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I sat in the office of the Overseas Operations Director, maintaining silence.

Leoni, sitting across from me, stared at me with a blank expression. The uncomfortable silence dragged on, but her expression showed no signs of changing.

“You’re telling me not to go on a business trip. What exactly does that mean?”

“It means I’m outright denying your request.”

Leoni set the documents down with a weary look in her eyes.

“Do you think this company is some neighborhood corner shop? Just because you ask for a business trip, they’ll let you go.”

“I’m not just going for leisure.”

“I’m not joking around either.”

The one-star of the Military Intelligence Agency scratched her prominent cheekbones nonchalantly.

“You’re telling me you need to establish an information network on-site and want to be sent overseas? To a conflict area, no less? Are you serious about this?”

“It’s not like sending people to conflict areas is a new concept.”

“So why do you insist on going yourself? There are plenty of other people who could handle this.”

“It’s my job, so I should do it myself. I can’t just hand it off to someone else.”

“You’re the Defense Attaché.”

Leoni cut me off.

Ignoring the scrutinizing gaze directed at her, Leoni adjusted her glasses and continued speaking calmly.

“You do realize that the four locations you mentioned in the documents for your business trip are all conflict areas, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re also aware that the Imperials and the cultists are all causing chaos there?”

“…”

“Do you even understand what would happen if a known figure like you, Abas the Defense Attaché, got caught operating as a civilian in a conflict zone?”

It was a subtle reminder to act like a proper officer. In other words, stay out of unnecessary trouble.

“You should know better than anyone.”

Leoni picked up the documents she’d set aside, waving her hand dismissively as if she were bored.

“Let’s not waste our energy when we already know what’s what.”

“…”

“Get on with your work. I’ll have another department take care of finding your hero teammates.”

Thinking it over, she wasn’t entirely wrong. She had valid grounds to reject my business trip request, and there were plenty of alternatives who could be dispatched to the field in my stead.

So, it was a completely understandable decision.

“…Understood.”

Only in my mind.

—

Episode 15 – Life is Beautiful

After my business trip request was denied, I returned to my office.

As an information officer disguised as a Defense Attaché, the Military Intelligence Agency typically didn’t force weekend work unless it was a particularly urgent situation.

However, even after my appointment as a Defense Attaché, I often found myself coming to the office to handle overtime every weekend.

“Hey, guys.”

“Yes, Manager.”

“What’s the way to go overseas for a business trip?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking if there’s a way to go overseas when the higher-ups are refusing to approve it.”

“What?”

“Uh, why?”

“Uh, never mind….”

The subordinates peeking over the partition looked at me as if they had seen a ghost.

Jake’s eyes widened as he fumbled with the nutritional supplement he was eating, and Charnoy, who had been stacking cube chocolates, froze mid-action.

Nymph’s towering chocolate structure was about to collapse, yet Pippin’s half-hearted question echoed in my ears.

“Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?”

“Uh, just thought of it suddenly.”

Pippin, who brought in a mountain of documents, tilted her head in confusion.

“Manager, did you take something you shouldn’t have? Or did you accidentally ingest something unsavory?”

“Hey, I’m not munching on any Yggdrasil leaves as a drug addict….”

“It’s just weird coming from you. You usually hum about not wanting to work, and now suddenly you’re talking like this….”

The little rascal set down the documents in his hands, and I pulled out a paper to examine it.

The document on my desk was an overview report on the international situation surrounding the Mauritania Continent, along with analysis data on the civil war trends in each region.

Even with its grandiose title, it wasn’t worth coming to the office on a weekend for.

“….”

With a nonchalant expression, I began to read through the documents.

“There are so few safe areas in the Mauritania Continent. With so many countries, how is it that they’re all caught up in conflict?”

“It’s about interests, of course.”

The former Special Forces team leader, Jake, spoke up in a casual tone.

“Even for an empire with such a vast territory, incidents happen every day. If various ethnic groups gather in cramped territories, trying to survive in a monster-infested desert, how could it ever calm down?”

Jake added with a chuckle.

“If there were a common language, it might be different. But with just a few million people, there are more than a dozen tribes, and some countries use three to four official languages. It’s strange if problems don’t arise.”

“Oh, is that due to your experience? A rich background of knowledge, huh?”

“Eh… I’ve only been on one brief deployment, that’s all.”

He scratched his head awkwardly and laughed.

