Chapter 48

Lawrence Seraphina.

24 years old. The legitimate Crown Prince of the Seraphina Empire.

Fiancé of Princess Seref.

“And he’s my cousin.”

“What?”

“Ah, no—I heard that the Duke of Ariadne is a cousin of the Crown Prince.”

I mentally substituted that with ‘the person in front of me is the Crown Prince’s cousin—i.e., royalty.’

“If it were my department I’d have opposed it with fire in my eyes, but the Chancellery isn’t under my purview.”

At this point it was suspicious whether he wanted to hide his identity. Little Lamb sighed softly.

“It’s better to keep as much distance as possible—getting involved will be a headache.”

“Right. As for me, when would I ever meet the Crown Prince?”

“…I’m jealous.”

You could feel genuine envy shining through the mask.

I smiled faintly and moved on to the next topic.

“Wow.”

The junior scribe brought a thick stack of applications for the road construction contract. Applicants ranged from small merchant houses to large merchant houses, noble households, and building guilds. The three senior scribes, myself included, each took an application the juniors had brought and did an initial screening for suitability on paper. They were just papers, but the prepared materials showed genuine earnestness.

“What is this? Rejected.”

Lukan saw that I had placed an application in the reject pile and moved it back to the accepted side.

“Here.”

“Here?”

Elysia only glanced at it and didn’t deny it, so it must be right.

It was a company name I’d never heard before: ‘Rinus.’

“Even if it’s prearranged, it feels way too insincere.”

Lukan gave a bitter smile and Elysia nodded slightly in agreement. The other applicants had densely written plans of at least five pages detailing objectives and construction methods, most including hand-drawn blueprints. This one had only a single sheet of basic applicant info. The construction plan was a vague four or five lines—nowhere near enough to understand how they’d actually execute the work.

“The seniors did their part and we gave our opinions, but the outcome is always the same.”

For a moment everyone stopped what they were doing and sighed in unison.

‘Reality check.’

There are moments like this—when the work you do feels utterly meaningless.

“I thought this time would be different…”

Elysia murmured softly. Aside from any hostility she held toward me, she seemed to feel this was wrong.

“Hurry and finish the first round of screening. We need to schedule the interviews quickly.”

Lukan tried to lift the increasingly deflated mood. From dozens of applicants they narrowed it down to three — Rinus included, of course.

“Then I’ll contact these three.”

“Hmm, is the vendor selection going well?”

That pompous man burst in suddenly. He looked pleased when he saw the three applications we had chosen.

“There’s no need to actually interview them, but it’s just for formality.”

This malpractice had continued since the previous Chancellor; so he seemed shameless about it now.

‘He actually thinks he’ll become Chancellor one day—what an end of days.’

If I don’t want to become like this, I need to block his promotion. For a moment I wondered why I’d come here to witness this, but it was too late, so I tried not to dwell on it.

“Don’t drag it out—schedule the interviews for tomorrow.”

“What?”

I reflexively asked back, and Lukan hurriedly stepped forward to answer for me.

“Yes. Understood.”

The pompous man left with a satisfied look. I, dumbfounded, asked again.

“Even if it’s prearranged, isn’t this going too far? There’s no notice about when the first screening ends, yet we’re telling them to come tomorrow without considering the other party’s situation—what if the company is not in the provinces?”

“Then they’d just mark that as a disqualification, I suppose. Nothing we say will stick in the current climate. If you complain, you’ll be the one targeted.”

“Even that hollow formality isn’t being observed properly.”

Without modern external oversight or detailed laws, absurd things like this happened. I couldn’t help a bitter little laugh.

“I’m already looking forward to how tomorrow’s interviews will go.”

Fortunately, the other two firms also said they could attend interviews and arrived at the Imperial Palace on time. I led the applicants to a guest reception room provided by the Chancellery. There, each person would be interviewed and the Chancellery officials, excluding the assistant scribe, would score them.

“We’ll begin interviews starting with company number one.”

