Eradicating Corruption (1)

#3. Eradicating Corruption (1)

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

3 a.m.

The lord's office, warmed by the princess's magic.

The only sound that rang out at regular intervals was the scratching of a quill against rough parchment.

'The North's finances have gone completely insane!'

Fourth Imperial Princess Eleanor von Valdemar threw herself into her work with her sleeves rolled up.

She should have been exhausted and bleary-eyed from the endless overtime, but whenever evidence of the nobles' corruption appeared before her, the sheer absurdity of it jolted her wide awake.

"Hah! Unbelievable!"

The princess's eyes blazed fiercely.

She was the valedictorian of the Imperial Academy's Department of Public Administration. Her brilliant mind could instantly trace the web of corruption and embezzlement spread throughout the northern territory.

'It's falsified here too. What? They were attacked by monsters during transport!? Once every two weeks, like clockwork!? I suppose corrupt nobles count as monsters too!'

Eleanor struck merciless lines through the ledgers.

Administration and finance.

They were fields she had encountered only in theory while holed up in the library. No one had wanted a bastard princess interfering in the Empire's administration.

But the Grand Duke of the North, who was practically a stranger, had trusted her.

A treasurer, of all things.

It was probably a position no woman in the North had ever wielded throughout history.

Eleanor raised her head and looked at the desk across from her.

Beyond the flickering candlelight, she could see Kylan wrestling with a mountain of documents awaiting approval.

'Ah…. '

A dull ache throbbed in a corner of Eleanor's chest.

'His Grace had been struggling alone to save this rotten territory. In this barren land, where even imperial support had been cut off, he had been working overtime like that every night to feed the starving residents…. '

Compared to him, her own lonely struggle in the library had been like that of a hothouse flower.

Eleanor patted both cheeks sharply to steel herself.

'All right! I won't let mere fatigue defeat me either. Since His Grace has trusted me, I'll squeeze out every bit of corruption festering in this territory with my own hands!'

The valedictorian's eyes were bloodshot.

Drawing on her sun mana, she picked apart the ledgers at a dazzling speed.

***

The corridor outside the lord's office.

Marie, the princess's personal maid, and Cedric, the grand duke's aide, paced anxiously in front of the door.

Even though the morning sun was rising, neither of them had emerged from the office.

This had been going on for several nights already.

There was a bed in the office so they could rest, but Marie was worried about whether Eleanor had managed to get any proper sleep.

"What are we going to do, what are we going to do! I can't hear even a single breath… Surely our poor Princess hasn't lost consciousness from the Grand Duke's violence!?"

Marie stamped her feet, her face drenched in tears.

Cedric cleared his throat solemnly.

"I say! His Grace may have the stamina of a beast, but he is not the sort of man to throw his fists at a woman. Perhaps the newlyweds'… ahem, vigorous battle has left her utterly exhausted."

"A vigorous battle!? Our poor Princess is so delicate that even a gentle breeze can knock her off balance!"

It was just as their commotion reached its peak.

Creeeak-

The office door opened with a heavy sound.

Marie and Cedric both held their breath and looked toward the door.

"Your Highness!"

Eleanor emerged through the gap in the door looking utterly haggard.

Deep, sagging dark circles. Unfocused eyes.

The platinum hair she had neatly pinned up was tangled like a bird's nest, and her indoor dress was soaked through with sweat, clinging to her body.

"Gasp… Princess! What terrible thing happened to you during the night…!"

As Marie screamed and rushed toward her, Eleanor staggered into her arms and muttered in a hoarse, cracked voice.

"It's finally over… I compiled the list of nobles who embezzled funds… and even made a plan to recover the money… I burned through every ounce of energy I had…."

Eleanor mumbled something incomprehensible, then fell asleep right there in Marie's arms.

"Your Highness!"

Even as Marie sobbed, Cedric's gaze remained fixed on his lord walking out of the office.

Kylan's eyes were hollow as well, but a satisfied smile played on his lips.

Cedric swallowed hard.

"Cedric."

"Yes, my lord!"

Kylan approached with light steps and gave the servants their orders.

"Take Her Highness to her bedroom, and brew the finest medicinal herbs in the territory to restore her strength. She is Winterwald's most precious asset. Not a hair on her head is to be harmed."

"Sob…!"

Apparently misunderstanding Kylan's words, Cedric wiped away his tears.

"Cedric. There is no time for crying, so get moving. Call an emergency meeting. Gather every elite knight without exception."

Cedric wiped his tears and asked,

"A military council?"

"A financial audit. A meeting to behead the people who siphoned off my territory's budget."

Kylan took a parchment from inside his coat and handed it to Cedric.

Cedric swallowed hard after looking over the list of nobles.

They were the names of nobles who normally held the territory's budget in their hands and strutted about with their noses in the air.

"But if this is an audit meeting to investigate corruption, surely many of them will try to wriggle out with one excuse or another."

Kylan's lips curled into a grin.

"Then we'll behead them right there. You have my permission."

"At your command!"

Cedric gave a military salute and hurried down the corridor.

His Grace, who had thought only of the lives and safety of the territory's people, had discovered corruption.

The knights would have to prepare to draw their swords as well.

***

In the conference room of the Grand Duke's castle, the key retainers who made up the northern territory sat around the table.

Some of them were corrupt nobles who had used the North's harshness as an excuse to evade the central authorities' scrutiny and bleed the territory's budget dry for years.

Normally, they would have taken advantage of the empty seat of honor to put on airs and engage in factional infighting, but the atmosphere in the conference room today was like a sheet of ice.

The nobles looked wretched as well.

"What kind of outrage is this! Knights kicked down the door of my mansion and barged in!"

