The Civil Servant Who Conceals Her Power Is Too Good at Possession Chapter 44

“Ahahaha, there’s no need to be so nervous. Spokesperson Kang, come here for a moment.”

 

Seeing my body bent at a 170-degree angle, the Commissioner laughed heartily with a good-natured face and called for the spokesperson beside him.

 

I stood up with an awkward posture.

 

Then, the spokesperson suddenly took out a phone and started taking pictures of the Commissioner encouraging the injured me.

 

“…?”

 

I instinctively threw up a peace sign, but the Commissioner quietly stopped me.

 

“Don’t smile too much. You’re in a bit of pain right now, aren’t you? See, you even have a nosebleed.”

 

“I’m perfectly fine, though?”

 

At my response, I heard Pi Sowon snickering next to me.

 

Why is she laughing? I literally meant I was fine because I really am fine.

 

The Commissioner, with a subtle expression, spoke to the spokesperson.

 

“Let’s stop taking pictures.”

 

“Excuse me? We haven’t gotten an A-cut yet—”

 

Meeting the Commissioner’s sharp glare, the spokesperson put his phone back in his pocket and scurried away with his tail between his legs.

 

The Commissioner put on his good-natured face again, laughed heartily, and spoke to me.

 

“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital? Oh my, getting hurt like this while fighting a terrorist…”

 

“I wasn’t exactly injured fighting a terrorist, um…”

 

I rolled my eyes, looking at Pi Sowon as I spoke.

 

“…I got hurt a little during the process of stopping the vehicle.” 

 

Because of a certain psychopath.

 

I swallowed those words down.

 

“As expected! So you were injured while rescuing civilians until the very end! Isn’t it because of people like you that our Hunter Administration Bureau gains strength? Everyone, let’s give her a round of applause.”

 

The people treating civilians or cleaning up vehicles all clapped a few times with awkward faces at the Commissioner’s words before disappearing.

 

Why were they even clapping in the first place? 

 

I couldn’t understand the reason, but as a civil servant, not questioning the incomprehensible was the key to a long career.

 

“Now then. Could I have a moment to talk with Investigator Lee Yuji? There are a few more things I want to ask about the incident, and some matters that need sorting out at the Bureau level.”

 

The Commissioner gave a somewhat… greasy smile as he looked at Pi Sowon and the paramedics.

 

It was a look that clearly said, ‘Make yourselves scarce.’

 

For the record, I was sitting in the back of an open ambulance, so the paramedics had looks on their faces saying, ‘Why us?’, but Pi Sowon soon sighed and stood up to clear the situation.

 

“I will… go get treated over there.”

 

Once Pi Sowon and the paramedics withdrew like an ebbing tide, I was suddenly left alone with the Commissioner in the ambulance parked at the accident scene.

 

The spokesperson kept taking pictures of us from far away. As if he had become a paparazzo.

 

‘Why does that guy keep doing that?’

 

…I thought.

 

‘He must be a civil servant too, right?’

 

That sad thought coexisted in my mind.

 

It was then.

 

“It must be hard working under Team Leader Pi Sowon, right? Her personality is quite… well, you know.”

 

The Commissioner asked me with a faint smile.

 

“She is quite prickly.”

 

I answered without a moment’s hesitation.

 

At that, the Commissioner’s face brightened considerably.

 

“You’ve only just joined, yet you know her so well! As expected, Investigator Lee Yuji has an eye for people. These are the kinds of people an organization needs!” 

 

“Ahaha, thank you.”

 

I didn’t know what this was about, but getting a positive reaction from a higher-up was always a good thing.

 

Recalling my experience as a civil servant, I maintained the humblest attitude possible as I conversed with the Commissioner.

 

The situation itself was incredibly burdensome, but…

 

‘And he keeps taking pictures from over there!’

 

I had to endure it.

 

“She must be so difficult to work with. There hasn’t been a single partner who lasted more than a month in 8 years, right? And Team 5 is just rotting away in mediocrity. I hear Team 5 is practically a dead-end assignment within the Investigation Bureau? I heard there’s never been a case where a rookie lasted this long there.”

