What Do You Want Me to Do?

7

“How tedious.”

Even painting had lost its appeal, so I burned all my canvases and rose from my seat, heading for the Intelligence Department archives.

Being an archives, it wasn’t like a typical library with novels or magazines, but reading old records as they came to hand was moderately enjoyable, and more importantly, it made time pass.

And so, I visited the archives from time to time, always remembering to bring freshly brewed warm tea.

Needless to say, I wasn’t bringing it for myself.

It was more like a small comfort to the poor employee.

“Ah, Minister…”

As soon as I entered the archives, I was greeted by Lisana Zimon, the archivist.

Her dark circles seemed deeper than the last time I saw her. I wordlessly handed her the tea, and she smiled weakly, looking genuinely pleased.

“Thank you… You really don’t have to bring this every time… Hehe.”

If you’re going to say that, at least get some proper sleep first.

She was indeed a capable archivist, but also a workaholic of a serious degree.

I’d lost count of how many times I’d visited the archives only to find her collapsed, passed out cold.

I wanted to give her a vacation so she could rest properly for a few days, but this workaholic would cry if I did.

She’d sob almost to the point of exhaustion, so I was stuck not giving her any time off.

“What kind of materials are you looking for today…?”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell her that I’d just come to slack off in front of someone working so hard, so I vaguely named some suitable documents.

The location of the material immediately spilled from her lips.

“Those documents should be in Zone J-19…”

Lisana possessed a perfect memory. In other words, she remembered everything in the Intelligence Department archives, which was an absolutely vast amount of information.

Every number and location of the materials, down to their very contents.

Why is such talent wasted as a mere archivist while someone like me is Minister?

Ah, right. Nepotism got me here.

It’s hard to say it myself, but I feel the unfairness of the world anew.

“But why… Oh! S-sorry for intruding!”

*I’m* the one intruding, coming to bother her at work. Couldn’t exactly say that out loud.

I went to the area she’d mentioned and quickly found the document I needed.

As planned, I brought it to a table to kill time, reading through it. After a short while, I heard the soft, rhythmic sound of breathing.

Turning my head toward the source, I saw Lisana slumped face down on her desk, fast asleep.

“Ssh…ssh…mmm…”

She’s out like a light.

I hadn’t slipped any kind of sedative into her tea, but she always seemed to drift off after drinking whatever I brought.

Whatever the reason, at least she’s catching up on sleep.

I wanted to cover her, but there wasn’t a blanket to be seen. So, I took off my jacket and draped it over her as best I could, then quietly went back to reading.

I continued reading until quitting time, a few hours later, but Lisana hadn’t woken. Carefully, I returned the document to its place and quietly slipped out of the archive.

—

“Huh…?”

Waking up, Lisana blinked, looking around groggily.

The sun had already set, and it seemed the Minister had left. She was alone in the archive.

But draped over her upper body was the Minister’s jacket, still radiating warmth.

She thought, satisfied that she removed every single blanket from the Archive and buried her face in the Minister’s jacket.

“Sniff…haa…sniff…haa…”

Clutching the jacket tightly, breathing in his scent, her body trembled.

As she grew warmer, the grip on the jacket tightened.

“Minister…”

It wasn’t like she planned to fall asleep every time.

Suffering from severe insomnia, she normally struggled to sleep at all.

Yet, strangely enough, she always seemed to fall asleep around the Minister.

At first, she even suspected him of slipping a sleeping pill into her tea.

“But I’ve fallen asleep before even drinking the tea, so I quickly realized that wasn’t the case…”

Normally, scolding a subordinate caught sleeping on the job would be the only sensible course. Truthfully, being fired on the spot wouldn’t warrant a word of protest.

Yet, the Minister never once blamed Lisana for dozing off.

Quite the opposite, he would invariably drape his jacket over her before leaving.

“A preferential treatment, perhaps…?”

As far as she knew, no one else in the Intelligence Bureau had ever been treated this way by the Minister.

To dismiss it as mere delusion was difficult, given the stark difference between the Minister’s demeanor toward other employees and agents, and the one he displayed toward Lisana.

If she were indeed receiving special treatment, how blissfully happy she would be… the thought brought a smile to Lisana’s lips.

“Looking rather pleased with yourself, Lisana.”

“Eep?!”

Lisana recoiled in shock, realizing that Celine had entered the archives unnoticed and was now regarding her with piercing eyes.

But Celine paid Lisana no mind, her hand reaching instead for the Minister’s jacket clutched in Lisana’s arms.

“Give it here. I’ll return it to the Minister.”

“Ah, no, I’ll do it myself…”

“Excuse me?”

“…Here you are.”

Overwhelmed by her sheer force, Lisana reluctantly handed over the jacket with a crestfallen face. Celine snatched it from her grasp and, glancing around the archives, inquired,

“What information was the Minister looking for today?”

