“Then. I will finish the remaining work. If there is anything else you need, please tell me anytime.”
She wiped away the tears gathered in her pale green eyes and withdrew.
“Bath oils.”
“Yes?”
“Find out what bath oils are popular these days. And buy them the moment the upkeep allowance comes in.”
“Not clothes?”
“I missed them terribly. My bathtub.”
She laughed as if she had never cried.
I didn’t need to say it; I knew she was remembering my childhood.
“I understand. I will make sure you can enjoy a bath the moment you return.”
“Thank you.”
Once she left, I turned my eyes back to the documents.
***
The next day.
“Have you ever seen such insane bastards?”
The thought circling in my head finally burst out of my mouth.
The contents of the reports were, quite literally, a spectacle.
Budgets and manpower fluctuated wildly, construction progress went up and down, and the name of the noble in charge of the site changed every week.
Now they were openly rotating the person in charge.
“Is the special allowance that tempting? Or did they really think they wouldn’t get caught?”
If it was the latter, their judgment was truly broken.
One thing was certain.
Father, Lord Argantius, knew full well that the site had massive problems.
The reason he gave me this position was precisely because the site was in a border region where dispatching an officer-mage was difficult.
And also to test whether I was merely a knight who could swing a sword a little, or whether I could display the capabilities befitting a noble.
I have to solve this properly.
So I can receive a pension worthy of blue blood, maintain my dignity, and give my maid her bonus.
I want to wear the cashmere uniforms I used to wear again, damn it.
I let out a sigh deep enough to make the ground cave in.
The reports were so outrageous that I didn’t even know where to start.
“Young Master. I brought coffee.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
A fragrant aroma spread through the room.
It strangely reminded me of my previous life.
Back then, sipping a cup of coffee while working was everyday life.
“Your expression is dark. Is something blocking you?”
…Come to think of it, they weren’t particularly good memories.
“I don’t know where to begin.”
But is it okay to say this to my maid?
As if sensing my hesitation, she spoke quickly.
“I never learned administrative work, so I won’t understand even if I hear it. Just think of it as organizing your thoughts and speak.”
“Alright. Then first, the current person in charge absolutely has to die.”
“Yes? Die? Why?”
She looked genuinely shocked, not trying to draw out an answer.
“The embezzled amount is too large. Even rough calculations put it over thirty sacks of gold coins.”
At those words, my maid’s mouth fell wide open.
“Thirty sacks of gold coins? Are they trying to buy a small city?”
“That’s not all. The number of workers has decreased, wages are in arrears, and they’re redoing sections already completed. Did they think no one would notice if they just swapped the coordinates front and back?”
“I’m not sure about the reduced workers, but how did you know wages were delayed?”
“The number of workers dropped, yet the wage expenditure is decreasing even faster. It feels like twenty people became ten, but the money meant for five is being given to ten. They clumsily wrote that they reduced the wage budget because the number of workers dropped, which makes it even more infuriating.”
My maid, who was also an employee, frowned.
“That really is a crime worthy of death. Stealing the Lord’s money means they should die.”
“But killing him would still be a headache.”
She tilted her head as if she didn’t understand at all.
“This kind of construction can’t be done just by plugging in any earth mage.”
“Because of experience or skill?”
“Exactly. They have to be an outstanding earth mage, knowledgeable in construction and urban planning, possess commanding authority to control the site, handle money well, and be honest and diligent.
Also, since they have to work with me, I’d prefer they didn’t overly look down on knights.
Of course, anyone who meets all these conditions would be welcomed anywhere.”
During the period when I should have been building connections most diligently, I had lain in my room like a corpse.
The person in charge I wanted was someone I could not obtain with my current network.
Killing the current person in charge without a replacement would be irresponsible.
Names like Ziverk or Orlando flashed sporadically in my mind but were immediately dismissed.
Aside from being earth mages, they satisfied none of the conditions needed for the position.
“This is difficult.”
“It really is.”
While I clutched my head for a moment, her eyes suddenly lit up.
Then she quickly muttered “No, that wouldn’t work” and shook her head.
“Is there someone you thought of?”
“No. It’s just one of the few earth mages I know. Never mind.”
“Don’t beat around the bush; just say it. Right now I’d borrow even a cat’s paw. Even if it’s my worst enemy, I need someone to fill the position.”
