Chapter 59
“Princess, why do you ask such a thing…?”
“In the end, you’re saying that even if you tell Father about the fraudulent budgets, it wouldn’t make a difference, so you’ve stayed quiet, right?”
Patrick felt a cold sweat run down his back.
She was right—but how did she figure that out?
He hadn’t said it directly, which meant the young princess had deduced it on her own.
While he was impressed by her keen insight, he also began searching for a response that wouldn’t cause trouble.
But Solinor didn’t give Patrick the time to think.
“In that case, we just need to make sure that the fraudulent budgets never get submitted. As you said, five people are responsible for approving the budget proposal. If three of them oppose it, it won’t pass. We already have one, so we only need to recruit two more. That’s not too difficult.”
“So, by saying that…”
“Yes. I plan to visit each official’s home personally. They need some ‘education.’”
Patrick’s cold sweat grew even heavier.
Is this really okay?
More than anything, he was worried about the princess.
He agreed with her desire to fix the country, but doing it this way was far too dangerous.
This wasn’t a problem that could be solved with youthful idealism alone.
On top of that, Princess Muriela had arguably the weakest influence in the entire royal family.
If she directly confronted the officials—or worse, resorted to violence—there was no way the king wouldn’t hear of it.
And the king had already made it clear that even royal blood wouldn’t protect someone if they gave him a reason to punish them.
Take, for example, Princess Katrina and Prince Brandon, who had recently been expelled from the palace along with Queen Irina.
Queen Irina had been notoriously cruel, so no one among the servants had any sympathy for her downfall.
But the prince and princess were a different story.
Patrick didn’t know all the details, but he knew they hadn’t done anything particularly wrong.
It was well known that the king had little affection for his children.
That incident had been a warning—anyone who gave him even the smallest excuse could be cast out.
So, of course, Patrick was deeply concerned for Princess Muriela.
Especially since she had no mother to protect her.
“Princess, I understand your intentions, but this is too dangerous.”
“Dangerous or not, we have to act now. Even at this very moment, the nation’s funds are being siphoned away. At the very least, we need to stop things from getting worse.”
“Yes, that is certainly true. However, if Your Highness personally intervenes… please, leave this matter to us—”
“That’s exactly why we ended up in this mess! Because I left it to you!”
Muriela’s sharp words silenced Patrick.
“Patrick, from what we’ve discussed today, I can tell that you are a loyal subject who truly cares for this country. But that’s not enough. No matter how much you care, the treasury is still being drained. At this rate, we don’t even know how many more years the kingdom can survive.”
The princess was now speaking so passionately that even a bit of spit flew from her mouth.
Patrick couldn’t take his eyes off her.
He was worried about how emotional she was, but at the same time, he was deeply moved by her boldness.
He had seen Crown Prince Alfred many times in the main palace, but he was nothing like this.
If only Princess Muriela had been the heir to the throne.
“It’s impossible to persuade Father right now. That’s probably why you’ve been keeping quiet as well. So if we can’t start from the top, we start from the bottom.
If we begin with the officials taking bribes to approve these budgets, and then move on to the bureaucrats embezzling funds in each department, at the very least, we can prevent the kingdom from collapsing.”
Patrick was taken aback by her words.
He had never mentioned that his fellow officials were taking bribes.
How did Muriela know?
Of course, it wasn’t as if he had any loyalty to those corrupt officials.
What kind of camaraderie could exist among bureaucrats who stuffed their own pockets with national funds?
If anything, having to face their greed-ridden expressions every day was exhausting.
But if the princess gets caught up in this and something happens to her…
The only reason he hadn’t spoken up about it was to prevent her from telling the king.
The king despised anyone interfering in the governance of the realm—despite barely paying attention to it himself.
He would carelessly approve proposals submitted to him, and if anyone tried to bring up issues, he would simply get angry.
Once a decision was made, he refused to be bothered with complaints, and instead of punishing the guilty, he demoted those who dared to report them.
Because of this, the main palace had gradually become infested with sycophants.
If the princess provoked the king, what would happen to her?
Patrick didn’t want to find out.
That was why he had kept his mouth shut.
But Solinor had already read the situation perfectly.
Even if someone didn’t say something, there were always ways to hear the truth.
Why would such an upright official like Patrick refuse to report corruption?
The answer was simple—Eldric was ignoring it.
A thorough review of the documents revealed a lot.
After all, this pattern repeated itself almost every time.
There were five individuals with the authority to submit budget proposals to the king.
Among them, four approved the budgets while one consistently opposed them.
“Aside from this man, the other four are all bribed traitors.”
The voting process was anonymous, but after speaking with Patrick, it became clear that he was the dissenting vote.
That meant for the corrupt officials to benefit from their embezzlement schemes, at least three out of the four needed to approve it.
Naturally, bribery had to be involved.
If not, it would be stranger—why would anyone turn a blind eye to corruption with no personal gain?
Unless they were enemy spies.
So, deducing the truth wasn’t difficult at all.
The surprising part was that it came from Princess Muriela, an eight-year-old with no prior knowledge of bureaucratic structures.
Of course, for Solinor, who had once been a king, this was easier than child’s play.
Solinor delivered the finishing blow to the speechless Patrick.
“Give me the addresses of your colleagues immediately. If you don’t, I’ll have no choice but to search through the entire office until I find them myself.”
A firm and commanding voice came from her small, adorable mouth.
Then, she began calling upon her attendants.
“Sir Hamilton.”
“Yes!”
“Bianca, Florina.”
“Yes, Princess!”
The three of them watched as their young princess mercilessly pressured the aging bureaucrat.
Yet instead of concern, they were all deeply moved by the imposing sight—
Even Florina, a trained intelligence officer.
They understood that the princess was doing this for the sake of saving the crumbling kingdom.
“Whether it’s today or tomorrow, I won’t leave until I find the personnel records. Keep that in mind.”
“Yes!”
The three shouted in unison to reinforce the princess’s declaration.
They almost sounded like a gang of extortionists.
Fortunately, since it was Saturday, most officials had left the palace except for those on duty.
“This is how a proper threat is made.”
Solinor smirked to himself.
If you wanted to make demands, you had to clearly state what you would do if they weren’t met.
Bringing along a strong display of force made it even more effective.
It was certainly better than his old method—channeling immense mana into his Holy Sword to create a dazzling light display while threatening,
“So, do you want to be blown to the afterlife with a single strike of the Holy Sword, or do you want to listen to me?”
There were very few people who didn’t take his threats seriously—either those who truly had a death wish or complete lunatics.
“There’s no need for that. Here is the personnel record.”
The old bureaucrat pulled a document from his desk drawer and handed it to the princess.
Of course, it wasn’t because he had been intimidated.
A true loyal subject wouldn’t yield to mere threats.
No matter how much he tried to advise the king, it always fell on deaf ears.
So he agreed with Muriela—going directly to the bureaucrats was the only option left.
He still had concerns about her safety, but after seeing her determination, he had no doubts.
“I am too foolish to judge the scope of Princess Muriela’s abilities. She operates far beyond the bounds of ordinary thinking.”
He had heard Anton praise her countless times,
But seeing it in person was an entirely different matter.
She was indeed as extraordinary as Anton had described—perhaps even more so.
Muriela was someone who could overcome any adversity.
And so, just as he had trusted his instincts when he first leaked classified documents,
He decided to trust them once more.
—
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