9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 10 - I Need to Get Out of Here (4)

Before long, it was mid-August. Late summer had arrived, and the sun was unleashing its final tremendous heat.

“…It’s hot.”

Even sitting in the shade of trees in the park, I could feel the scorching air.

Looking down, I saw my pale, scrawny forearms beneath my plain white shirt. If I were at least fat, I might understand this heat, but Lucas apparently had a constitution that made him extremely sensitive to hot weather.

‘How did I fail to inherit even a single gene that would help with health?’

I was grumbling to myself and fanning when Colin, still as energetic as ever, came running from far away.

“Woof woof!”

“Yeah, did you bring back the ball?”

I stroked his glossy black fur. Well-fed and well-washed, Colin had developed an incredibly cute and handsome aura.

‘And he’s really smart too.’

Colin seemed to be what you’d call a ‘genius dog.’

In less than a day, he figured out that Mrs. Schmidt was the landlady and immediately started restraining himself from any behavior that might displease her.

Without anyone teaching him, he would bring the newspaper and milk from the doorway every morning to make her happy—that was a bonus.

Thanks to this, Colin had monopolized the love of the boarding house family in just a few days.

But separate from that, he seemed to recognize only me as his master. When I gave commands, he immediately understood and obeyed.

Basic commands like sit, stand, lie down, wait, be quiet! were natural, but he also obeyed with perfect accuracy when I told him to fetch something, jump and pull down laundry hanging from a tree, or even try to catch a bird on the fence.

No, it seemed like he understood and responded to most of what I said. As if a person were sitting inside him.

‘How strange.’

Unless he was a mutant born with impossible intelligence, his previous owner must have put tremendous effort into training him.

I had no idea why such a dog had been wandering the streets.

“Alright, Colin. Shall we try once more? Think of this ball as Daniel.”

“Woof woof!”

I threw the ball with a whoosh. Colin began chasing it while hiding and moving through blind spots.

***

“Well then, to commemorate another safe gathering without casualties, cheers!”

“Cheers!”

In one corner of a shabby tavern, about four or five young people clinked their beer mugs together.

Strangely, the toast before “Cheers!” sounded like mumbling and couldn’t be heard clearly even from nearby, but since everyone acted naturally with bright expressions, the tavern’s other customers paid no particular attention.

Daniel Hartmann popped a peanut into his mouth and looked at the comrades sitting around the table.

Whether dressed in expensive clothes or shabby ones, everyone’s eyes shone as brilliantly as stars.

“Now then, shall we ask about recent developments? Erika, how much of the book I lent you last month have you read?”

“About 30 pages out of 100. I’m planning to finish the rest next week. Maybe it’ll be the week after.”

“That’s pretty fast reading. It’s quite a difficult book. What about you, Richard? You bragged about confessing to that girl you liked.”

“Hmm, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Turns out she was already seeing someone else.”

“Haha! How foolish. Good thing you listened to me, right? I told you to wait and see. Pretty women always have partners.”

Daniel clapped and laughed loudly. Richard also smiled gently.

Their entire conversation was conducted in code.

Asking about recent developments meant receiving reports.

The ‘borrowed book’ meant ‘flyers,’ and talking about how many pages were read meant how many flyers were distributed.

So Erika, who was in charge of distributing flyers this time, had processed 30 out of the 100 sheets produced.

She mainly posted them at the university she attended, libraries, parks, and such, naturally avoiding times when people were coming and going.

If they were caught by patrols or spotted by plainclothes Ossel agents, they’d be dragged away and hanged without anyone knowing.

Moreover, if flyers were discovered somewhere, the people in that area would also have to take considerable risks, so they had to avoid places with owners like shops, dormitories, or professors’ offices, choosing the most public locations possible.

So the work was harder than imaginable, and Erika’s eyelids were sunken with fatigue.

Richard’s love story referred to recruitment targets.

Having graduated from medical school and opened a small clinic, Richard carefully observed his neighbors and customers.

He was looking for people who opposed the Supreme Leader’s ideology or yearned for freedom—people who seemed safe to accept as comrades.

‘Confession’ meant the stage of revealing his identity.

Naturally, it was dangerous work that always had to consider the possibility of reaching Ossel’s ears.

If the recruitment target got scared or if Richard’s judgment was off and they were someone who revered the Supreme Leader and reported him, Richard’s life would be over that very day.

‘Dating someone else’ was code used when it turned out the recruitment target had a history of reporting others, or had Ossel agents among their relatives, or other dangerous factors were revealed.

In such cases, they would naturally stop the recruitment operation.

“I really thought this time it was true love.”

Richard said with a bitter expression.

“That’s too bad.”

The tavern owner suddenly appeared and set down a beer in front of him.

“Here, drink up and forget about it. There are as many women in the world as there are stars.”

Thinking it was an ordinary heartbreak story, the owner’s face showed sympathy. They toasted once more.

“By the way Daniel, you also said there was a young lady who caught your eye. How did that turn out?”

As the owner’s attention moved away, Oscar carefully brought up the topic.

“Ah, that woman…”

Daniel fell into thought, caressing his lukewarm beer mug.

“She wasn’t originally my type, but somehow lately she keeps catching my eye. I wonder when it started?”

Daniel was certain. Lucas had changed.

He had become secretive.

He was hiding his inner thoughts.

Such simple words couldn’t express the sense of unease.

When had it really started?

