Guest from the Imperial Palace (1)
“Regarding the Marquess Jefferd matter we discussed last time, please submit the report by the end of today.”
Sera Klein spoke without lifting her eyes from the documents. The secretary standing across from her stiffened.
“By today, Inspector?”
“Yes.”
“But Inspector, there are twenty-seven testimonies in the Marquess Jefferd case.”
“Not twenty-seven.”
Sera lightly tapped several pages with the tip of her quill. “Only three of them are meaningful.”
“Three…… did you say?”
“The accountant, the carriage manager, and the person in charge of the marquess’s archive keys.”
“……”
“The rest are just nobles dragging out ‘I don’t know’ and ‘The marquess ordered it’ in their usual long-winded fashion.”
The secretary fell silent. It wasn’t wrong. In fact, it was so accurate that there was nothing left to say.
“And the Baron Veil matter is on hold.”
“May I ask the reason?”
“The baron may be foolish, but no illegality has been confirmed yet.”
“……”
“If we send inspectors just because someone is stupid, half the nobles in the empire would be dragged in by tonight.”
The secretary almost let out a short laugh, but he didn’t. Laughing in front of Sera Klein was harder than one might think. It wasn’t only because she was frightening.
Sera Klein. A genius who joined the Imperial Direct Knights at the age of seventeen. Swordsmanship, horsemanship, imperial law, document analysis—she was born with several talents that could have secured her a lifetime of comfort even if she had only mastered one.
When she transferred from the Imperial Direct Knights to the Inspectorate after several years of service, people had two reactions: she was crazy, or it was a waste.
After all, Sera Klein was the kind of woman who looked like a painting even while holding a sword. Pale blonde hair that bordered on silver. Clear gray eyes like ice. A clean, refined facial line. A face that drew eyes even without smiling, and looked even more dangerous when she did smile.
The problem was that she rarely smiled. The bigger problem was that she was beautiful enough even without smiling.
The knights of the Imperial Direct Knights had said it that way: with that face and sword skills, wasn’t it cheating?
The people in the Imperial Inspectorate phrased it a little differently: with that face, being good at paperwork too made her even more of a pain in the ass.
“Next.”
As Sera held out her hand, another secretary hurriedly placed a new document on the desk. The dawn at the Imperial Inspectorate was never quiet. After His Majesty the Emperor uttered the word Normalization, the Inspectorate had lost all sense of day and night.
Every territory had private soldiers, every lord had subjugation records, and every noble had the excuse that “it wasn’t a private military operation, but maintaining public order in the territory.” It wasn’t wrong.
That was simply how territories functioned. When bandits appeared, they were caught; when magical beasts appeared, troops were mobilized; when tax transport routes were blocked, the knight order was dispatched. If a lord couldn’t do that, he wasn’t a lord.
The Imperial Inspectorate knew that much. The problem was that all these ordinary occurrences were now being brought up on paper.
Matters that would normally have ended with the territory residents gossiping, “I heard our young master caught some bandits,” were now landing on the Inspectorate’s desks.
“Inspector Klein.”
A knight belonging to the Inspectorate bowed his head at the door. “It’s the Kaindel County matter.”
“Bring it here.”
When the knight placed the document on the desk, Sera immediately flipped to the first page.
[Suppression of an armed group near Ramal Village, Kaindel County.]
It was a report about suppressing an armed group near a small village. A common occurrence. So common that over ten reports with similar titles had come in today alone.
[Cian Kaindel, heir to the Kaindel County, personally commanded the scene.]
Sera Klein’s hand stopped.
“The heir went out personally?”
“Yes.”
The secretary answered immediately.
“Is this confirmed?”
“Yes. At least according to the preliminary report.”
“Casualties?”
“No deaths among the territory forces. Prisoners were secured as well.”
“Well done.”
The secretary blinked at those words. Sera truly meant it. Suppressing an armed group without casualties among the territory forces and even securing prisoners was commendable.
“Shall we put it on hold?”
The secretary asked cautiously. Sera looked over the document again. Ramal Village, suppression of an armed group, heir personally commanded, no casualties among the territory forces. This level was not unusual to put on hold. In fact, under normal circumstances, it should be.
The Inspectorate didn’t have unlimited manpower, and there were far too many territories in the empire. Yet Sera made a short note in the upper right corner of the document.
[Direct verification required.]
“No.”
“You’re going personally?”
“Yes.”
The secretary’s face tightened ambiguously. “The Kaindel County is not a family opposed to the imperial family.”
“I know.”
“Then……”
“I’m not going to see that.”
Sera spoke as she folded the processed document. “……”
“Besides.”
Sera’s fingertip pointed to the first line of the report. “The heir moved personally, didn’t he?”