“Um… data concerning the ‘Simultaneous Disappearance of Parus Village Residents’ that occurred in the minor kingdom of Klamor two years ago…”

“Parus Village?”

It was a name familiar to Celine as well.

A mysterious incident that had occurred when she had just become the Minister’s secretary, and one she remembered clearly.

It wasn’t an assault by bandits, but a small village where all the residents disappeared overnight, leaving no trace behind. This event became a minor sensation, even in foreign countries, including the Empire.

“Why that, all of a sudden?”

“I, I wouldn’t know…”

“Hmm. Did the Minister take the data with him?”

“Ah, no. Judging by the fact that he didn’t write anything in the checkout log, it seems he read it and then put it back in its place before leaving…”

Deciding she should investigate, Celine asked Lisana for the location of the data.

The information was where she said it would be. Celine took it to a table and read through it, but nothing particularly stood out.

‘The Minister was already suspicious back then, even dispatching agents to investigate the incident directly.’

But even the Empire’s Intelligence Bureau agents couldn’t determine the cause of the incident, and it was eventually dropped.

“Why would he look for this now, of all times? Considering it’s the Minister’s action, there must be a reason…”

Celine knew well that she couldn’t think on the same level as the Minister.

Knowing she could never catch up no matter how hard she tried, she’d strived to keep pace with his thoughts, at least to avoid becoming a hindrance.

‘The Minister never does anything without purpose. What is it? What am I missing?’

Lately, the Minister had been burning his personal documents more frequently.

The fact that he was burning them himself, rather than issuing a disposal order to his secretary, meant they were top secret.

She wanted to know what they were, but she couldn’t ask the Minister.

‘I don’t want to disappoint him. I really don’t want to disappoint the Minister!’

Shaking with extreme anxiety, Celine’s eyes suddenly fell upon the name written at the top of the document.

The Simultaneous Disappearance of Residents in the Village of Pharus, the Minor Kingdom of Klamor.

The Minor Kingdom of Klamor.

The country that had manufactured ‘Fairytale,’ the drug brought into the Imperial capital and distributed by the anti-aristocratic faction not long ago.

It had been just two years since Fairytale had truly begun to appear in the world.

“!”

Celine shot up from her seat and hurried out of the archives.

—

I am but a commoner, after all.

“The village of Pharus was originally a small village with no particular specialty, but the entire village grew rapidly wealthier in the months leading up to the residents’ disappearance.”

The reason they were suddenly able to become wealthy was that the entire village was involved in the production of Fairytale, according to Celine’s explanation.

Or, more accurately, that was highly likely.

“Therefore, the residents were likely silenced, not simply disappeared. The problem is, the same thing could happen within the Empire.”

Celine spread out a map of the Empire on the table.

Several small villages were marked with red dots.

“Recently, there have been villages within the Empire that became wealthy around a specific date, similar to Pharus, and we were able to secure a Fairytale manufacturing site in one of them.”

Raising her pen, Celine marked an X over one of the circled villages.

“Even more astonishing is that this is not only happening within the Empire. Circumstances suggest that the same thing is occurring in other countries as well: the Kingdom of Labor, the Republic of Phalsitas, the Holy Kingdom of Phlaus.”

This is incredible.

“This is behavior that can only be described as madness on the part of the Minor Kingdom of Klamor. If all of this proves to be true, Klamor has essentially declared war on the entire world.”

The scale of the story was so immense that I unconsciously wrung my hands.

Celine is truly amazing.

I’d read the same documents by chance not long ago, but I hadn’t gleaned a thing from them.

Celine, on the other hand, had extracted the entire current from scant information.

Is this what they mean by the difference between the mundane and the genius?

I genuinely thought it was astounding, but Celine wasn’t finished yet.

“…or perhaps a third power exists, using Klamore as a shield…”

Oh. That could be the case.

I nodded.

But… what exactly am I supposed to *do* about it?

Should I just hand the Ministry seat over to Celine?

I’d welcome that, actually.

“If a third power exists, a full-scale investigation spanning the entire Empire is required to catch their trail. The Information Bureau alone isn’t enough. We need to petition His Imperial Majesty to mobilize the Imperial Army…”

Eck.

Ask His Majesty *myself*?

To mobilize the Imperial Army?

*Me*?

Just imagining it made me feel like I was going to hurl.

I was shrinking rapidly, fumbling with my fingers, when thankfully, Celine offered another solution.

“…But a flamboyant display of force could alert our enemies, driving them into hiding. Perhaps we should attempt to pursue them on our own first.”

Saved!

I can’t help it!

I’m terrified!

Fine, I’m a cowardly Minister! Sorry!

“For now, we’ll begin our investigation centered around the village where Fairytale was manufactured.”

Anxious she might say something else, I nodded hastily, scrambled to my feet, and fled the scene.