The Civil Officer Can Have Sweet Dreams Chapter 3
His head felt numb.
The words on the doc.u.ment blurred into tiny black blobs. Cleatt rubbed his eyes. He knew from experience when that happened his production speed would dramatically decrease.
Every second mattered but after reasoning with his sluggish thoughts that his efficiency would increase if he rested a moment, Cleatt set the doc.u.ments on his desk and stood up.
He rolled his shoulders, thinking it would ease his aching muscles, but it did nothing. He bitterly smiled.
He couldn't ignore the mountains of doc.u.ments that lurked in his peripheral vision. Maybe he could finish them tomorrow. 'Of course, that's impossible,' is what he would always think, yet, for some reason, he would finish them the next day- it made him think the world was mysterious.
“Vice Minister Brody, is everything okay?”
“I'm going for a short walk.”
“I understand. However, you do have a meeting in an hour…”
“I know. I'll be back before then. The main points of the meeting will be summarized and properly facilitated,” Cleatt quietly answered.
“Understood; I shall leave it in your care.”
The other civil officers cast a quick pitying glance at Cleatt as he walked by, but they didn't have time to dwindle on the thought. They could not stop their work for even one minute. Cleatt wasn't the only one who had mountains of work. Everyone in the Royal Palace did.
Knowing that made it easier to keep calm amidst the pressure. Everyone handled stress differently, some going as far to seethe with anger and lash out indiscriminately. He didn't want to become that type of person.
The highest position within Lucott Kingdom's civil officers was the Prime Minister, but under him were five vice-ministers. The youngest at 33 years old, 12 years removed from the next oldest, was Cleatt Brody.
80% of Cleatt's job should have been divided equally among all five vice-ministers, but considering the abilities of the other four, everyone thought, it can't be helped that they gave it all to Cleatt.
This wasn't due to the incompetence of the other vice-ministers, rather, Cleatt knew his job and did it particularly well. Seeing someone in their early thirties with a job as a civil officer, let alone a vice-minister, was almost unheard of in the kingdom's history. Yet, during the few times his mind wandered, thoughts of is this good luck or bad? would torment him.
As a vice-minister, he was a candidate to be the next prime minister. Crown Prince Henry may intend for him to become prime minister at the same time he takes the throne. Whatever His Highness saw in him was beyond his comprehension, but because of that, when a seat for vice-minister became vacant he was chosen for the job. Not to say he lacked ambition — he wanted to become a vice-minister and took pride in knowing his skills earned him that promotion. Even so, there were still whispers of detractors saying, ‘No matter how you put it, this seems too fast.'
In the olden days, the high n.o.bles who wielded power in the Royal Palace would have interfered. But even among those who publicly defied Crown Prince Henry there weren't any who aimed for the vice minister's seat. No other person could bear the excessively hectic workload.
His sharp wit, efficiency with civil matters, and empathy silenced the critics. Everyone recognizes his excellence. He also hails from an esteemed family; however, there is one thing that greatly troubles him.
Cleatt Brody —
The legacy of the Brody house belonged to superior military officers. Cleatt, heir to house Brody, became a civil officer. His family is greatly troubled by this and harshly complain with weary tones, ‘The men of house Brody belong on the battlefield! What will you do if you don't become a knight?!' Cleatt did not think he was capable of mastering martial arts.
Training, naturally, began early in life. Even though he was still a child, Cleatt knew his limits and decided 'I'm not suited for this', immediately giving up the path of a military officer. With his family's prestige, he could become an imperial knight or even a resourceful general. But it is what it is.
The sensible Cleatt understood war was unlikely in this global climate. There would be no chance for a military officer to prove his skills. And if war did occur, he would become a true civil officer, using his power to influence politics.
At the tender age of 10, Cleatt, who knew himself and his abilities, freely used that precocious wit and took stock of the world around him and his options within it, decidedly taking the path to become a civil officer. Even now, he still gets complaints from his parents, exasperatingly wishing he would stop being irresponsible.
Although Cleatt is already 33 years old, he has yet to marry. If one was a n.o.ble, they would have gotten married a long time ago and at this age would have already had children. That's another difficult problem that his parents pester him about. However, they won't accept any excuses. ‘Just when will you get married?!'
It's something that's troubled him every day, even when he's trying to sleep. It's impossible for him to make time to meet a woman, court, get married, and then have a married life. A love marriage seems impossible, at the very least. He lacks the energy for it.
Regardless of how Cleatt feels, his impatient mother arbitrarily searched for a partner for him a few years back, but he couldn't be bothered by it again. Even if he got married, it's highly likely that he'd sleep over at the Royal Palace practically every night, same as now, only occasionally going home. The time he'd spend with his partner would be short, regardless of whether they got along or not. As House Brody's eldest son, he had the responsibility to produce an heir. Because of that, he'd sometimes have to make contact, at the very least.
‘Is that really what marriage is all about? Does a woman exist that would wish for that kind of marriage?' Cleatt would wonder.
Of course, Cleatt is an excellent find for women. Although his lineage is average for a high n.o.ble, his family is renowned for the country's deep trust in them. Especially considering Cleatt plays a central role in the country and is talented enough to be a candidate for the next prime minister. The entire Royal Palace immediately knew of his outstanding excellence when he worked as a civil officer. Not because of his family, but through an a.s.sessment of his own power.
He also had a nice body. Because of the training to become a military officer by his family Cleatt had a perfectly elegant demeanor among the various unreliable types within the civil officers. He's the type that even looked slender when wearing the civil officer uniform, so while his body didn't stand out much, it is also toned. He sensed that women were vigilant of such masculinity.
