“You got caught by that guy because you were dawdling! You didn’t fetch the materials, and you didn’t stay away from the person I told you to avoid! Do you have nothing but air in that head of yours?!”
“I’m so sorryyy!”
The way he leaned over her while she was against the wall was like a cliched trope from a romance novel, and Ophelia never imagined it could be so terrifying. This was when Ophelia learned through personal experience that it was even more frightening to be yelled at by someone with the face of an angel.
“Head back to the office and start cleaning or something!”
“Nng…”
“Respond!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
With a final glare, perhaps for good measure, Claudio turned and stormed off. For a long moment, Ophelia remained where she was, sagging against the wall behind her in shock.
That was the first time he’s ever called me by name…
Up until this point, Claudio had always referred to Ophelia as “you” or “her.” Honestly, she’d been weirdly self-conscious about that fact, but she’d never expected him to call her by name for the first time while performing the world’s most terrifying wall slam!
Shoulders slumped dejectedly, Ophelia began shuffling up the staircase leading toward the Director’s Office.
“Hey, you…”
A female voice called out from the bottom of the stairs. Ophelia reluctantly turned to look and saw that the same two women who’d previously bad-mouthed her were now standing at the foot of the staircase.
Ugh, this must be what they mean when they say, “When it rains, it pours”! Now they’ve decided to harass me directly. Is that it?
Ophelia gave in and meekly made her way back down the stairs. “Um, how can I help you…?”
The two women clutched the files they were holding to their chests, looked at one another for a moment, then turned their gazes to Ophelia, giving her a thorough once-over. Just as Ophelia was starting to break out in a nervous sweat, the seemingly older of the pair finally spoke.
“Hey, you… Are you okay?”
“Pardon?”
“You just got shouted at by the director, right?”
Ophelia’s head snapped up in surprise, and she realized that the two women were looking at her with their brows furrowed in… concern?
“Did you get punched? Just now, I mean.”
“No! He didn’t hit me! He only scolded me, that’s all…” Ophelia said weakly.
“I’d always thought the director was handsome and impressive, but it turns out he’s actually quite violent, huh?”
“U-Um, that’s… The director was angry because I didn’t do my job properly, that’s all. S-So, he didn’t do anything wrong…” she tried to explain.
“Regardless, it’s horrible to shout at a woman in a place where anyone could see.”
“I had the biggest crush on him for ages, but I’m over it now!”
“Yeah, I was really surprised! I’d heard he was a harsh person, but it’s not okay to act like that toward women.”
“B-But, um…”
Ophelia feigned “looking at the ground dejectedly” in order to check the state of her arms and legs, but they weren’t trembling. These ladies were genuinely worried about her and were expressing sincere empathy. Warmth bloomed in Ophelia’s chest at the realization, and tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
“Oh, you poor thing! You’ve started crying… It must’ve been really frightening.”
“That’s not it! I’m… I’m happy that you came over to ask if I was okay…” Ophelia scrubbed at her eyes with the backs of her hands, and the two women giggled.
“You haven’t had it easy, have you? We work for the Contracts Division in the same wing as the Director’s Office, so why don’t we all have lunch together sometime?”
“Yeah, we can’t do anything but listen, but talking about it will probably make you feel better.”
“Th-Thank you!”
“But I’m really disappointed in the director… I’ll have to rescind my transfer request.”
“Me too!”
Ophelia looked back and forth between the two women’s faces several times, confused. “Um, what’s a ‘transfer request’?”
“If you submit an official request form, they’ll consider your preferences when determining regulatory personnel reassignment.”
“The Director’s Office is full of handsome elites, so it’s a popular request. They don’t usually hire a secretary for that division, so a lot of people are very jealous of you.”
“Although I suspect quite a few people will be rescinding their transfer requests after that little spectacle.”
Ophelia had been too frightened at the time to notice, but apparently, a lot of people had witnessed Claudio’s outburst.
How embarrassing…!
“See you around. We’re happy to listen any time you want to talk.”
“Hang in there!”
“Thank you!”
Ophelia kept her head bowed until they were out of sight. She suppressed the urge to skip the entire way back to the Director’s Office, where she immediately got to work, humming as she cleaned.
Samael, who was standing in a sunny spot by the window, sipping from a mug of coffee, turned to Ophelia with a smile.
“What’s this? You seem to be in an especially good mood, Lady Narve.”
“Yes! I was able to make some friends because the director is such a scary person.”
“Huh?! What did Claudio… W-Well, I suppose that’s a good thing, then…?”
Ophelia went back to happily sweeping. Samael traced her movements with his eyes for several minutes, but in the end, he muttered to himself, “So she finally made friends, huh?” and returned to basking in the sunlight.