Death's Daughter and the Ebony Blade: Volume 7 Exordium [Parts 1 to 10] by Maito Ayamine

Author:Maito Ayamine
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter Three: A Declaration of War

I

There was a civilian official in the intelligence division of a certain nation who was supremely confident in his abilities and always offered up his opinions to his superiors.

In that nation, however, ability was valued less than blood, and the man came from the lowest tier of the lower nobility. It would have been easier to find water in a vast expanse of desert than a superior willing to listen to him. Indeed, his superior was no exception—just another one of many.

“—so, Chief Secretary, if we put my proposal into action, it will dramatically improve our information processing. I hope you will give it serious consideration.”

Without so much as a glance at the stack of papers laid on his desk, the chief secretary fixed the man with a withering look.

“I told you,” he said, slowly and pointedly. “How many times do I have to repeat it before you give up on wasting your time?”

“Please, read over the papers.”

“I,” the chief secretary replied, “am an extremely busy man. Right now, I must go out to patrol the streets.”

“Chief Secretary! We beg leave to accompany you on your rounds. Through close observation of you in the course of your duties, we hope to apply ourselves to our work with still greater dedication!”

“What a bunch of good-for-nothings,” the secretary replied indulgently. “I suppose I can make an exception today.”

His smirk was met by smug grins from his other subordinates as they chorused their thanks.

“But Chief, my papers—”

Alas, the man had no way to make the leering crowd listen to him. They disappeared off into the town at dusk in fine spirits. As he clutched his stack of papers, someone called over to him. It was a colleague who hailed from the same low noble stock as himself.

“Stop beating your head against the wall already. That scum will never listen. Even if you did somehow get him to take up your idea, he’d just steal the credit without batting an eye. We’re never going to move up in the world, no matter how hard we try. We should just shut up and get on with the jobs we’re given.”

It was sound advice. If only the man had excelled in the arts of war, he might have found any number of opportunities available to him. But with a frame that even a charitable observer would have described as scrawny, he could never have endured such a life.

After this, the man’s colleague continued to take every opportunity to admonish him, but he closed his ears to all of it. Eventually, the colleague stopped trying to talk to him, and, helped by the fact that he had never been talkative to begin with, the man became more and more isolated. He would only mutter and smile to himself.

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