Chapter 9: 9. A Quick Sleep

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"I, state your name;"

"I, ⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛;"

 

"Do solemnly affirm that I will act for the benefit of the Kingdom of Letran."

"Do solemnly affirm that I will act for the benefit of the Kingdom of Letran."

 

"and will eliminate all enemies, foreign or domestic; that goes against the interests of the king."

"and will eliminate all enemies, foreign or domestic; that goes against the interests of the king."

 

"I will not question any orders given, and fulfill orders no matter the cost."

"I will not question any orders given, and fulfill orders no matter the cost."

"I swear allegiance to those above me, as per law."

"I swear allegiance to those above me, as per law."

 

"..."

 

"You are now the property of the Letran Kingdom's Office of Special Activities. Congratulations."

"..."

"You are to infiltrate the Empire's Academy and gather intelligence on the individual known as 'Edward Ludwer' and await further instructions. Necessary funding and documents have been provided."

"Understood."

 

"Dismissed."

 

***

 

"This bitch can't even stand cause we've beat her too much. Pfft."

A burly man laughs at a captive of a cell weakened by constant beatings.

"Well, it's time to drug her. You know the drill. A VIP customer is coming in soon."

"Alright boss."

A cloaked man next to him, known as 'Boss' gets a bottle filled with purple liquid out of his pocket.

The burly man holds the weakened captive by the arms.

"Open wide~"

With a sadistic face, the "Boss" forcibly makes the captive drink the liquid.

The burly man, staring lustfully at the captive showed an expression of regret.

"She's one looker. Too bad we couldn't have her our way."

"What can we do? It's a special request from one of our VIPs - he wants 'em unused"

"I know... I know."

 

Knock Knock

 

A knock sounds from the single wooden door holding the captive in the cell from breaking out.

"Looks like he's here. Open the door."

"Got it."

The burly man, opening the wooden door, greets the VIP.

"Welcome!"

The VIP, cloaked like most customers of this business, remained quiet even after the greeting.

"..."

"... Why're you so unusually quiet?"

"...Die."

"?"

At that moment, the VIP swings a one-handed sword and cuts off the head of the unnamed burly man.

The burly man's head rolled around smoothly against the stone dungeon floors.

 

"What the fuck are you doing?"

The "boss", appalled by the sudden murder by one of his most valued customers, questioned.

"..."

"Wait ... You're not the VI-"

Before the "boss" could finish his sentence, the cloaked man closed the distance and cut his head off.

Dunk.

The boss's head, similar to the burly man's head, rolled and landed near the captive.

 

The captive, barely holding consciousness from her weakened state, looked at the head of one of the men who have tormented her just moments before.

"Are you alright?"

A young voice, from the cloaked man rung out of the moist dungeon area.

The captive, before losing consciousness was able to sneak a look at the cloaked man.

Under the cloak was a face that the captive has never seen.

Under the cloak, was Edward Ludwer.

 

***

 

"Alright so.. this is definitely a spy."

I worked my way through documents of foreign students within the Academy, and separate the pile of 500 documents into two files dumps.

One dump file is full of normal people.

The other dump is full of people who will be charged with espionage and tortured by none other than myself and members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Or that's what's supposed to happen, but I have a different use for these spies.

Currently, out of the 400 documents I processed through throughout the night, around 5 of them were documents of spies sent by other countries.

1 per each country existing in this world.

Of course, I wouldn't have been sent here if work was so easy that I could detect 5 spies with only documents provided by said countries.

The 5 that are obviously spies are just distractions to trick the average overworked minimum-wage 7th rank Ministry of Internal Affairs employee.

 

Of course I'm none of the above. Except the "overworked" part.

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Looking at the remaining 100 stacks of documents, I almost threw up.

I work all night for 3 days in a row, till 6 AM and 100 still left.

For a brief moment, I felt sympathy to all the Ministry of Internal Affairs workers in the Empire.

 

If I had to choose the worst Ministry to work in, it would be the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

 

Most people expect it to be the Ministry of Sewage, or the Ministry of Fisheries or something.

 

But no, it's the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The reason is because, the job is highly demanding and very stressful.

It's basically what I'm doing right now.

Going over documents for 12 hours everyday working overtime and trying to find someone suspicious.

 

After that, it's the way the Ministry of Internal Affairs recruits it's employees.

They hire people based on their loyalty to the Empire. Not intellect.

So if you were someone competent, you can't have a cohesive work environment if the rest of the people you're working with are dumbasses.

Half the people within the Ministry of Internal Affairs are dumb-fucks that are oblivious, proud of their status, and absolute loyalists to the Empire.

 

And finally, dirt shit pay.

As mentioned, the Ministry of Internal Affairs value loyalty.

The employees working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are so loyal, they don't care about salaries.

Therefore, top brass decided they could cut the salaries to minimum wage and still have employees.

Due to this reason, the image of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are "pushovers for the Empire".

Well, they don't really need salaries as those working in the Ministry of Internal Affairs are mostly of noble birth.

Well, similar to the Ministry of Finance, they do have elite divisions that are made up of psychopaths or serial killers, but we don't talk about that.

 

"In contrast; the Inspectorate Office are made up of highly competent, have high salaries, and only care about money."

Said the Finance President allegedly a year ago. (I'm doubting the "highly competent part")

 

Well, I'm glad I got to go to the second most shittiest place to work in the Empire than the first!

By the way, the second shittiest place to work in is the Inspectorate Office.

 

Putting the document with the spy's information on the 2nd dump,

I suddenly remembered what the President of the Ministry of Internal Affairs offered to me.

"Who knows. If you do well, I might invite you to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a double contract!"

 

You know what?

I don't think I'm going to do "well".

Looking at the clock, it was 5:03.

Maybe I'll get a coffee instead of working.

 

***

Inside the "Trinkst Cafe" of the Academy, 

Melivia prepares to open up her cafe.

Melvia, like always, wakes up at 4:30, and opens her cafe at 5:00.

There is no-one awake at 5:00, but it has always been her wish to own a cafe and open it up early in the morning.

Melvia prepares the coffee machine and ready the coffee beans.

As she was doing so, the bell on the cafe door rung.

This meant that someone entered the cafe.

Melvia stopped what she was doing, and turned around. It was unusual for anyone to come at this time.

 

In the entrance, a man in a fine black uniform stood.

"Good morning!"

 

"...Good morning."

The man responded in a low voice.

The man in uniform walked to one of the tables and sat down on a chair.

"What would you like?"

"..."

The man remained silent.

Melvia saw that the man was occupied in thought.

However, she could tell by the depth in his eyes that he wasn't thinking about coffee.

"Sir?"

"Huh? Oh... I would like an Espresso. One shot."

"Alright. Coming right up!"

Melvia energetically began to prepare for the man's order.

As she was roasting the beans, she heard a sudden thud.

Thud

Curious, Melvia turned around.

On the ground, the man in the black uniform was in a limp position.

"Sir?"

Melvia quickly went to the man to check him.

"Sir??"

The man had lost consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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