The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 37

At Kiaros’s words, I bowed politely and answered.

"Yes. Please ask anything."

Even as I said that, my mind was spinning.

Surely, they weren’t going to fire me now.

'My salary until now has been sucked dry by the Roafi baron family, and I’ve only ever actually received a paycheck once into my own account...'

But an organization wouldn't care about such personal circumstances.

Especially now that they’d fired the Minister and all the others.

'The chances that our department, already considered a dead-end post, will survive...?'

Honestly, unless the Tower Lord personally stormed in, the probability was zero.

While I was despairing, Kiaros slowly called my name.

"Namia Roafi."

"Yes, please speak."

While I was frantically calculating my job security, an unexpected personal question was thrown at me.

"I heard you grew up in the south. Did you happen to visit the library often?"

"...What?"

The library?

Why was that suddenly coming up?

I blinked in surprise.

"Uh... well, yes. My father couldn't take care of me because of his work, so he often left me at the library."

At that, the Empress quickly butted in.

"You grew up so well too, under a stick-in-the-mud dad and a trash mom. Actually, my parents were trash too. We must be fated."

"Thank you. I'm glad you think of it as fate."

I bowed politely, and the Empress proudly patted my head.

Kiaros cleared his throat once and continued.

"Then, did you also study scrolls there? Maybe even make some?"

"Ah, yes. I read books there and made scrolls."

At that, the Empress quickly butted in again.

"Playing with scrolls from such a young age! I used to mess around with wooden swords when I was a kid! We’re so similar! Ahahahaha!"

"Thank you. I'm happy you think we're similar."

I bowed politely again, and the Empress chuckled proudly once more.

Kiaros cleared his throat twice this time.

And then, stepping in between me and the Empress, he continued.

"Then... did you happen to save a boy there once?"

"...What?"

"By using a defense scroll out the window to deflect a dagger."

The atmosphere at our table suddenly shifted.

Something surfaced in my memory too.

'Of course, I can't forget that!'

After that incident, I couldn’t even go back to the library.

It was the first time I had ever used a scroll publicly in front of someone.

[I-It actually... worked?]

I think I had muttered something like that.

I blinked and stuttered,

"Could it be... could it be..."

The dagger flying into the library garden.

The hooded boy who had been with the burly knight.

"In that library... the person I saved with a defense scroll..."

I covered my mouth with my hand in shock and said,

"The one who later told me to come to Count Karto’s estate..."

When I accurately mentioned Count Karto, a flash of realization crossed Kiaros’s eyes.

'Oh my god, that arrogant brat I saved back then was the Crown Prince?!'

Back then, the Emperor and Crown Prince were visiting the south.

Kiaros must have been around ten years old...

'Even in the original novel, it was mentioned that Kiaros had his first blackout at age ten!'

If the blackout happened then, it made sense that he couldn’t defend against an assassination.

And that he was hiding his identity under a hood.

I trembled as I thought of my father.

'Dear god... Dad...'

I vividly remembered what Dad had said, holding me tightly that dark night.

That desperate and warm voice...

[It’s not like getting a few coins would change anything anyway.]

Recalling it now, my heart twisted painfully.

It was like I was suffocating.

'How could someone be so clueless...'

An overwhelming regret I couldn’t even express surged up.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.

'I should have gone to Count Karto’s estate no matter what back then!'

A few coins, my ass!

I had saved the Crown Prince!

If I had gone then, I probably could have paid off all the loan shark debt in an instant!

Instead, Dad married someone like my mom without even registering the marriage...

"...Why didn’t you come to Count Karto’s estate?"

Kiaros ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) asked in a cracked voice.

His red eyes were filled with countless emotions.

It all felt so surreal.

"Really... really, you’re... that..."

At that moment—

"Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! It’s really you, isn’t it? The one who saved us?"

The Empress jumped to her feet.

"I can't believe I'm meeting the savior of my life like this! What kind of fate is this!"

She blocked Kiaros’s view and swept me up into her arms, lifting me high.

The world spun dizzyingly.

"XX! We’re totally XX fated for each other!"

The Empress, totally overwhelmed with emotion, babbled excitedly.

"I don’t usually believe in stuff like this, but saving me twice! This can’t be just ordinary fate! Right? Right? Right?"

As she lifted and hugged me again and again, I could barely think straight.

Even as I spun around, I asked desperately,

"Your Majesty? What do you mean by that...?"

"It’s me! Me! I was that knight from fifteen years ago!"

She hugged me tighter and stomped her feet.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she shouted,

"I was the guard left by the Crown Prince’s side! The one who almost died after getting hit by the dagger!"

"Then... th-the, that big, muscular knight back then..."

I opened my eyes wide in shock.

The knight who had stayed behind was the Empress?!

"Yeah! I almost kicked the bucket there!"

The Empress slapped my back hard as she spoke.

"If you hadn’t used that scroll, the poison would have reached my heart and I wouldn’t have survived!"

"Kehek, kek..."

"Oh my god, this is insane, amazing!"

She squealed with all kinds of over-the-top reactions.

"Twice! Twice! Something’s really going on between us! Wow, wow, wow, wooow!"

"Kehek... kek."

"Meeting you like this makes me so happy! I’ve been wondering about you for so long! Thanks to you, I’ve lived my life well! I even became Empress, something that wasn’t in my fate!"

Now she even threw me over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

"Ahem, ahem!"

Kiaros, flustered, looked between me and the Empress and cleared his throat.

"A-a-actually, the person Miss Namia saved twice... is me."

"Ah, yes, Your Highness."

Finally, the Empress came to her senses and set me down.

And then, she straightened her posture and said,

"Thank you very much for helping me find my savior, Your Highness. Was it thanks to the crows that the investigation succeeded?"

It was clear now that the Empress was perfectly capable of speaking politely—she just usually chose not to.

Maybe because of their former master-servant relationship, the Empress and the Crown Prince spoke formally and kept their distance.

Kiaros sighed deeply and answered.

"She is my savior. And not only because of the crows..."

He pulled me off the Empress’s back and guided me awkwardly back to my seat.

"I investigated Miss Namia myself based on my suspicions."

"Hmm? You already did a background check? On the kind, unfortunate, and ordinary civilian Miss Namia?"

At the Empress’s teasing, Kiaros flinched and answered,

"B-b-because it was suspicious."

"Excuse me?"

"I-it’s suspicious, isn’t it? Everything worked out well, but still..."

Cold sweat trickled down my back.

Kiaros’s instincts were sharp.

I had tried to move carefully, but after regaining memories of my previous life, I had acted a little differently from before.

'In a way, it’s true I have a secret nobody else knows!'

Given he was a Dragonblood, Kiaros’s intuition must be extraordinary.

Maybe he had sensed the subtle incongruity I didn’t even realize myself.

"Haha, yes. It makes sense."

I answered politely.

"If His Highness the Crown Prince found me suspicious and investigated, I would gladly cooperate. I believe it’s for the peace of the Empire."

The Empress waved her hand and said,

"Still, I’ll side with Namia until solid evidence comes out. She’s saved the royal family multiple times..."

"Ahem!"

Kiaros hastily cleared his throat again.

"I have found my savior, Your Majesty. I only brought it up to express my gratitude. I’m afraid my sincerity might be underestimated compared to Your Majesty’s."

"Ah, yes. I apologize, Your Highness."

The Empress bowed her head politely at Kiaros’s words.

She even held out her hand toward me, as if presenting a treasure.

"Now, you should express your thanks."

And perhaps worried that her own sincerity might be underestimated, she immediately added,

"Uh... um... More intensely than me, of course. Naturally, Your Highness can, right?"