Off to Detention - 2
Not just this year—within this single semester alone, I had already been summoned by the Crown Prince twice. Was there another civil servant anywhere in the world like me?
Once again His Highness had thoughtfully dispatched a teleportation mage so that the journey would be comfortable. Truly, our Crown Prince never failed to consider whether his subordinates might be tired. A model of enlightened rule.
I only wished that even a fraction of that consideration might be applied when deciding my disciplinary measures. I meant that sincerely.
"His Highness the Crown Prince is waiting."
The knight guarding the Crown Prince's palace spoke in the same stern, solemn, utterly serious tone as always—yet I caught the flicker of emotion that crossed his face.
It was a look that said, What the hell did you do this time to get dragged in again? It could have been pure paranoia on my part, but the faint bewilderment was unmistakable.
I understood. For most civil servants who were not ministers, seeing the Crown Prince even once a year—and then only from a distance—was the height of their experience. Meanwhile I treated him like the neighbor next door.
I'm going to lose my mind.
Once the paranoia took hold, every gaze felt like a brand. Passing servants, maids, and guards all seemed to be snickering, That's the guy who was the Red Wave's provisional commander, hahaha!
The dizziness grew. I wanted nothing more than to ram my head into the nearest wall and pass out on the spot.
"You've arrived."
"Yeah."
At last we reached the Crown Prince's office.
And the way the guard knight greeted me the instant he confirmed my face—without even asking why I had been called—only made me feel more bitter. Being summoned here was no longer anything unusual.
Knock knock.
"Your Highness. The Audit Department Chief."
"Let him in."
Was it my imagination, or did the Crown Prince's voice sound strangely drained of strength?
In any case, once permission was granted the knight stepped back a pace and opened the way, accompanying the gesture with a silent bow that said I might enter.
Last time I had walked through this door I had come out with a suspension.
What would I be walking out with this time? I was genuinely curious…
Silence filled the office. The Crown Prince, who had been working, merely told me to take a seat when I entered, then spent a long while processing documents.
No subtle mockery, no open anger—just quiet, relentless work.
That is so much worse.
If he had simply cursed me out I could have resigned myself with an Ah, I'm finished, but this was a reaction I had never anticipated. Exactly what kind of words was he gathering his strength to deliver?
The thought that I ought to drop to my knees right now began to rise, little by little.
"I kept you waiting."
Just as I was about to rise slightly from my seat, the Crown Prince lifted his head and looked my way.
"Not at all, Your Highness. Knowing how occupied you are with both public and private affairs, how could I possibly say such a thing?"
I poured out words I would never have spoken under normal circumstances. To a third party it would have looked disgustingly servile, but I had no choice.
This was not some minor matter—detention hung in the balance. In my current position, even groveling and apologizing for having come while His Highness was busy would not be enough. If the Crown Prince in his fury had swung a fist at me, I would have had to shout, I'm sorry for standing in that spot!
"The Audit Department Chief's loyalty is truly exemplary. All the more so because that loyalty is shown not merely in words but in deeds."
= So the bastard who knows I'm busy went and caused another mess?
Under the Crown Prince's quietly expressed anger I lowered my gaze. Honestly, how was I supposed to know that bastard would come out with something like You sound like a republican, sir?
Watching me, the Crown Prince sat in the seat of honor and let out a sigh.
"The Red Wave are rebels who sought to overturn the Mandate of Heaven. His Majesty was most pleased with their eradication."
"I am deeply honored."
The words were pleasant enough, yet tension automatically coiled through my body. When someone began with praise, the bad news almost always followed.
"However, something rather puzzling occurred in the process."
Exactly like now.
The Crown Prince furrowed his brow slightly as if the matter were a headache, stroking his chin as he continued.
"I am certain the leader of the Red Wave was also taken alive. The testimony of the Mukgwangdae members who participated in the operation and of the other prisoners agrees, and the leader's corpse still bore the marks of having been bound."
Yes—those binding marks were the problem. I had not confessed so readily for nothing. I had been caught by the same thing before.
The traces of a gag—well, the head was gone, so that could be overlooked—but the rope marks around the body and the scuffs from having been forced to kneel remained on the clothing. Erasing those marks only made it more obvious that they had been erased. I had not known that in the old days.
"Yes, Your Highness. We did capture the leader alive, but I killed him during interrogation."
At my frank admission the Crown Prince merely furrowed his brow again and said nothing further.
He already knew I had turned a prisoner into a corpse. This meeting was simply the formal assignment of responsibility.
"I do not believe you did it without reason. There must have been cause."
After a brief silence the Crown Prince continued with a positive remark, yet I could not let my guard down. Experience had taught me that after speaking like that he was fully capable of suddenly veering off course.
"In the first place, every member of the leadership was captured, were they not? The loss of the leader is regrettable, but he was hardly an indispensable prisoner."
I almost nodded unconsciously. It was true. With the entire leadership already in custody, the collapse of the Red Wave was certain, and there were plenty of other high-ranking officers from whom information could be extracted even without the leader.
"Considering the Audit Department Chief's merits, this incident can hardly even be called a fault."
The successive positive signals made hope rise within me. Could it be—could he actually be letting me off? Was this not groundwork for a sudden turn, but genuine forgiveness?
