"Wait, stop her?" Clorinde was caught off guard. She thought Richard was going to talk about how to support Furina better, but instead, he immediately said they had to stop her from implementing a policy.
This gave Clorinde a strange feeling, like she had believed herself to be a loyal and steadfast general, only to realize she might actually be the head of the rebellion.
'Isn't a secretary's job supposed to be helping their boss?'
When Clorinde voiced this concern, Richard replied, "That depends on how you define support, doesn't it?"
"Broadly speaking, supporting means assisting or helping someone complete a task or reach a goal," he explained. "In political, military, or other fields, support usually refers to helping someone with management, decision-making, or actions in order to achieve a shared goal. This assistance can come in the form of advice, suggestions, resources, or various other forms of help to boost the capability and effectiveness of the person being supported."
"But Clorinde," he continued seriously, "have you ever thought about this: what if the person you're supporting is making the wrong decision from the start? Then what?"
His words made Clorinde fall into deep thought. Of course, leaders are still human, and humans are bound to make mistakes.
If a supporter simply went along with those mistakes, they'd only be helping to drag things further off course. The correct thing to do would be to step in and correct the issue before it gets out of hand.
Now she understood what Richard meant; he believed Furina's new policy idea from a few days ago was a mistake, and therefore, it needed to be stopped.
The problem was, Clorinde didn't think there was anything wrong with Furina's idea of cleaning up the departments. On the contrary, she believed it was a good way to fight corruption and promote internal discipline.
"But the issue," Richard corrected, "is that Furina doesn't just want to prevent corruption. She wants a complete purge, total accountability."
"She wants to burn it all to the ground!"
Why is the Archon rebelling against her own government?
"Furina's idea was to drag all past and future deeds into the light, like a courtroom drama in the Opera Epiclese, airing everything under the sun."
"But unlike a trial, not everything that happens in the city administration should be made public. Many things that might seem unreasonable actually were the best possible solutions at the time."
Those can't be judged by law alone.
"So what you're saying is, you don't agree with Furina stepping into the Court's internal operations?"
"I wouldn't say I disagree, I just think she's being… careless," Richard said carefully.
Clorinde, being blunt, asked, "Then why didn't you just say so at the time? You even smiled at me, I thought you were all for it."
"Miss Clorinde, there are many kinds of smiles. There's the happy smile, the forced smile, the helpless smile, the fake smile... No one wants to do extra work outside their job description, especially when it brings no benefit and only more trouble."
"But isn't that still an achievement?" Clorinde asked, puzzled. "Don't you want to rise in the ranks?"
"It is," Richard nodded. "But Furina isn't satisfied with just achievements."
"Reopening cold cases might look like solid political work, but Furina's out here like a runaway horse, not just asking for a meal, but flipping over the entire kitchen."
"She wants a perfectly clean, fully transparent government."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Clorinde asked.
That's when Lynette finally spoke, her voice cool and calm: "That in itself is a contradiction. You can either be clean and transparent, or you can have a government department. Not both."
"In other words, do you think the Court's Marechaussee Hunters should publicly announce their operations in advance?"
"Of course not," Clorinde instinctively replied. "Secrecy is critical; leaks would make arrests exponentially harder." And with that, she suddenly understood Lynette's point.
"Exactly," Richard added. "If most people are aware of a department's policies ahead of time, the implementation becomes exponentially harder. Do you really think Furina can create a policy that pleases everyone?"
Clorinde didn't even need to think—absolutely not.
"Forgive me for being blunt, but what Furina is trying to implement isn't a political policy. It's political suicide. Stopping her is in everyone's best interest—including hers."
"I understand. What do you want me to do?" Clorinde, always pragmatic, quickly accepted Richard's argument once the stakes were clear.
"Keep her busy. Whether it's public speeches or watching trials at the Opera Epiclese, anything that consumes her time harmlessly."
"After all, watching a show won't destroy a government department. But if she really rolls out that policy of hers, we might all end up job-hunting, Clorinde."
"That's a bit dramatic. I'm still the Champion Duelist," Clorinde quipped.
But neither Richard nor Lynette laughed.
Meanwhile, Furina entered her office in high spirits, like a queen inspecting her kingdom.
"Secretary General Richard, is my proposal ready?"
"Yes, Lady Furina. Also, I'd like to inform you that Miss Clorinde officially became your personal secretary a few days ago. I've already handed the duties over to her."
Furina's face instantly paled. "What do you mean? Are you quitting?"
"Of course not," Richard reassured her. "I'm still your Executive Secretary. I was only acting as your personal secretary temporarily because we hadn't found the right person. Now that we have, I'll step back."
Furina relaxed a little at that, but then her expression darkened again. "Wait… how come I'm the last one to find out I have a personal secretary?"
Shouldn't she have been the one to choose her own secretary? It's not that she disliked Clorinde, far from it, but shouldn't someone have told her first?
"Didn't you check the recent files? It was included."
It was indeed buried in the paperwork, but hidden in the middle of a huge stack. If you weren't reading closely, it was easy to miss.
And judging by Furina's confused expression, she had definitely missed it. When Richard said that, she started to doubt herself.
'Did I really overlook that file?'