Chapter 131 – A Day in the Finance Office
Next day.
I went to work feeling pretty refreshed, though I don’t know if it was because my body was unharmed in reality, even though I suffered a lot in my dream.
Mentally, I am tired, but my body is energetic, so I feel a sense of disconnection.
8:00 am, the time when the Royal Palace, the headquarters of the Government-General of Korea, just opens.
“See you at home tonight.”
“Okay, come on in.”
Today, as usual, Ozuma, who rode the carriage to work together, parted ways on the first floor.
Maybe it’s because I personally attacked the Count of Wiesbaden last week, but there weren’t any protesters, so the Government General wasn’t noisy for the first time in a while.
Well. This is the real Monday.
I was always bothered by the women in my house on weekends, so it was more comfortable to go to work now.
It happened because I have one body and four women.
When I went inside the financial control room, the staff were busy moving, probably because it was a Monday morning.
Well, there was nothing I couldn’t understand.
It’s because Monday is when the work piled up unprocessed over the weekend pours like crazy.
But since I’m in a big-bread table, and I have nothing to do with that busyness, I sat in the chief treasurer’s seat and watched with pleasure as everyone was busy at work.
Just then, Agnes, the deputy treasurer, spoke up.
“Chief Treasurer.”
“Uh, yes. What’s going on?”
“An invitation to a party has come from the Chief Treasurer.”
While saying that, what Agnes held out was a piece of stationery with an antique lion-shaped seal on it.
“It’s the first seal I’ve seen, where is the family crest?”
Then, Agnes slightly lowered her head and answered.
“This is the coat of arms of the family of Count Glorious, whose family head passed away two years ago during a turmoil in the capital. Because of that, the 18-year-old girl he adopted as his adopted daughter inherited the entire Glorious family.”
“Then I’ll just turn twenty.”
“Yes. Because of his weak constitution, he seems to have been confined to the mansion for a while, but now that he has recovered his health, he seems to have an idea of entering the social world in earnest.”
“That’s good.”
Spitting out empty words that I didn’t even want to say, I was about to throw away the invitation, but a thought struck me and I stopped.
“But are you usually that kind to your stepdaughter?”
“No, they usually fall victim to arranged marriages. The Glorious family is a special case.”
“You’re lucky.”
“You could express it that way.”
Agnes, who affirmed my opinion in a calm voice, pushed up her glasses and asked.
“Do you have anything else to say?”
“Um, thanks for the letter?”
“Of course it was my job. Then I’ll go back to work.”
“Yes.”
Agnes, who slightly bowed her head toward me, went back to her own seat, making the sound of high heels clicking.
She had graduated top of the class from Oz’s academy five years ago, but I had scouted her for one reason that she was a commoner, working as an accountant for her small company.
It’s me, it’s not that she uses people while looking at her lineage, but rather, I chose her because I thought it would be tiring to call her from aristocrats and sit at her desk.
Looking back now, it was a very right choice.
Because Agnes was a very talented person.
Not only did she do an excellent job as deputy treasurer, but she volunteered for the secretarial role she hadn’t hired yet, so all I had to do when I went to work was stamp papers, take overall control of the treasury office, and collect taxes from bad debtors.
Because I was the only person here who didn’t have to obey the law.
Now, I am known as Patlash, an elder lich belonging to the demon lord’s army, not the mage Kaldrash.
He explained that living like a human despite being a lich was roughly because his level was higher than that of a normal lich.
He wears a dog mask when he goes out to work, but when he is inside the government building, he uses polymorph, a transformation magic.
So, the face of Patrasche that people around me usually knew was the Hollywood movie star I said I looked like before.
Well, it looks like about 70% of the original face, so isn’t it okay?
I read the contents of today’s documents, boggling my legs on the desk.
Most of them were reports about boring tax-related work.
Anyway, the little guys are all cut in the Agnes line, so if it came up to me, it was a document worth reading at least once.
And here, the true value of a 7th-class mage is revealed.
Unlike ordinary people, mages become capable of division thinking when they reach the 4th tier.
This is because from the 4th level, when all elements can be mixed, the composition of magic becomes extremely complicated, so it is difficult to handle with a single core.
That’s why the higher the level of the mage, the higher the split thinking performance, so a document this long could be read in the blink of an eye.
“Huh-Huh-“
Humming a song, he flips through the documents and stamps them.
Because he has reading comprehension and sentence comprehension that are close to 8 times higher than others, he was able to filter out all the minor phrases and summarize the core of the content just by skimming.
