Episode 39
“Young Lord…”
“That’s enough, so wipe that look off your face. I only did this because if you get sad and can’t focus on work, efficiency will drop.”
He spoke bluntly and turned his gaze back to the documents, but the rims of his ears were subtly flushed red.
“Of course, I’ll work really hard! I will definitely find the remaining three cores no matter what!”
At my response, Aidan didn’t say much, but that was enough.
The fact that he said nothing felt like trust in me instead.
“So, is Star okay?”
“Probably.”
“What do you mean, probably?”
“Well, he just won’t listen to me at all.”
He answered indifferently.
“After all, I haven’t really built much of a bond with him. Even for a speechless beast, horses are said to be quite intelligent, so perhaps he instinctively knows that he might never be able to run again. He refuses food and refuses treatment. To be honest, his personality was a bit nasty in the first place.”
Ugh, his words were so painfully true that I had nothing to say.
I could roughly imagine how Star was doing in Aidan’s stable. Just like when he rejected my touch at first, he was probably snapping while surrounded by strangers, right? Anyone gets sensitive when they’re sick.
Let alone Star, who is in pain and was suddenly brought to an unfamiliar place, so he must be acting even more sensitive.
“U-Um, Young Lord. I have a request.”
“Fine.”
“Huh? I haven’t said anything yet.”
“The things you would think of are obvious. Isn’t it to bring Melliot here for the sick Star?”
H-How did he know?
“It’s obvious. After all, you felt a sense of responsibility for Star’s injury. You’ll need a horse handler who can at least manage the sensitive Star well, won’t you?”
“That’s true…”
“For me as well, if a horse I went out of my way to buy dies, it’s a loss in many ways. Do you know how much money I spent just to bring him to the capital? Aside from the money used to purchase him, there are the employees hired while bringing him over, the veterinarian…”
Listening to his voice as he folded his fingers one by one, arguing whether I knew how large a sum of money he had invested, a laugh burst out of me without my realizing it.
“What’s this, why are you laughing?”
“No, just because.”
“Tsk, really, if you have time to laugh, why don’t you hurry up and read the reports? Because the third core might be among them.”
“I should.”
Look at him switching the subject out of embarrassment.
I didn’t know Aidan was of this personality while attending the Academy, but it seems he is a person with somewhat deep inner affection than expected.
Anyway, just as Aidan said, while we were holding the horse riding competition in the West, reports on core candidates came in from all across the empire. It would be fortunate if the real core were among these, but last time, we read all several thousand pages of documents and searched suspicious places, only for there to be no core.
Still, that didn’t mean we couldn’t read them.
No matter how many there are, if there is a clue among these to meet my dad, I will definitely find it no matter what.
Sitting on the chair, I began to read from the document closest to me. So far, we have found barely two cores.
The blue one in the east and the transparent core in the west are all there is.
If so, the reports I need to pay attention to and examine are the red core in the south, the black core in the north, and finally, the yellow core in the capital.
All reports related to other colors can be passed over.
‘Is this blue, and is this sky blue?’
Then pass them decisively.
‘Pink? And purple, I see.’
It might be that it’s a red core, but looked different due to the lighting. Similarly, cubic zirconia described as orange might also be a red or yellow core depending on how you look at it.
Scanning the documents quickly and distinguishing the colors, my neck felt stiff, so I raised my head.
‘Ugh, there’s still this much left?’
It’s already evening, and I haven’t even gone through half of it yet.
I’m slowly getting sleepy. However, since my boss Aidan hasn’t left work, I couldn’t leave first. Because Aidan is examining as much as I am—no, honestly, a larger amount of documents than me.
I have to do my part. Reviewing this huge amount in a single day might be unreasonable, but still, let’s go after Aidan goes back.
It was just when I opened my eyes wide to concentrate while covering my leaking yawns with both hands.
“Are you sleepy?”
“Y-Yes?”
Don’t tell me he saw me yawning?
