The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 71
Just in time, the lunch break ended and the other employees started pouring back into the office.
“Alright,” I said, patting Kibon on the shoulder.
“Let’s get to work now. Since we’re here early.”
“If by work, you mean...”
“We’ve got a threatening letter—no, I mean, an official document to write.”
When I smiled brightly, Kibon flinched.
I raised an eyebrow and added cheerfully,
“To the Minister of Education.”
The Minister of Education was probably trembling in fear by now.
Now that Liden had been taken, of course he'd be a bundle of nerves.
‘Let him suffer a little more mentally...’
Grinning to myself, I began drafting the document.
‘He’ll end up being bait for me anyway.’
The Minister of Education.
Surprisingly, he genuinely believes he’s acting in the best interest of the Imperial Family and the Empire.
And...
‘He’s also someone who received a scouting offer from the group behind this war. He rejected it for now, but still.’
In the original story, he doesn’t join the backroom group until much later—after the fall of the imperial family.
But it was stated that he had been approached long before that.
‘The fact that he didn’t report it to the royal court when he got the offer... means he’s already conflicted deep down.’
The Education Minister was the kind of slippery snake who covered up for Liden while always planning a way to quietly back out.
So of course he hadn’t made any bold moves yet.
But what if he were given a compelling reason to act?
‘Then he’ll move!’
If I kept close tabs on him, we might just be able to catch the puppetmasters behind the curtain.
It would be best to act then, with Kiaros by my side.
‘Maybe... that’s why I became Minister—to move freely like this.’
There were just so many things I could do.
Knowing the future and having power? There was nothing in my way.
I pressed down the corners of my lips, which kept trying to curl up again.
Kibon tilted his head as he looked over the document I was preparing to send to the Education Minister.
“What kind of official letter is this?”
“Oh, just a cooperation request.”
“You’re requesting this kind of... absurd level of cooperation from the Education Ministry?”
“Yep.”
The moment I made such an unreasonable demand, the Education Minister would definitely flinch.
‘Does she know I’m involved? Is this a threat?’—thoughts like that would keep him up all night.
“There’s probably something he feels guilty about.”
“Sigh... Don’t tell me even the Education Minister is...”
“Hm?”
“Nothing.”
Kibon mumbled as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
For a while, the only sound in the Minister’s office was the soft scratch of pens against paper.
Sad but true—there was always too much work in the Scroll Department.
“Please handle this, Kibon.”
I stacked a pile of documents on Kibon’s desk as I spoke.
“Once Senior Victor arrives, it’ll get better. He should be here tomorrow or the day after, so just hang in there until then.”
Kibon said nothing. He looked... slightly dissatisfied?
Was this guy seriously a workaholic?
So I helpfully placed a few more documents on top.
‘See? I’m a warm-hearted ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ person. Huh? Wait a second.’
My eyes shifted as a thought came to mind.
I remembered—didn’t Kibon say he liked warm people?
‘Don’t tell me... he likes me?’
Sure, Anastasia immediately eliminated me from the list of possible crushes, but truthfully, I was the most likely candidate.
Because Kibon didn’t talk to anyone else in the department.
‘And earlier, he stepped right in front of me.’
The guy chasing me was a bloodied criminal.
Kibon didn’t even know who Liden was—he could’ve assumed he was just some violent thug.
Yet he didn’t hesitate. He stepped between me and danger instantly.
Most people would’ve stepped back out of instinct, wouldn’t they?
‘Seriously, could it be me?’
Sure, his “ideal type” seemed a bit different from me, but hey—an ideal is just that. In reality, people often fall for someone else entirely.
‘And no matter how rudely I act, he’s always like “It’s fine, no problem~”...’
I paused for a moment of self-reflection.
Just because he was the first coworker I felt comfortable around, I’d grabbed his hand out of nowhere, even slammed the wall beside him once. If Oson had done any of that to me, I would’ve filed a harassment complaint instantly.
‘Now that I think about it... there’s a real chance here.’
Hmm, if Kibon does like me...
“Kibon.”
When I called his name absently, he immediately looked up at me.
Those pitch-black eyes stared at me silently.
“When your superior calls you, you’re supposed to answer.”
“Yes.”
See? The moment I point it out, he listens obediently.
At first, I thought he was just arrogant, but now I was ordering him around without a second thought.
‘Honestly... he might be the only man I can treat this comfortably.’
He was my first subordinate ever, so I had no one to compare him to.
But truthfully, I still didn’t know that much about Kibon.
How could I even consider him as a potential boyfriend if I didn’t know anything?
‘Sure, he’s a foreigner, and there might be some cultural differences, but that’s fine—I’ll just teach him. I can handle that.’
Aside from war-related matters, I was someone who valued logic over emotions. I always reasoned things out first before letting myself feel anything.
So I decided to ask Kibon something, completely out of the blue.
“What’s your flaw?”
If we were going to spend a long time together, flaws were more important than strengths.
It would be inefficient for me to figure it out on my own.
Given Kibon’s blunt personality, I figured he’d answer straightforwardly, so I asked directly.
“My flaw, you mean.”
He didn’t even ask why—I knew it. He just answered right away.
“I’m not sure.”
Kibon’s flaw: he doesn’t self-reflect.
While I was thinking, Kibon continued speaking.
“But according to the people I used to train with...”
“Training? You did training?”
“Yes.”
Well, yeah. His body definitely looked like it had seen some workouts.
I raised my eyebrows in curiosity, and Kibon explained.
“There’s no one who would criticize me directly to my face, but during training, we were obligated to point out each other’s weaknesses.”
“Ah, I see. Right.”
I’d seen palace knights training while passing by—dueling with each other, pointing out pros and cons.
“There was one consistent opinion from them... That I lack self-control.”
“...What?”
My eyes widened at the unexpected answer.
“Wha-wha-wha-wha-WHAAAT?!”
A screech came from outside, practically a panic attack.
“Y-Y-Y-Your Highness the Prince, isn’t it?!”
Anastasia’s panicked voice rang out.
An unexpected royal visitor had arrived.
“...What the hell.”
I glanced outside the window and, sure enough—there stood Prince Jaden. I frowned slightly in surprise.
‘I figured he’d come looking for me sooner or later, but to come straight to the office?’
Even though he was a child, this was enough to make anyone tense.
Everyone in the department, including me, shot to their feet.
Everyone except for Kibon, who stayed seated and just looked back down at his papers.
‘Is this guy insane?’
I jabbed him in the side and shot him a glare. But he didn’t even budge—he just stared at Jaden with a doubtful expression.
Meanwhile, Anastasia stammered even worse than usual.
“W-W-W-Would you like some coffee, Your Highness?”
Jaden folded his arms and responded with an appalled tone.
“You want to give high-caffeine beverages to an eight-year-old whose brain is still developing? Did you leave your intelligence at home? Or did you just throw away your common sense in a trash can this morning? If you’re gonna keep offering coffee to a child, why don’t you climb in the trash can with it?”
Kibon dropped the pen he was holding with a soft clack.
Well, it was probably his first time seeing the prince.
There’s a reason people secretly call him a hopeless little brat behind his back.
Anyone unfamiliar with Jaden’s usual behavior probably doesn’t exist in this palace—except maybe the other Dragonblood.
Jaden tilted his chin up arrogantly.
“Anyway. Where’s the Minister of the Scroll Department?”
