Why was he staring at me right now like he meant to take an X-ray, Grape-Head?
That look belongs on the heroine, not me.
“I’ve been watching you for a few days, and I still can’t make sense of you. I want to keep observing.”
“Uh… huh?”
“Your grades are lower than mine and Crosswell’s, and your magic is average at best.”
“Hey.”
“Somehow the two of us ended up treating you like the leader when we went around together, and it never felt unreasonable — that’s strange.”
“Are you insulting someone to their face right—”
“That strange ability of yours stirs my curiosity, too.”
“Oh, for—”
“So I need to observe you up close.”
What was even happening right now.
“No, wait a second. I never said I was joining the Black Spoon Division.”
As if he’d been waiting for exactly that, the mastermind drifted over and murmured close to my ear.
“This is what the taste of power feels like, Miss Rowell.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well then, Miss Crosswell. You must still be exhausted, so we’ll be on our way.”
“Oh — thank you so much for coming.”
The heroine returned the farewell, flustered.
But the moment she looked at me, her pretty eyes brimmed over with tears.
“Leila.”
“Julianna, about what’s happening right now—”
It was a disaster.
But I could still salvage this. It wasn’t too late yet!
Before I could get the words out, though, the heroine caught both my hands and her voice wavered toward tears.
“Thank you so much for saving me.”
“Uh — uh — um.”
“I’ve done nothing but lean on you since the very start… I don’t even know how I’ll repay you.”
“No! There’s really no need for—”
That was when someone set a hand lightly on my shoulder.
A solid, reassuring man’s hand — and the instant it landed, a chill shot straight down my spine.
The male lead.
“Right then. Rowell.”
“Yes…?”
“Come with us to our department for a moment.”
Something about the look in his eyes hit me with a jolt of déjà vu.
Because I’d worn that same look myself, once.
The look of a person losing their mind from overwork who’s just caught themselves some free labor…!
Watching the mastermind and the male lead lay out an employment contract in front of me, I honestly couldn’t tell anymore whether this was a dream or reality.
The stack of paperwork behind them had grown even taller than the last time I’d seen it.
Is this really my life now…
The sheer unreality of it left my head spinning.
No, wait. I already told the heroine this myself.
That nobody needs to stake their whole life on one job.
Was the palace the only place a person could work? No!
Jobs were everywhere, plenty to go around.
What era did they think this was, that I’d owe lifelong loyalty to a single workplace?
Well — I did work hard to become a court official, I’ll grant that.
But that never meant I wanted to grind away in the most brutal department in the building.
Which meant…
I’ll quit.
I could sign the contract and still walk away the moment I decided to.
A perfectly solid plan.
While I was thinking that through, I caught the mastermind’s eye, and an odd sense of foreboding crept over me.
He was smiling in a way that was just a little too pleased with himself.
What… why is he smirking like that?
He had the face for it, so it read as charming rather than infuriating — on anyone less attractive, that same smile would have started a fight.
…Or was it just my imagination that the smile kept growing?
“Ha ha. Well then, Miss Rowell.”
“Yes.”
“I do apologize, first of all, for bringing you here against your will.”
“Yes… sir.”
“But the situation is rather urgent, so I hope you’ll understand.”
“…Yes.”
I answered with a show of polite composure, while privately circling right back to the thought I’d had a moment ago.
Resign. A swift resignation is the answer.
I skimmed quickly down the employment contract from the top. The contents were all standard, unremarkable clauses.
But partway through, my eyes stopped moving on their own.
“Um, Minister Crowe.”
“Something you’re curious about?”
“I… there’s a required term of service written here. What exactly is this?”
While employed at the Black Magic Collection and Containment Division, three years of service from the official start date shall be the standard principle.
Resignation or transfer to another department is not permitted during this period.
In the case of disaster or physical incapacity, a leave of absence may be discussed.
Unauthorized absence may be subject to disciplinary action under the confidentiality principle.
The mastermind smiled, looking pleased that I’d noticed.
“Most black magic investigations are classified. So once you’re in, three years is non-negotiable.”
