164

Damian went straight to the central ministries and sought out the Ministry of Finance. He intended to get preliminary information about his son’s woman. The Minister of Finance’s eyes widened at his sudden visit.

“Duke?”

“Keep it down. I don’t want to cause a commotion.”

Although the Duke had already caused a great stir with the Emperor, he was cautious when entering the Ministry of Finance. The ministry staff, sensitive to numbers and busy planning the budget, paid no attention to his unannounced presence.

The Minister of Finance looked at him and thought he was wasting his talents on trivialities.

‘Vespera is a monster, though.’

The House of Fortuna was famed for excelling in both civil and military affairs. The Duke himself had once cut through battlefields with exceptional swordsmanship and had been appointed a first-rank secretary in the Chancellery in his youth. He returned to his duchy shortly after to assume his succession, but had he stayed in the Chancellery he might well have risen to Chancellor.

“Please sit. I should bring some tea out…”

Damian waved his hand.

“I’ll ask a few things and leave right away. Don’t worry about it.”

The way he lounged with a long, relaxed posture and crossed his legs was the spitting image of his son. His physical abilities were so remarkable that he didn’t look very old—he was the very epitome of a distinguished middle-aged man.

‘But his temperament is nothing if not ferocious. He has softened a lot with age, though.’

Putting his thoughts aside, the Minister of Finance sat on the sofa opposite him.

“What brings you here?”
“Nathan, you’re my son’s tutor and you work in the central ministries, so you must know well. What kind of person is the Chancellor?”

“…!”

He struck directly with no time to prepare.

“I’ve heard enough about her family and basic background, so no need to explain that. I’m curious what she’s like from your perspective. I’ll be seeing her soon.”

Nathan, the Minister of Finance, felt a cold sweat for a moment but quickly steadied himself. He thought of Cornelia. If she were an ordinary young lady he’d worry she’d be terrified and cry, but this was the youngest Chancellor. The meeting between the two promised to be quite entertaining.

“She’s an extraordinary figure. Even Your Grace would have to concede a point to her.”

“What?”

To hear such words directed at someone who had always held the highest posts and dutifully served the Empire, the Imperial family, and the nobility—especially in comparison to a youthful Chancellor—made Damian find the Minister’s provocation laughable.

“She must be a thoroughly beguiling fox.”

“A fox? Calling her a fox would be an insult in her presence. That position is not easily attained. It’s practically the head of the Empire’s central ministries. It seems she has already earned strong disfavor—engaging to someone without warning would do that.”

“Ahem!”

Having known each other long enough to have attended the academy together, the Minister quickly read Damian’s mood.

“You should be scolding Vespera, not taking it out on your prospective daughter-in-law.”

“It’s because that fellow did something out of character. I taught him manners and protocol like that.”

He seemed hurt by his son. But he was also curious about whoever had driven him to act out of character.

At that moment, Damian picked up some papers pushed to the side of the table and flipped through them. They didn’t seem to contain anything crucial.

“The format has changed since my time. Not bad.”

The Minister stifled a laugh.

“Now all departments prepare reports in the same format.”

“Good. In my time, each department had different formats, making it hard for other departments to read them, and we had to recompose them depending on the audience. From the looks of this format, there’s no need to rewrite; it could be reported to His Majesty as is. Efficient. The central ministries have improved a lot since my day. Who implemented this?”

“This is the work of the current Chancellor.”

“…What?”

“She unified the formats across all departments. She personally created the new format. It was recent.”

“How could such a young Chancellor? She must lack experience…”

The Minister felt this astonishment was only the beginning. Her capabilities were more than that.

“Go see for yourself. It will help much more than my few words.”

“I hope she doesn’t tremble in fear.”

“Don’t burst in and make a scene—just observe from afar.”

The Minister knew Cornelia wouldn’t show mercy to a Duke or a father-in-law if provoked; it was her handiwork that had left Lawrence in that state.

After the stormy temple infiltration incident, peace had finally returned. There was still a mountain of paperwork to process. The deeper they dug, the more evidence surfaced and witnesses appeared, so it looked difficult to finish quickly. Still, compared to being forcibly dispatched to plague zones or running around because Rio was ill, this felt like ordinary daily life.

“Tom, there’s a cooperation request from the Ministry of Finance—want to take a look? As a Chancellor you should be able to handle it well.”

“Yes, thank you.”

