The Overtime That Broke Me
An hour later, I had arrived at the temple's front gate, exactly as the man had ordered.
Along the way, I'd managed to learn from Susanna that his name was Charles and that he was a mid-ranked priest of the temple.
“Good day, Priest Charles, sir.”
“Follow me.”
Charles didn't even glance at me as he strode through the front gate. I trailed after him into the temple.
So this is the temple….
Priests in their clerical robes were moving about the temple's interior. On the surface, at least, everything looked perfectly ordinary.
Of course, the original novel had described this place as the heart of money laundering, embezzlement, drug trafficking, extortion, arms dealing, and every other manner of vice imaginable.
Following the man deeper inside, I arrived at a pitch-dark room. An ominous atmosphere hung over everything, and I found myself shrinking back instinctively.
“Priest Charles…?”
“Ha. There's that look again. That insolent look in your eyes.”
He met my gaze and scowled.
“You're nothing but a subcontractor, and yet you act like you're somebody. If you don't like it, study harder and get a job somewhere better!”
What kind of nonsense is that? So people who don't land jobs at big corporations deserve to be looked down on? It's not like people at small companies work any less hard!
I clenched my teeth, remembering Mr. Park Geo-seong's godforsaken company. Some people had ended up at small businesses because of circumstances beyond their control, and some had simply wanted a job, any job.
And besides, the talent pool was equally mediocre at big companies and small ones alike! Judging by the spectacle this mid-ranked priest named Charles was making of himself, working at a big organization clearly didn't make anyone smarter.
“Miss Lavender, I believe we made an agreement last time. If you cause us any harm, you will pay the price.”
“Yes, sir.”
Is he going to cut my salary? Or is he planning to beat me up?
While I wondered what the original Audrette had been put through and braced myself accordingly, Priest Charles dumped a towering stack of papers in front of me. There had to be several hundred pages at least.
“These are dispatch requests submitted to the temple. Every one of them was rejected, so you'll fill in the reasons for the rejections yourself. Do a good job.”
“……?”
“There will be no going home until this is finished. Consider yourself informed.”
In other fantasy novels, the temple would be burning people, conducting human experiments, or abusing magical powers at this point, wouldn't they?
Insane. Honestly, that might be preferable.
But unfortunately, what lay before me was an endless mountain of work that showed no sign of ever ending.
I picked up my quill with a face full of despair. Thus began the overtime.
“Audrette, you're here?”
The passion-villain deputy manager greeted me with a slack-jawed grin. I looked at him, suppressing the fury bubbling up from deep inside.
Last night, I had clocked out at five in the morning.
That's right. I 'left work' at five in the morning….
And now, at nine a.m., I was back at the office. I'd dozed off for a moment while undressing for a shower at home, and when I came to, it was already time to clock in.
True awakening, you bastards.
My attitude toward this world had completely changed.
Defect from the story and live quietly as a commoner? Attach myself to the original protagonist's side and coast?
All wrong. I was now more desperate than anyone to actively, deliberately, single-handedly tear the temple down.
The original Audrette deserved better!
You people drove a rookie fresh out of school to death from overwork, so you'd better atone with your own deaths.
Let's burn it all down.
My eyes hardened as I stared at the guild.
From this moment on, this guild would be entirely mine.
And then, together with the Crown Prince, I would destroy the temple itself.
“Oh, right, Audrette!”
The deputy manager, oblivious to the storm brewing inside me, spoke up in a cheerful voice.
“We're an information guild in name, so shouldn't we build an actual information network? If we do a full survey of all the mercenaries in the capital and compile their rates and major contracts, it'd be a game-changer. What do you think? Let's start right now, today!”
I ground my teeth at the sight of him.
The characteristics of a passion villain are as follows.
At first glance, his ideas sound plausible—almost impressive, even, like they might actually benefit the company.
But here's the crucial question. And? Is it actually feasible? Who's going to do the work?
He always brings in projects that are flatly impossible with our manpower, then leaves me grinding away alone until I produce nothing. And while I'm drowning, he smokes for three hours a day outside and waltzes back in to steal credit for whatever I've accomplished.
