879 – The Burden of the Empire – 1

I returned home after my trip to Armenia.

Just before his return, a great disaster occurred that damaged the sword of the King of Armenia, a sword that was half his life and was stuck in the sword tomb. Fortunately, the King did not question him or show any resentment about it. Rather, he considered the cracks on the sword to be a medal, just as a warrior would consider a wound a medal.

To be honest, it’s a fallacy. If there’s a small crack in the blade, the blade itself will break even with a small impact. A wound to a warrior is a medal, but a crack in the blade is an incurable disease that can kill you at any time.

But what can I do if the victim says he is okay? I can only bow my head and express my gratitude for the King’s mercy and consideration.

‘It’ll be okay, since there’s magic.’

In addition, there is magic in this world that can be used for multiple purposes. Even a cracked sword will be preserved for a long time if you apply magic to it. If you keep it in a sword tomb, it will never break.

It will definitely be like that. It absolutely has to be like that.

“I almost ended up working in a foreign country.”

– Huh?

Titi, who had been stretching at my muttering, tilted her head.

“No. Don’t worry about it and have a nice trip.”

– Woof!

As I waved my hand with a smile, Titi wagged her tail and went out the door. To meet Jenny and her pups again today.

Now all the pups have opened their eyes and are now able to roam around Luciano’s mansion. In fact, Titi doesn’t need to go to work every day like she does now.

But isn’t it true that family is something that you meet because you want to see them, not because of a reason? Every morning, I couldn’t bring myself to say to Titi, whose eyes sparkled, “From now on, Jenny will take good care of the kids, so you can go.” If I said that, even the most gentle Titi would want to bite her owner.

‘If you sell it, won’t it really be a waste?’

A sudden thought crossed my mind and I felt anxious. If I were to get bitten by Titi, I would feel more emotional than physically.

Of course, I plan to sell the puppies after they have been at least half a year old. It is a problem to take the puppies away from their mothers too soon, but it is also a problem to raise the retrievers who are over ten years old until they become adults. During the period commonly called the two years of the devil, Luciano’s mansion could collapse.

‘It’ll be okay in half a year, right…?’

So, we can only hope that Titi’s fatherly love will subside after half a year.

No, the concept of adoption isn’t a special concept in the first place, and most people in this world live that way. There’s probably no one who asks the parent dog’s consent every time they give the dog away.

Considering that, I am in the top 0.01% who is keeping an eye on Titi. I want to believe that.

“Huh? Titi?”

– Woof woof!

‘huh?’

As I was about to get up from my seat with that thought in mind, a familiar voice was heard through the open crack of the door.

“Are you going to see your baby again today? You’re so sincere from the morning. If all the husbands in the world were half as similar as you, the Imperial Court would be at peace.”

-Wow!

“How happy I would be if I raised puppies that resembled you─”

– Growl…!

“I’m sorry. I was joking, so don’t take it that way.”

I burst into laughter at the voice of the Minister of Finance, who had been stimulating Titi’s fatherly love since morning.

He is a minister with an overwhelming size that makes you believe he is the head of the Ministry of War, not the Ministry of Finance. Even a fierce dog would wag its tail and whine in front of the minister, but Titi mercilessly entered a state of alert when the minister targeted her pup.

Should we praise Titi’s bravery, or should we praise the spectacle that instantly enrages Titi?

“Don’t bother the kid who’s going to see his family. Come here.”

Anyway, I stuck my head out the door and gestured to the minister.

I wonder why that gentleman came to the mansion so early in the morning, and why he came all the way to my room instead of the reception room. But since I can’t turn away someone who came all this time, it’s right to treat him well first.

…But more than that, how did you get through the servants and come here? Since the servants know the relationship between me and the minister, they must have tried to perform a full course of hospitality in the reception room somehow.

‘Did you break through it by force?’

For a moment, I imagined the minister passing by, shouldering the servants who were desperately trying to stop him.

Surprisingly, the association came quickly and without any sense of discomfort. It was as if I had actually seen the scene.

“Why do you look like that?”

“No, that, nothing.”

I could never say to the minister, ‘I imagined you shoulder-pasting my servants.’ I knew that if I said that, I would get shoulder-pasted and dislocated.

While I was making tea with the tea leaves in the bedroom, the butler brought me some simple snacks.

His face was so haggard that the delusions that had been buried deep in his mind raised their heads again. Did he really break through the servants by force?

“How was Armenia?”

Meanwhile, the minister opened his mouth indifferently with his arms crossed, regardless of whether the butler brought him any snacks or not.

It was a shameless sight, but I felt relieved by it. The minister’s character is quite impressive, but he is not the kind of person who would beat up innocent civilians and still get away with it.

“Well, fortunately, it was ordinary. Wherever people live, it’s all the same.”

“You said it was ordinary?”

“More than I thought. There, even if we just made eye contact while passing by, we could spar.”

Only then did the minister smile and pick up the snack the butler had put down and start eating it.

“I heard that Baron Hardiner is still in Armenia. It seems to be a better place than I thought.”

“He couldn’t come even if he wanted to. He was caught by Prince Ryutis.”