After spending the whole morning just stamping, it was lunchtime.
Before 12 o’clock, the staff who were preparing to go out while watching the notice.
I was relatively relaxed because I had already finished today’s work and was playing chess by myself.
People with lunch appointments were already bouncing around, and people who were busy with work were messing with their hair and banging their heads on their desks, so they didn’t seem to know it was lunchtime.
Since I was sitting in the highest seat, I could see everything like that, so I moved the black queen to create a checkmate situation and got up at the same time.
Then he clapped and said.
“Okay, everyone wake up. Let’s go to lunch.”
Then, one by one, they take care of their clothes while keeping an eye on each other.
In particular, the female employees were already checking their make-up, as if they had made a separate appointment for lunch among themselves.
I’m sorry, but I didn’t mean to just let it go.
“Today is Monday, so I’ll shoot specially.”
Then, some people who stand tall and harden.
“I’m sure no one gets out of here by himself without loyalty, right?”
The people who originally had lunch plans listened to me, exchanged glances, and shook their heads.
It seems to have given up quickly.
When I saw that, I laughed bitterly inside.
Ah, the manager says he’s buying food, but where are you going to escape?
I grabbed the coat I had hung on the hanger and told the staff in the financial management office.
“There’s a restaurant I know well around here. Everyone, let’s go there for lunch today.”
Then everyone shouts “Yes” In unison.
“I will do it.”
Agnes, who was perfectly ready to go out, stood next to her and pushed up her half-rimmed glasses.
I nodded, put a black silk hat on my head, and started walking in the lead.
***
The place where I took the staff of the financial management office to eat was a public restaurant near the central fountain where Excalibur used to be stuck.
I’ve been going there since the first time I came to Oz with Master, so I’m sure I’ve been a regular for about 15 years.
These days, I rarely come to eat because I eat at home, but in the past, when I lived alone, I used to come and eat five times a week.
Perhaps because it was a famous place from the beginning, the inside of the restaurant was noisy with people’s energy.
Maybe because a group of guests came, the boss inside came out with a bright face and asked.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty people.”
It was Agnes who answered the question for me.
“Come over here.”
Following the boss’s guidance, we sat at a round table in groups of five.
The youngest members of the treasury room, who were sitting with me in the middle of nowhere, are sitting trembling and looking nervous.
I laughed like a neighborhood brother and patted them on the shoulder.
“Stay comfortable. Anyone who sees it will know that I’m trying to scare them.”
“Yes? Yes…”
Contrary to the answer, the legs of the three people are still trembling as if they are uneasy.
It’s a simple place to eat anyway, so I don’t know why I’m so nervous.
Instead of an employee, the boss approached me with an order form and asked.
“What would you like to eat?”
I said the menu I ate the most when I came here.
“Hunting stew.”
It is commonly called hunter’s stew, but in this store, for hygiene reasons, milk is poured into a new pot every day, sausages, meat, and vegetables are sliced into chunks and boiled for nearly 10 hours, so the broth has a rich taste.
“Yes. One hunting stew.”
“What would Agnes eat?”
“I’ll eat the same as Chief Treasurer.”
“Then two for hunting stew. How about the three of us?”
“Well, we’ll eat the same!”
Since Anes and I, who are the first and second people in the financial management office, ordered the same food, it felt like we had to unify the menu for some reason.
I looked at him and smiled kindly.
“There’s no need to order them according to us, so let each one eat what he wants.”
“Yes?… Uh, then I’ll officially give you this stamina…”
“Oh, but if the menu is not unified, the food may come out a little late.”
As I said that, I looked at the clock hanging on one side of the store.
Lunch break is usually 1 hour.
We came out of the government building at 12 o’clock, and it took about 10 minutes to walk here, so considering the time to go back, it was about 40 minutes left.
Then, as if he understood my meaning, the friend who had just tried to officially change the stamina menu shouted with a firm expression.
“Actually, I wanted hunting stew too!”
He was a very discerning friend, befitting the youngest member of the Financial Management Office of the Government-General of Korea, where only the elite could enter.
Following him, the staff at the other tables also start ordering hunting stew one by one.
After miraculously succeeding in unifying the menu, I spoke to the boss standing next to me.
“Give hunting stew according to the number of people, and spread the largest assorted sausages on the table one by one.”
“Yep!”
It was really nice to see the smiling face of the boss taking the order.
‘Should I come here for the next dinner?’
Considering that the boss here took care of this and that as a regular customer in the past, he still had to sell more.
