Chapter 201 The day at work with Elizabeth (extra)
201 The day at work with Elizabeth (extra)
Today there will be two additional chapters. All thanks to swcowboy!
Note: all three chapters will be extras as it marks the beginning of a new volume.
Enjoy reading!
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(A/N: Events take place before the war with the Chaos Empire)
The desolate office of Queen Elizabeth was always a subject of debate among officials. Many were dissatisfied that the queen spent her time in such poorly furnished quarters and personally requested her consent to place expensive furniture there.
However, the only answer they received was a firm "no." And there was a serious reason for that.
"Oh, you mean that room? It's amazing she still keeps it the way it is. Hehehe..." Amarantha chuckled with amusement when she heard Adam's question.
"Do you know something?"
Returning home after the second shift, Adam shared what he had heard today. Several officials in the corridor were discussing the necessity of convincing the queen to change the appearance of the room to match her status. And the man himself was perplexed as to why she was so stubborn about it.
This sparked some curiosity in him, which he expressed to his wife, Amarantha, who was closest to Elizabeth. In response, the woman laughed and gave an ambiguous answer, making the man tilt his head, not understanding what was going on.
"Well, now I'm even more curious. Is there an interesting story behind this?" he asked, holding her in his arms and spinning around, causing the woman to giggle and then respond.
"You're making too much of it. She just hid in that place from her teachers while they were looking for her to send her to lessons," Amarantha said with a laugh, smiling nostalgically. She looked as if she were reliving those moments right now.
"Hiding from lessons? Well, that sounds somewhat unbelievable, considering the impression she left on me," Adam said with a smile, kissing Amarantha on the cheek.
The next day...
He came to work again. The office was empty, which surprised him, as Queen Elizabeth was usually here long before him, preparing for the workday or even finishing another stack of papers. However, it was not his duty to monitor her visits, so he simply shrugged and sat at his desk.
"Five towers of paperwork... as if I didn't have enough of my affairs in Sedyon," he thought discontentedly and sighed, taking a paper from the top of the tower.
A rustle sounded as he placed the paper on the table, and the ballpoint pen made a clicking sound as he pressed the button. Before him was another report from officials who played only a formal role, with the sole task of signing what the queen had seen in the report, and that was all.
In the royal castle, documents go through the following process: on a specific day and at specific hours, officials responsible for internal affairs are given a certain number of "towers." Their main task is to sift through documents that don't require the strictest scrutiny and don't need to be reviewed by the queen or the advisor.
This way, almost 50% of the paperwork is trimmed, dividing the load into several groups, making the workload on Adam and Elizabeth much more manageable. However, reports from high-ranking officials and aristocrats still require direct scrutiny from the advisor, resulting in Adam having a significant amount of work signing these papers.
Thanks to his current development, he can easily read all the reports in a short time, making him feel less burdened, although he still needs to be cautious. Occasionally, reports with hidden messages from intelligence or hints of corruption were discovered.
The job was challenging, but Adam could handle it effortlessly. The most difficult tasks were legislative projects and budget allocation. The Ministry of Finance sent them many requests on where to allocate funds, but most of them didn't require the amounts officials from the Ministry of Finance wrote in their official requests. Therefore, it was necessary to carefully sift through obviously risky projects that no sane person would invest in.
"Wha-a-a-atl? Do we need funds to investigate individuals who painted obscene drawings on the gates of the bishop's estate? What the fuck!" Adam exclaimed in frustration, furrowing his brows. The appearance of the mentioned bishop immediately came to his mind, and he grimaced, muttering, "I'd rather allocate funds to paint penises all over this bastard's walls."
Bishop James was another church scoundrel whose arrogance was infuriating. He harbored extremely cunning thoughts and had a less-than-stellar reputation among the people. He had been caught with thousands of Dragon Stones several times, earning him the nickname "church's garbage."
Lighting a cigarette, Adam exhaled smoke and irritably looked at another request to confirm funding. This time it was for building children's homes, but...
"Are you fucking serious? Assholes! I allocated funds for this shit two days ago! Fucking two days ago!" he shouted, slamming the table and grimacing in irritation. "Have you managed to spend it all already? That's just impossible!"
