The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 12

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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 12
After pouring out my words with genuine sincerity for the first time in ages, my mind finally began to clear.
‘Wait a moment.’
In that instant, I blinked rapidly and caught my breath.
‘Did I just… interrupt the Crown Prince and speak over him?’
Even if preventing war was my top priority, this was unforgivable!
If I had interrupted Oson like that, there would have been absolute chaos.
But Kiaros was the Crown Prince, towering infinitely above Oson in rank…
‘Will I face disciplinary action? Are there relevant regulations…?’
As I turned pale and held my breath, Kiaros’s expression grew serious and he suddenly turned to his Aide.
Then he asked with utmost gravity.
“Where is that employee right now?”
“Ah, I believe… they took sick leave due to psychological shock…”
Kiaros’s eyes gleamed with an eerie light. He seemed to be calculating his next move.
‘…Huh? He’s not scolding me?’
Lacking the energy to keep my eyes open, I let my eyelids droop, when he turned to me and spoke.
“I apologize, but let us speak again later, Miss Namia Loapi. Your sharp insight has been most helpful.”
“Ah, yes?”
“I shall reward you for this matter as well.”
“Ah, yes?”
“You saved my life.”
Our eyes met suddenly.
In those crimson eyes I had only ever found terrifying, kindness now flickered.
‘Wait, hold on.’
When he said he would include this matter… when he said my sharp insight was helpful…
‘He means he’ll listen to my words and take them into consideration? Not discipline me, but reward me instead?’
In a sense, it should have been natural, but in the Scroll Management Department, it was unthinkable.
‘What, what is this? Now that I think about it, this has never happened since I started working here.’
This sudden realization bewildered me greatly. I found myself stammering without thinking.
“I, I only… did what was… natural…”
“It is not natural. For me as well, this has become an opportunity to view scrolls anew.”
He spoke quietly.
“I wanted to express my gratitude directly and properly… but it seems that must wait for next time. It is important that I understand precisely what I should be grateful for.”
Ah, so he called me here to express his thanks after all.
It was not a sudden confession born of love at first sight, as I had imagined.
Quietly abandoning my Cinderella strategy, I replied with courtesy.
“Yes, Your Highness. I shall await that time.”
This meant ‘absolutely do not forget about this and be sure to call me again.’
“Thank you so much for speaking of scrolls in such a way.”
As I added this, Kiaros nodded.
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he strode purposefully into his office.
With an elegant gesture, he opened a desk drawer, retrieved something, and approached me.
“Your Highness?”
Frozen in the corridor, I blinked without thinking.
Kiaros held out what he’d taken from the drawer.
“When I saw you up close earlier, you looked far too thin.”
My eyes widened at the sight of the thick envelope in his hand.
“Take it and use it. I have no time for it anyway.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“It’s not as though you’re malnourished from lack of income, so I suspect these will benefit your health far more than cash would.”
With trembling hands, I accepted the envelope Kiaros offered.
Inside were restaurant meal vouchers from establishments throughout the Capital.
It was truly as moving as the IV drip I’d received early this morning.
My loyalty surged uncontrollably.
“For now, you’re dismissed for the day. File the paperwork as a Crown Prince’s Office assignment.”
Good heavens.
Dismissed! Without needing to use vacation or sick leave!
I bowed my head and offered a deeply respectful bow—not the perfunctory kind that simply meant “I’m leaving,” but one infused with genuine gratitude.
“Thank you so much.”
In any case, since he said he’d summon me again next time, another opportunity for a private audience would surely come.
As I turned to leave, clutching an armful of meal vouchers, something felt strangely light within me.
A peculiar restlessness arrived belatedly as the situation concluded.
‘So… he called me to follow him just to offer his thanks…’
I must have spent too long in an organization where you’re punished for standing out, whether you produce 166 scrolls or 1,660. That’s why I couldn’t deduce something so simple.
‘I thought he’d simply hand over a commendation and be done with it. He even said it gave him a new perspective on scrolls.’
