Ch.31Organizational Restructuring (2)

# Chapter 31: Organizational Restructuring (2)

Strictly speaking, Artraia hadn’t lied.

She merely said I wouldn’t be the Minister of the Execution Department anymore.

She never said she wouldn’t make me the Minister of this hodgepodge called the Diplomatic Execution Department.

“You, Duke Arto Virtorius Sevelli, will you do your utmost to uphold the great Emperor’s command?!”

“…Yes, I will.”

“Then from this moment, I appoint you as the Minister of the newly established Diplomatic Execution Department. I hope you continue to dedicate yourself to the Empire, by decree of the Emperor of the Holy Sevelli Empire.”

“Long live the great Emperor, long live the Holy Sevelli Empire.”

Regardless of how things turned out, I had to handle the situation before me properly.

After completing my appointment as Minister of the Diplomatic Execution Department as cleanly as possible, I sat in the designated seat for newly appointed ministers on the platform and looked down at the stage.

“It’s been a while, Minister of Execution… no, I should call you Minister of Diplomatic Execution now.”

“…Indeed. Good to see you.”

Of course, my moment of solitude was instantly taken away by other appointees who had already been seated nearby.

——————–

While Arto maintained his ambiguous attitude…

Riel was pretending to be dazed at the bottom of the platform, collecting and storing all sorts of gossip and rumors floating around.

However…

“…To sell out his subordinate to secure a new important position for himself.”

“Even if his predictions about the last war were correct, isn’t he holding too much power at such a young age?”

Unfortunately for Riel, the atmosphere at the appointment ceremony seemed uniformly hostile toward Arto.

“Tsk, since His Majesty personally protects him, he’s untouchable.”

“But even so, does it make sense to throw away a subordinate who showed loyalty to him like that?”

The conversations were filled with statements that would make both Riel and perhaps even Arto himself respond with “What on earth are you talking about?” if they heard them.

Did this mean our Arto had decided to purge a perfectly fine subordinate without even knowing it himself?

‘What are they even talking about?’

Riel increased his sound reception sensitivity, trying to gather more information.

“Next, Alimus Orteia as Third Deputy Minister of the Immigration Department.”

‘…Alimus?’

Riel would have continued listening if not for that all-too-familiar name being called out by the announcer on the platform.

And following his programmed instincts, Riel’s gaze naturally shifted to the platform…

“Yes!”

“…Hehe.”

Only to witness the face of the former Deputy Minister of the Execution Department, looking completely different from before—bright and clear.

“Respond to the Emperor’s grace with your utmost effort.”

“I will devote myself entirely to serve with absolute loyalty!”

His overflowing energy was far from matching any description like “demotion” or “sacrifice.”

Of course, being a self-proclaimed top artificial intelligence of the Empire with outstanding computational abilities…

It didn’t take long for Riel to figure out the situation.

‘…So it was just baseless gossip after all.’

He finally accepted that the rumors he had been diligently collecting were literally garbage information.

‘Wasting memory on useless stuff, how annoying.’

While Riel was getting irritated at having wasted time on something worthless…

“…!”

“!”

“…Heh.”

The moment his master Arto and Alimus made eye contact on the platform…

“…!!”

Arto looked like death itself, crushed under the terrible burden of the Diplomatic Execution Department forced upon him.

In contrast, Alimus appeared refreshed, having escaped from the den of madmen and regained his freedom, happiness, and what people call work-life balance.

‘This will make for good teasing material later.’

The stark contrast between the two made it impossible to tell who had been demoted and who had been promoted.

“…Surely, Duke Arto got promoted, right?”

“Yes, since they merged the Diplomatic Department and the Execution Department… I think?”

“But why does Deputy Minister Alimus, who supposedly got demoted, look so happy, while Duke Arto has such a grief-stricken face?”

“…Who knows.”

And this scene was being witnessed in real-time by all civil servants attending the appointment ceremony.

