I’m an Immigration Officer!

"This, what is this…"

A voice tinged with confusion.
Her eyes swept over the surroundings.
Faces that seemed slightly tense.

“What on earth is all this?”
My voice rang out across the open lot in front of the Immigration Bureau.
Three days had passed since the successful conclusion of the Yi-I-Je-I operation.

For the first time in a long while, the southern border had regained peace.
‘The Pilgrimage Group has left, the Black Hand matter is settled, and there haven’t been any other international incidents.’
Ah, sweet peace.

This routine of mine—where I could just stamp documents without a single thought or worry—I had missed it desperately.
I’d been through hell these past few days. Surely I deserved a little time to rest.
Besides, today wasn’t even my shift.

‘That’s why I thought I’d be able to finish work cleanly and go home.’
So why, right at the end of work hours, did an oversized luxury transport carriage, three meters tall, show up out of nowhere?
Its bulk nearly rivaled the Golems of the Border Guard.

‘Are they delivering a dragon egg or something?’
The sheer pressure from its size was no joke.
I addressed the girl standing in front of the carriage.

“You’re saying you intend to go through departure procedures alone, pulling that enormous carriage?”
“Yes!”
She replied brightly, flashing a carefree smile. A woman with a deeply pulled-down witch’s hat and rather adorable freckles.
“The Magic Society is excavating a deep ruin down by the southern coast!”

As she spoke, she handed me the massive stack of documents she was hugging.
“They started last year, but it looks like they’re about to discover something big! That’s why we’re bringing in extra equipment!”
Extra equipment.

That meant this wasn’t the first time.
I sifted through my memory.
‘Now that I think about it, the Department of Magical Archaeology did head out across the border once about a year ago.’

A hazy memory surfaced.
They brought several large carriages with dozens of personnel, and I ended up working overnight on the paperwork.
‘Not exactly a fond memory.’

I sighed briefly and looked down at the documents.
[Project for Excavation of Ancient Sentient Core: Deep Ruins of the Southern Coast]
[Estimated duration: Approximately 1–2 years]
[Current excavation has led to equipment damage; additional support requested]
[Approved by the Royal Magic Society and Department of Magical Archaeology]
Matches my memory.

“The Royal Magic Society and the Department of Magical Archaeology, huh…”
The two institutions most notorious for consuming the kingdom’s budget.
As expected, the cargo manifest on the next page was positively dazzling.

“9 mana detection devices, 29 deep-sea breathing tools, 12 modified defensive magical artifacts, 50 protection scrolls…”
One after another, expensive artifacts and magical items spilled across the list.
Each one worth more than two months of a commoner’s living expenses.

‘I knew the Magic Society had money, but not this much.’
Honestly, the contents of that one carriage were worth more than the combined assets of my entire family’s merchant guild.
With that in mind, I asked her,

“And you intend to carry all these valuable items in a single carriage? That seems risky.”
For a merchant guild, the two riskiest transport cases fall into two categories:
Using excessive guards and magical defenses, enough to scream “valuable cargo here!”

Traveling with a single carriage and zero guards.
The former paints a big red target for large bandit factions.
The latter is no different than a sack of money rolling down the road.

That’s why the usual practice is to transport two or three carriages with a small escort team.
But what I was looking at clearly fell into the second category. Completely.
“If you wish, I can connect you with a reliable mercenary company we work with.”

She looked more vulnerable than a baby left at the water’s edge.
Sending out such a young girl alone like this would haunt me in my sleep.
But she just giggled, picked up a pebble from the ground—

“The Chairman of the Magic Society personally cast the defensive spell, so it’s fine!”
And casually hurled it at the carriage.
— BZZZZT!

A violent bolt of electricity instantly shot out from the carriage and vaporized the stone into dust.
“...”
“Hehe, pretty amazing, right?”

A moment of silence.
I quietly drew an X on the document and said,
“Fails safety inspection. You’re not leaving the country.”

“Wh-what!?”
Sure, with cargo that valuable, it was only natural that the Magic Society would install defenses.
That wasn’t the issue.

The issue was that level of power.
“Per entry and exit regulations, magic cast on vehicles must not be lethal. What I just witnessed could reasonably be considered a lethal spell.”
If it’s strong enough to disintegrate a rock like that, it’s clear what it would do to a person.

The young witch shouted in protest,
“This is a defensive spell! A de-fense! It’s for blocking things! Like a shield!”
“You can beat someone to death with a shield too. A spell this powerful is easily open to misuse.”

Magic is more dangerous than any weapon.
And if it’s a set-type spell, not even a cast-type?
Then it’s worse.

You can’t see it clearly, and its destructive power can be absurd.
To use this purely for defense, I’d need a guarantee from someone credible.
Meaning, not the witch in front of me—someone from the Magic Society would need to certify it.

“The Magic Society’s certification is required to confirm that this is for defense only. Do you have any documentation proving that carriage is harmless?”
“Ah, no… I didn’t know about that…”
“Or perhaps someone other than yourself who understands the spell could give testimony?”

