Special Agent
…….
Even the next day I came to work.
The events from last night still lingered in my memory, and honestly, I felt like I had made a bit of a mistake, but
I had to show up anyway.
When I arrived at the office that morning as usual, I settled into my seat and was just taking it easy, but…
‘You said you work in the Welfare Bureau, right? What’s your name?’
‘It’s Charlotte. But why are you asking for my name?’
…Just wondering. I introduced myself, yet you don’t even know the other person’s name. Doesn’t that feel a little off?
Ahaha.
…At the time I had drunk a bit, I was having fun chatting with an A-class gumiho, and I hadn’t noticed at all.
Yet somehow the atmosphere felt heavy.
I figured it was probably just a vague memory of a night, like a dream from when I had dozed off on a summer afternoon.
That was exactly why I had told Baekyeou… Baek Eun-hwa to treat me like a trash bin for emotions.
I had met an A-class hero twice in private, but beyond that, an A-class hero remained an A-class hero, and normally I didn’t expect to run into any others.
But… worry kept creeping in.
A strange feeling that something was going to get a lot more complicated.
Haah….
No matter how I looked at it, taking on Batori and Saran while receiving an extra assignment felt like a genuine emergency.
…….
I didn’t know.
For now, the conversation with Baek Eun-hwa felt like it had ended in a haze.
Basically, she had to go out on a mission today, I had to come to work, so the chat was kept superficial, yet I kept replaying yesterday’s events in my head.
An A-class hero who was so painfully out of her depth.
Someone with popularity and an impeccable public image who sat alone in a small izakaya, drinking and venting her frustration.
Ehhyo… It’ll be fine.
While thinking that, I started drafting today’s report.
Until the team leader suddenly walked over to my side.
…….
…….
No words were exchanged.
But.
This.
Something….
That feeling felt terribly heavy.
Charlotte, right? Come with me for a moment?
…Why, why are you suddenly using polite language…?
The team leader, who normally never used such formal speech, addressing me in a soft tone made the feeling click into place.
Why follow me to do something when simple conversation would have sufficed….
…But being just a regular employee with a normal salary, I had no choice but to follow the team leader, and walking past the office into the hallway and taking the elevator, we arrived at a place I had never visited before.
After I started working here, the conference room on the top floor of the Association building had never been used.
It was never meant for ordinary staff anyway; it was more like a place for people we’d call VVIPs or something far above that.
From what I heard, high-ranking government officials and unusual people often used it.
…….
Being brought to such a place by the team leader felt anything but ordinary.
What on earth could this be about?
Why?
Even without thinking, I could already guess the situation, and following the team leader’s instructions, I took my seat.
A peculiar round table.
The seating capacity was wide enough for four or eight people depending on the chairs, and while I was glancing around curiously, a secretary who could have been anyone appeared and placed a cup of coffee in front of me.
Not a single item in the cup was cheap.
When I turned my body toward the glass wall, the openness of a high-rise building and a faint sense of vertigo hit me.
I had never seen this view while working at the company before.
It was only now that I realized how central the Association building was, right in the heart of the city, close to the bustling district.
…Team leader.
Just a moment longer….
…Yes.
…I guess it really is.
I somehow held back the sigh rising to my throat, and slowly sipping the coffee, I calmed myself.
After waiting another five minutes, the sound of clicking high heels reached my ears….
…….
An incredibly beautiful woman with snow-white hair so hard to forget entered.
Next to her stood the Association President, whose presence was so overwhelming it was hard to call her a simple workplace superior.
I had been certain for minutes already, but seeing the situation unfold like this left me utterly powerless.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
When the team leader and I greeted the Association President and Baekyeou, the two of them welcomed us lightly and took their seats.
It’s wonderful that you could join us today.
No, it’s us who are grateful. We’re just employees earning our wages thanks to the Association President.
That’s true. But still, allowing precious work time to be spent on this, I must express my gratitude.
…
An older woman, the Association President, began the conversation with the team leader in a light tone.
Well, despite her age, the atmosphere was one that was hard to deal with casually, which is why I had been on high alert the entire time.
Of course I understood why Baek Eun-hwa was present, but being the CEO of a company essentially, thoughts naturally piled up.
Hmm… Shall we get straight to the point? I have appointments, and Baekyeou beside me has time too.
Yes, that’s fine, President.
Thank you. You know her quite well, right? As someone working in the Welfare Bureau and living in D City, you’ll naturally remember a person like that.
…Yes.
And Charlotte, it seems you met her briefly last night and had a conversation. Is that true?
…Yes.
…
The Association President, speaking to the team leader, naturally turned her gaze toward me and continued.
A refined auntie giving me a hard time.
In that situation, I couldn’t help but focus on Baek Eun-hwa, who sat neatly beside her, but I concentrated as much as possible on the conversation.
I didn’t want to do anything that would draw attention and make my salary disappear.
I’m thinking of assigning you as Baekyeou’s special agent. How does that sound?
…Me?
She personally requested it this morning. Would you be able to manage?
Er….