I emptied the ashtray and slowly flipped through the documents again. One cigarette turned into two, then three. By the time the empty ashtray had transformed into a small cactus…

Pippin, who opened the window for ventilation, asked me with a worried expression.

“Manager, is something wrong?”

“Why do you ask that all of a sudden?”

“Well, you’ve been smoking while reading the documents for several hours. I’m just wondering if something’s up.”

“….”

Charnoy, helping Pippin with the window, chimed in.

“Pippin’s right! Smoking over a pack in two hours isn’t normal, even for you…!”

I noticed the cigarette pack sitting on one side of the desk. Crumpled packs lay scattered in the trash alongside paper scraps.

Looking at the trash filled with cigarette waste, I checked the time. It should be evening in the Kien Empire by now.

I stubbed out the cigarette with only the filter left and grabbed my personal phone, getting ready to leave.

“It’s nothing significant. Don’t worry about it.”

—

“Everything alright, Senior?”

Clank. The sound of a teacup being set down echoed in the silent office.

Whether or not slamming down a teacup is considered proper etiquette has long been a topic of debate among the upper class, but fortunately, this level of noise didn’t violate the standards of noble conduct or dining etiquette.

However, etiquette is, by nature, relative. On any other day, I wouldn’t have made it an issue, but my interlocutor was a problem.

Be it in terms of military academy graduation rank or commissioning class, Leoni was still my senior by several years.

But when someone younger than you, fully green and sporting the same rank—and even a star—steps up to you, no matter how much of a senior they are, it’s hard to treat them like an equal.

“There was no issue just a moment ago, but now you show up and make it one.”

“Aha. You’re being quite picky.”

The Director of Domestic Affairs, Colonel Clevenz, feigned disappointment in a playful tone.

“Even if you’re busy, you shouldn’t make your junior feel bad.”

“Get straight to the point.”

“You refused the overseas deployment, didn’t you?”

Leoni narrowed her eyes at Clevenz.

“Where did you hear that?”

Clevenz smiled as he answered lazily.

“Have you ever seen the company people keep their mouths shut?”

“You damn fools.”

It seems my underlings couldn’t hold their tongues and spilled it somewhere.

Of course, the rumors they shared were based on the details they didn’t fully understand.

It was just a fragment of gossip, like “The Major stepped into the director’s office looking like he just bit into a lemon,” but the important thing was that the rumor spread regardless of its content.

After graduating from the same university, my junior chuckled and threw out a joke disguised as a compliment.

“Senior, international business is good and all, but you should first keep your subordinates’ mouths shut. With the Inspection Office Chief walking around with fire in his eyes, it’s not wise to be so loose-lipped.”

“Nam-isa.”

At a glance, it seemed like a playful exchange, but the underlying meaning was entirely different.

“I heard that the senior was turned down for an overseas assignment?”

Initially, Clevenz mentioned that his request for overseas dispatch was denied.

“How did you find that out? Are you watching me now?”

Leoni asked where he got the information.

“Monitoring? Not even close. I heard your adjutant blabbing under your very nose.”

“Oh, damn.”

“Take care of the kids a bit. If the inspectors come, it’ll be a hassle.”

“That’s a problem for me to handle. Why do you care so much? It’s etiquette not to meddle between departments. Since when has the domestic department bothered with the overseas department’s business?”

Words were twisted back and forth, but ultimately, it was the overseas chief throwing shade at the domestic chief, calling him morally bankrupt.

However, Clevenz didn’t flinch.

“Well, since he was my assistant until last year, I came to check on things after hearing strange rumors in the office.”

“I thought you had something serious to say when you suddenly dropped by… Why are you wasting your time worrying about that Major’s dispatch?”

“Ah, I’ve had him as an assistant for over three years. If there’s a problem, I could just help fix it along the way.”

“Looks like just counseling wasn’t enough for him.”

The overseas chief’s casual jab was quickly caught by the domestic chief.

“Oh? How do you know that?”

“He talks too much on the phone; how could I not know?”

It implied eavesdropping.

While the domestic department in charge of military security and counter-intelligence often engaged in wiretapping, eavesdropping on domestic military bases was not the overseas department’s business. Especially not the domestic chief’s calls.

But Leoni was entirely unbothered.

“The Major’s security inspection is an overseas department issue. The inspection team is supposed to check who he’s been talking to. Is there a problem with that?”

