Luciela, My Secretary From Today On
"Drug addict, whore, tramp — I don't care how debauched your life gets or what filth people call you. But."
The voice was thick with thorns.
"I will never keep someone like that at my side. Not as a comrade, not as a friend, not for the rest of my life. You wouldn't help me — you'd only ever be a burden."
Maru brushed past her.
"You've heard enough to understand. I hope I never see you again."
And with that, he walked away.
Natalie stood frozen where she was, stunned.
"Ugh…!"
Her clenched fists trembled violently.
His merciless condemnation felt like her chest was being torn to ribbons. The memory of how he'd stared at her just moments before — with nothing but contempt — lingered in her mind, and her face flushed red and pale with shame.
And yet she couldn't bring herself to be angry with him.
Instead, Natalie blamed herself and wallowed in the guilt.
Maru was the sort who rarely spoke a harsh word to anyone. He was the man who had once tried to protect her, too. If a man like that had been driven to fury by the life she'd lived, then how much of a disaster must that life have been?
Tears slid down her cheeks.
No… I'm not a tramp…!
She wanted to run after Maru and plead with him. Beg him not to brand her like this. To insist she was sane, that she wasn't what he thought. That if he told her to change, she would change — so please, just give her one more chance.
She had never realized Maru despised her this much.
She'd been an idiot.
She'd thought all it would take was an apology. That if she just apologized to him properly, one day he would take her back.
But he looked upon her dissolute, debauched lifestyle with pure contempt. It seemed he had no intention of accepting her apology at all. His heart was sealed shut, and all he wanted was for her to disappear.
It was cruel.
"Hoo."
Natalie drew in a long, deep breath and let it out. Tears kept streaming from her eyes without pause.
If Maru had intended to kill her with words, he had struck true. The wound was deep. It hurt down to the bone.
And yet, she found a sliver of hope in it.
"You really want me gone? Well, too bad for you."
A faint smile crossed her lips. She thought back to the weeks she'd spent locked in the dungeon beneath this very place.
"Are you angry at me, maybe?"
And Maru had heaved a deep sigh before breaking into a relieved laugh.
"Don't be ridiculous. Anger is something you only feel for someone you actually care about."
Maru had clearly been angry just now.
Wiping her tear-soaked cheeks, Natalie smiled brightly.
"I've seen straight through you. I've still got a chance."
She would swallow her pride and beg, and beg again. Sooner or later, he would accept her. A warrior's path was to look only forward and charge straight ahead. There was no surrender until the prize was seized.
"Maru!"
She hurried after him. In the days that followed she would catch his ear and get scolded again and again, but she had no intention of backing down. Every single day, if she had to, she would cling to the hem of his pants and argue her case to the bitter end.
First things first — she had to cut off all the men.
She owed him an apology, and she couldn't afford to earn any more of his hatred in the meantime. She would have to show him a changed woman.
A woman Maru could like.
Dawn was just breaking when the door to the princess's chamber eased open. Maru poked his head out and glanced warily around. For the second night running, he had stolen a night with the princess in secret.
Once he confirmed the coast was clear, he slipped out of the room in relief. Behind him, Audrite — clad in nothing but white underclothes that left little to the imagination — poked her head through the gap in the door and whispered to him.
"The baroness will be along any minute. Take care getting back."
"Hold on. I forgot something."
"Oh, right."
Mwah.
After sharing a kiss with her, Maru strolled down the corridor with his hands clasped behind his back, as if nothing at all had happened.
"Ahem. Hmm!"
Audrite watched his retreating figure for a moment before belatedly noticing that he was wearing his socks inside out. The sight of him marching off so primly, clearing his throat with such dignity, utterly oblivious — it was rather funny.
She closed the door with a girlish giggle.
"Phew. Good thing nobody caught me."
Back in his room, Maru washed up and changed his clothes. Then, freshly dressed, he sank into a plush chair and shut his eyes for a while. He hadn't slept much, and the exhaustion was catching up with him.
"Just a little nap."
He skipped breakfast entirely, dozed for about an hour, and then reported to his office.
"Good morning, sir!"
Oliver sprang to his feet with a crisp bow. Young and full of energy as ever.
"Morning."
Once Maru went inside and settled at his desk, Oliver promptly brought over the overnight reports, neatly organized papers, a schedule, and other documents.
"What are you doing here?"
Maru glanced up at Natalie, who was sitting in the guest seat, as he sorted through his desk. She smiled awkwardly.
"Came to say good morning…"
Having asked the question himself, Maru half-listened while already turning to other matters. Natalie swallowed hard, then worked up the courage to speak.
"I'm not seeing men anymore. I'm not going to do the things you hate…"
"What gives you the right to be here?"
"Here? I-I came to see you…"
"Not this office — the palace itself. You've got no rank, no position, nothing. How are you even staying here this long?"
Oliver, reading the room, hastily excused himself and scurried out of the office to fetch something.
"I stayed as a guest of the Crown Prince's welcome ceremony, but that ran out, so since yesterday I've been helping out at the barracks. If anyone wants a monster caught, I go catch it… Right now I'm here as an adventurer, on a royal commission."
