In the kingdom of Cyrathea, there are those born with a “spark”—a divine gift inherited from the ancient demigod heroes. But unlike her mother and older sister, Vicella Varenbosch was born a mere mortal.

Not wanting her mundanity to stand in her way, Vicella spent years grinding levels to become an alchemist. Except, just after getting into the alchemy guild of her dreams, she accepts a challenge to survive four months in a job her stats were never cut out for: bounty hunting.

What starts as a childish dare quickly turns deadly as Vicella is forced to participate in a contest to see which of the kingdom's best private detective agencies can apprehend the most criminals. Almost by design, though, there are no rules against infighting between agencies. As Vicella soon discovers, hunting down a scrawny alchemy nerd is a lot easier than catching violent offenders.

In an age of unstable peace, Vicella struggles to maintain her sanity as the realm descends into chaos. Before her four-month stint as a private detective is over, the final mystery she’ll solve is whether the kingdom will be overrun by demons before she’s consumed by her own.