“What a wonderful idea, sir. Have you settled on the budget and the implementation plan?”
“Haha, I'm leaving that opportunity to our dear Audrette! You should build up some achievements for the guild too, shouldn't you?”
“Oh, now that you mention it, Susanna's been saying she wants more meaningful work lately. Isn't that right, Susanna?”
“Y-yes?”
Susanna, who had been casting sidelong glances our way, looked up with an expression of pure dread.
“Susanna? But Susanna always leaves right on the dot.”
“She's been wanting overtime these days. Haven't you, Susanna?”
“Th-that's, um, yes…. I'll do it….”
Having successfully dumped the work onto Susanna, I quickly retreated to my desk.
Soon. Very soon, I'm dealing with that deputy manager.
Now that the temple had made me work through the night, the number one spot on my grudge list belonged to the passion-villain deputy manager.
Finding a weakness in that type of person isn't difficult. And once I had his weakness in hand….
“Oh, right, Audrette! You have a visitor! Hahaha!”
“Ah. Yes.”
Alerted by the deputy manager, I hurried to the reception room. Just as I'd arranged in advance, the Crown Prince had arrived.
When I entered, the man was already seated, his face hidden beneath his hood as always.
“Did you find the mastermind?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. We did.”
I clenched my fist briefly, and then, at last, the words left my mouth.
“The mastermind behind the fake holy relic is the temple itself.”
“…What?”
The Crown Prince's gaze wavered. He seemed more shocked than I'd expected—had he really not seen it coming?
Paying it no mind, I handed over the evidence file I'd prepared in advance. Since I already knew the answer, tracking down proof hadn't been difficult.
“It's true….”
The Crown Prince's voice trembled as he read through the evidence.
“Why?”
“Does that mean the commission was a success?”
“It does. The commission was a success, but….”
Before he could say anything more, I moved first.
“Then grant me my request.”
“Your request?”
“You said that if I succeeded, you would grant me anything I asked. And that you had the power to do so.”
“I did say that, but….”
There was no room left for hesitation.
Ever since enduring the temple's hellish overtime last night, my fighting spirit had transformed into something unrecognizable.
“I ask that you use me as a double agent inside the temple, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“……!”
He clearly hadn't expected me to know his true identity—the Crown Prince shot to his feet.
His hand moved toward the sword at his hip, but I kept speaking.
“There's no need to doubt me. I've already decided to stand on your side. If you still distrust me, feel free to use your ability.”
I spoke, recalling the power passed down through the imperial bloodline for generations.
The Crown Prince stood frozen for a moment, then finally sat back down and pulled off his hood.
Beneath it, black hair and cool, ash-gray eyes came into view. He was a sharp-featured, coldly handsome man—so striking that I was honestly a little startled the moment I saw his face. Probably the most handsome man I'd seen in this entire world.
Not that now was the time to be admiring the man's face.
“How did you know?”
The Crown Prince's voice was thick with wariness, and I answered calmly.
“After resolving the commission regarding Lady Carliard, I made some deductions on my own. I asked myself: who would Lady Carliard have been helping there? And as it happens, right around that time, there was a certain gentleman who had been ambushed by a conspiracy, drinking poison in a forest and losing consciousness.”
“…….”
“That is how I learned that my client was the Crown Prince himself.”
“So you knew about that conspiracy in advance….”
“You already know, don't you? That our guild is a subcontractor for the temple.”
Granted, no mere subcontractor could ever get their hands on information that sensitive, but I said it with a perfectly straight face.
“I paid a visit to the temple not long ago, and it was then that I learned the temple was scheming against Your Highness. That was when I decided to take your hand.”
“But why, in the world?”
The Crown Prince asked, still looking half-dazed.
“I never imagined a faction of the temple would offer to cooperate with me. Are you plotting to use me and discard me?”
“Your Highness. There is no one alive who bears a deeper grudge against the temple than I do.”
That much was the truth.
“Using you is, well, partially accurate. Because I want my revenge on the temple. I want to watch it collapse into ruin with my own eyes.”
“…….”
“And if you cannot bring yourself to trust me, then use your ability. After all, every child in the empire knows that the royal family inherits the power of the Oath.”