The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 37

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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 37
At Kiaros’s words, I bowed respectfully and replied.
“Yes. Please ask me anything.”
Even as I spoke, my mind churned with complexity.
Surely I wasn’t about to be dismissed just like that.
‘All my accumulated salary has been squeezed dry by the Loapi Baronial Family, and I’ve only received my wages once into my own account?’
But there was no way the organization would consider personal circumstances like mine.
Especially not now, after they’d eliminated the Minister of Education and everyone else.
‘What are the odds that our department, already regarded as a sinecure, survives?’
Honestly, unless the Tower Master came rushing over this very moment, I’d say the probability was zero.
In the midst of my anxious deliberation, Kiaros called my name slowly.
“Namia Loapi.”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
While I was intensely contemplating my employment security, an unexpectedly personal question was suddenly thrown at me.
“I heard you grew up in the Southern Region as a child. Did you perhaps visit the library often?”
“…Yes?”
The library?
Why would that come up here all of a sudden?
I blinked in surprise.
“Well… yes. My father couldn’t look after me because of work, so he often left me at the library.”
Then the Empress quickly interjected.
“And you turned out so well, despite having a stubborn old father and a garbage of a mother. Actually, my parents’ situation wasn’t great either. I suppose we were fated to meet.”
“Thank you. I’m delighted that you see it as fate.”
I bowed politely, and the Empress patted my head with satisfaction.
Kiaros cleared his throat once and continued.
“Then, did you perhaps study scrolls there as well? And make them?”
“Ah, yes. I read books there and made scrolls.”
Then the Empress quickly interjected again.
“Playing with scrolls since childhood! I was wielding wooden swords from an early age! We’re really quite alike! Hahahaha!”
“Thank you. I’m delighted that you see us as similar.”
I bowed politely, and the Empress laughed heartily once more with satisfaction.
Kiaros cleared his throat twice.
Then he wedged himself between the Empress and me and continued.
“Then, is it possible you once saved a young boy there?”
“…Yes?”
“Using a defensive scroll through a window, deflecting a dagger with it.”
In that instant, the atmosphere at our table grew strange.
I too felt something stir in my memory.
‘Of course I haven’t forgotten!’
After that incident, I could never go back to the library.
Moreover, that was the first day I had ever activated a scroll in front of others.
[This… this actually works?]
I seemed to have muttered something like that.
I blinked and stumbled over my words.
“Could it be… could it possibly be…?”
The dagger that had flown into the Library Garden.
The hooded boy who had been with that burly knight.
“The person I saved back then in that library… by using a defensive scroll…?”
I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.
“The one who told me to come to Count Kalto’s Residence later…?”
The moment I mentioned Count Kalto’s Residence precisely, a flash of certain astonishment crossed Kiaros’s eyes.
‘My goodness, that arrogant brat I saved turned out to be the Crown Prince!’
At that time, the Emperor and Crown Prince had definitely been in the Southern Region.
Kiaros would have been around ten years old then…
‘The original work also mentioned that Kiaros’s first dark period occurred at age ten!’
If the dark period had come at exactly that time, it made sense that he couldn’t have prepared for the assassination.
Concealing his identity with the hood as well.
I trembled as I thought of Father.
‘My goodness… Father…’
On that dark night, the words Father had spoken while holding me close came vividly to mind.
That earnest and warmth-filled tender voice…
[Anyway, even if I took a few coins, it wouldn’t change the situation.]
As I recalled that moment, someone seemed to squeeze my heart with pain.
As if I were experiencing difficulty breathing.
‘How could someone be so utterly lacking in intuition…’
A regret beyond words came flooding in.
‘I should have gone to Count Kalto’s Residence no matter what!’
A few coins!
I had saved the Crown Prince!
If I had gone there then, I probably could have paid off all the loan shark debts in one go with plenty left over!
So I couldn’t even register the marriage and ended up marrying someone like Namia’s Mother…
“…Why didn’t you come to Count Kalto’s Residence?”
Kiaros asked in a fractured voice.
His crimson eyes held countless emotions.
Reality felt distant and unreal.
“Really… really you… that…?”
That was when it happened.
“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness, goodness, goodness! Is it really you? You’re the one who saved us?”
The Empress sprang to her feet.
