Adlet knocked on the door to the study and entered after receiving a response.
Bert didn’t even lift his head. “More sugar, please and thank you.”
He said, quickly browsing, signing and setting aside documents.
Adlet gently shut the door behind him with a faint smile. “I know. As always.”
He carefully found an empty spot on the desk and set down his tray.
There were still piles of documents on the desk. More than Adlet had even seen when Norton was around. The cabinet Norton assembled mostly consisting of enthusiastic members of the younger generation was extremely efficient. They were very dedicated and loyal to Grantz while also having an impeccable sense of accountability.
Norton only needed to deal with the highest-level documents, which usually didn’t take up much of his time unless an emergency came up and Secretary-General Lin had to disturb him in the middle of the night. Sometimes, Norton even delegated those documents to Secretary-General Lin or other members of the cabinet.
Behind the piles of documents on the desk nearby, Jacob groaned despondently. He took advantage of the moment when Adlet came over to deliver some tea and snacks to stand up and work out the kinks in his neck. Even then, he didn’t dare to set down his pen.
He’s been trapped in the study since he got off the warship.Â
Secretary-General Lin even came once to deliver more documents. He still wasn’t finished dealing with them to this day.
Jacob grumbled, “I’m willing to bet Big Brother dumped all the work from the intelligence department on me. I want to go patrol and kill insects with Helene and the others too! This is too much. Big Brother definitely did this on purpose. Tell him off already, Adlet!”
Bert nodded along from where he was buried in paperwork. Much of these documents didn’t require his sign-off at all. Norton had become quite naughty it seemed. Yet he just said, “Jacob…under normal circumstances, shouldn’t you ask that of me, your father?”
Jacob calmly stated as he retook his seat, “Father, you have even more paperwork than me.”
Bert sighed. Before he could respond, Jacob warily cut in, “And I won’t help you, Father.”
Then he turned back to Adlet, “Please, Adlet…”
Adlet smiled as he set out the contents on his tray. “I cannot influence His Majesty’s decisions, but I can convey your exact words to him if you wish.”
“No need. Forget it then.”
Jacob dove back into the sea of documents. “I’ll work hard a little longer. I should be finished by the afternoon.”
Bert turned another page of the document he was holding. Thanks to all the paper-pushing these days, he had a general understanding of what happened while he was out of commission for so long.
Still, some things managed to surprise him.
Bert gradually stopped turning pages with a complicated look in his eyes. For example, the matter relating to that child. His ‘great’ sense of selflessness, and his deceased mother…
There was another knock at the door. Secretary-General Lin came in carrying a bundle of documents. He set them down on the desk and adjusted his glasses. “His Majesty ordered these to be given to you.”
Jacob breathed a sigh of relief from the side. He could see the end of his workload now.
Bert made a sound of acknowledgement instead of retorting, which brought Secretary-General Lin some sense of relief. He has heard rumours of how willful and contrary the former emperor could be.
Just as he was about to take his leave, Bert spoke, “Wait a minute.”
Secretary-General Lin paused and turned back to face Bert. “Is there anything I can do for you, Your Majesty Bert?”
He couldn’t help but tense as Bert looked at him consideringly.
Bert tossed the document in his hand aside and put his feet up on the desk before him. His boots thumped as they hit the surface. “I’ve seen your resume. Quite impressive. You must be Norton’s secretary-general and the current head of the intelligence bureau and spy network, correct?”
Secretary-General Lin cautiously made a sound of acknowledgement. Being Norton’s Secretary-General foremost, the other two roles served to facilitate a more direct transmission of intel to the man.
Yet Bert changed the subject, “You’re also constantly by Norton’s side, handling his affairs. Therefore, you must know quite a bit about Little Xavier, no?”
Silence fell over the study. Even Jacob quietly looked up from the side.
Adlet was the first to respond, “You can ask me these things, Your Majesty Bert.”
“I’m afraid I can’t, Adlet. I’m asking to see some sealed documents that only the emperor of Grantz is privy to.”
Besides, Adlet was too much of a stickler for rules. Even if he did know something, he would only share stuff that was common knowledge.
Bert thought as he turned back to Secretary-General Lin. “Relax, young man. I simply wish to care for my dear little grandson as a grandfather.”
The words sparked a sense of incongruity in Secretary-General Lin. Bert still appeared quite young, to the point that anyone would mistake him and his children for siblings if they standing together.
With the average lifespan reaching 300 years currently and psychic power strength being positively correlated with lifespan, adulthood was defined as the complete development of the physical body and psychic power. This tended to occur when someone was in their twenties to thirties.
Then, they would maintain that peak condition for a long time, gradually showing minor signs of aging as they approached the hundred year mark.
Yet Bert’s appearance remained unchanged. This was quite normal considering the psychic capabilities of the Grantz.
He adjusted his glasses again. “My sincerest apologies, but I will most likely have to check with His Majesty.”
Bert took his boots off the desk. “No worries, I already asked ahead of time. I probably have the required permissions already.”
