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Chapter 06
Jeremy’s face twisted in irritation, just as I had expected.
“What do you mean, don’t slack off? Do you not understand what that means?”
“Oh? Am I not even allowed to walk around inside the company?”
“Stop poking your nose into places you don’t belong and stay put like a proper trainee! Besides, there are only three places you’re allowed to enter freely as a trainee: the restroom, the break room, and this office!”
“Oh, really? I had no idea. Nobody told me.”
“Exactly! Even I can’t enter places like the document storage room or the conference room whenever I please! The president himself holds the keys!”
Hmm. I genuinely hadn’t known that.
Aden really was a ruthless bastard. Couldn’t he at least leave the doors unlocked?
I stood there with a blank expression, and just as the fuming Jeremy seemed about to say something else—
“…Wait. Did you organize these documents?”
Jeremy’s brow furrowed as he looked at the neatly sorted papers I’d arranged.
Oops.
I relaxed my eyes a little more and tilted my head.
“Organize? Is that what you’d call it? I just put them wherever my hands happened to take them.”
“Wherever your hands took them? But this is…”
Beep—
A signal interrupted Jeremy mid-sentence.
“Ah, yes, yes! I’m on my way right now! Of course. I’ll be there on time. Everything is proceeding without a hitch, naturally…”
Apparently, it was a call from his communication device.
Magical engineering devices were expensive enough as it was, and portable models like that were especially rare. I’d wondered why he had something plugged into his ear.
After bowing and scraping to whoever was on the other end of the communication device—despite having treated me so poorly—Jeremy glanced in my direction several times before finally leaving.
Now that my pesky supervisor was gone, I returned to sorting through the documents.
‘The date of establishment of Ronen Logistics Agency…’
But I had a feeling I wouldn’t need to look much further.
This sort of shell-company scheme…
‘Six months ago.’
It couldn’t have been done without an insider.
A shell company established six months ago, right when he joined the firm.
The way he’d hurriedly tried to cover his desk.
And that expensive miniature communication device, far beyond what an ordinary office worker could afford.
‘…So you’re the culprit.’
[Jeremy Sand]
Every single person who had approved the expenses billed by Ronen Logistics Agency was Jeremy.
As I stared at the countless stamps bearing his name, I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘Judging by the evidence, this isn’t just a case of him pocketing a little money under the table. He actually set up an entire phantom company so he could keep all the profits for himself.’
Was this guy insane?
It wasn’t even my money, yet I could feel my blood boiling.
The thing was, I’d occasionally encountered similar cases back when I worked at Mason Trading Company.
Fortunately, I’d always caught them before the contracts were finalized, so no actual damage had ever been done. But how could anyone possibly look kindly upon people who deliberately deceived others just to line their own pockets?
If I had my way, I’d report Jeremy’s corruption immediately.
But…
‘…What happens to my “Project: Become the Worst Employee” if I do that?’
If I uncovered corporate corruption on my very first day, wouldn’t anyone consider me competent?
Even that finicky bastard, Aden, would have to acknowledge my abilities!
I almost wished I hadn’t noticed anything.
But now that I knew about it, turning a blind eye to such blatant corruption would weigh too heavily on my conscience.
Aden might be a villain pulling strings behind the scenes, but that was a separate issue. At least in this matter, every member of La Mar was a victim.
‘This is driving me crazy.’
I’d brought a sandwich for lunch, but I’d completely lost my appetite.
After sitting there for a while, staring blankly at the folders, I finally dragged myself to my feet.
Well, rather than just sitting around…
“Let’s do some cleaning. Maybe sweeping and wiping things down will help clear my head.”
I neatly arranged the documents, returned them to the filing cabinet, and picked up a long broom.
Swish— Swish—
Watching the few specks of dust being swept away somehow helped organize my thoughts.
‘Come to think of it, that bastard Jeremy wasn’t with La Mar anymore a year later. With how obvious his behavior is, it’s only a matter of time before Aden catches on.’
It was only a matter of time before his shell company was exposed.
In my experience, people like that never knew when to stop. They didn’t just take a reasonable amount and walk away.
Just one more time. Just one more.
And before they knew it, they’d been caught red-handed.
If Aden got his hands on him, Jeremy would undoubtedly suffer far more than the money he’d stolen was worth. In other words, justice would eventually be served.
