The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 22

Fron Polariwood, the Empress of the Empire.

Before becoming Empress, she had been called "Sir Fron," the towering female knight.

The Emperor’s first love and the biological mother of Prince Jaden.

'Her Majesty the Empress isn’t a Dragonblood. But still, she’s royalty.'

She had no refinement or elegance due to her background as a bottom-rung mercenary, so her reputation was in tatters!

She had no political skills, hadn’t built any factions!

She was disrespected from all sides!

'Still, she’s royalty who can save a petty criminal with just a word!'

Originally, she was framed as the culprit behind the Kiaros assassination attempt.

Afterward, she declared she would prove her innocence by dying—and committed suicide.

'The absolute worst choice. Someone who’d rather use her life than her head...'

Right now, everyone was probably thinking the Empress was the most likely suspect.

Because the motive was so clear.

If Kiaros, the son from the Emperor’s first marriage, were dead, her own son, Prince Jaden, could become the Crown Prince.

'But Her Majesty the Empress had nothing to do with the war plot.'

She was someone I had only ever seen from a very far distance.

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Still, thinking about the original story, I suddenly felt sorry for her.

If nothing was done, she would end up wrongfully accused.

'If I save Her Majesty the Empress, it’ll be something different from saving His Highness the Crown Prince.'

Kiaros had said to me that he would "compensate" me.

He never said he would "grant whatever I wished."

But the Empress was originally someone who acted impulsively without worrying about the consequences.

'For some reason, it feels like Her Majesty the Empress would say she'll grant me anything!'

It would be good to save someone falsely accused, and it would be good to have Her Majesty owe me a debt.

'And if I save Her Majesty the Empress... it will definitely help His Highness the Crown Prince. He won’t waste time fumbling around over the war’s real culprit.'

If so, maybe I would get another chance to meet Kiaros.

I was organizing the information I needed to deliver to the Crown Prince in my head when—

'Wait. Exactly when does Her Majesty the Empress get caught?'

Surely, she would get arrested clumsily, caught in the act.

There should still be some time left according to the original.

'I think the cause of her arrest was...'

In the original, the process wasn’t described in detail.

It just said, in one short line, that it happened "because of a report by a Scroll Management Department employee."

I couldn’t possibly know more than what was in the original...

'Oh? Wait.'

I flinched, realizing.

'...But that’s our department, isn’t it?'

A delayed shock hit me.

'That’s really weird?'

Let’s go over it again: our department staff had always been the lowest-scoring people even from the time they were hired. Naturally, a sense of defeat filled the department.

Even when someone tried to do something seriously, it would only turn into a laughingstock.

Everyone was uniformly lethargic. Myself included.

'There’s no way a proactive, energetic talent who’d report a suspicious royal exists in our department!'

Outsiders wouldn’t «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» know.

But as a member of that organization, I could tell.

'I guarantee there’s no such person! Anyone like that would’ve quit already!'

A report? As if.

Even if someone were doing something shady right in front of them, everyone would just pretend not to see it to avoid getting involved in something troublesome.

'Who is it? Who could it be? The person who filed that report...'

There was one variable, though.

In the original timeline, Kiaros should already be dead by now. But today, he had flipped the Scroll Management Department upside down.

'A cold wind is going to blow through soon. Maybe I’ll get fired from the palace entirely? Then maybe Her Majesty won’t get arrested either?'

I was frantically working my brain as I stepped out of the Administrative Support Department.

Suddenly, the outside grew noisy.

"Oh my, oh my!"

"Goodness gracious..."

The people who had been working had now gathered tightly by the windows.

A bad feeling crept over me.

I squeezed through them and asked urgently.

"What’s going on?"

The answer came easily.

"Goodness. Her Majesty the Empress is being dragged away. They say she’s been arrested in the act."

No way.

My mouth dropped open and I blinked.

'Already?'

The Empress had been arrested much earlier than in the original story.

I turned around and started running.

'Was it again because of a report by a Scroll Management Department employee?'

I ran until I was out of breath, heading straight to the Scroll Management Department.

The department I reported to every day.

'No way... is it really our department?'

The atmosphere at the Scroll Management Department was much like at the Administrative Support Department.

Employees were crowded by the windows, watching the Empress being arrested.

"What in the world..."

"Come to think of it, it makes sense that Her Majesty would see His Highness the Crown Prince as an eyesore. She has Prince Jaden, after all."

"I mean, no matter how much affection His Majesty the Emperor has for her..."

But looking closer, I noticed the employees were gathering around someone.

"I mean, how did you even notice?"

"You saw her secretly buying poison yourself?"

"Sharp eyes... well, considering how huge Her Majesty is, it must have been easy to recognize her."

"It’s not just recognizing her. You even overheard that she was planning to buy it this afternoon and reported it in advance!"

The man who claimed he witnessed the Empress buying poison while hiding her identity on the black market—and even gave them the exact time to raid the scene.

'That man is really from our department?'

I approached them to hear more closely.

'Could it be... the Minister? He did get the most under-the-table money, after all. Yeah, it must be the Minister.'

For the first time in a while, my brain was whirring.

Originally, Her Majesty had made several trips to the black market collecting poisons.

Of course, it wasn’t because she wanted to harm Kiaros, but no one would believe that.

'He must’ve known but kept quiet, and now that he’s about to get fired, he blew the whistle out of desperation?'

That would make sense.

But the person answering the others wasn’t the Minister.

"Well, I just reported it, that’s all... Don’t make a big deal about it. I don’t like attention."

I blinked at the man smiling in the crowd.

He was definitely the one who filed the report, but it felt unreal.

He leisurely crossed his arms, then noticed me.

"Namia? I thought you were going to leave immediately? That’s what I heard from the Crown Prince’s office."

The informant was none other than my direct boss.

The Inventory Team Leader, Oson.

'Good heavens.'

I froze completely for a moment.

It was just too unexpected.

'Oson... the pinnacle of playing it safe, the one who hated standing out, one of the most notorious for avoiding trouble in the entire palace... and he reported a royal?'

I had worked under Oson ever since I was hired.

I tried to hide my shock and stared blankly at his smiling face.

Memories of our time together came flooding back.

[Team Leader, how about changing the format of the reports starting this year?]

[Why bother? If something goes wrong, will you take responsibility?]

[But there’s no room for mistakes...]

[If the Minister misunderstands because of a changed format, that’s a problem. Just stay quiet. Stop trying to stand out.]

He would reject anything even slightly more efficient.

[Team Leader, I finished the report the Minister asked for.]

[Oh, good job. Ah, but why is your name on it? Change it to mine.]

[...Huh?]

[I told you to do it. That means I did it. What are you waiting for? Erase your name.]

Any achievement that seemed decent, he claimed for himself.

Oson was lethargic himself but had a knack for making his subordinates lethargic too.

[Namia, I’m stepping out for a bit. Tell anyone looking for me that I’m in the restroom.]

[Team Leader? You need to send out that paperwork by this afternoon...]

[You handle it. The Minister doesn’t even read it closely anyway.]

[I don’t even know what the content is, Team Leader. If something goes wrong, it’ll all be blamed on me...]

[Sheesh, don’t be so petty. We’re colleagues, aren’t we? Anyway, I’m leaving.]

Anything good was his credit, anything bad was my fault.

'What do I do... seriously, what do I do.'

I slowly covered my mouth.

I tried desperately to stop my hands from trembling.

'If I solve this by saving Her Majesty the Empress, Oson is going to get completely wiped out too...'

I lowered my head to hide my expression.

I had to somehow suppress the laughter bubbling up.

'Oh my god, this is the best!'