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Chapter 39
Rianel entered the director’s office and took a seat.
“It may not mean much, but… please take it for now.”
Asil handed over the handover documents, saying they had been left behind by the former team leader.
Handover documents referred to papers the predecessor left for their successor.
They were meant to organize materials needed for the job and the current progress so the transition would go smoothly.
It really is meaningless.
Most of it was information Rianel already knew, and even that barely met the minimum requirements in form alone.
An ordinary person would have fled, saying it was impossible to grasp the actual work with this, but Rianel understood the work of the Special Taxation Bureau better than Torban did.
Receiving a somewhat sloppy handover document would not cause any disruption to her work.
There’ll be the fourth-quarter performance closing soon, and as the year-end approaches, there’ll probably be an internal audit. On top of that, next year’s budget planning as well.
“Since this bureau operates on a small scale, even as a team leader you won’t be able to completely step away from hands-on work. However, now that you’re in a managerial position, I hope you’ll focus more on encouraging your team members and adjusting workloads. And also—”
The handover documents were obvious enough, but Asil’s words were even more formulaic. So Rianel simply replied with a perfunctory, “Yes.”
“Now that you’re a team leader, I suppose we’ll be seeing each other often.”
“Yes, I look forward to working with you.”
Since there was no way to refuse anyway, Rianel offered the standard greeting.
And just as she was about to leave—
“Before.”
Asil’s words abruptly caught her by the ankle.
“I once asked what kind of relationship you have with my mentor.”
“…”
“You didn’t answer back then.”
Rianel wanted to open the director’s office door and leave immediately.
The only reason she didn’t shout or jump out the window was because a thread of reason was still holding onto her judgment.
Rianel slowly turned her head.
Asil was staring at her, both elbows on the desk, chin resting in his hands.
“I think it’s about time I heard an answer.”
The faint smile on his face felt unfamiliar today.
She swallowed dryly, and cold sweat formed on her palms.
There was no physical threat at all. They were merely making eye contact, yet she felt like turning away.
That’s probably because that persistent gaze is demanding a certain ‘answer.’
“…”
Running away would indeed be the mark of an amateur.
But she couldn’t completely deny the suspicion either.
“We’re… quite close.”
Rianel chose the heavy responsibility.
“You won’t tell me how you came to be close with my mentor, I assume.”
“Yes.”
As Asil’s expression turned awkward, Rianel hastily added,
“There were circumstances that made it—”
“That’s enough.”
Asil waved his hand.
“If you can’t say it, then there must be a reason.”
“…”
“You may leave now.”
Rianel quietly bowed her head and left the director’s office.
When the sound of the door closing faded away, and even the footsteps in the hallway completely disappeared—
“Lies…”
Asil let out a small chuckle, looking at the door.
His mentor had appeared in an unexpected form, but once he noticed it, reaching certainty didn’t take long.
Rianel and his mentor were similar in many ways.
Still can’t lie, can you.
That was the decisive part.
The hand that had brushed through his hair a few days ago was identical to the way his mentor used to comfort him.
The same thing earlier.
The moment he saw her flustered, unable even to meet his eyes, he almost burst out laughing.
A beast grows relaxed once its belly is full.
Having obtained what he wanted, Asil grew leisurely.
He interlaced his fingers, placed them atop his head, and leaned back against the chair.
The light slanted down, brushing past his profile.
Now that he knew the answer—
“Shall I let you run away?”
What should he do?
The next day.
Rianel did not go to work.
Because it was a day off.
Thanks to that, she escaped the attack of a disciple who had arrogantly tried to test his mentor, and gained time to sort out her emotions.
So instead of heading to the government building, Rianel went somewhere else.
“For these reasons, I came to visit the patient.”
“Uh, um… is that so?”
Torban greeted Rianel with a strange expression.
Seeing Rianel explain her reason for visiting without any embellishment—essentially, it’s a day off, I’m bored, and I didn’t want to stay home—he couldn’t manage his expression.
“Well, still, thank you. More importantly, what’s that you’re holding?”
“Soup.”
“For me?”
