The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 173

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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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Side Story 2
Jayden liked Namia.
As an elitist child, Namia was brilliant first and foremost. Nothing ever obstructed her work.
And as a results-oriented child, she had awakened his abilities and even improved his relationship with the Empress.
And simply as a child, Namia was a warm person. She was thorough in her work and principled in all things, yet somehow that very quality made her warmth all the more palpable.
“Listen.”
Since class had ended, Jayden spoke without hesitation.
“The Crown Prince has been acting strange. For some time now, he’s been looking at me differently—like he’s watching a child with a long road ahead. Before, he used to look at me with such contentment, as if I were his perfect younger brother.”
“Ah… is that so?”
“It’s definitely strange. I’ve been worried about something—when I went to see that Biberus, the leader of the Gaejo Faction, I couldn’t help but slip him some poison. I thought it was fine since he’s a villain, but… what if the Crown Prince noticed then that I’m an ill-mannered child?”
Namia was indeed a warm person.
Unlike the Emperor and Empress, she immediately wore a serious expression in response to Jayden’s worry.
“That… that could be possible.”
“But I don’t think that’s it. Usually, unless you experience something directly, you don’t make that kind of expression just from seeing it happen to someone else. What do you think?”
“Ah…”
Jayden’s observation was sharp. Kiaros had indeed been the direct victim himself.
Namia rolled her eyes in distress, then grasped Jayden’s hand firmly and spoke.
“Then what if you were honest with the Crown Prince about this?”
“About what?”
“Stop acting in front of the Crown Prince. Even if you’re not the perfect younger brother, he will still cherish you.”
“That won’t work!”
Jayden shook his hand in alarm.
“What if I lose everything in the process? I love playing ball with him, and reading books together with him is wonderful. I don’t want to take that risk. Really.”
“Hmm, I wonder. What if he’s already noticed?”
Namia stroked Jayden’s head gently as she spoke.
“Even so, the Crown Prince loves you deeply, but every time he notices you acting in front of him, he may feel disheartened. That’s unavoidable, after all.”
At Namia’s words, Jayden’s face went pale.
Then tears began to fall one by one.
“I don’t like it… I don’t like it.”
“Your Highness?”
I’m so sad. Really, so very sad.”
Namia was deeply flustered by Jayden’s tears. As she fumbled to pull out tissues, Jayden began to weep uncontrollably.
“Just once, just once more… I want to see that expression on my brother’s face, the one where he cherishes me. That look in his eyes, as if he’s watching his perfect younger brother… Wahhhhh…”
“Your Highness, Your Highness.”
Namia, at a loss, wiped away Jayden’s tears.
But the young prince’s tears showed no sign of stopping, and Namia found herself breaking into a cold sweat at the overwhelming predicament that had suddenly befallen her.
“Wahhhhhhh… Just once, just once more, I want things to go back to how they were… I’m so scared now. I’m terrified that my brother will think I’m lacking, that he’ll cast me aside…”
“Your Highness, please calm down first. I can speak frankly with the Crown Prince about—”
“Don’t! Absolutely don’t! If you tell the Crown Prince, he really won’t let it go!”
Namia read an immense fear in Jayden’s eyes.
To that extent, Kiaros was an incredibly precious existence to Jayden. Seeing tears clearly mixed with sorrow, Namia let out a soft sigh.
‘But I can’t exactly tell him that Kiaros is actually Kibon and experienced all of his tantrums firsthand….’
Still, she couldn’t help but understand Kiaros’s position. He still cherished and loved Jayden, but pretending to be a ‘good and innocent child’ only in front of him meant he inevitably felt like he was ‘telling lies.’
Though it didn’t show obviously, Jayden seemed to have caught that subtle shift with the keen perception unique to Dragon-kin.
‘What should I do? How can I make the Crown Prince understand that he loves me even though I’m such a mess of a child?’
Namia held the sobbing Jayden and fell into contemplation.
In the meantime, Kibon in dog form gazed steadily at Jayden, his expression showing nothing but sympathy for his precious friend’s sadness.