Not long after, Riel would discover images of Arto’s face photoshopped with some strange cat face spreading across the entire imperial internet.

———————–

One week after my appointment ceremony.

“Urghhhh.”

“Don’t die, Minister.”

As the newly appointed Minister of the Diplomatic Execution Department, I was busy enjoying my extremely pleasant and happy days.

Of course, I had heard about “that” incident at the appointment ceremony through Riel, but…

‘Fortunately, it ended on a humorous note.’

Thankfully, it didn’t turn into some vicious slander but concluded in a somewhat amusing way.

If it had crossed the line even slightly more, the Imperial Palace would have stepped in to purge everyone involved in this matter, even without my intervention.

‘I guess that’s why it ended on a somewhat positive note despite being awkward.’

I don’t know about other countries, but in this one, when slander or conspiracy theories about nobles spread, eight times out of ten it’s usually other nobles playing tricks.

In other words, as mentioned above, if the Imperial Palace had intervened… the nobles who had meddled in this affair would likely have suffered as well.

And because of that, those nobles had extended a gesture of reconciliation toward us.

And for such gestures, simply not responding was the Sevellian noble style of confirmation.

“Sigh…”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I couldn’t help but sigh as these complicated thoughts crossed my mind.

‘Anyway… what good is power and authority if I have nowhere to use it?’

It’s not like I’m obsessed with money like other nobles.

Nor do I have a family that I need to work for.

Of course, it’s not that I don’t have any goals at all… but that’s just about clearing this damn game that’s approaching its 12th year.

I never intended to just live a sweet life of luxury in the Empire.

Plus, I had one more problem.

“Riel, I’ve been thinking lately… isn’t my social circle extremely limited?”

“Yes, that’s right. It’s quite narrow even compared to ordinary people, and considering you’re a noble, it’s like… you’re a reclusive loner!”

As that straight-shooting robot girl pointed out, my social relationships were seriously damaged.

Other nobles, when in danger, at least have fellow nobles they can turn to for help or to share the damage with.

“…”

Yet here I was, having reached one of the pinnacles of power, with my social and interpersonal relationships in an absolutely catastrophic state.

Of course, it wasn’t that I had no one to exchange help with.

For example, Admiral Zeidler of the Third Fleet whom I met previously.

Or Deputy Minister Alimus, who’s now at the Immigration Department but still keeps in touch.

…And perhaps even Emperor Artraia, though I’m not sure if that counts.

But the problem is that unlike other nobles, I don’t have those strong blood ties…

At best, we have mutual trust relationships?

Besides, no matter how friendly Artraia is with me, she still holds the position of Emperor of the Empire.

She might help me personally, but she can’t assist me at the level that nobles help each other.

And lately, I’m not even sure if she wants to help me at all…

-SLAM!

“Minister? I need your approval on these report documents.”

“…Deputy Minister, do you enter without knocking?”

“Ah, I apologize.”

Is this person really of noble birth? I wondered, facing this embodiment of casualness.

And they gave this guy the meaningless position of “Deputy Minister” in this new Diplomatic Execution Department, parachuting him in.

‘…Could she be upset about me holding back that time?’

I was so overworked that I was having these ridiculous thoughts.

Of course, I knew that wasn’t actually the case, so I didn’t really resent Artraia…

[Event: Diplomatic Execution Department Management]

[Your duties as Minister of the newly formed Diplomatic Execution Department.]

[An enormous amount of work is piling up, as two massive departments have been merged into one.]

[Additionally, to check your power, the Noble Assembly created the position of Deputy Minister for the Diplomatic Execution Department and inserted one of their own.]

[In this situation, proceed with your duties somehow and show everyone that you are worthy of the ministerial position.]

[Reward: Recognition of your position as Minister of the Diplomatic Execution Department, Increased goodwill from factions within the Empire]

Thanks to this damn status window that naturally spoiled things for me while simultaneously using formal language, casual speech, and second-person perspective all at once.