By the time I neared the main building to avoid the students' eyes, the school entry period had ended. The students who had been sporadically visible were now completely gone, and only through the windows could I catch glimpses of classes in session.
While I'd achieved my desired result of avoiding attention, the cause that produced that result was far from ideal. If I hadn't taken the detour, I would have had time to at least grab some tea in the Principal's office.
'Not a capybara, but catnip.'
Perhaps Luize was a pink capybara with catnip in its mouth. The blond man who had turned away the moment he spotted me was, along with the three who had crawled in from abroad, the only domestic person of interest—the Third Prince, Ainter Ribnoman.
Wow, of course the Third Prince shows up. Is there really something about me that attracts trouble?
In that vast Academy, at that precise moment, Ainter was spotted near Luize. I couldn't help but feel a chill run down my spine. Ainter himself was problematic enough, but the fact that he was observed near Luize meant the other three could very well get tangled up too, couldn't it?
Forced attendance at a full gathering of all persons of interest on my first day of dispatch? I absolutely did not want that. If they were going to force that on me, they'd better at least shove an opened bottle of Welch's in my face.
For a moment, I imagined being in a place where all four continental key personnel had gathered. Just imagining something even the Foreign Affairs Minister had never experienced drained me mentally, and I sat down on a nearby bench, staring vacantly into space.
Sitting here at the Academy made me feel like a college student waiting for a shuttle bus, but the Academy had no such thing as shuttle buses, and I wasn't a student. Did it make any sense that this young man in his twenties only had school day memories if he dredged up his pre-possession past?
I grabbed my throbbing forehead. The sixth sense honed through four years of civil service had been steadily sending warnings since the moment the dispatch was decided—that life ahead would be tremendously arduous. The problem was that even hearing the warning, there was no way to avoid it.
It felt like watching an incoming punch with perfect clarity but being unable to move my body, taking the hit head-on. Both reason and instinct had opposed the dispatch simultaneously, but the power of public authority pressing down from above had made it possible. The most terrifying force in the world is public authority...
I clicked my tongue once, rose from the bench, and retraced my steps. Since there were no students wandering around, it was time to finish what I'd originally come for—getting a grasp of the layout.
I examined the large, splendid buildings befitting an educational institution attended by numerous blue bloods, and when I occasionally moved to other buildings or spotted students outside during break time, I passed by naturally.
During the entry period, so many eyes had been on me that I'd felt like a beast in a zoo, but not now. After all, I wasn't going to spend my entire time at the Academy avoiding students, was I?
'I should let them know I'm an inspector by tomorrow.'
I couldn't very well go around greeting everyone with "Hello, I'm an inspector. I'm here on business" every time our eyes met.
After wandering here and there and storing a bird's-eye view of the entire Academy in my head, I looked around and pulled out my communication device. I'd finished my immediate tasks, so I should handle this before I forgot.
I took the communication device from my breast pocket and contacted the Deputy Director. After a few vibrations, the Deputy Director's face appeared before long.
- It's been a while, Director. Did you arrive at the Academy safely?
"Yeah. I got here this morning, but I was busy with something else for a bit, so I'm only contacting you now."
- I'm relieved to see you don't seem to have any particular problems.
In truth, problems had come pouring down the moment I arrived. The protagonist Luize, Erich with the 'you're a good friend' ending looming before my eyes, Ainter drawn in by the catnip-scented capybara.
But there was no need to add such details and worry the Deputy Director. Coldly speaking, the Deputy Director wouldn't be much help with this dispatch anyway. I quietly filed away the names of Luize and two others in my mind.
"Well, yes. But I saw something strange on the way here."
- Please go ahead.
"There should have been budget allocated for road maintenance on the route to the Academy. But the condition was a complete mess."
Track that down and clean them all out.
Even at an instruction delivered as casually as asking someone to pick up groceries from the neighborhood market, the Deputy Director nodded without any questions. The nameless regional administrator who had risen to the top of my death list inside the carriage was thus sentenced.
This was a final gift for the Ministry of Finance express carriage that had shared a long and grueling journey with me, forging a small friendship. I kept the faith, express carriage...
- I'll handle it and report back. Is there anything else you'd like me to do?
"No. Ah, everything quiet on your end?"
- Yes, nothing at all.
Fortunately, the Section Chiefs seemed to be behaving themselves. Relief washed over me, and my expression relaxed slightly. Since the Deputy Director hadn't contacted me separately, no uproar must have broken out, but I couldn't help feeling anxious. Hearing directly that there were no problems put my mind at ease.
"Good. Keep up the good work. Contact me immediately if anything comes up."
- Understood.