Maybe caught off guard by such an unexpected snag, the young witch looked like she was about to cry.
“It was the Chairman who cast it personally… I can’t go back to the capital right now…”
That’s when it happened.

“Oh my, are you from the Magic Society?”
The Sensory Officer who had just processed the last traveler approached us.
“Y-yes. I’m from the Royal Magic Society…”

The moment the teary response came out, the elf’s blue eyes gleamed—and in a serious voice I’d never heard before, she asked:
“What class?”
“Pardon?”

“What class are you?”
Caught off guard by the sudden question, the girl’s face was overtaken by panic.
“I-it’s Class of 2091!”

“Oh my.”
The Sensory Officer straightened her back and flashed a confident grin.
“I’m Class of 801. Nice to meet you, junior~.”

“C-C-Class of 801!?!”
With a shriek, the young witch’s waist bent at a perfect 90-degree angle.
“M-m-m-m-ma’am senior! It’s an honor to meet you!”

Only then did I realize the Sensory Officer used to be a member of the Magic Society.
“Now that I think about it, weren’t you with the Society before becoming an inspector?”
“Yup. If it weren’t for Director Hailyn, I’d probably still be stuck there~.”

She giggled and asked her junior,
“Who’s the Chairman these days?”
“It’s… Daika Ren!”

“Daika, Daika… doesn’t ring a bell. What class is that one?”
“I-I believe… Class of 1447!”
“...You believe?”

“I mean, is! Class of 1447 is correct!”
The smiling, fidgeting, teary girl was gone.
What remained was a full-blown Magic Society member clenching her eyes shut and screaming.

“Hmm… I guess they don’t teach hierarchical speech rules in the Society anymore?”
The Sensory Officer’s voice slithered like a snake, dripping with mischief.
She narrowed her eyes and smiled ominously at me.

“Chief Inspector? Mind if I take this one off your hands~? I’ll inspect the cargo too.”
“Eh? Why the sudden interest?”
This woman, who always clocked out at lightspeed to go drink, was now volunteering?

She’d never asked to do that before.
I looked at her suspiciously. She just shrugged.
“It’s been a while since I met a junior from the Society. I’d like to chat a bit more.”

“Oh, that’s all it is?”
No reason for me to refuse.
As a former member of the Society, she could streamline some of the more tedious procedures.

Besides, inspecting all the artifacts and magical items in that carriage would take forever anyway.
And I wanted to go home.
“N-nooo…”

Only the young witch shook her head desperately.
The Sensory Officer nailed the coffin shut.
“The spell cast on this carriage is called React Lightning. I can personally vouch it’s a purely self-defense spell~.”

Exactly the answer I needed.
As a former Society member, her testimony was enough to verify the magic.
Ignoring the desperate look she shot me, I smiled gently and said,

“Have a pleasant time together. I’ll be heading in now.”
That was the end of it.
“So, first tell me—when exactly did the Society stop teaching proper honorifics?”

Faced with a towering senior, the junior could only tremble like a leaf.
 
****

“With this, today’s operations are complete. Everyone, thank you for your hard work.”
“Thank you!”
“Uuugh!”

Ten minutes later, after declaring the end of work.
I sat at my desk and opened the bottom drawer.
Clunk.

It was packed to the brim with letters from the princess.
I looked down at them in silence.
‘…She hasn’t sent anything lately.’

It had been two days.
Two full days since the letters that arrived daily had abruptly stopped.
I leaned back in my chair, sinking into thought.

‘Did she… get tired of me?’
She used to write every day. Said she’d wait for my replies.
Honestly, it was overwhelming.

She sent so many letters by express mail.
Thanks to my request for better readability, she finally started using spacing and coherent sentences, but it was still a mess.
‘And the past few letters weren’t exactly anything important.’

My daily life. And her long-winded confessions about how it felt to finally have a friend.
Rambling. Disjointed. Pointless.
She had an odd obsession with the details of my life.

So I wrote her about what it’s like to be an Immigration Inspector, and apparently that was… very entertaining to her.
‘Well, it’s been a while since I kept up correspondence like this, so I was enjoying it, in my own way.’
The last line of Elaine’s final letter floated up in my memory.

[I’m truly happy to be your friend. I hope we can meet again someday.]
…Who knows.
Would that day ever come?

‘To meet you again, I would inevitably have to face the royal family.’
King Rio Castor and Queen Helena Castor.
They were the last people I wanted to ever see again.

‘Unless a proper opportunity arises someday.’
Right now was absolutely not the time.
Not until the matter with the Holy Order was fully settled and the King's movements came to light—I had to stay careful.

For some reason, the Intelligence Bureau had already sent me two warnings.
Thinking so, I turned to Erzena and said,
“Erzena. I’m leaving work early today—how about we get dinner over there?”

“Over there” meaning that tavern-style restaurant we’d gone to last time.
No matter what’s happening in the capital, all we need to concern ourselves with is the southern border.
We’d been busy, and I hadn’t even had the chance to properly congratulate her on the Black Hand matter. Seemed like a good occasion for a celebratory dinner.

