The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success Chapter 120

My head was spinning. Which meant…

‘Could I… be the Tower Master’s granddaughter?’

It was clear the Tower Master had known everything.

On the day she made me Minister, while speaking with me.

[‘The creation of new scrolls… People outside the Tower are ignorant of magic, so they don’t know, but only adults can do that. And usually only after spending five years or more in the Tower refining their mana! But you said you made one at eight years old! Without ever coming to the Tower! You wouldn’t have lied! Even to you, that sounds strange!’]

Back then, I didn’t have the drive to think deeply about what was “strange” about me. At the time, I still hadn’t fully overcome my chronic lethargy.

[‘Any other special abilities? Even if you do, say you don’t in front of others. And if you can help it, don’t mention that you could compose scrolls as a child either.’]

The Tower Master kept emphasizing it.

Don’t let others notice anything special.

‘She must have suspected I was a test subject.’

I couldn’t guess all of my mother’s circumstances—why she was hounded by loan sharks, why she abandoned us.

But I could form a rough hypothesis about myself.

‘Mother underwent an experiment with the Reformists. While pregnant with me—an experiment to become good at magic.’

But the ability went not to her, but to the fetus—me. So of course I’d been exceptionally good with scrolls from childhood.

‘And… not long ago, Mother must have undergone another experiment.’

An experiment that causes you to know the future in the form of a novel…

From what Kiaros learned via the secured monster subject, even if Mother underwent the experiment, the effect would manifest in me.

‘That’s why I came to know the original story. No—not the original…’

I swallowed hard.

‘But the new future—one altered by the Reformists’ assassination attempt.’

The Reformists read the future once and predicted Kiaros’s second dark period. Then they planned to assassinate him to coincide with it.

Through another experiment, I had come to know that altered future.

“…nister? Minister?”

I had been blankly ordering my thoughts when I startled and looked up.

Keyvon’s worried face was right before me. I hastily scooted back.

“Are you all right?”

“Ah…”

“You haven’t responded to anything for a while—”

“S-sorry.”

I immediately bowed my head.

I couldn’t bring myself to meet Keyvon’s eyes.

“Sorry. I’m just… a little shocked.”

Unexpectedly, Keyvon slowly nodded.

“I understand.”

“Huh? You do?”

“His Highness the Crown Prince, I mean.”

“Huh? What about His Highness?”

“After all the time you’ve spent working together, to hear he didn’t truly trust you—it’s absurd, isn’t it? Even if you say you’re fine, it can still be a shock.”

He was completely off the mark, but I couldn’t correct him.

I nodded, dazed.

“Uh, right… sure.”

Keyvon gave a slightly wistful smile.

“There’s actually more to say… but His Highness will tell you that himself later.”

“Ah. Okay.”

“Aren’t you curious?”

“Ah. Okay.”

I wasn’t a very inquisitive person even on ordinary days, and right now I truly had no bandwidth left for curiosity.

Keyvon chuckled at my reaction.

“Well, that’s very you, Minister.”

I nodded. We exchanged a few more lines, though I couldn’t later recall a word of it.

I think I just kept repeating things like, “Ah. Okay.”

After that meaningless back-and-forth, Keyvon spoke slowly.

“By the way… why did you call me in the first place…?”

Right—that thing I’d meant to have Keyvon do.

But that wasn’t the issue anymore.

The truth I’d just learned was overwhelming, and I needed time to think.

“Ah… thinking about it, it’s nothing. Forget it. You can go for now.”

I forced a smile and waved a hand.

“Are you sure? Your color doesn’t look good…”

He was unnervingly perceptive. If I said “I’m fine” here, it would only seem more suspicious.

So I made something up.

“It’s because of His Highness. Right, um, yeah. I’m… shocked.”

“…I see. So it’s all His Highness’s fault.”

“Exactly.”

And as soon as Keyvon closed the door and left, wearing a downcast expression—

“Ah… what do I do…”

I slumped right down and pressed a hand to my forehead.

“I was a Reformist test subject…”

The magical ability I’d thought I was born with—it hadn’t been mine. It was the result of an experiment.

The future that had surfaced in my mind like a miracle one day—that wasn’t because I was special. It was connected to the Reformists as well.

I didn’t know what, exactly, Mother was doing with the Reformists, but I was being experimented on continuously, without my consent.

“Ah…”

I buried my face in both hands.

I could see why the Tower Master—my maternal grandfather—hadn’t told me. The shock was too great.

Regardless of my will, the fact that the results of experiments could manifest in my body at any time—that was horrific.

Knowing all of that, the Tower Master had still worried for his granddaughter and sent letters and scrolls.

[‘Don’t think of it only as something bad. For some, it’s a power they’ve desperately desired. Dangerous though it may be, I believe you might be someone worthy of wielding it.’]

With tears pooling in my eyes, I muttered,

“How am I supposed not to think badly of it…”

This was beyond my control.

‘And if Kiaros were to find out about this…’

Cold sweat trickled down my back.

I already knew exactly how Kiaros felt about test subjects.

[‘Then what happened to those monster subjects?’]

[‘We killed them. They’re beings that deviate from the laws of the world. The risk of leaving them be is too high.’]

He would kill me.

***

After leaving Namia’s room and returning to his own—

Kiaros immediately asked his aide,

“Beavers Arwin and Anastasia Cayenne.”

“Beavers Arwin is going about his daily life as usual—no further communications received. As for Anastasia Cayenne, it has been announced that she is unconscious after an attack.”

He had entrusted all palace affairs to the Emperor.

Chasing the Reformists, however, remained entirely his task. Only the interrogation of the Minister of Education had been unavoidable to delegate to the Emperor.

He was, therefore, still busy.

“Um, and… how did the A-and-B matter go?”

“Hard to say.”

Kiaros lowered his gaze.

He’d deliberately spoken in a way that blurred the boundary between Keyvon and Kiaros…

However Namia took it, at this point he was only one step from saying outright, “Keyvon is Kiaros”…

But Namia’s reaction had been worse than expected. His heart felt heavy.

At the same time, he felt certain.

Even so, he wanted to stand before her with nothing to hide.

‘Abort the plan to stage Kiaros’s assassination.’

Thus he gave up the idea of living the rest of his life as Keyvon. In the end, this was the right path.

‘Once tomorrow’s business with the High Priest is more or less wrapped up, I’ll tell her everything.’

That meant revealing what his special ability actually was.

To be honest, he was afraid. He could see her answering with those burnt-out eyes: ‘I see. I understand. Very well.’ Just like earlier.

He feared not even being worthy of blame.

But—

‘That bench.’

The bench Namia had asked Keyvon to visit again with her.

That shabby, insignificant seat he hadn’t even known existed in the palace—that was where he decided to tell her.

That he was Keyvon, and also Kiaros.

And that the reason he was telling her all this was because he liked her—so very, very much.

If he confessed honestly, with all his heart…

‘She’ll probably reject me, won’t she?’

At least, that’s what the expert’s opinion said.