The eyes that had always been floating and excited, lost in fantasies rather than reality, had settled into a gloomy depression.

His previously drug-addled, hazy eyes had become sharp and intelligent, but within those quiet pupils, terrifying emotions had begun to swirl.

Of course, this was only for fleeting moments—he still praised the Supreme Leader just the same. However, the uncontainable passion of before no longer showed through.

He knew Lucas had been dragged away by Ossel and tortured over the theater incident.

Had that made him feel disillusioned?

At first, Daniel had almost accepted that explanation. But looking back carefully, his intuition told him that Lucas had seemed to change even before that.

Moreover.

Rather than being shocked and changed after the incident, Daniel couldn’t shake the suspicion that Lucas had orchestrated the incident himself.

“But I’m not certain. You know I’m a bit picky when it comes to women.”

It was just groundless suspicion, but he still needed to investigate more thoroughly.

Whether Lucas had really changed, and if so, whether it was a good change.

In other words, whether it was in their favor or not was something Daniel had to determine.

“I casually asked some friends close to that woman. As I thought, there was absolutely no reason to like someone like her.”

Daniel had visited the places Lucas had casually mentioned.

The red-light districts he’d supposedly wandered after his parents died, places he’d boasted about like heroic tales.

The more he learned, the deeper his contempt for Lucas grew.

All the women who had been involved with him were either prostitutes or bar girls, and when asked about Lucas, they unanimously called him ‘trash.’

Of course, Daniel had also thought Lucas was hopeless trash. Until just a month ago.

“I think it’s too dangerous. She’s not right for you.”

Erika said with a cold expression.

“But Erika, Daniel said last time that he saw an unexpected side of her. He said it might have been a mistake, but that…”

When Richard objected, the cheerful-looking Oscar beside him winked and whispered with his lips.

E-mil-Hoff-man.

At that, Erika couldn’t argue back and furrowed her brow.

After all, she trusted Daniel’s judgment. Daniel was the one who had created the discussion group and caught comrades like a ghost.

“Haha, you’re all so interested in my love life. Don’t worry so much. I’m not planning to confess hastily either. Next time I’m thinking of having a deeper conversation.”

At his rather casual answer, a moment of worried atmosphere swept through the group.

Having a deeper conversation meant using every possible means to investigate thoroughly. Even methods that might be illegal or dangerous.

However, no one objected.

They had a fairly horizontal relationship, but Daniel was the leader after all, and they had all become comrades after ‘having deep conversations’ with him.

Daniel suddenly pulled out his pocket watch.

“Look how late it’s gotten. Shall we have one last drink and break up?”

“Good idea. Mister! One more round here, please.”

Just as they were about to get rowdy with casual chatter unrelated to codes—

Bang!

Suddenly the tavern door flew open with a violent sound. At the same time, a boy with a pale face burst in.

It was a member who had been keeping watch outside.

“What’s wrong, Georg?”

He approached and bent over to whisper.

“Brother, I think there’s a rat in here.”

“What, a rat!”

The nearby tavern owner jumped up and looked around frantically, while the comrades instantly turned deathly pale and began trembling.

“Wait, calm down. I said calm down.”

Daniel waved his hands to try to reassure the members, but his own mind was covered in white panic.

No matter how much dangerous work they’d done until now, this was the first time they’d actually faced a crisis.

‘What should I do?’

He froze for a moment, then took a small deep breath. After slowly calming his heart, he smiled as if nothing had happened.

“A rat? How unsanitary. Shall we leave? I’ll contact you about the next meeting.”

The comrades, who had been panicking and didn’t know what to do, barely managed to nod and got up to rush outside.

“No! There are no rats in our establishment! Please believe me!”

Ignoring the tavern owner’s blood-curdling cry that echoed behind them.

***

Daniel watched the members scatter and flee in panic, then despairingly held his head.

“Damn it, we’re still far from ready.”

To avoid suspicion, it would be best to act as if nothing had happened.

He suppressed his despair and ducked into a nearby alley. Standing near a street lamp lit by magic, he tried to organize his thoughts.

‘Should I run away first? Or lead them somewhere else… Who the hell followed us? Ossel? Damn, one of us might be hanging from the gallows in the square tomorrow.’

His head felt like it might explode from complexity when something flickered at the edge of his vision.

There was a shadow silently disappearing beyond the alley.

A suspicion that had started as a single point in Daniel’s mind began to amplify. Without thinking twice, he moved his legs.

As the sound of his feet powerfully striking the ground echoed, the other party also started running. An untimely chase unfolded under the cloudy, dim moonlight.

When turning the corner, Daniel saw it.

Jet-black hair tangled in a mess and scrawny limbs that looked like they’d break at a touch.

He gritted his teeth and pulled something from his chest. Cold, sharp metal stuck to his fingers.

“Stop right there, Lucas!”

As he cried out desperately, the small man’s steps slowed.

“Huff, huff, huk…”

Having barely run at all, he gasped for breath as he slowly turned around.

Trembling eyes and a pale face. It was definitely Lucas Redan, the one Daniel knew.

“Huff, cough cough! Ha… Calling someone a rat. How rude.”

Daniel steadied his trembling hands and approached him, pointing at his forehead.

“Have you been tailing me this whole time?”

Lucas, with the gun barrel in front of his eyes, gave a bloody smile.

“Of course.”

The sticky summer night air heated up as if it might burst with anger and despair.