Chapter 150
It's me~.
"The Governor-General who visits without warning~."
What are the chances that a branch office located a whole continent away from headquarters wouldn't have suspicious double books?
Gasp.
Pastel is so innocent she doesn't really know.
Our employees are all good people, maybe around 50% are so!
Pastel walked along, singing La-la-la. Her party followed, and the employees who were also former knights trailed after them in a swarm.
The crowd filling the main street was pushed back haphazardly, parting to the left and right. As the space opening up outpaced their walking speed, a wide-open view unfolded. At the end of it, the Demon Realm Branch building of the Kraft Merchant Guild came into full view.
"Wow~!"
Such quick-witted people!
They say words without feet travel a thousand miles, so the rumors must be faster than my arrival!
"Hurry, hurry!"
Pastel went hopping forward.
Suddenly, a nearby laborer carrying a load looked this way, turned pale, and started running toward the branch office building. Thanks to the crowd parting to the left and right, the sight of him running alone was very clearly visible.
Gasp.
Someone whose behavior suddenly became suspicious...!
Pastel covered her mouth with both hands in surprise.
What do I do! What do I do!
"What do I do! What do I do!"
A former knight following behind shot forward like an arrow. The speed was so fast that the wind whipped around and smacked Pastel.
"Waaah!"
A Semi-knight level sprint!
The frail Pastel ended up stumbling!
Pastel did one turn around with the wind. Then she stopped in her tracks and placed the edge of her hand near her eyebrow as if peering into the distance. She saw the laborer being caught and subdued in an instant.
Her pink eyes grew round.
"Gasp, he got caught even though I didn't order anything."
So amazing.
The security here must be really good!
Pastel went hopping toward the Branch Office building again.
As she got closer, the confused guild members came into view, and finally, the branch manager threw open the branch office doors and hurried out to greet her. He had a terrified expression.
Woah-Woah.
"Your Excellency Kraft? How did you come to arrive so early..."
"I am Kraft, but I'm Pastel~."
Pastel said, spreading her arms wide. The Former Knights and the guild's private army surrounded the building so that the branch office personnel couldn't escape.
"Your Excellency?!"
The Branch Manager was startled out of his wits.
Hehe.
Pastel brought her hands together with an apologetic expression.
"I ran into pirates on my way here! There might be another attack targeting the great Governor-General, so I'll just set up some defenses for a moment!"
She felt gazes from behind. It was Melissa and Ellie. They were giving her looks that said, *What Pirates? They all ran away after seeing the warship, which is why we arrived ahead of schedule.*
Gasp.
It seems I was the only one who met the Pirates.
To think it was...
In my dreams!
Tremble, tremble.
Pastel walked forward with large strides. She walked right past the Branch Manager, who was trying to say something.
La-la-la-la.
As she entered the building, the early winter air faded away, and a cozy warmth could be felt. She listened closely to the sounds of the entire building.
There were no sounds of anything being smuggled away, no sounds of suspicious ledgers being burned, and no mechanical sounds of highly suspicious secret escape routes activating.
The Branch Manager chased after her with quick steps.
"I will escort you to the reception room for now. We received the news of Your Excellency's arrival late, so the interior and exterior are still in disarray."
"Gasp, the reception room! Are the reception room cookies tasty?"
"Pardon? Ah, they are tasty. We have already prepared cookies that will satisfy Your Excellency. However, it will take some time for the baker to arrive."
"Wow. But Lord Demon told me not to just eat anything given by others. He said I'd get a stomachache. That's a bit too much, right? Don't you think? He must think I can't even do the magic stone pepper-pepper properly. So mean."
"Pardon?"
Pastel nodded, sympathizing all by herself.
Then, recalling the architectural blueprints she had looked at previously, she directed her steps toward the branch manager's office.
"Your Excellency?!"
The door to the Branch Manager's Office burst open. A scene of work documents left in a messy, unorganized state unfolded. The secretary, who had been tidying up a portion of them, was startled out of his wits upon seeing the Governor-General barge in.
Pastel took a deep breath. A strong scent of power could be felt in the room.
A very familiar scent.
This was like the scent of Governor-General Pastel, who prided herself on saying, *It's true that His Imperial Majesty the Emperor is above me, but on the faraway Sky Island, I'm the best!*
A scent that said, *The owner of the Kraft Merchant Guild is the great Governor-General Pastel, but this is the faraway Demon Realm, so I am the king here!*
Pastel narrowed her eyes and scanned the suspicious parts of the Branch Manager's Office.
First and foremost, the most suspicious thing was...
The Secretary who remained in the Branch Manager's Office, clearing away documents alone even when the Governor-General barged in!
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The gaze of master detective Pastel was inescapable!
Pastel could deduce it with a heart of empathy at once.
If the Branch Manager were Pastel, he would have reviewed the Double Books before the Governor-General arrived and agonized over how to cover them up.
Then, if the Governor-General suddenly barged in early, it was obvious he would stall for time by greeting the Governor-General himself while instructing the secretary to hurry and hide the Double Books.
A perfect empathy deduction.
"Evidence captured!"
