CH 2

༺ I’m a Civil Servant (2) ༻

After being kidnapped by a Demon King called Minister, the Princess in the form of Executive Manager managed to escape on his own and return.

“I’m home.”

“Welcome. You came earlier today.”

“It seems like the old man’s stamina has gone down. That’s why he shouldn’t get that angry so often.”

While I was replying to the Senior Manager, four Managers that were sitting with him tried to stand up. But I waved my hand and made them sit again.

“It’s fine. There’s no need to stand up.”

“You’ve  been scolded by the minister instead of us, so this is the bare minimum.”

“You son of a bitch, stand up.”

The 2nd Manager provoked the Executive Manager as he applied pressure on him with his power. It was a complete mess. But it seemed like they were familiar with each other, so they settled down while laughing. After I sat down at the head of the table, the 5 people present saluted me. I also nodded while checking out the members present there. Senior Manager, 1st Manager, 2nd Manager, 3rd Manager, 4th Manager, and 5th Manager. Good, everyone’s here.

“Good, my dear fellow slaves. I apologize for calling you out when the time to get off work is right before us.”

“I have a date. Is it urgent?”

“Just because of what you’ve said, you will be on duty.”

“Fuck.”

As the 2nd Manager, who shouldn’t have talked that much closed his mouth while making a depressed expression, I waved a piece of document. The reason why I was called to the room of the Minister and why I called the executives right before it was time to get off work. While coming here, I tried to control my desire to tear it down.

“Can you see this?”

“I’m not sure what that is, but I can see it’s a ministerial post.”

“What’s the content? It’s been a while since we all gathered here.”

“It’s the beautiful piece of art you guys did that made me waste 2 hours of my time.”

I threw the documents. As if they represented my entangled heart, they danced in the air but ended up falling exactly at the center of the table. The executives checked the contents of the documents and turned their faces around. The Senior Manager sighed, and the other Managers either coughed or did their best to avoid looking at me directly.

“Who took the lead on investigating Earl Yorun?”

I opened my mouth after looking at them. I resembled one of those parents who seemed to be saying, ‘If you tell me the truth, I won’t punish you.’

“I… I did it.”

The 3rd Manager carefully raised his hands. I smiled gracefully while looking at the culprit speaking out.

“You listen while banging your head into the ground.”

“Yes…”

Everyone knows that I wouldn’t let it slide even if they answered the ultimatum. But if they didn’t recognize their mistake, they probably wouldn’t be able to handle the aftermath. The 3rd Manager stood up and banged his head into the ground while tearing up. The other Managers did their best to avoid being burned because of it.

Although it was something that the 3rd Manager had executed, it didn’t change the fact that everyone had taken part in it. So I glared at them and sighed. 

“Dear fellow slaves. Our job, indeed, is to become a hunting dog. But if you bit anyone without thinking about it carefully, instead of fellow slaves, I’ll have to say, dear son of the bitches.”

The sector I was in charge of. 

The prosecutor’s office was in charge of controlling the imperial treasury. On paper, it was an organization whose only higher-ups were the Minister of Treasury and the Emperor.

And just like I had said before, we were like hunting dogs. We had to control the flow of money, keep an eye on the Empire’s budget, and stop if something illegal was detected.

The Prosecutors were so important that one couldn’t help but wonder if it was okay for such an organization to be under the control of the Minister of Treasury instead of the King.

And if we picked the wrong target, we would receive criticism from all directions.

“This month, after Yorun’s Earl’s hand was cut, many higher-ups have also become affected.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Because of that, the Gold Duke has expressed his concerns to the Minister.”

“…”

The Senior Manager, who’d been silent, flinched after hearing the name Gold Duke. He glared at the 3rd Manager. He’d heard that an Earl had become affected because they’d selected the wrong target. But if he knew that the Gold Duke was also involved, he would’ve stopped them before the Minister called me.

“What did the Gold Duke…?”

“You know he’s crazy about money. Right? Rather than punishing the person in charge, he wants monetary compensation.”

“I have a list of families that compete against the Gold Duke’s faction. To what sector should I give this?”

“3rd.”

After I said that, the 3rd Manager stood up. I wasn’t looking at him with merciful eyes. But what else can I do? The 3rd sector was the perfect one for this job.

