Ch.11What kind of sloppy work is this?

# Chapter 11: What Kind of Work is This?

[PAUSE]

[Player’s body and the entire world’s time and space are paused.]

This is practically the only thing I have that could be called a cheat ability.

To be precise, it’s not even an ability—just a mere “function” of the status window.

Anyway, why did I use this…?

‘Damn, this is really not working out.’

Of course, that’s because I possess the intelligence of an ordinary person.

No, when others ask me questions, they go “Ooh, amazing!” because I give them immediate answers by their standards.

They say I’m the minister of superintelligence, capable of answering any question right away.

But from my perspective, I’m using this pause function to spend days and nights racking my brain to provide those answers.

‘Anyway, I should quickly think of a solution first.’

Still, I have a feeling this won’t take too long this time, so it should work out well.

Unfortunately, my intelligence had its limits.

[PAUSE RELEASED]

Only after what felt like three days did I finally find a solution and release the pause.

“Eureka…!”

But since not even a second had passed in reality, what did it matter?

After quickly jotting down the solution I’d come up with, I immediately left the room.

———————

“Minister, are you saying you’re going for an inspection right now?”

“Yes, that’s exactly right.”

Riel couldn’t understand what the Minister was thinking.

I mean, dragging his staff who hadn’t even recovered from travel fatigue early in the morning—where on earth was he planning to go?

“Wouldn’t it be better to rest first?”

“Hmm…?”

This damned superhuman beyond humanity.

Logically, no ordinary Sebellian could move around so energetically the day after a long journey.

Seeing the Minister sometimes acting more like a machine than herself, a humanoid, Riel rolled her eyes and continued.

“I mean… an superhuman like you might be fine, but other people are still groaning in pain.”

“Hmm.”

The Duke doesn’t understand people’s feelings.

Or perhaps he chooses not to understand.

Riel, reprocessing this thought through her central processing unit, was about to explain again to the Minister who was tilting his head.

After all, that would allow her to enjoy her playtime for one more day.

But…

“We heard you, Minister! We’re perfectly fine, so take us whenever you want!”

“We’re already in perfect condition! Hahaha!”

Unfortunately for Riel, Arto’s staff were overflowing with enthusiasm and loyalty.

Most of Arto’s staff were commoners or people with various issues who normally could never have become aides to a central government official.

The Minister had recognized their talents, personally recommended them, and gathered them as his staff…

“The Minister is going himself?!”

“Medicine! I need medicine!”

How could they possibly stay behind just because they were sick?

From their perspective, a being who was practically a living deity had declared his intention to personally conduct an inspection.

As subordinates, they couldn’t possibly allow themselves to stay behind.

“Everyone seems fine to me?”

“…”

Thanks to the staff’s behavior, Riel’s strategy to use them as shields while she enjoyed the virtual abyss had completely failed.

“Haaa… there’s no point in being considerate, I guess. So where are we going?”

Having given up, Riel decided to embrace the inevitable and asked the bright-eyed Minister.

Perhaps he had used that brilliant mind of his in a reasonably sensible direction.

Above all, she was somewhat looking forward to seeing how he planned to proceed.

———————-

“W-wait, who do you people think you are to do this!”

“This is a violation of business rights! We’ll formally protest to the government!”

“Barging in without a warrant—what kind of behavior is this?!”

Facing the loudly barking administrators and businessmen, I stepped forward with a yawn and spoke.

“Everyone quiet. I am Duke Arto, commander of the Janus Expedition and Minister of the Executive Office.”

The people who had been making a fuss immediately fell silent upon hearing my title as I stepped forward.

Well, rather than silent, they were more like quietly murmuring.

“A duke? Why would a duke come here?”

“Dunno?”

“Wait, if he’s the Minister of the Executive Office… could he really be that person?”

“Seriously?”

After a brief murmuring, a man who appeared to be their representative bravely stepped forward.

