Chapter 3
“We’ll talk again in a month.”
Those words echoed in my ears like a death sentence.
“I never agreed to any stupid contract!”
I wanted to deny it.
Unfortunately, Serphine’s memories clearly included the moment she’d signed the employment contract.
She was actually worried that Roakin might cancel the contract first.
After graduating from the Academy, Serphine had been unable to find work because she possessed almost no magical power.
The Magic Tower had been the only place willing to hire her.
I understood why she’d been desperate.
But you still shouldn’t sign a slave contract like that!
Now I was the one paying the price.
With an irritated sigh, I tossed my pen onto the ledger I’d been organizing.
“Seriously… why is there never any end to this work?”
Thanks to inheriting all of Serphine’s knowledge and experience, adapting to this world hadn’t been particularly difficult.
But in just one week after transmigrating…
I’d experienced living hell.
Because there was simply too much work.
When I heard I was the Tower Master’s secretary, I’d secretly expected some life-threatening duties.
Instead…
Reality was completely different.
The Magic Tower’s primary responsibility was indeed exterminating monsters.
But since my magical power was practically nonexistent, I was exempt from all combat assignments.
My actual job was to stay behind while the Tower Master was away most of the time, handling endless paperwork and every tedious administrative task imaginable.
I should’ve realized that the moment I woke up buried under a mountain of documents.
There was no such thing as labor laws in this world.
Naturally, there were no regulations on working hours either.
Every day, Serphine had survived on brief naps while drowning beneath towering piles of paperwork.
And after becoming Serphine…
All of that work had become mine.
Even with my years of surviving endless overtime at my previous company, this workload was enough to make me cry.
Are we sure Serphine was murdered?
Wasn’t this just death by overwork…?
Maybe Serphine hadn’t actually died because of the Empress.
Maybe she’d simply worked herself to death first.
Let’s definitely renew the contract this year!
The note Serphine had written on the very first page of her notebook suddenly came to mind.
I pulled out the notebook and tore that page cleanly in half.
“I have no intention of dying from overwork twice.”
If anything, this workplace deserved to be reported to the Labor Department.
Renewing my contract?
Not a chance.
Even without the Empress trying to kill me, I had absolutely no intention of staying.
That’s it.
I’ve been working way too hard.
Losing an employee like me would be a huge loss for the Magic Tower.
That was probably why the Tower Master refused to let me leave.
Aside from work reports, we’d barely exchanged a few personal conversations.
There was no way he had some personal attachment to me.
The only logical explanation was that he simply couldn’t afford to lose such an efficient employee.
In that case…
I’ll make him want to fire me.
Grinning, I began writing out a detailed plan in my notebook.
“Hehe. Perfect.”
I proudly admired the sign I’d hung on the office door.
STRIKE
Step One of Operation Get Fired.
Do absolutely nothing until they have no choice but to dismiss me.
Striking is a worker’s legitimate right.
It might be a foreign concept in this world…
But from the perspective of a modern employee, it made perfect sense.
Smiling to myself, I went back into the secretary’s office.
A moment later—
Bang!
The door flew open.
“Lady Serphine! Lady Serphine!”
“What is it? Why are you yelling?”
“Lucifer has disappeared!”
I stared at him in disbelief.
Eliser Hilbris.
Born into the prestigious Hilbris family, one of the Empire’s oldest magical lineages, he’d followed the elite path his entire life.
He now headed the Magic Tower’s Artifact Department.
And this distinguished man had rushed over…
…because a cat had gone missing.
That arrogant cat acts just like its owner. It’s hardly the first time.
Eliser had begged me to help search for Lucifer so many times already.
I’d only been here for a week, and I was already sick of seeing that pink hair.
“He’s probably in the Tower Master’s room.”
“I already checked! He isn’t there! This time he definitely ran away!”
“I’ve told you over and over to put a tracking collar on him.”
“He refuses to wear one because he says it’s uncomfortable! What if he’s gotten lost outside? It’s still cold this time of year!”
Eliser shivered dramatically.
Lucifer often wandered off, but he was usually found somewhere inside the Magic Tower before long.
Seeing Eliser on the verge of tears made me realize this situation really was different.
“…Wait here.”
“Yes!”
Eliser practically jumped with joy.
Sighing, I walked into the storage room and retrieved several dried Kataria leaves.
I think this is the one…
I vaguely remembered a scene from the novel.
The heroine had accidentally tracked in the scent of some mysterious leaves while cleaning.
The moment Lucifer smelled them…
He completely lost his mind.
Those leaves had been Kataria leaves.
I strongly suspected they were this world’s version of catnip.
“You.”
“Go to your room and bring me one of Lucifer’s toys.”
“Right away!”
As soon as Eliser left, I began extracting the essence from the Kataria leaves.
After adding several ingredients to amplify the fragrance, I finished brewing a potion.
By then, Eliser had returned carrying an armful of cat toys.
