Chapter 8

Blenn let out a hollow breath.

That damned superior. What kind of meeting had he sat through to wager someone else’s salary as collateral?

“Got it. I’m a bit busy right now, so I’ll hang up.”

Blenn let out a heavy sigh.

Rainer’s salary as minister was bound to be substantial. Since he spent all his time buried in work and never indulged in any luxuries, there were even rumors floating around the palace that he had piles of money stockpiled at home.

On top of that, as far as Blenn knew, Rainer came from a noble family. Naturally, going without a year’s worth of pay probably wouldn’t cause him any real problems.

Blenn, however, was an ordinary citizen and civil servant who lived off his monthly salary.

The ministers who had been holding a grudge against Rainer must have baited him into this.

So this wasn’t the time to sit around cursing Rainer.

There wasn’t much time left until the deadline Rainer had set. If Blenn couldn’t resolve the matter in time, earning Rainer’s trust would be the least of his worries. He would be permanently marked in Rainer’s bad books, and on top of that, his entire year’s salary would be gone.

And if this became established as a major blunder on the part of the Magic Department, who knew what kind of reprimand might come down from the Imperial Department? Not to mention the immediate backlash from the ministers of the other departments.

And his project to prevent Rainer’s death from overwork would come to a grinding halt right then and there.

All the effort he had put into avoiding that miserable ending could turn to dust.

Blenn moved to another location.

It was the exact area where Hernon had said he detected the faint magical response around 6:07. It was quite a distance from the breached section.

Blenn examined the area in the same way as before, but he couldn’t find anything unusual.

Anxiety began creeping in.

But Blenn calmed himself and forced himself to think rationally. He desperately tried to recall every possibility he could think of based on that strange sense of wrongness he had felt earlier.

The moment Blenn unconsciously took a step, a faint crunch sounded beneath his foot.

It sounded like stepping on coarse sand at a beach.

The ground surrounding the barrier was flat and covered in grass, so the sound was strangely out of place.

Blenn carefully lifted his foot and examined the ground.

When he ran his fingers over the spot where the sound had come from, he felt several tiny, shattered fragments.

He gathered the scattered pieces together.

Once collected, there was actually quite a considerable amount.

“…”

Blenn was staring at the fragments in his hand when footsteps sounded behind him.

“Sir Aide.”

Blenn slowly stood up.

Hernon and Karbin approached him, concern visible on their faces.

“Did you find anything?”

At Hernon’s question, Blenn shook his head awkwardly.

“If it’s an intruder sent by another nation, they would have deliberately selected someone with considerable skill. Catching them won’t be easy.”

Karbin also looked worried.

He added that the Barrier Division would help in any way they could.

“Thank you. Oh, by the way, I’d like to see Senior Seiden again. Is he inside?”

“Yes. Please follow me.”

Hernon gestured toward the building.

The two led the way while Blenn followed behind.

Just then, his feet tangled together and his body lurched forward.

“Sir Aide, are you all right?”

“Are you okay?”

Hernon and Karbin both grabbed Blenn by the arms at the same time, supporting him from either side.

“…You two just saved me. Thank you.”

Blenn let out a relieved breath and gave them an embarrassed smile.

What exactly was I supposed to get done today?

Aside from the issues concerning the magical tool, he had to review the records of those who had recently obtained their magic licenses.

He also needed to check the list of magical beasts captured by the Knights.

On top of that, he had to finalize the revised barrier formula for another border region.

And there was a mountain of other work besides that.

Rainer leaned back in his chair, mentally going over the work he would normally have already completed and how far he should have progressed by this point in the day.

He stared blankly into empty space, his expression utterly stoic and overflowing with boredom.

“…Minister! Magic Minister!”

A sharp voice shattered Rainer’s thoughts.

Rainer lowered his gaze and looked at the Justice Minister, who was fuming directly in front of him.

“What on earth are you doing in the middle of this meeting?! I’ve called your name several times! Why aren’t you responding?!”

“I was lost in thought for a moment.”

The Justice Minister let out an exasperated sigh.

