Arik had selected three secretaries.
Technically, there was supposed to be one Imperial Secretary, supported by deputies and administrative assistants. Arik had decided that choosing the person who would control access to his schedule, correspondence, ministers, and half the administrative machinery surrounding the throne after several interviews was idiotic.
So the final three were all working in his office for a week.
At the end of it, one would become Imperial Secretary.
The others would either remain as senior deputies or be reassigned somewhere important enough that rejecting them would not waste competent people.
Liam approved of the arrangement mostly because watching three experienced administrators attempt to organize Arik was entertaining.
Corvin Mareth was a beta in his forties who had spent almost two decades in provincial government and possessed the unnerving ability to make an entire department more efficient without visibly raising his voice.
