SDD 06

Chapter 6.

1. Becoming the Villain’s Secretary (6)

Inside I was a mess—panicking and making a fuss—but my whole body stiffened at the sight of the rope around my neck and I couldn’t even cry out.

“If you understand, nod.”

I nodded hastily.

My hair had been grabbed so hard my scalp ached.

“You’re the new personal secretary appointed to the Emperor, right?”

Should I answer? For a brief instant I hesitated.

“There’s no way you’re not. Where else do you see that unusual hair color and purple eyes?”

“Right. We already checked then kidnapped you.”

Oh, for goodness’ sake. Then why ask?

If I’d lied and said no, I’d have been in big trouble.

“We need your help.”

“…Help?”

My voice trembled though I didn’t want to.

“If you cooperate with us, we won’t do anything bad to you.”

They’d already done bad things, though…

I kept my mouth shut for the moment.

“Yeah. It’s not hard. Just… tell us some things about the Emperor and your father, Asen Nostalgia.”

The man said smoothly, like “see? easy,” as if it were nothing.

Wait—why ask about my father when the Emperor is enough?

“You’re curious why I ask about your father?” I said.

“Oh, you’re smart. Are you saying you want to bargain? You won’t tell us for free?”

I hadn’t even said anything.

These foolish villains spilled what they knew without being asked.

“They’re like that because your father, who used to be poor, now brags just because he has a daughter who’s the Emperor’s personal secretary.”

“That’s pathetic.”

“When he was poor he sent endless letters begging for a loan, but once his family recovered he pretends it never happened. It’s laughable.”

“And now he’s broken ties with all the nobles because of his daughter’s rise.”

“Right. He acts like he’s royal himself!”

They sounded like school bullies trash-talking the one kid their teacher liked who didn’t hang out with them—so ridiculous I had nothing to say.

Their voices had been helium-high earlier, but now the deep voices were exposed.

That deep voice was ranting about “how dare she hog the teacher’s favor!”—I couldn’t help but be stunned.

“Anyway… we satisfied our curiosity about you…”

“Then you should satisfy ours.”

“Tell us precious info that can bring down the Emperor.”

“So, gossip about my father?”

They chuckled nastily.

Hmm. As suspected.

Even though I looked smaller, my brain was intact. The reason I’d been kidnapped became clear.

I was perfect for getting both bits of information at once—being the daughter newly promoted to the Emperor’s personal secretary.

Motive deduced; remaining work: identify suspects. Luckily they volunteered that, too.

“They said when we were poor we begged for loans and such,” one had said, so they must be the ruined friends of my father—farmers or the like who’d gone bankrupt.

As nobles, they could have kidnapped me in the palace.

Dad—his farmer friends have been ruined rotten.

“Hey, miss.”

“You fainted from fear, didn’t you?”

A man tapped my head.

“Hey, hey. We’re not patient, you know?”

A blade pressed lightly to the nape of my neck again.

The sting of the old wound flared up, but I clenched my teeth and kept thinking.

These were nobles, so they probably knew that kidnapping the Emperor’s secretary to demand information about the Emperor would be treason. And since they said they had already confirmed I was the secretary, they must have been watching me recently—so they’d also know I was acquainted with the Imperial Prince.

But they didn’t ask about the Prince.

Maybe in the original story they’d been senior nobles who’d allied with the Prince to depose Helwid. They looked too stupid for that, but you never know—so I asked.

“Was the break-in at the office your doing?”

“Uh, th-that was—”

“How did you know? Damn. You said your guards wouldn’t be detected!”

Wow—thanks for confessing even to such a rough question.

When I met the intruder in the library, the Prince hadn’t seemed to know his identity.

Maybe it was calculated, but back then I’d looked like a low-level official rather than a secretary, so they wouldn’t have needed to go that far.

So these people belonged to neither the Emperor nor the Prince, but they had social ties with my father—just a ragtag bunch of nobles.

So they’re that dumb, huh?

Okay, suspects narrowed. Now all I could do was endure.

Helwid would dispatch soldiers to find me. If the Prince or senior nobles didn’t block them, the Emperor’s troops would arrive here soon.

If I stayed still and didn’t make trouble, I’d be rescued eventually.

If they’d had the guts to kill me, they wouldn’t have been blabbing information so casually.

