Honestly, if it wasn't Assistant Ashwood who came, but any other assistant, I wouldn't have helped at all.
I was actually able to evaluate everyone's work efficiency from the documents they left piled up in the Winter Palace.
It was clear that teaching them would be infuriating for me.
'Let Deputy Ashwood be angry, not me.'
My fragile mind cannot bear such a burden.
That's why I thought of transferring a portion of the demon's blood to Assistant Ashwood.
Educating them entirely would be a loss to the Winter Palace, but leaving things as they are would only put me and Cassian closer to death from exhaustion.
'Reducing unnecessary expenses makes life more comfortable...'
Even if these expenses are related to labor.
“Assistant Salis, we have finished arranging the documents you requested.”
When the new administrators came in, I had them first start by organizing the raw data, just as I had done during their initial training.
“This, and this, rearrange it again.
If you don’t understand something, grab one of the administrators and ask.”
In all fairness, I treated him exactly as I treated other administrators, without any discrimination.
Oh, I'm really a very, very good person.
Francis had agreed to unreasonable terms out of fear of discrediting the family of the Duchy of Ashwood.
Of course, pressure from other assistants played a big role in his decision as well.
“If the situation continues like this, Her Majesty the Empress will issue a strict order regarding us.”
“We asked the Rose Palace assistants for help, but they looked at us as if we were trash!
As if they were the only ones busy!”
"Even the Sun Palace's assistants weren't helpful.
I have old acquaintances there, but they said there isn't anywhere that has the energy to help others right now."
“Not only that, but when we mentioned the matter, one of the Sun Palace’s assistants said that it is because of us that the Winter Palace’s work is piling up, and if we are not willing to receive His Majesty the Emperor’s wrath in their place, then we should disappear immediately...”
“How shameless!
Is it possible that the Winter Palace wouldn’t function without that witch?”
While they were exchanging these conversations, one of the administrators from the Palace of the Sun had come to deliver some documents, and commented sarcastically, in a voice that only Francis could hear:
“Of course it doesn't work without it.
Everyone knows that, even His Majesty the Emperor himf accepts it, but you are the only ones ignoring it, tsk.”
His voice was so faint that the other assistants could not hear it, but Francis heard it clearly.
At that moment, a deep sense of shame swept over him.
How does he, the eldest son of the Ashwood family, meticulously trained to be the perfect heir, find himf left behind by the daughter of an obscure baron?
He was still resentful of the severe reprimand he had received from his grandfather, the Duke of Ashwood, after he had been forced to leave the luxury liner by order of Her Majesty the Empress.
“If this continues, it would be better for your younger brother to take over as Duke.
Do you think I raised you just to be a puppet of the Empress?”
He wasn't sure if Assistant Saliss had planned all this intentionally, but his grandfather, no doubt, was aware of the situation, and yet he didn't object or interfere..
'Of course, this will be considered a test of my competence.'
Francis sighed deeply, then went to the administrators with the documents that Roita had rejected.
He wasn't blind or deaf, he was fully aware of how busy she was.
Of course, dedicating this time to working with the assistants made him miss his lessons as Caliph, which made him feel stressed..
'But why do I feel that what I'm learning here is more useful?'
Although all of his teachers were elite, they were chosen with great care.
With cautious steps, Francis handed the documents he had reviewed to Roita, and asked her about the notes recorded on them.
“Ah, yes, this work is very tiring at first.
But for a beginner, I’m not bad at all.”
Stop for a moment...
'Not bad… for a newbie?'
Wasn't he considered a genius?
Wasn't he personally ected to be the first assistant to the Crown Prince by order of Her Majesty the Empress?
Before Roslita entered, he had not left the list of the most qualified assistants in each quarter.
But since her arrival, the Winter Palace's aides and administrators have outstripped him.
While he was deep in thought, the administrators laughed as they spoke:
“At least our assistant Saliss is a lot nicer now.”
“That's right, at first she didn't even have a chance to open her mouth, she was too busy to even respond to us, all we got were red ink correction marks.”
“If we were a little late in understanding something, she would do it herf because she was in a hurry.
We wished she would have shouted at us instead.”
“Oh, by the way, I have the next bit of work assigned to Mr.
Ashwood.
How lucky we are.”
“Lucky?”
He felt another blow to his dignity.
They couldn't even count on him to finish the work on time, so they handed the rest to someone else?
“At least, now we can say that we have become competent employees, and we have been recognized by Assistant Salis.”
The administrators were laughing indifferently, not caring about the issues that hurt his pride.
Francis couldn't understand them at all.
“…Aren’t you angry?”
He couldn't stop himf from asking this question, even though if he had said it in front of Roita, he would have been reprimanded.
The administrators' eyes widened for a moment, then one of them said:
"Anger?
We're lucky, don't you see?"
“Lucky?”
“Since you are an assistant, you must know this well, right?