…
I had expected it, but the words I couldn’t immediately process left me momentarily at a loss.
Given the busy days I had been living since meeting Saran, and now having to take on one more person…?
My body felt like it couldn’t handle it.
Honestly, speaking against the Association President as a mere employee was already suspicious, but if I stayed silent, my body might break, so I had no choice but to speak.
Well, I had to.
I’m already in charge of two heroes. Adding one more would be quite difficult….
Then let’s swap the assignments for the two of them. It would be much easier to handle only Baekyeou.
I can’t do that. Assigning myself while abandoning the people who help me would be wrong both professionally and as a human being. We were assigned to help, and in the process of that help, abandoning previous assignees in favor of Baekyeou… wouldn’t that mean I’m unfit to remain an Association employee?
…….
…….
…….
Ah.
I blurted it out and immediately realized I had crossed a line.
I should have been more measured, but… I had let it slip.
Way beyond the point of directly disagreeing with the president who pays my salary, the boss, the CEO, and the Association President.
…Hmph.
…I’m sorry. That was a slip of the tongue.
No. Rather… Baekyeou, what do you think?
……It seems fine to me.
Really?
……?
Yet the reaction that came back was one of approval.
I thought carefully about how to respond in this situation full of kind words, and for now I kept my mouth shut and waited silently for their answer.
I watched the two of them begin to whisper to each other, and the team leader beside me looked like she was lost in thought.
…Team leader, what are you thinking?
I couldn’t chime in on the conversation from the two higher-ups, so asking the team leader sitting next to me, chin in hand, what she was considering was far easier.
…Charlotte, do you remember what we talked about in the meeting?
…What?
The reason high-ranking heroes don’t receive Welfare Bureau services, and the various discussions we had.
…Why was that?
The team leader suddenly brought up something from a while ago.
Pausing for a moment, I tilted my head at her words, but continuing my thoughts… I could roughly figure out what she meant.
Why weren’t the high-ranking heroes, like Baek Eun-hwa sitting right in front of us, coming directly to the Welfare Bureau to seek help?
At the time I had definitely suggested it was due to a loss of image.
…I had a good idea. Want to hear it?
…What?
Just listen for a bit.
……?
With the team leader’s words, I leaned in closer.
And as she whispered, I nodded slowly, and the suggestion turned out to be quite good, with even more beneficial words following for my position.
It was a project I hadn’t prepared for at all until now, and given that the Hero Association was supposed to work for all heroes, it was even more fitting….
But to truly help the heroes, the project the team leader was suggesting right now was perfect.
It was quite promising.
Explain it to me.
…Yes.
After that, it was naturally approved.
Something felt off about the ending, but handling tasks and getting approved at work is a given for office workers.
…Ahem, Association President? And Baekyeou? May I say one more thing?
What?
…
Just like that, I launched into a presentation I hadn’t prepared for.
I rose from my seat at the round table and slowly turned toward the window, focusing my gaze fully on it.
I hadn’t prepared any PPT materials, but since preparing them now was impossible, I had simply moved to a spot where I could be seen clearly.
Fundamentally, I’m just an ordinary employee of the Association. The heroes I’m currently in charge of are one D-class newcomer and two B-class heroes. But even handling just two is already quite difficult in this situation.
…So?
Baekyeou looked at me and asked.
I continued from where I had paused to match her reaction.
I have to meet my assigned heroes three or more times a weekday—Monday through Friday—and then spend extra time after work, and even on weekends for therapy… The process. In that kind of schedule, I don’t have time for regular work either, so I often end up working overtime lately. Adding Baekyeou to this would make it quite difficult.
Hmm… So what exactly do you want?
It’s not so much that I want anything, but I’d like to propose one thing to help you, Baekyeou.
I brought up the main point.
What mattered now was the proposal I was about to make.
Well, it was also a kind of bet—if I rejected it, helping Baekyeou would become very difficult, but I wanted to help her, so I wanted to bring this up.
As someone who had seen her struggling alone last time and last night while drinking, I couldn’t ignore it.
Currently, except for the team leader, most of the staff in the Welfare Bureau do similar work—reports, document preparation, and face-to-face counseling through field visits. Generally, when managing one hero, this isn’t too hard, but if I end up managing three, the document and report work will naturally become much more difficult.
Right now, in my situation, the team leader had just suggested a way to resolve that.
It was simple.
Creating a position called Special Agent. Reducing report and document work to the absolute minimum and focusing only on face-to-face meetings with heroes.
…Hmmm?
That way, even if I spend all day meeting heroes, there would be no problem. Of course, I couldn’t completely eliminate document work, but we can minimize it…?
Hmm…
I had explained it roughly.
The team leader had only told me what she had roughly thought anyway.
Here, more details were needed, but time was short.
I first presented it and observed their reactions, and the response was quite… quite…
It’s a quite good idea. Special Agent… And if heroes receiving help from such an agent are limited to high-ranking heroes, and they receive special management… then the reason high-ranking heroes weren’t using the Welfare Bureau…
It seemed promising.
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