The Tyrant Empress is Obsessed with Me

22 – Going undercover

Rustle, rustle.

Swish, swish.

The office was quiet. The only sounds were the occasional movement of a pen on a document and the sipping of tea. He thought if he recorded it and sold it as a white noise collection, he could get a pretty decent number of purchases.

“This won’t do.”

Ascal stood up with a power akin to the CEO of a corporation unsheathing a sword. Lia glanced at Ascal and soon turned away.

It was one of her frequent outbursts.

“I need to find my original intentions.”

He had been living too diligently until now – going to work, doing his tasks, eating, and then going home, feeding Felt, and sleeping. When he woke up, he would go to work, work, eat…

This won’t do.

It’s as if I’m an ordinary administrator.

I need to actively struggle.

To get out of the unstoppable flow of time that slowly leads us to an inevitable promotion.

“Leah, bring that over.”

“The documentation on the Cathedral construction?”

There were several aspects of being a great assistant, but to Ascal, the most important one was being able to understand even when spoken to cryptically.

In that sense, Leah was competent. She understood what he meant immediately when he said “that.”

When Ascal nodded, Leah brought the documents related to the Cathedral construction.

＜Competition for Cathedral Construction＞

There had been many different tasks lately, but the most significant one was this ‘Cathedral construction.’

It had actually been around for a while, but he had been putting it off because of the pressure.

It was because, even in this nearly modern fantasy-medieval period, the church wielded immense power. In some ways, it was even more frightening than the original medieval period.

With just one prayer, the lame could suddenly walk.

Once one witnessed that, they would immediately donate their entire fortune to the church. Abandoning this life completely, they would focus everything on the afterlife.

Moreover, the doctrine of the empire’s official religion, the ‘Church of Stars,’ actually stated that a better place in the afterlife would be granted based on one’s tithes given in their lifetime.

Adding to that, bringing acquaintances into the church would result in an increased rank among believers. And if that acquaintance introduced another, the rank would rise yet again…

‘What kind of multi-level marketing is this?’

Anyway, this Church of Stars wanted a new cathedral. And they requested the empire to handle the construction.

The church had a lot of money.

As one would expect, numerous construction guilds were clamoring to get their hands on this lucrative opportunity.

And now, it was Ascal’s job, as the head of evaluation, to choose which of these guilds would be given the contract.

“Leah, weren’t there originally about ten guilds? Why are there only two?”

“I’ve excluded ghost guilds, those with poor performance or involved in corruption after researching.”

This meant Leah had already conducted a preliminary screening.

‘Darn.’

He had intended to choose the most old-fashioned guild, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

So only two guilds were left.

‘Golden Hammer’ and ‘Blue Flame.’

Ascal read the report Leah had organized.

The Golden Hammer was a guild with numerous proven achievements, and it had strong capital and manpower. Normally, a sane person would choose this guild.

Blue Flame, on the other hand, was a rising guild that recently showed impressive results. While it was smaller in scale compared to the Golden Hammer, it had a solid portfolio.

No matter how one looked at it, either choice seemed like the correct answer.

Ascal swallowed.

But.

What would happen if he abused his power here?

Currently, he was the director of the empire’s evaluation department and a successful fifth-grade official.

In other words, he was in a position to legally abuse his power.

“Ria. Tell both guilds this: Each of them should create a single building, and I’ll commission the construction of the cathedral to the guild that builds the better of the two.”

“Understood.”

Of course, he would not provide manpower or funds.

He would not specify any details about the buildings.

They had to figure everything out on their own, under the most unreasonable conditions.

With this, the situation would revert to a blank slate, and he would become infamous as an incompetent and greedy official.

It was a perfect plan.

“Both guilds have agreed.”

“?”

Why would they agree to that?

A few days later, after listening to Ria’s report, Ascal’s eyes widened.

“Did you tell them that there would be no support until completion?”

“Yes. It even seemed like the competition ignited a fire in them.”

That couldn’t be.

There must have been a mistake in the relayed information.

Ascal finished preparing to go out, wearing his coat.

“I think I need to go on a business trip.”

“Please wait a moment. I’ll prepare for the outing.”

“No. I’ll go on this trip alone.”

Who knows what kind of trouble you’ll cause if you follow me.

Ascal shut Ria out.

“……Understood.”

