Rebirth in a Ruined Nation! The Life of a New Strategist Starting From Now - Chapter 128

Florencia (2)

Because he was able to provide valuable information about Gorber’s internal affair, Rudek agreed to provide asylum to Frankurlt.

Considering various possible things that might happen, it was decided that for the time being, Frankurlt would be staying under supervision at a fortress near the capital and he would be called when Gorber made some movement toward our kingdom.

As discussions about how to deal with Frankurlt were taking place, I was busy working on a report about the recent mission involving the Empire.

Wickharlt, Frein, and Luzel all offered to help, but I thanked their intention and declined. It was because I knew there were often discrepancies between a report written by military officers and information that the civil official processing the report wanted to know. Especially reports written by military officers often left out expenses.

I wasn’t saying that a civil official was perfect in terms of evaluating reports. It was just that every time there was a lack of information in a report submitted by a military officer, it was always the official that had to visit that officer.

For the civil official, it was quite a hassle. But they also couldn’t just summon the military officer over because the military officer who wrote the report often had a higher rank than the civil official.

As someone who had also suffered as a civil official, I knew exactly what kind of information a civil official wanted me to include in my report.

In addition, I was by far the fastest among my comrades when it came to paperwork. I was always indebted to Wickharlt and the others so this time, it was my turn to work while I hoped they could rest.

When the report was finished, I went to Rays-sama’s office and I found him unusually alone.

“Perfect timing,” Rays-sama remarked.

Perfect timing? Why? Was he about to thrust another troublesome thing into me?

“I finally found out why Florencia became known as Drew.”

Ah, about that. The meeting at that time ended without that matter being explained, so I was quite interested in knowing the reason.

As such, I ended up listening to the result of Rays-sama’s investigation.

***

I’m sure you already know about it to some extent, but let me start by explaining how Florencia ended up in the 10th Division. 

After being practically disowned by her family and leaving Bexter Corporation, Florencia used her intelligence to get a job as a civil official in the capital.

Later on, she was assigned to the Navy but she was returned to the capital because of her habit of inventing stuff as she pleased.

After spending some time as a civil official in the capital, I heard the news that there was an interesting woman among the civil officials so I brought her to the 10th Division. 

“…Up until this, do you understand?”

“Yes.”

After confirming my reply, Rays-sama continued.

First, when Drew was first employed as a civil official in the capital, her name was properly recorded as Florencia Drew. Then, when she was sent to the Navy, her record was handed to the Navy. The capital did have a copy of her record but since she was transferred to the Navy, that record was treated as ‘had been processed’ and ended up being buried under various other records that existed in the capital.

Well the people in the Navy, as you knew were…how to say it… easy-going people who didn’t care about small details. The civil officials who worked in the Navy were also like that.

….I had to slightly disagree with Rays-sama’s evaluation. From my observation, The leader of the Navy, Northbell-sama, was unexpectedly thoughtful despite how he acted. But maybe Rays-sama was right about the rest of the Navy, so I wouldn’t say anything here.

Apparently, it was in the Navy that Florencia started to take the name, Drew. The Navy didn’t mind so they started recording Florencia Drew as Drew and everyone there started to call her Drew.

The name ‘Drew’ wasn’t strange be it as a family name or as a first name. That’s how Florencia Drew became just Drew without anyone in the Navy minding it.

Yeah, I get it. Though Drew was a bit of an unusual first name, it wasn’t so strange that anyone would question it.

When Florencia was sent back to the capital, she was already known as Drew and the record sent to the capital by the Navy also stated that her name was Drew.

The civil official who received the record would have noticed the difference if they had compared her current record to her old record, but Drew was sent back to the capital with the label of ‘incompetent’ by the Navy, so the civil official likely thought that Drew would be fired sooner or later so they didn’t bother comparing her record with the old one.

After that, well, I admit this was more of an excuse for me who also didn’t check Drew’s old record, but to be fair, since the merchant company that Drew’s family had was named Bexter Corporation, I thought Drew’s full name was Drew Bexter.

When I asked Florencia, I found out that Bexter was the first name of her great-grandfather, who founded the company. Incidentally, when Bexter expanded his business to the neighboring countries, he established a branch family in Gorber. Frankurlt Drew was a member of that branch family.

That’s how Florencia Drew was known as just Drew, even until now.

***

“..Can I ask you one, no, two questions?”

“Sure.”

“Why did Drew…I mean, Florencia Drew decided to call herself ‘Drew’?”

“I asked her about that myself and she said that I didn’t look like a Florencia. But it seems she thought she might forget if she used an unfamiliar name as an alias so she decided to just use her own family name.”

That’s just like Drew.

“The second question, does this mean that from now on, Drew will be called Florencia?”

Rays-sama smiled with amusement in response to my question and asked, “What if she will?”

“But I think that changing Drew’s name to Florencia Drew will have a big impact. People who know her will find out that they’ve been calling her by her family name and they won’t feel good, in many ways and above all, if the fact that Drew’s name has changed to Florencia didn’t get spread properly, some people will know her as Drew, some as Florencia, and everyone might be confused who they were talking about. Considering the effort it will take to spread this news and the risk involved if the news isn’t spread properly…”

“Changing her name now is a waste of effort?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.”

This was my honest opinion. As a commoner, I could care less if Drew was her first name or last name, but nobles would care. Plus, if Drew became Florencia, I felt the effort needed to spread the news was just a waste of energy.

“You’re right. That’s why I recently approached Bexter Corporation.”

“And their reply?”

“She’s no longer part of our family. She can use whatever name she wants.”

“That means…”

“Yeah. Drew will still be called Drew. That’s the most efficient. Also, Drew is just an individual’s first name, and it has no relation with the Drew Family.”