A few days later, the page returned carefully holding the repaired items. His eyes subtly glimred with anticipation—perhaps hoping for a tip—and he clearly reported the cost of repairing the dagger, as well as the price for the necklace chain and chain weapon. Bloom praised the boy and gave him the leftover magic stones as a reward.
But soti later, as Bloom was reading the supply reports, sothing struck him as odd. The prices listed in the report were higher than the amounts the page had told him for the sa dagger repair and chain weapon. The forge that supplied the castle had always worked at below-market rates in exchange for being exempt from taxes, so these prices were absurd.
Finding it suspicious, Bloom imdiately launched an investigation. The result was shocking.
"After reviewing the past reports, I found that over the past few years, all armor, weapons, and other equipnt had been recorded at prices higher than the actual rates from the forge. And every report bore Lord Graffni's seal."
Not just military funds—Bloom listed several other areas where discrepancies had occurred. Ayra rubbed her temples as her head throbbed from the mounting headache. Once Bloom finished speaking, she released the seal on Graffni’s mouth.
"That’s Sir Bloom’s account. Do you have anything to say?"
"M-My Lord! I swear I’m innocent... I didn’t do any of that..."
It had been a long ti since her reincarnation, but watching a middle-aged man with pink hair crying and snotting all over her feet made Ayra feel downright miserable. She began grilling him over each of Bloom’s accusations.
"What about when the landscaping trees were embezzled during planting?"
"N-No, that was... we just had so saplings left over... and the other administrators asked if it was okay to plant one in their own yards, just small ones..."
"And the monthly pantry raids? Throwing parties with the food?"
"We—well—we only took what was about to go bad anyway. Okay, maybe so extra wine, and a bit of cheese and jerky, but it wasn’t that much, My Lord..."
"And the deer hides?"
"There were scraps that couldn’t be used! I-I just wanted to make gloves or shoes for the children... they were barely palm-sized pieces!"
Ayra’s eyes narrowed. So he’s innocent, huh? Didn’t do anything, huh? She felt like rolling him up in a straw mat and beating so sense into him until he snapped out of it. Apparently, hanging him out the window last ti hadn’t been enough. Her thoughts must’ve shown on her face, because the carpet beneath Graffni began to ripple ominously—and his pudgy face turned completely pale.
"M-My Lord! Please! I admit I was wrong! But I really didn’t touch the military funds—I swear it! I have no idea what happened with those!"
"Lord Graffni!"
This ti, the outburst didn’t co from Bloom, but from Jinas, who had been silently listening until now. For once, his usually composed, pale face flushed red as he raised his voice.
"The reports carry your seal, so you’re responsible! To stamp sothing and then claim you didn’t read it—are you a child, throwing tantrums in front of our Lord?! Did you even read the reports? Do you think you can just cry your way out of this?"
Even the chief administrator had lost his temper. Graffni stared helplessly at the young lord, the knight commander, and the administrator, then collapsed flat on the ground, sobbing.
Ayra let out a deep sigh from the pit of her stomach and tapped the back of her hand. Poof—a pebble popped out.
The pebble floated up and gently landed on top of Graffni’s head. Normally, the administrator would have panicked at the touch, but he was too busy wailing to notice. Then, the pebble slowly floated over to land on Bloom’s head as well.
Its black bean-like eyes narrowed to slits, and a tiny triangle-shaped mouth ford beneath its face as it rested its chin on a minuscule hand.
Monts later, a system notification appeared.
[Lie Detector Result: Both parties are telling the truth. What’s going on here? :0]
Ayra groaned inwardly. Small infractions—taking saplings, food scraps, or leather trimmings—weren’t really a big deal. She’d already noticed it happening and turned a blind eye, treating it like a kind of informal civil servant bonus.
But military fund embezzlent? That was different. At this scale, the punishnt could be exile at best—or execution.
"My Lord, the knights and soldiers put their lives on the line every day. They fight ma-beasts to protect the city, and so even die. If Lord Graffni really embezzled funds, those resources could’ve been used to feed and arm them better. This can’t be taken lightly."
Bloom spoke gravely. Ayra understood the seriousness of the matter well. The problem was, she was the only one who knew Graffni might actually be innocent.
‘But how am I supposed to defend him with his record? He’s practically the definition of negligence!’