It was a well-known secret that the inspection team monitored communications of department employees within the Military Intelligence Agency. Background checks for security maintenance were standard practice in any information agency.

It was a reasonable decision that could be understood fully, but being investigatively scrutinized was never a pleasant thing. With a sulky expression, Clevenz stared at Leoni with wide eyes.

“Seriously… I thought you were the one who didn’t want inspections coming down.”

“If I do it, it’s romantic. If someone else does, it’s infidelity.”

“Wow.”

Naturally, Frederick was aware of this fact.

So when he had casual conversations with friends, including Camila, he always used other communication methods that he hadn’t reported to the company.

In other words, when he talked with Clevenz, he mostly used company-reported calls—specifically when discussing topics that wouldn’t matter to the company.

Thus, Clevenz had at least an inkling that Frederick possessed unreported communication methods from the company. And he understood—he had been the same when he was younger.

Leoni was particularly annoyed by that fact.

“Anyway, these kids treat regulations like they’re the Holy Grail.”

“That’s the problem, Senior. The company isn’t a machine; it’s a place where people work.”

“Regulations are there to be followed.”

Clevenz shook his head as if he couldn’t win against Leoni’s insistence on rules.

Leoni’s tone wasn’t particularly serious. The listener took it that way, and the speaker intended it so.

No matter how bad things got, they had both been working at the same company for twenty years now. Like two cadets, one escaping from the rules while the other chased him down, they had both eventually earned their stars.

So they could set aside their old emotions and casually chat.

“Did the rule-abiding gentleman manage to go abroad? My goodness…”

However, wasn’t the situation a bit funny?

The commander responsible for security and counterintelligence getting a scolding for not following rules was amusing, and to think the one delivering that scolding was Leoni, who had been breaking laws left and right for business overseas—it was truly ironic.

Thus, Clevenz could only smile with a sigh, like an old man reminiscing.

“I see you picked the wrong department, Senior. You should’ve gone into counterintelligence instead of taking my place overseas.”

The two sitting in the office exchanged light banter.

“Are those Imperial goons still running amok domestically?”

“Not since they ran into trouble near the Nostrim Family. Other countries filled the gap they left, but otherwise, no issues.”

“The consul stationed in the Northeast United Republic sent a special report yesterday. Apparently, an informant succeeded in approaching Charles Nostrim.”

“The Director of the Ministry of Finance? Hmmm. Compared to the royal family, the Ministry of Finance is certainly more vulnerable in terms of security.”

“As long as you exclude his father, there aren’t any security problems, right?”

“The royal family is protected by the Interior Ministry and the Intelligence Agency, so there’s barely any room for spies to creep in. If I were to nitpick, it would be with his brother and sister, but they’re both handling themselves quite well…”

Of course, it was casual chatter by company standards.

“How’s the atmosphere in the Mauritania Continent these days?”

“Just the same as usual.”

“Sounds like a mess.”

At the domestic chief’s murmured observation, the overseas chief chimed in.

“Those military folks tried to blow up the Presidential Palace to overthrow the incompetent government while another tribal warlord launched a counter-coup to oust the government that came to power through the coup.”

“And the armed groups?”

“They’re just paramilitary organizations. Goblins causing a ruckus in the countryside waving red flags, Orcs cultivating opium using the sap from tree spirits harvested from the jungle, Dwarves pillaging homes in the name of tribal liberation while chasing after the Ivory Tower…”

Clevenz closed his eyes with a calm expression.

“Even with humans taken out of the equation, it’s still chaotic.”

“Tribal conflicts, independence movements, social revolutions, religious conflicts. Including criminal organizations and terrorist groups, it’s boundless.”

“Headache-inducing, huh, Senior?”

“Where do you think you’re going with this? Compared to the teams on the domestic side (Inquisitor/Counter-terrorism/Countersurveillance), overseas intelligence is paradise.”

“Damn it. I can’t argue with that.”

Clevenz pressed his forehead as it started to ache. It wasn’t just for show; it truly was hurting.

“Don’t you ever plan to return domestically? There are plenty of positions available in counter-terrorism.”

“Let’s stop with the nonsense here.”

Leoni cut off the thread of trivial jokes.

“What do you want?”

Only then did Clevenz lower the hand that had been resting on his forehead.

Shedding the playful demeanor, he spoke in a notably serious tone.

“I’d like to request approval for Major Frederick’s overseas dispatch.”

 

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