Chapter 3
I thought to myself once again.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.
Given the situation, I couldn’t help thinking that.
“Trying to pass out on me, are you? Fidel, bring some water.”
“Yes, Boss.”
A bucket of water, which I had no idea where they had gotten, was dumped over the assassin’s head.
The assassin began coughing and sputtering. But with his arms and legs tied to a chair, all he could do was tremble.
“Just… cough! Kill me…”
“The knife. The one that goes in deep.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Actually, this was only natural. Who would let an assassin who had broken in to kill them simply walk away?
It was understandable that they would torture him to find out who was behind the attack. It was also understandable that the other interviews had been canceled.
I understood all that. Really, I did.
But why won’t you let me leave…?
I’d already been waiting for more than thirty minutes. And yet the male lead hadn’t said a single word about me.
Fortunately, when about forty minutes had passed, someone finally approached me.
It was the manager who had conducted the game.
“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”
“N-No, it’s fine…”
“You saved our boss, so we should give you an appropriate reward. Ah, come to think of it, we haven’t even properly learned your name yet.”
For a moment, I considered asking him to pay off my debt.
But I was afraid he’d suddenly change his expression and ask, “How dare you expect something in return?”
I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
“Would you mind telling me your name?”
I was also afraid of accepting dirty money. What if I ended up suffering some kind of karmic punishment?
So I simply let my eyes wander around the room.
And then, all of a sudden, my eyes met the male lead’s.
He began walking toward me. Blood stained both his fists and his white shirt.
Eeeek! He’s terrifying!
“What are you doing?”
“I was asking her name. We were thinking of offering her a reward.”
He tilted his chin toward me.
“Anything you want?”
“A ho—”
“A house? You want me to buy you a house?”
“Please send me home…”
“……”
“My puppy gets scared when I’m not there…”
Of course, I didn’t have a dog at home. I was so desperate to get out of this place that, in my fear, I blurted out whatever came to mind.
The male lead, Rashak, simply stared at me.
How much more time passed like that? I couldn’t say.
“Let her go.”
“Pardon? But…”
“Fidel. Take her home yourself.”
At that, a man strode toward me.
When he slipped his hand into the inner pocket of his jacket, I briefly panicked, wondering whether sending me home meant sending me to the afterlife.
Fortunately, what he pulled out was a handkerchief.
After wiping the blood from his hands, Fidel bowed politely to me.
“I am Fidel, captain of the assassination squad. I’ll escort you.”
I received this introduction, which was terrifying enough to bring tears to my eyes, and practically ran out of the room.
Even to me, my steps seemed incredibly fast, but thankfully, Fidel adjusted his pace to match mine.
He opened the carriage door for me and drove carefully and quietly.
After dropping me off in front of my house, he bowed his head.
“Thank you for saving our boss.”
Once I stepped inside, I let out a deep sigh.
What an unbearably long night.
Still, I’d saved someone’s life, so I supposed things hadn’t ended too badly.
After washing up, I headed straight to bed.
The next day, at noon.
I froze when I saw the silver-haired man standing at my front door.
“W-Why are you here…?”
“Your speech has gotten awfully casual overnight.”
“May I ask what brings Your Excellency to my humble abode…?”
Instead of answering, he strode straight into my house.
After glancing toward my slightly open bedroom door, he let out a short laugh.
“So much for the puppy.”
…Had he come because he was curious about my dog?
I wished that were the case.
“Sit down. I have something to discuss with you.”
It was my house, and I was the owner, yet I obediently sat at the dining table he pointed to.
No one else came inside. I’d seen Fidel at the entrance, but after giving me a slight nod in greeting, he’d closed the front door and withdrawn.
After a brief silence, Rashak took out a stack of papers and placed them on the table.
The name written at the very top was none other than my own.
“You investigated me.”
“Got a problem with that?”
I didn’t say no.
Because I did have a problem with it.
“I haven’t even… done anything wrong…”
When I finally mustered the courage to mutter those words, he let out a quiet, incredulous laugh.
What?
Was I not even allowed to say that?
“Let’s get to the point. You have a debt of one hundred million. I’ll pay all of it off for you.”
It was the kind of statement that immediately made even my most rebellious thoughts turn polite.
Excuse me? His Excellency, the boss himself, is going to pay off my debt?
“If you accept my proposal.”
“What kind of… proposal?”
“Bait.”
“Pardon?”
“After what happened yesterday, I’ve come to suspect that there’s a rat among my own people.”
Tap, tap. His index finger drummed against the table.
“That abandoned building yesterday isn’t somewhere just anyone can find. Discovering the meeting location and making it there were part of the test. I didn’t want any half-hearted candidates showing up.”
I had simply received a piece of paper with the location written on it, and the wind had blown it right between my feet.
The journey there had been perfectly uneventful, too.
“The fact that I would be conducting the interviews there in person was a top secret. Everything was arranged in the strictest secrecy, and yet there was an assassin waiting for me. Almost as if he knew I would be there.”
“Do you mean… one of the people there yesterday was a spy?”
“That’s right. I’m not talking about applicants like you. Someone inside my organization leaked my schedule.”
