The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success-Chapter 38

After those words, a brief silence fell.

Well, it made sense...

The Empress had already expressed all the joy and surprise about the past. And she had done it very excessively.

Kiaros, too, seemed to be struggling to figure out how to express his emotions again in this awkward atmosphere.

After a short pause, Kiaros opened his mouth with a solemn voice.

"Ah, first... about what I said earlier, about having Miss Namia investigated."

At his words, I replied politely.

"Yes, as I said before, it's perfectly fine. If you found me suspicious, it’s only natural to investigate."

"I ordered my personal informants to also search for your missing father."

At that, my eyes widened.

He had ordered the Crown Prince’s personal informants to find my father?

No information guild could possibly be better than them at finding someone who disappeared!

"My father...? You mean not the Baron Roafi on paper, but my real father?"

Well, if they had figured out I had been in the south, it wouldn't be hard to guess that much too.

With a desperate voice, I asked, and Kiaros cleared his throat and said,

"Ahem, ahem! I thought... you might want to find your biological father."

My heart pounded loudly.

If Kiaros was involved, we really could find Dad.

I wouldn’t have to do anything else to try and find him anymore.

The only thing that worried me was if Dad had gotten involved in something really bad...

"Your Highness, no matter what that old man did, I promised to spare his life!"

Maybe sensing my anxiety, the Empress shouted out.

"Obviously! Of course he must've done something bad to get money! But still, his daughter saved the royal family! Apply no guilt by association, please!"

"Guilt by association doesn’t apply ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) like that, and besides, it depends on the circumstances..."

Kiaros sighed with a complicated expression.

Then he mumbled something like, 'Why does it always feel like I have to play the villain,' before firmly adding,

"If he hasn't killed innocent imperial citizens or anything that extreme, I will do my best to honor the Empress's promise."

At those words, I let out a deep sigh of relief.

That was good enough for me.

I knew perfectly well I couldn’t demand to save him no matter what if he had committed heinous crimes.

The fact that they were even willing to be lenient was already incredible.

'Oh my god, it's all solved...'

My chest felt tight with emotion.

Finding Dad and meeting him safely...

That was what I had endured everything for.

Now, all I had to do was wait, and Kiaros would find him for me.

'I'll be able to see Dad again.'

All my personal problems had been swept away thanks to the intervention of the royal family.

At the same time, the pressure that I had to protect the royals and prevent war became even heavier.

'I only barely managed to stop the incident. We still don't know who’s behind it.'

Thanks to the royals, everything was going well — but what if the royals died and war broke out anyway?

"Anyway."

While my head was a mess, Kiaros continued in a solemn tone.

"Since that day, I’ve been searching for that girl for a long time."

It looked like it was time for another round of gratitude.

I put on a face of polite attention.

Meanwhile, the Emperor was clearly trying hard to suppress his laughter.

"I truly... wanted to repay that grace."

The Emperor’s eyes sparkled as he watched Kiaros.

It wasn’t the kind of face a normally reticent character would make.

'Why that expression?'

The way he looked back and forth between me and Kiaros...

It was just like a parent listening to their young son’s first love confession.

Kiaros, with a smile as measured as a ruler, said softly,

"I’m truly glad we were able to meet again like this."

At that, the Emperor made a muffled noise and clamped his hands over his mouth.

As Kiaros let out a deep sigh and gazed at me tenderly, he asked in a slightly irritable tone,

"Your Majesty, what are you doing?"

"No, no, carry on."

The Emperor said, his shoulders shaking.

"I’ve been waiting too, you know — for the confession you’ve been dying to make. This is going to be priceless. Are you going to do it now?"

"...Now I don't want to say it in front of Your Majesty."

Kiaros pressed a hand to his forehead.

I just sat there with my professional smile frozen in place.

Honestly, the Empress’s earlier over-the-top excitement had completely overshadowed whatever Kiaros was trying to say.

Being surrounded by three royals had me tense enough already.

'And besides, I might get fired any minute... If they fire all the higher-ups in the Scroll Management Department, isn’t that basically a full shutdown?'

For a commoner like me, the present was way more important than the past.

Sure, I might get some money as a reward for my contributions...

But if I couldn’t keep my civil servant post, I’d also lose my chance to give Kiaros original novel hints.

If I found Dad and had a happy reunion only to get swept up in a war and die, what would be the point?

'Right now, what matters is keeping a stable job in the Imperial Palace.'

I had always grumbled about being a low-level grunt.

I had whined that unless you were a minister, you couldn’t do anything properly...

But now, even being a grunt seemed like a blessing.

While I was clenching the hem of my skirt with a complicated expression—

"No! Tower Lord! Nooo!"

Suddenly, it got noisy outside.

"Tower Lord! Noooo!"

"Get out of my way!"

"Uwaaah!"

There were desperate sounds of people trying to stop someone and failing miserably.

"Tower Lord, please! There’s a procedure for everything!"

"You get lost too!"

"Please, get a hold of yourself! I'm the former Minister of Justice! We should at least maintain basic manners!"

"You get lost too!"

Not long after, the doors burst open.

And an unbelievable sight unfolded before my eyes.

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'Huh?'

An old man with white hair, wearing a robe, came stomping in.

Dragging along with him on the left, the Crown Prince’s aide, and on the right, the former Minister of Justice.

The old man’s strength must have been immense, because he was striding forward easily while dragging two grown men.

"What is the meaning of this disturbance?"

The Emperor rose slowly with a hardened face.

The Empress, Kiaros, and I all stood up too.

The Emperor’s voice, usually so gentle, was now heavy, as if facing a formidable opponent.

"...Tower Lord."

I held my breath and darted my eyes around.

Even so, I was deeply impressed inside.

'That’s the Tower Lord!'

Despite the skull-like impression, his eyes were terrifyingly sharp.

Those bright, glassy blue eyes looked like shining marbles.

The pure white hair, long and trailing like a ghost’s, left a deep impression too.

'Once, I dreamed of entering the Magic Tower too...'

Anyone who was interested in scrolls or magic would naturally dream of joining the Tower.

A place where talented people gathered to research magic alone.

No status or wealth mattered there—only ability.

'I gave up that dream to search for Dad.'

Magical ability had to be innate. It wasn’t something you could achieve with effort.

The Tower only accepted applicants in their late teens.

They even administered written exams because intelligence mattered too.

'Academy graduates got special treatment like exemption from the written exam...'

Not just that—sometimes Tower scouts came to the Academy to personally assess potential.

Even if you didn’t have perfect magical ability, if you had scholarly talent, you could pursue that path.

All Academy students interested and gifted in magic were funneled toward the Tower.

I... deliberately pretended I couldn’t infuse mana into scrolls to avoid it.

'If you entered, you couldn’t leave until you were thirty-five. That was too much for me.'

Sure, magical research was great.

But with my situation, I couldn’t afford to be stuck inside the Tower for decades.

So I hid my talents.

'And that Tower Lord... is the greatest mage of this era.'

Not only was he unmatched in basic mana control, his originality in scroll crafting and the speed of activation calculations...

In every way, he had transcended the human realm.

Even the Imperial Family couldn’t easily mess with the Tower’s authority.

'He came because of the Scroll Management Department. Since we’re about to be dismantled!'

Even if the Tower didn’t care much for us, the Scroll Department was still related to their prestige.

Seeing the Tower Lord barging in like this made the reality of our department’s impending doom hit hard.

"Tower Lord, I understand your feelings, but when meeting the royal family, at least follow the proper procedures—"

The Emperor tried to speak calmly.

But the Tower Lord rolled his eyes and shouted,

"Where is Namia Roafi?! Come out at once!"

...Me?