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Episode 74: The Self-Defeating Greedy Pig (I)
It was a face I hadn’t seen in a very long time.
Brown beard, and for some reason, an impression of greed.
Unpleasant eyes like that of a snake’s.
And a slight bent back.
I really hadn’t seen all of this in a while.
“This is Prime Minister Bernard, Your Majesty.”
I stared at Prime Minister Bernard, who was politely greeting me with a stern look.
Seryl, Laura and Maribel tried to leave.
But I raised my hand and stopped them.
“I don’t mind having you guys here.”
“
Yes, Your Majesty.”
Was he here to fight? In such a case, the number of people mattered, right?
Of course, the most destructive attack of the chick corps was ‘beak pecking’, which converged to ‘0’


“It is an infinite honor for this Bernard to be able to see you despite your busy schedule, Your Majesty.”
“

”
Without answering, I stared at the greedy human’s face.
I had forgotten about him because I didn’t see much of him, but when I saw his face, I remembered it vividly.
How this person insulted me on the day of the high priest’s visit.
“When she becomes the Crown Princess, she’ll be entrusted with the huge budget of the Aktoum imperial family, but we wouldn’t know if she takes it to Spinel?”
He treated me like a thief.
“The woman sitting over there is, in fact, the ‘main enemy’ of Aktoum!”
He dared to call me the ‘woman sitting over there’ in front of other nobles.
No one with sense would dare to call me that in a public setting now.
But at that time, my public sentiment and my position in Aktoum were like that.
Now that I think about it, I had been fiercely expanding my position in Aktoum, and I liked to think I was half successful.
Anyway, seeing that guy’s face made it as vivid and deeply unpleasant as if it was yesterday.
My chest simmered like the bottom of a swamp full of poison.
Not bothering to hide my uncomfortable feelings, I asked,
“What did you come here for?”
“Yes, Your Majesty–”
As soon as he tried to speak, I cut off the end of his words.
“I said you’d be decapitated if it wasn’t important.”
Bernard blinked and flinched, then shifted his eyes and looked at me.
“That
”
I looked carefully at his expression.
‘Did he come here because he’s unwilling to hand over the budget?’
The ‘power of appointment’ and ‘budget authority’, which were originally the powers of the empress, were now in my possession.
The ‘power of appointment’ that Deborah used to have was given to me two days after the day of the high priest’s visit.
Prime Minister Bernard’s ‘budget authority’ was fully entrusted to me yesterday.
‘It seems that the money-crazed man is going crazy that he had to part with the power of sucking money.’
There was no way he could let it go just like that.
After Rixus nearly cut off his tongue and Deborah fell, Bernard was confined to his house like a tailless rat.
Bang!
I slammed the handle of the chair hard and shouted.
“Prime Minister Bernard!”
“!?”
“What the hell are you doing, given that I’m busy?”
The shoulders of Prime Minister Bernard, who had been hesitant to choose his words, suddenly rose.
“Yes
 Yes, Your Majesty, I’m no different.”
He stalled in pulling the papers out of his arms.
“Bring it.”
I did not take it directly, but instructed a maid.
Laura took the papers from Bernard and handed them over to me, and then I flipped through them.
“What did you bring?”
I asked first, and then looked at the contents.
It was a feast of complex numbers and letters, but it was possible to understand at a glance.
‘It’s a ledger for the resources bought using Aktoum’s budget.’
And, of course, it was rigged.
It was written to cover the money that Bernard pocketed as the prime minister.
This was especially the case in ‘the cost of maintaining the dignity of the imperial palace’, more than anything else.
‘What kind of palace is lighting a candle a day and it costs
 Ten million ferring?’
Which was actually 1/3 of cheap lard candles.
If it was a crown princess who didn’t know anything about the world, she might look at the ledger and say, ‘Oh, that’s how it is
’
I was the person who had carefully orchestrated Spinel’s budget.
‘Oh my God, you took a lot more than I expected, didn’t you?’
This guy’s a real pig. In addition, the deceitful items were also very detailed and cunning.
Commoners welfare costs, national academy costs, diplomacy costs. It would be obvious if he took from these big things, so it seemed he ate mostly from the maintenance of the Imperial Palace.
‘It’s like a chaebol taking advantage of the bus fare that he doesn’t know much about.’
‘If one spends roughly 20 thousand won for a loaf of bread, do you think you can believe it?’
The unit price was raised a little bit by taking advantage of the fact that these were relatively unknown prices to high-ranking nobles.
If I didn’t know this guy left it out, I would have thought the merchants were cheating the Imperial Palace.
‘You underestimated me. You thought I wouldn’t be interested in people’s livelihood.’
If he had considered that I had lived alone in a swamp, he wouldn’t have made that mistake.
It seemed that he was in a hurry as his ‘money line’ was soon to be cut off, so he didn’t even pay attention to that.
If this much was shown in the ledger, the money embezzled from a large-scale national project that was relatively more difficult to prove would be even greater.
‘It’s so stupid and easy, I don’t even want to deal with it.’
Swhiik—
As I looked through the messy ledger, I burst out laughing.
However, it seemed that Prime Minister Bernard assumed that the atmosphere was relaxed when I laughed.
“I have arranged it all night long so that it is easy for Your Majesty to see.”
No one asked, but he explained what he was good at.
“This Bernard has been responsible for Aktoum’s budget with all his heart and soul for the past 10 years.”
“