“T-That’s terrible…”
“And by now, those rats have probably heard about you, too. They’ll know that some stranger suddenly appeared and saved my life. They’re probably furious among themselves, cursing the fact that you ruined their plan.”
“……”
“Do you understand what that means now?”
I asked cautiously, “Are those people… going to try to kill me, too?”
“They won’t kill you right away. They’ll probably capture you first and ask where you came from, why you saved Rashak Barsen, and all sorts of other questions.”
His words reminded me of the man they’d been torturing yesterday.
“So here’s what I want. For exactly one week, I want you to act as bait.”
“Pardon?”
“Just go about your life as usual. During that time, my subordinates will keep an eye on you. If anyone suspicious approaches, they’ll catch them. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anything useful out of the man from yesterday.”
“……”
“Well, if you could land another punch like you did yesterday, I’d appreciate it.”
I organized Rashak’s words in my head.
He had a point. If I were one of those spies, I’d consider myself a thorn in my side, too.
He was offering to protect me in this dangerous situation. On top of that, he was willing to pay off my debt.
I was still reluctant to get involved with the male lead, but honestly, I had no reason to refuse.
It was only a week, after all.
“You’ll definitely pay off my debt, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“I like how quickly you make decisions. If there’s anything else you need…”
At that moment, a sudden knock came from the front door.
“What is it?”
This was unexpected.
I rarely had visitors at home.
Part of the reason was my timid personality and the fact that I didn’t socialize much with my neighbors. But the main reason was the rumors surrounding my magic potions.
People said that someone had died after drinking one of my potions, that I conducted illegal experiments, or that I could control people’s minds.
Absurd stories like these had followed me around like a permanent label, and they were so bizarre that I hardly knew how to respond to them.
In these circumstances, if someone came to visit…
No way.
A dreadful premonition seized me, and my body stiffened instinctively.
Regardless of my reaction, Rashak headed for the front door as though he were the owner of the house.
Mr. Male Lead! No, Rashak! No, Boss…!
“…Who’s this woman?”
Rashak frowned as he looked at the woman standing at the door.
The woman herself was frowning, too.
Her hair was brown with a reddish tint, similar to mine. Her facial features were similar to mine as well.
The moment I saw this familiar face, my gaze instinctively dropped to her stomach.
…It’s still not very noticeable.
“Do you know this woman?”
“She’s… Lenoa. My younger sister.”
“Unnie, who’s this man?”
“Just… someone I know… through someone else…”
At my vague answer, Rashak raised one eyebrow.
But I couldn’t exactly tell His Excellency, Rashak Barsen, the ruler of the underworld, to bow his head and introduce himself politely, could I…?
“I saw that you’d closed your shop. I just came from there.”
As she spoke, Lenoa naturally tried to step inside the house, but Rashak stretched out his long leg to block her path.
“Your younger sister?”
He seemed to think for a moment.
“Oh, the one who had an affair with her older sister’s fiancé?”
I widened my eyes and looked up at him.
Of course, what he’d said was a fact.
And since he’d investigated my background before coming here, I’d assumed he knew about it.
And yes, people probably talked about us like that behind our backs…
But this was the first time anyone had said it so openly, right in front of both of us!
Lenoa cried out in confusion.
“Unnie! Who on earth is this man?!”
“Enough. What do you want?”
“Excuse me?!”
“Is that all? What a pointless errand. If you’re finished, get lost.”
“W-Wait! Unnie!”
Lenoa grabbed the door just as Rashak was about to close it.
“Mother said you have to come home this weekend!”
At the mention of Mother, my shoulders flinched before I could stop them.
“Allen’s family will be visiting. As you know very well, they’re not easy people to entertain.”
“……”
“So I want you to come and help prepare the meal. You know their tastes better than I do.”
Her sharp tone had softened. Whenever Lenoa asked me for something like this, I’d always agreed.
But…
“I don’t think I can do that.”
At my calm response, Lenoa’s eyes wavered.
“Why not? It’s not as if you have anything to do anymore!”
I firmly shook my head.
I had no choice.
Allen’s family was coming to visit. It was practically a formal meeting between the two families.
Allen had…
“By Allen, do you mean Allen Brent? Your former fiancé?”
At Rashak’s interruption, I clenched the fabric of my skirt and slowly nodded.
His gaze shifted back to Lenoa.
“So, let me get this straight. You’re dating your older sister’s former fiancé, and his family is coming to visit this time.”
“……”
“And since both families are meeting, food needs to be prepared. But they have no intention of letting Hiel Kevernon, who’s practically an unwanted guest, sit at the table.”
“……”
“So you’re telling her to work in the kitchen? Like a maid? While you’re off flirting with her former fiancé?”
Rashak let out a disbelieving laugh.
“I’ve seen some crazy things in my life, but this is something else.”
Lenoa shot him a furious glare.
But perhaps she didn’t have the courage to challenge a man built like a door, because her gaze soon returned to me.
“Father will be angry if he finds out.”
“…I don’t care.”
“How can you not care? He’s your father! He’s family!”
That was when Rashak interrupted again.
“Listening to this, I’m curious. When your younger daughter had an affair with her older sister’s fiancé, did your father get angry then? He’s family, too, isn’t he?”
He raised his index finger and circled it beside his temple.
“Sounds like your parents aren’t right in the head, either.”