“What?!”
“Sign this contract now, and you’ll belong to the Black Spoon Division for three years starting today. Also worth knowing — unauthorized absence is a serious matter.”
…I hadn’t had the faintest idea this was even a setting in the original story.
The instant I sign, a swift resignation sails right out the window.
That was when the mastermind asked, his voice dripping honey.
“Did you happen to notice the salary section, Miss Rowell? It starts at three times what a new recruit in any other department makes.”
“Ah, yes.”
“And a quarterly bonus of a thousand marks on top of that.”
“Ah, I see.”
My replies had absolutely no enthusiasm behind them.
A thousand marks is basically ten million won.
I would very much like to spend money while my arms and legs are still attached, thank you.
The mastermind tried, in an even gentler voice, to soothe me.
“Miss Rowell. I understand you’re worried. It’s frightening, I’m sure.”
“…”
“But the ability to see a core of black magic is genuinely rare.”
Now that he mentioned it — that ability really was strange.
Aren’t I supposed to be some background character who barely gets a mention in the opening chapters?
Why was the heroine’s “sweet, quiet classmate” being handed a trial this excessive?
I pleaded with the mastermind, earnestly.
“Couldn’t it just have been a coincidence? Everyone gets one moment in life where they push themselves past their limits and manage something almost superhuman — maybe that’s all that happened to me, just for a second?”
“Hmm. Perhaps.”
The mastermind studied me through narrowed eyes.
“Or perhaps, Miss Rowell, you come from a family that’s carried this power all along.”
Hm? What family?
Right on cue, even the male lead chimed in.
“Now that you’re here, why don’t you check, Edgar.”
“I suppose I should. Ha, if we’d met a little earlier I’d have known sooner. I should call for Lumiere.”
Male lead, seriously…!
The heroine didn’t even try to comfort me, and now you’re doing this to me too!
And what exactly was this turn of events supposed to be, anyway?
The secret of my birth?
Was it really all right for that to come out this fast? This early…?
Three hundred years ago, after the Mad Emperor killed the Saintess.
It was only natural that the Temple of the God of Time and Purification, and the houses beneath it, fell into decline.
But house Crowe kept its standing by taking charge of the central temple.
Come to think of it, does that mean even our orphanage lived off the mastermind’s funding, one way or another?
An angle I hadn’t considered before.
In any case—
The mastermind’s retainer, “Priest Lumiere,” turned out to be a man with honey-blond hair and blue eyes, built like a baby chick.
Dragged into the Black Spoon Division’s office looking thoroughly bewildered, he took one look at me and declared—
“She’s a bearer of divine power!”
“I beg your pardon.”
He touched me a few times with hands that gave off light, then handed down what amounted to a bloodless death sentence.
Nothing happened for twenty years, and now suddenly this?
The priest looked just as thrown as I was.
“The eye that can see a core is divine power too, but… how could it just manifest all of a sudden like this?”
“I really have no idea.”
“But divine power is usually visible from early childhood, isn’t it…?”
“I suppose I never had a reason to use it, so I never noticed…?”
Had the people who’d left “Leila Rowell” at the orphanage known about this?
Would they have kept me, if they had?
While my thoughts churned, the baby-chick priest fluttered with excitement.
“This is enormous news! Oh — bearers of divine power have been dwindling for years, and here’s a miracle like this!”
“Um… Father, does this mean you can trace where I’m from?”
“It’ll take time, but it’s not impossible. Divine power runs in bloodlines, generation to generation!”
The priest nodded so hard and fast it practically hummed.
“You might well be a descendant of a house that’s since disappeared.”
“Oh, no…”
“I understand how you feel — it’s overwhelming, isn’t it! Oh, I want to tell the other priests right away!”
Overwhelming, my foot.
Finding my blood family might make me happy, but I don’t need a power like this!
Someone as inconsequential as me having this kind of ability? That was nothing but a flag for endless trouble down the road.
But right then, the male lead cut off the excited priest.
“Priest Lumiere. This needs to stay a secret for now.”
