‘Second is to secure retirement funds and connections.’

While I was still here, I had to make good use of my affiliation with the Grand Duke’s house.

This sense of belonging would naturally become trust, allowing me to forge relationships with various enterprises and contacts.

Among those people would surely be Echina Luton.

The woman who had been the only one to think of me as family in the Grand Duke’s house.

Recalling the scene when she had shed tears for me, I closed my eyes gently.

‘But why was my evaluation suddenly postponed…?’

At that thought, I tilted my head with my eyes still shut.

Then I decided to just let it pass, since all the children of the Grand Duke’s house were eccentric by nature.

If so, what was the biggest threat to me now?

It was probably Tobang, who envied me.

That bastard was not only competent but also an expert at harassing his rivals.

‘For now, the first step is to make allies in this trial phase.’

I fiddled with the necklace I had protected from Tobang.

At the same time, I rose from the bed and flung open the dormitory door.

――――――.

The first thing that caught my eye when I stepped outside was the room opposite mine.

Room 203.

I knew exactly who lived there.

Lucun Fern, whom I had met all day today in the reception room.

He was the only one who didn’t fit in with Tobang, and he was also the sturdy son of a pawnbroker.

‘Looks like I’ve found an expert who’ll properly appraise the necklace’s value.’

I walked leisurely toward his room.

After that, I knocked lightly with the back of my hand.

「…….」

No reply came from inside.

But I had clearly seen him enter this room with my own eyes.

So I quietly grasped the doorknob and turned it.

“Hoo…”

What came into view was a man doing push-ups alone.

But Lucun didn’t even exercise in an ordinary way.

Scattered across the floor were notes he had written all day, and on the wall was a schedule chart.

Whenever he bent his arms, he read the notes on the floor.

Whenever he straightened them, he fixed his gaze on the schedule posted on the wall, memorizing it with a look of madness.

“Roger? What business do you have in my room.”

The hulking fellow didn’t spare me so much as a glance.

He simply kept staring at the two pieces of paper as he continued his brutal training.

“It’s nothing much.”

I slowly approached him.

Then, leaning casually against the wall, I asked in a mild tone.

“You looked like you’d had quite a hard day, so I came to see you.”

“Ha, did you come to mock me too, like Tobang did.”

So that bastard Tobang had already been here as well.

Typical of an arrogant noble scion—he must have tried to recruit Lucun by looking down on him.

But that sort of tactic wouldn’t possibly work on the giant in front of me.

“No, what’s there to mock? We’re in the same situation, just fellow trainees.”

“Then why are you here? You always stayed in your room like a dead mouse.”

Perhaps curious about my motives, he finally stopped exercising.

“As you know, I’m a bit too competent, so Tobang’s lot has started keeping me in check.”

The brown-haired man looked at me with an incredulous expression as I spoke confidently.

His eyes seemed to question whether a person could change this much overnight.

“That’s why I’m saying—I’d like to propose a deal.”

“A deal? What exactly do you mean by that?”

Lucun folded his arms, as if he couldn’t believe it.

His thick fingers were covered with calluses.

“You saw it yourself today. How skillfully I served Lady Echina.”

He must have acknowledged at least that part of my ability, since he didn’t bother to refute it.

And no wonder.

While he was picking up discarded tissues in the reception room, I was pressuring the count’s daughter.

To anyone’s eyes, it was an overwhelming gap between a servant and an official secretary.

“You’d become my dependable partner, and in return, I’d teach you the ropes of being a secretary.”

“……”

His rugged eyes, reminiscent of a wild beast, studied me closely.

As if trying to determine whether I was an enemy, an ally, or prey.

“A dependable partner, huh. I can more or less guess what you mean.”

Lucun sat down on the edge of the bed.

Then, folding his thick arms across his chest again, he asked,

“You’re saying you need a guard dog who’ll keep Tobang’s gang from messing with you, aren’t you?”

“Guard dog? I said partner.”

I shrugged with a sly smile.

Then, without asking for permission, I sat down naturally in a chair.

“Anyway, you’re desperate too, aren’t you? Don’t you want to become a formal secretary within this year somehow?”

Next to the chair was a drawer.

On top of it lay the suit jacket he had taken off earlier, and a single ring he had removed.

“Desperate? Hardly. Even if I don’t do this job, I have plenty of other options.”

Lucun let out a snort, as if his pride had been badly wounded today.

But before long, his gaze became fully fixed on me.

“Well, you’re the son of the most successful pawnbroker in Nord, so money mustn’t be a problem.”

Because I was picking up the engagement ring resting on the shelf and inspecting it closely.

“What do you think you’re doing? Who gave you the right to touch someone else’s—”

“A three-carat diamond.”

Lucun immediately sprang up from the bed.

But I didn’t care. I simply studied the beautiful ring carved in a brilliant-cut design.

A design that incurred the highest loss of the raw gem during processing.

When orders were suddenly canceled or refunded, only the jewelers suffered, so it was the kind of craftsmanship that catered exclusively to noble clients.

“No matter how well-off a pawnbroker you are, it’d be difficult to commission a ring like this. Your fiancée must be a noble young lady.”

“What are you getting at? Are you planning to threaten me or something?”

At his raised voice, I smiled with the cunning of a fox.

“No, what I’m saying is that the reason you’re so attached to the secretary position is precisely because of your fiancée.”

I set the ring back down on the jacket.

Then, like tucking in a sleeping child, I gently covered it with the sleeve.

