Chapter 55: The Reason the Royal Palace is in an Uproar
Chapter 55: The Reason the Royal Palace is in an Uproar
When I returned to the royal palace, the whole place was in chaos. It was a total uproar, but as someone who had just gotten back, I had no idea why. There was no way I could know.Miss Marin told me,
"Lord Robby, I’m terribly sorry, but I must report to the Knight Order headquarters. Please return to your room. If anything comes up, your assigned maid should contact you."
She bowed and hurried off.
Even as the palace boiled over with activity, I walked along the edge of the corridor so as not to get in anyone’s way and returned to my room. The maids also seemed unusually restless. Many of them had furrowed brows. Normally no one ever ran in the hallways, but today several people were sprinting, and no one scolded them. Officials were hurrying somewhere with armfuls of documents. Whatever was happening, it was clearly a major incident.
I waited quietly in my room for someone to arrive. The rear palace seemed to be in an uproar too—maids passed by in the corridor speaking loudly. I caught fragments like "The magic beasts..." and "The subjugation force..." I couldn’t quite make it out, but it sounded like something had happened with the magic beast subjugation force. That couldn’t be good. If it were good news, the atmosphere would feel completely different.
It reminded me of something.
Back when I worked at the company, there would be a huge defect that risked stopping the customer’s production line. The entire place would descend into pandemonium. Selecting personnel for the sorting team to go to the customer site, arranging transportation, securing local accommodations, selecting and producing replacement good products, investigating the root cause and implementing countermeasures, choosing quality assurance and manufacturing staff to explain the defect to the customer... It was exactly the same. A sudden, explosive crisis—though really just stepping on a landmine that had been buried for a while. Total hysteria from top to bottom.
During the countermeasures meeting, the manufacturing manager would be incredibly eloquent while the factory manager sat in grim silence. Everyone was thinking, "No way the customer will accept that excuse. Well, if you’re the one explaining it to them, fine," but they were overpowered by the volume of his voice. Even when Quality Assurance made a logical point, the manufacturing manager’s shouting would shut them down.
In the end, the factory manager would say, "We’ll go with that. Quality Assurance, write up the countermeasures document for the customer," then look around and ask, "So who’s going to explain it?" The manufacturing manager would feign ignorance and reply, "I’m busy, so send the section chief," while the manufacturing section chief’s face filled with despair.
Later, when it came time to pick personnel for the sorting team, someone from Quality Assurance would mention, "I believe we also supply the customer’s Thailand factory. We’ll need to send a few people there too." Then the same impressive manufacturing manager would look around and ask, "Does anyone here have a passport?" No one would raise their hand (even if they had one, they wouldn’t, because they didn’t want to go. The manager didn’t want his subordinates leaving and creating holes in the long-term production schedule). His eyes would sweep the room and land on me, the salesman. "Hey, you went to Indonesia last month, right? Sorry, but I need you to go. Wahahaha!" he’d laugh. I, now one of the poor sacrificial lambs, would be sent home to catch the early morning flight. In his eyes, sales, engineering, and quality assurance all just looked like they were playing around! I thought bitterly. I wanted to say it to his face someday, but unfortunately I died first...