Hesitating, she answered with an expression like she might cry.
“Lady Temeratia.”
The moment I heard that name, my back and sides ached.
“Urgh!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“It’s fine.”
Temeratia?
The Temeratia I know?
Temeratia Temeration Intezeruto.
The young lady of the pureblood branch military noble Temeration family.
The youngest-ever navy-blue officer-mage in history.
The mage I have crossed spells with multiple times.
The first mage to see my intestines.
Appoint her as the site supervisor?
The words Are you insane? shot up to my throat.
I repeatedly reminded myself that I was the one who told her not to beat around the bush.
I patted my phantom-paining sides and back several times and chugged the remaining coffee.
As the bitter liquid slid down my throat, my emotions settled and reason rose.
Like the calm I felt when swinging a sword.
Objectively speaking… it might actually not be bad.
Condition 1: Outstanding earth mage.
Needless to say.
Youngest navy-blue officer-mage.
Condition 2: Knowledgeable in construction and urban planning.
The most important duty of earth officer-mages is building bridges to cross rivers and temporary fortresses for encampments.
Urban planning?
Give her a few people on site and she’ll pick it up quickly.
Condition 3: Command ability & budget management.
She is an officer who has raised her own unit.
Condition 4: Honesty & diligence.
I know she is diligent.
Even after exhausting social battles in the capital’s high society, she diligently came to torment me.
Honesty is a bit ambiguous.
A little embezzlement is something any blue blood does.
But with the fastidiousness typical of a military noble family, she would at least be better than the current supervisor.
Condition 5: Does not overly despise knights.
Blue bloods and officer-mages from military noble families surprisingly treat knights well.
Ordinary mages think of knights as fallen blood, thin blood, but military nobles and officer-mages see knights as comrades who fight together.
Of course, this time I would be delegating or recommending the work to her, but at least it would be easier to cooperate than before.
Final Condition 6: An officer-mage cannot be sent to the site.
That’s why I’m here.
Temeratia will be moving not as navy-blue officer-mage Temeratia, but as knight Anplus’s adjutant.
Imperial spies would never imagine an officer-mage acting as some mere knight’s adjutant.
The only real problem was our past history and feelings toward each other.
I bit my lip for a moment.
Then, recalling the pension amount a blue blood could receive, I declared firmly.
“Fine. It’s okay. Could you bring me some sealing wax?”
“Have you thought of a good person?”
“Yes. I’m sending it to Temeratia.”
I once told Trichitas myself.
For the sake of family and profit, one must sometimes set aside personal feelings.
My maid’s face turned pale.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m really sending it because the conditions are good.”
I stepped outside the mansion, crossed the garden, and headed to the building where the administrators worked.
There I snatched thick, ink-absorbing high-quality paper and sealing wax for letters as if stealing them.
“I’ll borrow these for a bit.”
“Yes?”
When I returned to my room, my maid had polished my dust-covered signet ring.
The feeling was strange.
I never thought the day would come when I’d use it again.
“Shall I write it for you? Or shall I bring an administrator?”
“It’s fine. Since it’s the first letter, I think it’s better I write it myself. It also means it must proceed so secretly that no other hand can touch it.”
I dipped the quill in ink.
***
[Omitted… Therefore, I appoint you as assistant auditor of the Serenus Marsh reclamation project and simultaneously recommend you as temporary overall supervisor of the Serenus Marsh reclamation project.]
[For confidentiality and identity concealment, on paper you will be treated as adjutant to Sir Anplus, but in actual duties you will be granted discretionary authority… Omitted]
The youngest-ever navy-blue officer-mage Temeratia read the letter over and over under a silver candlestick.
“Adjutant. What do you think this means?”
A female noble in a sharply pressed uniform approached and read Anplus’s letter.
“Congratulations. You have obtained a tremendous opportunity.”
“Yes. You’re right. A tremendous opportunity.”
Temeratia frowned and sighed.
“The Serenus Marsh reclamation is a massive project even by blue-blood imperial standards. The new land is vast, and already 300,000 poor commoners are scheduled to migrate.”
“If you add the serfs who will quietly follow, it could easily reach 400,000. Even we had to order the lesser branch families under us to be wary of mass serf escapes.”
