02.
Rian de Vichel—he had suddenly intruded into my everyday life a month ago.
Introduced by Chase, my older brother.
“Siena, say hello. This is Rian de Vichel, who’ll be working at our center starting today.”
“…Huh?”
“I met him while studying abroad at Tiarosa Academy. He’s one of my closest friends.”
“……”
“Rian is from the Kingdom of Rehaton, so there’s a lot he doesn’t know about the Empire. Siena, make sure you look after him, alright?”
“……”
“Your brother trusts you, Siena. You know how I feel, right?”
In other words, he was a parachute hire personally shoved in by the head of the center.
‘If he graduated from Tiarosa Academy, that means he’s a noble….’
Even now, I still didn’t understand why a noble from a kingdom would bother crossing over to the Empire just to get a job at a counseling center.
My first thought when I saw Rian was simple.
‘He’s so… obnoxious.’
Of course, he was handsome.
His face, his physique—there wasn’t a single flaw. Judging by his luxurious attire, he also looked rich.
Anyone would assume he was one of the thirty male leads in this game.
The problem was that I absolutely hated personalities like Rian’s.
“Hello, Director. I look forward to working with you. I’m expecting plenty of special care from you from now on, alright?”
He was the same type as my brother Chase—what you’d call a smooth-talking, shameless, buttering-up flirt.
‘I’ve known my brother for years. Men like that casually flirt with every woman they meet.’
In short, people like him had no sincerity.
‘And the fact that he started speaking informally the moment we met didn’t help his image either.’
Anyway, although Rian had joined as the youngest employee, he wasn’t really treated like one.
The youngest person in an office was supposed to help seniors and handle miscellaneous tasks.
But Rian didn’t do chores—he didn’t work at all.
From the moment he arrived until the moment he left, all he did was sit on the sofa, lazily swinging his legs.
Yet none of the employees dared say anything to him.
‘He’s a noble… and he’s the oldest among the staff.’
The situation now was similar.
When Rian showed interest in the request, the atmosphere instantly froze.
Everyone’s faces seemed to say the same thing:
‘We’re already exhausted—why are you trying to create more work, youngest employee…?!’
Whether he noticed or not, Rian spoke with an easy grin.
“But Director, why are you asking the seniors for permission? Didn’t you already accept the request?”
“…?”
“I saw you receiving that thick envelope earlier.”
He pointed to his red eyes and gave a sly smile.
‘When did he even see that…?’
When Johan had visited earlier, Rian definitely hadn’t been around.
Isadora’s gaze sharpened.
“Director, did you receive an advance payment?”
“Uh… yes.”
“How much?”
“Um…”
“……”
“…50,000 gold.”
Her exhausted eyes instantly cleared, as if they had been washed with holy water.
‘She went from dried fish to fresh fish in a second.’
Heaven and Fin reacted the same way.
“50,000 gold…?”
They stared at me blankly before slowly nodding.
“That’s a lot.”
“It is…”
“Ahem.”
Clearing her throat, Isadora pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“Director, there is one thing I’m curious about.”
“……”
“Would you be willing to provide us with incentives from part of the client’s payment?”
At her blunt question, my eyes darted aside.
‘I was so focused on Johan that I didn’t even think that far….’
I answered positively.
“Well… you’ve all been working here for over two years, and with the remaining balance it’ll be 100,000 gold total.”
“……”
“……”
“I’ll give each of you 3,000 gold if the request succeeds.”
The employees who had been slouching immediately straightened up.
“Well, in that case, we don’t really have a choice.”
“Right.”
“Let’s do it.”
Only a minute earlier they had been completely negative, yet now their attitudes had changed entirely.
‘They’ve surrendered to capitalism.’
At some point, Rian had moved to stand beside me.
Flipping through the documents Johan had written, he suddenly spoke.
“But Director, do you know this man?”
It was a random question.
His red eyes lifted from the papers and pointed at me again.
“It’s just that the way you were looking at the Marquis earlier seemed pretty intense.”