"Lower your voice, Count. They say His Grace gave an express order to behead anyone who refused to attend the meeting on charges of treason. The situation is clearly serious."

Baron Benjamin, the financial officer, whispered with an ashen face.

Count Luminus, the official in charge of internal food supplies, had also been dragged there straight from bed under threat of the knights' swords, and his appearance was a mess.

The nobles dragged into the conference room exchanged anxious glances without knowing what was happening, like pigs being led to slaughter.

"Have you all heard the rumor?"

"R-rumor?"

"They say the princess was carried out of the lord's office unconscious at dawn today."

"Gasp…! Surely His Grace hasn't gone mad?"

"That madness may be turned on us next."

The terrified nobles swallowed dryly and cast furtive glances toward the door.

Creeeak-

Just then, the conference room door opened, and a bone-chilling cold swept inside.

It was the aura of Sword Master Kylan.

A silence fell over the room as though someone had poured cold water over it.

Behind Kylan, who strode into the room, was the Fourth Imperial Princess, the subject of rumors that she had been tortured or knocked unconscious.

Only the area around her escaped Kylan's chill.

Kylan took the seat of honor and tossed a bundle of parchment into the center of the round table.

"You have all gone to considerable trouble coming here so early in the morning."

At his cold voice, the nobles could barely breathe.

Baron Benjamin gathered his courage and asked in a trembling voice,

"Y-Your Grace… why have you suddenly mobilized armed force to oppress your retainers…?"

"Oppress?"

Kylan gave a derisive snort.

"Baron Benjamin."

"Y-yes, Your Grace."

"The relief provisions you imported from the Empire. Why are they twenty percent more expensive than the unit price in the capital?"

"……What?"

Cold sweat appeared on Baron Benjamin's forehead at the sudden question.

"Th-that is… because of the North's harsh conditions, a great deal of the cargo is lost during transport, so it was unavoidable…."

Thud!

Kylan pulled a dirt-stained leather pouch from inside his coat and tossed it onto the round table. The pouch's string came loose, and low-quality barley and sand poured out.

"You call this premium white wheat? These are the supplies I personally inspected while going through the territory's warehouses over the past three months."

"Gasp…! Y-Your Grace! The merchants must have tampered with them along the way! I-I'll replace the inferior provisions with new ones, even if I have to empty my own coffers!"

"Why should you pay out of your own pocket? Summon the merchant guild here."

"I could never waste Your Grace's time on such a trivial matter! The merchant guild, I…"

Kylan sneered and threw a document at Benjamin, who was trying to disguise his corruption as self-sacrifice.

"The signature of the Sunflower Merchant Guild's representative. It's the handwriting of Thomas, your wife's younger brother. You used a bogus, unlicensed merchant company to supply substandard food at inflated prices and pocketed the difference. With that money, you recently bought a 3,000-gold villa in the South under your mistress's name."

"Y-Your Grace! Mistress? That's an absurd misunderstanding!"

Benjamin's face went as white as a sheet of paper.

Kylan did not stop. This time, he interrogated Count Luminus.

"Count Luminus. The cost of stone for rampart repairs. The amount of stone imported is down thirty percent from last year, but the billed cost is up twenty percent. You said the transport wagons were looted by monsters?"

"Y-yes! A pack of dire wolves attacked…!"

"So I cross-checked every monster-subjugation log from the mercenary guild with Her Highness. It took more than half a day just to do this. Do you still have anything else to say?"

The conference room descended into chaos in an instant.

The corruption the nobles had hidden behind two and three layers of obfuscation was being laid bare piece by piece by Kylan.

"Chapter 4, Article 12 of the Imperial Tax Code."

At that moment, Princess Eleanor's cold voice rang out through the conference room.

"The property of a traitor who deceives his lord and embezzles from the state treasury shall temporarily belong to the lord. If the amount is insufficient, even execution is permitted."

The nobles' jaws dropped open.

They looked as though they would be forced to disgorge even the mother's milk they had suckled as newborns after trying to pocket kickbacks.

Eleanor offered Kylan her firm advice.

"Your Grace. Their crimes are tantamount to treason. Executing them at once and legally confiscating their territory and all their property is the fastest way to set the North's finances right."

"P-please spare us! Grand Duke! Princess!"

The corrupt nobles prostrated themselves, banging their foreheads against the floor.

"I-if there's a shortfall in the finances, we'll fill the gap by any means necessary!"

"P-please spare us! Your Grace! Please, just spare our lives…!"

"If you give us time, we will certainly make amends for our mistakes!"

Kylan drew his sword as though their words were not worth hearing.

At the sight of that, one noble tried to flee on trembling legs, only to have his head severed by Cedric's sword.

Even as several nobles wet themselves, Princess Eleanor said in an impassive voice,

"Under the fines imposed by the Imperial Tax Code, the amount embezzled over the past three years, and compound interest, we must recover 300,000 gold."

For some reason, Kylan found the figure of 300,000 gold hilarious, and he smiled broadly as he answered Eleanor.

"We can make them pay the shortfall with their bodies. As it happens, we were short on manpower for the rampart repairs, so this works out nicely. Cedric! Take all the young heirs of Baron Benjamin's and Count Luminus's families and send them to the walls."

Only then did the nobles who had been trying to escape the situation with lies about filling the budget shortfall and correcting their mistakes begin clamoring to pay voluntarily.

The sight of grown men crowding around the handful of crystal balls to make contact was truly something to behold.

"Honey! Hand over that diamond ring you're wearing right now!"

"Mortgage the estate—or whatever—to the Imperial Bank and turn it into gold coins!"