Although he came later than me and Fine, Erich also came to Armenia to celebrate Rutis’s wedding. However, Rutis is not the type to let a long-awaited friend go so easily. As a result, Erich, his sisters-in-law, and nephews are staying in Armenia indefinitely.

But I’ll return home when the time comes. Ruth is also a newlywed, so she won’t be able to keep her friend for long.

“What brings you here this morning? Is it urgent?”

After exchanging brief updates, he got straight to the point.

That gentleman will also like this kind of conversation. He is not the type of person who likes to beat around the bush, and he doesn’t need to be formal or polite with me. It’s easier to get things done first than to worry about the dignity of a nobleman or anything.

“If it was urgent, you could have just contacted me through the communication port. Did you lose the communication port by any chance?”

“What do you mean by lost? If you lost it, you should have gone to the magic tower first, not here.”

The minister answered indifferently and glanced toward the door, as if checking to see if anyone was nearby.

“I took a vacation early this morning.”

“…yes?”

“I have some things that I’ve been saving up that I haven’t used for a while, so I can use them right away for a few days. Fortunately, I’ve also taken care of some urgent business.”

The minister sighed deeply and took a sip of tea roughly.

You crazy person. That’s not iced tea. It’s just cold tea. It’s not like cold water.

“Did something come up? You don’t like using vacations spontaneously, do you?”

I asked cautiously, not in a normal way, not in a normal situation.

Like any other civil servant, a minister is someone who cherishes his vacation. He makes thorough plans to not waste even a single day of vacation.

A person like that would throw away his vacation in the middle of the night? He even came all the way to my house when he could have gone on a trip or rested at home right away?

‘What the heck is it?’

I’m anxious. What on earth happened to make the minister act like this?

“It’s huge. Something huge has happened.”

‘Fuck.’

I bit my lip reflexively at the minister’s answer. If that man can be described as ‘amazing’, then it is certainly not an empty phrase.

What the heck? What on earth happened? But if the minister took refuge in the form of a vacation, then the entire administration must not be overwhelmed with work, right?

“There is a person wandering around who has turned a blind eye to the current administration.”

And as I quietly rolled my head, the minister dropped a subtle hint.

However, even after receiving the hint, his mind became more complicated. The only people the head of the Ministry of Finance, the second in the administrative department, should be mindful of are the Emperor or the Minister of the Interior. However, the Emperor is drinking vodka these days and doing his job normally, and the Minister of the Interior has less experience as a minister than the Minister of the Interior. Even though the Minister of the Interior is higher in the hierarchy, the Minister of the Interior does not need to be mindful of others so much.

Could it be that the situation is so angry? If so, I am willing to run away from the system, not the administration.

“Who are you?”

Of course, before running away, it is important to first understand the situation. So I stopped my reasoning and asked the minister directly.

“Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

“ah.”

The answer that came back was quite disastrous.

“…….”

“…….”

“Since you’re here, why don’t we have lunch together?”

“Yeah. I owe you something.”

After a brief silence, the minister and I reached some sort of agreement.

Until the Foreign Minister’s anger subsides, let’s just sit there like a dead mouse. Let’s not hang around and get caught up in his anger.

‘Natural disasters must be avoided.’

It’s not bravery to face a typhoon, it’s stupidity.

The highest ranking imperial administrative department is the Imperial Household Ministry. Since the Imperial Household Ministry is a department related to the Emperor and the Imperial Family, it would be more difficult if it were not the highest ranking department. In fact, it would be right to see it as a permanent retirement.

The second place is the Ministry of Finance. All business in this world can be carried out only with money. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance, which holds the empire’s budget, is automatically in second place. If the rank of the person handling money is low, they will be pushed around.

Then who would be in third place? The Ministry of the Interior, which is in charge of the Empire’s finances? The Ministry of War, which is in charge of the one million Imperial Army? The Ministry of Special Affairs, which is the Emperor’s right-hand man? The Ministry of Justice, which is the symbol of law?

Not all. Excluding the Emperor’s authority and money, there is a department that is ranked first, and is actually judged as ‘the most important department’ among the imperial administrative departments.

‘Ministry of Foreign Affairs.’

It is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is the pillar that carries the Empire’s foreign relations, and it has the most ‘department’-level departments among the Imperial administrative departments. It is the actual number one among the Imperial administrative departments.

And the Minister of Foreign Affairs is the pinnacle of that Foreign Affairs. He is also a veteran among veterans who has been a Foreign Affairs official since before the situation came to the throne, when the Empire’s foreign relations were, as the saying goes, ‘in shambles’ due to the tyrannical line that naturally elicited sighs.

But they say that the eyes of such a person are turned upside down. A person with a generous figure and a personality that laughs off most things is getting violently angry.

“Did the imperial envoy come back?”

“They said that they were mediating between countries that were on the verge of war, but in the end, war broke out.”

“Oh, like that.”

A sigh escaped me at the minister’s words.

I don’t know what country it is, but it’s a shame to ruin the reputation of the Foreign Minister. It’s not something that can be taken lightly.