“Even if you’re the son of a thriving merchant, your status is still commoner. To match her standing, you want to become a secretary of the Grand Duke’s house, don’t you?”

“……”

Lucun was struck dumb, lips parted, as if I’d uncovered the feelings he’d hidden.

He just stared at my sly smile with an expression of disbelief.

“I’ll help you. I’ll make sure you become an official secretary within this year.”

My hulking fellow trainee exhaled a deep sigh.

Then, perhaps overwhelmed, he scratched the back of his head roughly.

“To think that just this morning, you were so quiet… What in the world came over you…”

He looked like he was wondering whether I had submitted to Tobang’s gang and become their spy.

“And why should I trust you and join forces?”

I’d seen plenty of people caught in tangled situations like his.

And I also knew very well the best way to persuade them.

‘What have we humans always used to establish absolute trust with one another?’

I slipped my hand into the inner pocket of my suit jacket.

Then, I pulled out the necklace that sparkled just as brilliantly as Lucun’s ring.

“To celebrate our first contract, I think this should be appropriate enough, don’t you?”

The ruby necklace dangling from my index finger danced beautifully in the air.

In its smooth surface, Lucun’s face was reflected.

Being the son of a pawnbroker, he knew exactly how valuable this treasure was.

“You… That’s the thing you got beaten all day to keep. And now you’re just going to hand it over?”

“It seems to me you need it more than I do right now.”

“To me…?”

I set the necklace, which didn’t suit his thick hands at all, into his palm.

The fine golden chain coiled over his callused skin.

“Yes. With something like this, your fiancée’s family will be more than satisfied.”

I pointed to the schedule he had been staring at.

There, a date two days from now was marked with a red star.

“When you meet her family this weekend, present it during the luncheon.”

Having witnessed countless betrothal meetings back when I was the Chief Secretary, I could vividly picture Lucun sitting stiffly in his future in-laws’ house.

A man like him, more comfortable with action than conversation, always struggled to find the right words.

In situations like that, offering a gift was the surest way to create a harmonious atmosphere.

“If you show it in front of everyone, your fiancée will boast about it to her mother. Once her mother explains its worth, your father-in-law will assume you’re doing well in the Grand Duke’s house.”

“All that from a single necklace?”

I tapped my temple lightly, as if urging him to think it over.

“For us secretaries, the cash rewards we receive on the job far exceed our salaries.”

His eyes asked how I could possibly know that.

After all, we weren’t even official secretaries yet.

“If you come home with something like this when it’s not even payday, what do you think your father-in-law will conclude?”

I clasped my hands behind my back and gave a sly, sycophantic smile.

“He’ll guess that the household scions are rewarding you personally because you’re performing so well.”

Lucun stared at me blankly as I flashed that cunning grin.

Then, before he realized it himself, he frowned and muttered,

“Your face right now… It looks just like Debier’s.”

Feigning innocence, I patted his broad shoulder.

Then I tapped the beauty mark beneath my eye, as if to draw attention to it, and reminded him,

“Watch the Chief Secretary’s actions carefully and analyze them. That’ll be your foundation for becoming a proper secretary.”

With light steps, I walked away from Lucun.

Just as I was about to head back and continue planning for the future—

“……!”

I locked eyes with some of the other trainees who were already out in the corridor.

Tobang and Brook.

Windsor, who had betrayed his leader and tried to cozy up to Freya, was nowhere to be seen.

“What’s this, why are you coming out of there?”

The blond man approached, shoving both hands deep into his pockets.

Now that we were back in the dormitory, he looked even more overbearing.

“……”

I didn’t so much as glance at him and started heading for my room.

Then, all of a sudden, a sharp pain shot through my wrist.

“You bastard… You’ve really pissed me off a few times today, haven’t you? Not going to answer?”

His palm clamped around my wrist like a snake’s jaws.

Yet I showed no hint of pain despite the throbbing.

“You haven’t changed one bit, Tobang.”

“What…?”

I yanked my arm free with a sudden hard jerk.

Then, looking straight at him, I spoke in a flat, emotionless voice.

“Why do you have to take out the fact that your parents ignore you on me? Pathetic.”

Ordinarily, saying something like that would have earned me a punch right away.

But the moment I mentioned his parents, Tobang just stood there, blank.

As if wondering how I could possibly know his deepest shame.

While he was lost in that daze, I silently reached for my door handle.

But just as I was about to go inside—

“Stop. Who said you could just leave?”

He shoved me hard in the back, forcing me into my room.

Then he raised his fist into the air.

However—

“…?!”

His punch never landed on my face.

No matter how much strength he poured into it, Tobang’s expression only twisted in frustration.

“Tobang…”

At Brook’s pained voice, he turned his head.

And in that instant—

He saw Brook, pinned flat against the fully swung door, grimacing in pain.

“Try to stay quiet until dinner, all right?”

He slowly lifted his eyes in the direction of the cold, threatening voice.

And there he finally came face-to-face with the strongest man among the very trainees he’d been so eager to recruit.

“You’re interrupting my workout.”

No matter how violently he struggled, Lucun’s hand clamped around his arm never budged an inch.

At that, Tobang’s trembling neck craned around, desperately searching for me, the one who’d slipped out of reach.

“You could have shut the door more quietly, Tobang.”

I stood there with my hands clasped behind my back, quietly watching him.

Smiling slyly, like a sycophant pulling the strings of a tyrant.

“You heard him—don’t interrupt his exercise.”