Ch.65Smuggling (1)

# Chapter 65: Smuggling (1)

It’s been a month since I began living with Count Ash THE Grey (Nightmare).

“Why did you transform into me again?!”

“Because I like this form the most…?”

Ash had started maintaining an appearance similar to Riel’s, claiming he liked Riel’s body.

However, due to numerous complaints (mainly from the Purge Squad) about how difficult it was to distinguish between them when they looked identical…

For Ash’s “Riel mode,” they decided to differentiate him with long flowing hair instead of the original’s short hair with a ponytail, along with blue eyes.

“Well, at least we can tell you apart now, isn’t that fortunate?”

“Gyaaaah!”

Of course, Riel himself didn’t seem particularly pleased about this arrangement.

Anyway, after the daily morning ritual of Riel and Ash’s transformation dispute ended.

“Let’s see… why am I receiving proposals about gate construction projects?”

“I know, right? Seems like the office slaves are slacking off now that Alina’s back.”

I felt my brow furrow involuntarily at the documents I saw as soon as I started my official work.

The Holy Seveli Empire was currently in the midst of a construction boom to build a full-scale warp gate network.

Of course, given the vast size of the empire’s territory, for now, only the preparations for gate construction were underway.

The only visible progress was the movement of numerous construction materials toward the designated regions.

Perhaps that’s why?

“What’s this now? An urgent budget allocation request from the Ministry of Land Management…?”

“Oh that? I think they’re asking the minister to help with their budget allocation.”

“…”

“Besides that, the Ministry of Justice is seeking advice on diplomatic sanctions against material smuggling, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Gendarmerie are requesting the Purge Squad to remain on standby for this situation.”

The power struggle between government departments trying to secure massive emergency budgets was becoming increasingly apparent.

Of course, if this were the original Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we might have readily accepted such requests from the Ministry of Land Management, but…

“The Ministry of Transportation and Logistics has also requested support for their additional budget allocation.”

“Are these people playing games with me?”

We were no longer the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ‘Enforcement’.

As the Emperor’s blade, we carried out purges when necessary and served as secret police for the empire’s security.

If we kept getting entangled in these interdepartmental games, even with Artraia’s enormous patience, she wouldn’t leave me be.

‘Is that why she assigned Ash to me?’

I felt like a child being praised for sitting quietly, given a toy, and told to keep listening to mom. I quickly dismissed such thoughts.

‘No way.’

No matter how vast Artraia’s moral and maternal capacity might be, surely she wouldn’t transfer a high-level asset like Ash to us for such trivial reasons.

Anyway, after clearing my mind of these distractions, I looked up and addressed Riel.

“Riel, from now on, if any such coordination requests come in, just send them back immediately.”

“Really?”

“Yes, we need to show that our Ministry of Foreign Affairs Enforcement maintains absolute neutrality in such matters.”

“I understand… so should we also exclude requests from the Ministry of Justice or National Gendarmerie?”

“No, security cooperation is an exception.”

After giving Riel these general directions about our work approach,

I picked up my terminal to continue with additional tasks.

But with all the “please take our side” work gone, I noticed something.

‘Surprisingly, things are running smoothly without much noise.’

The warp gate network construction was progressing much more smoothly than expected.

Normally, there would be nonsense from other faction nobles about budget waste,

Or some fearless media outlets boldly publishing slanderous articles due to foreign machinations, causing delays in construction.

When I expressed this curiosity to Riel, who had just returned from delivering my message to the secretariat…

“Of course it has to be that way…?”

Riel looked at me as if my question was absurd.

And Alina, who had somehow overlaid herself onto someone else’s terminal, promptly answered my question.

“As Miss Riel says, Little Flesh Lump.”

“…?”

“It’s because the Purge Squad members and Foreign Affairs Enforcement agents, who received your orders to block Minister Vermut’s gate-related slander, achieved results beyond expectations.”

“Hmm, I see.”

Now that I heard it, I did recall something like that happening.

After hearing her answer, I thanked Alina while politely requesting her to leave my terminal.

“Understood. If you need me again, just touch this button, Little Flesh Lump.”

After Alina left, I leaned back on the sofa, stretched, and said:

“Well, that’s a happy story.”

“Finally appreciating the hard work on the front lines?”

“Yes, yes, I should arrange some additional bonuses soon.”

Wasn’t it a delightful story?

‘Everything is running smoothly, no slander, no problems!’

Thanks to this, I was able to work with a sense of happiness that I hadn’t felt in a very long time.

However, that happiness didn’t last long.

“Wait, what’s this?”

“What is it?”

While working, a seemingly insignificant report kept catching my eye…

Feeling curious, I naturally paused my other work and checked that report first.

[Construction Material Smuggling Confirmation Report]

But as the title suggested, it was just an ordinary report about everyday smuggling.

“Ah, looks like some vermin got caught smuggling again.”

“Indeed.”

I couldn’t understand why this ordinary report particularly caught my attention, and I found myself tilting my head in confusion.

‘Wait, could it be this?!’

While skimming through the report,

A thought suddenly crossed my mind, and I immediately paused the game to check the quest window in the UI.

Finally, I realized why that ordinary report had caught my eye.

[PAUSE]

[Event: The Cold World of Smuggling]

[Recently, a large-scale illegal smuggling operation was uncovered at the border between the Holy Seveli Empire and Kar-Du.]

[Furthermore, it appears that imperial state-owned enterprises, related workers, and civil servants are implicated in this smuggling.]

[However, those who were caught maintain that they’ve done nothing wrong and claim they’re being falsely accused.]

[Option 1: The excuses of criminal scum aren’t worth listening to (End Event)]

[Option 2: Let’s hear what they have to say (Continue to linked event)]

‘I forgot about this event.’

With recent events like the ancient AI ruins, the warp gate, the gray nightmare event, and so on,

I had so much to worry about that I’d completely forgotten about this quest floating before my eyes.

‘But wait, this event came out about two years ago by current standards… can I still proceed with it?’

I wondered if it was appropriate to handle a quest event that was two years old now.

But then I remembered that in the game from my previous life, quests without time limits could be postponed for 10-20 years without issue.

‘Well, I guess I can just proceed then.’

Remembering this, I decided to continue with the event by selecting option 2 without much thought.

Although I did briefly wonder if this type of event usually had a time limit in the game… I set aside such minor concerns.

[UNPAUSE]

After unpausing, I naturally pushed away Riel’s forehead with my pen as he was trying to rest his chin on my shoulder, and said:

“Nnngh.”

“Riel, let’s look into the contents of this report.”

“This one?”

Perhaps because it had been buried in a pile of documents for two years,

The report wasn’t in great condition, but our Riel quickly skimmed through it and showed a puzzled reaction.

“Is there something strange about it? Or is it some kind of coded message I don’t understand?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Then may I ask why you want me to investigate such a minor smuggling case?”

From Riel’s perspective, he seemed confused about why I was personally directing him to investigate a smuggling report that appeared to involve just a small diversion of construction materials.

And to Riel’s question, I gave just one word:

“Intuition.”

At my response, Riel made a gesture indicating he trusted me and immediately began working on it.

Before long, we discovered that this smuggling case was a much bigger issue than we had thought.

And to make matters worse, it was connected to the figure always cited as the root of all evil in our empire—

The ‘Former Emperor,’ who had been dead for a long time, along with this problem.