The fate of the administrators depends entirely on the assistant who guides them.”
“I know that, of course.”
The assistant was responsible for determining whether administrators would undertake important tasks or not, and was also the one who directed them in the nature of the work.
“Today is the third day, and since you have gone through Assistant Salis’s review, you must have realized the matter by now.”
One of the administrators said in a sarcastic tone, sounding sharper than others.
Under normal circumstances, Francis would have called him rude, but he began to realize the nature of the atmosphere here, so he silently suppressed his arrogance..
“At the very least, our help teaches us how to get the work done.”
“In addition, Assistant Saliss does not get angry when training beginners.”
"…What?"
“Most of the other assistants don't bother teaching us the basics, they throw tasks at us, then explode if they don't get done the way they want.”
This conversation reminded him of the administrators at the Summer Palace.
Did he ever do anything other than give them instructions...?
He assumed they should know what they were doing, and was often frustrated when their performance did not live up to his expectations.
"Even in the midst of her busyness, she finds time to review everything herf.
It is true that she does not tolerate mistakes and repeats the work until it is done correctly, but she does not scream or get angry."
“And if she has some time, she explains things in more detail.
These days, however, she hardly finds a spare moment due to the busyness of reports.”
“There is no need to classify everything very preciy.
In this document, all we need is the field of work, the number of years of activity, and its percentage compared to the total.”
He could not deny that her observations changed the way he looked at the reports.
He also noticed that her sullen expression began to ease as he began to get used to her approach.
“By the way, don't you think our report style is easier to use?”
Francis closed his mouth for a moment.
When he first saw her, she seemed overly casual to him.
Normal reports are full of formal jargon and long introductions, but the Winter Palace reports were straightforward, containing only a summary and a basic part.
Sometimes, there was not even a table of contents, and some documents were only two pages long.
“The way the data is arranged in this table could be improved.
Delete this row, it is not needed.”
While Francis was lost in his thoughts, the administrator began explaining how to improve his document, clearly stating the reasons why.
Then the sarcastic administrator opened his mouth again:
“This is all explained in the manual, but since you haven’t looked at it, we have to waste our valuable time for you.”
“Tsk, don’t continue.
Assistant Saliss won’t praise you anyway.”
Then, the cynical administrator merely grimaced and went back to work.
As for Francis, he decided to silently accept the rudeness of the administrators.
It wasn't surprising, the others' performance was faster than he expected, causing him to remain silent.
Although he was an assistant, he realized that he was nothing more than a burden, and not a help to them.
He wanted to see the work manual prepared by the Winter Palace administration in advance, but he didn't dare ask..
'You don't even have a shred of shame, so do you lack conscience too?'
He began to anticipate what Roita might say to him now.
And how could this favor that she offered him that she did not have to provide in the first place..
As he looked at the piles of documents accumulating in the offices of the Winter Palace, he realized how petty his previous behavior had been.
“We were making all this noise because of only half or even a quarter of that amount of work...”
As for Roita, she was in charge of everything, from training the administrators to directing the servants, without losing control.
Even when she made him an attendant servant, it was not out of spite, but because the palace could not appoint more administrators..
‘The number of assistants is small, so they can’t increase the number of administrators any more…’
As a member of a ducal family, he was aware of the political rivalries within the palace.
He had listened all the time to the rumors about Roita, and he thought she was just an arrogant assistant who acted without shame or respect, but now he felt ashamed of his narrow view of her.
However, his mind began to become clearer.
As the first assistant of the Summer Palace, he now knows how he should act.
“Don't you think it's time for you to stop coming to the Winter Palace?”
On the fifth day, at six o'clock, Francis was astonished by her words.
"What?
You mean I won't come back here?"
“Of course, you should return to your work at the Summer Palace, right?”
Five days were more than enough for new management training, in her view.
She did not forget her main goal the whole time.
Francis had an organized mind, and despite some rigidity in his thinking, he learned from his mistakes and sought improvement.
If he were one of her employees, she would be completely satisfied with this kind of commitment, but…
‘Why give a weapon that the Winter Palace can keep for itf?’
She smiled sweetly at him and said:
“I heard Prince Charlie is working late hours these days, so it's best to have his first assistant by his side.”
Since we have finished sorting the raw data, it means that we will no longer be burdened with simple tasks.
Finally, she can get rid of him.
“That's true, but I still…”
“Still what?
The next stage is about processing the main tasks, and I certainly won’t let you learn that.
Well then, good luck with your semi-annual accounts reconciliation, First Assistant Master.”
She interrupted his incomplete words without hesitation, not caring about his frustration.
'Now it's your turn to get frustrated!'
He was accustomed to the work style of the Winter Palace, so how could he tolerate the chaos in the Summer Palace now?
As he left, Roslita couldn't help but smile, quite content with banishing the unwanted guest from her palace.