* * *
That night.
After hearing the full story from me, Kiaros let out a long, exasperated sigh.
“Why is he so perceptive?”
Honestly, nothing about how Kiaros treated Jayden had changed.
He always made time to visit, engaged in the discussions Jayden enjoyed, and played enthusiastically with him. Even when Jayden came to find me, Kiaros would happily join us for picnics.
But there was one thing.
When Jayden wore his most innocent expression and said things like ‘Your Highness, I still find it difficult to treat people harshly….’
Kiaros, being human after all, couldn’t respond the way he used to with ‘Still, you need to learn how to say unpleasant things to people.’
So Kiaros would end up saying something like ‘Well, I suppose so,’ and that subtle shift was what Jayden had picked up on.
“I can’t tell him the truth.”
Kiaros spoke firmly.
“Ah, so special abilities really are secrets even from family….”
I nodded slowly in understanding. So far, only I knew about Kiaros’s special ability.
While Jayden and the Emperor’s special abilities were shared among family members, that was unavoidable circumstance.
There was no particular reason to reveal Kiaros’s ability yet. Kiaros nodded indifferently and added:
“Jayden is still young, and the situation would only get worse.”
“Right.”
I agreed as well. Jayden was only eight years old—certainly too young to explain everything.
If the young prince, who loved his brother excessively, discovered that Kibon, whom he had criticized so harshly, was actually Kiaros, he would undoubtedly spend several nights weeping inconsolably.
“For now, let’s think about how to resolve this slowly.”
Kiaros spoke with a composed expression.
“Both you and I are quite busy at the moment.”
He placed a report he had just reviewed on the desk and pressed his temples firmly. I naturally shifted my gaze to the report as well.
It was a report on a project being conducted simultaneously with the Magic Tower—one I was already familiar with.
Currently, the Imperial Family was conducting a thorough investigation into the Gaejofa Faction’s experiments.
Though they would all be disposed of eventually, they needed to be comprehensively understood and documented for contingency.
Once a method was developed, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t be developed again later. Though Jayden could currently nullify it immediately, other methods still needed to be researched.
Therefore, the Magic Tower researchers were busy uncovering the true nature of those experiments.
‘With just a little refinement, many of these could actually benefit the Empire’s future. Indiscriminate disposal isn’t the answer.’
If the dangers and side effects were removed, the effects would be quite weak, but magical artifacts created through such methods could be commercialized.
The first magical artifact created for commercialization was, surprisingly, a ‘memory loss’ device.
Since Mother had deliberately extracted it as a portable experimental apparatus, it was easy to implement as a tool.
I flipped through the report again, speaking as I did.
“The stability tests have already passed. No side effects either… The problem is we still haven’t uncovered the mechanism of nullification.”
“That’s right. For now, we have to rely on Jayden’s special ability. Still, since we’ve succeeded in our own experiments, we should be able to develop a method to reverse it.”
Of course, precisely because there were no side effects, the results weren’t nearly as dramatic as the Gaejofa Faction’s experiments.
For instance, the ‘Memory Loss’ magical artifact created by the mages could only erase about a year’s worth of memories. It was far less potent than the Gaejofa Faction’s experiments, which had obliterated all memories entirely.
“We can take our time. We have plenty of it.”
Kiaros spoke with ease.
“Now that we’ve brought the shadowy experiments into the light, it will certainly benefit the Empire greatly. Even if something like this happens again in the future, we’ll be able to respond much more swiftly.”
“That’s true.”
I smiled softly. Everything was working out well, after all.
Several months had passed since we held the perfect engagement ceremony, and Kiaros’s Dark Period had finally ended. In other words, he had truly returned as a strong man once more.
Now that all threats had vanished, there was no use for his strength anymore.
And so we simply waited for the wedding.
We had tentatively scheduled the wedding for next winter, but the Imperial Palace Wedding Hall was fully booked and we had no choice.
Of course, we could have moved it up using Imperial Family privileges, but neither Kiaros nor I desired that. However, it was here that our views began to diverge.

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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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