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I’m Leon von Almarsh, court magician, court librarian, and the princess’s military instructor. Today I’m hard at work for the nation and its people.
What exactly do I do? I pretend to be organizing the stacks and doze off. I lie down on a bench next to the stacks, put a book on my face, and snooze.
For all intents and purposes, I am an industrious worker, but my coworkers and boss have nothing to complain about anymore. It’s not busy today that I would need a cat’s paw [T/N: Decoy], so I’m relaxing. However, joining in on the work will make my work efficiency might suffer. I guess they think I am rude to do such things or I’m being coddled. But as a professional employee who doesn’t work, I don’t feel any regret or guilt for not working. But on that day, there was someone who is interfering with my first-class slacking off.
He wore glasses and looked like a scholar. He had an unusually thin figure and a stern face. He had the face of someone who had only studied since he was a child.
I’m a graduate of the Magic Academy, but I’ve always had a hard time dealing with intellectuals because people who stay inside their own shells and only study hard are inflexible. I thought that this man would be the same, and he was.
He pointed to me,
“I have a question for you who is just skipping his work.” (Glasses)
He said.
I braced myself for what he was going to say, but he was very serious about the plight of the Ernian army.
“My name is Bard, and I’m a legal officer in the Ernian Army.” (Glasses => Bard)
“Well, aren’t you great?”
“Great? The country is corrupt.” (Bard)
“I agree with that opinion, but why do you think so?”
“Because I was demoted.” (Bard)
“Oh?”
I remembered the man’s face.
(By the way, I’ve seen this guy…)
This man, Bard, must have been the legal officer of our Libra Division. He was as inflexible as he looked, complaining to the waiter that the potatoes were too thickly peeled, and going around collecting the salaries of the soldiers who had been mistakenly paying a copper coin too much.
Of course, these actions were in accordance with the law, but he was so petty that I got fed up with him and kicked him out of the unit. In addition, he always said in public, “This is why the princess should not be a member of the general’s army.”
He was fired for a slip of the tongue and a series of petty actions, and he used other countries as examples to denounce me.
“Okay, Leon-done, it’s a concept that hasn’t taken root in this country yet, but in the League of Kings, there are countries where democracy has taken root. And freedom of speech. For example, in some countries, officers are not punished for their speech. They are allowed to criticize those in power in a fair and honest manner in public.” (Bard)
“I see. They sound like a great country. I definitely want to learn from them.”
“I hope so. I’d like to see that. —I mean, can’t you cancel the demotion you made?” (Bard)
“As much as I’d like to, I’m afraid that in this country, once an order is given, it’s rarely revoked.”
“That’s a lie. You just hate me.” (Bard)
“Maybe. But in this country, and in the Libra Division, freedom of speech is completely guaranteed.”
“…Really? In the democratic countries I know, you can even speak ill of the royal family. For example, you can shout at the top of your lungs about whoever is the king of the country, and yell ‘you big *sshole’ in the street and not get arrested.” (Bard)
“It’s the same in my unit. Please shout ‘The King of Ernia is an *sshole’ to your heart’s content. Oh, and by the way, you can change the proper nouns to Kerich and Maxis.”
I grumbled, and the officer gave me a look that said, “That’s not what I meant,” but made no further defense.
Incidentally, he wanted to say “Leon’s an *sshole,” but he couldn’t say it because I took the initiative in the conversation.
Well, I wouldn’t mind if he said “Leon’s a d*ck” in front of me. I don’t want to interfere with the facts, and the Libra Division aims to be a generous and open-minded army.
Besides, I’m not a royalist, and I’m the son of an exile, so I’m not offended at all when people say bad things about my own king. —Except, of course, when it comes to my beloved princess. As long as his anger was directed at me, I didn’t mind at all. I wanted to handle it this way in the future and avoid any hate towards the princess.
Thus, the day’s work ended with the handling of a small, nagging complainer.
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