Life sometimes puts you in terribly awkward situations.
Like ending up in an elevator with a neighbor from the same floor whose name you naturally do not know, and whose face you only vaguely recognize.
Or when you log into Zoom eight minutes before a full-team video meeting begins, only to find that the only other person there is the third person to the left of your partition, someone with whom you have barely exchanged a few words.
"First of all, I thank you for accepting the invitation despite its suddenness. I am Wegner, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and a Court Count."
"Oh, no, not at all. My name is Lloyd Schultz."
Or being invited to dinner with the chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association when you had six scholarships in the works.
Those were the sorts of situational situations I meant.
Of course, the reason I found Wegner awkward was not merely because of the scholarships.
Strictly speaking, I had not yet received a single coin from the Imperial Patronage Association.
If you wanted to put someone in their place with money, you had to do more than boast about it. You had to make the deposit too.
"By the way...... Do you know why I asked to see you today?"
"W-Well, I do not?"
Even so, the reason I felt a very-very-slight-little-bit guilty about looking him straight in the eye was this.
When I played the Chancellor seed in <Jjam Academy>, I had become as close as two people could be to the Emperor through the "Court Count's Birthday Party Event," to the point that it could practically be called essential.
In other words.
I had fed the Imperial Patronage Association chairman and Court Count Wegner sitting before me 'persimmons and marinated crab,' just as King Yeongjo had, at least several hundred times.
"You really do not know?"
When his face was not turning blue, he was a man with an appearance that carried a certain middle-aged dignity.
Chapter 01 - Damn, Possessors Need Money
- How was the special meal we prepared in celebration of His Excellency the Court Count's birthday? Did it suit your palate?
- Y-You dare......!
Court Count Wegner's face turned deathly blue.
The fork and knife in his hands clattered noisily across the floor.
- You dare? That is what I should be saying.
- Holylight Inglebert!
All around him, Court Count Wegner's relatives lay sprawled out, growing cold.
- How dare you recommend my elder brother, rather than me, as the next chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association? That vermin who does nothing but frequent salons day in and day out!
The young man called Holylight vented his resentment in a voice that was truly aggrieved.
- In what way am I inferior to my elder brother? What do I lack, other than having been born later?! You always told me to hone my abilities—that above all else, the capital's court nobles needed outstanding ability! Yet in the end, even you......!
However, no answer came back.
Not only because his father, Wegner Inglebert, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and Court Count, was dead.
- ......Why did you try to give everything to the eldest son, imitating hereditary nobles, when you are a court noble with no estate to pass down?
But because every relative who had gathered to celebrate his birthday had also stopped breathing.
Holylight Inglebert rose from his seat wearing a somewhat lonely expression.
He had spent his entire life pursuing the goal his father had set for him, and the result was the carnage before his eyes.
The thought of running away did not even occur to him.
After all, he had been born in the capital and lived there his entire life. Where could he possibly run to?
He would soon be discovered by the maids who came in to clear away the meal, and it would not take long for the capital guard to arrest him.
What punishment awaited the unfilial wretch who had poisoned his entire family on his father's birthday?
Hanging? Beheading? Or, if not those, burning?
But contrary to Holylight Inglebert's dreadful, self-destructive imaginings.
- You have done something most audacious. Yet I will commend that decisiveness, at least.
- ......Pardon?
There was a sinister smile on the Emperor's lips when he faced him in the underground prison.
***
"Why did Heaven create an elder brother, a younger brother, Uncle 1, Uncle 2, Older Cousin 1, Older Cousin 2, Younger Cousin 1, the valedictorian and salutatorian of the Academy's School of Administration, the vice chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association's Budget Division, and the vice chairman of its Administrative Division in a Court Count seed?!”
Anonymous: At that point, you are just....
Anonymous: This bastard just built his character wrong.
Original Poster: I did not miss any Job Quests, so why was I not recommended as the next chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association?