Worse, soone had either forged his seal—or, more likely, he’d stamped those fraudulent reports without reading a single line. Ayra glared at him, and Bloom's eyes sparkled dangerously.
"Still, considering he’s a longti vassal... I believe we should at least preserve his body intact. Hanging would be appropriate."
At the word “hanging,” Graffni went deathly pale and flung himself at Ayra’s feet.
"M-My Lord! Please! I didn’t do it! I’m innocent!"
There was only one thing Ayra could say at this point. She kicked Graffni aside and snapped in exasperation.
"Throw him in the dungeon!"
❄
Ayra hadn’t thrown the not-quite-guilty-yet-not-quite-innocent Graffni into jail just out of frustration. It was also to stall for ti and prevent Bloom from pushing for imdiate execution while a deeper investigation was conducted. After Bloom subdued Graffni and dragged him to the dungeon, Ayra sipped a sweet drink that Botello had brought her, trying to soothe her irritation.
‘It’s one thing after another...’
Once the Graffni ss was sorted, what fresh hell would co next? Even after averting total collapse, would this territory ever know peace?
As she pondered, Jinas gulped down two cups of cold water, then stood before her.
"My Lord, please don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say. Lord Graffni may have caused a fair number of problems, but I don’t believe he’s the type to embezzle military funds. He’s timid and anxious—can’t even do basic addition or subtraction properly. He wouldn’t know how to rig supply costs. I hesitate to say this, but it’s possible he’s been frad."
"...That could be true."
Ayra put on the appearance of listening to Jinas’s opinion as the chief administrator, but she was genuinely surprised. Jinas was known for being strict and rarely personal. Sure, his words were borderline insulting to Graffni’s intelligence, but for him to defend soone at all ant Graffni must have earned so respect among the staff.
Which complicated things. If Graffni had allies, there might be pushback against any harsh punishnt. And then Jinas made an unexpected request.
"If you would permit it, I’d like to personally investigate this matter."
No, I absolutely do not permit it...
Workload was already piling up from Graffni’s absence and this latest incident. If Jinas bowed out too, Ayra would be stuck drowning in overti again. So much for the few spare monts she’d finally carved out. As if he understood perfectly well what kind of hell he was about to throw Ayra into, Jinas pleaded sincerely.
"I’ll cut down my sleep if I must, but I promise to investigate this fairly and thoroughly."
He was already barely sleeping three hours a night. If he cut that down further, wouldn’t he just end up in Morunka’s embrace sooner? Ayra let out a heavy sigh.
"No. Don’t cut your sleep. I was already planning to hire more administrators soon anyway."
"You’re finally hiring more staff?"
Jinas’s face lit up. The reason Ayra could consider hiring more so soon after expanding the military was because Hera had quietly sent a hefty sum of bribe money, disguised as taxes. Ayra swore silently to protect both Wolf and their unborn children with her life.
"Go ahead and investigate to your heart’s content."
"Thank you. I’ll ensure no innocent man is punished."
With determined eyes, Jinas left the drawing room. Alone again, Ayra opened the quest window with a long sigh—and sure enough, a new quest had appeared.
[Level Up the Strong Pebble!]
View 300 status windows with 2 filters applied (287/300)
Observe conversations between NPC groups of 2 or more people for 100 minutes (67/100 minutes)
Reach 30% Approval Rating (32/30)
Reward: Unlock 1 stat of your choice
[The Wronged Administrator]
A well-liked but incompetent administrator has been falsely accused :(
Your wise judgnt as Lord is needed!
If key figures are dissatisfied with the result, approval rating will drop.
Administrator’s Acceptance (Unfulfilled)
Knight Commander’s Acceptance (Unfulfilled)
Reward: Maintain current approval rating
"That’s it? The reward is just... not losing support?"
Which ant if she failed, the approval rating would drop like a rock. Ayra had only just barely raised it to 30%, so she couldn’t afford to botch this.
Since Jinas was already investigating, she decided to wait for his results.
She could’ve used the pebble to launch a private investigation herself—but its powers consud her own mana. It wasn’t a cure-all. And right now, she didn’t have enough mana to spare on side quests.
For now, Ayra set her work aside and stepped outside the castle for so good old-fashioned quest grinding. To complete the dialogue ti condition, she spent the whole day walking around the city, eavesdropping on NPC conversations. When she finally returned to the castle, Botello ca to her with a troubled expression.
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