His back was moderately broad — the calm, brown-haired and brown-eyed Cleatt was considerably handsome. Thanks to that, he is continuously showered with fervent gazes because Lucott Kingdom is a pa.s.sionately uninhibited country. Even though he was composed, he had a phase where he played around with women. When work got busier he had to cut down on the time spent playing. Originally, Cleatt wasn't of a disposition that enjoyed love. When he realized it, the women of the Royal Palace seemed to view him as if he was an unattainable goal.
Such as, ‘Sir Brody is wonderful, but he's been so busy so it doesn't seem like he has the free time to attend to us.' Well, to be quite honest, deep down, they were right.
When Cleatt's parents attempted to find a partner for him, they couldn't find one anywhere. The Brody house believed in simplicity and fort.i.tude and respected the art of war. As expected, his parents worried a daughter with impure motives would become the wife of their eldest son. Such as a daughter who aspired to ally through marriage with the Brody house or one that wished to enter high society through the Brody house regardless of love.
On the other hand, even if the Brody house were to accept an intelligent and beautiful daughter from a house that stood at the same as theirs, obviously their son didn't wish for such a decent married life, so his parents were at their wits' end, feeling sorry for whoever was to be his partner.
Nowadays, whenever Cleatt met his parents, they would throw biting remarks at him and increasingly made Cleatt grow distant from his family.
However, despite saying such things, he's reached his limit these past few years. He's given up, figuring that whatever happens, he'd have to get married by the time he's 35 years old because it seems the Brody house has been narrowing candidates despite their worries.
But that wasn't the only option for Cleatt. The people working in the Royal Palace who have yet to find marriage partners were generally past marriageable age. Even if they had time to find a partner they would still be pressed for time due to their age. Many marriages were of convenience and between coworkers.
Just the other day, a subordinate came to report with a court lady of the Royal Palace saying, ‘Our parents wouldn't shut up, so we just decided to marry each other.' Cleatt responded with a strained smile. When Cleatt asked, it seemed that they had no feelings of love towards each other and never dated.
In the middle of a chat, they said, ‘We thought to just quickly marry somebody who was troubled about this as well.' They decided to get married with such a light mood. But because they had no time for a proper wedding, they said they could only turn in the marriage doc.u.ments.
As their boss, Cleatt was only able to pray for these two to at least get along with each other.
Cleatt wondered why work was this busy.
The thought occupied his mind for a while now, but no matter how much work he handled, more would appear from somewhere. Even if he were to comment on it and how much he dealt with it, he had another problem.
Everyone had begun to think, ‘If we leave it to Vice Minister Brody, it'll somehow be taken care of.' He's happy that they give him work because of their faith in his ability, but humans have a limit. Despite the mult.i.tude of years he's worked as a vice-minister, in this kind of situation if he became prime minister his work would multiply. Thinking that, Cleatt felt somber.
Can my body last until then?
Cleatt is aware that his own intelligence surpa.s.ses most people's. Nevertheless, if they were to continue utilizing this ability of his, his stamina would run out. Although his stamina was trained from a very young age, more than the normal civil officer, intellect and stamina were two different things. Recently, he's been getting tired more easily than before. Whenever he pushed himself with working late into the night, he knew that his head would go numb. His consciousness would dim, which increased his incoherent thoughts. He knew that his fatigue would pile up, but he didn't know what to do. Nowadays, such thoughts plagued him, which would eventually end up going in circles.
If the root of this doesn't change, it'll harm my health.
As he's walking around the Royal Palace with those thoughts in mind, a white afterimage flashed before his eyes, which made him unconsciously click his tongue.
“I know.”
As if to vent his slight irritation, Cleatt brushed off the Calling Bird carrying handwritten blue letters. It seems that someone's calling for him. The Calling Bird is one of the blueprints that Lucott's magician division invented. Blueprints were divided up among the key people working within the Royal Palace. Someone had taken a look at the blueprints that were divided and was able to make paper fly. It's a ground-breaking tool, but he remembered his anger at the magicians since it's thanks to this that work had become excessively busy.
The Lucott Kingdom had few magicians, so they were given special treatment. Because of that, a lot of them are arrogant, and although that alone already angers him, they also had a lot of useless inventions. It's true that some of them are useful for daily life and work, but because of the Calling Bird, Cleatt had no time to rest, regardless if it was day or night.
Although it's nice that the magicians weren't summoned as much, but the frequency at which civil officers and knights were summoned were high, enough that it became unbearable. He often saw the knights trampling the Calling Bird, but he decided to walk past it as if he never saw it.
He never liked the magician division in the first place.
Walking through the halls of the Royal Palace as a change of pace, he felt the haze from his head slightly disappear. Just a tiny bit.
Cleatt breathed a sigh and went back to the office he was given.
You know whose head started going in circles? Mine. This was a long chapter, d.a.m.n. But wow, I never expected Cleatt to have had experience with the ladies already. I'm kind of excited on what happens next.
Also, pet.i.tmelon and cookiemon are the editors and proofreaders for this story as well, respectively! They made this story a little better, and we've sort of fixed and combined some sentences here and there. Do let us know what you think ^^
Author: adorkablerika Name's Erika. For some dumb reason, I decided to major in Physics. I'm stuck in this major now. I used to translate manga and light novels a few years back, left, then came back cause I found some good novels to read. I'm the only TLer on my site, so rip. I'm apparently also good at drawing, and I also like kpop (BTS, I mean, I have Hobi as my pic). I don't bite, so feel free to chat me up on here or on NU @adorkablehiko. If you see my translations on other sites, please do consider reading it on my Wordpress @ c.r.a.ppya.s.stranslations.