CH 68

“As expected of Ophelia.”

“Bolsheik is the end after all.”

“Anyway, we decided to be together on the first day, so if you’re thinking of showing your face, just drop it.”

Catherine narrowed her eyes as she placed her hands on her waist.

“This is a warning. Just stay away.”

It was well known that retaliation would follow without having to listen.

Catherine turned around and left the room, leaving Lawrence with his lips pulled into a smirk.

“It’s the first day. We might meet by chance.”

.

As Catherine threw a warning at Lawrence, Ophelia and Iris were in danger of being hit by festivities and papers.

‘The festival is finally being held, but why is the paperwork only increasing instead of decreasing?’

It was to the point of checking to see if someone was hiding under the desk and creating as much paperwork as they were constantly processing.

Looking under the desk, Ophelia shook her head as she let out a dry laugh, stunned by herself.

The world was collapsing and breaking, and there were already three signs of destruction, but now there was no time to care about it.

“……lia, Ophelia.”

“Huh? Ah. Cooper.”

“This.”

Mechanically skimming the papers Cooper had handed her, Ophelia blinked several times.

“Isn’t this already the third?”

“What?”

“Yes. There have definitely been incidents like this a while ago.”

As Ophelia rummaged through the papers, Iris rubbed her tired eyes and said,

“The servant tried to assassinate the head of the family or the successor. The first succeeded, the second failed. The third was also a success… Is this family also on the imperial side?”

“Huh.”

“It’s concerning.”

“It’s more uncomfortable because they’re families with nothing in common other than supporting the imperial family.”

“It’s not like they were killed for personal reasons.”

“Yes. All the servants who did this were people who had just joined.”

“Well, there are all sorts of strange things.”

At this time, there was no way they could know that the strange assassination was committed by people who had entered various families through voluntary human trafficking.

It was because the report only detailed the families that were affected, not the servants who committed such things.

The three of them exchanged a couple more words, and eventually nodded.

“I’ll have to look it up.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll sort this out.”

“Ah, thank you for that, Ophelia.”

“What’s this much when we’re dying together?”

With a very moved face, Cooper patted the shoulder of Ophelia as she rubbed her nose. 

Seeing the two of them like that, Iris shook her head and laughed.

As if he had suddenly remembered something, Cooper turned around while on his way back to his seat.

“Anyway, how about we go to the festival today?”

“Both of us have a prior appointment this evening.”

Iris pointed at Ophelia, who was sticking her nose in the papers, and at herself.

“What a pity. It’s the first chance to go out to play with the aides.”

At Cooper’s words of regret, Iris shrugged her shoulders, but Ophelia froze.

‘First’.

Actually, it wasn’t the first time. Before, when a strange torrential rain flooded the entire empire…

During the infinite regression to get rid of the flood, the three of them once put off paperwork and drank together like children playing bad pranks.

However, that memory remained only with Ophelia.

“Then what about tomorrow?”

“I’m fine for now, Ophelia?”

Ophelia nodded and rubbed the tip of her nose, which suddenly became cold.

“Oh, I’m fine too. Rather, can we even go out today?”

Turning her head to the stacks of papers, her eyes became dim.

She would rather close her eyes at the mountain range of documents that she could see so clearly even in her hazy vision, but if the documents would disappear once she closed her eyes, they would have already disappeared dozens of times.

Ophelia let out a long sigh and lowered her pen.

Holding data on the assassinations by random servants along with other things, she got up.

“I’m going to do the interim report now.”

“Huh? In that case, I will…”

Cooper raised his hand without looking up, and Ophelia replied firmly.

“I’ll go.”

“Do you think she will get something up her butt again?”

Ophelia responded brazenly to the joking Iris.

“It’s already done!”

Leaving behind Iris’ laughter and Cooper’s distraught smile, Ophelia left the aide’s office with papers in her arms.

It wasn’t long before Ophelia reached a familiar door and poked her head out from the side of the papers.

“How often have I been in and out of here?”

She was so busy preparing for the festival that the threshold was worn away.

Soon, having no hands left from holding the papers, she knocked on the door with her forehead, and waited for a while.

Even without an answer, as usual, she lowered the doorknob with her hip and entered Richard’s office.

“Excuse me. I brought the documents that you need to look at right now.”

