The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 36

"Uh... you mean my mother?"

I rolled my eyes with an awkward look.

Honestly, I didn’t even know my mother's face.

All I knew were the stories my father had occasionally told me.

The Empress slammed the table with a bang and said,

"Yeah! Tell me about your mother. You said she wasn’t dead, right? She ran away, didn’t she?"

"She might be dead... but it doesn’t really seem like it. If she were, knowing my father’s personality, he would’ve at least taken me to her grave to pay respects..."

"Your father, just by looking, he’s one of those upright old-timers who always fuss about duty, right?"

"...Yes."

The Empress’s assessment was frighteningly accurate.

I rolled my eyes, recalling conversations with my father.

[Namia, I... I don’t want to say bad things about your mother.]

[But it’s because of Mom that you ended up like this. If she had even loved you a little, would she have run away leaving only me behind?]

[Still, she’s the one who gave birth to you. I don’t even want to resent her for not loving me. Those kinds of feelings aren’t something you can control with effort.]

[But that woman...!]

[Namia, still, she’s the one who carried you for ten months and gave birth to you. You shouldn’t call her "that woman."]

My father was truly a kind and upright person.

He only ever said the right things, like a naive ethics teacher from the countryside.

[Still, if you're curious about your mother... well, I’ll tell you, but I’ll leave out the bad parts.]

So, as a result, I didn't know much about my mother.

The Empress was still fuming, snorting through her nose.

'Looking at the atmosphere, I should say something.'

I searched through the few memories my father had shared about my mother.

[Hmm... First of all, she was pure, your mother.]

Could someone who accumulated that much debt from loan sharks really be called pure...?

[She thought all nobles were automatically wealthy and proposed to me for marriage, doesn’t that seem kind of pure?]

That seemed more like ignorance than purity.

And even then, my father was just the second son of a baron’s family.

[She had this naive charm, like she didn’t know how the world worked.]

Honestly, not knowing the ways of the world at her age was a bit of a problem.

[It sounds funny, but she was like a runaway princess... She didn’t even understand the concept of marriage registration. I was planning to register our marriage along with your birth, but it never happened...]

If she really had any sense like a princess, she wouldn’t have run away from home in the first place...

Running away just leads to hardship.

[Though she hurriedly left us, I don’t think she was inherently a bad person.]

Is there even such a thing as someone born bad?!

[Maybe when she feels at peace, she’ll come back to us.]

Considering she left me with all that debt, I doubted she’d ever find peace of mind in her life.

Anyway, that was everything I knew.

While I was roughly explaining to the Empress that "my mom was an airhead who didn’t know how the world worked and got buried in loan shark debt,"—

"There you are, Fron."

The door burst open, and a voice as gentle as the world itself rang out.

It was the Emperor, dressed neatly and impeccably.

Following him quietly was Kiaros.

"Oh my, and a guest too. It’s the first time Fron has ever brought an outsider into this place. Who might this young lady be?"

The Emperor looked at me with a soft smile.

Despite the friendly exterior and expression, the pressure emanating from the Dragonblood was overwhelming.

No wonder Oson almost confessed everything the moment he faced the Emperor.

I hurriedly stood up and bowed properly.

"I greet His Majesty the Emperor. I am Namia Roafi of the Scroll Management Department."

"Hmm."

A subtle emotion flickered across the Emperor's gentle smile.

"Scroll Management Department..."

He had only muttered it, but it was enough to make me feel vague terror.

The Empress promptly picked me up and sat me back in the chair.

Before I knew it, it was me, the Empress, the Emperor, and Kiaros sitting around the table.

'Is it really okay for me to be sitting here?'

The lineup excluding me was terrifying. While I was inwardly trembling, the Emperor continued speaking slowly.

"That problematic Legal Department employee also came from the Scroll Management Department, didn’t they?"

Although he said it kindly, cold sweat immediately trickled down my back.