Pastel snatched the suspicious work documents the Secretary was gathering.
This familiar weight!
It was definitely the Double Books.
Like a Master Detective, she flipped them open with a snap and peered into the documents with a sharp expression.
-Status report on the training and persuasion of lobbyists.
Huh.
It was about bribing the council members of the Demon Realm United Kingdom and their aides to bring them over to the Kraft Merchant Guild's side. The main objective was to emphasize the public nature of the railroad to receive subsidies from the United Kingdom.
However, an objective had been added to use the United Kingdom's troops for free and then stealthily privatize them, perhaps due to the recent railway terrorism by the Demonkind Radical Faction, and the report was mainly about that.
It was an ordinary document.
This meant her deduction was wrong.
The Master Detective became flustered. She subtly handed the documents back to the Secretary, crossed her arms, and put on a serious expression.
To think my Deduction was wrong...
"Please wait a moment. I will clean this up shortly."
"I'll help you."
"Thank you, Princess."
Under the hands of the Branch Manager, Ellie, and Melissa, the countless bribery rosters and piles of bribery list documents began to be organized.
At the Branch Manager's extremely calm face, Pastel felt a chill.
Gasp, this sensation?
The sensation of a Master Detective facing a perfect crime!
Come to think of it, there was no way he would leave the Double Books scattered around so conspicuously. If it were Pastel, she would have hidden them away tightly and memorized the contents in her head.
Right, right!
He must have intentionally drawn attention to the suspicious secretary to put me at ease for a moment! Because of human psychology, if you suspect something and then realize it's not true, you end up dropping any bigger suspicions out of guilt!
Uwaaah.
Goosebumps, goosebumps.
I almost fell for it!
But Master Detective Pastel, who never falls for anything, looked sharply around the Branch Manager's Office. A bookshelf filling one entire wall caught her eye.
Pfft, pfft, pfft.
I found it right away.
There is no one in the world who does boring reading in a workspace.
If so, those bookshelves were either for decoration or for a secret space.
Pastel scurried over and quickly examined the books. She found a suitable book located at a suitable height.
Due to the nature of books, they are difficult to clean with water, so dust inevitably settles on the top edges when they are stood upright, but one book was slightly cleaner. It was a small difference, but a big enough difference that it couldn't escape the eyes of an experienced expert. Such cleanliness was only possible when it was frequently pulled out and put back in.
This is it!
"Evidence captured!"
Pastel pulled the book out at once.
The book slid out with a click, and gears turned behind the bookshelf. The surrounding books receded into the back of the shelf, revealing a safe.
An evil safe...!
Uwaaah!
Just how sinister were the Double Books he made that he even needed a safe!
Surely not, surely not, the Demon Realm Branch was already bankrupt due to massive embezzlement and business failure, but he had been hiding it all this time!
And now Headquarters would have to bear the fallout!
A person's shadow cast over the pink-haired girl.
Gasp.
When she whipped around, it was the Branch Manager holding a pile of documents.
Could he be attempting to silence me with murder...!
The Branch Manager bowed his head deeply.
"Thank you. You are exactly as I've heard, to find it just by eyeballing it."
A hand reached out and manipulated the safe's dial. The empty safe opened. The pile of bribery documents went in, filling the space. The safe closed, and the bookshelf returned to its original state.
The Branch Manager dusted off his hands.
"The tidying up is all done."
True to his words, the party was already seated on the sofas. The Secretary handed out green tea.
"Thank you. The tea leaves are nice."
Melissa smiled and said politely.
What is this.
Pastel put on a serious expression. She inspected the Branch Manager's Office sharply one more time.
A short while later, after receiving the ledgers, she spent the day digging into them to see if there were any accounting problems or contradictions, and upon finishing her review, her expression became even more serious.
"There's nothing wrong...?"
That couldn't be.
In a Branch Office located a continent away, and one whose main business was smuggling at that, there were no double books to deceive Headquarters or any large-scale embezzlement...?
There was some minor embezzlement on the employee level. But that was truly just pocket-change-level embezzlement, and there was no massive embezzlement that would absolutely have to show up in the ledgers.
Why?
Why didn't they do it?
My wallet is crying out loud that it's hungry!
As she was wallowing in confusion, Ellie, who had stayed up all night with her for two days reviewing the ledgers, rubbed her eyes and muttered.
"Unlike humans, we Demonkind are generally on the honest side."
"Gasp, really?"
Her pink eyes grew round. She stared at the Princess, whose confidant and close older brother was the Emperor's spy.
"Generally."
The Princess covered her mouth and let out a small yawn.
"Since Ellie is like that, I suppose it's true. More importantly, Pastel, the verification is finished, so how about we enjoy a bit of a food tour tomorrow? We definitely arrived early, but I think spending two whole days just staring at paper is a bit much."
When Melissa said that, Pastel shook her head side to side.
"No, no! This can't be!"
She jumped to her feet.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to do an on-site inspection!"
Making the most of it until the very last day!
There must surely be some plump and juicy embezzlement on-site!
If it were Pastel, she absolutely would have done it...!