Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Monster of the Administration
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To Carion’s question, the youngest administrator rolled his eyes dramatically.
Carion clicked his tongue in clear dissatisfaction.
“Looks like you got a personal favor from that utter moron?”
Carion wagged his finger. The administrator sitting next to Rachel just blinked, unable to grasp the gesture.
Watching him, Rachel felt frustrated enough to pick up the document he’d been staring at and place it on Carion’s hand.
“Thanks.”
Carion hopped up to sit on his desk. From there, he began reading through the documents one by one.
Rachel read the ones he’d skimmed over and sneered inwardly.
*Wow. This isn’t a document at all. It’s a straight-up plea for favoritism.*
After flipping through the papers, Carion’s fingers drummed on the desk. The smile on his face grew darker, making him look even more menacing.
“Interesting. Very interesting.”
*Bang!*
Midway through repeating how “interesting” it was, Carion slammed his hand down on the desk with a loud thud.
“I thought the worms were only outside, but they’ve infested the palace interior too?”
Of course, some among them must have been honest and diligent workers. But there were undoubtedly rotten ones mixed in as well.
“Who recommended this guy?”
“He was brought in on Viscount Noema’s recommendation.”
The bureaucrat in front of Carion froze, so someone else answered.
“Viscount Noema?”
Carion furrowed his brow in disbelief.
A man recommended by the crown prince’s own tutor had been taking bribes less than a month in.
“Personal scholarship and judging character are apparently different things. Cut him.”
“Pardon?”
“He doesn’t know his place and just piles on more work. Tell him he doesn’t need to come in starting today.”
“Your Highness!”
Carion showed no mercy. Exuding the same charisma he’d displayed when arresting Paris Emporus, he gestured to his guard knight who had followed him.
The guard, understanding the order, dragged out the bureaucrat who kept crying “Your Highness!”
“I’ll have to stick around here for a while too. I thought I could just get reports from above, but this won’t do.”
At Carion’s words, a few of them began to tremble. Whether they were guilty or not remained to be seen. But just having such a lofty superior in the same room was pressure enough.
Those without guilt could stand tall, while the guilty would naturally flinch. Carion lingered his gaze on those who twitched at his words.
Rachel rubbed her cheek, sensing the subtle glares aimed her way. There was hostility. They’d decided to blame her instead of Carion, who had ousted their colleague.
*They see me as the easy target. Even though that guy from earlier was the one who screwed up.*
And Carion clearly knew she’d be ostracized but had no intention of protecting her.
*What did I do wrong? Using what I learned before regressing isn’t a crime, is it?*
*Clap!* The sound of applause echoed through the hall.
“Alright, everyone, back to work. Time’s short, and there’s plenty to do. I’ll bolster the staff soon, so hang in there until then.”
Only after Carion’s promise of reinforcements did the bureaucrats finally focus on their documents.
“And you—show me that format you mentioned. We’ll use it as the standard.”
“It’s not difficult.”
Rachel immediately picked out one useless document and drafted a template right after it.
As she neatly jotted down exactly what needed to be in the document, Carion, watching from the side, let out an impressed exclamation.
“If we base it on this idiotic agenda behind it…”
Rachel handed the template sample to Carion. He flipped it front and back, compared the contents, and nodded.
“Definitely easier to read.”
“Nobles think hard-to-read things look impressive, but I believe documents shouldn’t be difficult to parse.”
*It’s annoying otherwise,* she held back the afterthought. With so much urgent work piling up, wasting time on flowery nonsense and verifying it was the height of foolishness, she added silently.
“We’ll issue it as an official directive for now. In a month, we should see standardized documents everywhere.”
Carion looked down at Rachel with a satisfied expression. She found his grinning face utterly repulsive.
“Now get to work. Don’t worry about messing up. I’ll check it for you for the time being.”
Rachel ignored Carion and focused on the documents. She’d thought palace paperwork would involve weightier matters, but that wasn’t necessarily true.
*Argh, why are they handling crap like this here? They should classify by priority and escalate. Isn’t there a cutoff for this stuff? Even Emporus Trading Company submissions would be more thorough than this.*
<REJECTED>
Rachel scrawled the word boldly in red ink. Carion smirked at the document she set down.
Every tenth sheet or so held something worth attention; she pulled those out, transcribed them onto fresh paper in the new format, and clipped the original alongside.
*Wish we had a stapler.*
She knew the structure well from her orphanage days. Rachel resumed her paused work.
*And writing ‘rejected’ every time is a pain too.*
They dipped quill tips in ink, which often dripped or splattered. Documents frequently got stained, especially when wet ink smeared.
*I’m not arrogant enough to invent ballpoints or fountain pens. But making stamps? That’s easy.*
Stamps had a long history. Rachel decided to replace the simple word “rejected” with a stamp.