“Even if they are red-blood commoners, 400,000 people can accomplish a lot.”
Temeratia looked at her loyal adjutant.
Since they were originally poor, they would work hard to start a new life, and as a pioneer city in the border region, all sorts of taxes would be exempted for at least a decade.
Second or third children of branch families would want to split off there and open villages, farms, and cities.
The adjutant nodded at Temeratia’s words.
“Yes. Moreover, the construction itself is enormous. If it weren’t for the fact that this is disputed territory with the imperial family and officer-mages cannot be dispatched, even pureblood branch families like ours would have fought fiercely behind the scenes to win the contract.”
“It is also a chance to preempt the prime land and roads in the city.”
“Yes. Building rent and merchant passage tolls are always sweet.”
The adjutant tilted her head slightly, as if she didn’t understand Temeratia.
“Such an opportunity has rolled in for free, yet you do not seem as happy as I expected.”
Temeratia smiled bitterly.
“It depends on who the other party is.”
Only then did the adjutant check the sender and frown.
“Young Master Anplus?”
“If Lady Ribelia had sent it, I would have gone straight to the main castle with gifts without question. But this was sent by Young Master Anplus.”
Temeratia ground her teeth.
“Do you know how many times I’ve seen that young master’s blood? Why would he give me an opportunity like this?”
The adjutant sighed.
“It pains me to say this, but you reap what you sow.”
“He became a knight. He even defeated a young mage with military experience, and this winter he spent two whole months training the sword under Master Seongbaek.”
The adjutant’s eyes widened.
“Master Seongbaek? That elder—”
“Yes. The elder whose eyes are dead but whose body still lives. The greatest swordsman of the Intezeruto family. Even I trained military swordsmanship under him.”
Temeratia tapped her temple with the index and middle fingers of her left hand.
She could still clearly see Anplus cutting through her earth pillar with a mere branch.
Twisting her navy-blue hair, she muttered in a voice so small even the adjutant standing right beside her couldn’t hear.
“I will never lose by chance again. The fact that young master beat me with a branch was nothing but luck—”
Just how much stronger has he become? I heard that on his last mission before winter he even cut a cliff…
Navy-blue officer-mage.
Not cyan, but navy-blue.
An achievement unmatched at her age.
No—forget her age.
Among officer-mages who had lived hundreds of years and stood on dozens of battlefields, it was an accomplishment she could boast of with her head held high anywhere.
Ironically, because she was such a person, she was all the more wary of Anplus.
As time passes, memories become increasingly blurred.
In Temeratia’s mind, Anplus had become “the monstrous knight who crushed this amazingly talented me with a single branch.”
This time, she might receive a challenge first and be beaten one-sidedly without spilling a single drop of his blood.
It wouldn’t even be strange if the moment they met, he shouted for old revenge and plunged his knight’s sword into her side.
“Bring paper and sealing wax. I need to write a letter.”
***
“She wasn’t this humble a person, was she?”
Temeratia’s reply, summarized in one line, was “Someone as lacking as I cannot bear such a heavy responsibility.”
“It really feels like she’s scared. She’s being defensive.”
At my maid’s words, I snorted.
“Scared? A navy-blue officer-mage scared?”
There aren’t many things that can frighten a mage who collapses mountains and fills seas with a wave of her hand.
“You knocked her out with a single branch. She might think I called her to take revenge.”
“If that were the case, wouldn’t her competitive spirit burn instead? How dare you! and all that.”
“If she had lost with magic, maybe. But she lost with swordsmanship. She probably can’t think of a clear way to win.”
This was troublesome.
I had naturally assumed she would gladly accept and had already planned the next steps.
Looking at the calendar, it was almost time to depart for the site.
I picked up the quill again.
“You’re writing it yourself again?”
“You know the saying—the pen is mightier than the sword?”
“Yes. Though I don’t believe it.”
“Honestly, neither do I. But I still have to try. I’m good with a sword, so I’ll be good with a pen too.”
“What’s the basis for that? Even before the basis, the logic seems weak.”
“I’ll push with the pen the same way I push with the sword. I need to write out my situation in detail. That I absolutely need you for the sake of my pension. That I’m not doing this because I like it—”
***
“See? I told you it would work.”
“Congratulations. I really didn’t think it would get through.”