He kept silent again, but Zen could guess the answer by his pale face.
What typical corrupt officials. Zen couldn’t help his anger. They were a hopeless bunch. This establishment was likely not the only victim of their crimes either. He had to deal with them somehow as soon as possible.
Yes, although this wasn’t his duty, he couldn’t turn a blind eye. He thanked the waiter and stood up.
“Sorry, you two. I’m gonna go over there for a bit.” After giving Elysia and Mina a heads-up, he casually headed to the table in the back. Then he leaned down next to Palk, who eyed him with suspicion, and softly whispered in his ear.
“Say what?! I-I mean, what did you say?!” the man reflexively shrieked and half rose to his feet. His followers were surprised and seemed puzzled, but Palk didn’t have the luxury to pay them any mind.
He stared at Zen, trying to figure out his true identity. However, as Zen continued to whisper in his ear, his drunken-red face turned pale.
“E-Excuse me.” He then turned tail and hurriedly left the restaurant, leaving behind his subordinates. Immediately afterward, he quickly came back and paid for the food and drink for the day.
Despite not understanding what was going on, his followers at least figured they couldn’t leave their superior alone. With that in mind, they followed after him with tilted heads.
Zen and the waitress who had been pouring them alcohol were left behind.
“Wh-What on earth happened?” She looked like she’d just been bewitched by a fairy.
“Well, it’s like that saying: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. An injustice for an injustice...” he answered tartly.
As he thought about how it served them right, he looked at the waitress awkwardly and said, “At any rate, I don’t think they’ll stir up trouble anymore.”
After dinner had ended and they’d returned to their room, Elysia and Mina asked impatiently:
“Tell me how you did it please, father.”
“How did you chase off that wicked bunch? And so skillfully too.”
“It wasn’t that skillful. I just couldn’t ignore it.” Zen once again looked awkward. By this time, the sun had already set, and they’d quietly invited Keel in through the window.
It looked like Keel wanted to say, What did you do now? but he didn’t say anything since Mina was there.
Zen guessed what he was feeling and only rebutted with a silent, What do you mean now?
After that, as Zen fed Keel his dinner of plenty of grilled chicken, which he’d procured with the excuse of a late-night snack, he answered their questions.
He slumped his shoulders since it wasn’t something he was proud of. “I only ‘informed’ him that a tax inspector from the Police Agency has come to look into his corruption.”
“But that’s a lie.”
“It’s not like I said I was the tax inspector. It doesn’t technically count as identity fraud! I’d win in a trial!” Zen explained desperately, but internally, he was thinking, Granted, that doesn’t change the fact that a lie is a lie.
Meanwhile, while looking half astonished and half impressed, Mina said, “I’m surprised that Palk fellow believed you. You didn’t even have proof.”
“Being a central bureaucrat is in itself a position,” he explained, “so they have particular expressions and mannerisms. The peculiarities of people from the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Military Affairs are particularly strong.” And Zen had actually been in the Inspection Bureau in the Ministry of Justice. Rather than just impersonating one, he actually had formerly been a tax inspector. It was because Palk was a central bureaucrat that he could sense when someone was the real deal. So that was all the more reason he’d fallen into Zen’s trap and come to a misunderstanding.
That wasn’t to mention that this was a remote region. It was stranger to think that there were people just popping up who could pretend to be a tax inspector from the head offices. Zen had just happened to be present.
“Palk is probably desperate to figure out how to cover up his corruption right about now,” he said.
“Like how?”
“If he can clear the debts he’s racked up and pay back the bribes he’s taken, he can insist that he didn’t mean to do what he did, and that it’d all been a misunderstanding. Depending on the judge, he could be found not at fault.” However, Zen wasn’t actually a tax inspector, and Palk wouldn’t be made to stand at the witness stand either.
“If he settles what he’s done in his past and lays low from now on, it’ll help the people of South Talum. I have to consider this good enough for now.”
Zen didn’t have further authority to do anything else. He intended to report about it to Cummel, but Cummel couldn’t meddle in another prefecture’s government. Thus, as things stood now, this incident was over.
Zen felt there was another, deeper problem buried under it, though.
“How are they allowing guys like them to run loose? What is the state of law and order here?”
“There are no corrupt officials in Nazalf!” Mina exclaimed. “I mean, it’s not like they don’t exist, but His Excellency Cummel is always keeping a watchful eye, and he strictly punishes any mischief no matter how small.”
“Indeed,” said Zen. “Realistically, I don’t think it’s possible to one hundred percent wipe out corruption.” What was important was the hard work of the statesmen and getting that number close enough to zero. The statesmen had to habitually make sure that the government officials under them were aware of the high risks associated with having a hand in corruption, and that you couldn’t easily get away with it. They had to instill a respect for the law that wasn’t just lip service. That was law and order.
“The empire’s bureaucracy is functioning almost perfectly. That goes for where we are now, one hundred years after its founding,” Zen proudly declared. It was the result of all the previous emperors’ hard work and self-discipline. By extension, it was thanks to the feeling of dread they felt toward the golden dragon god Catal Catalana, who was the guardian of the empire.
The first emperor Julian had entrusted his will to that well-known dragon king. “If you one day deem that the imperial family no longer has any right to rule over Catalan, I want you to destroy my descendants with your godly powers.”
“However, it’s impossible to think that everything is perfect,” Zen continued. “The data sadly says that the farther you get from the imperial capital, the more difficult it is to keep an eye on things. Law and order loosens and corrupt government officials increase in number. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the central tax inspectors are. It exists as a certainty.”
It was rare to see a case like Nazalf that remained clear of corruption all the way from the prefectural government office down to the village town halls, which was thanks to Cummel’s virtuous nature and astuteness.
On the other hand, what about Alona? Following what that data said, could it not be helped that corrupt government officials existed here?
Maybe not, but there was still the question of the degree.
“It’s unbelievable that in a big town like this, they overlook such brazenly corrupt people working at the top,” he said. This was the very definition of detestable.
Zen continued to explain the situation carefully to Elysia, who was sitting beside the bed. “You see, I don’t think there’s anything more detestable than corrupt government officials.”
He of course didn’t approve of ordinary criminals like bandits either; however, the damage they caused was nothing compared to what the abuse of government authority could do.