Zen reflected back on when he’d just been assigned to the Inspection Bureau in the Police Agency. He’d been twenty-four years old, and Aness and Heinri had still been alive.
Zen was a close friend of the emperor and empress, as well as a member of the Leadon family, so the chief of the Inspection Bureau had high hopes for Zen despite the fact that he hadn’t moved up even once in his career. Thus, the Inspection Bureau chief made an arrangement for him.
“I’ll assign you to one of our highly skilled tax inspectors, so I want you to learn all you can from her.”
This new boss he was assigned to was fifty years old and had definitely been in the business a while.
“We don’t have enough people to take it easy and train you,” she said. “Learn as you go.”
So he was taken on an undercover investigation right away. Their destination was the state of Teshtorya, two states away from the imperial capital.
His boss explained to him that they didn’t have a particular target; this undercover investigation was part of the surprise audits they carried out periodically all over the country.
It was an unenviable job. Central bureaucrats from the other ministries would loathe having to go somewhere so far away, complaining that it was like they were barnstorming. However, the Inspection Bureau was full of serious and honest government officials who didn’t shy away from doing what needed to be done.
His boss was in such good physical shape, you wouldn’t think she was fifty years old. In good spirits, Zen went with her into Teshtorya.
“We’ll visit the state government office and audit their account books later. First, we blend into the streets and gather information about any government officials who are doing unusually well for themselves.”
At his boss’s suggestion, they decided to pose as mother and son for the duration of the trip. They stayed in the state capital for many days, moving from place to place. Before long, they zeroed in on a minor government official named Beton.
Beton was a mid-rank employee in the Public Works Department, and he spent time with some notorious hoodlums in secret.
Moreover, thanks to a population increase, a certain village had been promoted to a “town,” and a plan was in progress to repair and expand the countryside road that connected it to the state capital. Beton had leaked that plan to gangsters in return for a bribe.
The gangsters had then bought up plots of land all along that road at cheap prices, with the intent to demand lots of money from the Teshtorya State Government Office as compensation for being evicted when construction began.
After looking into him, his boss took Beton to an inn and interrogated him. Of course, Beton acted like he was completely unaware at first.
Then Zen’s boss said, “Sorry, but we don’t have time for this,” and suddenly threw a punch in his face.
She smashed Beton’s front teeth, her arm power so strong that it amazed Zen. Where did a middle-aged woman get that kind of strength?
Unable to bear the pain, Beton confessed his crime.
“I just did it impulsively. Please forgive me,” he apologized, pressing his forehead to the floor.
However, as his boss pressed her foot down on the back of Beton’s head, she said, “What the hell are you saying? Corrupt government officials must be hanged for their crimes. That’s been a given in Catalan since long ago.”
He sharply raised his head, his face turning a pitiful shade of white. “I-I didn’t know that. My chief never said anything like that!” Regardless, it was true that in the empire, punishment by hanging was the law for corruption. He couldn’t get out of it by saying he didn’t know.
“Huh. By your chief, you mean the one in charge of the Public Works Department, right? What did he tell you?”
“He said that he’d show me a good way to make some pocket money and that we could split the profits seven to three. He told me no one would find out anyway, and even if we were caught, all we’d have to do is pay a fine and everything would be all right!”
“There was no way that was true, yet you let yourself be wheedled into it. Ignorance truly is a sin,” she spat. Zen, who’d been silently listening next to her, was dumbfounded too.
Beton wailed like a child. He cried, “I’ve reflected on myself! I won’t ever do it again! So please spare my life!” but all Zen’s boss did was shake her head.
“Catalan never forgives the corruption of government officials. Never,” she said grimly.
“Please make an exception! Please, I’m begging you, please...”
With the authority Zen’s boss held as a tax inspector, she decided to offer up a plea bargain. “In that case, give me a list of all the corrupt officials you know of. I’ll see if I can at least spare your life then. You might even get away with just some forced labor in the mines as punishment.”
With Beton’s back against the wall, he sang like a canary.
To collect evidence regarding the information he’d told her and dig into it further, Zen’s boss diligently continued her secret investigation of the Teshtorya State Government Office. Zen absorbed her methods and stood at her beck and call as she unearthed corruption after corruption.
The chief of the Financial Affairs Department had been the first to fall into corruption. He’d been embezzling public funds, which came out of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
Then he conspired with four other department chiefs who were his friends, which included the Public Works Department chief, and they continued their corrupt deeds. They accommodated corrupt merchants and gangsters, giving them special privileges and taking bribes as payment.
On top of that, they chose ignorant subordinates like Beton and dragged them into their circle of accomplices, framing them as the perpetrators. The department chiefs only took a portion of the money and made it so that, like a lizard with its tail, they could cut them off at any time to save themselves. Of course, those subordinates hadn’t been questioned before until today.
There was a Tax Inspection Department within the state government office, but that department chief was an accomplice too.
“The corruption those officials are causing from their positions is despicable!” his boss exclaimed. “Even bandits and brigands put their lives on the line when they’re committing their crimes.”