Adam was starting to think that the Ministry of Finance was staffed not by ordinary people but by damn crabs running their burger joint! They repeatedly demanded more confirmations of expenditure, but he saw no results.
"Who sent this request? Pass me these documents," a voice suddenly sounded behind him.
Turning his head, Adam met eyes with Elizabeth and, without looking away, handed her the papers. He sighed and said, waving his hand, "Lady Elizabeth, for the love of everything holy, please give these bastards a good knock on the head! Their dumb requests are aging me by about twenty years!"
"Hmm? Have you already burned out?" Elizabeth asked with a strange expression on her face, covering it with papers. She murmured, "What an amusing reaction. I've never heard him curse before."
Out of the corner of his eye, Adam noticed her shoulders shaking, while bright yellow spheres happily danced around her. She was having fun.
"Lady Elizabeth, are you laughing at me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What? Uh, no... of course not," she replied, fake coughing.
The man rolled his eyes and returned to work, unwilling to continue the discussion. Meanwhile, Elizabeth grinned, and this happy expression suited her much more than her usual cold demeanor. She looked like a young and lively girl.
***
On one of the days.
"What terrible weather in the morning. Darkness, rain, thunder... although, on the other hand, it's kind of atmospheric," Adam said, taking a large mug and starting to brew coffee.
He took the coffee pot in his hand, poured water into it comparable to the mug's volume, then scooped ground coffee with a teaspoon and poured it into the pot, repeating the process once more, but this time adding only half a teaspoon. Then came two and a half teaspoons of sugar.
"Lady Elizabeth, won't you try? I can't boast about my cooking skills, but I brew coffee quite well," he asked, looking at Elizabeth working through his shoulder.
"No, thank you. I prefer tea," she replied politely, not taking her eyes off the paperwork.
"Well, as you wish."
Shrugging, the man placed the coffee pot on a portable gas stove and turned it on, waiting.
Unfortunately, technologies like gas stoves and portable stoves had long been invented, and, of course, they were adapted for magic in advance because it was much easier that way. Adam wasn't alone on Earth, so there were plenty of people here who advanced technologies from another world.
Ten minutes later, the room was filled with the pleasant aroma of coffee, while Adam, after five minutes of waiting, began pouring the coffee into the mug. Sitting on a chair next to the window, the man began to contemplate the view of the garden and occasionally glance at the gloomy clouds.
Undoubtedly, the atmosphere was romantic. The sound of rain with thunder, while the stark contrast between the weather outside and the cozy atmosphere inside gave him a pleasant sense of "superiority." He watched with a relaxed expression as raindrops slid down the window.
"Maybe organize a competition to see which drop reaches the bottom faster? You could make quite a bit of money on that, hehe," he thought with a smirk.
The atmosphere in the room was somewhat unusual. It wasn't because of the rain or anything like that but rather because they were alone. Just Adam and Elizabeth.
Rarely did they engage in too lengthy conversations, and most of the time, they spoke about work, leaving him no chance to discuss anything about his personal life. However, as the saying goes, haste makes waste, and Adam didn't rush to establish a relationship.
Yet, he was still unaware of the reasons why Elizabeth occasionally stared at him for several seconds. This happened more and more with each working day. It was a somewhat unusual feeling as if someone had put an ice cube down your back when you were busy working.
Despite trying to understand her emotions in some way, even using Casanova's abilities didn't help. He could see that she was happy or upset, but he simply couldn't grasp the reason. Her facial expression gave away nothing!
In some places, he noticed a few spheres merging into one, making it impossible to understand anything.
And while the man puzzled over these questions...
"Hmm-hmmm-haaam... hmm-hmmm haaam~"
Elizabeth softly hummed an unknown melody. The right corner of her mouth was slightly lifted, while her eyebrows were relaxed. If Adam turned towards her right now and used his ability, he would see that her emotions were calm, relaxed, happy, and soothing.
Unfortunately, he was too busy with the raindrop competition, actively cheering for his favorite in this challenging race.