Even So, the Days Pass - 1
Several days had already passed since I issued the deputy captain her secret orders. Of course, I hadn't given them expecting instant results, so I resolved to wait with patience.
Straightening out the Fourth Department Head's affection—warped over the course of years at the very least—in a mere handful of days was something only a god could manage. All I needed to do was stay close and nudge things along, little by little, the way clothes soak through in a soft drizzle.
Still, if progress could come before March, that would be ideal. If we slipped past the March opening ceremony, I wouldn't see the Fourth Department Head again until summer break.
"So when you see the Fourth Department Head, treat her warmly."
"I was always warm."
I quietly averted my eyes from the First Department Head as she huffed, clearly put out.
She and the Fourth Department Head were close, true enough—but if anyone asked whether the First Department Head had ever been warm, I'd have to tilt my head. Honestly, to an outsider it looked more like she was tormenting and pestering the quiet Fourth Department Head for sport.
Can I really trust this one?
The worry nipped at me. She might make the Fourth Department Head's condition worse instead.
"Anyway, don't worry! If Penelia ends up with the Chief, I get to stop being the youngest!"
Hearing that, my faith revived at once. Right. I wouldn't trust her warmth—I'd trust her greed.
"There's no such thing as a youngest."
Of course I corrected the small misunderstanding. Among wives, where was any "big sister" or "youngest"? It was only a difference in the order they'd arrived.
With that thought in mind I pinched the lips that had made the mischievous slip, and the First Department Head hurriedly nodded. I'd warned her once; she wouldn't make the same mistake twice.
"But Chief. There's something I've been wondering about for a while."
"Speak."
The moment I released her lip she took a few steps back and carefully opened her mouth.
"...You're writing the Minister's evaluation right now, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
An obvious question, so I gave the obvious answer.
"Who else am I supposed to evaluate but His Excellency the Minister?"
The year-end personnel evaluations. The only time a direct subordinate could evaluate their direct superior.
Those year-end reviews went to the Personnel Department of the Ministry of the Interior; after compiling them, Personnel submitted the final report to the Emperor. One of the few chances for the opinions of civil servants grinding it out on the ground to land before the Emperor himself.
"No matter how I look at it, that doesn't seem like the Minister's evaluation."
Muttering in a sulky voice, the First Department Head snagged the paper I had been scribbling on.
Honestly—these days subordinates just plundered their superior's belongings. The end of days was upon us.
"The current Minister of Finance, Deber Briad of Blochen, is fair and just, always leads by example, and listens carefully even to the words of the lowest-ranking subordinates to decide upon efficient measures..."
Reading the evaluation I had written, the First Department Head turned her gaze back to me.
"Who is this? If a minister like that actually exists, let's invite him over together."
"He's in the Minister's office right now."
I reclaimed the plundered evaluation sheet as I spoke.
I knew. The evaluation I had written was nothing more than a fantasy being that could only exist in fairy tales. But what choice did I have? If I poured my true feelings into evaluating the Minister, it would be nothing but a string of curses.
"What if I write the truth and the Minister gets fired?"
Then, damn it all. The future where I filled that seat was obvious.
As it was, the Crown Prince was already watching for any chance to promote me, and the Minister was angling for retirement by any means. The moment I submitted even a slightly critical evaluation of him, they would seize the opportunity without missing a beat.
Of course the Minister would only end up with a personnel transfer rather than actual retirement—but for him, anything would be happier than the ministerial work that didn't suit his temperament.
"And submitting a false evaluation is fine?"
"If I keep sending up false reports like this, won't I get fired someday?"
At those words the First Department Head looked at me with profound pity, but I paid it no mind.
Dreaming was free, after all.
There was no department that truly played around at year's end, but for the Personnel Department, the year-end was the busiest stretch of all twelve months.
It couldn't be helped. Year's end was when the performance records and evaluations of every department and official piled up; when petitions flooded in from people desperate to check whether any negative marks had stuck to them; when lobbying ran rampant for even a single favorable footnote on the final report bound for His Majesty the Emperor.
Although the Personnel Department did not itself issue personnel orders, it was the department legally permitted to advise His Majesty on his decisions. Even on a battlefield, the staff officers at the center often held more speaking power than the commanders on the front—didn't they?
If hell exists, it might be right here.
But in the Imperial administration, authority and workload always scaled together. Sometimes I found myself thinking it would be fine if they stripped some of that authority away, just so long as they lightened the work. I had no ambition to climb all the way to minister—please.
And when I looked through the evaluations of administrative officials, I could never quite tell whether I was living in the human world or residing in a menagerie where beasts gathered.
The moment even a sliver of a superior's flaw appeared, they inflated it with every ornate modifier imaginable. The more they did, the better the chance that superior would step down and they themselves would rise. Not every official was like that, of course—but the ones with ambition for higher seats, even if few, were loud.
A seat from which the ugly face of humanity could be viewed without filter. Both physically and mentally, it left nothing but a bitter taste.
"Director. Materials from the Audit Department."
"Ah, set them there."
