68 Aftermath 1

A week has passed since the disastrous Parade, and I only can say that I'm so freaking tired!

A lot has happened since then and my workload only keeps increasing. Every time my dear friend and maid/secretary enters my office with a new pile of documents, I have the urge to throw everything off my table.

I have 8 huge piles in front of me, each corresponding to the day of the problems origin.

All chaos began with my speech. After that, I found out most of the people on the streets left the venue that the Royal Family would pass. This seriously was not my aim, but it sure felt damn good to strike at least once on those who are untouchable. Unfortunately, the King wouldn't let this show of disregard for his power go doing nothing. Just as he got into the Palace after the Parade, he punished us. The Dubois House was fined by having to pay a huge sum to the Crown and 'gift' them with a plot of our fertile lands. It didn't affect us much financially, but this was just a warning by the king for us to remember that he can dispose of us at any time.

So the first pile of work is the proposals that my dear subordinates submitted to minimize the damage in our fief. The pile was most about taxes and new agriculture techniques or products. I had to review each of them to see what we could apply in the fiefdom and submit do Father.

The second pile was smaller and consisted mostly of the reports of how people reacted to the Parade fiasco article published in the next day.

The article "The huge conspiracy and the complacent Royal Family", talked about how Duke Fournier tried to hurt the Royal Family so he could be king himself. The article details Duke's plan by showing the suspicious food market movements that all had somehow a connection to his house. It claimed that the Duke allied himself with our neighbour country and in the war that would follow the Crown Prince's fall, the food would be scarce because of the movements and we would lose the war for the lack of food. The Duke would then slay the Royal Family with a proper and just cause and would become King.

The article also analyzed the complacency of the Royal Family for only knowing about the incident, and this was only because I told them so. And here is the part that I love the most from this article! Once my name appears in it, the author explains how I am just a victim of circumstances. How the King forced me to accept Marc's subordinates (...hehehe) and how I was involved in this plot when the Royal Family could send someone with more expertise than me.

In a few words, I am just a poor woman forced by the Royal Family.

Although until here the writer put me as a 'useless' woman, she after talks about Julia, and here friends, it's where the sh*t goes all out.

Starting with how her carelessness and stupidity causeD the death of five people and destroyed the Royal Family's plan, author-san put all the mistakes made by Julia in the last months. Little arguments in the academy, her closeness to other males, her disregard to proper conduct and royal works and a few small things were all included. Author-San then compares her with me. It's needless to say that I win with a large margin. Although I dislike being compared with Julia, it felt refreshing to see someone support me with full force.

The third pile is also related to the article, but instead of being full of rumours, these reports are about the safety of each member of the journal. After reading, I was sure that they would shut the journal down, and amazing author-san would suffer three layers of hell because of her article, so I warned them and put them under my wing. Fortunately, and unfortunately, author-San didn't show in the journal anymore. My men are still looking for clues about her so we can keep her safe from Albert's wrath.

The fourth and fifth files are about the impact that the whole thing had on our stores.

And thank God Lady Luck smiled for us once more!

IP's stores are with full force. Only a few products declined in its sells, but most are being sold at a steady pace. The ones who suffered the biggest fall in the charts were the squirrels' related products.

Although I had the urge to throw every product in a big fire, I decided against it. To honour all the time my subordinates spent and the materials used, I donated them to the orphanages and slums in the Royal Capital and its proximities.

The sixth was about Cerberus. Apparently, Fournier and another Duke had 4 more spies in the group each. We took confessions about both of the Duke's orders and from them started to investigate the events. A few others had malicious intent in the group, and they were executed or sent to the mines after a beating. With this, the overwhelming feelings of my Knights also settle down for once. The group that had 30 men now only had a bit more than half. They went back to their homes and were under the surveillance of Theo's team.

The seventh was the route and connections used by Fournier in his escape. We manage to track down most of it, and from them, we also gathered more evidence related to Fournier's wrong deeds. I will only read most of this pile and send to Father's and Brother's office.

And the eighth... I'm not sure what is, let me see...

*knock, knock*

Opening the door was Mary. Please God no! I can't handle any more documents!

Mary probably saw my desperation and quickly appeased me.

"M-Miss is not another pile of documents- "

"Oh, thank god! So what it is?"

"... I'm not sure is better though... hm... the Crown Prince summoned you to submit your report about the Parade"

Dear God, I'm deeply sorry to have complained about the pile of documents, please let me just handle them and you keep Albert out of my life.

"... must I really go?"

"I assume that Yes Miss. Master also sent a man to tell you to go"

"Haaa... I understand. Mary prepare the coach I'll be going to the Royal Palace now"

"Understood Miss"

"Do you want me to accompany you?"

My angel assistant offered me his hand, but unfortunately, I can't take it.

"I really do, but we both now that someone has to stay here to manage all this"

I pointed to the mountain of documents of both mine and his table.

"*sigh* I guess you are right. Be careful Ceci. I doubt the Crown Prince is happy with you now. Here is the reviewed report from the Parade"

"I know. I'll be going now, thanks for the report"

Taking the documents, I bravely left IP headquarters.