I Decided to Kidnap the Male Lead

Episode 9: Nice to Meet You (III)

“The weight of beans with divine power will not change, right?”

Ophelia was very serious, she just remembered there wasn’t any divine power in her previous life.

But Richard turned his head away without answering, and Ophelia hit his arm with a fist that was like a cotton bat.

From Psyche to Archimedes, it was a strange stream of consciousness, but Ophelia, who somehow came up with a way, soon opened the door and called a passing servant.

“Could you bring me a big bucket of water?”

.

Iris looked suspiciously at Ophelia when she returned before dinner time, that was, much sooner than she expected.

“Are you done?”

“Yes!”

Ophelia replied confidently, but Iris asked again, as if she couldn’t believe her at all.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

However, Ophelia’s answer that was accompanied by a smile did not change.

“I’m asking you, did you pick the beans out perfectly without a scratch? As I said, it contains divine power and is an important item for hunting competitions. It’s a simple way to prevent the injuries and deaths of those who will become outstanding talents.”

“Yes. I picked them all up and dried them completely.”

“What… how? What is that….”

“Come on, how long are you going to hold on to the person who has been working hard?”

Cooper appeared from behind Iris, patted her on the shoulder and stepped forward in one motion.

“You’ve worked hard. You’ve done such a great job with a lot of responsibility, so please continue as you are now.”

Towards the kindly smiling, Ophelia responded vigorously.

“Yes. I will work hard.”

“Whether you work hard or not, give the right results.”

Ophelia responded unwavering to Cooper’s straightforward words, which were still said with a pleasant smile.

“Yes.”

“Okay. Then now…”

Cooper nodded and was about to say something else, but Iris was quicker.

“Wait a minute, I have one more question.”

“Yes?”

“Did you do it alone?”

Ophelia answered without hesitation.

“Yes. I did it alone.”

Of course, Richard helped pour the sandy beans into the huge bucket.

“No way, the entire thing?”

Without a second thought, Ophelia witnessed Richard lightly lifting the bucket full of sand and beans, which would normally require a few people clinging to it and grunting.

After recalling that moment for a second, Ophelia opened her cloudy eyes as her shoulders trembled.

He was human, but he was a human without human-like qualities.

Anyway, there was no way that Richard’s help would leak out and enter Iris’ ears.

“No one will know that I’ve been here.”

Richard said so, and Ophelia firmly believed it.

He didn’t have to avoid people’s eyes by doing unimaginable things, such as riding in the shadows or breaking through the ground.

All he had to do was silence the people he met on your way there or on the way back.

“More than I thought…”

Iris continued with a grim face.

“You have the ability to get the job done one way or another. Of course I’ll have to confirm, but I’m sure you won’t be lying to me soon after.”

The omitted words of ‘for a parachute’ could be understood without even hearing it.

But Ophelia was neither angry nor offended.

It was true that she was a parachute.

Obtaining the position of an aide to the crown prince was no means as easy as picking up a rolling chair and sitting down.

The best talent among the empire’s talents was selected through the recommendation of numerous people and the verification of even more people.

Among them, only those who have an unparalleled loyalty to Richard become an aide.

But Ophelia was none of them, so she could understand Iris and Cooper even if they were territorial and stubborn.

Of course, understanding and enduring were two different things.

But she could take a breather since she put in a decent first step for a parachute.

As Ophelia exhaled slowly, she met brown eyes, that was, Cooper’s.

“Oh, you’ve been told earlier that those beans would be used in hunting competitions.”

“Yes.”

“This document is about that.”

Cooper, still smiling, pointed to the huge pile of paperwork.

“Ah yes.”

Ophelia, a bit startled by the sheer amount of paperwork, blinked rapidly, and Cooper struck her in the stomach with a soft voice.

“Please take care of this part today. As I said before, I hope that the results are properly delivered.”

After pointing to half of the pile of papers, Cooper immediately returned to his seat. Ophelia was speechless.

It seemed Iris had already gone, for she was nowhere to be seen, so Ophelia looked at the documents Cooper pointed to.

‘Is it bullying…?’

‘The first task of picking out beans is just a cute initiation, is this really workplace bullying?’

Ophelia’s doubts melted away within a few seconds.

In front of Iris and Cooper, there were many times more papers than the papers piled up in front of herself. Literally, a mountain range of papers.

Leaning to the right to look at them, Ophelia let out a sad laugh, then straightened her body.

‘It’s just a lot of work.’