A seasoned middle-aged gentleman entered, visibly nervous, and explained they were a building guild, detailing their long experience and impressive credentials. He even brought a model to show how they’d construct the avenue through Rusera, presenting a clear image of the finished road. It was confidence and experience you’d trust to hand the job to immediately.

“We’ll start the interview for company number two.”

The second was a lower-ranking noble family running a small merchant house. Not large in scale, but they said they had expanded honestly and were trusted in their domain. They explained experience working on avenues in their territory and argued they could do the same in Rusera. Even when seniors asked unexpected questions, they remained calm—proof that the items on their application were real accomplishments.

“Company number three, please come in.”

The door opened and a man in his fifties wearing an expensive suit entered smoking a pipe. He had a ring on each of his ten fingers. There they were.

“Ah, hello sir~.”

He laughed uproariously for some reason, exchanged glances with that pompous man, then crossed his legs in the interview seat.

‘You can tell from his rotten nature already.’

Lucius and Victor, as if familiar, examined the application and asked questions.

“The application didn’t include a concrete construction plan—could you explain it to us?”

His answer was something else.

“Aw, why treat us like this between friends?”

“Put aside past ties; this is an interview, so please observe some decorum.”

“Ahem, aw. Don’t be offended. You already know our skill. Say the word and I’ll deliver exactly what pleases you! We’ll build an avenue fit to be the face of the Seraphina Empire!”

In other words, he had no plan at all.

‘They don’t even hire new employees this way.’

He glossed over other follow-up questions in the same vague manner. The seniors’ faces grew sterner, but that pompous man’s expression only showed boredom.

“That’s enough—end it.”

The interview ended at his command even though less than half the allotted time had passed. After that it got even more ridiculous. In the scores given by the senior scribes and the 2nd grade secretaries, company number three, Rinus, received the lowest marks. The pompous man clicked his tongue at that and said:

“Do it again.”

For a moment I couldn’t understand and asked back.

“How do you want us to redo the evaluations?”

He looked at me for a moment, then held up his own evaluation sheet and said:

“Again, until the evaluation comes out fair and transparent.”

“No…”

I thought I’d seen every trick in workplace life, but maybe it’s been a while—this kind of sheer bullying left me speechless. The pompous man left the interview room saying to call him when things were set. As soon as the door closed, Lucius ground his teeth.

“What good is the Chancellor leaving? It’s the same thing all over.”

“I had forgotten that that guy was exactly the same.”

“There’s nothing to forget. Everyone, revise your evaluation sheets and hand them in.”

Elysia and Lukan took the evaluation sheets with grim expressions. I stared blankly at them, trying to rationally assess what had just happened, honestly trying to calm my anger. That must have caused the seniors to misunderstand me.

“Cornelia, this is your first time dealing with something like this, right?”

Senior Victor came over and gave my shoulder a reassuring pat. Senior Lucius approached as well, cutting his words short. Lukan joined in.

“I warned you beforehand, but you still seemed very surprised.”

“Understandably. You must’ve had high expectations of the Chancellery of the Seraphina Empire.”

“It’s not that.”

As I tried to explain, Victor looked at me with a pitying expression as if he already knew everything.

“It’s your first time in the workforce—it’s bound to be a big shock.”

Guiltily, I rolled my eyes to the side.

“I should tell you something hopeful, but I can’t promise this won’t happen again. The staff do put forth their opinions, though—it’s just not easy.”

Lucius’s face showed a mix of bitterness, sadness, irritation, and frustration as he spoke. Feeling like I’d dampened the mood, I forced myself to sound more upbeat and spoke up.

“You must be tired from conducting the interviews; I’ll go fetch some tea. Please wait a moment.”

I brushed off their protests and left the reception room. It wasn’t something I normally did, but today I felt like it.

“Haha, don’t worry.”

‘What is that about?’

I peeked out at the corridor where I heard the pompous man’s voice and looked around. He was talking with a tall, silver-haired, slender man.

‘Who is that?’

“Then we’ll proceed without a hitch.”

“Then I’ll go trust what you do.”

The pompous man bowed politely toward the young man’s back.

“Please take a look, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

He was the cousin of the super-elite Duke.