Chapter 617: The Premature Inquiry

"..."

After hearing her best friend's question, the red-haired Bureau Chief's smile stiffened slightly, and she shot her a look of annoyance.

Can't you refrain from bringing up such a miserable topic while I'm in such a good mood?

Besides, do you think I *want* to be ranked last? With only two and a half people left in our branch, managing to clear the anomalies within the Kingdom's borders every year is already the absolute limit of our efforts.

Furthermore, our performance this year wasn't actually that bad. In the first half, we wiped out over a dozen nests of the Merino Baiyan Black Sect and seized a large batch of anomalous items; in the second half, we even took down a descended Holy Spirit.

With those achievements, even if we weren't at the top, we should have been comfortably in the upper-middle tier. Who could have predicted all these sudden incidents at the end of the year?

"Negligent! Lazy! Shameful!"

While the red-haired Bureau Chief was exchanging glances with her friend, the projection of the Bureau Chief of the Cleaning Bureau in the center of the hall was still tapping the markers of the branches ranked at the bottom, criticizing them with a heavy heart.

"As the final barrier between humanity and anomalies, you carry the safety of the entire species on your shoulders! Look at these shameful review results; I feel ashamed for you! Especially the Virgo Branch—how could you still have the nerve to smile just now!"

After slamming his hand heavily onto the 'Dung Beetle Maiden' emblem of the Virgo Branch, the Bureau Chief glared and shouted angrily:

"The Puppy Branch and the Lyra Branch are one thing. The old Chief of the Puppy Branch just retired, and the new one is unfamiliar with the work and needs a few years to gain experience. The Lyra Branch had their main force frozen in a glacier while dealing with an attack by the Polar Remnants two years ago and still hasn't rescued them. It's understandable that those two branches have poor performance.

But Olivia, what do you have to say for yourself? In the first half of the year, your branch conducted a joint raid with the Serpent Branch, but you only caught five Merino Baiyan Black Sect believers, while you accidentally took down over eighty of your colleagues from the Serpent Branch!"

"Chief, that was just an accident. And it wasn't a joint raid; our operations just happened to collide."

Hearing this, the red-haired Bureau Chief couldn't help but stand up to protest.

"I took that Merino Baiyan Black Sect operation very seriously. After the Bureau issued the raid order, I sent Emma, our strongest agent, to complete the task as quickly as possible.

At the time, Emma had already located the gathering spot of the Merino Baiyan Black Sect and deployed her 'Execution Platform' to make arrests. Who knew the Serpent Branch was also lying in ambush nearby? And their agents had committed even worse crimes than those cultists, so they were hit by the collateral damage."

Under the murderous glare of the Serpent Branch Chief, the red-haired Bureau Chief continued to argue righteously:

"You know how it is—Emma's Execution Platform triggers based on the severity of one's 'sins' and doesn't distinguish between friend and foe. As soon as she deployed it, the Serpent Branch agents went down first, and they screamed louder than the cultists. Emma had no choice but to stop, which allowed the cultists to escape into the Dream Realm.

Chief, if I were you, instead of blaming Emma for being too heavy-handed, I'd investigate the Serpent Branch to see what kind of people they're recruiting, and why they went down faster than the cultists under the 'Execution Platform'."

"Fine, let's call the Merino Baiyan Black Sect incident a misunderstanding."

Too lazy to bicker with the red-haired Bureau Chief, the Bureau Chief slapped the Dung Beetle Maiden emblem again and continued to interrogate angrily:

"What about these incidents at the end of the year? Anomalous attacks happened right under your nose. Even with agents present, hundreds of nobles died, and the Kingdom's road and military administration were paralyzed for nearly two weeks. How do you explain this?"

"That... the incident at the Li Ang family estate was purely an accident..."

Cursing Li Ang viciously in her heart, the red-haired Bureau Chief bit the bullet and defended herself:

"Li Ang hadn't even been officially promoted at the time; he was just a rookie who hadn't joined for a month. And the opponent was a near-God-level Great Demon Heart... well... it was a sudden emergency, and there was really no other way.

Besides, he blocked off the estate, so he couldn't seek support from the branch, but he still managed to protect most of the people and successfully resolved the anomaly. I believe this shouldn't be counted as dereliction of duty; it should even be commended."

"Heh, you always have an excuse. You even have the nerve to call failing to clear the anomaly in time and causing over two hundred noble casualties a 'successful rescue that protected most people.' Your skin is thick enough to be an anomalous item itself."

After mocking her, the Bureau Chief's expression softened slightly, and he continued:

"However, since that Li Ang is a rookie and the situation was special, that result is barely acceptable—consider your branch cleared for that incident. But what about the Royal Family?

According to our agreement with the various Royal Families, they must provide funding and supplies and unconditionally support our cleaning activities. The branches stationed in each Kingdom have an obligation to protect the safety of the Royal Family and important nobles from anomalous disturbances.

But in your territory, first the Princess was attacked by an anomaly and forgotten by everyone in the Kingdom, and later, when a Virgo Branch agent went to pay a visit, he got into a verbal altercation with the Prince and beat him up in the reception room for quite a while... and judging by the King's complaint, it seems this isn't the first time he's done something like this?"

"This... this can also be explained."

Mentally adding another black mark against Li Ang, the red-haired Bureau Chief defended herself while facing the strange looks of over eighty colleagues:

"Although Li Ang did have a small conflict with the Prince, the Princess had previously agreed to his marriage proposal, so besides being a Virgo Branch agent, he is also a Prince of the Blood of the Kingdom.

Without using any anomalous items, he just gave his wife's younger brother a few light slaps during an argument. This should be considered an internal Royal Family matter and shouldn't fall under the Cleaning Bureau's jurisdiction.

As for the Princess being attacked, while our branch was indeed negligent, it was primarily a scheme orchestrated from behind the scenes, and it even utilized part of the effects of the 'Illusion Can'. I suspect a Director might be involved, and I have already submitted an inquiry application to the Bureau."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, the Bureau Chief couldn't help but pause, then frowned and asked:

"You're actually preparing to launch an inquiry against a Director? Olivia, why didn't I receive a report on such an important matter?"

"This..."

The red-haired Bureau Chief looked a bit embarrassed.

"You previously received a prompt from the Grand Void Gate and have been hunting the Olden King of the First People for these past years. When we submitted the inquiry application against the Director, we didn't expect you to be able to project yourself back this year..."

"Did you not expect me to be able to return, or did you not expect me to still be alive?"

The Bureau Chief's projection lowered his head, looked at the several Directors in the Director's seats who were looking somewhat awkward, and snorted coldly:

"Rest assured, the time flow in the Land of the Olden Days is only one-fiftieth of yours. Even if you all grow old and die, I'll still be living just fine here!

Heh, I only contacted you during the year-end review just to check on the Bureau's situation, never expecting to catch an inquiry against a Director... Tell me, Olivia, which Director did you catch red-handed?"

(End of chapter)