Minister’s point of view.
After handling the damage report and explaining the situation caused by monsters that invaded the Capital, I returned to my private room, exhausted.
I didn’t think that it was the truth that Emiel was doing all the management of the barrier, and I was dismayed to hear that the wardstones had turned useless.
Why did the magicians of the last term not explain to the magicians of this term why they were put on the management on duty?
I let out a sigh and sat down on the couch and sipped the tea a maid prepared for me.
Normally this would be a blissful moment, but when I think of the damage that will occur from now on, I couldn’t taste or smell the tea.
I put the half-empty teacup on the table first, and as I was grieving over the fact that I should have stocked up on wardstones, the door was knocked on roughly and violently opened.
“… Louis. What is the problem now?”
“It’s about the wardstone.”
Gingerly sitting down on the couch in front of me, Louis swept his eyes around for a moment and then quickly locked them with mine.
“I have ordered the Royal Magicians to bring back that dismissed woman as a filler until the new wardstone arrives. I want you to arrange for that one to be allowed inside the castle for this week only.”
“You acted on your own again… oh well, I get it. It’s too late for the damage to be undone.”
I naturally felt a sense of relief at the possibility of my anxiety being removed.
And I asked quickly, remembering that I was wondering about something earlier.
“Why didn’t the Royal Magicians know that the wardstones could mutate? They were supposed to be told why they have to take turns on duty, right?”
“T, that’s… o, oh, they must have just forgotten. And maybe they weren’t informed because their seniors thought nothing would change just in a few years.”
Louis, who swept his eyes around the room in suspicious behavior, said he recalled he has another business to take care of and left.
… I’ve got more things to investigate.
I ordered the guards who were waiting behind me to add Louis to the list of things that will need investigating starting tomorrow, and then I headed to my bedroom to get some rest.
It’s going to be busy tomorrow. I need to rest well today…
☆
A guard entered my new office without knocking in a hurry and placed a few papers on my desk.
“We have discovered a pile of papers in Emiel’s private quarters that need to be processed by the Knights, Royal Magicians, and several others! Also, from the words of the maid who was in charge of cleaning her room, the only time Emiel left her room was when she had to leave for a business trip, otherwise, she was always working there.”
“……”
I took the documents with trembling hands and looked them over lightly. And indeed, there were several varying pieces of evidence listed there that I had to accept as a fact that Emiel had been a tremendous victim in all of this.
On the other hand, I had numerous eyewitness testimonies of magicians who told me that Emiel did not do any work at all, playing around even during work hours, which made me troubled.
I trusted and believed their words because they were the children of honest nobles who were close to me, but I didn’t think they were big liars.
And above all, I was ashamed of myself for being deceived and believing such trivial lies, even though I was a minister.
“U, umm… if I may.”
The guard, who took out another stack of documents with a difficulty written on his face, held them out to me, who nodded.
”When we looked into Lord Sage… we found that he was negligent regarding the wardstone, and he didn’t teach the magicians anything about it in the first place, he also didn’t conduct regular internal audits. And also——”
There’s more? I felt like interjecting rudely.
“We have found out that he’s spending more than half of the research money for his own enjoyment.”