As if answering my expectations, the Crown Prince continued speaking without once voicing anything negative. Had he said the same things with a smiling face I would have grown more anxious, but delivering praise with a face steeped in fatigue and irritation somehow made it more convincing.
Yes, I had trolled, but his expression said he would overlook it in light of my achievements. That he would let me off just this once.
"Still, restrain yourself from now on. Killing during combat is only natural, but executing a prisoner without proper procedure is problematic, is it not?"
"Yes, Your Highness. I will keep it firmly in mind."
I bowed my head as the Crown Prince spoke with another sigh.
I'm saved.
Fortunately it had ended with a verbal warning. No need to write a disciplinary report, and therefore no risk of detention.
Honestly, was killing a few traitorous bastards really such a grave sin? I had merely finished off someone who was going to die anyway a little earlier—what was the big deal?
Truly great, wise, and merciful was His Highness the Crown Prince. He had handled the matter with an open mind, unbound by trivialities.
Coming here was the right call after all.
Just in case, I had only told the Academy that I would be away for a while. If I had said I was being detained and then simply returned, it would have been awkward for everyone.
An excellent judgment. I had trusted in His Highness's clemency and made a splendid decision—
"Spend five days inside."
Wha…
"Pardon?"
What? Had I misheard?
My head throbbed. The dull headache that had been lingering since yesterday was becoming thoroughly annoying.
"Pardon?"
Knowing that the source of the headache stood right in front of me only made it worse.
Even when he causes incidents, he does it this fast.
How long had it been since the last suspension, and already he had detonated something like this? At this speed it was almost impressive. Could it be that the Audit Department Chief was the one bureaucrat who loved disciplinary action more than anyone else?
I knew that could not be true, yet I wanted to believe it. Otherwise this situation defied explanation. Even the Minister of Finance, who had set a record in disciplinary history, had never reached this level.
Detention at twenty-one.
A hollow laugh nearly escaped. Which was stranger—a department chief at nineteen, or detention at twenty-one? The contest was so close it was hard to decide.
"Your Highness, when you say five days…?"
"Detention."
I answered firmly as the Audit Department Chief carefully opened his mouth.
In truth the incident itself was light—almost trivial. As I had said earlier, every other leader had been captured alive, and considering the merit of suppressing the Red Wave, killing the commander was no great matter. It was not as if he had deliberately released him.
The unauthorized execution of a prisoner. That alone was the grounds for reprimanding the Audit Department Chief. And that was something that could have been settled with a disciplinary report—
But the pile has grown too high.
The matter itself warranted only a disciplinary report. Yet the Audit Department Chief had already written far too many of them, and the report he would write now had become the final puzzle piece that led to detention.
There was no helping it. As long as the minimum unit of discipline was a disciplinary report, detention could not be avoided. And if even the report were waived, the Empire would acquire the image of casually killing its prisoners.
"Th-then, Your Highness, for those five days the Academy—"
"What can be done? We shall have to trust the principal and leave it to him."
Seeing the Audit Department Chief's pupils begin to tremble violently, I nearly laughed hollowly again. I, too, found it awkward to pull the Audit Department Chief away from the Academy.
That was why previously I had gone so far as to impose Academy confinement so that he could remain there. But detention admitted no such loopholes.
"Let a guilty official be confined in the underground of the Imperial Capital that he may reflect."
The system established by the previous emperor was not easy to touch. Moreover, the provisions concerning detention were laws left by the founding emperor, Aymanca the Great himself.
He had specifically ordered confinement in the underground of the Imperial Capital, so something like "Academy detention" was impossible.
There is no way around it.
Unless one did something insane like moving the capital to the Academy or building a new Academy in the capital's underground, there was no method.
In the end the answer was only one: simply put the Audit Department Chief in prison.
"Still, do not worry overmuch. I am well aware that the Audit Department Chief's offense is light."
That was why I had specially prepared a single room—the most spacious one. I had ordered the furniture replaced with good pieces, so he would suffer no discomfort while staying there.
Of course, even my reassurance did nothing to improve the Audit Department Chief's expression.
Well, that was what came of killing a prisoner and creating this mess.
My life flashed before my eyes.
"How on earth does it go all the way to detention? I was under the impression you needed to write a disciplinary report forty times before it reached that point."
Those were the words with which I had wholeheartedly mocked the Minister when he had once been detained.
Karma. Karma had clearly piled up.
I'm going to go insane.
Even if it was karma, when it shimmered right in front of my eyes I could not simply accept it. So I had argued as hard as I could.
"Your Highness, even so, is detention not excessive?"
"Strictly speaking, the punishment for this incident is a disciplinary report."
And the one who had stacked dozens of those reports was me—there was no way I could refute that.
Right. I had brought this on myself…
What do I do?
With detention now confirmed, the worries I had deliberately refused to think about lifted their heads.
The Academy I would have to leave empty for five days? The roaring laughter of the section chiefs when they heard the news? The Minister who would come to teabag me while doing somersaults?
Something more serious than all of that.
"Karl, no matter what happens, I'm on your side."
Margeta, when she heard I had been locked in prison.
Fuck.
The image of Margeta on the verge of tears seized my chest with guilt.
I'm going crazy. What the hell am I supposed to do about this?