The Villainess in the Childcare Story Doesn’t Hide Her Personality - Chapter 1

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

I hadn’t done any of it expecting rewards.
It was simply my job.
Duties I had been assigned.
I had merely worked diligently as a member of the Imperial Bureaucracy….
‘What a damnable world.’
Far from receiving gratitude, people everywhere were trying to tear me apart.
“Is that the woman? The Child Protection Bureau witch?”
“How many times has she stolen children from perfectly good parents now!”
“They say three orphanages closed this year alone because of her….”
The comments I overheard on my commute today were remarkably varied.
Well, let them say what they will.
I scoffed quietly and opened my office door.
‘…?’
The door should have been locked, yet it stood ajar with signs of someone inside.
‘Who the hell is this.’
Undoubtedly some ruffian who had forced his way in to lodge a complaint.
The moment I stepped inside to throw him out—
An entirely unexpected face beamed at me with a radiant smile.
“…Mage Tower Master?”
I was left speechless.
“What brings you here so early in the morning?”
“Nothing much. I just wanted to give you something.”
The Mage Tower Master shyly extended a bouquet of flowers, his face flushing.
“Do you like it, Deputy Director? Your office seemed rather bare, so I brought this for you.”
His voice was remarkably delicate and gentle—hardly befitting someone who could kill a dozen men with a single gesture and without blinking an eye.
‘It is rather to my taste.’
Once I placed it in a vase, the office seemed noticeably more vibrant.
“Of course. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.”
It was common knowledge not to carelessly accept gifts from mages, but flowers were hardly a concern.
What could possibly go wrong?
Yet from the very next day, ‘things’ began to happen.
The suffocating crowds that usually choked the Capital and the carriages that jammed the morning commute mysteriously thinned whenever I stepped outside.
Even the torrential downpour ceased the moment I prepared to leave, replaced by a brilliant blue sky.
A pebble I had casually picked up turned out to be a precious specimen lost by the Imperial Geological Society, earning me a commendation.
…Magic theory was essential knowledge for any respectable Imperial Bureaucrat, so I couldn’t help but understand what was happening.
‘With this much luck, he must have scraped together the fortune of dozens of mages under his command and transferred it to me!’
This was serious.
I had done nothing to deserve such magic from that curly-haired Mage Tower Master who kept seeking me out and blushing whenever we met.
‘Next time, I’ll have to ask him not to give me such burdensome gifts.’
Fortunately or unfortunately, the bouquet’s effects didn’t last long.
An unwelcome subordinate of that man came looking for me.
“The Commander-in-Chief has sent you a gift!”
I pressed my throbbing forehead with my fingertips as I regarded the audacious knight before me.
Again.
And again.
I’d told him to stop visiting so frequently, yet this madman had his subordinate deliver a gift instead!
“There was no need to send a gift. I’ve said so many times….”
“On the contrary. Since you resolved the Commander-in-Chief’s greatest concern, it is only proper that you accept this gift.”
For reference, the Empire has no highly developed civil service ethics laws like the Kim Act.
If it did, I would have used that as an excuse to refuse long ago!
But since no such law existed, I had no choice but to accept and accumulate the gifts this bastard kept sending.
The greater problem was.
“Wait. This is….”
“Indeed.”
The knight smiled knowingly.
“I thought you would like it.”
“….”
I was speechless.
Because I genuinely did like it.
Wearing this pendant made from a dragon’s claw grants immunity to most powerful magic.
“Since the Commander-in-Chief personally obtained this protective charm, please keep it on your person at all times if possible.”
“Wait, he personally obtained it? From where?”
“From Dragon’s Nest, of course.”
…Has this madman truly lost his mind?
“He suffered severe burns in the process, but he’s recovering well, so please don’t worry! The moment he regained consciousness just three days ago, the very first thing he did was prepare your gift—he’s perfectly fine, haha.”
The problem was that only the Commander-in-Chief and the Mage Tower Master frequented my office.
“It’s been a while, Deputy Minister.”
“Y-Your Highness, the Grand Duke.”
“Haven’t you missed me?”
Missed? What is there to miss?
From someone plotting rebellion in the shadows even now!