Top-secret documents could not be accessed through online databases. Someone has to go manually retrieve them, and the information they contained could only be passed through physical copies.
“I will send the documents you need as soon as I confirm this.”
Jacob scooted over after Secretary-General Lin left. “How did you convince Big Brother, Father?”
Bert: “I told him that I can’t do all this work if there’s a bunch of documents I can’t access. He immediately gave me the highest level of permissions.”
Jacob: “You’re done for. I’m going to tell Big Brother and he’s going to beat you up.”
Bert casually stretched. “Not unless you don’t take a look.”
Jacob hesitated, “You’re not going to put the blame on me, are you?”
“If you’re not a snitch, no.”
Jacob: “Deal.”
Secretary-General Lin came back after their brief discussion, holding a new pile of documents that he carefully set down on the desk. “The one on top is a summarized version. The rest contain more detailed descriptions.”
Bert straightened. “You’re quite useful. I understand why Norton keeps you around now. If you had been born a few years earlier, I wouldn’t have had to work so hard.”
Jacob pretended to gag on the side.
Secretary-General Lin adjusted his glasses. “Thank you for your kind words. Please read through these documents as soon as possible. You have the rest of the day to do so. When you are finished, I will take them to be destroyed.”
With that, Secretary-General Lin left again.
Bert opened the document on top. A bold title immediately hit him.
[A remnant of the rebellion.]
Who the title of this document was referring to was obvious.
Any hint of amusement in Bert’s expression vanished. Jacob, who was looking over his shoulder, was stunned. He instinctively glanced at Bert, “Father…”
Bert subconsciously frowned. He lifted his hand for Jacob to be quiet as he kept reading.
[…After the last member of the Grantz family, His Highness Ano, died at the hands of His Majesty, Grantz fell into turmoil once more. March 24th of that year, the United States of Libre, the Lyre Constellation Federation, and other neighbouring countries invaded one after another.
His Majesty left the main planet and went to battle. The next month, the Grantz Rebellion began. (His Majesty ordered in secret for no substantive suppression to be enacted in response to this rebellion, rebellion operation number 237.)
During this rebellion allowed by the higher-ups, the medical research institute was attacked and Grantz DNA was stolen…]
Bert’s frown only deepened. Normal embryos wouldn’t possess psychic power until a later stage in development, but the Grantz were different. They required daily psychic soothing from their parents to survive. Thus, even if their DNA had been stolen, there shouldn’t have been any risks. Those embryos would self-terminate due to their own overactive psychic power at an early stage of development.
He quickly flipped through. […The stolen embryo was retrieved from the rebel organization by the other provider of genetic material, who halted its gestation and stored it in a secret room belonging to her clan. Several years later, her younger brother, Ye Zhiyuan, reactivated the gestation procedure and raised the subject in secret after his successful development.
Initially, Ye Zhiyuan arranged a foster mother for the subject. When the subject was aged 2 years and 6 months, the foster mother died while fighting with a convict who broke in for the sake of robbery. The convict was initially deemed to have died of fatal injuries inflicted by the foster mother, but a later review confirmed the cause of death as severe damage to the cerebral domain and complete collapse of the psychic domain. The subject was personally raised by Ye Zhiyuan from the age of three and named ‘Ye Muo’…]
Bert rapidly digested all of these materials.
[The following are supplementary documents.
Ye Zhiyuan’s statement.
Ye Zhiyuan: “After my elder sister picked me up when I was released from prison, she informed me she had left the embryo in a secret room in the imperial drama theatre. I was to destroy it upon her passing.”
The interrogator: “May I ask if you knew? Did she tell you what it was at the time?”
Ye Zhiyuan: “No. I asked, but she didn’t say.”
The interrogator: “Please repeat her words as she stated them.”
Ye Zhiyuan: “I asked her what it was. She responded, ‘Something that shouldn’t exist. A remnant of the rebellion. My–’. She didn’t continue, but I suspect she wanted to say ‘her child’.]
Unknowingly, Bert had turned to the last page of the document.
[It was discovered when Ye Muo was sixteen and began his psychic power development period that he was intolerant of the psychic soothing agent. He was secretly sent to the Clinton family for treatment by Ye Zhiyuan with little results. Several months later, Ye Muo had a psychic meltdown during the Military Academy League and entered psychic resonance with His Majesty…]
[His Majesty was furious and tried to kill Ye Muo until Prince Ano, who was the imperial guard commander at the time, intervened and exchanged all his military merits for Ye Muo to be allowed to live until adulthood.]
Bert closed the document and set it aside.
Jacob took it with a frown and prepared to give it another look.
Bert’s boots thumped back onto the desk as he tilted his head back and looked at the chandelier on the ceiling. He murmured to himself, “Well that was far worse than I expected…”
He originally thought that Ye Muo’s strange behaviour was due to losing his mother somehow, especially coupled with Norton’s inattention towards him. Now it seemed like his problems were due to being tossed around like a piece of unwanted luggage, ah…
Then didn’t everything he did to Ye Muo before make him look like the literal scum of the earth??Â