After they’d squeezed all they could from me, they began beating my head until I heard thuds.

It hurt so much I almost cried, but I held it in.

“Hey! This bitch won’t talk!”

“We already got all our info!”

“Then who’s going on about it!”

Smack, smack.

Their palms came down hard on my cheek.

My mouth split and blood pooled, but I wouldn’t speak. I bit their fingers when they tried to pry my mouth open.

But when they shoved me back and my shoulder shifted so I slumped in the chair tied up, I almost gave up resisting.

I wished someone would gag me. Then—

“My secretary seems to have a keen appreciation for fairy tales—Hansel and Gretel, I’d say.”

If this had been anyone else, I would’ve screamed at the voice, but hearing it now filled me with relief.

“You must have planned to drop red hair along the way to mark where you’d been.”

A low, soft laugh, then the sound of footsteps approaching dangerously.

“Where have you been running around so hard? I was worn out chasing your trail.”

Helwid had come so close his shoes made the floor sound different.

He carefully removed the blindfold from my eyes.

The sudden light hurt and tears poured out.

“Are you crying because you’re so glad to see me?”

“I’m not glad. I’ve been beaten. Look—my wrists are marked, and my mouth is split. I probably won’t be able to eat for a while.”

“He hit you? Tell me who did it so I can punish them.”

I puffed indignantly, and he chuckled as if pleased, stepping protectively between me and those men.

“What would make for a good punishment so people will hear about it?” he mused.

I’d asked him to punish them—not to make it public.

“Well, detain them for now. I have many questions for them.”

I was standing behind Helwid and couldn’t see his face, but the kidnappers in front of him went ghost-white with fear.

“Eeeeeek!”

One fainted.

Back at the office, receiving treatment from the palace physician, Helwid said, “My secretary likes fairy tales, huh?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?” I asked.

“You swore loudly outside the office that you were going to run away—Alice in Wonderland. Dropping hair to mark where you’d been—Hansel and Gretel.”

“Oh my goodness—did you—did you hear that?” I stammered.

Turns out, this world also has Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel.

“The office door wasn’t fully closed,” he said.

Helwid looked at me kindly as he applied ointment to my lips in place of rouge.

But what I saw behind him was the flick of a red tongue.

Mm—smells like a mastermind.

I forced a bitter laugh inside.

“By the way, you came fast. If I’d been beaten a little longer, I might’ve died.”

“That can’t happen. What kind of secretary would mine be? Thanks to your hair, it was easy to find you.”

“My hair?”

“You kept dropping it along your path. I picked them up and followed the trail until I found the kidnapped princess.”

Oh, great. Hair loss for the win.

I clenched my fists inwardly.

At that moment a memory of the palace cleaning schedule flashed through my head.

They sweep and clean the corridors once every hour.

I’d been kidnapped a little more than an hour after I left the office.

If Helwid saw my hair and followed me, that meant he had left the office less than an hour after I did.

Then…

“Your Majesty.”

“I’m listening.”

“I have a scary hypothesis.”

“Hmm?”

“The palace cleaning is on an hourly schedule, and I was kidnapped a little over an hour after I left the office.”

“Hmm.”

“If you found me by following my hair, that means you left the office less than an hour after I did.”

“So?”

“Then the timing inevitably overlaps.”

“What are you getting at?”

“My time of being kidnapped and the time you were outside the office looking for me.”

“Oh.”

Helwid smiled as if caught off-guard. I slammed the desk and leapt up from my seat.

“You knew I was being kidnapped and stayed still!”

“Well… maybe?” he said.

“You couldn’t have followed my hair otherwise!”

“Well, maybe the cleaning crew was slack today.”

“That’s impossible! The palace? Near the Emperor’s office?”

I raged and Helwid told me to calm down.

“Well, thanks to that you made it easier for me to catch the intruder I’d been tracking for you. Even so, I admire that in the face of brutal violence you stayed loyal to me.”

He smiled softly as if moved, and I screamed and tore at my already thinning hair.

At my outburst, Helwid pressed a wedge of reassurance into my heart.

“I planned to ambush them with soldiers in case you couldn’t stand the torture and tried to spill information. You saved me the trouble.”

So all the spies were already in his hand and he’d pretended not to know while testing me…

My hair kept falling out.