The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 119

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 119
Kibon continued speaking in his usual measured tone.
“You don’t even know how to use your body properly, so what exactly are you trying to have me do…? It seems you have absolutely no aptitude in that direction.”
“I couldn’t help it. I never learned during childhood. How can anyone be good at everything?”
I laughed sheepishly and scratched my cheek.
“My father was also far removed from that sort of thing…”
“Ah.”
Kibon’s eyes sparkled for a moment. Despite his composed expression, his interest was unmistakable.
“What’s with that scheming look on your face?”
“I’m curious.”
“About what?”
“Everything.”
Kibon smiled with his eyes and spoke.
“I’m curious about everything regarding the Minister of Education. Of course, including stories from your childhood.”
To be honest, in terms of sheer aesthetic beauty, he didn’t quite match Kiaros.
But the fact that Kibon was smiling with his eyes was quite remarkable.
Especially…the genuine interest in his gaze made my heart flutter slightly.
“Well…it’s nothing special, really. My father was tall and lean, with barely any muscle. His skin was incredibly pale, and no matter how much manual labor he did outdoors, he never got tanned…”
I found myself drawn into the story without realizing it.
“It seems my father’s body type just didn’t build muscle easily. I think I inherited that from him. Physical training isn’t suited to my constitution either.”
Once I finished speaking, I realized it really wasn’t anything remarkable.
Yet Kibon was gazing at me as though he were listening to the most fascinating story in the world.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because it’s cute.”
“Ah, okay.”
“Aren’t you going to ask what’s cute about it?”
Kibon chuckled softly and rested his chin on his hand. I mirrored him, meeting his gaze.
Somewhere along the way, the original reason I’d called him had faded into the background.
As I created a leisurely, teasing atmosphere, Kibon’s ears flushed red in an instant. Adorably so.
“You tell me something too.”
“Pardon?”
“A story from your childhood. If you don’t want to share that, tell me something else.”
I offered an alternative out of consideration, in case there were complicated family circumstances involved.
“Something about you that I don’t know.”
But in that moment, Kibon’s expression hardened immediately.
“Well…if that’s the case.”
What was this? His hesitant tone and expression seemed unusual.
Even the usual composure he radiated had become rigid.
I’d thrown out the words lightly, but his voice had become far too serious, and I found myself tensing as well.
“I apologize, but I’m about to say something that might be somewhat disappointing for the Minister of Education to hear.”
“Then don’t. That’s an order.”
“That is… well, actually, it’s something the Crown Prince wished to convey as well.”
Kibon took a deep breath and spoke rapidly in his clumsy formal speech.
“The truth is, the Crown Prince has harbored some suspicion of you, Minister.”
Ah, what now.
I relaxed the tension I’d been holding and answered with a shrug.
“Ah, I see.”
“He thought you might be connected to the Gaejofa Faction…”
“Ah, I see.”
“…Aren’t you surprised?”
Kibon seemed more startled by my calm response. I answered honestly because I’d always considered that possibility.
“The Crown Prince is thorough by nature, so it’s only natural he trusts no one. I’ve always assumed attaching you to me was a form of surveillance.”
“Doesn’t that hurt your feelings? Surely you feel wounded, disappointed…”
“Not at all.”
It was a genuinely sincere answer. After all, I harbored secrets from Kiaros as well.
The sudden knowledge of the future that came to me one day, and that monstrous ability the Tower Master had urged me to conceal.
“I see.”
Kibon’s expression grew more forlorn as he added bitterly.
“You had already deduced my role as a spy?”
“When I came to the Imperial Palace, once I learned you were connected to the Crown Prince. Before that, I never suspected a thing.”
“Does that disappoint you?”
“Come on, you were simply doing what you were ordered to do. As a member of the organization myself, I naturally understand. It wasn’t your choice anyway.”
At my composed words, Kibon let out a small sigh and continued.
“In any case, the Crown Prince has… well, decided. If the High Priest truly is a collaborator of the Gaejofa Faction, then he will no longer harbor suspicion of you going forward.”
“Ah, really? Though there was no need to explain it so kindly…”
I muttered with a hint of reluctance.
He was a ruler, and there was no need for such declarations. He could harbor suspicions alone and dispel them alone without anyone saying a word.
“But if that’s the case, then… you’re in a position to relay the Crown Prince’s words and all that…”
Still, it was a meaningful statement in its own way.
Kibon had revealed that he maintained a close relationship with Kiaros.
So at this moment, there was actually something more I wanted to know.
“Then perhaps… if the opportunity arises, could you tell me more about the Gaejofa Faction? It’s my father’s matter too, so I’m curious. If you could share what the Crown Prince permits, I’d be grateful.”
Kiaros commanded numerous intelligence sources. He could possess far more information than I, who knew the original story.
I couldn’t brazenly demand information directly from Kiaros. But Kibon might be able to reveal some of it to me.
Kibon answered immediately.
“It seems the important details have already been shared… In any case, from the moment you began suspecting the High Priest, the Crown Prince dispatched the Ravens to all the Imperial Temples. Until now, we refrained from interfering within the temples themselves out of religious courtesy.”
Huh? Like this, right now?
Without even getting permission, he’s just telling me all this?
I had thought I’d need to reach an agreement with Kiaros first and ask him to relay the information…
“And…”
While I hesitated, Kibon continued speaking.
“The Minister of Education’s interrogation was conducted by His Majesty the Emperor. I received the results not long ago.”
I nodded without much tension. At this point in time, the Minister of Education wouldn’t know much anyway.
“The Gaejofa Faction apparently knows the future.”
But at Kibon’s next words, I felt as though I’d been struck hard on the back of my head.
“They perceive this world as a single book, as if they were reincarnated within its pages….”
Wait. That’s me, isn’t it?
I too suddenly came to perceive this world as a book one day!
“It’s supposedly the result of some experiment… but since those who came to know the future altered its flow, wouldn’t that original work become useless anyway?”
But it was the result of an ‘experiment’.
In that instant, I felt the blood drain completely from my head.
“In any case, when we consolidate various pieces of information, it appears they’re conducting strange experiments using the blood of those with special abilities as material, just as you deduced, Minister.”
Kibon’s explanation continued.
“Just as we secured a pregnant demonic test subject before, they’re doing the same with humans.”
A pregnant demonic test subject… I had already heard the results of that from Kiaros.
[But the mother who actually underwent the experiment showed no changes, and unusual traits manifested in the born fetus… when drugs were administered to the mother, the offspring showed a reaction.]
Even after birth, when experiments were conducted on the mother, reactions appeared in the offspring, he had said.
My heart began pounding at a hypothesis that suddenly came to mind.
“Perhaps the Tower Master’s Daughter cooperated because she wanted to use magic better. She treated her inability to use magic like a complex.”
In that moment.
Something I had found slightly odd at the Banquet Hall flashed through my mind again.
Father had definitely said that the Tower Master’s Daughter was very skilled at magic. That she would succeed the Tower Master. He said he heard that from my mother who came from the Capital.
‘But from my time in the Capital… people don’t know much about the Magic Tower! If someone had no connection to the Magic Tower whatsoever, there’d be no reason to spread such a lie!’
An ordinary person from the Capital couldn’t have heard such rumors. And when I mentioned something similar to the Tower Master, he wore quite a peculiar expression.
Then, as if he’d discovered something more about his daughter, he immediately departed for the Southern Region.
‘Good heavens.’
The puzzle pieces fitting together so quickly left me in a daze.
‘Could it be… that hopeless woman is my mother?’

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