~CHAPTER 34~
Just accompanying Nairon Berdian was enough to skip all the steps between the Calamier female duke and the Emperor’s private office. Nairon worked in the secretary’s office, located right outside the Emperor’s office.
The secretary’s office, almost as large as Elpenlira’s study, was… honestly, messy. Piles of books and documents stacked in every direction had clearly been left untouched for a long time. Seeing Dianu coughing in the swirling dust, Nairon looked embarrassed.
“I apologize. This is not a place where we usually receive guests…”
“Can you even work in a place like this?”
“I’ve left it like this for so long that I can find almost anything. Everything here is sensitive material, so I can’t just ask anyone to clean.”
Picking up his excuses, Nairon dumped the documents piled on the guest sofa onto the floor. Dianu reluctantly sat in the small empty space that remained, and a teapot was placed in front of her.
“Ah, don’t worry. It’s the same tea set His Majesty uses, and the tea is perfectly fine.”
“Y-Your Majesty…”
The question had been circling in Dianu’s mind the entire time she crossed the hall with Nairon. Seeing the door behind Nairon, she fidgeted involuntarily, thinking it might lead to the Emperor’s office.
“Ah, he’s in the office right now. But he fell asleep while attending to state affairs.”
“Asleep…?”
“Yes. He hasn’t been able to sleep well at night lately… I thought it best not to wake him during his nap.”
Unable to sleep. Dianu felt frustrated. She was the one suffering emotionally, ignored without reason, yet why was Rision afflicted by insomnia?
“Um, Berdian Secretary.”
“Yes, Miss Ortensa.”
“Have I done something wrong to His Majesty?”
Nairon silently poured tea into Dianu’s cup. She instinctively tried to explain herself.
“Well, His Majesty hasn’t been visiting Oak Palace lately… I wondered if I might have been disrespectful…”
“No.”
“…”
“It is not Miss Ortensa’s fault.”
Being a secretary able to stay near a napping Emperor. If someone whom Rision trusted deeply told Dianu she had done nothing wrong, she could believe it.
Nairon, watching Dianu fidget with her teacup, soon stood up.
“It’s impolite while a lady is here, but I must get back to work. It’s still business hours.”
“Ah, don’t mind me.”
“Would you like something to read while you wait?”
“No, I have work to do myself.”
Dianu opened Princess Oliana. She wasn’t in the mood to read someone else’s pink love story, but for Elpenlira’s sake, she needed to finish the translation quickly.
***
Dianu skipped the scenes of Oliana and Sir Giles’ romantic encounters and translated the rest. Once she got into the flow, she lost track of time. She hadn’t even realized Nairon had been observing her over his shoulder for a long time.
“Miss Ortensa, your translation speed is impressive.”
“Ah!”
Startled, Dianu almost spilled the ink she borrowed from Nairon. He didn’t even seem to notice her annoyed expression. He alternated between glancing at the original Princess Oliana and Dianu’s Arasas translation with interest.
“Have you read this book before?”
“No, this is my first time…”
“Hmm… You seem to be a pretty fast reader.”
“Yes, I suppose.”
At Sirene Girls’ School, no one read books as fast and accurately as Dianu.
“How much mathematics have you studied?”
“As much as is taught in girls’ school.”
“Are you quick with mental calculations?”
“I think I’m fairly competent…”
Nairon’s eyes reflected curiosity as he flipped through a heap of documents against the wall and handed Dianu a ledger.
“This is the budget execution report of the Empress’s palace from the year His Majesty ascended the throne.”
“I see…”
Dianu took the ledger silently, unsure what she was supposed to do with it.
“After His Majesty reviewed this report, the officials of the Empress’s palace were punished.”
“What?!”
“Ah, they weren’t literally executed. They were just disciplined and stripped of their positions.”
“Can you figure out why that happened from this report?”
Dianu couldn’t understand at all.
“Don’t you know the answer, Secretary?”
“Of course I do. It happened a few years ago.”
“Then why give this to me?”
“I was curious if you could find out the answer yourself, Miss Ortensa.”
Dianu’s expression clearly showed disbelief. Nairon smiled gently.
“Consider it as a chance to meet His Majesty…”
There was nothing to argue with that. Dianu would do anything just to converse with Rision face-to-face right now.
‘The Empress’s palace budget report from His Majesty’s ascension…’
What could have been the issue? Dianu laid out a clean sheet beside the ledger. If she treated it as a clue-filled puzzle, it wasn’t impossible to solve.
***
An hour had passed since Nairon presented his cryptic “puzzle” when Dianu finally lifted her head from the ledger.
“Secretary, who selected the merchants supplying sugar to the Empress’s palace at this time?”
Nairon clicked his tongue, looking amused.
“You noticed quickly.”
“Well, there’s no other inconsistency here.”
