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Chapter 05 — The Civil Servant Hides Her Power (1)
The next day, 5 PM.
As promised, I packed my letter of recommendation and Imperial Civil Service application documents and headed to the Civil Complaint Department of the Imperial National Safety Management Agency. I put on the neatest and cleanest dress I owned.
“This is the Proposal Department…….”
The Imperial National Safety Management Agency building, built of tidy red bricks, was enough to make my heart pound.
‘Let’s do well on the interview today! I absolutely have to pass!’
With a strong and courageous heart, the moment I stepped inside the Civil Complaint Department—
‘Gasp!’
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
All the Proposal Department employees who hadn’t left work yet turned their heads toward me. Their under-eyes were dark and hollow, but their gazes were eerily sharp—just like a pack of starving hyenas spotting a fatty piece of prey. It gave me goosebumps.
‘W-what is this? I almost thought they weren’t even human and nearly attacked me?!’
Ah, no. They’re probably just tired. It is Monday, after all. Office workers have it tough, right?
Calming my startled heart, I greeted them in the brightest voice I could manage.
“Ah, hello? I’m Beatrice, here for an interview at the Imperial National Safety Management Agency today.”
“…….”
Why, why is there such a cold silence?
The zombie-like employees stared at me wordlessly, as if I were a fascinating monkey, and I grew flustered.
Some of them whispered among themselves while looking at me.
“…She… actually came?”
“……Do it.”
What. What are they talking about? Tell me too.
‘Could this be that thing called hazing?’
Or had Evelyn already spread rumors about me here too? If it’s that wicked girl, she might have concocted an evil scheme to make me suffer workplace harassment with fabrications and instigation that would put yellow journalism to shame.
‘Whatever it is, if they mess with me, I won’t take it lying down.’
I was seriously considering whether I should pull out a self-defense item from my bag when—
“Oh my my my! Riche! You actually came!”
Senior Marlene, throwing open the door at the end of the hallway, spotted me and sprinted at full speed to embrace me.
“S-senior?”
It’s nice to be welcomed, but this passionate hug is a bit much…….
‘Besides, Senior Marlene, isn’t she still on the clock?’
Then why is she wearing a vacation outfit reeking of southern resort vibes? And what’s with the sunglasses?
‘…Did she have a vacation planned or something?’
As I stood frozen, flustered for many reasons, Marlene repeated “Oh, thank you, Lord!” several times before her eyes sparkled at me.
“You’re here for the interview, right?”
“Yes? Of course. That’s why I came here….”
Hearing my confirmation, Marlene’s lips curved into a round, graceful arc.
“You heard that, Manager?”
At that, a grim-looking, gray-haired man emerged from among the gloomy zombie employees and approached me.
“You’re Miss Beatrice, I presume? We’ve been waiting. I’m Yuz Millen, the Manager of the Proposal Department. Nice to meet you.”
“Ah, yes. Likewise, Manager Millen. As you’ve already heard…….”
“As the successor to Marlene Wilson, you’re here for the Proposal Department interview.”
Hmm?
Something strange slipped in there.
“Hold on. Successor to Senior Marlene? I never heard anything about that. Senior, you’re not quitting because of me, are you…?”
I timidly raised an objection, but neither Manager Yuz nor Senior Marlene paid it any heed.
“You’ve heard it now, so that’s settled.”
“Here, Manager! You can process my resignation now, right?”
“Of course. Since you’ve brought a successor to fill Marlene’s position, I’ll approve your resignation as promised.”
“Yay!”
Shouting with joy, Senior Marlene grabbed a resignation box and luggage she seemed to have pre-packed, and shot off like a missile.
“Goodbye, everyone! I’m off to a resort to find my happiness-!”
“W-wait, Senior! What about the handover?!”
“Figure it out yourself! I don’t care! I’m finally free-!”
Whoosh—.
Where Marlene had swept through like a storm, only cold silence remained.
“What… what is this…….”
As I stood dumbfounded, the Manager handed me a name tag and a civil servant ID card.
[Beatrice]
[Civil Complaint Team 1, Imperial National Safety Management Agency]
“…What is this?”
“You’re hired, Miss Beatrice. Report to the Proposal Department’s Civil Complaint Office tomorrow morning.”
“But I haven’t even shown you my recommendation letter and application yet……?”
“I already read them earlier.”
“…When?”
“When we first met and exchanged greetings. I used magic to pull out the file containing your application and recommendation letter and read it.”
