My Only Rival Is Work
Taking advantage of lunch hour, I went for a short walk with Everett and had just sat back down at my desk when Bess burst in behind me.
She looked absolutely wired.
“Everyone, listen up!”
Bess clapped her hands sharply to draw the room’s attention.
Since it was right after lunch, the employees who had been sprawled in lazy post-meal stupors turned curious eyes toward her.
Only after confirming that every single person in the office was watching did Bess open her mouth.
“I was staring up at the sky when suddenly I saw a bird!”
Why is seeing a bird in the sky such a big deal? It’s not like it popped out of the ground. Is there a problem here?
I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. For a second I genuinely wondered if Bess was just an extremely passionate bird lover.
While I sat there blinking in confusion, Sophia spoke up in her characteristically calm voice.
“Bess. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Then give us the conclusion.”
“Right.”
Bess followed the instructions, inhaling and exhaling a few times, and the excitement visibly drained out of her.
She’s basically a professional trainer at this point.
After a brief pause—clearly organizing her thoughts—Bess spoke again. This time the story actually had a proper beginning, middle, and end.
So basically…
Seeing the bird had reminded her of the carrier pigeon sent to Camelot Castle. While she was thinking about the pigeon, she decided to check for messages, and sure enough, one had just arrived.
It reported that they had located the secret space at the designated coordinates and confirmed the presence of iron ore inside.
Exactly the kind of news that would make Bess want to jump for joy.
My hypothesis had been correct.
I forced my cheeks, which kept trying to lift into a massive grin, back under control and offered a soft, modest smile instead.
The other employees showered me with praise, as if they’d been holding back their excitement until the results came in. With the problem that had been plaguing them for so long finally resolved, everyone looked positively delighted.
“Derek, kill the lights. Just looking at Lina right now is blinding.”
“Close your own eyes, then. Mine have been shut for ages.”
Once these people get started, their flattery knows no bounds.
Listening to them, you’d think I was some kind of miracle worker.
The savior who pulled the Blue Hawk out of the swamp of overtime.
I was loving every second of it. By all means, continue.
It was a perk I’d lucked into thanks to my reincarnation bonus, but I couldn’t complain. Some people are born with exceptionally pure divine power. Others are mathematical geniuses from birth. My memories of my previous life were simply part of my own skill set.
Kyle, who arrived shortly after hearing the news, looked noticeably more haggard but still heaped on the compliments.
“I knew my eye for talent was good. Scouting Lina was the best decision I’ve ever made.”
Praise and validation—there’s nothing quite like it.
The flood of compliments had my cheeks aching from smiling so hard.
Was I burned out all this time without realizing it?
Or maybe I’d just been starved for recognition. The answer came immediately: both.
That made sense. Back at the Ministry of Finance, I’d simply handled whatever tasks were handed to me. Even when I poured my heart into something and produced results, someone like Donovan would swoop in and steal the credit.
But that was all in the past now.
It was miserable while it lasted. Let’s never see each other again.
The Blue Hawk was ruthlessly meritocratic. I threw myself into every task like a fish returned to water. It didn’t matter whether the job let me use knowledge from my previous life like the Duke Camelot case or not. Even without those memories, I hadn’t been an honor student at the academy for nothing.
I’d kind of forgotten that about myself for a while there.
My colleagues’ enthusiastic reactions made helping out genuinely fun. Kyle watched the way I worked and declared that I had excellent improvisation and a broad perspective. He officially asked me to keep acting as the team’s all-purpose troubleshooter.
My role quickly expanded far beyond simply handling assigned cases, but I found I preferred it that way. As a result, even though I didn’t have any fixed responsibilities, I somehow became the person whose desk was perpetually buried under mountains of work.
Back in the day, seeing that much paperwork would have made me sigh first thing.
Now it filled me with determination to finish it all as quickly as possible.
People really are shaped by their environment.
I hadn’t noticed before because I’d only been given meaningless busywork, but I apparently had the soul of a workaholic.
After a brief period of relative calm, I gradually grew busy again. Even so, I was still managing to meet Everett seven times a week—though the time we spent together each day grew a little shorter.
Work and love. Love and work. I want both.
Fortunately, Everett was a man with a generous heart. He understood my job completely and supported me without reservation. Thanks to him, I was enjoying deeply satisfying days on both fronts.
I wish every day could feel like this.
Edwin had recently been oscillating between cloud-nine euphoria and the muddy depths of depression.
Every high came because of Lina. Every low came because of Lina too.
The reasons for the lows were slightly more varied.
Learning that his affection for Lina far outweighed her affection for him was one of those reasons, though it didn’t weigh on him too heavily. Edwin was a pure-hearted man who could be content simply knowing her feelings were pointed in the same direction as his. He believed that with time and effort, she would grow to love him more.
Other occasional sources of melancholy included his regret over never having made a proper confession and the anxiety of keeping his true identity hidden, but those didn’t plague him often.
Edwin, who had been lost in thought while working, glanced at the Inspectorate building visible from his office window and let out a long sigh.
“It seems Miss Diaz likes her work more than me.”
The most depressing moments were when he felt as though his beloved was being stolen by her job.
Kyle, who had been assisting with Edwin’s duties, pretended not to hear the lament, turning it into a monologue.
“My competitor is work, of all things.”
Undeterred, Edwin continued talking to himself. These were words he could never say in front of Lina; in her presence he always played the part of the cool, understanding boyfriend.
It had been encouraging when he first managed to free up time for daily meetings by working Kyle to the bone. Before that, they had only seen each other once a week—if they were lucky.
Their once shy, fluttering, slightly awkward relationship had smoothed out beautifully. There had even been tangible progress.
Edwin’s face flushed scarlet as he remembered the quiet path in the inner palace lined with impressive sycamore trees. Even now, just thinking about that day made his heart feel like it would explode.
Whenever he had a spare moment, he recalled that memory—alternating between blissful happiness and sharp regret.
But Edwin could not be satisfied with that alone. Like a man who had drunk seawater, his thirst for Lina only grew stronger.
He was the type who could be relentlessly persistent in obtaining what he wanted. He offered flowers to see her smile and meticulously maintained his appearance to catch her eye. These days his skin practically glowed.
Yet his competitor—despite having no physical form—was surprisingly formidable.
As promised, Kyle had refrained from assigning Lina any cases for a while. The problem was Lina’s own passion. Whenever her colleagues ran into trouble, she would step in at exactly the right moment and carve out a place for herself.
Even a small light makes a jewel shine.
Gradually the volume of work she handled increased, and the precious time they had managed to create began to shrink again.
Still, when Edwin saw the renewed sparkle in Lina’s eyes—the same eyes that once only lit up on her days off—he couldn’t bring himself to complain. He could only mourn the fact that he couldn’t throw down a gauntlet to his intangible rival, then gently send her back when she reluctantly said she needed to return to the office mid-date.
On the surface, of course, he remained the very picture of a considerate lover.
Her passionate side is quite charming, though.
Watching Lina shine while exercising her full abilities made his heart flutter even harder.
This cannot continue.
Having made up his mind, Edwin called for Kyle while weighing several possible solutions.
“Kyle, can you adjust the schedule somewhat? Preferably Miss Diaz’s schedule as well, if possible.”
Kyle, who had been grinding away hard enough to risk a nosebleed while his boss stared dreamily at the Inspectorate building, missed the question and asked again.
“Lina’s what?”
He used the familiar nickname without thinking, the same way he did back at the office.
“What?”
The half-dropped honorific made Edwin’s golden eyes flash like lightning across a night sky.