Ophelia’s vision was obscured by the papers, so she couldn’t see anything in front of her, but she skillfully dodged the furniture and papers placed here and there and approached Richard’s desk.

“Cooper will bring the rest in an hour or two.”

Putting down the papers, Ophelia tilted her head.

Because the person who was supposed to be there wasn’t there.

“Richard?”

With her neck stretched out, Ophelia started to look around the room. She tilted her head.

“Where are you?”

Just in case, she looked under the desk, but there was no one there, so she crawled out with an embarrassed expression and dusted off her skirt.

Then, cold air brushed her cheeks, and at the same time, the scent of the cool outside air flowed in.

The bridge of her nose brushed with Richard’s, who had appeared in front of her before she knew it.

Ophelia’s widened blue eyes were filled with only him.

Similarly, she was the only one in his eyes, which glowed with a golden color darker than honey under the sunlight.

Richard smiled softly, his eyes quickly folding.

“Ophelia.”

His voice that called her was as familiar as before, but somehow… 

Ophelia involuntarily pressed her chest hard.

‘Why is it… so itchy?’

And in the next moment, as if the distance that was close enough that only a sheet of paper could fit was a lie, Richard stepped back from Ophelia.

However, Ophelia was frozen in place, unable to blink even once.

A second, yes, it must have been very brief.

In that instant, she was blinded by his smile, her ears perked up at his voice, and his scent seemed to numb her nose.

It really was an instant.

“Ophelia.”

It might be merely a feeling, but her mouth was dry from the excessive sweetness of his call.

Ophelia couldn’t hold back the swelling and itchy feeling that was as if she had swallowed a feather anymore. She exhaled and said whatever came to her mind.

“Ah… welcome back.”

‘I did say anything, but why is it so awkward?’

What’s wrong with me? Ophelia’s eyelashes fluttered like a hummingbird’s wings.

She was clearly aware that what she was feeling was completely different from usual because she hadn’t noticed her.

But, unfortunately for Richard, that was all.

Ophelia stared at him, who seemed to be covered with a colorful halo of sunlight, and narrowed her eyes.

It had been three years since she had been exposed to his face, and no matter how unrealistic he looked, like a statue made by an artisan, there was no way her heart would flutter at his appearance again.

‘So why is my heart beating so fast all of a sudden?’

Ophelia’s heart pounded as if she had arrhythmia.

She swallowed a sigh and shook her head. It was probably really arrhythmia.

‘I must have been too tired these days.’ Ophelia pressed hard on her racing heart.

‘I’m not going to die from overwork before the world ends, right?’

Unbeknownst to Ophelia as she began an in-depth examination of her health…

What she was doing now was something she had read about many times in the previous world, which made her swear at the frustrating female lead who didn’t notice that the male lead was showing off like that and said that it looked like she ate a box of sweet potatoes.

(TL/N: ‘sweet potato’, when used figuratively, describes a frustrating situation or feeling being stifled.)

Greedily gazing at Ophelia as she constantly tilted her head and changed her expression dozens of times, Richard pushed his curiosity of what she was so busy with aside and asked,

“Is this an interim report?

“Yes. You can look at it from the top. Where have you been?”

Ophelia asked casually, handing over the document at the top of the stack.

“All over the place.”

Several documents were passed alongside the ambiguous answer.

“I found it in James’ digging.”

“James? Oh, Gryu.”

As Ophelia flicked through the documents Richard had given her, a deep valley formed between her brows.

“Looking at this, it’s clear that Marchioness Neir and Lady Neir are really walking on different routes, right?”

“I can only see it as that.”

“Right? The money that should go to the Marquisate of Neir evaporates in the middle. The only person capable of doing something like this is the lady.”

“I’m not sure if Marchioness Neir is just standing by or she’s unaware.”

Ophelia tilted her head, looking away from the papers.

“Speaking of Marchoiness Neir, didn’t she look very bad when we met at the great meeting?”

Ame: I’m so ready for festival fun and bonding but what do we get? More office days! That’s like my life… Totally off topic, but imagine if James Gryu is the hidden villain and a double agent haha

Dea: It’s the first time i relate to a fl in a novel, i too am stuck at office buried under case files, though mine are online so it’s a bit easier to manage haha