Chapter 71
“How is it?”
Gillitair asked in a tense voice.
He hadn’t explicitly asked the question, but the way Meren and Rusvel looked at me made it obvious—they were anxious too.
“……You three wrote all of this yourselves?”
“Yes, we did. Did you… perhaps find something wrong with the plan?”
“Well…”
I had no idea what to say, so instead of answering, I lowered my eyes back to the proposal.
No matter how many times I went over it, the conclusion didn’t change.
It was an excellent proposal. Not just decent—truly excellent.
‘No, why the heck is a plan like this coming from them…?’
From the remaining people, I chose random replacements—shouldn’t chaos and incompetence have followed?
‘So this is what that cold feeling was when I received Baron Dezo’s letter!’
I’m never trusting face-reading or gut feelings again.
As I kept staring at the proposal with a frown and no words, Gillitair let out a deep sigh.
“As expected, this plan is not enough to satisfy our lord.”
‘Huh? No, it’s amazing.’
I’m not particularly knowledgeable about administration, finances, or military affairs.
I have enough knowledge to judge a finished plan, but if someone told me to create one from scratch, I’d crumble.
“It seems we submitted it too hastily. We will redo it properly and bring you something truly worthy of your standards.”
‘What? It’s already more than great, and you want to make something better than this?’
That was dangerous. I quickly tried to stop the three of them.
“No, really—it’s enough. This is good. Don’t overwork yourselves.”
“Enough…”
Gillitair muttered as if he hated the word, then shook his head.
“We want to present not just a sufficient plan, but a perfect one.”
“I misspoke! It’s already great!”
“No. We will work harder to match your level, my lord.”
I was speaking the absolute truth, but none of them believed me.
They gathered up the documents they had handed me and hugged them tightly against their chests, sighing deeply.
“Of course, getting praise from a genius like our lord is difficult…”
“…Genius?”
Me? No, the genius is Lucas.
I blinked in confusion, and Gillitair tilted his head with surprise.
“Yes. Lord Lucas said, ‘I’m still far from catching up to Danae.’”
“‘She’s the sibling who always keeps me humble,’ he also said.”
Rusvel added quietly.
I looked to Meren as if pleading for a denial, but she nodded carefully.
I was struck speechless and clutched my head.
“…….”
What nonsense has that idiot been spouting behind my back?!
Three people left Danae’s room with grave expressions.
‘She’s the one who gave opportunities to people everyone ignored. We must be of use to her.’
With that resolve, they had stayed up night after night to build this plan.
But to a genius lord, even that must have seemed insufficient.
Everyone knew that the firstborn of House Asinov—Lucas—was a genius.
Some people laughed and said the rumors were exaggerated, but once they met him, they admitted his brilliance while clicking their tongues in disbelief.
And someone even Lucas humbly acknowledged?
There was no doubt—she was an extraordinary genius.
Remembering how Danae silently stared at the proposal, all three sighed at once.
“She clearly didn’t tell us it was lacking because she didn’t want to hurt us.”
Rusvel and Meren nodded hard at Gillitair’s conclusion.
“I thought she was bold and harsh… but she’s so gentle, too.”
“What could possibly be lacking in our lord?”
The new lord of Devon had made countless enemies after mass firing the officials.
And people quietly whispered—can we really follow such a radical, dangerous lord?
But those doubts didn’t spread far, because the new lord had far more followers than enemies.
Just like how some fear wild beasts, while others find them irresistibly captivating.
Rusvel and Meren, of course, belonged to the passionate follower camp.
Gillitair looked at the two whose cheeks had grown pink and shrugged.
“Well, there’s no doubt she’s not ordinary.”
“No one can deny that.”
“But…”
Meren lifted the proposal and pointed at a specific page.
“She stared at this part for a very long time.”
“That page?”
“Yes.”
Their gazes met in midair, and the same thought flashed through all three minds.
‘This is a hint from our lord!’
15
‘They’re insanely talented!’
When I finally looked into their personal records, despair washed over me.
All three had been stuck at the bottom only because corrupt officials monopolized the power structure.
In truth, they were exceptional bureaucrats who could hold their own anywhere.
Gillitair, Meren, Rusvel.
Meren and Rusvel graduated from the administrative academy, and Gillitair was of marquis lineage.
The administrative academy was the highest qualification a commoner could strive for.
Among bureaucrats, they were considered true elite.
‘And Gillitair is from a marquis family on top of that.’
Not some distant, irrelevant branch—he was the third son of the current marquis.
‘My thinking was too shallow.’
The ones who remained in the detached building weren’t dead-weight leftovers—they were the rare people who earned their place with skill in a field ruled by bribery and corruption.
‘I can’t believe I appointed real talents by accident while trying to half-ass this job…’
‘How am I supposed to ruin the territory at this rate?’
I sighed and leaned back in my chair—
—and heard the familiar tapping on the window.
‘Blanche is here.’
I stood and opened it. A blue bird slipped in immediately.
Ever since coming to the Coral Estate, Blanche no longer stayed in the cage in my room, but instead claimed the garden as his home.
He wanted to avoid bumping into Miri, who randomly barged into my room.
“I didn’t call you today. Did someone accidentally hang the red string outside?”
A red string on the window was my signal to call Blanche.
But I hadn’t left one today.
‘Maybe something red got stuck out there?’
I looked just in case, but as expected—nothing was hanging there.
<It’s not just today! My king is so heartless. You keep ignoring your loyal servant!>
Grumbling, Blanche released his transformation and threw himself into my arms.
‘Well, more like he grabbed and hugged me.’
Because he’d been conserving strength, his original form had shrunk again—about the size of a teenager now.
At this rate, it wouldn’t take long for him to recover fully.
“Heartless? Loyal?”
I snorted and pushed him off.
He reluctantly stepped back, guilt written all over his face.
“And you think you have the right to say that? After nearly killing me?”
“……I said I’m reflecting on that, my king. It won’t happen again.”
He slouched with a depressed voice and quickly changed the subject.
“And anyway! I came because I have important business!”
“Business?”
“Yes!”
He lifted his chin proudly.
Seeing him so confident, it seemed there really was something going on.
‘Fine. Let’s hear how urgent this “business” is.’
“What is it?”
I narrowed my eyes. Blanche lowered his voice dramatically, as if sharing a great forbidden secret.
“That terrifying guy!”
“Terrifying guy? You mean Lien?”
“Yes!”
Blanche obviously knew Lien’s name, but he always called him “that guy” or “this guy,” never saying it properly.
Blanche had always been openly hostile to Lien, so his “reports” about him were usually exaggerated accusations.
Blowing minor things out of proportion and whispering as if they were deadly threats.
‘This will probably be another one of those.’
“So what about Lien?”
I asked in boredom—but his answer was surprisingly interesting.
“I saw him meeting with a suspicious person, secretly, in a hidden part of the garden!”