For some reason, Lia looked sullen.

This business trip was undercover.

Concealing their identity as imperial officials, they had to find out what schemes the guilds were up to.

First of all, they had to secure a carriage to take them there.

“Where are you headed?”

“We’re going to Sevren.”

“I’ll take you there quickly and safely.”

Assured by the trustworthy old coachman, Ascal climbed into the carriage.

The seat, seemingly covered with expensive leather, felt comfortable against his buttocks.

“What’s your business in Sevren?”

There was a problem, however.

Regardless of the era, coachmen tended to be chatty. If caught up in conversation, one could suffer through a full course of their own personal life story until the destination was reached.

Ascal, if he had to be specific, preferred to close his eyes and sleep until they arrived.

However, he couldn’t ignore the elder.

“We’re going to help with construction work.”

“Ah, I hear the Star Sect has been building a large cathedral lately. Is that what you’re helping with?”

“Yes.”

The coachman seemed pleased to talk.

“My son is actually a former guild leader. That’s how I know a bit about it.”

“Oh, is that so?”

My son graduated from a prestigious university, is a high-ranking executive at a famous company, or is a senior official. These were also standard parts of coachmen’s repertoire.

Just by listening to their stories, one might think that the sons of these coachmen could build a whole country together.

Ascal decided to use his skill of listening with one ear and letting it pass through the other.

“What do you think about the current political situation?”

“Sigh.”

Suddenly, they were talking about politics.

This one was a bit of a big catch.

Ascal almost met his match.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but you know, His Majesty the Emperor’s health hasn’t been good lately. It’s about time he starts thinking about succession.”

“Well… that’s true, isn’t it?”

“Who do you support?”

This was serious.

Ascal began to sweat coldly.

This was, in a way, a deadly multiple-choice question.

If he chose the wrong answer…

From No ble mt L dot c om

‘Get off.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Get off. Who do you think you are, a lousy loafer, trying to get on my carriage? I think I need to sprinkle salt on it.’

It could have escalated into a terrible situation.

After a short moment of contemplation, Ascal spoke.

“Who do you support, sir? I would like to hear your opinion.”

In this situation, it was best to listen to the other party’s opinion first.

“It’s obviously the Crown Prince, isn’t it? He has a solid position as a successor, and he is the eldest. Of course, the Crown Prince should succeed.”

Why did you even ask if you were going to choose the Crown Prince?

Ascal looked at the coachman as if confused.

“However, the princesses are all talented too. It wouldn’t be strange if any of them succeed. Personally, I wish I could see an empress before I die…”

“Yes, I see. I think so too.”

He was a hard-to-follow old man.

As they talked, they soon arrived in Sevrin.

Ascal took off his coat first and changed into the shabby clothes he had prepared. From here on, he had to conceal his identity, like an undercover agent.

Fortunately, he didn’t need to look for where the guild competition was taking place.

As soon as they entered Sevrin, they found workers shouting.

“Gold Hammer workers, come this way!”

“Blue Flame, over here!”

They seemed quite busy preparing for the construction.

Ascal went closer and observed the scene. As expected from the report, the Gold Hammer had relatively high-quality equipment, and their work clothes looked stylish.

The Blue Flame, on the other hand, appeared ragged, but there was a hint of something fierce.

“You there. Why aren’t you coming quickly? We are in a hurry.”

“Who? Me?”

“No, who else is here besides you? You’re so frustrating. If you came here to work, hurry up and put on your work clothes. What are you doing?”

He was mistaken for a laborer.

The recruiter of the Blue Flame distributed the work clothes in an instant without giving Ascal a chance to speak and sent him off to the construction site.

In no time, Ascal was mixed in among the laborers.

‘No, rather, this side might be better for surveillance.’

However, even after a day or two passed, there was no sign of Ascal coming out of the construction site.

“Hey! Mr. Kal! Come over here and carry the pickaxe from the beginning!”

“Yes~ Yes! I’m coming now!”

After a few days, Ascal, who had perfectly adapted to the laborer’s life, wiped the sweat from his forehead and received a bowl full of stew.

The stew, with sizeable chunks of meat, looked quite filling at a glance. Ascal gulped down the stew from the bowl.

“Kyaah! This is the taste!”

It was a natural vibe that came out.

‘It’s quite doable?’

Maybe this was his true calling.