There's Always Work After Work - 4
The day after the Inspectorate Ministry officially launched—making me a seventh-ranked minister, instantly appointing me the fifth member of the Lisizariune Knights, and leaving me thoroughly dismantled by the Emperor in a verbal thrashing—
"Congratulations on your formal promotion."
"Congratulations, Your Excellency."
The executives of the Inspectorate Ministry gathered to offer their congratulations.
Technically, yesterday would have been the proper time for it, but yesterday's version of me had been putting on a display of the same free-spirited swagger that ran in the Wise Duke's family. Anyone who approached while I was downing hard liquor with eyes that promised to chew them up and spit them out would have been a fool. Even a minister who had started toward me had smoothly turned on his heel and walked away.
"Thank you. There's a lot I'm still lacking on my own, so I'll be counting on all of you going forward."
"Yes, Your Excellency. We will devote ourselves wholeheartedly to assisting you."
After a full day of letting my insides settle, I could at least manage a proper exchange of greetings.
At the same time, I felt a little embarrassed. No matter how badly something had gone, if it wasn't department business, a superior had no business showing foul temper. When the boss so much as clears his throat, the subordinates under him come down with full-body aches. Forgetting that truth and acting like a 0.05-scale Wise Duke yesterday was shameful.
They must have thought something had already blown up the moment we launched.
I briefly put myself in the executives' shoes and rewound yesterday. The launch of the Inspectorate Ministry, prepared for nearly a year, had gone off in grand style—only for the minister to be named a Lisizariune Knight on the spot and then hold a private audience with the Emperor.
And the expression on the minister's face when he returned from that audience had been twisted all day long.
Yikes.
Just imagining it made my spine crawl. If it had been me, the chill would have killed my appetite for the entire day.
"I know full well how hard all of you worked for this glorious launch. As minister I should have been the first to praise your efforts, yet yesterday I was too caught up in the excitement to be in my right mind. I'm sorry."
So I forced a smile and spun out that bizarre piece of sophistry.
Of course even saying it this way wouldn't make the executives think, Ah, so he was just plastered from being in a good mood. A fresh-faced rookie wouldn't buy that kind of nonsense, let alone seasoned civil servants.
But this wasn't simply an excuse to pretend yesterday never happened. It was a declaration that the remnants of the Wise Duke I'd shown yesterday would end with yesterday, and that my private anger would never spill over onto them.
This should be enough.
Yes, this was plenty. From a subordinate's perspective, not catching stray fire mattered more than knowing exactly why the boss had lost his mind.
"You did drink quite a bit, though. I was half-expecting you to start crawling around on all fours."
The problem was that the moment I drew a line, some bastard started doing a tap dance right on top of it.
This little shit.
I let out a short laugh as I looked at the Third Section Chief—no, the Enforcement Director—who had just lobbed that grenade. Seconds earlier he'd been reading the room; the instant he grasped the situation he flipped into full no-breath-damage-dealer mode.
"Enforcement Director. What kind of insolence is that toward the Minister?"
Because to anyone else it looked like a subordinate openly insulting his superior, the Intelligence Director quietly cut in. His face had stiffened; the spicy remark had clearly rattled him.
A perfectly natural reaction. Not only the Intelligence Director but every other executive who hadn't come from the Audit Department was staring at the Enforcement Director with eyes that said, Have you lost your mind?
The executives who had come from the Audit Department, however, wore calm expressions.
"It's fine, Intelligence Director."
And I was one of those Audit Department veterans.
"He's the type who can't even keep the hair that ought to be growing on his head attached, so of course the words that ought to stay inside his head come spilling out of his mouth. We have to make allowances."
At my merciful yet vicious remark, the corner of the Intelligence Director's eye twitched for a moment.
I understood. Until recently he had belonged to the Ministry of Special Affairs. He had served under a minister who was the Emperor's loyal hound—blunt, thorough, and almost military in bearing. On top of that, the Ministry of Special Affairs itself prized absolute obedience to orders, so an atmosphere where a subordinate roasted his superior and the superior laughed and fired back was completely alien to him.
"I see. Understood."
Still, the speed with which he accepted it suggested that, as Intelligence Director, he had already gathered some sense of the Audit Department's culture.
He'll adapt with time.
Watching him step back with a complicated look on his face brought back memories of the old Audit Department executives. They too had first looked awkward when told to relax around me, their faces full of Is this really allowed?
The problem was that they only stayed that way for a little while.
Those bastards had carried out my order so perfectly that they devolved into monsters who lived more comfortably—and more out of control—than anyone.
So I believed the Intelligence Director would adapt splendidly as well. After all, he was already receiving casual speech from someone he had used formal mutual address with until recently, and he wasn't showing any displeasure. A changed environment wouldn't be a shackle for him...
...
An out-of-control Intelligence Director?
Thinking that far made it a little frightening. If a man of his experience and ability turned into one of those hopeless bastards, he would be hard to handle.
There's a good example, so it should be fine, right?
Without meaning to, I glanced at the deputy who had been promoted to Minister's secretary. Even in the completely deranged Audit Department, a few normal people had remained.
So assuming the Intelligence Director would devolve into a hopeless bastard was jumping the gun. He could easily settle into the "normal person inside the abnormal" role, just like the Minister's secretary.
I chose to believe that.
After exchanging greetings with the Inspectorate Ministry executives, I was immediately swept up in a barrage of handshakes from the other nobles who had been watching and waiting.
It wasn't only the executives who hadn't dared approach yesterday; the nobles had been the same. Unlike the executives who already had some rapport with me, ordinary nobles had no way to escape if I started having a fit, so they had been even more cautious.
"Hyung, you okay?"