“Your Highness.”
Without turning her head, Rachel called out to Carion.
“What is it?”
“Please excuse me for not making eye contact—I’m busy. While reading these, I’ve noticed so many low-priority issues that don’t need palace handling.”
“I feel the same.”
“And writing on every one of them gets ink everywhere.”
Rachel shook her ink-stained sleeve.
“So what are you getting at?”
“How about making multiple stamps for commonly used words and phrases?”
“Like standardizing documents, but replacing ‘rejected’ with a stamp?”
“Yes.”
Everyone was focused on their tasks, but their attention was on Carion. One bureaucrat listening to the exchange let out an admiring sound.
“Not a bad idea. We’ll have stamps made soon and test them out.”
“Thank you.”
***
“Did you hear?”
“Hear what, sir?”
“They say a monster’s infiltrated the palace administration.”
“A monster?”
A middle-aged noble and a young noble chatting in the corridor. Their topic was the administration’s monster.
“A monster in the palace?”
“Not that kind. They say in just ten days, she turned the whole department upside down.”
“Even if it changed, how much could it have? Didn’t they replace most of the staff anyway? Bound to shift, right?”
“It’s more than that. Seen the recent directive?”
The young man nodded immediately to the middle-aged noble’s question.
“Yes. It said to standardize reporting formats from now on.”
“No thoughts on it?”
“It didn’t feel noble-like. More like something merchants would use. We nobles are different. Abandoning the phrasing handed down from our ancestors for that? I don’t get it.”
The young noble vented his displeasure with the directive. Stroking his goatee, the middle-aged noble chuckled.
“I thought the same at first. But my third son works in administration, and he says the new documents are much easier to read.”
“I-is that so?”
He tagged along to score points with the elder, but their views differed, leaving the young noble flustered.
“Well, for pure paperwork folks, it might be convenient. Haha.”
“Anyway, I’m curious. My third keeps raving about this girl at dinner. She must’ve really impressed him.”
“The ‘monster’ is a woman?”
The young noble was shocked. Women were too dim for men’s work, he’d always thought.
“So they say. A fifteen-year-old girl, apparently.”
“No way a woman in administration?”
“His Highness Carion shoved her in, they say. But the department calls her a monster—of course, she has other nicknames too.”
“Other nicknames?”
“Goddess of Document Processing. Any paper that passes through her hands gets neatly resolved.”
***
From that day, for a fortnight, Rachel punched in at the administrative office every day.
She had no say in it. Carion dragged her there each morning, and with a mindset of not putting off work, she processed mechanically.
In the meantime, the office gained various tools. Not as refined as modern ones, but staplers were made, and document stamps proliferated.
Clipboards for bundling papers became revolutionary, while colored fabric indexes simplified classification.
The bureaucrats, initially skeptical, started seeing Rachel anew as her innovations eased their workload.
They’d once resented her for a colleague’s dismissal, but now forgot that fool entirely.
They’d reached the point of saying they’d rather have her officially appointed than keep incompetent colleagues.
Meanwhile, oblivious to her colleagues’ change of heart, Rachel furrowed her brow.
*Something’s off.*
It had been a fortnight since she started. While working, she’d hit an unfamiliar part and visited the document archive from the day before.
It held about ten years’ worth of vast records—and surprisingly, documents from years ago were pristine.
The formatting she’d pointed out had existed up to five years back, with excellent organization.
“What’re you thinking?”
Carion suddenly shoved a document her way and asked. Rachel wrinkled her brow further.
“Just something that doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh? Even you don’t know everything?”
Rachel lowered her voice.
“Have you handled administrative work before, Your Highness?”
“Nope. I spent my days reading in the library. Why?”
“Documents from five years ago are fine. Even if they rushed new hires without handover, with existing staff, how does one department fall apart like this? It doesn’t add up.”
Carion fell silent at her doubt. When he spoke again, it was annoyingly dismissive.
“You don’t need to know. Don’t worry about it.”
Rachel involuntarily snorted.
“I see. It’s something I don’t need to know.”
She couldn’t stay silent. It might be an exaggeration, but since she arrived, the near-paralyzed administration had started normalizing.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say she’d saved it. And his response? *You don’t need to know?*
Rachel set down her pen.
“What’s with the sudden attitude?”
Rachel found Carion’s question ridiculous.
After using her for nearly two weeks, treating her like an outsider now—there was no reason for her to keep working diligently.
*Wait, why did I even work hard in the first place?*
Just then, Carion grabbed her wrist.
“You just thought about running, didn’t you? No can do. I’m in trouble without you.”
Rachel let out a hollow laugh.
“But you don’t trust me, Your Highness.”
At those words, Carion awkwardly forced a smile.