“E-even if you are His Grace the Duke… isn’t this action something that could be seen as interference in internal affairs…?”

Under normal circumstances, this statement would have been a legitimate assertion of rights and not particularly problematic.

‘Under normal circumstances, that is.’

As I spoke, I looked at the event message in my status window, which was being updated in real-time on my terminal.

[Event: Secret of the Ore Vein]

[Thanks to the efforts of Black Agents, one of Janus’s hidden secrets has been revealed.]

[Janus officially has natural Tallianium ore veins, and mining operations have developed as a result.]

[However, due to the recent Tallianium depletion crisis throughout the Empire, excessive mining operations beyond natural production levels have continued to make up for insufficient supply.]

[Many casualties have occurred in the process, but the problem is that the Janus Cooperative Mining Corporation, which manages Janus’s Tallianium ore veins, has concealed the damage.]

“Interference in internal affairs?”

“Y-yes…”

“Such talk should come after properly handling the duties expected of a state-owned enterprise, wouldn’t you agree, Director of the Mining Corporation?”

At my words, the representative’s—the director’s—shoulders visibly trembled.

Unfortunately, his expression… well, he happened to be from a crustacean-type alien species, so it wasn’t particularly visible.

“What… what do you mean?”

Despite my warning, the director of the state-owned enterprise was naturally trying to evade responsibility.

And this was despite knowing that I wasn’t just a high-ranking noble but also a high-ranking imperial official.

I continued reading the event message while delivering a stern warning to the director before me.

[But there was an even bigger problem.]

[Namely, the excessive mining of ore veins has caused Janus’s entire stratum to become seriously unstable.]

I hadn’t expected things to be this serious until I saw the phrase “stratum instability”—a very serious problem indeed.

‘This goes beyond simple earthquakes, and with the word “serious” attached… oh shit.’

Recalling when I saw this message in the original game, I felt cold sweat running down my back.

‘These crazy bastards, are they planning to collapse the entire planetary surface?’

Indeed, if no measures were taken after this message appeared, a catastrophe where the entire planetary surface would collapse would occur within a few years at most.

So, looking at the cowering director of the state-owned enterprise before me, I sighed and then…

“Riel, that thing.”

“Here you go.”

-BANG!

“ARGH-!!”

“Y-Your Grace!”

“What are you doing?!”

I took the unnecessarily ornate pistol from Riel and immediately fired it at the director’s body.

Naturally, the other businessmen and administrators around were shocked by the situation, but…

“Everyone shut up. From now on, all personnel connected to the Tallianium ore veins and the Janus Cooperative Mining Corporation are subject to investigation under the authority of the Minister of the Executive Office.”

“!!!!”

“T-this is absurd! I’ll protest directly to Ka’zan!”

“We cannot accept such unreasonable actions!”

Following my statement, strong opposition erupted as if they were experiencing the five stages of grief.

Some fools even started picking up nearby tools, unable to control their anger…

-“Hostile action detected. Shall I proceed?”

“…Just take off their arms.”

-“Yes, Minister.”

Those who made such foolish choices unfortunately soon became perfect candidates for the Empire’s disability support funds.

But since there might be people who would just pretend to comply here and then stab me in the back later…

“Oh, by the way, Riel? How many troops can we mobilize right now?”

“I just received word that all forces from five legions are available for deployment.”

“Then call two of those legions here.”

“Understood.”

With that, I stationed two newly transported state-of-the-art armored legions from the capital, and suddenly everyone became very cooperative.

“H-here are all the documents related to the slush funds!”

“These are the internal maps related to ore mining.”

Of course, some still tried to maintain a last line of defense.

“Are there no documents related to the casualties?”

“W-well… the truth is, they’ve all been disposed of already…”

-Click.

“I’m curious what your answer will be if I look for them myself and find them.”

“I-I’m sorry! I’ll look again!”

By providing appropriate means of communication to such people, excellent negotiations were achieved.