The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success - Chapter 78

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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 78
That day during lunch, I ate with Victor.
“Victor, Victor!”
“Ah, our Student Council President, would you hear out my suggestion?”
“Victor? I have something to tell you….”
But truly, I only ate.
Because countless people came and pretended to know him.
No one paid any attention to me being there with him.
“Uh, uh?”
Only Luca, who chased after me daily while chanting rival incantations, spoke to me.
“Why are you eating with the Student Council President senior? Have you finally come to your senses and decided to get some class notes?”
Then Victor looked at Luca and answered.
“Hmm? What a delightful friend. You must be Namia’s friend, right?”
“W-well, senior, why are you with Namia anyway? It’s quite surprising….”
“Me? Actually, I’ve become interested in Namia. I keep trying to tease her, so don’t be surprised from now on.”
Victor laughed heartily and tapped Luca’s shoulder.
“But are you interested in class notes? What subject information are you curious about?”
Just like that, Victor quickly became close with Luca too.
His sociability was truly remarkable.
“Just you wait, Namia.”
When lunch ended, Victor winked at me.
“Today I failed because people kept talking to me, but I still want to hear your story.”
After that, I ate lunch with Victor several more times. He often visited my classroom.
I had always been alone without friends. During my Academy days, I was extremely uncomfortable getting close to anyone. Since I attended the Academy with Huan, I worried that if I made friends and somehow got my words crossed with him, my family circumstances might be exposed.
So whenever Victor came by, I had no excuse to refuse and could only keep him company. That’s how I ended up spending break time with him several times as well.
Even when Victor failed his civil service exam, we ended up working together at the Scroll Management Department.
And….
‘Victor still doesn’t know anything about my situation….’
It wasn’t because I was hiding my circumstances so carefully.
It was simply that we had so few opportunities to talk that even deliberating whether to tell him felt like a waste of energy.
Not long after getting to know Victor, I stopped deliberating whether to tell him about my situation altogether. Even now, it seems like a truly efficient decision.
Therefore.
‘This development feels familiar….’
I clicked my tongue watching the civil servants surrounding Victor.
That was when it happened.
“W-what are you all doing? I’m in someone else’s department! And right in front of my desk! Are you ignoring me right now?”
Anastasia frowned and slammed her desk with a bang.
“Don’t underestimate us just because there are only ten people, thinking we don’t have much work. I’m the Team Leader here. Understand? Not long ago, I even caught a criminal who broke in without permission in one blow!”
Everyone straightened up at Anastasia’s momentum.
And with frozen expressions, they each said something.
“Ah, I apologize… It’s just been so long since we’ve seen each other that I got excited.”
“It’s been over three years. I just wanted to say hello.”
Victor and his friends shared a distinctive trait: they were all genuinely kind-hearted and innocent.
That’s why they could behave so casually in front of the Minister of Education.
Well, they’d all known each other since Academy days, so it made sense.
“Hey, let’s step outside and talk.”
“Yeah. We should at least say hello. Right?”
Victor chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
“Oh, wait. I need to hear what happened in our department first.”
His friends exchanged awkward glances at me before turning to jeer at Victor.
“Ugh.”
Pressed by his insistent friends, Victor let out a small hum and shrugged his shoulders. Yet the way he set down his coffee cup suggested he was about to follow them.
I gazed quietly into Victor’s sky-blue eyes.
The one person who had extended a hand to me during those difficult times.
Someone so warm and radiant that I always found myself watching his back.
I spoke to him quietly.
“Come prepared. Our department is swamped. We’ve lost more than half our staff.”
“Geez, really? Ten people including the Minister?”
Victor chuckled, so I shrugged and added:
“Starting tomorrow, there won’t be time for personal chitchat. Even our New Intern is working late into the night with nosebleeds.”
Victor’s eyes widened as he asked:
“Our department… had work that required overtime?”
“We have to prepare for the Saint Cairo Banquet Hall starting tomorrow. The Empress and Young Prince will be attending an event there.”
I crossed my arms, my eyes gleaming.
A Scroll event with both the Empress and Young Prince. I desperately wanted to pull it off flawlessly.
It was the perfect opportunity to show that we were no longer that hopeless Scroll Management Department of the past.
Only then would capable new recruits join us after next year’s entrance exams.
That’s when it happened.
“Oh, the Saint Cairo Banquet Hall!”
One of Victor’s friends who had been clustered nearby suddenly cried out.
“There’s a banquet! Victor, you can go now. You’re the Marquis’s son!”
“Haha, right, right. Victor, you’re a high-ranking noble now, aren’t you?”
Victor’s mouth fell slightly open as if he hadn’t considered it.
Indeed, he had left on an extended assignment not long after becoming Marquis Awin’s adopted son.
His new identity as the Marquis Household’s heir was still unfamiliar to him.
“Ah… right, I hadn’t thought about it. But don’t banquets require a partner?”
Victor blinked his round eyes slowly before turning his head toward me.
“Namia, you’ll be going too, right? Since you’re the Minister?”
“Yes.”
“Have you decided on a partner?”
“No.”
“Ah, then….”
That was when it happened.
Kibon, who had been standing quietly, cut off Victor’s words.
“Minister of Education.”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward Kibon.
Kibon looked at me and spoke.
“I would like to be that partner.”
Anastasia’s coffee cup shattered with a sharp crash. Victor, too, was startled and furrowed his brow.
I answered calmly.
“Very well.”
At that, even Victor’s friends were taken aback.
One of Victor’s friends stepped forward with unwarranted boldness.
“Wait? Minister of Education? Surely an intern wouldn’t be qualified to attend? A foreigner without even a title?”
“No, that’s not quite right. By convention, only high-ranking nobles attend, but if one receives an invitation, it’s not impossible.”
I scratched my cheek as I spoke.
“And truthfully, I made a promise with Young Prince Jayden earlier. To partner with whoever applied first. It’s a royal command, so there’s nothing I can do about it.”
This was genuinely unavoidable.
“Ah, I see….”
Victor murmured uncertainly for a moment, then broke into a bright smile.
“Well, I’m going anyway. It’s fine. It’s actually nice to give a young foreign intern friend the chance to experience an Imperial Banquet.”
“Why do you keep calling me your friend? I am not your friend.”
“Come on now. It’s only natural to provide cultural experience to someone who doesn’t even speak the Imperial language well.”
Victor winked at Kibon and patted my shoulder.
“Anyway, we can finish all the conversations we didn’t get to at that banquet, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“High-ranking nobles, you say… I don’t know anyone there. Since you’re the only one I know, I’ll just have to follow you around.”
Victor laughed heartily, and his friends giggled along with him.
In the midst of it all, Kibon, who had maintained an expressionless face throughout, spoke quietly.
“Let’s go, Minister of Education.”
In stark contrast to Victor, his tone was fundamentally quite rigid.
“There is much work to be done.”
It was Victor who responded to that remark.
“Right, right! Hang in there. When I come in tomorrow, I’ll help out a lot. Young intern friend, just hold on a little longer. I’ll be leaving soon.”
Kibon made no reply. Victor laughed boisterously and disappeared with his friends.
‘Wow.’
One thing was certain.
‘Their personalities are really different, yet neither one backs down.’
Neither Kibon’s introverted strength nor Victor’s extroverted charm gave an inch.
And not long after.
I received a message asking me to stop by the Crown Prince’s Office after work.

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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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