Prologue

I never did those things because I was expecting a reward.

It was simply my job.

The work I had been assigned.

I had merely worked hard as an imperial official, and yet…

What a shitty world.

Forget rewards. People everywhere were practically fighting over who could tear me apart first.

“Is that her? The villainess from the Child Protection Bureau?”

“How many times has she taken children away from perfectly decent parents already?!”

“Because of that woman, three orphanages have already closed down this year alone…”

The things I heard on my way to work today were particularly colorful.

Well, let them bite and tear at me as much as they wanted.

I snorted and opened the door to my office.

…Huh?

The door should have been locked, yet it was already open, and I could hear someone inside.

Who the hell is this?

It had to be some thug who had barged in without permission, claiming he wanted to file a complaint.

I was just about to step inside and throw him out when—

A completely unexpected face smiled brightly at me.

“…Master of the Magic Tower?”

I could barely believe my eyes.

“What brings you here so early in the morning?”

“Nothing much. I just had something to give you.”

The Master of the Magic Tower shyly held out a bouquet of flowers, her face turning red.

“Do you like them, Deputy Director? Your office looked a little bleak, so I brought these.”

Her voice was remarkably delicate and gentle, completely unlike someone who could kill a dozen people with a single gesture without even blinking.

They are exactly my taste, though.

Once I put the flowers in a vase, the office did seem considerably brighter.

“Of course. Thank you for going to the trouble.”

It was common knowledge that one shouldn’t casually accept things from a mage, but it was only a bouquet of flowers.

What could possibly happen?

But starting the very next day, things began happening.

The crowds that usually choked the capital, and the carriages that were packed bumper-to-bumper on my way to work, became strangely sparse whenever I stepped onto the street.

Even the torrential rain would stop the moment I prepared to go outside, revealing a bright blue sky.

And once, I happened to casually pick up a stone while walking past, only to discover that it was actually a valuable specimen that the Imperial Geological Society had lost.

I even received a commendation for it.

…Magic theory was a basic qualification for any competent imperial official, so even if I wanted to remain ignorant of it, I couldn’t.

With luck like this, she must have scraped together the luck of dozens of mages under her command and brought it all to me!

This was serious.

I hadn’t done anything worthy of receiving that kind of magic from the curly-haired Master of the Magic Tower who kept coming to see me whenever she had the chance, blushing furiously each time.

Next time, I should tell her not to give me such burdensome gifts.

Fortunately—or unfortunately—the bouquet’s effect didn’t last very long.

Because an unwanted man’s subordinate came looking for me.

“Commander-in-Chief has sent you a gift!”

I looked at the imposing knight standing before me and pressed my fingertips against my throbbing forehead.

Again.

Again.

I’d told him to stop coming around so often, and now this lunatic had sent a subordinate to deliver a gift instead!

“I’ve told him several times that there’s no need to send me gifts…”

“No, Deputy Director. Since you solved the Commander-in-Chief’s greatest problem, it is only natural that you should receive this gift.”

For the record, the Empire did not have anything resembling the highly developed public-official ethics laws of modern Korea.

If it had, I would have used them as an excuse to refuse these gifts ages ago!

But since nothing of the sort existed, I had no choice but to accept the presents this bastard kept sending me and pile them up.

The bigger problem was—

“Wait. This is…”

“That is correct.”

The knight grinned.

“I thought you’d like it.”

“…”

I was speechless.

Because the truth was, I really did like it.

If I wore this pendant made from a dragon’s claw, I would gain immunity against most powerful forms of magic.

“Since the Commander-in-Chief personally acquired this protective item for you, please carry it with you at all times if possible.”

“Wait. You said he personally acquired it? Where?”

“From a dragon’s lair, of course.”

…Had this crazy bastard actually lost his mind?

“He did suffer some rather serious burns in the process, but he’s recovering well, so don’t worry! He regained consciousness after only three days, and the first thing he did was make sure your gift was taken care of. He’s perfectly fine, haha.”

The problem was that the Commander-in-Chief and the Master of the Magic Tower weren’t the only people constantly dropping by my office.

“It’s been a while, Deputy Director.”

“…G-Grand Duke.”

“Didn’t you miss me?”

As if I would miss you.

You scheming bastard who is constantly plotting a rebellion even now!

