Chapter 5: Raphael’s Thankless Job

Almost a year had passed since I had started working at the Magical Ministry. It had been arranged for me to come here because of my involvement in some serious incidents, but, owing to the complicated nature of my past, everyone actively avoided me.

“Nobody wants him in their department? What a waste of a rare specimen! Well, then I’ll gladly accept Raphael Wolt into mine!”

These were the words with which my superior, Larna Smith, accepted me into her department.

Larna, one of the leaders within the Ministry, was an all-around talented woman and an expert in disguise. Nobody knew what she actually looked like, or even where she had come from, making her stand out as an anomaly in a place where everyone was an anomaly to begin with.

However, she had many enemies due to her peculiar position, which meant that her department — of which I was part — was often the subject of harassment. Talented as she was, she already had to take on a lot of work... and then some people would push even more onto us because they didn’t like her.

“...Raphael, I’m spent... Mind if I sleep for a bit?”

“No! If you sleep now, you won’t wake up for at least two days. Please... just a bit longer.” I implored my overworked colleague to stay awake. The only answer he could muster was a sigh, and he looked as if he could fall asleep any second.

This won’t do. I offer him a glass of cold water. “Here, drink this,” I said, and he accepted it and started drinking in an attempt to stay awake.

As I continued working, the door opened and another overworked colleague, who had gone to wash his face to fight the drowsiness, came back in. He must have scrubbed really hard, as his face had turned red.

“So? Did you see Larna?” I asked him, to which he shook his head. Disappointed, I let out a sigh.

After the happy ending to the kidnapping of Keith Claes, a duke’s adopted son, she came back to the office looking very pleased. But before long, she had gone off again to who-knows-where.

And what a time she had chosen to do so. Between the aftermath of the kidnapping and the work pushed onto us by the other departments, we were all exhausted and could think of only one thing: sleep. If she were here, she could make quick work of a good share of all this paperwork. We all wished that she would come back as soon as possible.

My boss was a truly talented individual... but she was also a very eccentric one. The second her interest was caught by something, she’d go off chasing it herself. That being said, she protected her subordinates, took responsibility for what she did, and was an all-around reliable and respected figure.

I should have made her stay here. But who’d have thought she’d disappear again so soon? I sounded my regret by means of yet another sigh. But there was no time for idle grief, so I made sure to keep working while I sighed.

My hands silently moved from one document to the next. It felt as if I was never going to finish. My vision and my thoughts both started to blur. I was getting close to my limit.

After three days of sleepless work, one of my colleagues — in a bout of something I can only describe as insanity — had concocted a dubious formula he called an “anti-sleepiness drink.” If push came to shove, I’d have to consider drinking whatever that was.

As my blurred hands kept moving through the papers, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the opening door. The only member of the department outside the office, at that moment, was Larna.

Did she come back?! I thought to myself, elated, only to be disappointed to see Sora, the young man who had recently joined the Ministry. Larna had taken him under her wing, but before he could be taught the ins and outs of work in our department, she had brought him with her on a “research trip.”

Normally we would have to teach him from scratch, but right now we could not spare the time to sleep, let alone teach anything to anyone. Therefore, we told him to go to the ministry’s library and study by himself, like one would do at school.

However, since he was involved in Keith’s kidnapping, I had also asked him to write a simple report on that. That was likely the contents of the papers in his hands.

“Here is the report you asked me to write,” he said, confirming my theory and handing me the papers.

“Well done, thank you.”

He looked a bit distressed. “This is my first time writing an official document like this... I did get it checked, but...”

“Uh? Checked? By whom?”

All other members of his department were in this office, staring at their desks with bloodshot eyes. Did he ask someone from another department...?

“Oh, that would be Miss Smith.”

“...Larna? Where is she?” I asked him as my heartbeat steadily got faster.

“I met her while coming here from the library,” he answered, unaware of the trouble we were going through.

“So she was... here... Where exactly did you see her?”

“Hmm, it was right when I left the library, I think...”

The fastest runner in the department, upon hearing that answer, looked at me for an instant before standing up, and I returned his gaze with an imploring one. He nodded, left the room, and went after Larna.

If we managed to catch her, our work could potentially end so much faster. Maybe tonight we could even sleep! In a bed!

The small flame of hope warmed my heart. Did my vision get a little less blurry? Newly motivated, I looked over Sora’s report, which the higher-ups had asked to be submitted as soon as possible.

If Larna checked it, it should be fine... is what I thought, until I actually read it.

“...Say, Sora, what did Larna tell you after checking it?”

“She laughed and then said something like ‘I like how peculiar it is’... Is there anything wrong?”

This poor, confused guy probably meant no harm... but this was no way to write a report.

“...and then Katarina Claes was going crazy, like, ‘this dog is so cute!’ and she kept yapping like that...”

This is how downtown delinquents talk! And why did Larna just laugh and let it go?! I’m going to be the one to get in trouble with the higher-ups! How can he be this bad at writing?!