This Place Is an Excellent Civil Servant Supply Source - 1
Vacation ended, and a new semester began. First year, second semester—the season when the autumn leaves and snow would be beautiful. Of course, I decided not to think about the fact that even setting this semester aside, I still had four left.
Still two years to go.
A sigh threatened to escape on its own, but at least it was a three-year program. If it had been six years like elementary school, how nightmarish would that have been? I'd have to spend more time at the Academy than I ever had as a civil servant. At that point I wouldn't be an honorary student—I'd be a real one.
So I was lucky. I decided to think of it that way and endure.
"Next year is my last," came a listless voice.
I turned toward it and found Margeta resting her chin in her hand, watching me.
It really was a shame. I forgot sometimes, but Margeta was a year older than the Baking Club crowd. Even after she graduated, I'd still have another year left at the Academy.
And once Margeta graduated, I wouldn't be able to freeload in the vice president's office like this anymore. Who was I supposed to lean on then?
"Is failing a year out of the question?"
If Margeta held herself back just one year, I'd be happy, she'd be happy—everyone wins. A joke, of course.
"My grades so far have been too good. Even if I stopped trying from this point on, it would be hard."
Still, the dejected way she said it caught me off guard. She genuinely looked regretful. Wait—had she actually been considering it?
If Margeta truly failed a year, that would be a problem. The moment word spread that their precious, adorable youngest had been held back, the Iron Blood Duke might grab the back of his neck and collapse. And if he started hunting for the cause of the failure and I turned up in the investigation, he might just try to kill me.
If my disfavor stack builds any higher, I'm in real trouble.
I'd already been told that if I wanted a marriage talk with Margeta, I was to come kneel at the ducal estate. If I got on the Iron Blood Duke's bad side any further, kneeling wouldn't be the end of it.
What came after kneeling, my meager imagination couldn't begin to picture. The Iron Blood Duke had spent plenty of his prime years on the battlefield—he probably knew all sorts of creative methods.
"Are you upset that I'm graduating first?"
While I was lost in my private spiral, Margeta smiled sweetly as she asked, and a laugh slipped out of me.
"You're asking even though you already know?"
"I want to hear it from Karl's own mouth."
The way she said it so boldly only made the laughter grow. How had someone like her held it in this long?
"I wish you wouldn't leave first. I want you to stay by my side."
The way she nodded, looking thoroughly satisfied, was quite something to behold.
Strange.
It wasn't Margeta who felt strange. She'd already declared she was going to be more proactive and honest, hadn't she?
It was myself I found strange. That I could talk with Margeta so naturally. That my heart felt lighter than I'd expected.
I'd thought that even after baring my feelings, I'd keep my distance for a while. Showing her my past and growing closer to Margeta were two different things.
And yet my heart was astonishingly at ease. I was trading warm, affectionate conversation with Margeta without strain. It had come so fast I half-wondered if a dam had sprung a hole and burst.
How did I hold out this long?
For a guy who exploded the second he got an opening, I'd somehow managed to last two whole years.
Visits from the Audit Department Chief were nothing new. Before the vacation, he'd been coming by every day on the young lady's invitation, hadn't he?
The Student Council office was off-limits to anyone who wasn't an executive, but that was a trivial matter. How could anyone dare impose the Academy's regulations on such a capable and devoted servant of the Empire?
There was just one minor problem—
When am I supposed to go in?
The dessert in my hands had nowhere left to go. I'd meant to treat the Audit Department Chief to something nice to mark the second semester, but after overhearing the conversation from the vice president's office, I couldn't quite work up the courage to walk in.
I already knew the young lady's feelings for the Audit Department Chief ran deep. I'd been close enough to see it for months—if I still didn't know, I ought to gouge out my eyes and return to nature.
But the Audit Department Chief hadn't exactly been the warm type before, had he? What on earth happened over the vacation?
Ah, well. Whatever.
I gave up on going in. A dessert could wait until next time. If our Audit Department Chief was happy, that was enough. He was the benefactor of my entire life—I only wanted him to be happy.
The moment I stoked my respect for the Audit Department Chief, a single business card floated up from a corner of my mind all on its own.
No—that was no ordinary business card. It might have started as one, but from the moment it passed through the Audit Department Chief's hands, it had become a treasure.
"Wonderful, truly wonderful! You won't have a thing to worry about from now on!"
The card blessed by the Audit Department Chief's grace had become a recommendation letter more powerful than anything else, and when Father saw it over the vacation, he was overjoyed.
Of course he was. We weren't high nobility—just a Viscount house—and I wasn't even the eldest son set to inherit the title. I was an ordinary, thoroughly ordinary third son. My prospects could hardly be called bright. I wouldn't live in poverty or want, but a wealthy, well-regarded life was equally out of reach.
