By evening, the document sorting finally began to wind down.
“…It’s… over…”
The Margrave slumped over, half-burnt out, but at least the mountain of paperwork had been mostly cleared.
“At this rate, we should be able to finish everything by tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
“I honestly thought we wouldn’t make it for a moment there.”
Sue is chatting cheerfully with Casey-san and Telma-san, a bright smile on her face. Even the manor’s butler and staff looked visibly relieved, their expressions lightened now that the massive workload had been reduced.
Ah—right.
Something had been bothering me, so I decided to ask.
“Excuse me, but are we actually allowed to see these documents?”
“Not a problem at all. All important documents are under the madam’s direct management.”
I see. That makes sense.
Come to think of it, everything we had handled today hadn’t been anything particularly sensitive. If security is managed that well, then there’s nothing to worry about.
Click.
“Oh, right. These documents here aren’t related to the budget settlement. They’re just permit applications and the like—perfectly fine even if seen by others.”
Emilia-sama casually appeared, adding her explanation as she flipped through a few of the remaining papers. At that moment, Emilia-sama walked into the office pushing a cart piled high with documents.
Wait. Don’t tell me—we’re supposed to handle all of those too?
Still smiling, she turned an overwhelming pressure directly toward the Margrave.
“Darling~”
“Yes!”
“There were many verbal agreements you made without properly turning them into official documents. After visiting various locations today, this is how much paperwork ended up coming back.”
“I, well, that is… uhm…”
“You do always say that trust is the most important thing for a lord, don’t you?”
“Uhh… that…”
Nope. He’s done for.
It was clear by now—this Margrave is the type who’s cheerful and easygoing but completely fell apart when it came to the important details. He probably went around casually saying “sure, we’ll do that”without ever putting anything down in writing.
“Tomorrow, you will finish both the existing paperwork and all of this new paperwork. Of course, since we will be visiting other areas we couldn’t reach today, I expect even more will be added.”
“Th-that’s impossible!”
Honestly… I felt like yelling the same thing.
Sue, Casey-san, Telma-san, the manor staff—everyone had the same expression. Dead fish eyes. Because at this point, “the marquis has paperwork” basically meant—we all have paperwork. And that was the true despair of it all.
“Shun…. I honestly didn’t expect the Margrave to have piled up this much paperwork. I’ll reduce his allowance and increase the commission fees accordingly.”
Emilia-sama said this a little apologetically toward me, but apparently the Margrave actually has an allowance system. Though, given his personality, he also seemed like the type who would casually burn through money without much thought.
Pat pat pat.
“Ah! Daddy, he’s all white!”
Kent-chan trotted into the office next, pointing at the Margrave—who was now completely drained, as if all color had been sucked out of him. It seemed the final blow had been the reduction of his allowance.
Yeah…
Kid. You really shouldn’t grow up to become an adult like your father.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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