“……”
“Like you’ve known Marquis Veloster for decades.”
Rian’s half-lidded eyes curved slightly.
Under that gloomy, sharp gaze, my heart began pounding.
‘What a creepy guy.’
It was bad enough that he had secretly watched me take the advance payment—but when did he start analyzing my expressions too?
‘But there’s no way I can tell him I’ve known Johan for nineteen years across two lifetimes.’
My face stiffened.
“No, I don’t know him at all…sir.”
I knew it was strange for a director to use honorifics with the youngest employee.
But it couldn’t be helped.
‘He’s Chase’s close friend. I can’t just speak casually to him.’
Rian raised an eyebrow.
“Ah.”
“……”
“So our director gives those kinds of looks to complete strangers?”
“……”
“You’re quite an interesting person, Director.”
His eerie smile spread into my view.
‘What kind of answer does this guy even want?’
Having nothing to say, I glanced toward the employees.
The staff who had been watching the two of us immediately looked away.
‘What’s wrong with them?’
Between Rian picking fights and the staff acting suspicious, I couldn’t understand any of it.
Still scanning the documents, Rian murmured:
“The target of Marquis Johan Veloster’s request is Violet Bringer, daughter of the Bringer Count family…”
“……”
“…Ah, right. I remember. Isn’t this young lady famous for being beautiful?”
Without realizing it, I clenched my fist.
‘You strange youngest employee who barged in out of nowhere and does nothing all day.’
I was already troubled enough.
Did you really have to deliver a blunt truth like that?
Would that make you feel better?
* * *
Violet Bringer.
I had known of her existence for quite some time.
Just as Rian said—she was famous for her beauty.
A year ago, when a ball was held at the Imperial Palace, I saw Violet there for the first time.
‘Wow… how can a person look like cotton candy?’
Indeed, Violet was a breathtaking beauty with an atmosphere as sweet as dessert.
But still…
‘I can’t believe our Johan likes Violet.’
Of course, men liked beautiful women.
But I had never imagined Johan would be one of them.
In the novel <Milaira’s Flower Garden>, Johan was diligent and pure.
He was definitely different from typical male characters.
He had started liking Milaira not for her looks but for her kind heart.
‘I know this is a game world, so the novel settings might be different, but still… Violet?’
My illusion about Johan shattered miserably.
‘Johan Veloster… you’ve fallen.’
While I had been suffering from amnesia for nineteen years, it seemed he had thoroughly experienced the temptations of the worldly life.
Yet even though I was disappointed, it wasn’t easy to give up on him.
After all, he had been my perfect ideal type and my favorite character.
‘I never thought quitting a fandom would be this difficult….’
Still, I forced myself to push aside my complicated feelings.
I had already accepted the request—what else could I do?
“I’ll go investigate.”
If Johan and Violet were going to meet naturally, the first step was to figure out Violet’s movements.
‘I don’t want to go… but I have to.’
As I trudged toward the door, the staff began calling out one after another.
“Please be careful, Director.”
“Director, bring melon juice when you come back.”
“Strawberry for me, please.”
I was already depressed, and these idiots…
I shot Fin and Heaven an annoyed look and stepped outside.
But then… I felt a strange presence behind me.
“…Why is the youngest employee following me?”
At some point, Rian had started trailing after me.
“Well, I thought you might get bored, Director.”
“Bored? I’m going to work.”
“If two people split the work, it becomes half, you know.”
“If two people split the work, that just means there are two jobs.”
I shoved the nonsense-spouting Rian back toward the center building.
“Stop following me and go help the seniors.”
But Rian didn’t budge.
He simply looked down at me calmly while I struggled.
“Director, do you really think you can push me away with those cotton-fist punches? Sometimes it feels like you’re trying to make me laugh.”
He added with a wink,
“I mean that in a cute way.”
Habitual flirting. Chronic winking.
After realizing this world was inside a game, a thought occurred to me.
‘Rian de Vichel… which novel did this male lead come from, exactly?’