While I briefly pressed my fingers to my brow against the daily migraine, the deputy director approached and submitted a thin bundle of documents.
The Audit Department.
Materials from a welcome quarter; the corner of my mouth twitched upward. Only a few years ago the Audit Department had been racing toward the very bottom of inhuman hellscapes.
"Pfft—"
The evaluation written by the Audit Department Chief sitting right on top made laughter well up of its own accord.
An evaluation packed with every possible compliment and praise. Looking only at the form, here was a minister and a man of character without equal in the world. Even false flattery, seen three times in a row, somehow became enjoyable.
The intent is transparent.
A desperate will to cling to the current Minister at all costs—and a twisted resolve that, since anyone could see the writing was false, he wanted compensation for it.
Amusing. After reading evaluation forms thick with every manner of intrigue and scheming, coming across something this crude felt like finding an oasis in the desert.
And it wasn't only the Audit Department Chief. His subordinates were exactly the same.
The Audit Department Chief always takes the lead, fully accepts responsibility for his subordinates' mistakes, and soothes them afterward—a true man of character—
Respectful to superiors and kind to subordinates. He refuses unreasonable instructions and issues only proper commands.
He takes responsibility for every word and never has to say it twice. He does not cut off a tail to dodge accountability.
"Khheh..."
Even the founding chronicle of Great Emperor Aemanka couldn't have been this uniformly laudatory.
The fervent praise of the deputy directors and section chiefs was enough to heat even my face, and I wasn't the one being praised. And the black conspiracy hidden inside all that praise nearly made me burst out laughing again.
One of the reasons the Audit Department Chief could thrash all he liked and still never resign was precisely these evaluation forms.
"There were many concerns when he became Chief at such a young age, yet he leads the department so well that I am truly at ease."
After reviewing the evaluation forms sent by the Audit Department, His Majesty had said nothing further. An unspoken declaration that the Audit Department Chief would remain in post no matter what.
"Personnel Director. Wouldn't things be easier if the workload lightened even a little? Pay no mind to the evaluations from the Audit Department."
And His Highness the Crown Prince was equally firm in his will to maintain the status quo of the Audit Department.
Thus the Audit Department's evaluations had no effect whatsoever on personnel transfers. It was simply a pity that the Audit Department Chief himself did not know it.
If only other departments were like this.
An excessive wish flickered through my mind, but what of it? Dreaming was free, wasn't it?
In any case, making people laugh with nothing but writing was a talent of its own. I looked forward to whatever evaluations next year would bring.
I had known the deputy captain was writing something with great diligence. But since it was the year-end personnel evaluation period, I had simply assumed she had a great deal she wished to say about me, and let it pass. If the deputy captain had much to say, that meant I was lacking—so I could not blame her.
When I saw the squad members whispering with the deputy captain, I wondered for a moment whether I was truly that inadequate, but I forced myself past it. I could not get angry at squad members who might have grown discontented because of my own shortcomings.
...I should have gotten angry.
"Captain."
"Yes."
"What is this?"
The paper the deputy captain held out, her expression full of solemn resolve. The instant I confirmed what it was, I closed my eyes.
"It is the unanimous will of every member of Mukgwangdae."
And that grand proclamation made my head spin. Unanimous will—could one even attach such a word to a document like this?
"It is the loyalty of every squad member, myself included."
"How is this loyalty in any way—"
"If it is not loyalty, then please regard it as the affection of family."
At those words my mouth shut of its own accord.
How underhanded, to invoke family there. Then how could I possibly refuse?
"Just once—read it through to the end just once. That will be enough."
And when she came at me like that, what was I to do?
...Fine. I would think of it as a loyal remonstrance offered by a subordinate to her superior, or affection expressed by family. That was the proper way to see it.
And so, steadying my trembling hands, I read the paper the deputy captain had given me—
All members of Mukgwangdae, including Deputy Captain Giuseppe Martina, hereby formally petition Captain Penelia Uth of Mukgwangdae.
It has already been several years since we were reborn through the grace of the Audit Department Chief. That grace is one we could never repay even if we were reborn dozens of times over—yet to abandon the attempt at repayment would be the act of a beast.
And yet our Captain regards the Audit Department Chief not as one to whom we must repay grace, but merely as an object of blind obedience. How can we not lament this?
At present, Captain—
I had not read far before I closed my eyes again.
"Captain."
But the deputy captain opened her mouth as if she would not even permit me to shut my eyes.
"The reason for repayment must not be repayment itself. Is it not a sad thing to regard our relationship with the Chief as nothing more than a thorough master-and-servant bond?"
"……."
"Of course we would gladly become His servants. Even so, the Chief desires something beyond that—and to sit still under the pretext of repayment is also a discourtesy."
Faced with the deputy captain's rare seriousness, I could not speak.
Still, I had to argue back. As the deputy captain said, the grace we had received was great. We had to repay it thoroughly.
And yet, for someone like me to dare draw near the Chief in familiarity would be to forget my place. That was surely true.
"If you wish to repay him, think of what the Chief wants. Doing as the Captain wishes is only self-satisfaction."
But I could not refute her.