Chapter 1

#1

No matter the world, there are always people who handle the affairs of the nation.

At the heart of the Heliorn Empire stood the Imperial Palace, home to the emperor who ruled the country.

But the palace housed far more than just the emperor and the imperial family. In fact, the servants who maintained the palace and the countless employees who kept the empire functioning vastly outnumbered the royals themselves.

The palace was divided into various departments according to their respective duties, and among them was one department that accepted only those with exceptional abilities.

That department was the Department of Magic.

“Arghhh!”

A piercing scream echoed through the corridor, causing passersby to flinch and stare at the tightly shut door. But the moment they noticed the plaque that read Imperial Palace Department of Magic, they simply nodded in understanding and hurried on with their business.

Inside the department, a bomb had just exploded.

“Isn’t this going too far?!”

The man shouting had a face flushed bright red—not from embarrassment or shyness, but from pure, unfiltered rage. Everyone else in the room swallowed nervously as they watched him.

“I want to do well too! But all you ever make me do is organize paperwork! I’ve been working as hard as I can under those circumstances. Can’t you even see that?”

Despite the bitterness in his voice, only one person remained perfectly calm.

The very man he’d been yelling about.

The Minister.

His jet-black hair framed eyes as cold as winter frost, while the dark circles beneath them suggested endless exhaustion.

Even with someone venting his fury right in front of him, the man casually lifted his coffee cup as if nothing were happening. His pace in flipping through documents never changed.

“And what exactly did I do to deserve something so insulting?!”

Only then did the man slowly set down his coffee cup.

For the first time, he looked away from the documents.

His tightly closed lips parted.

“Because you’re an idiot.”

Everyone in the room shut their eyes.

They had expected those words.

They had only hoped they wouldn’t actually be spoken.

“If you’re the assistant to the Minister of Magic, shouldn’t you at least be able to keep up with my work and support me properly? But what about you? You couldn’t even complete a single task I assigned. Why should I acknowledge your effort when it produces no results?”

“…”

The furious man suddenly fell silent.

Everyone knew what would come next.

“Fine! I don’t think I’ll ever meet your standards no matter how long I work! I quit!”

“V-Verietta…”

A coworker hurried over to stop him, but Verietta—or rather, the man who had been the minister’s assistant until one minute ago—had already ripped the brooch from his uniform.

The brooch was proof of membership in the Department of Magic.

“Are you satisfied now?”

Verietta slammed it onto the table.

Unfortunately, he used too much force.

A nearby cup tipped over, spilling its contents across the stack of documents.

“Tsk.”

The minister clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“Before you leave, stop by the Ministry of Finance and pay for the documents you ruined.”

Everyone stared in disbelief.

A subordinate who had worked tirelessly under him was quitting in a fit of anger, yet those were the first words out of his mouth?

Forget apologizing or trying to stop him—he was demanding compensation for the paperwork.

Who could possibly say something like that?

Then again…

If the speaker was Rainer Winterroel, it made perfect sense.

A genius mage.

The youngest Minister of Magic in the Imperial Palace.

A man rumored to know nothing except work, and whose favorite pastime was dancing with a sword between his teeth.

In the end, Verietta stormed out of the office.

It was the glorious day when Rainer’s fifteenth assistant resigned.

“Hey! Blen!”

The palace cafeteria was packed with people.

It was lunchtime, after all.

Employees from every department, each wearing uniforms unique to their division, continuously streamed in and out of the dining hall.

“Kale.”

Blen waved at his approaching friend.

Carrying his tray, Kale sat down across from him.

“I heard the Department of Magic exploded again.”

“Yeah. My senior assistant quit.”

“I actually saw him at our department earlier. He said he came to pay for some documents or something. What happened?”

“Well…”

“It’s a long story.”

Stuffing bread into his mouth, Blen simply shook his head.

“Still, Minister Rainer is incredible in his own way. So many people keep quitting. Doesn’t he feel anything at all?”

Kale lowered his voice while glancing around.

Rumor had it that Rainer could secretly listen to people’s conversations through magic. They even said he’d single out anyone who badmouthed him and punish them.

“Kale, don’t worry. Minister Rainer doesn’t eavesdrop.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He thinks reading one more document is a far more efficient use of his time.”

“…Ah.”

Kale nodded in immediate understanding.

“Still, you’ve had it rough since joining the Department of Magic. Why don’t you transfer? Or just quit altogether. How do you survive under a boss like that? The department used to be everyone’s dream job because only talented people could get in, but that’s not really true anymore.”

Ignoring his friend’s concerned advice, Blen quietly continued eating.

There were countless things he wanted to say.

But he couldn’t.

So he simply kept stuffing food into his mouth.

“I wonder who’ll become the next assistant to the Minister of Magic. Everyone must be terrified.”

“Oh, that.”

After finishing every bite on his tray, Blen took a long drink of water.

“I’m going to do it.”

“…Huh? Wait… what did you just say?”

“I’ll head out first. Enjoy your meal.”

Leaving behind his frozen friend, Blen casually walked out of the cafeteria.

His reaction was perfectly understandable.

If the Department of Magic ranked first among the palace’s least desirable departments…

Then being the Minister of Magic’s assistant ranked first among the jobs nobody wanted.

But Blen had no choice.

His memories of his previous life had returned completely out of nowhere.

The moment he remembered that he’d transmigrated into a minor extra in the fantasy novel Living as a Genius Knight, he also remembered something else.

The novel had become infamous for all the wrong reasons.

“The greatest bait-and-switch novel of all time.”

That was the title everyone associated with it.

When serialization first began, readers loved it.

People praised it as one of the best fantasy novels around.

But the reason it became infamous…

Was the ending.

The genius knight protagonist descended into darkness, led the empire to ruin, and every single major character in the story died.

From that point on, Living as a Genius Knight exploded across social media.

It became known as the novel with the most backstabbing ending ever written.

People even joked that they’d stop their worst enemy from reading it.

The author disappeared after finishing it, which only fueled another popular theory—that the editor had gotten so angry they secretly wrote the ending instead.

Others claimed the editor had projected himself onto the protagonist after going insane.

Ridiculous as they sounded, people found those explanations more believable than the actual ending.

There was another major reason readers hated it.

Among the countless causes behind the protagonist’s descent into darkness…

The biggest one was the death of his closest childhood friend.

Holding a document in his hands, Blen entered the Department of Magic.

Since it was still lunchtime, the office was relatively empty.

He walked straight through and knocked on the door leading to another room.

The moment a voice from inside replied, “Come in,” Blen opened the door and strode inside.

As expected, the great Minister of Magic had skipped lunch and was buried in work.

“What is it?”

Without even looking up to see who had entered, the minister continued staring at his paperwork.

Think the protagonist’s childhood friend’s death was an understandable reason for his corruption?

Only if you didn’t know the full story.

“I’m here to submit this.”

Blen placed the document on Rainer’s desk.

Department of Magic Position Application

Name: Blen

Department: Department of Magic, Grade 3 Member

Desired Position: Assistant to the Minister of Magic

Only then did Rainer lift his head.

Do you know why the protagonist’s childhood friend died?

The cause of death…

Was overwork.

He literally worked himself to death without taking care of his health.

“Assistant?”

“Yes. The position became vacant today, so I’ll take it.”

That was why Blen had made up his mind.

No matter what it took…

He would keep this man alive, stop the protagonist from falling into darkness, and save this disaster of an ending.