Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: The Incompetent Minister Wants to Retire
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‘I’ve been utterly had!’
Prime Minister Erickson could not hold back a low, guttural groan once he fully realized the source of that lingering, ominous premonition.
This was it; the Minister had been aiming for this precise outcome from the very start.
The entire series of rumors regarding his grave medical condition had been nothing more than a calculated setup to lure the Anti-Noble Faction into hasty action.
He’d even had the Intelligence Department deliberately and publicly deny the rumors to preempt any lingering suspicion or doubt.
All of it was meticulously designed to utterly crush the waning prestige of the Anti-Noble Faction.
‘Just how terrifyingly meticulous can you be…!’
The Minister currently facing the Emperor looked nothing like a bedridden invalid, no matter how one chose to slice it.
He’d successfully fooled everyone; the system, the Empire, and the whole of the world.
The Minister was clearly in perfect, robust health.
“So, what urgent business brings Minister Barrmut to the imperial council today? Is there something specific you wish to say to me?”
Prime Minister Erickson ground his teeth in silent fury; the Emperor knew the truth full well and was asking anyway.
A sudden surge of blinding anger flared up for a fleeting moment, but the Minister’s next words went even further into the realm of absurdity.
“Ah, yes. Truth be told, I haven’t been feeling well at all, so I believe it’s finally time for me to step down from my post as Minister. Cough, cough.”
Pure mockery.
It was nothing but pure, unadulterated mockery.
It was a blatant sneer and a jeer aimed directly at them for falling for his scheme hook, line, and sinker.
The Minister’s words and exaggerated antics looked like nothing more than playful, amateur acting, drawing amused laughter even from the noble faction.
The Emperor, too, spoke with a face that looked as though he were barely holding back a wide grin.
“Your request is denied.”
“I figured as much, I suppose?”
“Indeed you did.”
“That’s truly too much to bear.”
“Not nearly as much as what you pull.”
It was a conversation so incredibly casual that one would never guess it was taking place between a sovereign and his subject.
Not just the Anti-Noble Faction—even the nobles themselves watched the exchange with a mix of envy and burning jealousy.
“Understood. Then I’ll head back immediately and resume my tedious duties.”
“Carry on then.”
The Minister turned on his heel as if their momentous business was finished and strode confidently out of the audience chamber.
The nobles gazed at his retreating back with a sense of profound and silent awe.
The Anti-Noble Faction watched him leave with a feeling of bottomless, cold dread.
The Emperor looked upon him with a gaze of absolute and unwavering trust.
They all watched until he was finally and completely out of their sight.
No dice; I really thought my plan would work this time.
Then again, if I could just retire simply because I was feeling a bit under the weather, I wouldn’t be putting up with all this immense hassle.
Back in the Minister’s office, Celine—who’d been diligently working—tilted her head and asked a curious question.
“Didn’t you explicitly say you were going to the bathroom?”
“I did say that.”
“Did you actually go there?”
“Nope, I didn't.”
“Then where did you actually go?”
“To the audience chamber.”
“……To His Majesty? So suddenly? But the imperial council’s in session right now, isn’t it?”
Damn it all. I’m supposed to be the Minister here, and yet she knows the schedule better than I do.
“I went there to tell him that I’m quitting my post as Minister.”
“Ah. And what was His Majesty’s response?”
“He said no.”
“That figures.”
Celine replied with a perfectly straight face, as if she’d never expected any other outcome, then immediately returned to her work.
I sat down at my own desk and began to rubber-stamp the reports piling up. About an hour passed by.
“Minister.”
Celine stood from her seat, walked over to me, and poked my shoulder firmly with her finger.
What’s the meaning of this? Is it some kind of physical attack?
“It is now lunchtime.”
Is it already? Huh, it really is high noon.
“Go and eat.”
I didn’t know how Celine usually handled her own lunch, but I just made do with simple bread and dried meat brought from home.
I reached for the bag where I’d packed my meager breakfast provisions, but Celine snatched my hand away mid-motion.
“Do not eat that.”
Is she telling me to starve to death? Is there no food allowed for incompetents? Denying me a meal surely violates the Geneva Conventions! I shall protest this!
I couldn’t quite voice that internal protest and just stood there hemming and hawed. Then Celine set a small, neat container on my desk.
“Eat this instead.”
“What is this supposed to be?”
“It is a bento.”
“Whose is it?”
“It is yours, Minister.”
“Who was it that made it?”
“I made it myself.”
…………Why on earth would you do that?
“We simply cannot have you collapsing from exhaustion again.”
It wasn’t exactly from skipping meals, but since I was such a scatterbrain, that must be exactly how it looked to her eyes.
I felt a bit flustered, but hey, if she’s offering me food, I’ll gladly take it.
“Thanks. I’ll dig in then.”
Opening the bento revealed colorful foods arranged with such appetizing precision.
Even a cooking illiterate like myself could tell the meat and vegetable dishes were perfectly balanced.
It looks insanely good.
Can I really be allowed to eat this?
“…………”
Suddenly feeling worried, I glanced sideways at Celine—and realized she was staring right at me with intensity.
Those are definitely 'I-will-kill-you-if-you-don’t-eat' eyes.
Scary. I better start eating immediately.
“Mm?”
Oh.
Wow.
This is actually delicious.
Celine braced her legs, pouring all her strength into them to keep from swooning in sheer ecstasy.
‘The Minister actually thanked me! He’s eating the bento that I made! He’s munching away as if it’s so good! My cooking is becoming his very flesh and blood!’
