I Became the Master of the Empress

191 – 195

Late that night after Yom’s visit.

Marius waits for his son, Lucius, who came back late at night.

I’m the aide of the Grand Duke who even scares the birds.

Marius is certainly satisfied that his son has become successful, but he thinks that following the Grand Duke isn’t righteous.

‘Hoo… What should I do?’

Because Yom is like a life-saver to him, he wants to help her somehow, but he’s afraid that if he does something wrong, it’ll cause great damage to his son.

“Damn… That bastard is my enemy.”

If only Job’s son hadn’t caused the accident, this wouldn’t have been a problem, so Marius curses Job’s son in his mind.

Then.

-Creak.

“I’m here.”

Marius sees Lucius coming home.

He says to Lucius.

“You’re back?”

“Yes, but Father, what’s wrong?”

Lucius looks at the bottle of alcohol and the half-filled glass in front of Marius and says with a worried expression.

“No. What’s wrong with…”

Lucius looks at Marius who trails off and says with a worried expression.

“Your expression isn’t good?”

‘When did my cute son grow up so much?’

Marius realizes how much time has passed looking at his grown son.

His son, whom he used to carry on his back when he was little, has now become an adult.

-Creak.

Lucius pulls out a chair and sits down and pours alcohol into the glass and says.

“Why? Is it something so bad that you can’t even tell your son?”

As he sees his son worrying about him, Marius ponders if he should really ask this favor of him.

“That’s…”

Marius hesitates as he ponders if it’s okay to ask his son to make a request and forge an official document, and Lucius smiles without saying anything.

“What’s going on? Did you gamble behind your mother’s back?”

Marius also burst into laughter at that.

“I almost went bankrupt back then, don’t be ridiculous.”

Young Marius had once followed his friends to a gambling den.

Marius, who had been swindled and lost a lot of money, still remembers how his wife scolded him for it.

He opened his mouth with a wry smile.

“Do you remember Mr. Yom?”

“Of course I do. He was having a hard time because of Mr. Cornell, right?”

At that, Marius fell into deep thought.

‘Can I really tell him?’

When he hesitated, Lucius asked anxiously,

“Father?”

“Hmm?”

“Is something really wrong?”

Marius quickly made up his mind.

He opened his mouth.

“Lucius, I have something to tell you.”

That’s how Marius, who was in pain because of Job’s situation and the debt he owed to Job,

When he confided his situation…

Lucius said with an awkward face.

“You just need the Intelligence Service’s certification, right?”

In fact, Lucius had a lot of authority to carry out the Grand Duke’s orders.

Not only that, but as he was also in charge of delivering the Grand Duke’s orders to each department, he was in a position to easily forge the Grand Duke’s orders and make the Intelligence Service’s seal.

‘If I issue an order for an anonymous Intelligence Service certification in the name of His Highness the Grand Duke, I can receive it.’

But if he gets caught, it won’t be a laughing matter.

Forgery of official documents is punishable by decades in prison, but Lucius, who is quite close to the Grand Duke, nodded readily.

“Don’t worry, Father. I’ll make it for you.”

When Lucius readily accepted, Marius seemed worried instead.

“Are you sure… will you be okay? If you get caught…”

At that, Lucius said firmly.

“Don’t worry. I won’t get caught.”

When Lucius thinks about it. The Grand Duke trusts him completely. He doesn’t expect to get caught.

‘Of course… if I do get caught, it’ll be a huge mess.’

That’s not to say Lucius is anxious.

It’s just a slight change from what he’s been doing so far.

***

The next day, at dawn.

Lucius got into the carriage that came to pick him up in the morning and headed for the Imperial Palace.

The Grand Duke, who makes Lucius work overtime as if it were a meal, is considerate enough to provide such convenience.

Of course, Müller, who left for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Lucius that it would be better to reduce overtime rather than provide such convenience…

Lucius enjoys working under the Grand Duke anyway.

There’s a lot of work to do, but it’s rewarding.

Currently, the Empire is economically abundant on the surface.

The reputation is a bit bad, but I feel satisfied that the lives of the Imperial citizens have improved.

-Thud!

Soon after, the carriage stops for a moment.

“Lucius, did you sleep well?”

Maximilian yawns as he gets in the carriage, and I answer.

“Yeah, I slept well.”

That’s how the two of us curse at the Grand Duke together…

We’ve arrived at the Imperial Palace.

After arriving at the Grand Duke’s office, Lucius greets the extremely beautiful Senahan and heads to the Grand Duke’s office.

‘I have to get this done before he comes.’

That’s how I find the order form in the Grand Duke’s desk drawer, write what I want, and…

“Now, let’s see.”

I stamp the Grand Duke’s approval stamp.

I change the date on the stamp to today for administrative purposes…

-Thud!