After assigning the task to the suitable person, I noticed Elysia clutching a report and holding her head. Everyone was swamped right now, so Eldo, the first-rank secretary, didn’t seem to have time to look it over.

“If there’s a part you can’t resolve, tell me. I have a moment—I’ll take a look.”

Elysia, whose face brightened when she saw me, grabbed my arm.

“I’m checking and organizing the items embezzled from the temple, but there’s so much. I wish it could be condensed into something that fits in my head at once, but I can’t remove anything.”

I skimmed the documents and materials and understood her dilemma.

“Under the title, write a one-page summary with key information: an overview of the case, the period funds were raised, total amount, etc., and attach the detailed content afterward. The higher-ups will probably only read the first page; they’ll turn to the rest only if they’re interested. In this subject, the most important thing is who in the temple embezzled and how much. Highlight the culprit and the amount in red.”

“Gasp—you’re right.”

“A book title like ‘The Book of Atonement’ just makes you feel dirty; it’s not particularly important in a report. If you’re stuck while writing, imagine I’m a busy superior who knows nothing about the case—what information would I want to know first?”

“Thinking that way makes it much clearer. I’ll reorganize it. Thank you, Chancellor!”

“Then, good work.”

Seeing Elysia’s relieved face lifted my spirits too. Back at my desk, Lucan approached and handed me papers. It was the mid-progress report on the Rusera Boulevard construction.

“Overall it’s going smoothly. But it seems there are too few workers for the scale of the project?”

“It looks like the contractor tightened the budget at the start to look good. I’m worried it might cause an accident…”

For such a large project, it seemed they had set a tight budget at the outset. This wasn’t surprising—I’d seen it often enough. When additional costs beyond the submitted budget are needed, it’s common to commit to the job and then keep raising the price.

‘Considering labor and material costs… it doesn’t look like embezzlement.’

Using my one skill of mental math to roughly compare the market rates, I issued instructions without much difficulty.

“Tell the Minister of Finance to approve a supplementary budget, and have the contractor and you estimate how much more is needed and resubmit. At this rate the workers will be ruined. When budgets are tight, they cut corners with inferior materials—thoroughly check. Preventing deaths on the job and deaths from shoddy construction is the most important thing.”

“Understood. We’ll reprice the budget and resubmit.”

How many people maintain the same mindset from the start of a long project to its end years later? Continuous checks and supervision are essential rather than blind trust.

Before I knew it, it was time to go home. Lately everyone had been so busy they were working late almost every day. I noticed how exhausted the staff looked; at this rate they’d be wasting time and efficiency would drop.

‘This and this report schedule…’

I decided to loosen the tight report schedule a bit and cover what I could. I always plan work schedules in advance to handle this sort of thing.

“Only finish what must be reported by tomorrow and everyone go home early today. Staff working late shouldn’t stay too late either. Especially assistant secretaries and scribes, pack up and go home right now.”

The assistant secretaries, knowing I wasn’t just paying lip service, cheered. They packed their bags and left in a hurry after saying goodbye. Eldo, who still had a bit of a stick-in-the-mud attitude, protested.

“Chancellor, why are you sending the juniors home first? The seniors are still here and can’t go home yet!”

It felt like seeing the old Eldo again. I waved my index finger side to side and nodded my head slightly.

“You’re inexperienced, Secretary Eldo.”

“Yes?”

“Aside from you parachuted in, the secretaries have already adapted to this place, but the assistant secretaries and scribes haven’t. There’s not much significant work to assign them right now, is there? If new recruits we’ve trained end up resigning, that would be a bigger headache.”

Eldo’s eyes widened as if he hadn’t realized that.

“Then…”

“If the seniors stay and even help out, they’ll feel more appreciated. They’ll come in fresh tomorrow and perform well. It’s actually a measure for the sake of our senior staff.”

Elysia covered her mouth with both hands and said,

“You’re a demon.”

I flashed a grin and took the remark in stride.

“Think of the future, my seniors. When dealing with juniors, use carrots and sticks, not old-fashioned bossing. Teach them well so you can make use of them. That way you’ll be the ones who benefit. Understood?”

“Ahem.”

‘Hmm?’

A voice came from somewhere and I turned my head. The Chancellery door was slightly ajar; when I went to look there was no one.

“Who just coughed?”

Everyone shrugged and just looked at each other.

‘I felt someone’s gaze on me—was I imagining it?’