Chapter 38

“W-wait a second!”

Lillian hurriedly grabbed the tip of his stylishly fluttering cape. Then Darkness looked back at her, kicking her tongue as if he was annoyed.

Her pride was hurt, but if she let Darkness leave, the mansion would be seized, and she would be homeless.

Lillian’s mind was working desperately. There must have been other terms and conditions that Darkness would be interested in.

Fortunately, there was a piece of information—a bargaining chip that came to her mind. Lillian opened her mouth with the most serious expression she could muster.

“Did you know a royal palace investigator will be inspecting you soon?”

“……investigator? What do you mean?”

“What do you think? Of course, he’s a royal investigator trying to root out Billions. It’s still just the beginning, but a full-scale tax investigation will take place next year.”

Lillian lied brazenly. In fact, there was only one reason why Billions collapsed in the original work. It was because Billions dared to put Aleyna, a princess, on the slave market. Because of this, the male protagonist was angry and crushed them.

If Aleyna didn’t get kidnapped, Billions would be safe. Until then, the hero couldn’t care less about them or their operations.

However, Lillian intentionally threw the ball in their court, as if the royal family was aiming for Villains. Since she wore the uniform and crest of the royal knights, and her words became more effective.

“Hmm.”

Darkness, who was looking at Lillian with trembling eyes, sat back down in his chair. And he shook his head while massaging his eyebrows.

“Ah, Goddess…… You’re saying that villains like me can’t even exist in this world? I mean, that’s your beautiful and cruel meaning.

What a heartless act!!”

What the hell? Who are you talking to?

Lillian stepped away from Darkness, who had fallen into a world of his own. Then Darkness, who was wallowing in self-pity, turned his head and stared at Lillian.

“Lillian Rossetti.”

“Yes? Just call me Lillian.”

“All right, Miss Lillian. With all due respect, you are a low-level knight of the royal court. Right? A servile sword that has surrendered sold itself to the capitalist system.”

Darkness seemed polite but also rude. Lillian, who was struck out of the blue for being a low-level civil servant, looked at him with a nervous look. Well, it was true, so it didn’t hurt her pride too badly.

“……Oh, yes, that’s right. I’m with the 4th Knights of the Palace.”

“But how does Miss Rossetti know such important information? Hmm? You’re not trying to fool Darkness in this abyss, are you?”

Darkness flashed his eyes violently as he looked down at Lillian. He seemed to be suspicious of how she knew this information. So Lillian quickly added an explanation,

“Do you happen to know my superior, Sir Enrique Evans? The Commander of the Royal Knights.”

“Of course I know. “The silver wolf defending the Legonian Kingdom?”

“…… Silver wolf? Yeah, well, I’m Sir Evans’s interim aide. So the information that comes in to me is pretty reliable.”

Lillian sold Enrique’s name without blinking an eye. Since she was not lying anyway, her face was proud.

Enrique’s original aide, Lord Kale, was to be away for the time being. And Lillian was supposed to fill in for him. Initially, it was ridiculous, but it was an offer purely due to Enrique’s favor. On top of that, she would receive one-on-one fencing classes with Enrique after work, so there were no gaps in her story if he did a background check on her.

‘I didn’t know I’d use this here.’

After all, life was unexpected. When she first received the offer from Enrique, she thought the world was going to fall. Internally, Lillian was deeply impressed by her cockroach-like survivability, which used crises as opportunities.