According to the chick, Felix had already boarded the “flower road” express.
Pulling him down wouldn’t be easy.
Unless I pulled off something truly groundbreaking… something creatively destructive…
I grabbed my head and thought hard.
Just as the chick said, I was a simp, a doormat, a “servant who worships men,” a human footstool.
I had lived my entire life timidly, passively, always anxious about others’ opinions.
‘Wreaking havoc… how am I supposed to even do that?’
Even if I planned everything carefully, once I actually faced the situation, my voice would tremble like a goat’s, my whole body would shake, and everything would fall apart anyway…
Then—
[Benefactor, are you troubled?]
The chick tilted its head and waddled over.
“Hey, chick.”
I turned sharply toward it.
“You said you’d help me live more conveniently and efficiently.”
[That is correct!]
“Can you help me… cause chaos too? Like, be a villain or something?”
[…]
For the first time, the chick looked troubled.
Its tiny wings shrank inward.
[That… may be difficult…]
“Why?”
[I can do anything, but only what I’ve learned. And I’ve only learned your memories…]
“So you’re saying I can’t become a villain because I’m a hopeless simp doormat? Because my ‘soil’ is trash, I can’t grow villain fruit?”
[As expected of you! You understood immediately!]
The chick flapped its tail feathers excitedly.
So basically—it couldn’t teach me how to do evil things because it had never learned them.
Learning, huh.
“Maybe I should go to the library and read something like ‘Biographies of Villainesses’…”
[That’s exactly the kind of thought a model student would have!]
Was that an insult or a compliment?
[However, rather than books, real-life teaching materials are best. Learning by observing living humans is the most efficient!]
Living humans?
So… a villain mentor, basically?
“Sounds difficult.”
Right now, I had two urgent problems.
First: money. My uncle had cut off both my allowance and my meals.
Second: I needed access to a “real-life villain teacher” before Felix’s flower road fully unfolded.
The problem was both were extremely urgent.
Was there a way to solve both at once?
Then—
A memory suddenly struck me.
A few days ago, I had overheard the maids gossiping.
—
“Did you see the job posting at the Duke of Croitz’s household?”
“Yeah. No requirements at all, even commoners can apply. And the salary was insane.”
“Yeah, but the entrance exam is apparently harder than the imperial university entrance exam.”
“What? How are maids supposed to pass that?”
—
There it was.
A way to kill two birds with one stone.
That job posting was for the duke’s secretary position.
The Duke of Croitz.
A genius among geniuses who inherited the ancient Croitz duchy at a young age and even led the Mage Tower.
And above all—
‘They say his personality is absolutely rotten!’
Mad Dog Duke.
Disaster Bootheel.
A total psycho among psychos.
Despite his noble looks and high status, that’s what people secretly called him.
Just how awful must his personality be…!
I shivered.
I had actually seen him once before.
He was brutally kicking down a strong man with his boot.
Just remembering that demonic sight made my legs weaken.
At the same time, I was certain.
‘It’s him.’
There was no better “teaching material” than the Duke of Croitz.
The only problem was that the entrance exam was notoriously impossible.
‘But honestly… I’m confident when it comes to exams.’
Back in the academy, every time there was an exam, the predicted questions and answers I prepared for Felix were always eerily accurate.
I would stare at the test paper with satisfaction—while my own answers were a mess, because I always avoided overlapping with Felix’s responses.
Even if it was for my fiancé, my life-saving benefactor… why did I go that far?!
Now that I thought about it, my obsessive devotion was honestly pathetic.
But there was no time to regret.
Even now, Felix’s flower road was progressing smoothly.
I slapped my cheeks lightly and made a plan.
Step one: become the Duke’s secretary. There were no qualifications required, so my terrible grades wouldn’t matter.
Step two: survive on the salary.
Step three: observe the Duke’s evil deeds up close and absorb everything like a sponge.
Perfect!
For the first time since my betrayal-filled collapse, a spark of hope lit up inside me.
My current status: 0 gold in savings, average GPA D.
Truly a hopeless situation.
The old me would’ve trembled and given up.
But now—
A burning desire for revenge fueled me.
I clenched my fists.
‘I will reclaim my family… and I will take revenge on Felix!’
And to do that—
‘First, let’s get a job.’
“These useless worms.”
CRACK!
A ruthless kick caved in the desk like it had been struck by a meteor.
The assistants prostrated themselves, trembling violently.
“I-I’m sorry!”
“Sorry?”
The man grabbed one of them by the collar and lifted him.
“How did you manage to screw up this badly?”
“Eek!”
The assistant squeezed his eyes shut.
“A street dog would do better than you. Did you leave your brains in your mother’s womb? Can’t you even think? Get out. I feel sick just looking at you.”
The brutal dismissal sent the assistants fleeing in tears.
“Damn nepotism hires. I should just smash their heads in.”
The man—Kaien Croitz—sighed heavily and slumped into his chair.
“Does the Mage Tower think this is a kindergarten?”
The Mage Tower belonged to the imperial family.
The problem was that the imperial administration was rotten.
Corrupt officials kept stuffing incompetent “backdoor hires” into the Mage Tower.
And thanks to those shameless idiots, Kaien’s patience—and personality—was rotting day by day.
“Tch.”
He clicked his tongue.
‘This pathetic organization. I should leave it as soon as possible.’
But he couldn’t.
Not yet.
He leaned back in his chair, sunlight from the window highlighting his face.
Sharp brows, a blade-like nose, and lips almost too beautiful to be real—
but from them came words as crude as any street thug’s.
“Sir.”
His aide, Aron, approached carefully.
“A candidate for the secretary position has arrived.”
“Secretary?”
Kaien raised an eyebrow.
The position had been vacant for two years.
Secretary to the Duke of Croitz—also the Master of the Mage Tower.
At first, the prestige and salary had drawn crowds.
But after the brutal entrance exam and the employer’s infamous personality, the office had become empty.
“I don’t need someone useful.”
Kaien rubbed his brow tiredly.
“Just find someone who can read and understand basic instructions before I collapse from overwork.”
‘Then maybe lower the exam difficulty…’
Aron swallowed his complaint.
Because for Kaien, that exam wasn’t even a selection test—it was barely a basic literacy check.
Thanks to Kaien’s absurd standards, no replacement had been found for two years.
‘I’m the one about to die from overwork here.’
Aron sighed and headed toward the reception room.
“I wonder if this applicant will last ten minutes…”
He already pictured the tear-stained blank exam paper that would soon be returned.