I felt no displeasure. It was a sense of accomplishment I hadn’t experienced in ages.
Perhaps… for the first time since I started working here?
It felt so unfamiliar that my heart soared all the more.
‘That’s right. Scrolls are… truly a remarkable power. Truly.’
I even recalled the exhilaration I’d felt when I first studied scrolls as a child.
That was something like a passion I’d forgotten long, long ago.
‘Just as much as saving the Crown Prince… it feels good.’
Only then did I confront the true nature of what I’d accomplished. Using scrolls to demonstrate my abilities after so long—perhaps it wasn’t for someone else’s sake, but for my own.
Achieving something with scrolls and receiving recognition for it…
‘It’s been so long. Such a long time since I felt this way.’
I gazed upon that ancient essence buried beneath layers of reality.
The name of that essence, forgotten so long ago, was ‘dream.’
“Then I shall take my leave, Your Highness.”
With that farewell, I closed the office door and stepped out alone, just as I turned down the corridor.
“Namia!”
Someone suddenly grabbed my arm.
“What’s going on? You haven’t come home for two days straight. What is this?”
Silver hair and green eyes.
“Huan?”
It was Huan. My twin brother on paper, working at the Imperial Palace Treasury Department.
From the look of things, he’d been searching for me since morning.
‘He couldn’t bring himself to enter the Crown Prince’s Office, so he waited outside.’
A sigh escaped me, though I couldn’t say why. Huan wouldn’t have rushed after me out of genuine concern.
“Just… could you handle this for me? It’s really urgent—due tomorrow.”
Huan thrust a stack of documents into my hands as he spoke.
‘Of course, it’s definitely something from the Treasury Department.’
I often handled Huan’s work for him at home.
Leaking departmental documents like this was clearly wrong, but Huan lacked the ability to process such matters on his own.
“And go home quickly. Do you have any idea how much Mother and Father have been looking for you? This is serious.”
Ah, this isn’t the end of it?
My head was already throbbing.
If they were searching for me to this extent, something truly grave must have happened. And naturally, they’d thought of me as the solution…
‘But… there’s not much time left now.’
I swallowed the thousand frustrations rising within me. Only one memory could calm this tempest.
[Our daughter, just wait a little longer. You know Father loves you, right?]
[Yes, Father… I’ll wait bravely and well.]
I knew what choice Father had made for me.
So… I too had to make a choice for Father.
I took a deep breath and began running forward with rapid footsteps.
* * *
Kiaros found himself utterly pathetic. In truth, he couldn’t even remember what that Ministry of Justice official had said.
It was something he never would have imagined before. He was startled by his suddenly dulled senses, unable to properly grasp the situation.
“Ha…”
Kiaros irritably swept his hair back.
Even so, Namia’s expression when she spoke came to mind.
[Your Highness! Just a moment!]
Eyes that had been vacant throughout suddenly gleamed with brilliance. Remarkably, they were the very eyes he’d seen when she used the scroll.
‘Until then, her eyes were definitely unfocused… and she could barely speak properly.’
The Aide, who had been gauging the situation, spoke hesitantly.
“Your Highness, she is truly exceptional… All the knights heard her explanation, yet none of them had conceived of such an approach.”
That was true enough.
Yet for Namia to be called ‘exceptional,’ her track record up to now had been far too lackluster.
‘If she were an Academy graduate with any real talent, the Magic Tower would have already scouted her during her school days.’
Those brilliant blue eyes that had shone so keenly overlapped with her first impression—like a zombie.
Once she finished explaining the Ministry of Justice official’s matter, she reverted to that exact state: unclear pronunciation, half-lidded eyes.
The disconnect was profound. Whenever Kiaros thought of her, confusion clouded his mind.
That was when a voice called out from beyond the office door.
“Namia!”
It was a young man’s voice.
Kiaros instinctively turned his attention toward the voice echoing from outside his office.

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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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