She’d recently realized the depth of her true feelings, but to her, the Minister was still a divine god.
From her perspective, a mere believer like herself was watching her god devour the humble offering she’d presented—right before her eyes.
Forgetting the very flow of time, Celine stood there, silently watching him eat.
When the Minister polished off even the last scrap of the side dish, her bliss reached its absolute peak.
“Whew. That truly hit the spot. Are you not eating yourself?”
“I-I will eat now!”
At the Minister’s question—as he was sipping tea contentedly after his meal—Celine jolted and hurried to her desk to fetch her own bento.
The contents were an exact match to his.
Eating the same thing she’d just made for him felt like the ultimate seasoning for her meal.
‘Sharing the same food in the same space as the Minister. D-doesn’t this make us practically husband and wife…?’
No. It absolutely doesn’t.
Anyone hearing such a thought would deny it flat-out, but even then, it wouldn’t dispel the deep satisfaction filling Celine’s heart.
As her meal ended—not so much savoring the flavors as basking in layered gratifications—a teacup suddenly appeared before her.
“Minister…?”
“It is not much in exchange for the bento, but I can at least pour you some tea.”
“……Thank you very much.”
This is extremely bad.
Really bad, Celine thought to herself.
The pleasure chemicals flooding her brain had overshot danger levels by a significant mile.
At this rate, stripping naked and tackling the Minister right here wouldn’t feel out of place in her mind.
The problem was, if he were the type that’d actually work on, she’d have done it ages ago.
Desperate to calm herself down, Celine scoured her mind for something to restore her lost cool.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—she found the perfect distraction right away.
“Minister. Mind if I ask you something?”
“Shoot, go ahead.”
What she recalled was the portrait of some mysterious woman that Christina had found while cleaning the day the Minister collapsed.
She hadn’t asked about it then, with his health in question, but now she felt she finally could.
……Or so she thought until the last second.
“I’d like to bring a bento for you tomorrow as well.”
In the end, she simply could not bring herself to ask.
It scared her far too much.
Asking who that woman in the portrait was.
The portrait had been framed so carefully, like something precious and sacred.
What if that woman was truly ‘special’ to his heart?
If it turned out to be the truth.
‘Could I even handle such a revelation?’
Unable to answer her own question definitively, Celine fled from it by deciding the timing wasn’t right.
“Tomorrow as well?”
“Yes. Tomorrow, the day after—every single day from now on.”
It was almost a desperate plea. Even so, Celine didn’t care how she sounded.
If it eased her anxieties even a little, if it kept even a tenuous connection to the Minister, she’d beg harder than that.
She was even prepared to collapse to the floor, sobbing and clinging to his pant leg if he refused her. But after a moment’s thought, the Minister nodded.
“I’ll gladly accept your offer.”
Still, just taking it felt bad to him, so he offered to at least cover the cost of the ingredients. Celine’s mind raced with a new opportunity.
Her eyes sparkling with intent, she counter-proposed another plan.
“No need for that. But if you insist on paying back, come grocery shopping with me instead.”
“Those damn, persistent pests…”
John sheathed his sword after felling the last grotesque monster and scanned the grim surroundings.
This was a dungeon near a village in the Empire where Fairytale was currently being produced.
The collaborators in the drug production had all been rounded up by the knights, and the thugs who’d clashed with Intelligence agents had vanished since then.
But lately, disturbing reports came in of unidentified monsters appearing in the nearby dungeons.
Sensing something off, Owl had come to investigate—and sure enough, they’d been ambushed by bizarre monsters they’d never seen before.
“This side is completely clear, John.”
“Same here on my end.”
“But aside from being humanoid in shape, there was nothing special about them, right?”
“Yeah. Their sizes varied all over the place too.”
They were strange monsters in every way, but detailed monster research wasn’t their specific job.
Owl’s mission this time: confirm any link between these new monsters and the third force—Oracle—that Intelligence was tracking.
Confirming his comrades were safe, John nodded and ordered them to move deeper into the dungeon.
If it was pure coincidence, that was fine. But if some dark scheme tied them together, they had to check it out.
“Feels like we’re nearing the deepest, darkest part…”
“Doesn’t seem like much is here.”
Nothing pinged their senses, just as Valdemar and Alexander had observed.
Since it was only a recon mission, they could pull back if they found nothing.
Yet even at the very core, John poked at an empty wall like something persistent nagged at his mind.
“John, there are no hidden doors or anything of the sort.”
The others mimicked their leader, groping the cold walls for a while before concluding there was zilch. But not John.
“I wouldn’t bet on it being empty.”
Telling his team to fall back with a skeptical look, John swung with all his might at the spot that’d felt off since their arrival.
The very floor they stood upon.
One massive punch caved the ground in, kicking up a cloud of dust.
And then they finally saw it.
“……Insane.”
“……What the hell is this?”
They were crammed in steel cages, buried alive in the dark. There were no live ones left.
At a glance, they were the same as the monsters they’d slain en route.
But a closer inspection revealed the horrifying difference.
They were mixed beings.
Monster forms blended sickeningly with human features.
“Not humanoid monsters……but actual humans turned into them?”
Horrified, the Owl members leaned in to inspect—then clamped their hands over their noses and mouths in unison.
A distinctive stench wafted from the rotting corpses.
“This smell……is it Fairytale?”
The same impossible, unthinkable possibility flashed through everyone’s minds at once.
John, thinking it too, waved his team back with a heavy sigh.
“……Looks like I’ve got much more to report back to the Minister.”