 

Oh my.

 

It’s touching that such a high-ranking official knows about our humble circumstances, but—

 

‘Why is he going into such painstaking detail about this?’

 

This feels sketchy—

 

I activated the ‘Sketchy Radar’ honed by my long-standing civil servant persona and began to watch my words.

 

“Haha. Still, I approach every task given to me with the mindset of serving the country!” 

 

My specialty.

 

In other words, playing up the ‘naive and ignorant physical education major’ vibe.

 

It wasn’t exactly a lie anyway, right? 

 

“…Is that so…?”

 

The Commissioner’s voice instantly turned sour.

 

He didn’t even try to hide his inner thought of, ‘Why is her brain so pure?’

 

“Actually… Our Bureau has a lot of concerns as well. A subordinate organization like the Hunter Investigation Bureau getting caught up in incidents and accidents every single time like this. In fact, Investigator Lee Yuji suffered this much today because Team 1 caused an accident during their operation, didn’t you?”

 

“Ah! Is that what happened! Team 1 must be working really hard!”

 

I answered ‘purely’ once again and grinned.

 

I know nothing… I know nothing…

 

“…What I mean is…!”

 

The Commissioner now looked beyond sour and somewhat annoyed.

 

He let out a fake cough and lowered his voice.

 

“Investigator Lee Yuji.”

 

“…Yes?”

 

“I think Investigator Lee Yuji is too valuable a talent to just rot away in a place like the Hunter Investigation Bureau.”

 

…Oh, the flow of this conversation is getting increasingly weird.

 

Feeling a sketchy sensation traveling up my spine to the back of my head, I asked carefully.

 

“What do you mean…”

 

“I’m thinking of creating a special team within the Hunter Administration Bureau. The Hunter Investigation Bureau is practically an organization that won’t last 20 years… no, even 10 years. In reality, wouldn’t it be faster and more accurate for the Bureau to directly investigate the wrongdoings of Hunters rather than going through the Investigation Bureau?”

 

Oho…

 

Well, well. This is a classic method of dismantling a public institution.

 

Basically, when politicians or higher-ups want to eliminate an institution, they create a small department elsewhere dedicated to the same tasks and slowly strip away all the responsibilities from the original institution.

 

After that, the original institution becomes virtually powerless, leading to slow layoffs or transferring all departments entirely, leaving the institution practically defunct.

 

It was a death sentence for a public institution.

 

“So what I’m saying is…”

 

He spoke secretly, with an expression as if he were handing me a sweet piece of candy.

 

“How about Investigator Lee Yuji becoming a member of that special team?”

 

Oh…

 

Going from the youngest member of Team 5 in the Hunter Investigation Bureau to a member of a special team under the Hunter Administration Bureau…

 

“What rank would I be?”

 

I asked without hesitation.

 

The Commissioner seemed a bit taken aback by the unexpected question, but soon grinned and answered.

 

“You’d start at Level 3. Of course. And I’d give you a higher pay grade, too.”

 

Pay grade. He certainly knows the weak spot of civil servants.

 

‘This is a massive opportunity, isn’t it?’

 

Escaping a team with a psychopathic partner, a lethargic team member, and an MZ lunatic team member, and moving to an agency directly under the Commissioner.

 

An immediate salary increase and a promotion.

 

In terms of private companies, it’s like moving from a small family-run business straight to a major corporation.

 

In a case like this, my answer was naturally predetermined.

 

“Wow… That’s really…”

 

“…?”

 

“…Problematic.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Ah, it’s just that my original goals were quite low. My goal is to just slack off at around Grade 4 until I hit retirement age. Looking at Team Leader Pi and Team Leader Kwon, it seems like Grade 3 civil servants have a lot of headaches to deal with…. Just living like Investigator Byeon in our team seems like the easy road in life…” 

 

…My answer was ‘No’.

 

An absolute ‘No’.