"I feel like I'm dying."
The problem was that the nobles who had spent an entire day reading the room now came flooding in like madmen. Cramming two days' worth of socializing into a single day was simply too cruel.
On top of that, the dual titles of new ministry minister and fifth Lisizariune Knight possessed the power to draw even nobles who normally wouldn't have come. Subjectively, it felt like I had met every noble I would have needed to greet throughout the entire New Year's Audience—all in one day.
"Too much popularity is poison, huh."
Erich's remark, dressing up this suffering as "popularity," made me want to snap, but I didn't even have the strength left to unload a string of curses.
Damn it. Right up until the New Year's Audience I had planned to enjoy watching Erich scramble around.
I was the spectacle all along.
Pathetic. Just once—only once—I had wanted to watch my little brother thrash about as an older brother. Why wouldn't the heavens allow me even that single time?
Eternal Blue Sky, are you listening? Your honorary high priest is earnestly begging for your mercy.
Come to think of it, I haven't heard from her lately.
Maybe Constantina had hit her with extreme damage and knocked her out cold? From the glimpse of her verbal skills I'd seen before, she seemed more than capable of drowning a single god.
I entertained the idle thought as I raised the glass in my hand to my lips. At least I still had enough strength left to move my hand—small mercies.
"Hyung."
"What."
"What happened yesterday?"
At those words a bitter taste lingered in my mouth.
Something happened, all right. A whole damn lot of things happened.
"The sisters-in-law have been looking into it for a while now?"
"If you know, tell me. Everyone's pretty worried."
I gave a wry smile at Erich shrugging his shoulders. If the wives had even managed to recruit Erich—who spent his days hanging around with Imperial Diet members—then their concern must be serious indeed.
Honestly, not worrying would have been the stranger reaction. No matter how carefully I kept a smiling face in front of the family, what wife wouldn't worry when her husband started doing nothing but drinking after meeting the Emperor and avoiding contact with every other noble? Phine alone had spent the entire gathering of Inspectorate Ministry executives staring only at me.
...No, Phine always stared only at me, so maybe she wasn't the best example.
"Just, you know. Some annoying business came up."
I brushed it off appropriately in response to Erich.
It still wasn't the time to talk about it. Mentioning a foreign business trip to Rory, who was looking forward to her wedding with pure happiness, would be like dumping cold water on her joy. Thinking that, I simply couldn't open my mouth.
Of course I would have to tell her someday. Some people might even think that if you were going to get hit anyway, better to take the hit early. But if I mentioned the trip before the wedding, Rory would feel only worry and resentment toward a husband leaving for a faraway place, not the excitement of the wedding itself.
That won't do.
Even if it meant hearing her complain later about why I hadn't told her sooner, I couldn't steal Rory's happiness.
"Hyung. This might not be my place to say..."
While I was making that resolve, Erich spoke up again.
"Saying what a woman wants to hear is important, but when you say it seems pretty important too. If the right time to speak passes, you might end up regretting it."
The unexpected advice left me staring blankly at Erich.
"...Yeah, that really isn't something you should be saying."
It was not the kind of advice that should come from the guy who had spent forever lighting fires under Sera and Zenobia and only barely managed to get engaged—an engagement I had practically shoved him into myself.
Fortunately Erich still had enough conscience to quietly look away at my words.
Regret, huh.
I stroked my chin at the words of a little brother who lacked tact but at least possessed a conscience.
He wasn't wrong. By hiding the truth for Rory's sake I might end up hurting her even more. I had simply chosen "later" over "right now" when it came to the timing of the wound.
This is hard.
Neither side was the correct answer. Both choices had reasons for and against, advantages and disadvantages coexisting.
Yet strangely enough, that phrase of Erich's—"the right time to speak"—had seized my mind. That my little brother of all people had succeeded in shaking me was almost absurd.
"Erich."
"Huh? What?"
"A gift would be better than empty hands, right?"
"Of course."
In the next moment both Erich and I burst out laughing at the same time.
Yeah, of course. Enclosing a spectacular gift was always better than simply begging for forgiveness.
A gift, huh.
All right. Decision made.
"Thanks. That helped me make up my mind."
"Then could you also tell the sisters-in-law to stop calling me—"
"I'll make you a count."
"...Huh?"
I patted Erich's stiffened shoulder and started walking.
My resolve was set. If I couldn't avoid the Leon Kingdom dispatch, I would simply change my perspective.
I wasn't going to a foreign country for work. I was briefly setting out on an expedition to personally purchase rare luxury goods that could only be found overseas.
The Naiard family needs to build a little more strength too.
I was going in order to establish Leon Kingdom's new royal house. In other words, I would temporarily be the governor-general of Leon. I would have to crush any opposing nobles and ensure the Empire could indefinitely "borrow" Leon's interests.
While I was at it, I might as well snag some real estate on the side. Since I would be leaving right after marrying Rory, I could think of it as her wedding gift and grab a generous amount.
If I scraped enough together, a few counties' worth of land should come out of it. Giving that to Rory meant any children born between us could become counts rather than mere barons.
A foreign title is fine.
I would only target real estate that shared a border with the Empire. That way it would be a foreign title in name only—essentially an extension of imperial territory.
"Hyung, wait. A count? What are you talking about?"
Erich, who seemed to have finally recovered his wits and was desperately trailing after me, was no different. As a reward for the insight he had given me, I planned to toss him a county's worth of land as well.
"Hyung, let's not do anything that makes things awkward between us. What kind of count would I even be?"
"Want to be a marquis instead?"
"Hyung!"
Who was going to stop me from padding my family's pockets for their sake?
If I announced I was preparing a gift this extravagant, Rory's heart would soften at least a little.