A knock woke me up early in the morning. More guests, right after I had cleaned up last night?

I put on a robe and rushed to the door. As I opened it up, my good friend, the vice principal, appeared in my view.

“Oh? Richard? What brings you here?”

Richard held his ears and screamed.

“I can’t hear you?! What are you saying?”

“I can hear you perfectly well. What brings you here?”

“WHAT?! Turn off the music!”

Oh.

I forgot.

After stopping the loud gramophone, I let Richard step in as I tidied up the room. He was a friend I didn’t need to clean my room for, it was a sign of good friendship.

[https://i.imgur.com/uBpRook.png]

I hoped to be friends like that with everyone.

“How do you sleep with music that loud…? Is it some soundproofing magic?”

“Yes, I was lucky enough to get a device. As for music, it has become a habit.”

Richard was busy making coffee in the small kitchen at the side of the room. I quickly rushed to the bathroom and changed my clothes before coming back out.

He handed me a cup and took a seat.

“You did something impressive last night.”

“Just some cleaning. Dust settles quickly near construction sites.”

Richard sighed and took a sip of the coffee.

“Well, Ethan. The civil servants assigned here are calling you to the principal’s office. They wanted a meeting.”

“I apologize.”

Richard shook his head.

“It was necessary. In any case, the ones at fault here are those higher-ups.”

We drank the coffee in silence, just staring out the window.

This could have been a big mess.

“Care for another coffee?” Richard asked.

“Aren’t we in a rush?”

“We are, those guys are waiting for us.”

“...”

“...”

“Add another cube of sugar in mine, please.”

***

After three cups of coffee each, Richard finally guided me to the principal’s office where the ten civil servants sent over by the empire sat. Five men and five women.

All of them had dark circles under their eyes, bags that might put Gucci out of business. Even the luxurious formal uniforms of the civil servants looked shabby when their faces resembled those of ghouls and wraiths.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

But, even amongst the ten, one was particularly pale. That must be the civil servant who had hired the four losers.

“Major Ethan, you are here!” The principal saw me and stood up from his seat. He was sweating from the presence of all those seniors, familiar faces were a respite.

“It’s professor now, principal. I have been discharged.”

“That’s right.” One of the civil servants stood up at my remark and walked over to me. “Professor Ethan Kalenice… I never thought I would have the opportunity to see you. I am the Manager from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gladwin Hark.”

All the other civil servants flinched as soon as this one mentioned my name. It made Richard confused, unfortunately, I couldn’t bother with him right now.

“Please,” I said. “I am always happy to be of service to the gears of this empire.”

Gladwin Hark chuckled as if he found my words amusing.

“I will have a great tale to tell all the ministers soon…” He sighed and continued. “Your help here is something we greatly appreciate. This oversight amongst us should never have happened.”

All of our gazes turned to the particularly pale civil servant.

“Ah, this kind of mistake would usually need one to resign right?”

“Resign? We have to punish him, not praise him. He will be doing all the paperwork from now on.”

Richard seemed to have been slightly taken aback.

“Paperwork…?” He muttered, not believing how light the punishment was.

“To clear it all, he would have to keep writing a hundred and forty-five words every minute for three weeks without sleeping or doing anything else.”

What, this was not punishment, this was torture.

If the civil servants were being treated this way, then what about the criminals I had apprehended for them?

“Did you learn anything?” I asked. To be honest, I would have liked to be friendly, but I was more worried about the student.

Gladwin’s face stiffened as he nodded.

“You have got us a great leverage. You might have figured, but the princess of Aegean is someone the current king wants dead.”

“Right, she holds immense sway over the public as the daughter of the first king.”

Another civil servant chimed in from the side.

“Indeed. Asclepius was a commander rare to find even during the war.”

“You’ve met him, Professor Ethan?”

“Yes. I had the chance to see him on the front lines. His brother too, who I would say is an even better warrior.”

They nodded, it seemed they had similar thoughts about the current king. He was definitely a good leader, better than the first king.

Unfortunately, a good king did not mean a kind king and a kind king did not mean a good one. While the current king was good, he was not kind.

And so, he wanted to kill the niece that could be a thorn in his side.

“The princess ran here to take refuge. Honestly, she would be a bad choice to hold hostage, but her power over the public of Aegean is great.”

Gladwin’s words made a lot of sense. The princess that the king wanted dead was usually no good as a hostage, we were just making that work easy.

But if the princess could move the people, then the hostage’s value became even greater. How ironic.

I continued the same line of thought as him and said.

“If the princess had died here, the Aegean kingdom would have gained a great hand in negotiation?”

“Yes, so far they wanted her back and were ready to offer someone else while we refused. If she had died, the blame would have shifted on the empire. ‘Someone died in your lands, but we’ll let it slide if you meet our demands.’ At that time, we would have completely lost against the Aegean kingdom in the negotiations. The worst-case scenario has been avoided.”

I nodded.

It was quite a nice outcome.

“Thanks to you, a bad situation was stopped. We have gone over every single employee still in the academy and even the ones to join. I guarantee that something like this won’t happen again.”

Gladwin’s assurance was good. Just words weren’t enough, but he pointed at the two stacks of papers at the desk behind them. One was a stack of personnel removed and another, a stack of personnel added.

They had quite literally revamped everything overnight. Just how efficient were they?

After receiving all this information from the civil servants, I decided it was time to leave.

I just yawned and all of them said it would be fine for me to go while trembling. Even Gladwin. How funny, I hadn’t seen such reactions since the war.

“Professor.”

Before I could leave, Gladwin called out to me.

“The academy is safe for the princess now.”

I nodded at his words.

***

After leaving the civil servants behind, I found myself once again in the store room where the princess had made her base.

When I stepped inside, just as ever, she was scrunched into a ball as she leaned against the wall.

The ones yesterday said something about her scent. Was she in hiding?

Was it possible that her stealth was good enough for most others to not notice her? It all seemed shabby to me.

As soon as I came closer to her, the princess raised her head and looked at me.

“You’re here again…”

I sighed and smiled at her words.

“You said you got hurt while climbing a tree? On your hand?”

The princess looked down at her palm. It was obviously a lie.

“I cleared all sharp branches from the academy. You can climb anywhere safely now.”

Even if the words were strange.

The intent was clear.

“What are you talking about?”

Maybe not.