Episode 7 Does This Smell Strange?
Chapter 7 Does This Smell Strange?
From that day on, I went to work in the Emperor’s office every day with Count Milord.
It’s already been a week since I started playing in the field in earnest.
In the meantime, I’ve come to realize a lot, but the first is that I could die from being crushed by a pile of papers.
The Imperial Palace usually starts its duties at 9 am, but by noon alone, close to 1,000 documents are pouring in like a tide.
Without missing a single day!
Then it would have to be a bit easier even for afternoon work, but the reality wasn’t like that at all.
Similar to AM, or more than AM.
Only one of the two cases existed.
Even so, not only the Empress, but Flora, Mulia, and even Milrod never took a break during work hours. Because of that, I couldn’t rest and was busy playing snowball fights with types.
The second was that Empress Cecilia worked harder than expected.
As the head of the Eckhart Empire, it was natural in a way, but it was because she was quite the opposite of her appearance in the original work.
In her original work, she ruthlessly purged those who rebelled against her, and she enjoyed luxury and pleasure day after day. As a result, the life of the people of the empire fell into disaster, and the nobles who were fed up with this were busy leaving the empire.
As a result, the empire was invaded by neighboring countries and perished.
But looking at her work now, it was hard to imagine her.
That didn’t mean that Cecilia was a wise king.
Rather than embracing people, he had a certain likes and dislikes and had an awl-like aspect.
I especially felt that aspect a lot during the noble meeting.
As a result of attending three meetings and examining her atmosphere, she often had friction with the aristocratic faction. Rather than directly attacking her empress, the aristocratic faction complained about the work done by me and the staff in each of her departments.
It was because it was Cecilia’s will to carry out a staff change in her entire department.
As expected, nobles have a dark side somewhere. Not all of them are like that.
But in the case of Duke Montersen, an elder of the aristocratic faction, the story was different. He was the only duke of the Eckhart Empire and he was the oldest, so he had that much power.
The Duke believed in that power and often spoke directly about Cecilia’s policies. To be precise, it was much closer to criticism using a wrapper called direct speech.
Since Cecilia was also stubborn about the ideas she had once decided, the two often clashed.
“Whoa. That inspiration…….”
Once, as soon as Cecilia left the conference room, she touched her forehead and sighed.
“You have worked hard, Your Majesty.”
Earl Milord gave words of consolation as he noticed, and Cecilia briefly said,
“Yes.”
Was the answer.
Is that a trick you’ve learned over the years of working?
Count Milord has been Cecilia’s mother and former Empress Olivia’s direct secretary since the time when she was sitting on the throne as the emperor’s representative.
‘I’ll have to be careful like that from now on.’
Because I have to do this for the next year.
Besides that, there was one more thing to keep in mind.
Don’t show off during work, just do it quietly.
* * *
Today’s main task was to finalize the list of tax expenditures of the imperial family for the previous month posted by the Ministry of Finance.
“Everyone, take a close look so that there is no error.”
Before starting work, Cecilia asked us to be careful.
“I understand, Your Majesty!”
Cecilia first sat down on her throne, then her maids and I, Count Milord, went back to our respective seats.
After that, she started a long snowball fight with the numbers in the ledger.
I beat the abacus again and again to see if the calculation was correct…….
Fortunately, the wrong part of the calculation was not visible, so the work went smoothly.
“Luke. Check this out too.”
“Yes.”
What Count Milord handed over to me was the ledger for disbursements of Empress Cecilia’s personal funds.
As with other aristocratic families, noble women receive a monthly allowance. In other words, the maintenance cost of dignity.
In other words, money that can be spent freely to maintain dignity as a nobleman.
‘Let’s see how extravagant Cecilia has been.’
I checked the ledger carefully, feeling the thrill of peeking into someone else’s diary.
What?
I tilted my head.
You rarely buy luxury items?
At least, there were only earrings studded with obsidian and an emerald brooch.
Of course, both are expensive accessories for a low-class nobleman like me, but these were items that could be bought without much difficulty if the nobles were wealthy enough.
In a word, it could be said that he was quite frugal for an emperor of the empire.
But in fact, there was a separate list of expenses that stood out the most. More than half of my money went to orphanages and temples in the name of donations.
I think the donation amount is too big than I thought?
I was just trying to see how the money went. But in the ledger I received, there was not a single line related to it.
“Me, Count Milord.”
“What.”
Milrod didn’t take his eyes off the papers as he answered.
“I have a question.”
“What is that?”
Only then did he turn his head in this direction.
“Isn’t there a detailed list of donations listed here?”
“Why do you ask that? A donation is a donation.”
Earl Milord said it was not a big deal. But for me it was an unsatisfying answer.
“What are you obsessed with? This is a tradition that has been passed down from the past.”
“Are you spending your donations out of your own money?”
“Yes.”
There was an expression on his face asking why he bothered to mention this obvious thing.
But I couldn’t get rid of the uneasy feeling.
There is also an orphanage in our Nedville estate, and we sponsor it every month, but the former head of the orphanage embezzled the donation. Because of that, his father was very angry and grabbed the man by the collar and shook him wildly.