“And who exactly is this meeting being held for that you can afford to zone out in the middle of it?”

“Did I breach the barrier? Why is everyone making such a fuss when I’m not the one who caused this?”

“It happened because the Magic Department, which you lead, failed to do its job properly!”

The Treasury Minister immediately picked up where the Justice Minister left off.

“Whether it was a foreign assassin or someone else, the fact remains that the Magic Department allowed an intruder to enter and failed to prevent something potentially harmful to the Helioleon Empire. Besides, didn’t you say that you personally oversaw this barrier revision, Minister? So even a barrier created by the great genius mage can be breached this easily? Or did you simply do a sloppy job?”

Rainer’s eyebrow twitched.

When he sharply raised his eyes and stared at the Treasury Minister, the man immediately shouted,

“Wh-What are you looking at me like that for?!”

His voice was loud, but he couldn’t actually meet Rainer’s gaze and quickly looked away.

“Just thinking about what an intruder might do after entering the empire gives me a headache. Surely you remember, Minister Rainer, that a few years ago, a foreign spy was caught attempting to steal critical imperial secrets?”

When even the Foreign Affairs Minister joined in, Rainer slowly released the breath he had been holding.

At that, all four ministers flinched simultaneously.

“Which is why I believe I already told you that my aide is currently at the Magic Department resolving the matter. If your hearing is failing, perhaps you should see a doctor.”

“If the intrusion happened in the early hours of yesterday morning, what exactly is an aide supposed to accomplish by remaining at the scene?”

The Foreign Affairs Minister questioned him.

“I’ll have it resolved by four o’clock, before you ministers leave the palace.”

The Treasury Minister’s lips curled into a smile.

His expression clearly said, Now we’re getting somewhere.

“And what if you can’t?”

He leaned forward.

“What responsibility will you take, right here and now? You’ll have to give us something we can trust. Otherwise, how can the rest of us feel at ease?”

“…What do you want?”

Rainer’s expression hardened.

“Stop dancing around the point and say it plainly.”

“If your aide doesn’t resolve the matter by four, how about we confiscate both of your salaries for an entire year?”

The other ministers looked at the Treasury Minister in surprise.

Salary forfeiture was one of the disciplinary measures used within the palace.

The punishment itself wasn’t particularly severe. However, having to continue working without pay for a set period was considered a fairly humiliating form of discipline among imperial personnel.

The Treasury Minister’s true intention had little to do with the severity of the punishment itself.

He simply wanted to humiliate the Magic Minister by whatever means necessary.

And Rainer knew exactly what was going through his mind.

For a man old enough to know better, and a minister entrusted with leading one of the empire’s departments no less, to openly engage in such childish behavior was nothing short of pathetic.

“What? Does even that not sit well with you?”

The Treasury Minister sneered.

Rainer’s eyebrow twitched again.

“…Fine.”

Rainer’s voice was cold.

“If we can’t resolve it by four, both my aide and I will accept the salary forfeiture penalty. For one year.”

The Treasury Minister nodded with satisfaction.

He clearly thought he had won.

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

Rainer slowly rose from his seat.

The moment he left the conference room, he intended to warp straight to the Third Border Region.

He had granted Blenn permission to handle the matter, but that had only been a temporary measure.

The meeting was practically over, and the salary forfeiture had already been agreed upon.

So he intended to go there himself and help.

“Where do you think you’re going? The Magic Minister is to remain here until four o’clock.”

The Treasury Minister stopped him.

“Save the jokes.”

“Jokes, you say?”

The Treasury Minister sneered.

“Didn’t you just say it yourself, Minister? That your aide is currently working hard to resolve the matter. Then shouldn’t you leave it to that aide?”

“How old are you, Minister of Treasury, to be engaging in such childish wordplay?”

“Wh-What did you just say…?!”

The moment the age jab landed, the Treasury Minister’s face turned beet red.

The Justice Minister hurriedly waved a hand as though trying to calm him down.

