(An additional detailed explanation has been added in the author’s note.)
The social gathering that had set the imperial palace abuzz for a week finally came to an end.
From the very first day, I’d been dragged into one thing after another with all sorts of people, making it an extremely stressful week.
I’d ended up having a drinking showdown with the head of the imperial stables, two noble young ladies had fought over me, one of them had suddenly tried and failed to get into my head before whispering that we should plot treason together, and then some traitorous bastard had shown up to blackmail me over my identity…
Every single day had been one minefield after another.
The one fortunate thing was that, once the first four days passed without incident, the remaining three days were truly nothing but peaceful.
Contrary to my worries, nothing happened. I simply wore the most harmless smile in the world, mingled with the nobles, freely sampled and enjoyed the empire’s finest cuisine, and spent three happy days falling asleep drunk.
But, as holidays always do, it had to end eventually.
Now it was time to return to everyday life.
‘And the internship… is that what it is? Anyway, I have to work too.’
The Crown Prince’s face as he practically drooled over me was still vivid in my mind.
#
Wednesday morning, nine o’clock.
I gathered myself and opened the heavy door to the Crown Prince’s office.
Inside the Crown Prince’s office, which could be called the heart of the empire’s administration, several officials had already gathered, ceaselessly flipping through documents and scratching away with quills.
‘…Wasn’t work supposed to start by nine?’
“Ah, Ian! You’re right on time. Now, attention!”
The moment it turned nine in the morning, Maximilien opened the door to his private office and stepped out, gathering the officials in one place.
“He did come by once last week, but some of you were not present then, so I will formally introduce him again. This is Prince Ian Sterling from the Kingdom of Sterling. Despite being only twenty years old, he is remarkably brilliant, and in particular, he possesses extensive knowledge of administrative systems. For that reason, I have decided to receive his assistance personally. From now on, he will report here twice a week and carry out core duties, so everyone, welcome him.”
“I look forward to working with you. I am Ian Sterling.”
When I bowed politely, the officials also inclined their heads lightly in greeting.
I had no idea what they were thinking on the inside, but since it was the Crown Prince’s order, they seemed to be receiving me respectfully on the surface, at least.
“Now then, Ian. You will be carrying out work related to the report you submitted to me last time.”
“You mean creating a policy evaluation and feedback procedure, correct?”
“Yes. You seem to know more than I do in that field, so I will leave it entirely to you. There is no need to set a particular deadline, so create it properly and submit it to me.”
After giving his instructions, the Crown Prince slipped right back into his private office.
Once the Crown Prince disappeared, a young official nearby approached and kindly informed me.
“Your Highness, if you look at the left corner of the desk in your office, you will find a small silver bell. If you need anything while working, you need only ring that bell. The attendants on standby in the next room will come immediately and handle any miscellaneous tasks for you.”
“Ah, thank you for telling me.”
“If there is anything problematic or anything you do not understand, please feel free to ask me at any time.”
“Thank you. May I call you senior?”
“You are a prince, Your Highness. There is no need to speak so formally to me. In any case, I look forward to working with you.”
I nodded and returned to my office.
‘All right, then. Shall I properly earn my keep?’
I gripped my quill, glared at the blank paper, and began madly dragging up memories from my past life.
I had no practical work experience like office life at all—though I wasn’t sure if the military counted as administrative experience. I’d been an interpreter-administrative soldier at headquarters, so I had done most things in my own way—but I was a legitimate graduate with a bachelor’s degree in public administration.
And from the university most famous for public administration in South Korea, no less.
I’d also ranked first in my department and been favored enough by my professors that I had even prepared to go to graduate school, so at the undergraduate level, I might well have been the student who knew the most about administration in all of South Korea.
‘I passed the Grade 7 civil service exam but didn’t go because it felt like a waste… and I was debating between the Grade 5 exam, grad school, and law school.’
Well, then I got flattened under a truck.
It had been a while since I’d stopped studying, but even so, most of that knowledge still remained intact in my head.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Input, output, feedback, all the way to performance management.
As I wove the completed administrative systems of modern society to fit the empire’s circumstances, I filled pages densely throughout the entire morning.
Once I got into the flow, the papers began piling up like mad.
Enjoying that particular sensation of time flying by when one was in a state of intense concentration, I frantically poured my knowledge onto the page.
Grrrgle—
“……Ah.”
How much time had passed? When I lifted my head at the alarm ringing from my stomach, it was already lunchtime.
(At least this body in this life signaled mealtime with a rumbling stomach instead of the pain of stomach acid reflux. That was truly fortunate.)
When I opened the door slightly and looked out, the officials were putting down their quills one by one and preparing to head to the dining hall.
‘Should I go eat for a bit… No, I can’t.’
I didn’t want to break the incredible logical flow currently running through my head.
If I went out to eat now, it was obvious it would take ages to concentrate again.
‘Still, I need to eat for my brain to work. I should ask them to make me a sandwich or something.’
As the official had told me earlier, I pressed the small bell at the corner of the desk with a click.