After that incident, I decided to get a ledger from the orphanage on how the donations were used, and that continues to this day.
That’s why the moment I saw this list, my doubts arose.
About whether donations are really well spent.
“What are you talking about?”
Then Cecilia showed interest in us.
“I was teaching because the newcomer seemed not familiar with the tradition of donating money to orphanages and temples.”
At that point, I thought Cecilia would reap her interest, but unexpectedly, she also asked me a question.
“Luke. Any more questions?”
The Count tapped his elbow on my side as if telling me to behave well.
What should I do?
You’re saying there’s no best answer here.
However, it was very intrusive to just close your eyes and move on with the non-transparent details.
What should I say about this feeling?
Should I say that my pride as a person who actually worked as a lord couldn’t tolerate this?
The worry didn’t last long.
“Your Majesty. May I ask how your donations are used?”
“I don’t know that. However, I trust them to spend their money where it is properly needed.”
Unexpectedly, there is a corner where you trust people’s conscience.
But that is a naive belief.
“Your Majesty. Can God dare to speak directly?”
Cecilia opened her mouth after a moment of silence.
“Yunheohaji.”
“I think we should get a ledger of how the donations were spent.”
“Whoa. The reason is?”
At this point, she stopped what Flora and Mullia were doing and looked this way. Next to me, Count Milord was pulling my collar as if telling me to stop.
But you can’t stop after doing this.
“Because we cannot rule out the possibility that they may embezzle donations. Since a similar incident occurred in the estate where I live a few years ago, I have been receiving a monthly account of the use of donations.”
“Hmm… ….”
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The Empress clutched her chin and let out a low moan.
Ah, did you just say me?
I heard a sigh from the side. I rolled my eyes to the side of her, and saw the count holding his forehead.
I know. That I just made things more of a headache.
But I couldn’t let go of this awkward feeling.
Because money is more important than anything else!
“Your point is also valid.”
Huh? You accept this?
Her fisheye looked at her with her dazed eyes, then she cast her gaze down in haste. Facing Cecilia’s bloody eyes was still difficult for me.
“It has been our policy so far not to get involved in how the donations are used, but…… It would be good to do a major overhaul at this point.”
“I agree, Your Majesty!”
Flora as well as Mulia agreed with Cecilia’s opinion.
“They told me to remove the horns as well. Luke.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I will also assign some employees from the Treasury Department to conduct a complete investigation with Count Milord.”
Anyway, it seems that I am not destined to be a quiet halfway in the imperial palace.
* * *
After work, Earl Milord said,
“Because of you, ha… ….”
He shook his head with a sigh. Well, this time I didn’t have anything to say even if I had ten mouths, so I listened to his complaints.
The next day, Count Milord and I, along with two treasury officials, went out of the palace to check the orphanage’s books.
Fortunately, the empress lent me a carriage for work, so I was able to travel comfortably.
“There are 10 places to visit today.”
Count Milord muttered as he sat cross-legged in the carriage, looking at the paper.
“Is it too far from here?”
“It will take a while because I have to go to the suburbs.”
The count answered my question kindly.
After that, there was silence in the carriage. The two men from the Treasury Department didn’t seem particularly interested in mingling with us, and neither did I.
I threw my gaze out the window. The well-maintained streets and neatly dressed passers-by came into view.
‘Come to think of it, Emma was curious about Dellerson, right?’
It has already been three weeks since I started living in a foreign country.
There were times when I missed my family or life in the manor. I’ll have to write a letter to Emma from her later when I’m done with work.
After traveling for about 40 minutes, we arrived at the first orphanage.
The orphanage director who greeted us outside immediately cringed when Milord introduced himself.
“Yes, it will be better. But why did you come to this humble place?”
“Ah, nothing else, I came to find out how the donations sponsored by the imperial family were used.”
“Gi, donation, you mean… ….”
The head of the orphanage suddenly blurted out his words and looked at us.
“There is no separate ledger… ….”
I think we should take a look at this orphanage.
I conveyed these thoughts to Count Milord. He nodded his head once and spoke to the orphanage director.
“Then I guess I’ll have to go inside and see if the donation was properly spent.”
“Now, wait a minute, get better!”
The head of the orphanage blocked our path, visibly embarrassed.
Looking at this attitude, my doubts turned into certainties. The guy who embezzled donations from our estate had exactly the same reaction.
“We came here with His Majesty’s edict. Can we take it as a sign of disobedience to blocking our path?”
I stepped in this time, and the orphanage director’s face became contemplative. However, perhaps thanks to the mention of the name, he quietly stepped aside.
Me and the Count, along with two Treasury officials, checked the operation of the orphanage. In the orphanage’s room, there were many colorful items, but the children were wearing rags.
There were about half of the skinny children, as if they weren’t even providing proper meals.
“Did you embezzle donations frugally?”
I said it in a sarcastic way, and the orphanage director fell flat.
“Sa, save me, I will be better.”
But looking at that servile figure, I could only snort.
“You should have done well from the beginning.”
-Continued