“You should clean your shit by yourself. Right?”

“Yes. Yes, of course.”

“The Gold Duke isn’t someone who cares as long as we can cover his losses. So do your best.”

“I won’t forget what happened today, and be more careful from now on.”

“Good, you’re free to go.”

The 3rd Minister quickly walked out. Despite being big and muscular, he was quite fast. It made me wonder if he’d put all his stats into Agility. Was it because he received less resistance from the air because it was hollow?

“Everyone else, be careful too. If something like this happens again, you’re all also going to be blamed equally.”

After I waved my hands, the other Managers could finally walk away from the room. They were probably going to unleash their anger against others after they reached the office. But that was not my concern. If they’d done their job properly, something like this wouldn’t have happened.

When I first entered the public sector, I was careful even about falling leaves. But the new ones were too careless. I didn’t like how they did their j…

“Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s just that I remembered the past.”

The Senior Manager, who was about to walk out, turned around and asked. I smiled and just told him to leave. I was scared about the condescending elderly attitude.

The 4 years of working as a civil servant had messed him up…! He was just 21 years old, yet how dark of an evolution was he going to have that he already got thoughts like that?!

‘Should I take the money and escape?’

Then he would definitely be able to escape life as a Civil Servant, but his life would be over too. Even if he had a good family background, the prosecutor escaping with money was a huge crime.

His new life ending with execution was too bad. He hadn’t resisted so much until now to have such a horrible ending.

I looked at the sunset from the window. The reunion had ended quicker than expected. But I had called them before the time to get off work. So it was already past that hour.

Thanks to this, I had successfully failed to go back home on time for 40 consecutive days. With whom should I share this happiness?

Maybe it was because a Duke was involved, but the situation ended up quicker than expected. The Minister said the Gold Duke was satisfied after seeing four competing families crumble.

I was already thinking about how I should blow them away. But a reason appeared. So I couldn’t help but enjoy while looking at them get blown away. They did a good job if they tried. So why not do a good job from the beginning?

“So… Most of the money we confiscated was given to the Yorun Earl. We gave it to him after washing it a couple of times. So it’s not going to cause any problems in the future.”

A few days later, I clapped after hearing a satisfying result. Yes, our kids could do a good job when they try.

“As expected, how well the 3rd Manager deals with his job never fails to surprise me.”

“Executive Manager, you said you wanted to cast him away because the only thing that shone from him was his head.”

“Shut up.”

“Sob…”

I quickly interrupted the 1st Manager mid-sentence, who was trying to break the trust and friendship between a higher-up and his subordinate. 

The 1st Manager had suddenly revealed internal stuff, the 2nd  Manager laughed while touching his hair, the 3rd Manager’s head shone silently, and the 5th Manager was looking at the ground. The 3rd Manager’s trembled while clenching his teeth after suddenly becoming the center of making fun.

Only the 1st Manager tilted his head in confusion while looking at the 3rd Manager. The worst part about him was that he didn’t have ill intentions.

Because the topic was changing about the 3rd Manager’s lack of hair, I hit the table a few times. 

“Stop making fun of the guy who came here after working hard.”

“But it was just the Executive Manager and the 1st Director who talked. We didn’t say anything.”

“You have so much hair that just your presence is like making fun of him.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Then…”

Oops, I was supposed to stop this.

“Anyway, 3rd Manager, good job. You know you were lucky this time, right?”

“Yes. Well, all the necessary documents to execute the plan were already prepared. So I was able to do it quickly.”

“Not that. But if you’re going to have some issue with a Duke, it’s better for it to be with the Gold Duke.”

“Ah…”

The 3rd Manager nodded in agreement. It would be better not to have any incident with a Duke. But if it were inevitable, the best possible outcome would be the Gold Duke. Because among the five Dukes of the Empire, he was the only one close to a normal person. In many ways, the other four were worse than the others.

“If you got into trouble with another Duke, I will offer you to the Duke with my own hands. So don’t worry.”

“Eh? That’s worrying…”

“If you don’t like it, change to another sector. If you can.”

I heard them cursing me, but it didn’t matter. Because I also cursed the Minister a lot.

Of course, I did that in a place where I couldn’t be heard. 2nd Manager, you’re doing overtime again today