Indeed, she was an aide to the crown prince who moved not only the empire but also to the continent. It would be weird if there was less work.

Taking a short sigh, Ophelia rolled up her sleeves and grabbed the document on the top.

.

Days passed without the threat of assassination towards Richard. In turn, days passed without the loop of infinite regression.

And for those few days, Ophelia had been struggling with hellish paperwork so much that she would rather have an infinite regression.

—Tak tak.

Ophelia, who had her nose in the document and was about to put her face into it soon, looked up.

Tapping her desk lightly, Iris spoke in a very businesslike manner with her face as cold as the first time they met.

“Please check this one more time. Just a quick look at what’s going on.”

It sounded so simple that if someone who didn’t know the situation heard it, they would think it would be over if she just took a glance at it, but…

Ophelia lifted her chapped lips as she looked alternately at the papers and Iris that were stacking up in front of her.

“When should I finish it by?”

“Please do it by today.”

“Oh… always, today. Yes, today.”

Ophelia repeated the word ‘today’ like a chant, and she glanced at the remaining paperwork she had to deal with today.

Her eyes widened at the amount of paperwork that was reduced as much as the size of an ant’s tears.

But Ophelia couldn’t say she couldn’t do it, so she lowered her head and shoved her nose into the paperwork again.

Iris, having entrusted Ophelia with the work, stared at her for a few seconds, and then returned to her seat.

“There are three kinds of thickness of the tents…. Tents should not be blown away by the wind, but also to cover the sun and rain, but what’s this thickness?”

Gently grinding her teeth, Ophelia stretched her back as she was reviewing the papers on the various tents for the hunting competition.

It was not stiff; she also managed to raise her neck that felt like a wooden log, barely turning it left and right, but soon stopped.

Two people came into view over the mountain range of documents that showed no signs of diminishing despite working to death every day.

Iris was flipping through the papers so swiftly that it was doubtful whether she was reading it right, and Cooper was repeatedly using a stamp indicating ‘No’ as if in a frenzy.

Compared to Ophelia, who started work a few days ago, the other two must be in better shape.

But the reality was not so easy. Iris, the one able to get things done the fastest, had done just as much and the same goes for Cooper.

Perhaps feeling Ophelia’s gaze, Cooper suddenly raised his head.

“Tea, I need some tea.”

Looking at those droopy eyes, it was almost like a sad salaryman who didn’t drink coffee on his way to work in the morning, but received a blood transfusion, so tears were burning in his eyes.

“Agreed.”

“Me too.”

Cooper raised the bell to call a servant, but Ophelia jumped up.

“Me! I’ll go.”

“Uh?”

“I’ll be back like the wind!”

Ophelia felt that if she kept sitting like this, something was going to happen, whether it was a sore or a boil on the buttocks.

Iris and Cooper looked puzzled, but they didn’t bother to stop her.

While Ophelia was away for a while, an uninvited guest entered the aide’s office.

—Tok tok.

Even in the eyes of a monkey, the door opened instantly after a formal knock.

—Click.

Through the cracks in the open door, a pointed shoe covered in jewels, which sparkled enough to hurt the eyes when the light hit it, appeared.

At the same time, the aide’s room, which was filled with only the smell of paper and ink, was filled with the scent of outside wind and strong perfume that literally stung the nose.

The moment Iris’ eyebrows twitched while she was concentrating on the paperwork and Cooper unknowingly rubbed the tip of his nose hard…

“I heard there’s a new aide.”

The esteemed daughter of the Marquis of Sheffield, the uninvited guest, opened her mouth.

“Only a desk, no person.”

Her voice was loud enough for anyone to hear, but there was no answer.

But she didn’t care if she was already used to it, and found Iris and Cooper behind the towering piles of documents.

“Hmm, hmmmm!”

—Tak tak tak.

If it was only for a cough, both of them would have ignored the uninvited guest, but the sound of that lady hitting the floor with her shoes was not tolerable.

Raised their heads at the same time, Iris and Cooper frowned.

“What’s going on again this time?”

Iris asked without looking at Lady Sheffield, and also, without hiding that she was overtly annoyed.

The lady of the Marquisate of Sheffield was not discouraged by Iris, who had a cold impression when she kept her mouth shut and could give one cold feet when she frowned.

If she had been easily frightened, she wouldn’t have visited the aide’s office enough for Iris to put the word ‘again’ in her mouth.

“I heard there’s a new assistant.”