The Low-Ranking Civil Servant Wants to Achieve Success Chapter 80

I answered calmly.

“Oh, I’m planning to set a little trap. But I’ll need Your Highness’s permission for one thing to pull it off…”

“Hm?”

“First, may I… borrow Your Highness’s name?”

Kiaros laced his fingers together, looking intrigued.

“Explain.”

He commanded, smiling ever so slightly crookedly.

“I’m very curious.”

Watching how naturally authority flowed from him, I paused to take a breath.

He had a kind of inborn arrogance that never bowed to anyone.

His emotional restraint and ascetic demeanor came from consideration for others—something that had become a habit.

And yet, he had the confidence of someone who knew how exceptional he was.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Ah…”

I fidgeted with my fingers as I answered.

“It’s just… I had the thought that Your Highness must have never been subjected to even the smallest unpleasant word from anyone.”

Someone born and raised as a ruler. Even the other royals were always kind to him.

“That’s… kind of amazing.”

Having both power and competence—now that was truly admirable. I wanted to be like that, too.

Kiaros gave a faint chuckle and rested his chin on his hand.

“Well.”

He stared straight at me and replied casually.

“That’s fairly accurate.”

****

The Next Morning – Scroll Department Office

“Hey, are you seriously messing with me right now? Huh? Are you smiling? Is this funny to you? What? You weren’t smiling? Then what, my eyes are broken? That it?! Stand up straight, will you?”

Keyvon was getting chewed out without end.

“I told you I didn’t like your face from the beginning, didn’t I? You’ve got the look of a scammer, and your sense is buried somewhere underground! God, seriously…”

This was all because the Empress and Prince Jayden had barged in.

“Hey! You were there too, weren’t you? You knew everything and you still screwed over His Highness?! You dared to apply to be her partner?! Huh?!”

The Empress pounded her chest in disbelief.

Jayden, meanwhile, stomped his feet and shouted,

“You ruined my master plan!”

To be fair, they had every right to be angry.

They’d both been desperate to pair me with Kiaros for the banquet.

‘They probably don’t know that if Keyvon hadn’t asked, Victor would’ve.’

Jayden clutched his head and cried out,

“Ugh… and last night, she even got summoned to the Crown Prince’s office!”

Well, I was summoned… Though probably not for that reason.

While the two were throwing a fit, I jabbed Keyvon lightly in the side.

He responded in his usual flat tone.

“I apologize. I must have misunderstood.”

That was exactly what I’d trained him to say that morning.

[Keyvon, today the Empress and Prince Jayden are definitely going to storm in and cause a scene.]

[Understood.]

[No, not ‘Understood’—you’re supposed to say something like ‘What should I do?’ …Anyway, just keep repeating: ‘I apologize. I must have misunderstood.’ That’s all you need to say.]

Keyvon had to attend the Saint Cairo banquet.

With so many high nobles attending, his demeanor—unsuited to his position—could cause problems.

‘Still, something about his tone is so… vague.’

There wasn’t anything specific you could point to as improper, but it just felt off. So I opted for avoidance over correction.

[If anything feels off at the banquet, just keep saying: ‘I apologize. I must have misunderstood.’ Got it?]

[…Will that solve everything?]

[Repeat it until it does. Sooner or later, your opponent will give up out of sheer frustration. People who don’t understand are impossible to win against.]

But with royalty, we couldn’t just stall forever.

So I stepped forward and called Keyvon away.

“Keyvon, come do your work. There’s a pile waiting for you.”

It was the only way to pacify the Empress and Jayden.

“I’ve been working him to the bone lately. He’s swamped.”

Make it seem like working under me was even more punishing.

I stacked a huge pile of documents on his desk. Keyvon’s face turned pale.

And it wasn’t even a lie. He really was drowning in work.

Afterward, I smoothly shifted the focus.

“First, let me show you how to use the scroll. I’ll handle the calculations up to the point of activation—just say the incantation.”

I demonstrated a few times, then left the rest to the staff.

I returned to my office. There was still a mountain of work to deal with.

That was when Victor showed up for his official first day of work.

“Oh, Minister.”

He’d already finished his first report.

Stepping into the office, he handed it over with a grin.

“Seems like you’re putting a lot of effort into that Saint Cairo scroll. You must’ve stayed up late. Want to grab lunch? The cafeteria menu’s not bad today.”

His tone was easygoing and laced with humor.

“And I heard a very interesting rumor yesterday… Apparently, our dear Minister here is the femme fatale who broke the Crown Prince’s heart.”

I accepted the report and gave it a quick scan.

As expected from a model student, it was excellent.

Probably got some tutoring from his adoptive father in the Finance Ministry—his formatting was perfect.

“That’s why I thought…”

Victor wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

“Wow. Who’d even dare confess to our Minister with standards that high?”

I replied without looking up from the report.

“Huh? What do you mean, high standards? You mean the Crown Prince?”

Victor raised his arm dramatically and replied,

“No, I mean you. Who’d be brave enough to confess to someone with such lofty standards—unless they were a small and cute guy like me?”

I burst into laughter with a snort.

Victor was a big guy—built like a bear. Hearing him call himself “small and cute” was too much.

That’s when I heard a soft snap behind me—Keyvon’s quill had broken.

Victor noticed first and called out,

“Oh? Looks like our intern broke his quill. You can’t lose your rhythm during calculations. Here, borrow mine.”

But Keyvon rejected him flatly without even looking up.

“No need.”

Victor didn’t take offense. He just chuckled warmly.

“Come on, no need to be shy. We’re family now, right? Not giving it away or anything—this one’s special. Namia gave it to me back in school. Just return it when you’re done.”

He pulled a pen from his breast pocket and tossed it to Keyvon.

I glanced at it briefly.

A cheap pen I’d scraped together money to buy back in school.

‘Can’t believe he still has that…’

I drifted off for a moment, then snapped back to the conversation.

“Still, regardless of who confesses to me, His Highness isn’t the petty type.”

At that moment, Keyvon strode silently toward my desk, the pen in hand. He dropped it thunk onto Victor’s report.

Yeesh. Rejecting a gift like that? So petty.

I shook my head inwardly and kept going.

“He’s confident in himself. He wouldn’t be bothered.”

“Right? Even if I confessed to you—AAAH! Keyvon! You just stepped on my foot! Do you have anemia or something? Dizzy spell? Should I call the Health Ministry?!”

Victor stumbled, rubbing his foot.

I stared at Keyvon suspiciously. That felt deliberate.

No matter how I looked at it, he definitely liked me. Maybe it was immaturity, but he had no chill whatsoever.

It wasn’t just office romances that needed secrecy—office crushes were even worse if they got exposed.

Victor continued, still rubbing his foot.

“He’s a man of such stature, no way he’d be jealous… Even if something happened between me and our dear Minister, he’d probably just wish us well. That’s the kind of character he’s known for—AAAH! My pen!”