“It does contain chicken, but I shredded it finely so a patient could swallow it, seasoned it as lightly as possible, and made it very thin so it would go down easily.”
“So… it’s patient food?”
“? Isn’t this a hospital visit?”
Having somehow become an unfilial son coveting patient food, Torban shut his mouth with a complicated expression.
“You really leave me with nothing to say.”
Rianel asked for a bowl to serve the soup in, and Torban told her where the utensils were.
“Do you think you can sit up?”
“Mm….”
While Rianel ladled the soup and placed it on a tray with a spoon, Torban carefully helped his mother, who had been lying in bed, to sit up, propping a pillow under her lower back.
“Please try to eat a little, Mother.”
Standing beside Torban, Rianel quietly watched him scoop up the soup and bring it to his mother’s lips.
The woman, now well past fifty, had pale skin and sunken cheeks.
Fine wrinkles etched by time covered her face, but her outline was still recognizable.
She definitely resembled Torban.
“Mm….”
“Can you really swallow it?”
Not expecting much, Torban’s eyes widened in surprise and joy when his mother swallowed the soup.
“Eat more. You need to keep your strength at times like this.”
They said it was late-stage brain cancer.
The information didn’t seem wrong—there was visible paralysis in part of her facial muscles.
Still, she retained the cognition to distinguish between a stranger and her son, and her swallowing reflex was clear.
She wasn’t in such a critical condition that her life seemed about to be extinguished at any moment.
“Mother… Mother finished the soup….”
Torban’s voice trembled thinly, soaked with moisture.
“Thank you so much, rookie. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like this….”
“It was nothing.”
Since the patient wanted to rest after the meal, Torban and Rianel stepped out of the room.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to come visit.”
“Is that so?”
“You’re the first person from our department to visit.”
“Oh.”
Rianel was a little surprised.
I thought at least Wilbrin would come.
“It’s all karma.”
Torban smiled wistfully, looking down at the floor.
“Still, isn’t this more than I deserve compared to the sins I’ve committed? Especially from you, rookie.”
“You mean the chicken soup?”
“No, not that.”
Frustration briefly flared in Torban’s voice.
“This. This place. It’s a medical center supported by your family. Didn’t you pull some strings to get my medical fees reduced?”
“I’ve never done such a thing.”
“You didn’t?”
Torban’s eyebrow twitched.
“Our family selects recipients for medical fee reductions based on income brackets. The reason you were chosen is purely because your income was low enough to meet the criteria.”
“…Right. I’m poor. You little brat.”
Torban glared at Rianel, then suddenly burst out laughing.
Even when she spoke like that, he couldn’t bring himself to dislike her, because he knew she meant no malice.
“Still, thanks for coming. Truly.”
Whatever the case, comfort was comfort.
“Since you’re already here, wait until my son comes back before you leave. He said he’s bringing bread.”
“The patient won’t be able to eat bread.”
“Not for my mother—so I can eat. He said he was worried I’d starve to death.”
Rianel wasn’t so destitute as to mooch off bread meant for the lower-income class.
So naturally, she declined the offer.
As she gathered her bag and was leaving the medical center, she stopped upon encountering Duke Vincenheim at the end of the corridor.
“Did you do it?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The medical fee support for Torban Jansen.”
“It seems the medical center simply did its job. I know nothing about it.”
The duke responded with surprising calmness.
Rianel tilted her head slightly, studying his face.
If someone had intervened in Torban’s case, she naturally thought it must have been this man.
Is it really not him?
As Rianel was puzzling over it—
“Sister! Sister, wait a moment!”
A boy carrying a basket ran over in a hurry, failed to notice the step at his feet, tripped, and collided with Rianel.
In an instant, the two of them tumbled to the floor.
“Sister, are you okay—”
Before the boy could finish speaking, the duke strode over and roughly grabbed the boy’s arm.
He roared in fury.
“If it weren’t for our family’s patronage, your grandmother wouldn’t even be lying in a medical center bed! And yet you repay kindness with enmity!”
Brushing off the dust, Rianel stood up and said,
“You said earlier that you didn’t help.”
“…”
The duke quietly released the boy’s arm.