“What are you— Gasp!”
It was true. My side felt empty. The brown document folder I had carefully brought was now safely in Manager Yuz’s hands.
“……You didn’t even ask me any interview questions.”
“We don’t have those.”
“Pardon?”
“In the Proposal Department, so-called interviews are merely a minimal formality. As long as you have a verifiable identity and no criminal record, anyone can be hired here. Since you voluntarily came here, you are more than qualified to be officially appointed as a civil servant in the Proposal Department’s Civil Complaint Office.”
‘Does… this even make sense?’
What kind of hiring process is this?
This is the civil service! A civil servant working for the nation! Can they really hire people this haphazardly?
‘I… I think I should run away while I still can.’
My instincts whispered. This is your last chance to escape.
“Um, I’m sorry, but something urgent just came up…….”
But Manager Yuz moved faster than me.
As if accustomed to this situation, he grabbed my shoulder and said.
“If you want to run away, find a successor like Marlene Wilson just did before you go. Until then, resignation is absolutely not allowed.”
“…….”
“Well, I can’t say whether there will be another brave soul like you who’ll join the Proposal Department unaware. The Proposal Department’s founding purpose faded long ago, and now it’s the worst of the worst—a dumping ground for all kinds of odd jobs from every ministry. It would be better for your mind and body to give up on any useless hope.”
I was tricked. Totally tricked.
‘Senior Marlene, when I see you next time, I won’t let you get away with this….’
Having missed my last chance, I had no choice but to accept the name tag and work uniform from Manager Yuz.
“The hiring process was a scam, but… Manager, you haven’t pulled any tricks regarding salary or working hours that I don’t know about, have you?”
Far from scolding me for being cheeky, Manager Yuz simply pushed up his glasses and replied nonchalantly.
“Of course not. Though there is a clause stating that if you don’t finish your assigned workload by the end of the day, you’ll have to work overtime.”
“…Do people here tend to work a lot of overtime?”
Manager Yuz gestured wordlessly toward the haggard employees, as if telling me to look around.
The moment I made eye contact with one female employee, she warned me.
‘Run away…….’
Damn it.
It seemed I’d escaped the wolf only to fall into the tiger’s den.
“…I’ll do my best.”
Let’s never work overtime. I must protect my precious evenings at all costs.
‘They say even if a tiger bites you, you’ll be fine as long as you keep your wits about you!’
Hang in there, Beatrice!
—
In the end, I was haphazardly hired as Marlene’s successor at the Imperial National Safety Management Agency, and over the next two weeks, as I took over the work without a proper senior to guide me, I came to a stark realization.
‘This ministry…….’
It’s run completely haphazardly…?
Manager Yuz was right.
The Proposal Department was indeed founded to eliminate monsters threatening the nation’s citizens and to conquer dungeons that appeared like calamities, but…….
Now that monsters are extinct and even dungeons have vanished as relics of the ancient Great Magic Era, it’s nothing more than an overworked department that handles all sorts of troublesome complaints dumped by other ministries.
The tasks varied widely—from small things like finding a child’s lost puppy, to big things like isolating and treating victims in regions struck by epidemics.
The reason overtime continued day after day was simply that the workload piled on the Proposal Department was enormous, while staffing was perpetually short.
Manager Yuz, with panda-like dark circles under his eyes, gave a crooked smile.
“Soon, Miss Beatrice, you’ll experience it too. The endless cycle of overtime.”
No! I absolutely refused to work overtime.
‘My life goal is to live moderately comfortably and moderately leisurely!’
To avoid overtime, I had to finish all assigned work within working hours.
Of course, while being careful not to stand out as overly competent—so that Evelyn wouldn’t discover I was still alive and start scheming another assassination attempt.
‘Moderately, sloppily, moderately, sloppily.’
Paperwork, complaint resolution, external business trips—whatever the task, I resolved to handle everything with this motto.
‘I’ll work quietly, as if I exist and don’t exist, get my paycheck on time, and leave work on time!’
—
The day to put my ‘Moderately. Sloppily.’ motto to use came sooner than expected.
Right after the basic training period—a kind of tutorial—ended, even I, a newbie, was assigned work.
[Urgent Matter]
– A strange disease of unknown cause has broken out in a place called Morphe Village in the Northeast.
– Requesting immediate dispatch of a healing-type mage capable of treatment and a priest specializing in healing.
