Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 49: Selection

Chapter 49: Selection

Five Head Ministers came to officiate the selection. They were the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Education, Health, Justice, and Finance.

"Greetings to Your Majesty," they all bowed and greeted her.

She heard from their thoughts they all came to get employees. After all, why would they waste time on a selection like this?

But of course, they also wanted to show off to her and get her attention. If she thinks they are capable ministers, she would trust their words more compared to others once she begins working. Their words would also have more weight to her since they were the first ministers to reach out to her.

However, helping her out in the selection also meant she owed them one favor. They could ask for her help or support at least once because they helped her out. It was part of noble courtesy but also works in these matters. Everything was give and take.

Raymond introduced them one by one but Arabella already knew them from her past life so she just smiled at them and focused on her goal.

Once the pleasantries were done, Raymond ushered her to a podium with a good view of everyone and the whole venue.

They sat on their respective seats and the curtains were closed so the candidates would not see them.

Alwin used magic to make the curtain transparent to them but not to the candidates.

It was kept a secret from the candidates that Arabella herself and Raymond would also be present in the selection.

If the candidates knew about their presence, they might be too tense and nervous to be able to focus on the tasks to be given to them.

Alwin and Rendell stood on either side of Arabella as her guards.

She had a scroll of paper with the candidates’ names. There were five boxes beside each name where she could write the scores and her notes about the candidates’ performance on each task.

Raymond had volunteered to lend one of his assistants to help her record scores and note her comments but Arabella refused. She could do it herself. If she had to instruct someone on what to write all the time, she might lose her focus on the candidates.

The candidates were finally ushered in once everything was set up. She easily spotted Ivan. He was a lot younger than when she met him in the past, but she was sure it was him.

Ivan had black hair and brown eyes. He was tall and slender with just a bit of muscle since he was more focused on his education than training his body. His muscles were from helping out on his parents’ farm when he was young.

Arabella silently observed as each of the ministers gave tasks to the candidates to gauge their abilities. Every task had its own rules and time limits.

All the ministers gave tasks related to their departments and the candidates did their best to get the highest marks.

Ivan performed superbly in all the tasks. And on the last task, some of his fellow candidates got terrified of him.

The last task was given by the Minister of Finance. It was a set of problems from the basics to complicated ones that needed to be computed.

They were given thirty minutes to complete it. But just five minutes after the go signal to start was given, Ivan raised his hand.

The instruction was to raise their right hand once they were done and walk to the Minister of Finance’s table once given permission to do so.

"Is there a problem with your questionnaire?" the Minister of Finance asked in a low voice when Ivan reached him.

"None, Your Honor. I have completed the task," Ivan said and all the candidates were wide-eyed. They still heard his response even when he said it in a low voice too since the entire room was silent.

The candidates got distracted for a second and gawked at Ivan. But they soon realized they should finish their task first before anything else.

Some were obviously pressured because of Ivan’s feat. Some did not believe it and thought Ivan could not do it so he just gave up. Some didn’t care and calmly worked at their own pace.

Even the Minister of Finance was baffled but told Ivan to go wait outside since his task was done.

[I could have done it in a minute or two if I didn’t have to write neatly and beautifully since even the Empress herself might go through our papers.] Ivan internally complained but Arabella heard his thoughts.

Arabella covered her lips to hide her smirk from Raymond, Alwin, and Rendell.

The Minister of Finance checked Ivan’s answers and he got everything correct. It was a perfect score. His paper was then passed to the other ministers for rechecking and recording before it was placed in a box and Ivan’s paper was teleported to Raymond’s table.

It was something made possible by Alwin’s magic.

Raymond rechecked and recorded Ivan’s score before handing it to Arabella.

She didn’t hide her smile this time as she recorded Ivan’s score and wrote his name as the first person in her list of chosen office assistants.

[She got him?!] Raymond was disappointed he couldn’t poach Ivan. He wanted to get Ivan too after seeing how good he was. After all, Ivan’s scores in his tasks were all highest among the candidates. And it was especially impressive how he quickly completed the task by the Finance Minister.

’Sorry, but I got my sights on him first. Hehe,’ Arabella internally smirked victoriously.

If Raymond had a high opinion of Ivan, he could have removed Ivan’s profiles from the ones he sent to her so he could get him without her idea. But he did not. Which meant Raymond was not very much impressed by Ivan’s profile. He was just recently enlightened after seeing Ivan at work.

The other candidates soon completed their tasks one after the other. They were told to take a break outside where refreshments were prepared for them while their papers were scored and recorded. They nervously waited for the results though instead of enjoying the refreshments.

Arabella wrote one name after the other as she also finalized whom she would hire as assistants.

As she had expected, Ivan was the best among the candidates.

The next candidates with the best results were two ladies from conquered territories. And Arabella recognized them.

One was Nadia, the first daughter of the Chief Safiro Tribe from the Safiro territory, and, Odette, a princess of the Prudencia Kingdom.

Nadia and Odette were among her comrades in her previous life. They hated Ferdinand and the Empire for conquering their territories only to ruin them and make them suffer.

She decided to hire them since the two were still clinging to hope. They were not thinking of rebellious thoughts yet. What they want to do now was to save as many people in their territories.

If Arabella was able to help them before they hated Ferdinand and the Empire so much, she may be able to prevent them from joining forces with Ferdinand’s enemies.

In her past life, Safiro and Prudencia fell to ruin. The people died out and only a few survivors remained. And they were all set on revenge under Nadia and Odette’s leadership.

Arabella understood that the trigger to Safiro and Prudencia’s fall had already begun as she heard Nadia and Odette’s thoughts.

[Getting hired by the Empress probably had the most pay. I hope I can be one of her assistants. I cannot go back to Safiro empty-handed. I have to earn a lot of money here in the capital and return with a lot of food for our people. Even the children are starving and getting sick. I also have to prepare a lot of cloth for the winter.]

This was Nadia’s. Nadia was planning to use all her salary from Arabella to help her people back in Safiro.

Arabella learned from Nadia’s thoughts that Safiro had become so poor to the point even the Chief’s daughter, Nadia, who was akin to a princess had to work to have some food for the people.

Arabella didn’t know there were crisis-stricken territories in the Empire.

[Please hire me. Please hire me. I immediately rushed here when I received the summons because working in the Imperial Palace had the highest pay. Please hire me. Please hire me.] Odette kept praying hard even as she took on the tasks each of the ministers gave.

[My older brothers all joined the knighthood since they didn’t pass the Exam to be Civil Servants. They are earning as much as they can. I need to help out too. We need to earn as much money as we can to help out our people. Everyone is suffering because we failed to protect them.]

Odette was desperate to get a job to help out her homeland. She was also planning to use all her salary for the sake of her people.

Arabella didn’t dislike Nadia and Odette’s motivation. They were both so determined to help out their territories. Unlike her who abandoned Lobelius because of her revenge.