A vast, blood-reeking storm swept through the imperial palace.
But it vanished before even a few days had passed.
A power struggle was a power struggle, and affairs of state were affairs of state.
Everyone had to return to their posts as quickly as possible and get back to work.
Empty seats could be filled, and people could simply be replenished.
The vacant post of Chancellor was taken by the Minister of Internal Affairs.
The newly vacant seat of Minister of Internal Affairs went to someone from the Fifth Prince’s faction.
My godfather had now formally become Minister of Finance, rising from vice minister.
The commissioner from House Lezestis disappeared after “that incident.”
That position, too, was filled by another person from the Fifth Prince’s faction.
And I, just as promised, would be taking charge of the Enforcement Department.
“Whew.”
Catching my breath, I looked up at the newly built National Tax Service headquarters.
It was an extremely important place that would become my new base from now on.
My official appointment letter was scheduled to be issued tomorrow, but I had come in advance.
There was nothing wrong with taking a look around beforehand.
From what I had heard, all the mid-level staff were already reporting to work.
Taxation was a grave matter that could not be neglected for even a single day.
I wanted to see for myself what kind of people I would be working with, and what kind of work we would be doing.
When I entered the first floor, the guards checked my identity.
Once they learned I was the Enforcement Director who would be assigned tomorrow, they quickly guided me in.
“The Enforcement Department is on the third floor, Lord Montebello.”
“You may call me Director.”
“Ah, yes. Director. In any case, um… if I may say one thing out of needless concern.”
The guard, gauging my reaction, sidled closer and continued quietly.
“The people in Enforcement are a bit… strange.”
“Strange?”
“How should I put it? I know it’s rude to say this, but… well. It’s like they’re not quite sane.”
I wondered what kind of absurd nonsense this was all of a sudden.
And exactly five minutes later, I came to understand the truth of it.
“Ah, I’m telling you! When those bastards who don’t pay up see us, they should be pissing themselves on the spot! How can you sit at a desk all day and not understand something this simple?!”
“As I said, the Enforcement Department already possesses more than enough force. Do you not realize that if we go any further, we may be branded a dangerous faction?”
Before me was the sight of an ordinary-built man and a muscular man arguing.
“You bastard! Fine! A duel! Let’s decide fair and square through a duel who’s right and who’s wrong!”
“I refuse. Why would I duel you like some lunatic?”
“You coward! You’re scared!”
“As an intellectual, I am merely avoiding barbaric behavior.”
For reference, the one talking about duels was the ordinary man. The one calling himself an intellectual was the muscular man.
‘What the hell is this?’
There is a saying that physiognomy is a science.
It means you can roughly tell what kind of person someone is just by looking at their face.
Of course, it isn’t one hundred percent correct. There are many cases where it’s wrong.
Skeptical people used to mock it as pseudoscience.
But. Even so. The reason I believed in physiognomy, both in my previous life and here.
More often than expected, what you saw matched reality quite accurately.
The Founding Emperor looked, to anyone’s eyes, like a martial man.
The Fifth Prince, by contrast, had the look of someone more suited to the civil arts.
My godfather was a charming man with a warm, good-natured impression.
Like that, physiognomy proved surprisingly accurate on many occasions.
‘Though not at all right now.’
By all appearances, it should have been the muscular man losing his temper and demanding a duel.
Conversely, the ordinary man should have been the one stepping back, asking why he had to do such a thing.
And yet the scene before me was the exact opposite. It was as though something had been switched between them.
The ordinary man was even speaking casually to the muscular man.
I was worried he might end up being folded in half by the muscular man.
If one of my subordinates died before work even began, that would be a major incident indeed.
“Ahem!”
I deliberately cleared my throat, intending for them to hear, and waited for a reaction.
Even then, the ordinary man was too busy shouting that they should duel.
Instead, perhaps having heard the sound, the muscular man turned his head toward me.
“And who might you be? This is not a place outsiders may enter as they please.”
“Ah, I am…”
“You stupid bastard. You really have no sense at all.”
The ordinary man kicked the muscular man in the thigh and came over to stand before me.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, he bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle.
“Welcome, sir! Director! Welcome to the Enforcement Department! I am Wesley, in charge of Team One under the Enforcement Department! It is an honor to meet you!”
“…Huh?”
At the ordinary man—Wesley’s—reaction, the muscular man blinked a few times.
When he looked at me as if asking whether this was true, I nodded.
“Could you perhaps be Lord Ethan of House Montebello…”
“Yes. That’s me.”
“Aaaah. My apologies. I am Sinclair Lezestis, in charge of Team Two under the Enforcement Department. I look forward to working with you.”
The moment I heard Team Two Leader Sinclair’s family name, my eyes snapped toward him.
Lezestis. If I hadn’t misheard, that was the Empress’s family.
As far as I knew, after that incident, House Lezestis had been utterly destroyed.
How could someone bearing that name be standing openly in an administrative office?
I would have to ask my godfather about this separately later.
“Ahem. Team One Leader. And Team Two Leader. It is a pleasure to meet you. I suppose it is only proper that I introduce myself again. I am Ethan Montebello, newly appointed to serve as Enforcement Director. I will be needing a great deal of help from both of you going forward. I hope you will do your utmost to assist me.”
“Of course, sir. And Director. We are truly grateful that you show such respect to your subordinates, but I believe you may speak more comfortably with us.”
“Ah. Is that so? But while Team Two Leader may be one thing, Team One Leader seems to have quite a large age gap with me. Would that truly be all right?”
In Sinclair’s case, though his muscles were tremendous, his face was clearly that of a man in his twenties.
