At four in the afternoon, Ilya returned to the governor's residence and saw a group of unfamiliar civil officials gathered in the front courtyard. His heart gave a startled jolt.
Are these the officials sent to replace me? Is the emperor transferring me to the central government, or to dangerous Galatia?
Wait, their ranks are too low. Their uniforms have one to three black stripes embroidered on the shoulders. None of them could be my successor.
Ilya reined in his emotions and calmly approached the official at their head. "I'm the governor. Who are you?"
The man replied respectfully, "Sancho, from the Examination Bureau. These are the official documents the central government instructed us to bring."
Following procedure, Ilya summoned the senior officials, inspected the document pouch's seal in front of everyone, then broke it open and checked the documents' format, stamps, and secret marks.
The documents required the Borderland Region to organize a preliminary test and send those who passed to Constantinople for the civil service examination on October twentieth.
Ilya asked in puzzlement, "It's already August twenty-fifth. Why have you arrived so late? Is there enough time?"
The Examination Bureau officials immediately erupted into an uproar, loudly cursing the captain of their transport ship. Sancho explained to the governor, "On our way here, our transport ran aground on a remote stretch of coast near Trebizond. There wasn't a soul anywhere nearby, so we had to follow the coast to Trebizond and catch another ship. It delayed us by more than half a month."
With matters having come to this, Sancho asked the governor to send people to notify the settlements and organize the examination as soon as possible, aiming to finish everything within a month.
"Understood."
Ilya spread a map of the Borderland Region across the table. Most