”
“Your Majesty the Queen!”
Prime Minister Bernard called me with a resounding voice and suddenly bowed down.
“I know the budget of Aktoum better than anyone else.”
“

.”
“Please let this Bernard sacrifice his life for Your Majesty’s future work!”
“

”
I still looked down at him with cold eyes.
I thought he came here to argue and pressure me

If he had, I would have been less upset than this.
He was a small, rat-like human with far more persistence than I expected.
‘He didn’t come here to slap me.’
So.
‘You came to suck up to me.’
In order to somehow survive the earthquake that occurred in Aktoum, he had come to rub my feet.
Indeed, no shame, no pride, no sense.
It must have been a big decision. Being openly attached to me meant giving up his position as a noble of the Nine Nobles to some extent.
“Prime Minister Bernard, you must have worked hard.”
I smiled benevolently.
“I want to commend you for that hard work.”
Prime Minister Bernard’s eyes shone with hope.
“No
 I was just doing what I was supposed to, Your Majesty.”
I smiled, grabbed a pen, and scribbled quickly.
I could see Bernarda’s lips rising.
He would definitely think he was about to be rewarded with something. It seemed to have written on his face, ‘So it is.’
In fact, I came from Spinel and was in a position where I had no choice but to know the real situation of Aktum too much to hire Aktoum’s talent
 
 .
In such a position, it was safe to drag existing veterans, even if it hurt.
So, even if you insulted me on High Priest’s Day, you would have thought I was embracing you.
In such a situation, the risk would be too great to dismiss the prime minister.
“Take this.”
“My Majesty the Queen! I will receive it as a family honor!”
“That’s it, you should receive it as an honor.”
I smiled with the back of my hand and clenched my chin.
“Bernard, who has served Aktoum for 10 years. Congratulations to the Prime Minister for his hard work
”
“

.”
“As of this time, I will dismiss you from the position of ‘Aktoum’s Prime Minister’.”
He said, smiling broadly, accepting his ‘resignation letter’ with both hands.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“

”
“
What?!”
Belatedly, Prime Minister Bernard, no, the ‘unemployed jerk Bernard’, who had just lost his job, widened his eyes.
The letter of resignation he was holding was the first official document where I, as the Crown Princess of Aktoum, used the powers of appointment and dismissal.
My signature was neatly written at the bottom.
“Hey, this can’t be
 it can’t be like this. Your Majesty!”
I frowned. I followed his words as if exasperated.
“
It can’t be like this, can it?”
How dare you.
I blinked, as cold as frost.
“Bernard, I have no intention of using you as the prime minister of my country.”
“Even so, without due process
!”
As if I was looking at garbage, I said, looking at that obnoxious face.
“Even if it is not referred to a formal trial, I have the authority to expedite dismissal if it is determined that the person has committed a ‘fatal crime’.”
Bernard’s face turned red.
“Where on earth is the evidence that I have committed a crime?”
My eyes that gazed at him have now changed its perception to looking at ‘food and water waste’.
“Isn’t it here?”
I shook the ledger that he had meticulously filled out all night.
“
.
”
Bernard’s eyebrows twisted. His brown beard trembled.
“Bernard, bring me the budget book for the last ten years right now.”
“!”
“Of course, not this version.”
I mercilessly threw the ledger that he had written with great care at his feet.
A single sheet of ledger fluttered pitifully in the air.
“The ‘real ledger’ in which the money you embezzled is written down to the merest one ferring.”
“
Y-Your Majesty
”
Although Bernard was standing, his legs were wobbly.
As he began trembling to the extremities, his intuition seemed to tell him that I was not speaking nonsense.
“You’re loading up on belly fat like a pig, so you’ve got a bad reputation among your subordinates.”
“

.”
“The majority who worked at the Budget Management Committee gave evidence of embezzlement.”
My lips twisted up.
“There was not even a single person who was willing to defend you by refusing to testify
”
I smiled happily. In front of the trembling Bernard.
Bernard stiffened, as if he was staring at Medusa.