Sweet MYTH-tery of Life by Robert Asprin

Before I get too caught up in complaining about my situation, however, let me pause to give credit where credit is due. As bad as things were, I would have been totally lost without Bunny.

Though I didn’t plan it that way, my administrative assistant ended up doing double duty. First, she would spend long hours going over numbers and plans with Grimble in their high speed, abbreviated jargon while I sat there nodding with a vacant look on my face, then an equal or greater amount of time with me later patiently trying to explain what had been decided. As mind numbing as it was, I found it preferable to my alternate pastime, which was trying to figure out what to do about Queen Hemlock’s marriage offer.

Every so often, however, something would pop up that I felt I DID know something about. While it would usually turn out in the long run that I was (badly) mistaken, it would provide a break from the normal complacency. Of course, I wasn’t that wild about being shown to be specifically stupid as well as generally ignorant, but it was a change of pace.

One conversation in particular springs to mind when I think back on those sessions.

“Wait a minute, Bunny. What was that last figure again?”

“What?” she said, glancing up from the piece of paper she was reciting from. “Oh, that was your budget.”

“My budget for what?”

“For your portion of the financial operation, of course. It covers salaries and operating expense.”

“Whoa! Stop the music!” I said, holding up my hand. “I officially retired as Court Magician. How did I end up back on the payroll?”