'That person I pointed out in the Legal Department... originally came from the Scroll Management Department?'

I had actually seen that person in person.

He was a middle-aged man.

Follow current novℯls on ƒгeewёbnovel.com.

He must have transferred departments long before I joined.

'I didn’t know he was from the Scroll Management Department? That means it was more than ten years ago...'

Documents were only available for up to ten years.

And I had already memorized all ten years' worth of Scroll Management Department documents.

Which meant — whoever was behind all this had infiltrated the department a very long time ago.

'Oh no.'

My vision spun.

This wasn’t just about Oson anymore.

'At this rate, the entire Scroll Management Department could be dismantled. It’s basically a case of a spy having been embedded for years.'

Kiaros had already taken scroll access rights too — it was only a matter of time before our whole department got blown up.

Of course, the Magic Tower would foam at the mouth and oppose it, but... the situation was just too serious.

'What’s going to happen to me...? Surely they won’t fire even a low-level employee like me, right?'

But there might still be more spies hiding within the department.

A spy who could access Royal Civil Service documents...

'And just like this ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ time, they could sneak into Kiaros’s guard unit and orchestrate something.'

The more I thought about it, the more dire it seemed for the Scroll Management Department.

They might fire everyone for risk management reasons.

"Your Majesty, however... Namia is not a dangerous person."

The Empress spoke up, trembling, on my behalf.

She started listing all the things I had done:

How I suspected Oson, how I saved the Empress, how I stalled during the trial to force a confession.

I also chimed in a little to add that "I had the Crown Prince’s approval."

"I even said to His Highness the Crown Prince, 'I’ll do my best,' and... so I just pushed through to the end."

"...Hmm."

When I mentioned the hand signals we exchanged, Kiaros let out a low groan.

Well, it wasn’t my fault he misinterpreted them.

In any case, for Kiaros’s dignity, I didn’t mention that the signal was a heart gesture.

"Ahem, I see."

After hearing the whole story, the Emperor sipped his tea and said softly,

"I thought Kiaros would be suffering thanks to the trial, but it turns out Miss Namia was the one doing all the hard work. Meanwhile, my son was welcoming me by making heart gestures."

"Your Majesty, that heart, um..."

As Kiaros frowned awkwardly, the Emperor asked gently,

"Don’t tell me... that heart wasn’t meant for me?"

"Excuse me?"

"I felt so warm and moved the moment I arrived... It was the first time since Kiaros’s adolescence that he expressed affection like that..."

"......"

Well, whatever.

It seemed like it would be better to just let the heart incident slide.

At least it led to a happy ending between father and son.

The conversation continued.

The noble who killed Oson at the trial had a viscount rank, but investigation revealed he had been secretly trading titles with an unidentified woman.

"They’ve been targeting the royal family for a long time. There was some misunderstanding among them this time that allowed it to be resolved, but we still don’t know who’s behind it..."

The Emperor spoke slowly.

The voice was gentle, but the content was terrifying.

"Oh, and while we’re at it, I should update Miss Namia on some department news."

Just when I thought my heart couldn’t sink any lower, it thudded again.

"Kiaros reviewed all the Scroll Management Department documents at lightning speed, and he’s issued dismissal notices to everyone with issues."

"Everyone with issues"... meant...

I rapidly sifted through my memory.

There were so many people in our department who, just based on their files, deserved severe disciplinary action.

Especially the higher-ups...

The Emperor spoke very cheerfully.

"Naturally, he fired the Minister first. Kiaros, was Namia Roafi on the list too?"

"She was not."

That lofty Minister was fired just like that...

Didn’t the Minister even submit a petition to the Magic Tower?

I hadn’t done anything wrong, so of course I wouldn't be fired, but still — it really felt like the Scroll Management Department might be disbanded at this rate.

"But wait..."

Kiaros opened his mouth slowly.

"I have something I would like to personally ask Miss Namia."