“I’m hurt you haven’t contacted me. My younger sibling cries every night, missing you so much….”
“Your sibling?”
That’s strange. The last time I saw them, they were quite cheerful and lively.
“Yes. They’ve stopped eating and drinking entirely.”
“Have you called a physician?”
“All the finest doctors in the Empire.”
Well, if it’s Grand Duke Cardicha, who can make even birds fall from the sky, he could summon the greatest physicians from the entire continent, not just the Empire.
“I thought my sibling’s condition would improve only by seeing you, so I came directly.”
“I-I’m currently on duty….”
“Then could you stop by the house after work? You don’t need to stay long. Just comfort my younger sibling, that’s all.”
I simply nodded in agreement, and a languid, arrogant smile bloomed across the Grand Duke Cardicha’s previously cold face.
‘I’ve been had.’
Realizing I’d fallen for his trap once again, I squeezed my eyes shut.
‘That cunning fox…!’
Chapter 1
I am an extra.
An extra from which novel, I couldn’t say for certain.
It’s not as though I’ve only read one or two novels.
The problem arises here.
Being a transmigrator is only useful if you know which novel you’re in, but I’ve been reincarnated as a penniless, powerless extra from the lower classes with no memory of the story—which makes me little different from an ordinary person.
With starvation looming before me, there was only one course of action I could take.
Become a stable civil servant!
Arithmetic, composition—exams in this backwater were child’s play for someone educated in the Republic of Korea’s standard curriculum!
That’s what I thought five years ago, and now I regret that decision with every fiber of my being.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Marquis Willis is absolutely furious!”
Had I committed some grave error that harmed the Imperial Palace, prompting the Marquis’s rage?
No.
Had I simply been incompetent at my work?
That wasn’t it either.
I had refused a bribe from Marquis Willis’s nephew and reported him instead.
Naturally, the Marquis’s nephew received the Emperor’s displeasure and was banished from the Capital forever.
“What good is doing your job well when you’re so self-righteous and stiff-necked….”
I stood in silence, saying nothing.
There was no point arguing principles with an incompetent fool who treated corruption as routine.
“Sigh… Last time you even reported the department head who was retiring. He ended up leaving without his severance package.”
This time, I couldn’t hold back.
“He’d been skimming off several times that amount. The stolen funds were at a level I simply couldn’t ignore.”
“Does that even matter!?”
My Direct Superior sputtered indignantly.
“Do you know what people call you? A villainess, that’s what!”
How was refusing to condone corruption making me a villainess?
I wanted to show them what a real villainess looked like, but in this filthy world where having connections was everything, I had no choice but to endure.
And then.
“Don’t bother coming in anymore. I’m giving your desk to Isobel.”
He was speaking as though he’d lost his mind.
“A formally appointed Imperial Bureaucracy official cannot be dismissed without a court order!”
“Who said anything about dismissing you?”
I stared at him blankly.
If it wasn’t dismissal, then…?
My Direct Superior picked up a stack of documents and tapped the desk with sharp, deliberate strikes.
“I won’t send you anywhere that might displease Marquis Willis again. Report to the Child Protection Bureau.”
…What in the world was this nonsense?
“The Child Protection Bureau?”
I stood there, utterly dumbfounded, my mouth hanging open.
“My specialty is arithmetic.”
Since my possession of this body, mathematics had always been my favorite subject.
Naturally, it was also the field where I excelled most on the Imperial Bureaucracy examination. The graders had awarded me scores that surpassed perfect marks on my answer sheet.
This was precisely why I had passed the notoriously difficult Ministry of Finance entrance exam with top honors and without any backing whatsoever.
Until recently, I had been called the ace of the Ministry of Finance, but now they were calling me the villainess of the Ministry of Finance.
This world was truly incomprehensible.
“Perhaps dealing with brats will straighten out that temperament of yours. If you don’t pack your things quickly, I’m throwing all this junk out.”
Bastard.
I muttered curses under my breath and swiftly cleared my desk. My personal belongings amounted to no more than five or six items, so everything fit into a single small box.
The moment I arrived at the Child Protection Bureau, box in hand after a long walk, I found myself doubting my own eyes.
‘This is… the Child Protection Bureau?’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————