“How can I be meeting the benefactor of my life like this! What kind of fate is this!”
She blocked Kiaros’s view and lifted me high into the air, cradling me in her arms.
My vision spun dizzily once more.
“XX! We really are soulmates, aren’t we!”
The Empress spoke in a torrent of excitement, words tumbling out rapidly.
“I don’t usually believe in these things, but you’ve saved me twice! This can’t possibly be just an ordinary connection! Right? Right? Right?”
As she excitedly tossed me up and caught me repeatedly, my mind reeled helplessly.
Even as the world spun around me, I asked urgently.
“Your Majesty? What do you mean by that….”
“Me, it was me! Fifteen years ago, that knight there—that was me!”
She squeezed me so tightly I thought I might burst, stamping her feet enthusiastically.
Tears glistened in her eyes as she cried out.
“The one left alone beside the Crown Prince! The guard who nearly died from that dagger!”
“…Then… that, that muscular knight with the large build couldn’t possibly….”
My eyes widened in shock.
The knight who had remained there was the Empress!
“That’s right! I nearly died there!”
The Empress patted my back firmly as she spoke.
“If you hadn’t used that scroll, the poison would have spread to my heart and I wouldn’t have survived!”
“Cough, cough….”
“Unbelievable, incredible, amazing!”
She marveled, making a fuss about everything.
“Twice, twice! There’s definitely something between us! Wow, wow, wow, woooow!”
“Cough, cough, cough…. Cough.”
“Meeting you like this makes me so happy! I’ve been curious about you all this time! I’ve been living the life you saved so well! Even becoming an Empress I never dreamed of!”
The Empress made a commotion and now hoisted me onto her back.
“Ahem, ahem!”
Kiaros looked at me and the Empress with a bewildered expression, then cleared his throat.
“W-w-well, actually the person who saved Namia Loapi twice is me….”
“Ah, I see. Crown Prince.”
Only then did the Empress compose herself and set me down.
And she spoke with perfect formality.
“Thank you so much for helping me find my benefactor, Your Highness. Did The Ravens ultimately succeed in their investigation?”
This revealed that the Empress was not incapable of proper etiquette—she simply chose not to use it.
Perhaps because they had once been in a master-servant relationship, the Empress and the Crown Prince maintained formal distance between them, using respectful language.
Kiaros sighed deeply before answering.
“My benefactor. And this fact was not only discovered by The Ravens, but….”
He pulled my arm, which had been awkwardly positioned on the Empress’s back, and had me sit properly in the vacant space.
“I deduced it while investigating Namia Loapi.”
“Hmm? You’ve already conducted a background investigation? On the virtuous, unfortunate, and ordinary Namia Loapi?”
At the Empress’s words, Kiaros hesitated briefly before responding.
“S-s-s-something seems off about this.”
“Pardon?”
“S-s-something doesn’t feel right. Everything resolved well, but….”
A thin bead of cold sweat trickled down my back.
Kiaros’s instincts were formidable.
I had moved with genuine caution, yet after recovering my memories of my past life, I had indeed behaved differently than usual.
‘In a sense, it’s true that I possess secrets no one else knows!’
As a dragon, Kiaros’s intuition would naturally be extraordinary.
I wondered if he was sensing a discord that even I couldn’t consciously perceive.
“Ah, ha ha, yes. That’s certainly possible.”
I answered respectfully.
“If the Crown Prince finds it suspicious and wishes to investigate, I will cooperate fully. I believe such actions serve the peace of the Empire.”
Then the Empress waved her hand and spoke.
“Still, I shall support Namia until concrete evidence emerges. She is a talent who has saved the Imperial Family multiple times….”
“Ahem!”
Kiaros coughed abruptly again.
“I have found my benefactor, Your Majesty. I raised this matter partly to express my gratitude. My own feelings are no less than those of the Empress, and I fear being underestimated.”
“Ah, yes. Forgive my rudeness, Your Highness.”
At Kiaros’s words, the Empress bowed her head respectfully.
She even extended her hand toward me, making a gesture as though presenting me.
“Now, offer your thanks.”
And as if concerned by his remark about fearing underestimation, she promptly added politely:
“Um… well… more ardently than I did. Naturally, you are capable of that, Your Highness?”

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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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