The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 27

It was that woman again, Namia Roafi.

Just as Kiaros furrowed his brows, Fron suddenly pointed at Oson and said,

"I always thought that squinty-eyed bastard was suspicious, y'know?"

For a moment, everyone tilted their heads in confusion. Fron continued boldly,

"Think about it. I only wandered around buying poison during weekday afternoons. So when the hell did that guy even see me?"

At that, Oson shouted indignantly,

"I definitely saw Her Majesty the Empress several times at that spot! The shop owner’s testimony also—"

"Yeah, and who said you didn’t see me?"

Fron let out a snort, lifting her chin arrogantly.

"Weekday afternoons are work hours, right? So why were you out there instead of working?"

"M-my attendance issues have nothing to do with this matter—"

"Why wouldn’t they?"

Kiaros was left speechless.

Fron glanced far off toward Namia and suddenly began to stammer her words.

"Imperial Family Special Law, Article 4, no, Article 3, Section 1: all royalty can oversee and inspec—no, supervise imperial civil servants. Imperial Family Special Law, Article 5, Clause 11: all royalty can, through various forms of insp—no, audits, verify the working status of civil servants. Imperial Knights Act, Article 33, Section 2: an Imperial Knight, upon receiving permission from royalty, can conduct a targ—no, trap investigation against suspicious individuals."

A heavy silence fell over the courtroom.

Even those seeing Fron for the first time today could tell something strange was going on.

Her words were difficult, and on top of that, she was stuttering so badly that hardly anyone could understand what she was saying properly.

'Huh?'

Among the very few who understood her, Kiaros blinked in bewilderment.

'Wait, she's... correct?'

But Kiaros was certain: Fron probably didn’t even know that an "Imperial Family Special Law" existed.

Even the Minister of Justice, looking thoroughly baffled, was rendered speechless.

"That bastard kept sneaking out like a rat during work hours...!"

Fron shouted with full confidence, then stumbled again, as if flipping into another personality.

"Based on the royal right to supervise imperial civil servants, I chose an audit meth—no, inspection method through an Imperial Knight, and as an Imperial Knight, after receiving permission from myself, royalty, I conducted a targ—no, a trap investigation. There shouldn’t be any procedural problem with the laws and processes I mentioned earlier."

Kiaros was genuinely stunned.

'What the hell is happening here?'

One thing was certain.

This was connected to Namia Roafi.

There was no way Fron could do this on her own. But that strange civil servant definitely had a history of rattling off legal codes without missing a beat.

As Kiaros stood there dumbfounded, the Minister of Justice asked like a fool,

"...Excuse me?"

"I'm still an Imperial Knight, y'know. I just happened to become Empress somehow, but I'm still listed... yeah."

Everyone looked confused, not understanding what Fron had just said.

After hesitating for a moment, the Minister of Justice muttered,

"Uh, well... legally and procedurally speaking, um, it’s not wrong..."

According to Fron's explanation, the illegal acquisition of poisons had merely been a trap investigation to monitor Oson’s work attendance.

"That’s ridiculous!"

Oson screamed.

"The Scroll Department is also under the jurisdiction of the Magic Tower! No matter how high Her Majesty’s authority is to summon public documents, she has no right to access our department’s work attendance records!"

Even if others didn’t know, Kiaros was well aware.

Up until now, Fron probably hadn’t even glanced at a single official document.

In fact, she probably didn’t even realize she had that kind of authority.

Meanwhile, Oson continued spitting as he objected,

"Why would Her Majesty, among all the civil servants, single me out and monitor my attendance?"

Regardless, Fron remained utterly brazen.

"Because."

Fron’s gaze shifted forward again.

Everyone else must have thought she was simply looking out at the courtroom.

But Kiaros narrowed his eyes, watching Namia carefully.

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Then Fron started rattling off again in a suddenly more precise tone,

"All imperial civil servants can access the overnight duty reports uploaded every morning at 6 a.m. I noticed discrepancies where the name of the night-duty recipient and the actual report submit—no, report drafter were different. Based on financial documents that the Empress has the authority to inspect, I confirmed that the extra night-duty compensation was being received by Oson Filon, but the reports for those dates were consistently uploaded by Namia Roafi."

Night duty, where civil servants took turns guarding the palace.

They were supposed to submit a report the following morning about anything unusual.

Normally, it was just "Nothing to report." Nobody paid attention to those brief daily reports.

And no one would bother cross-referencing them with financial compensation records from the Treasury.

"Who would even check that!"

"I did? I have the authority? I was bored and just observed it? My time, my business?"

Fron mocked him in her suddenly teasing tone.

At last, Kiaros fully understood.

Earlier, Fron's gaze had been fixed, more precisely, on Namia’s silently moving lips.

Now, how things would unfold was no longer the problem.

'No way... is that really possible? From this distance?'

To think she could read someone's lips so precisely from so far away?

Even Kiaros, with his excellent eyesight, couldn't make out what Namia was mouthing.

"I followed that bastard around and found him sneaking through dirty black markets during work hours. That’s all the trap investigation was. No procedural violation. So go ahead, strip that bastard down and cut off his head."

Fron declared proudly.

"Of course, I never used any of the poisons I gathered. Investigate it if you want."

The courtroom fell into chaos.

Kiaros also groaned and pressed his forehead.

It was painfully obvious which words were Fron's and which were Namia's.

'To fit everything together that perfectly, there’s no way she just looked it up in a book.'

The legal articles that Fron — no, Namia — referenced were scattered across extensive law books.

You couldn’t find them unless you already knew where to look.

'Yesterday, in that brief moment when they met in the prison... they must have done something.'

One thing was absolutely clear. Namia Roafi wasn’t just someone who memorized "how to boss around subordinates" articles.

She knew practically everything. And she had the exceptional ability to assemble it on the spot.

"L-let’s take... a short break," the Minister of Justice said amidst the confusion.

"We’ll resume at two o'clock."

Fron yawned and stood up, saying she needed to go to the bathroom.

And at that moment, Kiaros saw it.

Peeking out slightly from Fron's pocket was a rolled-up piece of scroll paper.

***

'Perfect!'

I let out a deep breath with a wide grin.

No one knew Oson's attendance record better than me, his subordinate.

Making it seem like the Empress had noticed it wasn’t hard at all.

'Of course, everyone will sense that something’s off, but with no flaws, they can't point it out.'

That way, we could buy time.

Kiaros probably would have resorted to using authority to stall things if needed.

'If that had happened, it would have caused massive backlash and become a real headache.'

Fron must have acted to avoid being a burden.

Yesterday in prison, I had lured the Empress by saying she could "avoid being a burden to Kiaros."

At the same time, I handed her a sheet filled with prewritten legal article-based lines.

Fron, receiving the densely packed sheet, muttered in frustration,

["With my brain, there’s no way I can memorize all this. ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Even if I stay up all night. And there’s too many damn words I don't even know."]

["Just memorize as much as you can... and also take this."]

Anticipating that situation, I gave her a scroll too.

I told her to use it right before entering the courtroom.

["It’s a scroll that lets you see things far away clearly. If you use it, you’ll be able to see my lip movements. That way, you can use it as a reference."]

No one can perfectly follow someone else’s lips just by watching.

But if you memorized parts in advance, lip movements could definitely serve as a hint.

["You won’t get caught. I'm the only one in the world who knows this scroll exists — and how to make it."]

It was a scroll I had invented alone through my own research.

All for the sake of my dad, who always said he wanted to look at the stars with me.