By contrast, Wesley had darkly tanned skin, scars, and even wrinkles.
Anyone could see he looked to be in his late thirties, so for someone in my twenties to treat him too casually was a bit…
“Um, Director. Pardon me, but I am only twenty-eight.”
“…Pardon?”
“I really am twenty-eight.”
“…”
“It’s true.”
I quietly examined Wesley’s face again.
No matter how I looked at him, that was not the face of someone in his twenties. He had aged far too roughly.
That was the face of a twenty-something? What kind of life had he lived?
“Well, for now. Age is not the important issue, so let us move on.”
“Director? I really am in my twenties! Please stop looking at me as if you think I’m lying!”
I’d rather you say it was a lie. If it was true, that was just too sorrowful.
To look like that and be in his twenties. Then what would happen when he got older?
Without exaggerating in the slightest, he was at the point where people would be calling him grandfather in his thirties.
Had he guessed my inner thoughts? No, had he become certain of them?
“It’s only because I’ve suffered a lot since I was young! And as soon as I became old enough to know better, I fought on the battlefield as one of His Majesty the Emperor’s private soldiers! That’s why my face is a bit worn, but I’m still a vigorous youth in my twenties! Director!”
“Yes. Yes. I understand, Brother Wesley.”
“Director!!”
“I’m joking, Team One Leader. I get it, so stop making that face like you’re about to cry.”
When you make a tearful expression with that face, it makes me want to throw a punch.
I had heard before that the Founding Emperor’s private soldiers had been placed among the Enforcement Department personnel.
It seemed Wesley, who had become Team One Leader, was the head of those private soldiers.
After hearing more, I learned that he had even risen to become a centurion.
A centurion under the Founding Emperor meant he was an outright monster when it came to combat.
I could sense a strong intention here: drag in and beat down anyone who refused to pay their taxes.
“Then, Team Two Leader. How did you come to join the Enforcement Department?”
“I was originally working at the Ministry of Finance. Then, when I heard the National Tax Service was being newly established and became interested, I learned that the head of House Montebello would be taking the director’s post, so I volunteered.”
I see. More importantly, I really was curious.
How a member of House Lezestis had survived.
How he had managed to rise to an important post.
“Um, but. Director. As far as I know, you have not yet received your official appointment.”
“Ah, this bastard, seriously. Director. You don’t have to pay any attention to what he says. He’s so rigid that there’s no talking to him. You’re practically already Enforcement Director, so of course you can come in advance and look around. I don’t know why he has to interrogate everything so persistently.”
Perhaps because he had survived by wandering battlefields since childhood.
Contrary to his appearance, Wesley showed a fairly flexible side.
“I am only concerned that coming here before your official appointment might give others cause to speak ill of you, Team One Leader.”
“If you’ve got a problem, duel me.”
“I refuse. How many times must I say that duels are prohibited under imperial law?”
“We still do them sometimes!”
“If you do so despite it being prohibited by law, you will be punished. I could report you myself.”
By contrast, Sinclair had a rigid side befitting someone from an aristocratic family.
“Team Two Leader is right. Since my appointment is not official yet, I cannot issue work orders or do anything of the sort. I only came by briefly because I heard the organization of each department had been completed while I was away.”
“There is no need to worry, Director. We are doing our utmost to—”
“At present, the Enforcement Department is divided into Team One and Team Two. Team One will primarily handle dispatch and direct collection. Team Two is more of a reserve team and will also conduct fieldwork, but I expect it to focus more on the necessary paperwork.”
After that, Sinclair proceeded to inform me of the Enforcement Department’s situation in an orderly and precise manner.
What the personnel and armament status of Team One, which would be moving directly, looked like.
How they would respond in the event of armed conflict.
Considering it carefully, Sinclair, too, had only come here a little less than a month ago.
Yet in that month, it strongly felt as though he had prepared and studied quite a great deal.
*
The next day. I received my official appointment before the Second Prince, who had become Crown Prince.
“Ethan Montebello. I trust that, as you did in the east, you will do your utmost in this duty as well.”
“Your Highness the Crown Prince. I will devote myself body and soul to meeting the expectations of Your Highness and His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Go. Go and teach those who forsake the sacred duty of taxation that they ought to bear as people of the Empire just how noble and important that duty is.”
“Long live His Majesty the Emperor! Long live the Empire!”
From now on, I would likely be called Enforcement Director more often than head of House Montebello.
When I quickly went to the Enforcement Department, Wesley and Sinclair greeted me.
“You have arrived, Director!!”
Wesley, who had been active in the military since childhood, leaned in a cheerful direction.
“Director. The heads of the Investigation Department and Review Department are waiting for you. It seems they wish to discuss those who have shown suspicious movements related to taxes.”
Sinclair delivered the news that the department heads were waiting.
Every time I saw them like this, I felt as though their outward impressions had been switched.
Shouldn’t Wesley be the muscular one, and Sinclair the ordinary-looking one?
What was even more surprising was that Wesley and Sinclair were the same age!
Judging by appearances alone, they looked more than ten years apart!
“My first mission, then. I’ll be back.”
Just what kind of bold person had been refusing to pay taxes?
I headed to the conference room where the two department heads were waiting and exchanged greetings.
After some light conversation, we discussed the petitions that had been submitted.
Who to investigate first, and who to touch first.
“In my view, it would be best to begin with this case.”
The two department heads checked the documents I had chosen and nodded.
There were suspicious circumstances, and a petition had even come in, so it made sense.
‘Good. Shall we begin?’
They did not know it yet, but at the end of this trail, the Fourth Prince had one foot in it.