“You never contacted me even once. It’s rather disappointing. My younger sibling misses you so much that they’ve been crying every night…”

“Your sibling?”

That was strange. The last time I’d seen them, they had been remarkably cheerful and lively.

“Yes. They’ve even stopped eating and drinking.”

“Did you call a doctor?”

“All the Empire’s best physicians.”

Well, if it was the Grand Duke of Cardicha, a man said to be capable of making even birds fall from the sky, he could probably summon every renowned physician on the entire continent, not just in the Empire.

“I figured my sibling’s condition would improve if they saw you, so I came here myself.”

“W-Well, I’m currently working…”

“Then could you come to my residence for a little while after work? You don’t need to stay long. Just comfort my sibling.”

I merely nodded obediently, but a languid yet arrogant smile appeared on the Grand Duke’s previously cold face.

I’ve been tricked.

The moment I realized I’d fallen for it yet again, I squeezed my eyes shut.

Th-That fox…!

Chapter 1

I am an extra.

I’m not even sure which novel I’m an extra in.

It’s not like I’ve only read one or two novels.

And that’s where the problem arises.

Being transmigrated into a novel is only useful when you know which novel it is. If you’ve possessed the body of a lower-class extra with no money or connections, and you don’t even know the story, then you’re no different from an ordinary person.

With starvation looming over me, there was only one thing I could do.

Become a stable civil servant!

Arithmetic, composition, and subjects like that were child’s play for someone who had received a standard Korean education!

…At least, that’s what I thought five years ago.

Now, I deeply regret that decision.

“Do you even understand what you’ve done? His Excellency the Marquis of Willis was absolutely furious!”

Had the marquis become enraged because I’d made some enormous mistake that harmed the Imperial Family?

No.

Then perhaps because I was terrible at my job?

Not that either.

I had refused to accept the money being slipped to me by the Marquis of Willis’s nephew.

Instead, I’d reported him.

Naturally, the marquis’s nephew was given a furious dressing-down by the Emperor and was forbidden from ever setting foot in the capital again.

“What good is being good at your job if you’re so full of yourself that you walk around with your nose in the air…?”

I stood there silently.

There was no point arguing with an incompetent person who considered corruption to be perfectly normal.

“Sigh… Last time, you even reported the department head who was retiring. The poor man ended up leaving without even receiving his severance pay.”

This time, even I couldn’t stay silent.

“He’d been siphoning off several times the amount of his severance pay little by little. The amount of money involved was far too large for me to simply look the other way.”

“Is that what matters!?”

My direct superior was practically panting with rage.

“Do you know what everyone calls you?”

He glared at me.

“A villainess. They call you a villainess!”

How on earth does refusing to participate in corruption make someone a villainess?

I wanted nothing more than to show him what a real villainess looked like, but in this filthy world where having no connections was practically a crime, I had no choice but to endure it.

Or so I thought.

“Don’t come in starting today. I’m giving your desk to Isobel.”

That was the final straw.

“Imperial officials who have received an official appointment cannot be dismissed without a court order!”

“Who said we’re dismissing you?”

I stared at him blankly.

If it wasn’t dismissal, then…?

My direct superior picked up a stack of documents and tapped them against the desk.

“I’ll send you somewhere where you can never offend His Excellency the Marquis again.”

He smiled.

“Go to the Child Protection Bureau.”

…What kind of bullshit was this?

“The Child Protection Bureau?”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“My specialty is arithmetic.”

Mathematics had been my favorite subject even before I was transmigrated here.

Naturally, it was also the field in which I excelled most on the Imperial civil service examination. The graders had practically awarded my answer sheet more than full marks.

It was precisely because of that that I’d ranked first in the notoriously difficult Ministry of Finance examination, despite having absolutely no backing or connections.

Until then, I’d been called the ace of the Ministry of Finance.

And now I was the villainess of the Ministry of Finance.

What a strange world.

“Maybe dealing with those brats will straighten out that nasty personality of yours. Now hurry up and pack your things, or I’ll throw all that junk away.”

You fucking bastard.

I cursed inwardly and quickly cleared off my desk. I didn’t have much in the way of personal belongings anyway, so everything fit into a single small box.

I carried the box for quite a while, and the moment I arrived at the Child Protection Bureau, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

This is… the Child Protection Bureau?