“I couldn’t decide which one would work best, so I brought everything.”
As the head of the Artifact Department, Eliser personally made Lucifer’s toys.
There were countless varieties.
After looking through the dazzling collection of enchanted gadgets, I selected a simple feather wand.
“This one.”
Carefully coating the feathers with the potion, I handed it to Eliser.
“Take this outside.”
“Wave it around while you search.”
“If you do that, Lucifer should come to you.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
“…Wait.”
“Aren’t you coming too?”
“Of course not.”
“I told you.”
“I’m on strike.”
“Didn’t you see the sign?”
“I… didn’t.”
“…Strike?”
Eliser looked at me as though I’d started speaking a foreign language.
“Don’t ask.”
“Just know that starting today, I’m not working.”
“You and everyone else can go look for Lucifer yourselves.”
“L-Lady Serphine, wait—!”
“Goodbye.”
Ignoring his protests, I shoved him out the door and slammed it shut.
Finally.
Peace.
I had barely sat back down when a crystal communication device on my desk lit up.
Right.
I should’ve turned that off too.
The communication crystal functioned much like a telephone, powered by enchanted mana stones.
The bright golden light indicated a call from the Imperial Palace.
Even while on strike…
Ignoring the Imperial Family wasn’t exactly an option.
Sigh…
“…Secretary’s Office speaking.”
The moment I answered, an irritated voice came through.
“Has the Tower Master suddenly become a coward?”
Karis Lil.
Commander of the Empire’s Golden Knights.
The Crown Prince’s right-hand man.
He skipped straight to sarcasm without so much as a greeting.
Confused, I asked,
“What do you mean?”
“Skipping a few minor missions is one thing.”
“But refusing to attend the scheduled inspection?”
“How exactly are we supposed to take that?”
“Is he trying to pick a fight?”
“…Did Roakin actually say that himself?”
“…You didn’t know?”
Surprised by my reaction, Karis explained the situation.
The Magic Tower was contractually obligated to assist the Imperial Family whenever requested.
That included monster-subjugation missions.
Two days earlier, Roakin had skipped the expedition to Liu Gorge.
I already knew that.
But according to Karis…
Roakin had also declined the next operation.
Just then—
The office door opened again.
“Lady Serphine! The Council of Elders just sent an official document, but I’m busy, so could you handle it for—”
“Oh.”
“You’re on a call.”
I frantically waved both hands and silently mouthed,
“Get out.”
The final visitor of the day…
…was Shila from the Potion Department.
Storming inside, she puffed out her cheeks and demanded,
“Lady Serphine!”
“How could you do this to me?”
“…What did I do?”
“Calling in absent without notice!”
“I never imagined you’d be so irresponsible!”
“Shila.”
“I think you’ve gotten so used to it that you’ve forgotten…”
“I’m not actually part of the Potion Department.”
“…!”
She looked genuinely shocked.
To be fair…
Serphine had practically worked there anyway.
Although she lacked the magical power required to officially qualify, joining the Potion Department had always been her dream.
After finishing her own duties every day, she’d voluntarily helped them with their work.
Her extensive knowledge of potion-making allowed her to blend in so naturally that people often forgot she belonged elsewhere.
“So what if that’s technically true?”
“We’re basically family!”
Family?
At work?
Maybe Serphine would’ve fallen for that.
I certainly wasn’t going to.
“I’m sorry.”
“But I think you’d better hire someone else.”
“…What are you saying?”
“I’m quitting.”
“…That’s impossible!”
Shila looked as though she’d been struck by lightning.
“You can’t just leave like this!”
“What about the rest of us?”
“You know better than anyone that this is our busiest season!”
“The order forms are piled up like mountains, and they never stop coming!”
“I really can’t do this without you, Lady Serphine.”
She stared at me with pleading eyes.
From experience, I knew the workload always exploded before the Founding Festival.
But…
That’s your job!
Every office worker knows what “I can’t do it” really means.
“I don’t want to do it, so you do it for me.”
She was obviously trying to dump all her work onto me again.
“No.”
“You’ll be perfectly fine without me.”
“…You’re really abandoning me?”
I nodded firmly.
After spending what felt like forever comforting the nearly tearful Shila until she finally left…
I collapsed onto the sofa in exhaustion.
The reason Serphine had been so overworked wasn’t just because of her own responsibilities.
It was because every lazy mage in the Tower kept dumping their work onto her.
They’d recognized an easy target.
People called for me over the smallest things.
Just look at Eliser making such a huge fuss over one missing cat.
Even after I’d declared I was on strike…
How many people had barged into my office today?
Can nobody read the sign?
For a moment, I seriously wondered if someone had secretly cast an invisibility spell on it.
I hurried outside to check.
There it was.
STRIKE
Still hanging exactly where I’d left it.
How does not a single person see this before knocking…?
Then again…
That’s mages for you.
Completely self-centered.
Utterly fed up, I ripped the sign off the door…
…and threw it straight into the trash.