Leaning against the wall, humming to herself, she smiled and answered,
“Sounds good. Let’s stop by the market afterward.”
“The market? Did you run out of daily necessities?”

It shouldn’t have been used up that fast.
But Erzena shook her head and replied seriously,
“I want to clean the house a bit.”

A bolt from the blue.
Clean?
“...Excuse me?”

“Now that I finally have some time, I figured it was time to tidy up.”
Oh, dear god.
To spend this golden rest time cleaning?

How could she say something so horrifying?
I scrambled for an excuse.
“Erzena, I’m really tired today—”

“I’ll give you a divine energy prayer. That should help, right?”
Blocked.
“No, I mean it’s not physical fatigue, it’s more mental—”

“But you said you were feeling great lately since there haven’t been any incidents?”
Blocked again.
“...”

She already had a piece of paper in her hand listing cleaning supplies to buy at the market.
“We live in the same house. It’s time we started keeping it clean.”
Golden eyes flared with determined passion.

She was absolutely right.
There was no room to argue.
She was technically a guest staying in my home. I couldn’t keep letting her stay in a dirty house.

I lowered my head in defeat.
“...You’re right. Let’s clean together.”
And with that, the Sensory Officers for Smell and Taste whispered again.

“Look at him already whipped like that. The future’s clear as day.”
“My mom always said the woman of the house needs to be sharp.”
I couldn’t even be bothered to respond anymore.

“All right, let’s clock out. Good work today, everyone.”
Just as I was about to wrap up the day with that meaningless comment—
Creeeak.

The door to the Immigration Bureau opened.
A small-framed woman with her robe pulled deep over her head.
“E-excuse me… Is this the Immigration Bureau…?”

She looked around nervously.
“Yes. Welcome to the Southern Border Immigration Bureau. However, official operations for the day have concluded. I’m sorry, but departure procedures will resume tomorrow at 6 a.m.”
I replied gently.

The day was over. If it wasn’t an emergency, she’d have to come back tomorrow.
“...”
But there was no reply.

The woman stood motionless at the entrance. Just stood there, quietly.
Something was off.
‘…She’s not carrying any baggage.’

People departing usually bring something with them.
The nearest village is half a day’s run away.
Yet here she was—face covered with her robe, hands empty.

As if trying to hide something.
“If you’re here to meet an incoming traveler, all entries have been processed for today. I suggest checking the plaza.”
“...”

No response.
And then—
“…!! Wait.”

The Olfactory Officer suddenly snapped his head up and sniffed the air.
“…Blood.”
The werewolf snarled low in his throat, eyes fixed on the girl.

The moment he spoke, everyone’s expressions hardened.
“Chief Officer. Erzena. ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) Step back.”
He slowly stepped past us, walking up to her.

Step. Step.
Then, without dropping his guard, he addressed her directly.
“What business brings you here?”

The girl, nearly half his height, had to tilt her head all the way back to meet his gaze.
She stared at the werewolf’s claws and fangs for a moment, then spoke.
“Are you the Chief Officer?”

The Sensory Officer’s gaze didn’t shift.
Not a single one of them turned to look at me.
Instead, each one silently began preparing themselves for whatever unexpected event might unfold.

The Olfactory Officer spoke again.
“State your business first.”
“I have something to tell the Chief Officer only.”

“We cannot answer a person who hasn’t identified themselves.”
“This is urgent.”
“That’s your problem.”

The werewolf growled.
“Take off the robe and identify yourself. Until then, you’ll get no answers.”
A firm warning.

Someone concealing their identity, showing up at this hour, asking for me directly.
No reason to treat them kindly.
We’d had more than enough trouble lately.

“...”
Backed into a corner.
After a long silence, the girl slowly raised her hands and pulled back the hood covering her head.

“…May I speak now?”
Her face finally came into view.
A girl—still unmistakably young.

And then—
“Dear god.”
“Oh no…”

“By the heavens…”
Erzena covered her mouth in horror.
The Taste and Touch Officers froze on the spot. Even the Olfactory Officer widened his eyes.

“…You. Who did this to you?”
The werewolf dropped to one knee, lowering himself to the girl’s eye level.
An ominous chill ran down my spine.

That discomfort radiating from her face—now I saw it too.
And I, too, let out a bitter sigh.
“This is fucking insane…”

The deep red tint on her cheeks wasn’t from shyness.
The split lips weren’t from an accident.
The bruises trailing down her neck—no way they came from a simple fall.

The swollen left eye left no room for denial.
“...”
“...”
“...”
Silence.

No one needed to speak aloud what this meant.
Everyone already knew.
“Who the hell did it.”

The Olfactory Officer growled in a voice completely different from before.
His eyes, now filled with rage and sorrow, locked onto the girl.
“What bastard… What goddamn sick bastard did this to a kid like you.”

The girl replied.
“Chief Officer.”
She called for me.

Even though she didn’t know who I was—she called me.
A voice that sounded like it had been holding everything back just to deliver one single message.
She extended a shredded, bloodied scrap of a letter toward the Olfactory Officer and spoke—

“…Please help my friend.”
The final words came mixed with tears.