“I’m not sleepy at all, though? I’m completely fine!”
I quickly pretended as if nothing were wrong, but Aidan was not fooled.
“If you sit there falling asleep like that, even I’ll get sleepy, so go wash your face outside. Go to the pantry and get some sugar intake or something. Or go get a breath of fresh air for a moment.”
Without even looking at me, Aidan spoke as he flipped through documents.
“T-Then I’ll be back in just a moment.”
Screeech, at the sound of the chair pulling back, I saw his brow furrow.
Before nagging could rain down, I hastily slipped outside and closed the door.
“Whew, anyway, he’s such a relentless one.”
Why hasn’t he left work until this hour? I glanced out the window. Naturally, it had long since grown dark.
Even at the Academy, he studied late every time, but to think he would stay late and work even after getting a job.
“I guess he doesn’t know that the virtue of a boss is coming to work on time and leaving on time.”
Tsk, clicking my tongue, I stretched my arms wide. Having been sitting for so long, my back felt all stiff.
Shall I go wash my face like Aidan said?
“Oh my, Cynthia, you haven’t left yet?”
“Ah, hello!”
I ran into a Foreign Affairs Department employee in the restroom, who would normally have worked alongside me.
“There’s a lot of work in the Special Audit Department, right? Goodness, His Majesty really makes an employee of the Foreign Affairs Department do that instead of the Accounting Department, I don’t know.”
“Haha, it can’t be helped. By the way, the Foreign Affairs Department seems busy too? Until this hour.”
Looking like her dark circles were as deep as mine, she let out a long sigh and answered.
“It’s the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet soon, you see.”
“Ah, has it already come to that?”
Every time, the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet was held grandly. Starting from the birthday, including three days before and after, making a total of one week, the Academy took a break because they held the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet. Since all noble children attending the Academy attended that birthday banquet.
Of course, since I was not even a real noble, I just studied in the Academy dormitory, though.
“The Foreign Affairs Department gets busy a month in advance during this season, and besides, His Highness the Crown Prince is coming of age this time. Overlapping with the coming-of-age ceremony, there is an immense amount of work.”
“Oh dear.”
Intending to comfort her, I patted her lightly. Originally, many guests come from foreign countries on the Crown Prince’s birthday. As for the Foreign Affairs Department, it was bound to get busy, but to think it’s a coming-of-age ceremony on top of that. It was certain to be twice—no, three times as busy as usual.
“Haha, but thanks to Young Lord Aidan, we survived, though.”
“Why Young Lord?”
“Young Lord told the Foreign Affairs Department to only worry about His Highness’s coming-of-age ceremony and took away all the existing Foreign Affairs Department work, you see. This time, there were many problems and headaches in various ways due to the Kingdom of Litos and the fake rubies. Since he took all of that, we survived thanks to him, I’m telling you.”
“…Pardon?”
“You didn’t know? He took it as soon as he returned.”
“I didn’t know at all.”
“Looking at the amount of work he took, I thought he was doing it together with you…”
Why didn’t he tell me? Because he couldn’t trust me?
No, I know well by now that Aidan is not of that personality.
It must have meant for me not to pay attention elsewhere and focus on the core investigation.
“I’ll be going first.”
“Sure, sure, let’s hang in there.”
I hastily moved my steps toward the Audit Office. Sitting alone, Aidan was massaging the back of his neck as if fatigued, yet he did not take his eyes off the documents.
How can a person really work like that without taking a break in everything every time?
No matter how much he hates wasting time, isn’t working without rest like that even more inefficient?
“What are you doing standing there?”
“Y-Yes?”
“If you came back after waking up, shouldn’t you be working again? Why are you standing there staring blankly? Is the subordinate planning to slack off right now while the boss is working?”
“A-Ah, no. I’ll do it quickly.”
Sigh, it can’t be helped. If the boss works without taking a rest, I have no choice but to work quickly so the boss can have some rest time.