Anonymous: Is your character the firstborn child?
Original Poster: Third.
Anonymous: The Imperial Army wants you, boot!
Original Poster: Fuck.
Anonymous: Are you slandering the 'PC' Solarian Empire, where even other races can inherit noble titles? You must be a child who is not firstborn!
Original Poster: Fuck, does that mean I have to reroll until I get a firstborn seed? It is a waste to throw away the character I raised.
Anonymous: Bribe the chef at the Court Count's birthday party.
Original Poster: Why the chef?
Anonymous: Poison them all, and when the Emperor discovers it, Court Count is totally possible.
Original Poster: ???
Anonymous: The Emperor is a nonstop suspicion machine, so if he thinks you have caught hold of his weakness, you get promoted at ultra-high speed.
Original Poster: Solarian III, you crazy bastard.
***
Shortly after Lloyd left the Imperial Patronage Association following his interview.
"Who do you want investigated?"
"A student named Lloyd Schultz. During his interview......"
"Marta, you have finally taken an interest in a man. As your father, I am so happy and yet so sad."
"He is a student, a student. And a scholarship recipient of the Imperial Patronage Association."
"It seems younger boyfriends are fashionable among the young ladies of the capital these days."
"Just stop talking."
Marta mercilessly turned her gaze away from her father, who wore a sly expression.
"Lloyd Schultz. Is he the student from the report you submitted? The one who openly mentioned another patronage association during the interview?"
"Yes, that is right."
Her father, Wegner Inglebert, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and Court Count, asked as he drank his coffee.
"That is unexpected."
"What is?"
"Normally, you would have marked him unsuccessful without a second glance. Yet you went out of your way to submit a report as well."
"I was taught that, as an interviewer for the Imperial Patronage Association, I should not dismiss an academy student's hidden potential."
"I am your father."
"Maybe his confidence is handsome?"
"...? You were clearly just saying something about a student."
"What about it?"
Wegner, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, looked down at the documents again.
If he had not thought anything of it until a moment ago, somehow Lloyd Schultz suddenly gave him the impression of being a delinquent.
"Putting aside that trivial reason."
"That means it ranks about second among your reasons."
"You are always telling me to get married."
Playful blue eyes glittered like jewels through Marta's blond hair.
He wondered when his daughter had grown up so much.
Yet when he thought of how all the other Court Counts had married off their children and were pondering what to name their grandchildren.
Wegner, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, could not shake the feeling that perhaps it was somewhat late.
"Enough joking. In any case, I would like to ask you to investigate this Lloyd Schultz."
"You are asking this man, the chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association and a Court Count, to dig into the background of a mere student? A prospective student who has not even entered the academy?"
At Wegner's sharp retort, Marta's entire demeanor changed.
Like a bow with its string drawn taut, like a famous sword just before it left its sheath.
And sharp as she was when dealing with the other interviewers who had picked at her for no reason.
She straightened herself, and a move aimed at turning the tables in one stroke emerged from her lips.
"Please."
"I cannot say no to a please."
They might not have been in the Imperial Patronage Association building, but they were in the Inglebert estate.
Wegner melted into a puddle at the fact that his daughter was asking something of him for the first time in a long while.
"A mere interviewer such as me cannot investigate a scholarship recipient, but my father, the chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, can do it as easily as eating cake, right?"
"Now I understand why I always told you not to eat sweets too often."
"You will do it? Thank you."
"It is not as though I do not know anyone in the Intelligence Department, but do we truly need to go this far?"
"Was Lloyd Schultz talented enough to have another patronage association promise him a scholarship even before he entered the academy? Or did he boldly lie and mock the Imperial Patronage Association?"
His only daughter, Marta, smiled mischievously, looking exactly like his wife had in her youth.
"Am I the only one who is curious?"
***
The residential district where Imperial civil servants chiefly lived was brimming with life even in the early morning, when it was almost dawn.
