Chapter 5
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Chapter 5
How much time had passed?
"Uhhh...."
My eyes snapped open with a groan.
'What? What is this? What?'
I bolted upright. Unlike usual, my entire body felt remarkably light.
'What is this?'
As I regained my senses, I thought urgently.
'The only way to achieve such sudden vitality is capital, but what is this brilliant aura of money flowing through my body?'
Of course. An IV needle was inserted into my left arm. I heard the distinctive drip, drip, drip of money—no, of the IV fluid falling.
I glanced around the room.
'This is... the Imperial Palace Medical Ward.... And a private room at that, the kind used by VIPs!'
The calculation was immediate. Crown Prince Kiaros had given me extraordinary treatment.
An IV drip? This was so expensive that even high-ranking nobles rarely received one!
"Goodness, this is wonderful...."
The sky outside was still a pale violet—dawn had not yet broken.
I lay back down on the bed. The plush mattress enveloped me completely.
"I should head to work from here."
I closed my eyes again, hoping to sleep a little longer.
"Are you awake?"
The door opened.
A young man with brown hair and green eyes—Luca Class—walked toward my bedside in a doctor's coat.
"You woke up faster than expected. Must be the IV fluid."
Luca Class began checking my IV line. I looked up at him urgently and asked.
"You used the best one, right?"
"Huh?"
"The imperial family would say something like 'use the best one' in a situation like this. You can't miss an opportunity like that."
I continued with an earnest expression.
"If you used something mediocre, switch it to the best one right now."
"What?"
"You're accumulating merit for your next life with this opportunity. While using the Imperial Palace's money, no less. What do you think?"
Luca Class looked at me with an exasperated expression.
Luca Class was also my classmate from the Imperial Academy.
Second place in the Academy entrance exam.
First place throughout his entire time at the Academy, top marks on the graduation exam, and top marks on the Imperial Palace civil servant recruitment exam.
Unlike me, who wasn't mentioned once in the original work, he had secured the role of a decent extra character thanks to his outstanding abilities.
'Honestly, the Treasury Department would have recruited him....'
However, the department he chose was the Health and Welfare Department.
Because he came from a commoner background, advancement in other departments related to connections had limitations.
'Well, the Health and Welfare Department always prioritizes ability, so ultimately he made the right choice.'
Luca Class was my colleague from the same intake year, yet he was already climbing the ranks with impressive speed.
Though we were both in our fourth year, his position had advanced far beyond mine—I hadn't even managed to secure a single subordinate.
'Ah, so he did take on that intern who ran away after a single day.'
As I thought bitterly, Luca spoke with an exasperated tone.
"Honestly, this is ridiculous. Do you know that this is the most enthusiastic I've ever seen you?"
He shrugged his shoulders and continued.
"I used the absolute best supplies—the kind reserved only for the imperial family."
Good heavens, no wonder I felt so energized!
As my jaw dropped, Luca tilted his chin up and added.
"And by the way, I'm also the one who casually mentioned in front of the Crown Prince that your nutritional status is poor and you need an IV drip."
"Wow... Luca Class, I didn't know you had such loyalty?"
At my words, Luca crossed his arms and spoke with a smug expression.
"Are you and I the kind of people to keep loyalty with each other? That's not why I did it."
"Ah, okay...."
As I responded, Luca let out an exasperated sound.
"Hey, normally wouldn't you ask why I did it then?"
"I don't have the energy for that...."
....
At my words, Luca's expression showed his frustration rising.
It wasn't surprising. In truth, our relationship at the Imperial Academy had always been like this.
Luca would always bounce around whenever he saw me, while I would always respond apathetically and half-heartedly.
"Namia Loapi. At this rate, you're practically malnourished. What on earth... sigh."
He stared at me intently, fell silent for a moment, then spoke as if he could no longer hold back.
"Your household... it's still like that, isn't it?"
"What?"
"The Loapi Marquessate."
Even though I didn't offer any particular response, Luca continued rapidly.
"Working at the Imperial Palace means you get decent lunches. And yet, at this rate, you're really just living off one meal a day...."
His eyes filled with anger as he continued.
It seemed he was quite shocked by my health condition.
"Your salary... you're not using it yourself, are you? Actually, that rumor's already widespread."
"Good grief."
I muttered indifferently.
"What kind of cursed people go around spreading other people's private family matters so carelessly in all directions?"
"Your cursed parents apparently spread it around in all directions that your salary is there so they don't have to worry when they go into debt."
Damn it.
I knew the civil service world was small, but I didn't expect rumors to spread this quickly.
'Besides, debt? Now I'm accumulating debt too?'
A bad premonition suddenly washed over me, but I didn't want to show it in front of Luca Class.
So I deliberately spoke as if nothing was wrong.
"Well, the overtime pay is still all mine anyway. That gets paid in cash at the end of the month."
"Come on, how much could that even be..."
"Quite a bit, actually. Oh, Huan doesn't mention his overtime pay to the family either. I guess he wants to line his own pockets too."
The moment Huan Loapi's name left my lips, Luca Class's eyes narrowed into sharp triangles.
Huan Loapi.
On paper, my twin brother. We attended the Imperial Academy together and took the Imperial Palace civil servant entrance exam together.
"Namia Loapi, since we're at it, let me ask you one thing."
Luca Class asked quietly.
"I've wanted to ask you this for a while, but I held back."
"Ah... Then keep holding back."
"Hey, normally wouldn't you ask what it is?"
"I don't have the energy for that..."
My consistent response was ignored. Luca Class stared directly into my eyes and asked.
"You wrote Huan's report for the Imperial Palace civil servant entrance exam, didn't you?"
"..."
"It was a two-person team project, and your report overwhelmingly came in first. Since Huan claimed he did it all, you got the lowest score and he got the highest."
The Imperial Palace civil servant entrance evaluation consisted of 50% written exam score and 50% report score.
Huan Loapi scored average on the written exam but received a perfect score on the report. That's how he got into the Treasury Department, one of the Empire's core divisions.
"But you're paired with Huan of all people, and you're telling me you did nothing?"
Luca Class looked at me directly and asked sharply.
"Just like how you did all of Huan's assignments throughout the Academy... it was the same during the entrance exam, wasn't it?"
Faced with Luca Class's relentless barrage of questions, I casually picked at my ear and responded flatly.
"Why are you so interested in me? Do you like me or something? Could it be that I've been so oblivious this whole time that I didn't notice your long-standing crush on me..."
"Are you insane?"
Luca Class exclaimed in agitation.
"You're my rival, my rival! It's only natural to take interest in the rival I've held in my heart since the entrance exam!"
Ah, there it is again. That same line.
I waved my hand dismissively as if exhausted and spoke carelessly.
"Luca Class, please just forget about the entrance exam..."
"How could I forget? You're the first perfect score in 15 years, and you beat me—the second-place finisher—by nearly 40 points!"
"...Hmm."
"Hey, at least give me a proper answer. Why can't you ever say anything clearly? Ugh, this is so frustrating!"
Watching Luca Class pout like that, I figured I owed him a proper response.
So I gave him the answer he wanted.
"It was a perfect score in 17 years, not 15. And 17 years ago was a year when 56 people got perfect scores due to a difficulty adjustment failure, so I'm officially recognized as the only true perfect scorer in Imperial Academy history. And while I did beat you by exactly 42 points, you actually beat me by 23 points in the physical fitness test that's included in the entrance exam score, so if we're counting just the written exam, the difference is actually 65 points. If you're going to keep remembering the entrance exam from now on, would you remember it that way instead?"
"..."
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