The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 39

The Tower Lord swung his staff once more with force.

"Ugh!"

"Aaaargh!"

The Crown Prince’s aide and the former Minister of Justice, who had let their guard down, were thrown to the ground.

Standing proudly alone, the Tower Lord bellowed once again.

"I heard Namia Roafi is here! Where is she?"

The Emperor, who had just been talking about proper royal audience procedures, furrowed his brows in disbelief.

In the end, I had no choice but to stand before him, trembling.

"I-I am... Namia Roafi."

"What? This scrawny little thing?"

The Tower Lord stared at me in shock.

Then, folding his arms, he muttered,

"To use a lot of scrolls, you need muscles... You have to carry scroll crates daily too."

It was suddenly very clear why the Tower Lord was so absurdly fit.

In the silence, the Tower Lord slammed his staff onto the floor with a thud.

"I’ll be blunt."

"Ah, yes."

"Is it true you crafted 166 defense scrolls in a day and activated 172 the next?"

"Ah, yes."

After my answer, silence fell again.

I had thought there was no way that information would reach the Tower...

'Who on earth leaked that? The Tower is so isolated from the outside world, they shouldn’t have heard any rumors.'

Even our own Minister hadn’t seemed to care at all.

While I was still dazed, the Tower Lord’s eyes widened, and he approached me.

He grabbed my shoulders and asked,

"I heard you’re from the Academy? You hid your abilities there, right?"

"Uh? Y-yes."

"You didn’t want to join the Tower, right? You must have had some personal reasons."

"Uh? Y-yes."

"You kept hiding it until a situation forced you to use your powers, right?"

"Uh? Y-yes."

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"I see. Everything’s confirmed."

The Tower Lord grinned brightly. His smile was so pure it was almost unsettling.

"Then let’s go to the Tower."

"Y-yes? Huh?"

The Tower Lord suddenly flipped me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

The world turned upside down in an instant as the Tower Lord shouted proudly.

"Normally, we only allow people to enter before they’re twenty, to keep them untainted by the world... but we can’t let a genius like this slip away!"

"Y-yes?"

"You’re twenty-three, right? Then stay until you're forty."

Still carrying me over his shoulder, the Tower Lord turned to Kiaros and said swiftly,

"Regarding the proposal Your Highness requested — I answer thus: Namia Roafi is a magical genius and must be taken to the Tower. No room for negotiation or discussion. End of statement."

I instantly fell into panic.

It felt like a devil was whispering in my ear, 'Just go!'

Because in the original novel, the Tower remained untouched even during the war.

'If I just let myself be dragged away, I can peacefully research magic at the Tower! I’m good at not caring about worldly affairs!'

The Tower was completely detached from politics.

Even the factions behind the war didn’t dare touch the Tower.

The protagonist later even suspected the Tower might be behind the scenes—though that turned out to be false.

But I had to snap out of it.

'Get a grip, Namia! You have to meet Dad! They said they’re finding him for you!'

Barely clinging to my sanity, I hung off the Tower Lord’s shoulder and said,

"Uh, um... Tower Lord? I actually don’t want to go..."

As soon as I said it, it sounded ridiculous.

I had gone out of my way to hide my talents at the Academy precisely because I didn’t want to join the Tower.

Why wouldn’t he know that?

But the Tower Lord burst out laughing.

"Yes! Of course you don’t!"

"Y-yes?"

"But you’re going anyway!"

Completely unreasonable.

At that moment—

The world flipped again.

Surprisingly, it was Kiaros who snatched me away from the Tower Lord’s grasp.

"Miss Namia Roafi says she does not wish to go."

Kiaros, cradling me like a princess, declared firmly,

"Miss Roafi is an Imperial civil servant. It is the Imperial Family’s duty to protect her."

He held me tightly, like he wouldn’t let me be taken away no matter what.

The Tower Lord waved his staff angrily and shouted.

"Absurd nonsense!"

You didn’t need a staff to activate scrolls.

The Tower Lord’s footwork was ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) flawless.

From that alone, it was obvious his staff was just a weapon.

"A genius must be where they belong!"

At that, the Empress pulled a club from the wall and stepped forward.

