Chapter 2: I’m a Civil Servant (1)

It happened 5 years ago. “Who are you?” “KYAA! YOUNG MASTER!” “A doctor, call a doctor right now!” “Young Master, are you okay? Can you see how many fingers I’m holding out?” Within five minutes, I was shocked three times in total. The first was because I found myself in the center of an unfamiliar room. The second reason was that I found myself surrounded by people I didn’t know. And lastly, I was shocked because of the reaction of the person whom I asked. That was the first memory of my possession life. I could still feel my eardrums ringing whenever I remembered that tune. But thinking back, they had a reason to react in such a way, so I felt sorry. The eldest son of the family collapsed, and the first thing he said after waking up was something that made everyone think he might have amnesia. If I had maintained that attitude, a few servants would have been made responsible, and their necks would’ve been cut. “Are you okay…?” “Yes. I just felt dizzy for a moment, that’s all.” Thankfully, the memories of the original owner of the body came back to me, and that incident was considered solved. Thanks to that, I was able to kick everyone out of the room. I’m not sure if it was because of the desire of the original owner to protect the attendants that had served him, or because of the generosity of the one who’d put me here. The second one probably wasn’t the case. After all, that being wouldn’t have put me here if that were the case. “Why me…?” Regression, possession, reincarnation. All of these tropes used to be new and fresh, but they became so cliché as time passed that it became hard to find a novel without them. And among all of these, I became in charge of possession. Woah! How fun! The problem was that I didn’t know why I was chosen for this. I had never finished reading a novel, I hadn’t written a draft of 5,700 characters, the monitor didn’t suddenly shine, and I wasn’t hit by a truck. After I went to sleep, I suddenly woke up in this world. Let’s say that it was understandable up to this point. Possession was always something unreasonable and sudden, so trying to guess a reason made no sense. It wasn’t that other possession protagonists possessed bodies in other worlds because they wanted to. ‘You should have picked up an avid reader, at least.’ The biggest problem was that I had reincarnated in a novel I knew nothing about. No, to be more precise, I knew it, but I hadn’t taken my time to go through it properly. The title was ‘The Esteemed Daughter is in Love’… or something like that. After reading the news that a popular novel had been made into a webtoon, I read the free chapters. However, that was it. It didn’t suit my tastes, so I quickly forgot about it since I found other, more interesting novels. Although I felt bothered by the fact that I had woken up in a novel I knew nothing about, I realized that it wasn’t that bad once I thought about it. It wasn’t like there was a Demon King who was trying to destroy the world here. There was also no risk of a plague appearing because the characters of a romance fantasy novel would probably be too busy showing a sweet romance. Huh? Didn’t I wake up in a world where the author made sure it was easy to profit from? Not only that, but the body I possessed belonged to the eldest son of the Empire’s Count. He was a noble with blue blood. I’m not sure who you are, but thank you for waking me up in such a body…! “I unlocked an easy-mode life.” As I organized the memories that came back to me, I couldn’t help but laugh. The original owner of the body, Carl Krasius, was a 16-year-old boy. He was the eldest son of the Krasius family. He wasn’t a genius or someone crazy out of control. He was just a normal noble boy. This meant that I didn’t need to act in a certain way or show how I changed positively. I could just live a happy life as a noble. The only thing that bothered me was what had happened to the body’s original owner, but I decided to think that he had died. Because, after all, I had no way to return it to him. So from now on, I was Carl. That was how I began enjoying my life in another world. “Our family’s riches came from the grace received from the Imperial Family.” However, that lasted for just a year. On the second day of the year, I would become 17 years old. The Patriarch summoned me, and I subconsciously nodded to everything he said. “In reality, our family’s blood used to be red instead of blue.1 But 300 years ago, our ancestors made a huge contribution to the Apple's Invasion.” “That’s why Emperor Amanca offered our family a territory and a title. That’s how we were able to become nobles. The one who followed him, Amnaca the 2nd, made the Krasius family Counts of the Empire. The Krasius family’s descendants have never forgotten that.” “Yes, so you remember it well.” ‘Someone who can’t remember something he hears every week isn’t worthy of being called a person.’ I brushed past it while looking at the Patriarch’s satisfied expression. He was probably going to say something like, ‘work hard for the Imperial Family from now on,’ and then he’d probably send me back. It was obvious. “An opportunity to answer to that grace has come.” “Yes?” This was an unexpected development. Regardless of my inquiry or surprise, the Patriarch took out a document. “An incident has happened in the North. Naive people who don’t know how scary the Empire can be have been causing a stir, and the size of it cannot be ignored. So, the Emperor has called us.” “That’s too bad.” “Yes. That’s why the Krasius family, as vassals of the Emperor, have decided to contribute to rooting out the troublemakers that have been bothering him.” “Are you moving?” The Patriarch nodded. The Krasius family members were direct vassals of the Emperor. They had the title of Count of Taileglehen. If the Patriarch took the soldiers of Taileglehen and decided to contribute to calming down the situation in the North, the Emperor would accept. He was probably going to ask him to administer the Count’s territory while he was away. ‘Well, it’s nothing important. The butler is going to do most of the work, after all.’ The body I possessed was the successor of this family, the Count’s representative. The only thing I had to do was to stamp documents. Even the Count left most of the work to the butler. I became worried because the topic of the conversation changed suddenly, but it seemed unnecessary in the end. As if the patriarch had read such thoughts, he changed the topic once again. “It’s about time you became a civil servant.” “Huh? Me?” “Yes. You know that at 17 years old, one can choose to attend the Academy or become a civil servant, right?” “Who’s going to deal with the Count’s work if I’m not here?” “Most of the work is done by the butler, so it doesn’t matter.” You, low-ranking lord, how can you say something like that with your mouth? “I already found a position. You just have to go there, and they’ll teach you.” ‘Yo,u overly loyal vassal of the Emperor…’ It was possible to become a civil servant at 17 years old. However, it was preferred for people to go to the Academy. What would a 17-year-old who’d just become an adult do even after becoming a civil servant? It would be better for me to go to the Academy to learn about numerous things, become friends with other noble families’ sons and daughters, and build relations with capable normal people. However, the Patriarch was trying to ignore that and send me to the government. Why? Because the Emperor had a headache. So, he had to use the family’s workforce to help him. And then he would confidently say, ‘Our family’s heir, who just became an adult, has already become a civil servant to serve the Imperial Family and the Empire!’ It was obvious how the Emperor would receive that news. ‘I guess it might not be that bad…?’ Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The academy? In my previous life, I’d gone through primary school to the university without taking a break. Thinking about how I lived before being taken by the postgraduate school made me not want to go there. Even without going to the Academy, the most important nobles received private tutoring. Not only that, but they also had the opportunity to build connections before and after the 3 years that the Academy lasted. On the other hand, this was a job given to me by the patriarch of the Krasius family. There was no way the Patriarch of Count’s family, who served the Emperor of the Kefellofen Empire directly, was waiting for a 17-year-old to achieve many things. Because of my background, I’m probably going to be able to work comfortably… It sounds good. “I’m going to work with everything I have for the Emperor.” The Patriarch smiled upon hearing my words, and I too smiled in response. However, the reason each had was very different. The Patriarch joined the forces that were in the North, and I went to warm up the comfortable place the Patriarch had found for me. 4 years had passed since then. ‘Fuck, I should have gone to the Academy.’ The job the patriarch had found for me wasn’t a comfortable one at all. It was a position where shedding tears and blood were inevitable, a place where you could hear people agonizing. These past 4 years have been enough to turn a naive and innocent 17-year-old into a 21-year-old adult who was already dreaming of retiring. For example, I had just spent two hours listening to the Minister scream at me for two hours. ‘This damned civil servant life.’ Will the Academy… Accept someone who’s 21 years old…?