And then a recommendation letter from the Audit Department Chief, a central figure in the Crown Prince's faction? That didn't just light up the road ahead—it laid a path of flowers. My personal glory was assured, and if things went well, even the Corner family's standing could rise.
I'd received the letter months ago, and my chest still swelled with it. Loyalty, loyalty to the Audit Department Chief. Once I entered government service, he would be my superior—so it was perfectly fine to start cultivating loyalty early.
"Damian? What are you doing over there?"
I was in the middle of pledging my loyalty to the Audit Department Chief when some whelp dared to interrupt this sacred business.
I forced down my irritation and turned to find the Treasurer staring blankly at me. Ah. An unchosen brat, then.
"It's nothing, so mind your own business. Shouldn't you be busy preparing for the civil service exam?"
The moment the words left my mouth, the pen the Treasurer was holding came flying at my throat. If I hadn't dodged, it would have stuck clean through.
"I was trying to make sure you never spoke again."
The Treasurer clicked his tongue, and I nearly flared up—but I recovered my composure just as fast. A winner always kept his cool. Why rise to every last thrashing of a loser?
"A jealous brat is an ugly sight."
"You little—"
Watching him rake his fingers through his hair in irritation, I quietly shut my mouth. I'd tease him again after a short break. Do it right now and I'd get grabbed by the collar.
Second semester of third year was a touchy season for Student Council executives even if all you did was breathe. It was the Academy's final semester—once it ended, the civil service entrance exam was waiting immediately after.
If I hadn't received that recommendation letter, I'd have been living trapped in anxiety and raw nerves myself. The fear of whether I could even become a bureaucrat. The blank dread of what I'd do if I failed the exam.
We got lucky.
It wasn't just me. All of us had.
"President, I've got a question."
"If it's something I know, I'll answer everything."
That was what the Audit Department Chief had said, almost offhand, before he went into the vice president's office today.
"What about the other executives?"
The moment I heard it, I knew. This was a chance for my personal treasure to become our treasure.
"Even setting friendship aside, every one of them is diligent and outstanding."
"Glad to hear it."
With a light nod, the Audit Department Chief had gone into the vice president's office.
His expression had clearly been one of satisfaction. Three years on the Student Council and you reach a level where you can read a face in an instant. Deal with high-noble students long enough and the skill comes free.
"You'd pass the exam anyway."
"And if someone like me gets in on a recommendation, doesn't that raise your odds of passing?"
That was why I could needle him without a second thought. I was only doing this because I knew they'd get recommendations too.
If I didn't know about the recommendation letters and still provoked them, that wouldn't be decent human behavior. There was a reason I'd kept my head down and worked Student Council business all through the first semester.
But right now, while I alone held the premium information about those letters—this was my chance.
You damn bastard.
When the young lady had become vice president—nominally under me—he'd mocked me endlessly about what kind of president ends up serving the vice president who was supposed to be his subordinate.
Time to pay back every scrap of that humiliation and contempt. This, too, was the Audit Department Chief's grace.
Loyalty, loyalty to the Audit Department Chief.
Voices started drifting in from outside. It had been quiet until a moment ago—had someone else arrived?
"That's the president and the treasurer."
"Surprising. They both seemed like quiet types."
The president, stuck with Margeta as a subordinate (not that she was a subordinate), and the treasurer, the Student Council's de facto number two (heavy workload). The rough conditions had left both of them generally quiet by nature. Then again, that was true of the other executives as well—Margeta excluded.
I strained to catch the faintly audible conversation and found the president in the middle of teabagging the treasurer. Decent wit on that one.
Incidentally, I'd already mentioned earlier that I planned to abduct—no, recommend—the other executives too.
"Those two seem close."
If he was doing it knowing full well, he was just teasing.
"I heard their families have had dealings for a long time."
"There are cases like that."
It was something I'd never experienced myself, so it only struck me as novel. The Crassius family did associate with other Imperial Count houses, but I didn't have anyone I'd grown personally close to.
Was I just short on social skills? For all I knew, Erich might have made friends without me noticing.
"Those two are the odd ones out. Family dealings and all that—in the end it's about the relationship between the heads of house. From the children's perspective, it doesn't really land."
Margeta's words put me at ease. Good. I wasn't the strange one.
"If they get along that well, it would be best to put them in the same department."
As I said it, I drew a business card from my coat, and Margeta let out a soft laugh.
"Heh. You're right. I'm sure they'll be delighted."
I thought so too. Skip the tedious exam and walk straight into a civil service post—how could that not make someone happy?
Now, where would suit the Discipline Chief? The military over the administration, surely.
Your Grace, the Duke of Victory—I'm sending you one right now...