Don't Shame The Villainess

Chapter 11 – I’m Going To Die At This Rate

Zed looked up at Jack with a tired and bloodshot gaze. He felt drained from all his work, and he felt a little groggy still.

“May I ask the reason why?”

“I wish…to go back to my family’s home,” Jack replied.

When Zed heard Jack’s wish to return home, Zed lightly smacked his head with his hand.

Rest… Ah, so he just needed some rest. Yes, that could sometimes happen. Zed knew that Jack could have been under increased stress from realizing this family was rapidly heading to ruins due to this unforeseen crisis.

Zed’s mind raced with thoughts of both denying the reality and forcing himself to accept reason, as he opened spoke again.

“Then you may use your vacation days to leave for a while and come back—”

 

“No, no need,” Jack declined. “I was actually considering giving up my job as a knight entirely.”

… What?

Zed stared at Jack with a dumbfounded expression.

This man had been infatuated with the knight’s profession this whole time, so how could he suddenly be saying this?

Zed had heard from Leticia that Jack was a man who, in his days as a squire, sold off his own master to become a knight. Yet this man now approached Zed with a letter of resignation and the intention to give up his knightship as well? What was the reason for all this?

Zed tried to make him reconsider. “Jack, how about you think over it again? You could be making an impulsive decision because of the mistress’ poor condition and—”

“Stop!” Jack cut in sharply. “I said I’m not going to do it! I’m just not doing this anymore! If you understand, then just accept my damn resignation and get this over with!” He slammed his two fists on the table, disturbing the pile of carefully organized documents and causing some of them to slide to the floor.

Zed’s forehead veins bulged from anger. He had been working on those documents for several nights already, and now he had to pick them all up and re-organize them again. He stared at all the paper strewn on the floor, then turned back to face Jack again.

“Listen here—” Zed began to lash out, but then stopped when he saw Jack’s face.

Jack’s face was completely frozen with fear. He looked like a poor defenseless child being pursued by a killer. Jack’s eyes were darting around the room, and his hands trembled severely as if he had taken drugs. Cold beads of sweat ran down from his forehead down to his chin and dropped onto the floor.

 

‘Why?’

Zed was struck by a strong sense of curiosity. Was there something in this household that was enough to frighten him to this degree? Since Jack said he wanted to go back to his hometown, perhaps it might have something to do with his family instead. Or perhaps there was some pressure forced onto him…from the outside, perhaps?

Jack looked petrified enough to be called a lunatic. Zed clicked his tongue sharply.

‘Looks like I won’t be able to make use of him anyway.’

Zed needed some manpower right now, yet the only person that could be of use to him looked like his sanity was hanging by a thread. On top of that, it didn’t seem like he would recover from one or two days of rest either. Zed felt that if he let him stay any longer, he may actually cause more trouble.

With a sigh, Zed picked up the letter of resignation. He glanced down and saw that Jack’s signature had already been written on it. Zed signed where Leticia’s signature would’ve gone, then spoke.

“I will send it up to the Marchioness by today. If she accepts this as well, then you will be able to officially resign from your post as soon as possible. Until then, you…won’t be able to continue your duty, it seems.”

He hoped to make use of Jack at least until the resignation was approached, but upon seeing Jack shiver like a fish in fear, he gave up on the idea.

Zed rubbed his temples then gave a quick jerk of his chin to Jack as a gesture.

“Please stand by the Lady until it is time for me to switch my places with you at least.”

However, Jack just kept standing in place and didn’t look like he was going to leave the office anytime soon. It was as if he didn’t wish to return to his post. Zed frowned deeply and continued speaking.

“I will be there shortly. Did something happen to the Lady in the meanti—?”

Jack’s complexion became deathly pale at the mention of ‘the Lady’, and he suddenly bolted out the room like a scared dog with its tail between its legs. Jack was in so much in a hurry that the door he slammed closed with a loud bang made a creaking noise as it slowly opened itself again.

Zed stared vacantly at the half open door, put his hand on his forehead and let out a long sigh.

“Ugh… I’m going to die at this rate.”

Another overnighter for him today.

***

The security of nobles was often a job done by knights who were also of noble status. Most knights would usually follow their noble lords whenever they went outside for any business.

Honestly, what kind of harm could come to the nobles when they already had tight security around their homes? In novels, black-clad assassins easily and frequently infiltrated mansions, but in reality that was extremely difficult to do. Not only did soldiers patrol the property on a set schedule, but for a family that had resources to spare, hunting dogs were raised and used to sniff out any intruders and bite them if they got near. Additionally, knights were posted at the most crucial locations to protect it at all times.

But assume that someone jumped over the wall, snuck inside and approached their target all the way inside the mansion?

Either they were stupid and lucky to an improbable level, or the assassin had risen above the base abilities of a human and obtained a skill level of a demigod. It was several times easier to simply disguise yourself as a servant in the household, or assassinate the noble when they left the mansion itself.

In this situation, to have a personal knight bodyguard for each individual nobles that stepped outside could be seen as nothing but “wasteful”. However, bodyguard knights were still enlisted for two reasons:

One, to brag to others that they could afford to waste such resources. Having a knight following them at all times was a way for them to flaunt their wealth. For a noble to accumulate enough wealth and power to have several knights in employment meant an increase in status.

Two, it was to safeguard against the possibility of being targeted by an aforementioned assassin of extraordinary ability. That was more likely to happen within the deeper cores of the political sphere as nobles fought each other for power.

Although extremely rare, such skilled assassins could practically melt into the shadows and hide their presence as if they didn’t exist. There were also those who were interested in hiring people with such abilities to completely erase other people.

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As a basic example, the royal palace harbored such people; people who would indiscriminately murder their own siblings to acquire as much power as they could. To survive in such a place, it was prerequisite that you had a knight following at all times.

And… Marchioness Lamia was teetering on the edge of that world of ‘political power is absolutely everything’. She held a ministerial position within administration after all.

Because of that, Zed twice came across a shadowy figure trespassing closely to Leticia’s bedroom.

‘When I met the first one I was really scared.’

Zed recalled what happened back then, and gave a shiver.