IMDCA 1

Chapter 1

I Handled a B-Grade Curse at the Employment Examination Hall

‘Money, money—that’s the damn problem!’

Aeterna, the splendid capital of the Holy Illumina Empire that serves the God of Light. But in an old tavern wedged at the end of a back alley where not a single ray of light reached, only the stench of beer and stale sweat hung in the air.

“Hey, pretty lady! Another beer over here!”

“Yes, yes, coming right up.”

René lightly caught the empty glass a drunken man sent flying through the air with a careless swing, fluid as water, and turned around.

The sales smile that had been hanging on her lips froze cold the moment she turned away.

‘I’m still short on this month’s rent… And look at that stingy manager—he’s planning to quietly skim off my overtime pay again today.’

In a capital where money drained away just from breathing, the identity papers of a fallen noble named ‘René von Argen’ were nothing but pretty trash.

René’s real name was Rosaline von Valea. The greatest witch family since the founding of the Empire.

While scrubbing a table, René caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and clicked her tongue softly. The pink dye she’d used to disguise herself had already nearly faded away.

If her original hair color were to show, or if she let even the tiniest bit of mana leak out, there was no telling when she’d be torn apart by the heresy inquisitors who had cast barriers across the entire Empire in search of witch bloodlines.

‘At this rate of saving money, I’ll only get the family estate back right before I die of old age, won’t I?’

Her family had been scattered after being falsely accused. To see her parents again—somewhere beyond the border—she had to survive in the heart of this wretched Empire and save money somehow.

Just then, the grumbling of low-ranking Imperial officials drinking in a corner of the tavern pricked her ears.

“I’m going crazy. The clerk position at the Heresy Relic Management Bureau is vacant again.”

“Ah, that curse storage? They say even with triple hazard pay, everyone runs away?”

“Yeah. Apparently a few people collapsed from a curse rampage not long ago. And just imagine numbering cursed objects every day under that monster duke…”

In that instant, René’s pitch-black eyes flashed.

The Heresy Relic Management Bureau. The place where cursed objects from across the Empire were collected and sealed.

To ordinary people it might seem like a horrifying hell where you couldn’t even breathe, but to a witch of Valea who could see through the fabric of every curse, that place was—

‘A total cushy job, isn’t it?!’

The next afternoon, René headed to the Heresy Relic Management Bureau’s employment examination hall, located deep underground in the Solar Palace, carrying the identity papers of the Argen baron’s daughter.

Since she was ‘René von Argen, daughter of a baron’ who hadn’t even properly graduated from the academy due to lack of money, there was nothing worthwhile to write on her resume—but they must have been truly desperate for workers, because her interview was scheduled immediately after she submitted her documents that morning.

A suffocating silence hung in the examination hall’s waiting room, thick with the chilly smell of mold and old paper.

‘The clerk job is just looking at cursed objects and recording them, and they even give hazard pay? I have to get this job no matter what!’

René clutched the frayed hem of her worn sleeve and took a deep breath.

“Next. Applicants number 12, 13, and 14, please enter the examination hall.”

As she stepped inside, a man with dark circles hanging all the way down to his chin—his complexion that of a corpse despite being alive—was irritably tapping his documents. It was Oscar Winslow, the head clerk in charge of the bureau’s practical affairs.

‘All of them have no credentials whatsoever. Well, in the current situation, all we really need is someone who can read and write, so…’

He let out a shallow sigh as he looked at the applicants’ empty records. Work was piling up, people kept quitting out of fear, and with terrifying rumors about the bureau’s director, Duke Kael, spreading, there were hardly any applicants. Worn to the bone from endless overtime, his goal was to hire someone who could last as long as possible.

“Field experience is the most important thing in our bureau. Take a look at that B-grade sealed relic over there.”

Inside a small iron cage Oscar pointed to was a blonde-haired girl doll wearing a worn-out dress. A B-grade curse was quite a high rank, but its activation cycle was still far off. They needed a clerk who could calmly and accurately record a relic’s appearance, material, and curse patterns even in front of an ominous cursed object.

“That doll lets out a crying sound once a month. If you hear that sound…”

Creak—!

Before Oscar could even finish his explanation, the doll suddenly let out an unpleasant sound, its neck twisting grotesquely, and its mouth tore wide open.

—Don’t abandon meeeeee!!

Along with a scream that tore through eardrums, cracks began to form in the examination room’s windows. Dark red tears of blood started pouring from the doll’s eyes.

“The—the curse is going berserk! Cast a barrier outside the examination hall and contact the Holy Knight Commander immediately!!”

Oscar quickly gave orders, but the people inside the examination hall were already rolling on the ground, foaming at the mouth from the sudden terrifying situation. But in that fleeting moment, only René’s eyes sank coldly, terrifyingly calm.

‘At this rate, the interview and everything else will be canceled! Considering the salary and hazard pay… an opportunity to grab a cushy job like this doesn’t come every day!’

René glanced at the position of the iron cage holding the doll, as if she’d made up her mind.

“Kyaaaaa!”

René screamed as if her legs had given out from terror and collapsed toward the floor where the cage was. And she cleverly curled her body into the blind spot under the desk. In the darkness where no one could see, her dark blue pupils took on a strange hue.

‘Witch’s Eye’

The ability to read the ‘curse rule-text’ written over objects or people where curses breathe.

From the curse’s activation conditions and price to the dismantling formula that breaks the curse—it was the Valea family’s unique ability, readable as clear sentences as if someone had written them in the air.

Not even all those of Valea blood could possess this ability. It was a rare power inherited only very occasionally across generations, which was why those who even knew of this ‘Witch’s Eye’ were extremely few.

René’s pupils glowed blue for an instant as she scanned the rule-text floating in the air.

[Curse Name: Doll That Calls Blood (B-Grade)]

[Activation Condition: Three or more instances of deep deception]

[Activation Price: Rupture of eardrums and mental derangement of humans within radius]

[Dismantling Formula: Cut the red thread hidden at the third vertebra of the doll’s spine.]

The activation cycle shouldn’t have come around yet, so the fact that it suddenly went berserk means the activation condition may have just been met…

René, who had entered under a false identity, grew anxious that the curse might have gone berserk because of her.

If the Holy Knight Order and priests came in and conducted a detailed investigation, there was a chance her lies would be exposed.

‘But the temple priests won’t be able to see through the curse’s structure like I can… so even if I dismantle the curse, they won’t know.’

René pretended to tremble like everyone else and fumbled across the desk, snatching up Oscar’s fountain pen. It seemed to be a high-quality handmade fountain pen—its nib was smooth and sharp, perfect for cutting the red thread.

‘I’ll use it briefly and return it, Head Clerk!’

The cursed doll’s screams were growing louder, and soon it would reach the point of mental derangement, so she had to hurry. Slipping toward the doll amid the chaos of mingled screams, René crawled along the floor like a snake and pressed close to the iron cage. Quickly scanning the doll’s back, she found a red thread visible between the seams of the doll’s dress.

‘A little longer and my ears will be completely ruined.’

Being so close to the doll, her ears really did feel like they were being torn apart. René hurriedly slipped the pen nib through the bars of the cage and snap—cut the red thread protruding slightly from the doll’s back.

—Don’t abandon me—

Thud.

In that instant, the doll’s screaming stopped at once, and it lost its strength and toppled over sideways. Everyone in the room, who had been covering their ears against the terrible screams choking the life out of them, could only blink at the sudden silence that had descended.