The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Episode 1】

The world wasn’t a place that would change just because one orphan-born empress went on a rampage.

Ensilen only realized this obvious yet futile truth when death was right before her eyes.

‘I was just having an arrogant dream for a moment. Bewitched by the Emperor’s empty words…’

Ensilen had no proper backing, but with ability alone, she became a full professor at the National Academy.

If nothing special had happened, she would have grown old and died at the academy.

“I read the research paper you presented to the academic society. It was quite impressive. I thought this was exactly the direction the Empire should take.”

“Won’t you try changing the Empire with me? I’m asking if you’d like to unfold your ideals.”

Because she thought the Emperor truly wanted to change the Empire, she accepted his proposal and became Empress.

Afterwards, Ensilen stripped the Temple of its tax exemption benefits, collected additional taxes from the upper class to help the poor.

She created an audit system to prevent corruption.

Then attacks from the existing privileged class followed one after another.

However, when normal methods didn’t work, they created all sorts of rumors to torment Ensilen.

Starting with rumors that her research paper was plagiarized, to rumors that she lived a debauched life with the taxes she collected.

All kinds of infamy stuck to Ensilen.

Still, up to this point, it was what she had expected.

‘Who would have thought the Emperor would turn his back on me so quickly.’

What she hadn’t expected was the Emperor’s behavior.

The Emperor acted as if all those attacks were something she had to endure alone.

“I don’t know what you expect from me. Haven’t I given you sufficient authority as you wished? Or are you telling me to confront all the nobles on your behalf?”

From some point on, he found her bothersome and stopped visiting.

People whispered that Ensilen had been abandoned by the Emperor.

‘How wicked must her personality be to be abandoned even by her husband, they said.’

Everyone treated her like a puppet empress, and some even spoke of her imminent deposition.

Finally, bribed maids poisoned Ensilen’s meals, and her personal physician only repeated that she was perfectly fine.

Ensilen, who tried to unfold her ideals even with her deteriorating body.

Only just before her breath was cut off did she realize the futility of life.

‘If I had known it would turn out like this, I should have been lazy sometimes, and lived with enough leisure to at least notice the changing seasons.’

Because she had been working constantly, she only now realized that the flowers planted outside her window had withered.

Why had she wasted time suffering hardships that no one acknowledged?

‘Life is truly fleeting.’

Thus, Ensilen, who met her lonely death in a bedroom where no one came.

3 years later.

“Following orders from above, we have decided on a transfer to the Special Tax Bureau as your final disciplinary action. This measure takes effect immediately, so report to your assigned department right away. Understood?”

She opened her eyes in the body of Rianel, a low-level civil servant who had caused trouble and received a disciplinary transfer.

‘Even if you live life earnestly, things don’t go as you wish.’

She came to reflect on the truth of her second life.

‘Whatever, let’s just live life carelessly.’

She was sincere.

* * *

Meanwhile, the quiet Special Tax Bureau Office became noisy.

“What? Why is that woman coming here?”

Rianel Vincenheim.

Because news spread that a woman who became a civil servant through connections using House of Vincenheim as her background was coming.

“I heard the Ministry of Finance couldn’t handle her anymore?”

“Failure to perform duties was basic, and her work attitude was a mess too. Whenever given tasks, she would either argue or perform them sloppily, so they had to write instructions as official documents.”

“Wow, is our department name finally changing? From Special Tax Bureau to Special Dispute Bureau?”

No one was pleased.

If someone had caused problems in another department, there was a high possibility they’d be a troublemaker here too.

However, there was no way to refuse.

“…I’m just not going to make eye contact. Then I won’t get into arguments, right?”

“Me too. Why bother getting tired? Let’s just treat her like she’s there but not there.”

* * *

“Now, this is our new employee joining our department. Everyone please give her a warm welcome.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Rianel.”

“Let’s see, your seat will be over there… Mel, please look after this new employee. Your hiring years are similar too.”

Team leader Torban dumped Rianel on Mel as if passing off a burden and returned to his seat.

“Uh… could you sit and wait for a moment? I’m a bit busy right now.”

Mel was a man wearing thick-rimmed glasses, with a bland and ordinary impression. After showing Rianel her seat, he sat back at his desk and focused on work.

But his eyes were half-glazed, like someone whose soul was elsewhere.

‘Hmm…’

This wasn’t just Mel’s problem. The entire department was noisy and chaotic.

The reason became clear quickly.

“Who brought the transit tax? This isn’t our jurisdiction!”

“Sorry! I’ll forward the relevant documents to the appropriate department!”

“Damn, we’re going to get scolded during this performance report too.”

Among people busily moving around and shouting.

