The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success Chapter 36

“Um… My mother?”

I looked around awkwardly, caught off guard.

The truth was—I didn’t even know what my mother looked like. All I knew were the stories Dad used to tell me.

The Empress slammed the table.

“Yeah! Tell me about your mom. She’s not dead, right? She ran off?”

“She might be dead… but I don’t think so. Knowing my dad, if she had died, he would’ve at least taken me to her grave to pay respects…”

“Your dad—he looks like one of those uptight moralist types, huh?”

“…Yes.”

Her assessment was painfully accurate.

I rolled my eyes, recalling some of the conversations I’d had with my dad.

[Namia, I… I don’t want to speak badly about your mother.]
[But she’s the reason you ended up like this. If she loved you even a little, would she have left me alone?]
[Still, she’s the one who gave birth to you. I don’t want to resent her for not loving me. That’s not something people can control.]
[Even so—she…]
[Namia, she carried you for ten months and brought you into the world. Don’t call her ‘that woman.’]

My dad really was a kind and proper man.

Like an honest, small-town ethics teacher—he always said the “right” thing.

[If you’re really curious about your mom… Okay, I’ll leave out the bad stuff.]

So, as a result, I didn’t know much about her at all.

The Empress was still fuming, snorting with anger.

‘I should say something, judging by her mood…’

I racked my brain for the fragments Dad had told me about Mom.

[Well… your mother was kind of… innocent.]

Could someone who racked up that much loan shark debt really be called “innocent”…?

[She wanted to marry me just because I was a noble. Isn’t that kind of pure in a way?]

Honestly, that seemed more ignorant than pure.

Especially since Dad was only the second son of a baron family.

[She had this naive charm, like she didn’t understand how the world worked.]

Not knowing how the world works at that age is a problem.

[I know it sounds funny, but she was like a runaway princess… She didn’t even understand what a marriage registration was. I tried to register it when we did your birth certificate, but… never happened.]

If she were really a princess with brains, she wouldn’t have run away in the first place…

You run away from home, you suffer. That’s how it works.

[She left us in a hurry, but I still don’t think she was a bad person by nature.]

Can people really be “born” bad?

[If she ever finds peace of mind, I think she might come back to us someday.]

After dumping a debt like this on me, she’d never find peace of mind.

Anyway, that was all I remembered.

So there I was, awkwardly telling the Empress that my mom was some clueless woman who racked up debt with loan sharks, when—

“There you are, Fron.”

The door burst open, and a voice as sweet as honey rang out.

It was the Emperor, looking prim and neat in his formal attire.

Kiaros silently followed behind.

“Oh? You have a guest? Fron never invites outsiders here. Who might this young lady be?”

The Emperor smiled gently as he looked at me.

His expression and manner were warm—but the pressure that radiated from him as a yongin was overwhelming.

No wonder Osone had spilled everything the moment they locked eyes.

I hurriedly stood and bowed deeply.

“I greet His Majesty the Emperor. I am Namia Roapia of the Scroll Management Department.”

“Hmm.”

There was a subtle shift in the Emperor’s soft smile.

“Scroll Management Department…”

Just the murmur was enough to make my blood run cold.

The Empress hoisted me back into my seat like it was nothing.

Soon, the four of us were seated: the Empress, the Emperor, Kiaros, and me.

‘Am I… even allowed to be here?’

With that lineup, I felt like a speck of dust. I trembled inside while the Emperor began speaking.

“That legal officer from the Ministry of Justice was also originally from the Scroll Department, I hear.”

He said it kindly—but I felt a cold sweat down my spine.

‘Wait—that guy I pointed out was originally from the Scroll Department?’

I had even seen him in person.

He was a middle-aged man, definitely someone who’d transferred departments long before I joined.

‘So I didn’t even know he was from our department? That means… he left more than ten years ago…’

Our department records only went back ten years.

And I had memorized all of them.

That meant whoever was behind this had infiltrated the Scroll Department long ago.

‘Oh no.’

My vision blurred with panic.

This wasn’t just about Osone.

‘The whole Scroll Department might go down. A spy’s been embedded there for years.’

Kiaros had already gained full access to our records. At this rate, our department might be dissolved entirely.

Sure, the Mage Tower would throw a fit—but things were that serious.

‘Then what’s going to happen to me? Surely they wouldn’t fire someone like me too… right?’

But there could still be more spies hiding in the department.

A spy who had access to royal government records…

‘Someone could sneak into the Crown Prince’s guard detail—just like what happened!’

The more I thought about it, the worse it got.

This could lead to a full-scale purge of our entire division.

“Your Majesty, however… Namia is not a threat.”

The Empress stepped in for me, as I sat there shaking.

Then she began listing everything I’d done.

How I had grown suspicious of Osone, how I’d saved the Empress, how I’d stalled for time in court and drawn out the confession.

I chimed in too, hoping to show Kiaros had approved of it all.

“I even told His Highness the Crown Prince, ‘I’ll do my best’… So I just pushed through to the end, that’s all.”

“…Hmm.”

Kiaros let out a low sigh when I mentioned the signal exchange.

Well, he’d misunderstood—but that wasn’t my fault.

Anyway, for the sake of his dignity, I didn’t mention that the signal had been a heart gesture.

“Ahem, I see.”

The Emperor sipped his tea gently after hearing the full story and said warmly,

“I thought Kiaros must’ve suffered terribly during the trial, but it turns out it was Lady Namia doing all the hard work. My son, meanwhile, was busy making heart signs to welcome me.”

“Your Majesty, about that heart, um…”

Kiaros frowned, looking pained. The Emperor smiled softly and asked,

“Don’t tell me… that heart wasn’t for me?”

“…What?”

“The moment I walked in, my heart swelled with emotion. I haven’t received such a gesture since his teenage years…”

“……”

Honestly, letting the heart story end here was probably for the best.

At least it had a heartwarming, filial twist.

The conversation continued.

The person who killed Osone in court turned out to be a noble with a forged title.

Investigation revealed she had been trading titles secretly on the black market.

“They’ve been targeting the royal family for a long time. There was some internal misunderstanding that helped us catch them, but we still don’t know who’s behind it…”

The Emperor spoke slowly.

His tone was gentle, but the content was grim.

“Oh, and now’s a good time to inform Lady Namia about her department.”

My heart, which I thought couldn’t sink any lower, plummeted again.

“Kiaros reviewed all the Scroll Department records at lightning speed and has fired everyone with questionable conduct.”

People with “issues”… that meant…

I combed through my memory as fast as I could.

There were plenty of people in our department who, on paper, deserved serious disciplinary action—especially higher up…

The Emperor spoke lightly.

“Of course, he started with the Minister. Kiaros, was Namia Roapia on the list?”

“She was not.”

Just like that… our all-powerful minister was gone.

Didn’t he even send a petition to the Mage Tower?

I hadn’t done anything wrong, so of course I wouldn’t be fired—but at this rate, the entire Scroll Department might be dismantled.

“However, for a moment…”

Kiaros slowly opened his mouth.

“There’s something I’d like to ask Lady Namia—personally.”