Exactly thirty seconds later, the door opened, and a young male attendant in neat attire approached and bowed politely.
“Did you call, Your Highness? Is there anything I may assist you with?”
“Ah, I’m concentrating really well right now, so I’m just going to eat lunch here. Could you bring me something simple, like a ham sandwich?”
At my order, the attendant’s face filled with deep bewilderment.
“Pardon? A sand… what did you say, Your Highness?”
“……? Ah.”
In that instant, I realized that the word sandwich didn’t exist in this world.
Well, in cultures that ate bread, it was only natural that people would have eaten meat between pieces of bread, but it probably wasn’t the same kind of thing I had in mind.
I kindly explained it to the attendant.
“It’s food made by layering thinly sliced meat, ham, vegetables, tomatoes, and the like between two slices of thin bread. You can make it like that and bring it to me.”
“Th-that… Forgive me, Your Highness, but His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince does not much like meals being eaten inside the office. He says they smell…”
“Sandwiches don’t smell. They’re simple enough that you can hold them in your hand and eat them conveniently.”
“You mean you intend to place meat and vegetables… between bread and eat it while holding it in your hand?”
The attendant seemed terribly flustered by the thought of a noble prince chomping on bread with his hands, without even a fork and knife, but he soon bowed respectfully.
“……Understood. I shall prepare it at once as you have commanded.”
After the attendant withdrew, I suddenly recalled the origins of the sandwich.
‘The Earl of Sandwich really got unfairly slandered as a gambler.’
Most people know the modern sandwich as a food invented by the British Earl of Sandwich because he found even the time it took to eat while gambling too precious, but in truth, that was an unfair accusation.
The prevailing theory was that it was a rumor created by his political opponents, who hated him fiercely, in order to damage his reputation.
The real Earl of Sandwich, a man named John Montagu, had held a high-ranking position in the British Navy and was an extreme workaholic, so busy he barely had time to go to the bathroom.
According to his descendants, he was not even wealthy enough to have gambling as a hobby in the first place.
Ultimately, the sandwich was not a gambler’s trick, but the tearful invention of an administrator suffering from excessive work.
It fit my current situation perfectly.
‘Of course, he was also notorious for being incompetent, had an affair with a female singer and destroyed his family, and in the end, every policy he proposed failed and he fell from power… so it was his own fault.’
A short while later, the attendant brought out a sandwich on a silver tray.
Unlike the ramen incident, this time, not only its appearance but even its taste was exactly the sandwich I remembered.
“Mmm, it’s good.”
Holding the sandwich in my left hand and chewing away, I gripped the quill with my right hand and immersed myself in the paperwork again.
I was right in the middle of burying my nose in the documents.
Bang—
“Ian. It is lunchtime, so let’s go have a simple meal…”
The Crown Prince, Maximilien, who had come out of his private office, approached me and then stopped dead in his tracks.
His gaze fixed on the sandwich in my left hand.
“Ah, you were eating something. What is that in your hand?”
“Ah, it’s a food called a sandwich.”
I swallowed what I’d been chewing and answered.
“I really didn’t want to break the flow of my work, so I asked an attendant to make it for me. If I hold it in one hand like this, I can conveniently take care of my meal while looking over documents even during lunchtime.”
At that moment, Maximilien’s eyes gleamed with frightening intensity.
“…Ooh!”
After work was over, he did have the rather unsavory habit of fooling around promiscuously among naked women, but during working hours, at least, he was a perfect and extreme workaholic.
To him, who worked during the day while begrudging even the time it took to eat, this sandwich must have seemed like a miraculous food that could turn even lunchtime into work time.
“A splendid and efficient food that can be eaten while working even during lunchtime!”
Maximilien let out an exclamation of admiration, then pressed the bell on my desk.
A short while later, he commanded the attendant who arrived.
“Bring me one exactly like what Ian is eating at once… What did you say this was called?”
“It is a sandwich, Your Highness.”
“Yes, make me another sandwich! I shall make do with this for lunch today as well!”
With a face as excited as if he had discovered treasure, the Crown Prince turned around and slipped right back into his private office.
As I stared blankly at the scene, I belatedly sensed that I had caused a major disaster.
For the poor officials here, that was.
“……Huh?”
And, roughly from the next day onward, the peaceful lunchtime scenery of the Crown Prince’s office was completely smashed to pieces.
With their superior, the Crown Prince, shutting himself in his office every lunch and making do with sandwiches while working, there was no way the officials beneath him could dare leisurely go to the dining hall and eat with knives and forks.
In the end, the other officials, conscious of the atmosphere, also began calling attendants and ordering sandwiches every lunchtime, and throughout lunch, the Crown Prince’s office came to be filled only with the sound of papers turning and bread being chewed.
‘……What on earth have I done?’
Looking at the elite officials who held sandwiches in both hands and reviewed documents with hollow eyes, I quietly squeezed my eyes shut under a deep sense of guilt.
Whatever else might be true, this really was my fault…