Inwardly, Natalie was delighted that Maru had engaged her in such a long exchange. Determined to make a good impression, she answered in a tone quite unlike her usual one — demure, gentle, like some fragile, delicate woman. It was a lost cause given her hulking frame; she'd read as a musclebound brute no matter what. Still, she played the coquette for all she was worth.
"Anything else you want to ask…?"
"So you've just been staying in the guest quarters this whole time? Got a private room?"
"Yeah…"
"I see."
That was the end of the conversation with Maru. His gaze dropped back to his desk. Then he told her he needed to focus on work, and Natalie had no choice but to shuffle out of the room like a scolded child.
"Giving up men? You? The one with the legendary appetite?"
Maru smirked at the closed door, then turned his attention seriously to the papers in his hand.
Once again, several fresh reports about the Eastern Expedition had arrived that morning. But their contents differed, bit by bit, from yesterday's. One claimed that the Hero's party, Duke Toledo, and Yosef had all survived; another said only the Duke had died, another that only Yosef had perished — every account told a different story.
It was a sensitive matter the whole world was watching, so rumors of every stripe would be flying about, and plenty of people would take unverified gossip and spread it as gospel truth. Yesterday's reports and today's alike proved as much. It was simply too early to believe anything. The events had unfolded too far away for solid information to reach this place quickly. Probably a good month would have to pass before accurate news arrived.
There was one thing, though, on which every report agreed: that the cause of the expedition's failure was Kiera. That she had fled. On that single point, the record was immutable.
"Sleepy."
Maru set the papers down on the desk and rolled his stiff neck. And then, quite suddenly, Lucy came to mind.
Should I tell her?
After a brief deliberation, Maru rose from his seat. Better to tell her, he decided. She had once been Kiera's companion, after all. It was the least kindness he could offer a woman who was now his slave. A curious mage like her would be dying to know what was happening in the outside world.
What expression would she make, hearing that Kiera had fallen?
He went straight to his quarters and called for Luciela. Summoning her was simple — all he had to do was wet a fingertip with saliva and touch his right ear, where she had inscribed a location-tracking crest of her own accord a few months back.
"You called, My Lord?"
Luciela appeared in less than a minute.
"What's Lucy up to right now?"
"Cleaning my room."
"Your room? Anyway, deliver this for me."
Maru handed her the folded paper.
"What is it?"
"News from the world. Figured Lucy would want to know."
Maru said, scratching his ear. "And from now on, you're to travel with me."
"With you? Is that really all right?"
Luciela's face filled with astonishment. Maru pulled something from his pocket.
"Take it. A palace access necklace. Show it to the guards and you can come and go through the standard areas freely. Your position: secretary to the Crown Prince."
"A secretary…! At last, you're keeping me at your side!"
Luciela's eyes shone with gratitude.
"Are you truly, truly certain? I am a succubus — disaster follows if people find out. It could put you in danger, My Lord."
"This is no time to worry about that. I need hands immediately, and the only trustworthy demon around — well, demon or otherwise — is you. I've recently come into a fief, and I need someone to handle its administration. I'd like that to be you."
The fief's arrival meant he needed an administrator. But he had no useful connections here, and even if he had, being cast out of his own party had made him wary of trusting people too easily. After long consideration, Luciela — the person he trusted most in the world — seemed the obvious choice. With her, he could speak freely even about the most private matters.
"I've asked the chamberlain to prepare a room for you. It should be ready by the day after tomorrow."
Luciela cupped both cheeks in her hands, her expression turning rapturous.
"How could I ever repay such grace…! I could offer you my body right this—"
She was so beside herself that she began shrugging off her clothes on the spot, and Maru hastily grabbed her hands to stop her.
"Weird behavior is forbidden. Spend the time practicing greeting people instead. And you've got sunscreen to block out the sun stockpiled nice and thick, right?"
"What in the world is sunscreen…? A skin-protection spell is more than enough for the sun."
Before long Luciela had returned to her quarters — yet before even her perfume had finished fading from the room, she came back. This time with Lucy in tow.
"Why'd you come back? And why'd you bring her?"
When Maru asked, tilting his head, Luciela smiled.
"My Lord's bell, Lucy, says she has something urgent to report."
"…My hypothesis was right."
Lucy — her hair in twintails, a style she'd never once worn before, and dressed in a maid's uniform — approached slowly. Clutching the paper Maru had sent, crushed in one fist, she stared at him with wide, startled eyes.
"If you hate Kiera, run. Now. That woman is going to come for you. Without fail."
Maru, mid-sip from a cup of water, froze.
He turned to Lucy and blinked at her. Silence stretched between them for a long moment.
"What's this out of nowhere? That's a real appetite-killer, you know."
Spending every day with a succubus must have finally turned Lucy into a demon herself. Making cruel little jokes he didn't even want to imagine.
"I don't know the exact mechanism, but the Hero's power Kiera carries is tied to you. It's affected by you."
Maru was startled inwardly. Had she figured out that he was the one who had given Kiera her power?
Lucy declared flatly,
"Without you, she can't use it at all."
Maru immediately seized Lucy's hand and pulled her down into a chair.