CHAPTER 15: DISCLOSURE

No sooner said than done.

My new right-hand man in villainous deeds, Serpens, clearly understood this better than I did. This time, I decided to listen to him. After all, I had only been in this world for two months and couldn’t do without loyal allies.

New acquaintances came into my life rapidly. The owner of the weapon shop was one of them. And so far, I couldn’t tell who was my friend and who was my enemy. Especially Serpens, with his subtle resemblance to my love interest... But in any case, he was definitely loyal to the organization and to my father. My inner instinct told me that he could be trusted.

Attending the imperial banquet would be another step in my career as a villain.

And, as expected, the offer to accept the quest came to me as soon as the man brought up the subject. "The Incident at the Banquet" was its name. Well, this time, even the title gave me no clues.

When I chose "accept," it suddenly turned out that this quest consisted of several tasks. You could often see a similar element in RPG games, when the player must complete preliminary tasks before embarking on the final mission. Like talking to NPCs or killing mobs.

However, I was not in an RPG, but in a romantic otome novel. And the tasks here were appropriate. My first item on the list was to talk to Duke Dickens. More specifically, to persuade him to take me with him.

I thought it would be pretty easy. As always, it’s better to complete the easy tasks right away so that you have time for the more difficult ones later. Serpens said that the imperial banquet would take place in a month. I wonder if it will still happen if I don’t complete all the tasks by then? After all, it wasn’t a timed quest, and I don’t have a timer.

However, I decided not to take any chances and to do everything on time. The Dickens estate was not far from the capital, so I was going to head there right after meeting with Serpens.

However, something strange happened before that.

The moment I left the shop and was about to get into the carriage, I suddenly caught a whiff of perfume. It was floral, and for some reason, it seemed familiar to me. I turned around and saw a boy with silver hair in the crowd of passersby.

It’s not often you see a child with such an exquisite hair color among commoners.

But he disappeared before I had a chance to get a good look at him. I stared intently at the passersby for a few more seconds, then let the idea go. Maybe I imagined it?

I sighed and decided not to dwell on such a trifle.

I arrived at the duchy half an hour later, and the guards at the gate stepped aside, as they had already received orders to let me in and out at any time. I headed straight for the duke’s office.

But...

My hand froze as it touched the doorknob.

"How is the investigation going?" It was William Dickens’ voice.

The man was pacing back and forth across the office.

"No change so far," Roger replied briefly.

"Still?" The duke frowned. "Have you noticed anything suspicious?"

"Lady Weinstein is a woman of few words..." the young man said uncertainly. "I haven’t been able to get much out of her."

"You fool, of course she won’t tell you anything!" Dickens Sr. snorted. "I taught you. To get information, you mustn’t reveal your intentions."

Roger looked away.

"I’ll... try."

The duke grunted and looked at him intently.

"We need to find out how many people are under her command," the duke said instructively, "how strong this organization still is."

"..."

Roger said nothing.

"I remember in the old days, even Cedric had to reckon with the Weinsteins." An uncertain smile froze on the duke’s face. "That’s interesting. Very interesting."

In fact, this idea had been maturing in his mind for a long time. Who knew that the right opportunity would present itself so soon?

Meanwhile, his son was not particularly supportive of the conversation. Based on this, William decided to address him directly. Two pairs of identical blue eyes met.

"You understand what I mean," he said harshly.

Roger had no choice but to respond obediently:

"Yes, Father."

I didn’t listen to the rest of their conversation. There was no need to.

At that moment, I involuntarily let go of the doorknob. An icy smile froze on my lips. So that’s how it is.

For some reason, my heart ached painfully. This otome game turned out to be more despicable than I thought... Just like the characters in it.

Roger Dickens, a noble knight? In love with me? Ha... It turned out that all this time he was just watching me.