"Freshly made lunchboxes! Seven bronze coins! Take some warm happiness with you for seven bronze coins!"
"How about coffee brewed by hand instead of with a magical tool?"
"Shoe shines! Fire shines, water shines, even steam shines—we will make them gleam!"
It was because the streets were crowded with civil servants hurrying to work and people calling out to them to drum up business.
Their destinations, clothing, and expressions were all different, but they had one thing in common.
They were all hurrying somewhere.
"Welcome!"
"One coffee and sandwich."
Therefore, instead of joining that dynamic, irresistible stream of commuters.
He sat on a chair at a coffee stand—a chair that existed, yet might as well not have.
"What? Is he drinking here instead of taking it to go?"
"What in the world is he doing on the sacred commute to work?"
Going against the long line of commuters naturally drew quite a bit of attention.
But that attention lasted only an instant.
To civil servants in a hurry to get where they were going, curiosity was not an important matter worth being late to the office to resolve.
"Here are your coffee and sandwich."
At the stall owner's cheerful voice, the man gave a small nod and opened a newspaper and notebook.
But the man's gaze was clearly fixed on a single place.
At last, the door of the house bearing the nameplate 'Schultz' opened.
The moment a young man with a tall frame and a somewhat youthful face emerged, the man began hastily writing something in his notebook.
'Observation target, Lloyd Schultz. Leaving his home......'
Then, stuffing a sandwich into his mouth and rising with coffee in hand, he followed the young man.
He looked exactly like a civil servant who had overslept a little.
This time, no one paid him any attention at all.
https://ko.dict.naver.com/#/mini/search?query=* * *
"Beginning with the Sachsen Patronage Association at 10:47 this morning, Lloyd Schultz visited numerous patronage associations based in the capital, operated by the Duke of Sachsen, the Duke of Frank, the Margrave of Rheinland, the Grand Khanate, the Red Tower, the Blue Tower, the Green Tower, and Midas's Hand."
Wegner, chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, silently read through the report written in neat handwriting.
"As far as we have determined, he has been selected as a scholarship recipient by the patronage associations of Sachsen, Frank, Rheinland, the Red Tower, and the Blue Tower."
"......"
"Afterward, he went to the Capital Head Office of the Imperial Bank and took out a loan using a total of six sponsorship decision notices as collateral."
"......"
The wood and embers danced a truly passionate tango in the antique fireplace.
And after a passionate tempo had passed, an awkward silence was bound to arrive.
The dining room had already been quiet with only the two of them in it, but once their conversation stopped as well, they could hear each other's breathing.
"Then here is a question."
The chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association neatly folded the document and handed it to me as he spoke.
"What is the proper action for the chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association to take after receiving this information?"
"How about recognizing the Empire's promising talent, who has accurately grasped his own value and possesses bold initiative, encouraging him, and enjoying a pleasant dinner?"
"That is not a particularly pleasant joke to enjoy before dinner."
"Yep."
His expression was so grim that it seemed as though he were wondering whether he had accidentally mixed marinated crab into the appetizer.
"Second question. Did Lloyd Schultz, who had been selected as a scholarship recipient by the Imperial Patronage Association, visit other patronage associations in order to withdraw the sponsorship contracts he had previously made with them, in light of his status as an Imperial Patronage Association scholarship recipient?"
The chairman of the Imperial Patronage Association, who had already received a full report from the intelligence agent, could not possibly be asking that because he truly did not know.
"......"
Instead of giving a clumsy answer, I remained silent.
Assemblyman Han Gyeong-su had also sealed his lips whenever an unfavorable question came up at a hearing or a press conference.
I could not exactly say, 'I was planning to skim some money because in about four years, the entire Empire, capital and provinces alike, will be completely fucked.'
Despite the urgent and unfavorable situation, I could judge that I had chosen the best move.
"Keeping silent means you knew and did it anyway...... Frankly, I am at a loss for words."
Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.
What a shame.