The secretary set aside his tasks and sat across from Dianu. His serious face and hunched posture looked like a teacher listening to a student’s presentation.
“Explain your reasoning.”
Seeing his earnest expression, Dianu also became serious. She flipped the paper she had been scribbling on and drew a simple chart on the clean side.
“I think there must be a reason you gave me the ledger from the year His Majesty ascended.”
The Empress died shortly after Rision Catalos ascended. The palace administrators would have set the budget assuming the ruler was healthy.
“Comparing the planned budget with actual expenditures, many discrepancies appear. This is perfectly normal.”
Dianu marked the Empress’s palace expenditures on the chart: maids’ wages, clothing, fuel, linen, flowers, tableware, ingredients, building repairs, extensions, landscaping… She marked each item carefully.
“The circled items are all things that wouldn’t normally deviate from the budget. Even if Her Majesty were ill, they wouldn’t replace curtains more often or hire fewer gardeners.”
Some items were crossed out.
“These show large differences between budget and actual expenditures. But these are expected discrepancies. Since the Empress stopped hosting visitors, using the same amount of fabric or food is normal.”
Most of these items had expenditures significantly below the budget, indicating normal adaptation. The only problem was ‘sugar’ hidden under ingredients. Dianu marked it with a star.
While overall ingredients were consistent with expectations, the sugar usage deviated significantly.
“Sugar would usually be used for entertaining guests or making preserved foods. But at this time, no guests came to the palace. There’s no reason to make more preserves this year than usual. The amount of sugar decreased less than salt or herbs, which makes no sense.”
Thus, the Empress’s palace purchased an unusually large amount of sugar. And there are few reasons for intentionally wasting royal funds. Plugging in Nairon’s hint led to the answer.
“I think there was corruption between the merchants supplying sugar and the officials punished by His Majesty.”
“Hmm. Perhaps the administrator was just incompetent and unaware of the waste?”
Dianu showed her calculations to Nairon.
“I estimate this much was wasted.”
The amount wasted was too large to be mere incompetence. It couldn’t have been consumed or stolen by kitchen staff. Only the merchants could have diverted supplies. Doing so all year without being caught would require a serpent’s head.
Nairon examined Dianu’s records with interest.
“Did you estimate this based on other items?”
“Yes. There’s a calculation below.”
Nairon, staring at Dianu with a faint, enigmatic smile, suddenly asked:
“Miss Ortensa, how long do you plan to continue as a tutor?”
“Until I’m too old to do it, I suppose?”
The retirement age for tutors varies. They stop either due to health or other circumstances. After retirement, they aim to maintain dignity and savings.
Nairon pretended to stroke a non-existent beard.
“Hmm… After Princess Oliana marries, you plan to leave the palace, right?”
Earlier, she would have answered yes, but now the answer didn’t come easily. Elpenlira claimed she wouldn’t marry, and Dianu sensed it was her personal vow, like a daily mantra.
Elpenlira believed happiness would betray her deceased lover. Breaking this false belief would bring marriage to Labelan Arasas back to the negotiation table. Dianu realized Elpenlira was not the type to misunderstand Rision’s intentions forever.
Perhaps the day when the princess’s tutor would step off the stage was closer than expected.
Nairon, watching the silent Dianu, carefully spoke:
“After your work with the princess ends, how about becoming a royal administrator?”
Dianu smiled faintly, thinking he joked to please her for solving the puzzle, but Nairon’s expression remained serious. Dianu’s smile faded.
“…There seems to be a major problem with that.”
“Surprisingly, nowhere in the Catalos law does it forbid women from being royal administrators.”
It wasn’t considered necessary to write such a law—like laws prohibiting volcanoes or execution for trivial acts.
“Catalos is built on customs and traditions. No matter how much I studied, I couldn’t become a university student.”
“True. But by the same logic, if His Majesty wishes it, it’s possible. Didn’t you see the Calamier female duke earlier?”
Dianu had to agree. It was the Emperor’s order. It was legal and had precedent.
“I don’t know what kind of treatment you receive as a tutor, but it probably isn’t better than a royal administrator.”
As an administrator… Elpenlira could remain in the palace even after marrying and fulfilling her duties. She could stay near Rision Catalos, continuously…
“His Majesty already trusts you, so you could achieve merit while handling important tasks, which might be better than your current position—”
Nairon’s voice faded. Dianu’s heartbeat thundered in her ears.
‘Do I… want to do that?’
Dianu covered her mouth with one hand to prevent a laugh from escaping.
‘Do I not want to leave? Do I want to stay? In the palace?’
The answer to her self-question was startlingly clear.
‘…I do. I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here.’
Honor. Money. Status. None of that mattered.
Only being able to stay by his side. The dryness of her mouth and the turmoil in her stomach pointed clearly in one direction.
‘This is a big problem.’
It was the greatest crisis of her 21-year life so far.