"Oh yeah? Then Namia belongs as a civil servant!"

The Empress swung the club and blocked the Tower Lord’s staff.

Meanwhile, Kiaros, still carrying me, leaped back to avoid getting caught up.

The Empress grinned widely and yelled,

"Our Namia is an amazing, genius civil servant!

She memorizes all the legal codes! She reads every document carefully!

She’s excellent at her job and writes impeccable reports!

She even makes unheard-of bizarre scrolls that have helped the royal family spectacularly!"

"Are you crazy? How can you compare a civil servant to a mage?"

"Excuse me? Are you seriously making a careerist remark? In this era, even mercenaries can become Empresses!"

The Tower Lord and the Empress exchanged a series of fierce blows. Clearly, they were evenly matched.

The Empress blocked my way protectively and shouted,

"I will never let anyone steal my Namia!"

The room descended into chaos in an instant.

But since it was the Empress’s own quarters, no one could really object.

The Emperor, meanwhile, remained silent.

"Your Majesty, shouldn’t you stop them?"

The former Minister of Justice, sticking close to the Emperor, cautiously asked.

But the Emperor merely smiled warmly.

"No, no."

The Emperor patted the Minister’s back and said,

"I’m a selfish parent. I don’t want to interfere with my son's special moment."

At those words, Kiaros let out a deep sigh. Then he whispered softly,

"Uh, well... His Majesty is misunderstanding something."

"Ah, yes."

"...Normally, wouldn’t you ask what the misunderstanding is?"

Even as we spoke, the Empress and the Tower Lord continued their brawl, wrecking the room.

Kiaros leapt back again, shielding me from the Empress’s wild swings, then mumbled awkwardly,

"Uh, the misunderstanding is... that I’ve liked you for a long time."

"Ah, yes."

"...Normally, wouldn't you ask why or at least look surprised?"

At that moment—

Realizing he couldn’t physically overpower the Empress, the Tower Lord hurled his staff aside and suddenly sat down at the table, propping up his chin.

"Fine, let's talk about something else first."

An astonishing change of tactics.

"I heard His Highness the Crown Prince demanded access to the Scroll Department’s records."

Then the former Minister of Justice trudged over and sat beside him, sighing heavily.

He grumbled,

"It’s called the Scroll Magic Department, Tower Lord."

"Ah, whatever, that place."

Kiaros sighed deeply and carefully set me down, adding,

"It’s the Scroll Management Department."

As expected, the only one who knew our department’s exact name properly was Kiaros.

He even pulled out a chair for me and guided me to sit.

'Is it really okay for me to sit here?'

Before I knew it, there were six people at the table.

The aide was busily sweeping away broken club and staff pieces.

'I’m technically even lower than that aide...'

The table full of six people was like a bed of nails.

The Emperor, the Empress, the Crown Prince, the Tower Lord, the former Minister of Justice, and... a lowly civil servant like me.

If Kiaros hadn’t personally seated me, I would've been helping the aide clean up.

"The Tower expresses tremendous regret regarding this matter."

The Tower Lord said solemnly, his expression rigid.

It was serious. I had expected trouble, but it really was bad.

'Looks like the Minister’s petition was worth something after all.'

Even though I’d heard he’d been dismissed...

Still, if they used the Crown Prince’s temporary access to fire most of the Scroll Management Department, massive friction was inevitable.

While I was nervously darting my eyes around—

"As a remedy for our grievances, the Tower demands that Namia Roafi be transferred to the Tower."

...Huh?

Wasn’t that discussion already over?

At that, the Empress slammed the table.

"Do you seriously think that's more important? Do you even realize how many traitors came out of that department?"

"I don't know!"

"You don't know the people from that department tried to frame me and assassinate His Highness the Crown Prince?"

"I said I don’t know!"

The Empress and the Tower Lord shouted at each other at full volume.

In a way, they seemed very well matched.

"We need to wipe out that entire department!"

No!

Surely someone would stop that—

I looked desperately at the Tower Lord—

"Really?"

A crazed, gleeful smile spread across the Tower Lord’s face.

"Then once all the staff are fired, the no-longer-civil-servant Namia Roafi... the Tower will claim her."