The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success Chapter 106

“Ah, kind of… I guess so.”

I answered sheepishly. Then Kiaros asked slowly,

“Is it because you’re worried the mole might be Victor?”

“…What?”

“I heard Victor Arwin confessed to you in a strange way during the banquet.”

“Haaa-yawn… I’m sorry, I keep yawning because of the sedative’s aftereffects.”

After letting out a huge yawn, I mumbled thoughtfully,

“It was definitely a warped sort of affection. Though I do agree that the timing wasn’t great.”

He had become an adult four years before me, and right after I came of age, he was sent on a long-term assignment abroad…

“I wonder if he had more to say to me. But it seems he ran off quickly, probably because he misunderstood that His Highness liked me.”

“Misunderstanding? Isn’t it more like the entire palace is well aware of it?”

Kiaros looked at me with amused eyes and chuckled slightly.

“Oh, and lately there’s even a rumor that I like you so much I ended up locking you in the palace, shedding blood and tears while begging every single day.”

His red eyes glinted playfully. I quickly bowed my head.

“If that offended you, I sincerely apologize. I was just trying to bait the Reformists…”

“No need to apologize. I’m the one who said it was fine to use my name.”

Right? It’s fine, right? That line had honestly just been out of politeness.

“But I didn’t expect you to use it that much.”

…Or maybe not? Well, it’s not like I can take it back.

I was about to bow even deeper and deliver a heartfelt “I truly apologize,” when—

“You must still find me hard to approach.”

What’s that supposed to mean…?

Who in this entire empire doesn’t find Kiaros difficult to approach?

As I stayed silent, bowing even lower, he said,

“Lift your head. I was joking.”

I quickly looked up.

“Kiaros Polariwood must really need to command Namia Roapia just to make eye contact, huh?”

His red eyes, full of mischief, somehow looked a little sad too.

I opened my mouth as if to speak but ended up holding back another yawn.

“Haaa-yawn… I’m sorry. That wasn’t because this conversation is boring, I swear…”

“It’s fine.”

Kiaros waved a hand lightly.

“These days even the Ravens look at me like they pity me to death. I wonder where they heard that from…”

“Oh… Well, once you bring in a Crown Princess, I think all those rumors will disappear.”

“Really?”

“At least in front of Your Highness and Her Highness the Crown Princess. That much I can guarantee.”

After all, people value their lives…

“Is that so?”

At my sincere words, Kiaros smiled even more mischievously.

“Miss Namia, do you really think there’s a woman out there who’d marry me in this situation?”

Even in the darkness, Kiaros’s boyish, impish smile was dazzlingly beautiful.

I had to consciously relax my optic nerves not to be swept away by it.

Seriously—his looks were so devastatingly striking, it felt unreal to be sitting here having a normal conversation with him.

“Of course. You definitely don’t need to worry about that.”

In the end, I declared it with all my heart, sincerity, and soul.

“For most women, I’d say just one of Your Highness’s signature eye-smiles would have them naming your future children in their heads.”

“Really?”

Kiaros then gave me a crescent-eyed smile.

His lower lashes curled adorably in a way I hadn’t seen before, and the gleam of his crimson eyes cast shadows beneath his thick lashes.

In the face of such overwhelming beauty—something I’d never experienced before—my heart skipped a beat.

Then, in a voice as smooth as honey, Kiaros whispered,

“Like this?”

And I—completely ensnared—started rambling.

“If I had a child, I’d name a daughter Anastasia, and a son Victor.”

The moment I gave my answer without hesitation, Kiaros’s face immediately turned serious.

“You really know how to ruin a mood in the weirdest way. I’ll never name my son Victor.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve never actually thought about baby names before, but since those two names have been on my mind constantly, that just sort of happened. My apologies.”

I couldn’t help it.

Even though I’d answered because I was entranced by his smile, the truth was—I had never really imagined myself getting married and having children.

Because finding my father had always been the number one priority in my life.

I had vaguely thought I might want to get married and start a family someday, but it never ranked above my longing to live with my father again.

In some way, putting that dream before my father—who sacrificed everything for me—felt like a betrayal.

Kiaros sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead and muttering in an annoyed tone,

“Still, who the hell names their kid after their romantic rival?”

“Ahahaha, rival? That’s a bit extreme…”

Being quasi-interrogated by the Crown Prince himself made me wonder if I might actually get executed for real this time.

In the end, I lowered my voice and nervously tried to defend myself.

“Everyone’s just assuming you like me because of rumors. It’s not like it’s actually true, right?”

I figured he was just using the failed courtship story to explain his reclusiveness during his dark period.

So I’d been trying not to bring up that subject… but I blurted it out, too flustered.

“I-I mean, it’s not like something monumental happened between us… I just figured Your Highness was also using the rumor for your own reasons.”

“Is that what you thought?”

Kiaros looked at me quietly.

“So Miss Namia believed that.”

When I stayed silent, he softly added,

“Or maybe… you wanted to believe it.”

His eyes carried a hint of melancholy again. As a brief silence settled between us, I gave an awkward laugh and waved my hand.

“W-Well… to be honest, it’s not like we’re all that close or anything…”

“True. We’re just a pair where I’ve been staying celibate for 15 years, all on my own.”

Celibate?! That word choice, seriously…

Then, in that moment—tension flickered across Kiaros’s face.

I widened my eyes as well.

Tap tap, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed closer.

Before identifying the source, I glanced around the empty office at both Victor’s and Anastasia’s desks.

Victor’s pen holder still had that single pen in it. The very pen I’d bought, which Keyvon later broke.

‘He still hasn’t thrown that out…’

Whatever else, he was the one who first reached out to me as a child.

If he’d confessed back then, I would’ve accepted. If he’d asked about my circumstances, I would’ve told him everything.

There was a time when I desperately needed just one person.

Then I slowly turned to look at Anastasia’s desk.

‘Ah… so this is what she reads these days.’

A book titled The Pinnacle of Obsession Is Escape sat neatly on her desk.

She had always handed me coffee with shy hands and had fearlessly chased off Reeden using just coffee grounds and hot water…

‘Now I’ll finally know who it is between the two.’

Suppressing another ill-timed yawn, I gazed silently out the window.

Anastasia, clad in a robe, walked down the hallway in the darkness.

‘Ah.’

With steady steps—not too fast, not too slow—she passed by the Scroll Department office and walked straight into the fabrication room.

Kiaros and I made eye contact. I couldn’t read the expression in his glowing red eyes through the dark.

A little time passed, and then Anastasia emerged from the fabrication room. In her hand was clearly the beaker of Dragonblood I had been using for experiments earlier.

‘Good god…’

As Anastasia slowly walked away and I let out a soft sigh, I thought I was completely emotionally prepared—but my eyes still welled up.

Just then—

“Hold on.”

Kiaros looked at me and whispered. He was suddenly right beside me.

“Pardon?”

“Something’s off. I think we need to follow her to the end. May I… briefly hold you?”

And then—my body was suddenly lifted off the ground.

With me in his arms, he swiftly opened the window to another part of the office.

“Don’t scream.”

And then he jumped. Just like that. In the blink of an eye.