With no further business, I ended the call after giving the Deputy Director one last firm reminder. I couldn't express how reassuring it was to have the Deputy Director remaining at the office. If even the Deputy Director had been absent, it was clear as day that the Section Chiefs would have piled up absurdities sky-high while I was away like a horse without reins. The conclusion would have been the Inspection Department atomized by an enraged Minister.
'Would that actually be a good thing?'
If the department got smashed to pieces by the Minister's hand, I'd have no choice but to take responsibility as Director and retire. Of course, knowing the Minister, he'd more likely create a nonexistent department and stick me in there like a penal unit to work me to the bone.
Still, imagining even briefly the possibility of retirement improved my mood somewhat. I tucked the communication device back in and walked with lighter steps.
***
The Deputy Director confirmed Karl's face disappearing as the communication cut off, tucked the communication device back into his pocket, and opened the door directly behind him. The room inside had been quite noisy—hardly an ideal environment for contacting the Director—so he'd stepped out briefly.
When he opened the door and re-entered that less-than-ideal environment, a scene of absolute pandemonium unfolded before his eyes.
"The Third Section Chief's wholehearted performance! I'll show you something spectacular!"
"Hehe, hehehehehek."
"Kuheh, hey! The Director's glass is empty!"
Among the three sons of bitches, the Second Section Chief was by far the loudest. He was even looking for the Director in a place where the Director wasn't present. The Deputy Director's gaze shifted to see a person-sized doll seated in the Director's chair, with Karl's portrait attached to the doll's face area. Then the Second Section Chief staggered slightly as he walked toward it, filled the glass placed before the doll to the brim, and splashed the alcohol directly onto the portrait.
"The Director drinks well!"
The Second Section Chief giggled as he refilled the empty glass. The doll that had been casually propped up for atmosphere was gradually transforming in the Second Section Chief's mind into the real Director.
Compared to this insane spectacle, the incident's trigger had been surprisingly trivial. Due to Karl's fury, the carefully prepared placard and the celebration party plan for his departure to the Academy had been torn to shreds and scattered to the winds.
However, if one was a Section Chief of the Inspection Department, one didn't abandon one's goals over such minor variables. The First Section Chief's words—that if they couldn't hold a party for his departure to the Academy, they could simply hold a party for his arrival at the Academy—struck a chord with the Second and Third Section Chiefs.
After postponing or advancing each section's work to clear their morning schedules, the Section Chiefs personally ran around preparing the party.
"If it's about this size, it's roughly the Director's height, right?"
"Wow, the portrait's been beautified."
Since the real Karl wasn't present, the proposal to attach Karl's portrait to a doll and seat it in the Director's chair passed unanimously. They'd somehow salvaged the placard shredded by Karl's hands, pieced it back together, and hung it directly above the doll.
[Ah! Academy Life in One's Blooming Twenties!]
In the process, they'd discarded unnecessary characters and patched it together like a rag. For Inspection Department officials, reassembling shredded materials was essential training. Restoration that merely approximated the appearance was child's play.
The ragged placard, born from the original sin of Karl merely tearing it rather than burning it, displayed its magnificent form. The Deputy Director's gaze lowered from it.
His eyes landed on the Third Section Chief performing somersaults before the doll, calling it a performance for the Director, and the Second Section Chief once again splashing alcohol onto the portrait. Just then, the First Section Chief noticed the Deputy Director entering the room and offered him a glass.
"Deputy Director, have a drink!"
The Deputy Director accepted the glass the First Section Chief offered without hesitation and downed it in one gulp. Even before receiving Karl's call, the Deputy Director had already downed six glasses alongside the Section Chiefs.
"Nothing's going wrong there, right?"
During their earlier conversation, Karl had asked this question, his voice tinged with anxiety and unease. The Deputy Director had confidently replied that everything was fine. From a certain perspective, this could be considered a false report to his direct superior, but...
'It's actually unsettling how they're not causing any incidents.'
Lamentably, the Deputy Director looked at the Section Chiefs throwing their wild party and thought, 'They're not causing any incidents.' What Karl had failed to anticipate was that the Deputy Director's threshold for 'incidents caused by the Section Chiefs' was remarkably lenient. The Deputy Director didn't care as long as the leaks stayed inside rather than spilling outside. He knew that forcibly suppressing internal leaks would only lead to chaos spilling outward.
Until now, this tendency of the Deputy Director's had remained hidden because the Section Chiefs had moderated their internal leaks while keeping an eye on Karl. Unfortunately for Karl, he wasn't here.
As the Deputy Director watched the First Section Chief giggling while pouring alcohol into his glass, his eyes met those of the Fifth Section Chief, who had been sitting quietly in the corner. The Deputy Director nodded. The Fifth Section Chief nodded back. Then both emptied their glasses as if nothing was amiss. It didn't matter—by the time afternoon came and they had to resume work, they'd sober up on their own.
And so the party for Karl, held in Karl's absence, continued merrily.