An ordinary new employee would have frozen and been unable to do anything.

But Rianel, being a workaholic in her previous life, quickly grasped the situation.

‘The third quarter performance deadline must be right around the corner.’

Rianel, who had been sitting alone and isolated, stood up.

Unable to stay still and seeking work was an instinct deeply ingrained in Rianel’s spine.

It was the result of choosing to step forward and handle work herself rather than swallowing anxiety next to an Emperor who didn’t care what happened to the Empire.

‘I was bored anyway…’

“Is there anything I can help with?”

Mel answered without looking to the side.

“Uh… could you bring some documents from the basement storage? Here’s the list.”

Rianel nodded and went down to the storage to find the relevant documents.

“Here they are.”

“Thank y… whoa, you startled me.”

Mel, who was so surprised upon seeing Rianel that his chair rattled, cleared his throat and pulled his chair closer.

“Ahem, thank you.”

“Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”

“Ah, then…”

Eventually, Mel gave another instruction while gauging Rianel’s reaction.

“This just requires checking quantities – could you go down to the storage and verify them?”

When Rianel, who they expected to resist, not only handled tasks without complaint but did so at an exceptional speed.

“Here it is.”

People who had been gauging the situation also began to put Rianel to work one by one.

“Me, me too! Do mine too!”

“This just requires looking at data and filling in quantities…”

Being busy, they weren’t in a position to be picky based on rumors.

“Is this also possible?”

Eventually.

“This is the liquor tax collection ledger. Could you cross-check it with the vouchers? Just confirm if there are any missing parts or incorrectly written sections.”

Even work of a completely different nature was thrown at Rianel.

Liquor tax refers to the tax imposed on all alcohol distributed in the Empire.

A collection ledger is a book that separately organizes only the records of money collected.

Since the Special Tax Bureau was a place that managed collected taxes, it handled various types of taxes.

Each tax had separate ledgers, and the points requiring attention were all different, making errors likely even with small mistakes.

Therefore, organizing tax ledgers was work given only to experienced seniors.

To Rianel, whose difficulty gauge was broken, it seemed like a good pastime to kill time.

‘Nothing special.’

Mel, who was watching from the side, was horrified.

‘Has that senior gone crazy?’

Anyone could see this wasn’t work for a newcomer, yet they were dumping it on her.

But since the person involved wasn’t saying anything, it was difficult for him to step forward and say something.

Mel thought he would have to clean up if Rianel made mistakes.

‘Of course, later.’

Right now, he was busy too.

Two hours later.

Mel discovered Rianel sitting in her seat, spacing out.

“The work is quite difficult, isn’t it? If you have any questions, you can ask…”

Then Mel discovered what was placed on Rianel’s desk and momentarily forgot to breathe, blinking his eyes.

“Th-that is…?”

Several thousand vouchers were neatly organized.

Moreover, they weren’t simply arranged with aligned edges…

“Don’t tell me, you organized all these vouchers by date?”

“Ah, I just organized them ‘roughly.’ If you organize them in order, you don’t have to do the work twice, right?”

Rianel replied indifferently as if it was nothing.

“Right, that’s right, yes.”

Even her words sounded like the textbook approach to work, so he couldn’t argue.

“Why are there two vouchers here?”

“After ‘roughly’ examining the collection ledger, I found vouchers with incorrect dates. So I attached corrected vouchers on top of the original ones for you to check.”

When Mel checked the ledger just in case, this time he noticed corrections separately marked in the remarks column.

“I also ‘roughly’ filled that in. When you correct vouchers, efficiency is maximized if you correct the ledger at the same time, isn’t it?”

“…”

After handling the work so perfectly that even Mel was impressed, she called it ‘rough’ again.

“Oh… right. Did you do the exchange rate calculations? If you haven’t done them yet…”

Not all alcohol is the same, is it?

Imported alcohol has customs duties added on top of the existing liquor tax.

‘But these customs duties are really annoying. They change daily according to exchange rates.’

In his early days, Mel had made mistakes not knowing that exchange rates changed daily.

But Rianel.

“I know. The exchange rate changes based on the customs clearance date, doesn’t it? I requested the relevant data from the Customs Office and calculated it. You have to do it right the first time to catch errors while working ‘moderately.'”

This time ‘moderately’ came out.

“As a result of checking, there were incorrectly collected customs duties. I ‘roughly’ prepared a refund notice to send to the relevant taxpayer and a cooperation official document to send to related departments. Could you check them?”

Rianel handed over what she had ‘roughly’ prepared.

Seeing the perfectly written official document, Mel.

“Do… do you think everything becomes ‘rough’ if you just attach the word ‘roughly’ to it?!”

Exploded.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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