I stamp it and quickly slip out.

‘This will make it easy to get the Intelligence Agency’s certification.’

That’s how Lucius thinks he committed the perfect crime.

***

“Hmm?”

Financial reports from each department.

It’s a record of unusual contents each month and the progress that has been made on the orders I gave.

“That’s strange.”

I never requested a certification from the Intelligence Agency.

When I look at the date, it’s about two weeks from now.

I feel puzzled by the contents that say that an order for certification was sent to the Intelligence Agency under my name and that the Grand Duke’s office received it.

What is this? Did I forget something?

I wonder if there’s something I forgot and can’t remember, so I search through my desk drawer to find the order record book.

This is a record book where I write the date and reason every time I issue an order.

It’s a ledger I secretly created in case someone forges my orders.

“Let’s see…”

The order I issued two weeks ago…

“Hmm… I never gave such an order to the Intelligence Agency.”

That means that someone must have forged my order.

That’s because it means that an order that I didn’t issue was leaked to the Intelligence Agency.

“Dammit… Who the hell did it?”

I wanted to send an immediate order to recall all the orders I had sent this month…

But then I stopped when I thought that the people working at the Grand Duchy would find out about it.

“That won’t do.”

I don’t know who it is, but it really, really pisses me off that there are people within the Grand Duchy who are fulfilling their own selfish desires.

As a public servant, you should be honest and law-abiding.

This is a matter that must be dealt with utmost importance.

First of all, I should visit the Intelligence Agency in person.

With that thought, I left my office.

***

Inside the running carriage, I began deducing who might have forged it.

I thought about the people who were most likely to have done it.

After I married Theodora, I formed the Grand Duchy by filtering out people from each department.

Surely none of them would have committed such a grave incident.

Honestly speaking, I think it was about time it happened.

If I had to compare it to a political system similar to the Grand Duchy, it would be similar to the former Ministry of State Affairs.

There used to be a structure in the former empire where the Prime Minister was placed just below the Emperor, and the major organizations of the country were concentrated on the Prime Minister.

The evil that arose from that was…

No matter how honest the Prime Minister was, the Ministry of State Affairs might not be honest.

In other words, it would be safe to assume that something similar to that had occurred in the Grand Duchy.

First of all, it is important to confirm the forged order.

And it’s not too late to search for the culprit.

-Creak.

I entered the Intelligence Agency building after seeing that the carriage had stopped.

-Thud… Thud.

“Is Karl inside?”

The guide answered my question with a bewildered expression.

“Hi… Highness?! Th… The Minister has not yet arrived at work.”

“What? What time is it now that the Minister has not come to work?”

The guide looked at me with a perplexed look at my words.

“Well, I’ll wait for Karl in his office, so tell him to come as soon as he arrives.”

This is a mess, a mess.

I waited for Karl in his office like that and became lost in thought.

1 year and 6 months.

It hasn’t been long since I took power, but everyone has become so lax.

It doesn’t matter if the low-ranking civil servants commute to and from work on time.

They also have to make a living.

However, it’s hard to understand why high-ranking civil servants don’t come to work on time or are late.

Where do you think their salaries come from?

It comes out as taxes from the money that the citizens of the empire give so that the empire can be governed well.

“Whew… Let’s calm down.”

Well, Karl has done so much for me in the dark.

He took the lead in executing Valorang, risking his life, and there was a time when he was so excited about playing with bonds that it was difficult.

Well, anyway, he did it faithfully.

He’s a bit lazy, but he’s also outstanding.

So wouldn’t he lead the intelligence agency well?

How long have I been waiting?

-Creak!

“Your Highness! Are you here?”

I can see Karl smiling broadly as he walks into the office.

“Haha, am I very late? Rebecca has been very difficult since she became pregnant.”

Rebecca was the female assassin who played an active role in Valorang’s assassination in the past.

I heard that she married Karl after he took office as Minister of Intelligence and that they are doing well.

“Congratulations on that. But it would be nice to fix it because it doesn’t look good to come out late even as a minister.”

As I tried to speak calmly, Karl scratched the back of his head as if he was sorry and said:

“I’m sorry to hear that… but what’s the matter?”

I answered Karl’s question.

“There is a forged order among the orders that the Grand Duke’s office sent to the Intelligence Agency this month, so I’m here to check.”

Karl’s eyebrows twitched at my words.

“What a daring guy… to do such a thing?”

I played it cool and said:

“Well? Should we start looking for it now? First, can you bring me the order?”

At my words, Karl orders an employee outside the office.

“Do you have the order from the Grand Duke’s office this month? Bring it all.”

-Yes? All of them?

“Yes, all of them.”

Karl said so and looked at me and said:

“Your Highness, it will probably take some time to bring it, so why don’t you have a cup of tea?”

I nodded at his words.