“We’ve tolerated your high-handed behavior toward us without raising any objections all this time. But now that the Magic Department has committed such a major blunder, we cannot simply accept you acting entirely on your own as you please.”

He continued in a stern voice.

“Furthermore, if the barrier involved in this incident was personally maintained by you, it would be wise to defer to the collective opinion. If you continue being this uncooperative, we’ll have no choice but to file a report with the Imperial Department as well.”

The Administrative Minister, who rarely said much during meetings in the first place, simply watched the situation unfold in silence.

“And who exactly is being uncooperative when it comes to this matter?”

Rainer made no attempt to hide his displeasure.

He already knew exactly what the Treasury Minister was after.

The intruder had broken through the barrier in the early hours of the previous day.

A considerable amount of time had already passed, so the man clearly believed that leaving a single aide behind to handle the matter alone would be impossible.

He probably also assumed that the Knights would eventually catch the intruder anyway.

In other words, the Treasury Minister wasn’t genuinely concerned about the seriousness of the incident.

What he wanted was a situation in which the aide inevitably failed, forcing Rainer to suffer humiliation.

Above all, the barrier revision was Rainer’s recent work, and this incident had occurred not long afterward.

“There’s no need to get so worked up. Just wait and see.”

The Treasury Minister smiled.

“Do you not trust your aide, Minister?”

“…”

Trust him?

Naturally, he didn’t.

Rainer had never been the type to trust people easily in the first place.

He hadn’t handed the task to Blenn because he trusted him.

He had simply left it to Blenn temporarily to shut up the old fossils who had latched onto this incident and were making a commotion over it.

There was no way a 3rd Class member could resolve the matter perfectly within such a short period.

No matter what the ministers said, and regardless of whether they reported the matter to the Imperial Department, Rainer had intended to simply walk out.

But the moment Rainer took a step forward, Blenn’s words surfaced in his mind.

“I’m a member of the Magic Department and your aide, Lord Rainer. Aren’t we supposed to be a pair that cooperates and moves as one?”

The expression Blenn had worn when he declared that he would resolve the matter had been ordinary.

But there had been a strangely powerful determination in his eyes.

Rainer sat back down.

The Treasury Minister wore a satisfied expression.

The meeting finally reached its conclusion around one in the afternoon.

Rainer used a communication crystal to instruct the Magic Department members to send Blenn to the conference room the moment he arrived.

Time crawled by.

Rainer kept his brow deeply furrowed, running a hand through his hair more times than he could count.

The fact that he was wasting hours in which he could have completed several tasks perfectly was unbearably frustrating.

One hour passed.

Then another.

Three o’clock came and went, yet there was still no sign of the conference room door opening.

As the Magic Minister remained seated, the Treasury Minister’s expression gradually brightened.

Before long, the clock showed 3:55.

“…”

Rainer silently stared at the door.

3:56.

3:57.

3:58.

“Seems like four o’clock was a bit too ambitious after all.”

“…”

Rainer didn’t respond to the Treasury Minister’s mockery.

3:59.

“Well then, shall we wrap things up…?”

Creak.

“I was told to come here. Is this the right place?”

One minute before four, the conference room door opened.

Blenn appeared.

Beside him stood another member dressed in the Magic Department uniform.

The other ministers clearly hadn’t anticipated this turn of events at all.

Their eyes widened.

The Administrative Minister even openly stared at the Treasury Minister, whose face was frozen in obvious shock.

“And you are?”

the Administrative Minister asked.

“Ah, I’m Blenn. I’m a 3rd Class member of the Magic Department and the Magic Minister’s aide.”

Blenn smiled.

“I’ve apprehended the culprit responsible for the barrier incident and… come to deliver my report.”

“H-Hold on!”

The Treasury Minister shouted.

“Then where’s the intruder? And why is it only Magic Department members?!”

“There was no intruder from the beginning.”

Blenn calmly looked toward the silent Rainer.

“This member is the one who orchestrated the entire incident.”

Then Blenn smiled.

“I made it within the time limit.”

Rainer stared fixedly at Blenn’s face.

And, ever so slightly, the corners of his lips curved upward.