IDWM 03

CHAPTER-03

Carlisle gave a small nod and said,

“Sorry I didn’t explain that properly. You have a good eye for detail.”

“Ah, no, not at all.”

“You do. Anyway… for these documents, the format you should use is….”

As I listened to his explanation, I quietly made a vow to myself.

Damn it. I’m never asking another question again.

I’d only asked this time because doing the work twice would be annoying.

But being good at your job only earned you more work. There was nothing good about it.

While I was in the Dark Magic Department, I would keep my head down, quietly do exactly what I was told, and leave.

Then, as I happened to turn my head, I caught a glimpse of something through a half-open door.

No way….

Is that a La-Z-Boy bed?

Naturally, since this was a romance-fantasy world, it was extravagantly decorated with gold trim, but it was still a folding bed.

As far as I was concerned, any bed kept inside the workplace belonged in the same category.

I silently rolled my eyes back into place—

and met the male lead’s gaze.

Neither of us said anything.

I stared straight into his eyes for a long moment.

Well? Care to explain yourself?

What exactly is that hideous mattress doing here?

The male lead avoided my gaze.

“I don’t use it every day.”

“Ah. Yes.”

“Sometimes, when things get extremely busy, it’s more convenient to stay here. That’s why I brought it in.”

“Riiight….”

What an accomplishment.

Anyway, please, Yuriana. Please, second male lead.

Join the Dark Magic Department exactly as you were determined to do in the original novel!

Truthfully, Carlisle had absolutely no expectations for the 218th class of newly appointed officials.

Why?

Because they’ll all run off to easier departments.

It was true that the Dark Magic Department paid the highest salary.

Unfortunately, it was also infamous for its hellish workload.

Ever since the department had been established three years ago, new recruits had consistently chosen other departments instead.

Though the bigger problem is that there are hardly any qualified people to begin with.

Exceptional magical ability was essential when dealing with dark magic.

And on top of that, a person needed extraordinary mental fortitude.

Those were hardly qualities one could reasonably expect from completely inexperienced recruits.

…Which meant Carlisle was constantly overloaded, handling both field operations and paperwork at the same time!

Every day, he ground his teeth at the department’s minister, Edgar Crow.

“We don’t have the manpower to train recruits. Bring in experienced personnel.”

“Give up on impossible dreams, Lupesque.”

“Then increase our headcount.”

“That’s impossible too. Two new recruits is the absolute maximum.”

It was all well and good that Edgar had established the Dark Magic Department….

But so few people passed the civil-service examination in the first place that securing even one additional talented employee was practically a bloodbath.

“I heard the ‘Top-and-Bottom Group’ is coming to our department first this time? Pick someone from there!”

Who in the world had thought up that group arrangement?

Regardless, Carlisle’s first impression of the so-called Top-and-Bottom Group was unremarkable.

None of the three seems particularly special.

The top-ranked recruit was far too tense and enthusiastic.

As for the second-ranked recruit….

He’ll be gone soon anyway. Don’t bother commenting on his clothes.

Doing so would only raise Carlisle’s blood pressure.

That left the last-place recruit—

Layla Lowell.

His first impression of her was….

Her eyes don’t have the same freshness as the others.

New recruits usually had eyes sparkling with pride and ambition.

But Layla Lowell’s eyes were….

Dead.

Is that why she came in last?

And yet, her true value revealed itself somewhere Carlisle had never expected.

“What font are we supposed to use?”

The moment Carlisle heard that question, he felt as though his heart had stopped.

Surely he wasn’t having a heart attack at his age.

No.

This was pure, one-hundred-percent emotional gratification.

Someone who understands the details has finally arrived.

What caused a perfectionist like Carlisle the greatest suffering?

Mountains of paperwork?

The damned mastermind behind the dark-magic incidents who still hadn’t been caught?

Those were certainly troublesome, but…!

Nothing tortured him more than sloppy documents with inconsistent formatting.

Even after I explain it, the new recruits make mistakes every single time.

Not long afterward, Layla brought Carlisle the stack of documents she had completed and asked him to check her progress.

And she had neatly organized everything by category so it would be easy to review!