Still, I wasn’t going to simply sit around and wait for that day.
‘I could casually drop a few hints while pretending I don’t know anything… Or, once I’ve been fired, I could send an anonymous tip. As long as my own safety is secured, I can at least do that much.’
Keeping my mouth shut forever would leave too much of a stain on my conscience.
It was the best solution I’d managed to come up with after racking my brain.
‘For now, I’ll keep quiet!’
Having finally reached a decision, I felt a little more at ease.
“Still, that guy sure has some nerve. If you’re going to pull something like this, shouldn’t you at least be careful about who you’re messing with?”
Creak—
I muttered to myself as I swept the hallway, then suddenly tilted my head.
Where had all the dust I’d swept up gone?
I bent down and let out a small exclamation.
‘There’s a gap in the floorboards here. …Huh?’
As it happened, the gap was right in front of the document storage room.
Creak.
When I carefully stepped on the floorboard, it shifted slightly beneath my weight.
Through the narrow opening, I could just make out what looked like a metal structure.
“Well, would you look at that. Is this some kind of secret passage?”
As I pondered the discovery, something clicked.
‘Oh, right! When the floor creaked earlier, Jeremy yelled at me to stop wandering around, didn’t he?’
No wonder he’d been whining about how even he wasn’t allowed into the document storage room.
I couldn’t help chuckling.
I could easily imagine how much frustration that hot-tempered, impatient Jeremy must have gone through while digging out this underground passage.
‘Hmm, but all the documents related to the shell company were in the office filing cabinet.’
Why would Jeremy need a tunnel like this?
I was still tapping the gap with the end of my broom when—
“Hey!”
BANG!
The door burst open, and Jeremy came charging toward me.
His face was bright red, and he was breathing heavily like an enraged bull.
What the hell? What’s wrong with him?
“Y-You! What do you think you’re doing right now?”
“Me? As you can see, I’m cleaning…”
“Don’t give me that nonsense about cleaning! I saw you deliberately stepping on those floorboards and laughing at them! I had a bad feeling, so I hurried back just in time!”
Ah. Come to think of it, there was a window halfway down the hallway.
He must have gone looking for me after noticing I was gone, then hidden beneath the window to watch me suspiciously while I cleaned.
Wait a minute, though.
“I knew something was strange when I saw how you’d organized those documents earlier. ‘Wherever your hands took you’? If you’d really just put them wherever your hands happened to go, you would’ve at least sorted them by color! But you organized them according to their delivery dates! And in such a short amount of time!”
‘So you knew that, yet you’ve been managing the documents like an absolute mess all this time?’
The words nearly slipped out of my mouth, but I managed to hold them back.
This was starting to look like…
“Who sent you?”
“Pardon?”
“Who sent you here?! Was it the chairman? Did he send you to spy on me?”
“I-I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. But who’s the chairman…?”
Jeremy, however, no longer seemed interested in listening to anything I had to say. He rolled up his sleeves.
“Are you going to keep pretending you don’t know anything? Fine! Good! Let’s settle this right here!”
Settle what, you lunatic?!
I wasn’t even planning on reporting you!
Meanwhile…
Luther was out on an errand, strolling down the street when he casually muttered to himself.
“Heh. What a perfect day for a nice, cold beer!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he felt a piercing gaze fall upon him.
Luther flinched and hurriedly waved his hands, forcing out an ingratiating smile.
“Ah, come on! I was just saying! It’s only an expression! Do you really think I’d drink while on duty? Especially with the president standing right in front of me?”
“That sounds an awful lot like you’re saying you would if I weren’t here.”
“Now, what kind of person do you take me for? Of course, with the sun shining so brightly, I did consider it for a tiny little moment…”
Luther discreetly glanced at Aden, who was still wearing his suit with every button fastened despite the early summer heat.
“I’m a man who thinks about the consequences, you see. I wouldn’t do something when I know I’d inevitably get caught. After all, there isn’t a single ‘secret’ in the empire that the president doesn’t know about.”
“That’s a reasonable assessment.”
There were quite a few street vendors selling cold drinks along the road.
Yet Aden didn’t even spare them a glance. Instead, he pulled a hip flask from inside his coat and added in an unhurried voice.
“Unlike a certain someone in the company who seems completely unaware of that fact.”
