“I’m truly sorry.”
The minister bowed his head to me along with those words, causing me to look at Klaus without understanding what was going on.
“No, I don’t know either? Has this old man done something bad to you?”
“Y, yeah, but…”
It’s true that this is the person who had ultimately dismissed me, but I wouldn’t say I hold that much of a grudge, or rather, I could even say that I’m grateful that he let me go…
I felt like there wasn’t much the minister had to apologize for, but he kept his head down and didn’t move.
“Please lift your head. You haven’t wronged me to an extent I would require an apology from you.”
“It was me who dismissed you without investigation properly while you were suffering the most. Wouldn’t an apology be appropriate?”
Well, it’s true that I had to forfeit all my wages, but in the end, I was freed from that workplace because of it.
If you looked at the result alone, it was not such a bad thing, that’s how I really feel.
I was wondering if I should just put it into words, but the minister’s face was clouding over.
“First of all, I will give you this. It’s the money that had been confiscated from you.”
“Eh? T, thank you very much.”
The bag was very heavy, and you could hear the sound of the gold coins hitting against each other with just a little shake.
If I added up the amount of gold coins that Elina gave me, this is already enough for me to live for the rest of my life without worries until my grandchildren’s generation.
I decided to put the jute bag on the shelf by the front door once and say my true feelings to the minister who seemed to feel exhausted.
“You have certainly dismissed me without investigating first, minister. That is the truth. However, it allowed me to escape from the never-ending work, including the endless pile of paperwork and acting as a magicraft teacher. If I hadn’t been dismissed, I’m sure I would be still suffering today.”
“… It is also me who had created that environment. I didn’t notice the internal corruption in time, after all.”
“I don’t think you would normally expect the investigators to take bribes. I was surprised when I found out for the first time, too.”
When the first investigator came, I thought that there might be someone who would finally help me, but I remember very well how desperate I got when the investigator happily accepted the money Heinz bribed him with so naturally.
I am sure that the main reason for the hell of a workplace that was created was that he would only receive biased information from the investigators and nobles he deemed trustable.
However, the minister seemed to have a strong sense that he was the main perpetrator of all this as he shook his head from side to side.
“My role as a minister finished when I wasn’t able to manage my subordinates properly… it was only inevitable that I got demoted to an assistant.”
“You were demoted, sir?”
I did not think he did anything that bad, but I don’t know why.
When I tilted my head puzzledly, the minister seemed to have no intention of telling me, but simply said, “It’s nothing.”
“It’s getting dark already. Do you mind if I come back tomorrow?”
“I don’t mind, but… you won’t be apologizing to me any more, will you?”
“… You are a kind one, aren’t you?”
The minister bowed to me with these words and left together with the knight.
Klaus, who had been watching from the sidelines, looked curious.
“So, who was that old man in the end? He looked like a big shot?”
“He’s the chief minister. Ah, but it seems he got demoted to an assistant, so he’s the former minister now?”
“To think a woman a country’s chief minister would have to bow his head down to exists… oh well, I’m going home.”
I waved my hand back at Klaus as he left, and when he was out of sight, I closed the door.
Now, an unbelievable amount of money has unexpectedly come rolling to my hands, but what do I do with these? I might as well consider rebuilding this house.
I returned to the living room with the jute bag in my hands, thinking about such things.
It wasn’t long before my father collapsed when he saw the amount of money in the bag.