Otaku Translation: I! Anomaly Cleansing Agent! C116

Please support the translation by reading the translation and commenting on otakutl official site.

Thank you.

Everyone from Otaku Translation

Chapter 116: What Do You Think You’re Doing?

Barely above outright failure… but isn’t that still success?

Sure, the Bureau might rate this mission poorly, but as long as he could secure the investigation of the cursed heart, along with earning both the Demon Badge and the Sacred Spirit Badge in one fell swoop, not to mention wiping out a whole heap of irredeemable scum—well, by his own standards, this operation was an unqualified triumph.

Still… he had to play it cool. The Chief was clearly fuming right now. If Leon let even a hint of satisfaction slip through, there’d be hell to pay.

“It was reckless of me.”

To keep his "windows to the soul" from betraying his true thoughts, Leon quickly dropped his gaze and adopted a posture of contrition.

"After narrowing down the suspects to those five individuals during the initial investigation, I should have immediately returned to headquarters for backup instead of charging ahead alone to confront Bobby Lion.”

“I figured that even if he caught me, I could escape easily enough using my Sacred Spirit Pendant and Witch’s Broom. But his connection with that damned heart—it was stronger than I anticipated. Not only did it ground me, but it locked down the entire estate too. There was no way out..."

You’re lying. There’s at least a ninety percent chance you did all of this on purpose.

The red-haired Chief shot him a glare, her mind racing over how much Leon loved sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. For someone usually so cautious—even notorious within the Cleansing Bureau for bolting at the slightest whiff of trouble—this behavior was suspicious.

Leon had no intention of coming back for reinforcements. No, he’d gone straight after the target. It was almost certain that while investigating, he’d uncovered some dark secrets about the Lion family and lost his temper. That must’ve been when he decided to take matters into his own hands, intending to deal with Bobby Lion personally.

But the synergy between Bobby Lion and Demon's Heart had turned out to be shockingly high—a freak occurrence that derailed Leon’s plan to eliminate just one man. Cornered and unable to leave, Leon had no choice but to escalate things further, which led to what everyone was calling the Lion Blood Night.

As for the two hundred-odd casualties? Their files painted them as death-row inmates at best, fitting perfectly into the category of people Leon loathed most. So perhaps it wasn’t that he couldn’t save them—it’s more likely he never intended to.

This kid has gone astray...

Watching Leon feign remorse while remaining utterly relaxed, his body language screaming insincerity, the Chief clenched her teeth in frustration.

This brat had only been part of the Cleansing Bureau for a month, yet he already knew how to toe the line of protocol like a seasoned veteran—exploiting loopholes to satisfy his overblown sense of justice without technically breaking any rules. Who exactly had taught him such tricks?

The Chief, who felt no guilt whatsoever about corrupting newcomers, pieced together the probable truth of that night before shooting another venomous glare at Leon. In the end, though, she held her tongue.

After all, irritating as Leon might be, he was undeniably one of the best subordinates the Bureau had ever seen: hardworking, talented, and conscientious. Sure, his moral compass occasionally veered into fanatic territory, but compared to the rest of the Bureau’s basket cases, he was practically a dream employee.

Besides, those who died that night deserved far worse than they got. If the Chief had been there herself, who knows? She might’ve “arrived too late” as well. Better to cover for Leon this time around and hope Internal Affairs didn’t dig too deep.

Sigh… There’s no such thing as a perfect employee. Guess I’ll have to put up with it.

After chanting “I hired him” to herself a dozen times, the Chief exhaled deeply, then yanked open a drawer, slamming several assignment sheets onto the desk. With thinly veiled malice, she said:

“Enough groveling. While you were off playing hooky, Emma covered a lot of your workload—but not all of it. Now that you're out of the hospital, get to work.”

I’ll teach you to act without consulting me first. See if I don’t bury you under paperwork.

“Yes, Chief.”

At the prospect of new missions, Leon perked up visibly, snatching the assignment sheets and flipping through them eagerly.

He currently held twelve badges, but only had five slots available—and one was permanently occupied by [Materialist]. It wasn’t nearly enough. The only way to expand his badge capacity was to acquire more anomalies, making these assignments ideal.

---

Bav County: A large number of goats reported missing. Six shepherds went searching and vanished for three days, only to reappear eight hundred kilometers away in a brothel, claiming zero memory of how they got there…

Although the Morning Star Troupe continues to perform under Master Wilde’s management, the food deliveries remain untouched. Possible anomaly suspected…

Arsonist spotted in Lauter Arcade wielding incendiary tools late at night, moving through affluent neighborhoods. Witnesses need interviewing to track movements…

After scanning the list, Leon frowned.

More investigative tasks? And none of them seemed particularly anomalous.

Take the shepherds, for instance. Receipts proving they’d sold their goats—and train tickets showing their journey—had already surfaced. Yet they claimed they’d been abducted and dumped at the brothel. What was there to investigate? The other two cases sounded equally absurd.

If forced to guess, Leon imagined the truth went something like this:

One group consisted of lecherous old men denying their escapades despite traveling hundreds of miles for debauchery. Another involved a pretentious theater troupe refusing free meals because they deemed themselves above such charity. The third was probably a gang of rabels planning vandalism under the guise of arson. None hinted at anything remotely anomalous.

Leon swiftly pushed those three sheets aside, deciding to tackle them later—or maybe never. Instead, he focused on the final task.

Infiltrate Rose Manor, home of the Marseille family, to rescue the kidnapped daughter of the Char Department Store owner.

Marseille… Wasn’t that the noble family colluding with the Scale of Gold during the Sacred Spirit incident? Come to think of it, advancing his [Practitioner] badge would require digging deeper into the Scale of Gold anyway. This was the perfect opportunity to gather intel.

“I’ll take this one.”

Finally finding a mission worthy of his talents, Leon’s furrowed brow smoothed slightly as he signed the sheet and handed it back.

Rescue mission at Rose Manor… Hmm… Not bad.

Glancing at the signed sheet, the Chief nodded approvingly. Leon owed his early release partly to the efforts of the Char Department Store owner, so assigning him this task seemed fitting.

But just as the Chief prepared to sign off on the assignment, she caught sight of Leon’s eager expression.

Marseille… Lion… Marseille… Lion… Another rotten noble family. Is this kid planning to pull another stunt?

“Hold on. Let’s discuss this task first.”

Pausing mid-signature, the Chief eyed Leon warily.

“Tell me exactly how you plan to handle this.”

“Uh?”

Caught off guard by the sudden interrogation, Leon hesitated before answering.

“Well, since it’s a rescue mission, I’d probably sneak in at night, scout the place, and then—”

And then turn it into another bloodbath, right?

“No nighttime ops,” the Chief cut in sharply.

Terrified that Leon might stumble upon something explosive halfway through and cause yet another scandal, the Chief preemptively intervened.

“And forget about reconnaissance. We have already located the hostage. Head to Jerry’s office on the first floor—he’ll arrange for his ‘friends’ to guide you directly.”

Please vote for this novel at

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-anomaly-cleansing-agent/

If you would like to support this translation, you may choose any one of the options below.

Tier 1: 10 Advance chapters

Access fee $3.00 Monthly