“Is that a problem?”
“It might be. Or it might not.”
Sera picked up the next document beside her seat. “That’s why I’m going to check.”
At that moment, the senior inspector at the opposite desk looked up. “Sera Klein, you’re going yourself?”
“Yes.”
“The Kaindel County is a fairly large family. If you poke around for no reason and there’s no issue, only the Inspectorate will suffer.”
“It would be nice if there were no issues.”
“Nice?”
Sera looked up. “The more territories without problems, the less rotten the empire is.”
A brief silence. The senior inspector looked at Sera before finally letting out a chuckle. “That’s the problem with you saying that sincerely.”
“Is it a problem?”
“No.”
He waved his hand. “It’s an advantage for an inspector.”
Sera bowed her head instead of replying. “Go. Just don’t cause any trouble.”
“I have no intention of doing so.”
“Good. You’re not the type to make that kind of mistake.”
Sera stood up. She picked up her cloak and fastened her sword at her waist.
“Inspector Klein!”
At the urgent call from the secretary behind her, Sera turned her head. “What is it?”
“I believe the Kaindel side has already been notified that your arrival would be within a few days.”
“I know.”
“But you’re departing now?”
“Yes.”
“……Doesn’t that contradict the ‘within a few days’ expression?”
Sera stared at the secretary for a moment. “A few days includes today.”
“……”
“Giving the inspection target enough time to prepare is not courtesy.”
The secretary fell silent. Sera looked at him for a moment before moving her feet again. “Don’t worry. If the Kaindel County is clean, it would be better for them to be verified quickly as well.”
I was sitting at my desk. More precisely, I had been sitting and dozing off. Spread out in front of me was the draft of the Ramal report, beside it the list of confiscated items, next to that the sealing string recovery record, and beside that the draft of the warehouse custodian’s statement.
Good. An excellent desk. So much paper that even if someone buried a person here, it wouldn’t show.
“Young master.”
At Roman’s voice, I lifted my head. “..What.”
My voice didn’t come out properly. It felt like someone had poured sand down my throat.
“The Imperial Inspectorate has arrived.”
“……”
I looked at Roman for a moment. “What?”
“The Imperial Inspectorate has arrived.”
“They said within a few days.”
“Yes.”
“Does ‘a few days’ in the empire mean half a day?”
“I’m not entirely sure about that part either.”
This butler occasionally said “I don’t know” in the most irritating way. I rubbed my face. Last night I had confirmed the sealing string was missing, caught the warehouse custodian, and even woken up the bandit boss.
On top of that, I received a letter from the Imperial Inspectorate. Sleep? I think I did sleep. But if you close your eyes and open them to find yourself at a desk, who knows if that counts as sleep or fainting.
“Who came?”
“Inspector Sera Klein.”
“……”
I fell silent for a moment. Sera Klein. She wasn’t a character who appeared much in the original novel. She wasn’t an assistant attached to the protagonist Verka, nor was she in any kind of close friend position. She belonged to the Imperial Inspectorate.
She was probably the number one woman nobles least wanted to meet. And in the mid-to-late part of the original story, she showed her face a few times when Lady Verka was cleaning up the rotten elements inside the empire.
She even had a nickname. The Gray Sword. I didn’t know why it was gray. Maybe because her eyes were gray?
When I opened the door to the reception room, the first person I saw was my father. And across from him sat the imperial inspector. Sera Klein. Long hair, gray eyes, upright posture. A sword at her waist.
“Cian Kaindel.”
As I bowed my head, Sera Klein also rose from her seat. “Sera Klein, of the Imperial Inspectorate.”
Sera Klein’s voice was calm. “I heard it would be within a few days.”
“Yes.”
“You’re faster than expected.”
“A few days includes today.”
Ah, what a pain of a woman. I rubbed my eyes for a moment. After dealing with the sealing string and the bandit boss all night, my eyelids felt like lead weights.
“Is this because of the Ramal matter?”
“Officially, yes.”
Officially. A good word. Perfect for pissing people off.
“An imperial inspector came personally because of one village called Ramal?”
“It’s not just one village called Ramal.”
Sera answered briefly. “It’s an example of local territory forces being deployed after the decree was enacted.”
“Sounds rather grand.”
“Pretexts usually are.”
This woman knew. She knew that Ramal wasn’t the real reason. And she knew that I knew that too.
“Then what did you come to see, Inspector?”
Sera Klein didn’t answer right away. Instead, she looked at the documents on the desk. The Ramal report, the list of confiscated items, the warehouse custodian’s statement.
“What the young master is hiding.”
Sera Klein spoke. Her sharp gray eyes turned toward me. “Or whether he is hiding anything at all.”