Carlisle hated himself for being so moved by something this simple, but he couldn’t help it.

Last year’s trainees handed everything in mixed together.

He’d wasted precious time checking and reorganizing every single document himself.

Layla watched him cautiously and asked,

“How is it?”

“Hmm. Give me a moment….”

Carlisle slowly flipped through the pages one by one.

There’ll be a mistake somewhere. There has to be.

Don’t expect too much.

Then there would be nothing to be disappointed about.

But with every page he turned, Carlisle’s throat grew drier.

His heart even began pounding from the emotion welling inside him.

“…Perfect.”

“Thank you.”

Layla Lowell simply returned to her remaining work as though it were nothing special.

After seeing that, Yuriana Crosswell leaned toward Layla and whispered,

“Layla… could you check this for me?”

“Hm? Sure. Yuriana, you didn’t adjust the character spacing.”

“Huh? What’s that?”

“The spacing between the letters. If it’s inconsistent, the document looks a little cluttered.”

“Ohhh. Ah! I’ll fix it!”

“And this kind of document is better kept to one page.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. There’s no reason to make the recipient turn to another page unnecessarily. Let’s shorten the wording a little.”

“Wow, okay!”

She was even correcting her fellow recruit’s mistakes!

Had the heavens sent this last-place recruit specifically to save him from paperwork hell?

No.

It’s far too early to judge based on this alone.

Still, Carlisle quietly closed the door through which the folding bed could be seen.

She’s only here for a one-week rotation, but….

Perhaps this time, it wouldn’t hurt to pay a little more attention.

Before long, it was late Friday afternoon—the final day of the Top-and-Bottom Group’s rotation through the Dark Magic Department.

Carlisle clicked his tongue when an unexpected directive arrived.

“Something annoying just came down from above.”

The Emperor’s order was brief.

By this evening, determine the trend in the number of dark-magic artifact incidents over the past three months.

Should I commit treason?

Three hundred years ago, the authority of the Arfelt Imperial Family had suffered a devastating collapse.

It began with—

the Mad Emperor’s murder of the Saintess.

Originally, three great powers had coexisted within the Empire:

the Imperial Family, the Temple, and the nobility.

But three hundred years ago, the Emperor committed the unprecedented act of murdering the Saintess.

With the only person capable of purifying dark magic dead, the Empire fell into crisis.

Eventually, the nobles had no choice but to take drastic measures.

The Imperial Family would be allowed to continue existing in name, while the actual affairs of state would be governed by the Prime Minister.

Does the Emperor occasionally feel the need to remind everyone that the Imperial Family still exists?

From time to time, the Emperor issued troublesome orders like this.

“Haaaa….”

Whenever an imperial directive landed on the department, everyone had to drop what they were doing and work on it.

Still, Carlisle stared down at the order, already prepared to shoulder most of the burden himself.

As if those three will be much help with a report whose purpose isn’t even clear.

Even if they helped a little, he would probably have to review everything from the beginning anyway.

“All three of you. I’m afraid I have something unpleasant to tell you today.”

At Carlisle’s voice, all three recruits looked toward him.

“As a rule, we don’t ask trainees to work additional hours… but an urgent request has come in.”

The first person to respond was Layla Lowell.

“Additional work?”

“Haah… yes. I’ll send you home before I leave, but I’m going to need help from all three of you, so I wanted to warn you in advance.”

Yuriana, the top-ranked recruit, answered energetically,

“Yes! That’s fine!”

The second-ranked recruit merely stared at Carlisle with an indifferent expression.

And Layla Lowell….

That is definitely killing intent.

It was four in the afternoon.

Carlisle quickly gave the three of them their instructions.

“All three of you, check the investigation files from the past three months. Count the number of incidents classified from Grade One through Grade Three, then summarize anything unusual for each category.”

But before the three could bury themselves in the documents—

“Senior Lupesque.”

Layla Lowell raised her hand.

“Hmm?”

“Are we only looking at the trend for the most recent three months? Don’t we need something to compare it against, such as the same period last year or the previous quarter?”

“…!”

At that moment—

his heart began pounding violently.