9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 105 - Bullet Sponge (4)

「A new ore vein has been discovered in the Colt Mountains. It’s the largest in history. According to scholars’ estimates, it’s at least thirty times larger than everything we’ve mined so far.」

「Very delightful news indeed. The Lord’s blessings have been upon us. However, maintain strict secrecy. Schufaben is not to be taken lightly. I’ll send personnel as soon as preparations are complete.」

「Your Majesty, forgive me, but desperate news has arrived and I write this letter in haste. The miners drilling the tunnels report that as they dug deeper, the concentration of magic stones grew thinner until finally the light was lost and ordinary stone veins appeared. Upon checking other mining sites, similar phenomena were occurring at all mines near the Colt Mountains…」

「Similar reports are coming in simultaneously from all over the country. Ah! Has a curse rather than grace fallen upon this land? This fact must not be spoken to anyone. How we hide this will determine the nation’s survival.」

***

All the mysteries had been solved.

Last year, an enormous magic stone mine was discovered in the Colt Mountains.

The King planned to keep it secret from the public for now and use the mining rights to forge an alliance with Rubellia.

With Schufaben’s ambitions becoming increasingly apparent, he must have intended to borrow their strength. The strategy of buying mercenaries with the vast gold earned from magic stone exports had reached its limits anyway.

But heaven was heartless—while the King and his ministers were in the midst of heated discussions, shocking news arrived.

What exactly is a magic stone without magic?

Magic stones are blue-tinted stones. That blue light is the essence of magic itself—the energy that serves as the source of magical engineering, mana.

When all mana is depleted, magic stones turn into ordinary gray rocks. They can be restored, but since that requires other magic stones anyway, few people bother with such inefficient work.

Magic stones aren’t created just anywhere.

They are the concentrated result of drawing in surrounding mana in places where magical energy is particularly strong.

And naturally, mana is not an infinite resource.

The physical laws of this world are the same as Earth’s. Similar theories to the law of conservation of energy exist.

Whether converting mana to light energy (light bulbs), kinetic energy (guns), or thermal energy (bombs), converting that energy back to mana requires accepting enormous losses.

In other words, it will eventually run out…

Who would have thought it would be right now?

The mana in Cortana’s land had been depleted. Once they finished mining the few remaining veins, magic stones would no longer naturally form from the earth’s energy.

Realizing this, the government fell into tremendous panic.

Cortana is a wealthy country. However, their finances depended entirely on magic stone exports.

Without producing magic stones, their economy would clearly collapse immediately.

It was truly the resource curse.

Of course, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t tried to develop other industries.

However, Cortana has a small territory and population. In a land roughly the size of South Korea’s Gyeongsangnam-do Province, only 2 million people live.

Of those 2 million, excluding essential social personnel, more than a quarter of the population works in mining or related fields, and new industries can’t be developed overnight.

Before the country could change direction, this happened…

In the end, the King’s choice was none other than “concealment.”

He silenced the directly involved miners, scholars, and officials, and closed the mines under the pretext of safety inspections.

That was just a week ago.

The government did everything possible to prevent this fact from leaking out.

It must have been an attempt to buy time, at least.

How desperately they must have hidden it—not only the citizens but even the spies who had infiltrated the royal palace were unaware…

‘Ah, so that’s why!’

I slammed the floor as a sudden thought struck me.

Finally, the puzzle pieces in my head fit together.

Kruger had heard that Cortana discovered a massive mine and intended to negotiate with Rubellia. Thinking of it that way, everything makes sense.

Why launch a surprise attack without declaring war? To quickly strike first before Rubellia or other countries could catch on.

Why assassinate the King and Queen? To manipulate the young king and seize the mining rights.

Why bomb cities near the Colt Mountains? To eliminate resistant forces and completely occupy the mines.

Kruger’s movements were incredibly swift.

It took him only a day and a half to subjugate a country and steal its resources.

But what’s the point when he was late from the start!

He must have realized immediately. This land had deteriorated beyond repair.

All veins were depleted, and even the supposedly largest mine in history was half ordinary rock and half magic stone scraps.

“Ha, what a fucking mess.”

I buried my face in my hands and groaned.

Really, what a fucking mess…

Kruger probably had the exact same thought.

That’s why he gave me, someone he doesn’t even trust, the position of commander.

It meant “somehow solve this situation.”

“No wonder the troop strength was so small.”

The forces currently stationed in Cortana are all gathered in Carlton—2,000 men total. Only two battalion’s worth.

That number would be insufficient even for maintaining public order. I thought reinforcements would arrive sequentially, but that wasn’t the case.

They were just planning to abandon this land.

Using me as a bullet sponge for minimal maintenance of the status quo.

Once the “shock and awe” felt by the Cortana people passes, guerrillas will spring up nationwide. Won’t they try to attack the royal palace to rescue the boy king?

Then I’ll be too busy just suppressing that to cry my eyes out. I might even die.

“Ahhhhh, this is fucking bullshit!”

I rolled around hugging Colin while grumbling in a suppressed voice. Colin, who had been dozing, thought I wanted to play and started licking my face vigorously.

“Ah, not talking about you, Colin. What am I supposed to do?! How am I supposed to survive here, and I need to get out and give Kruger a beating!”

After throwing a tantrum for a while, I collapsed flat on the floor.

“…I’m exhausted.”

Looking at the clock, it was already 2 AM.

No wonder there hadn’t been any signs of people for a while now.

I lay on the carpet and closed my eyes. My head was spinning.

‘I could die as early as tomorrow. The best option is to change Kruger’s mind and liberate Cortana. The worst option is to run away. Either way, what I need to do is…’

The boy king.

I need to manipulate him thoroughly.

‘First I need to increase my hand. Tomorrow’s going to be busy. I need to write a letter to the Queen and inspect the troops too. So now, time to sleep.’

I tried to go to the bedroom, but I simply had no strength left in my body.

Having stayed up last night, wandered around from dawn, ridden the train for 10 hours, then read dense text for ages, I seemed completely drained.

Though my stamina had improved significantly since I first fell into this world.

I was about to shout for Captain Himmel, but remembered I’d told her to go rest early. Sleep crashed over me like a wave.

***

“Hic, sob, huuu…”

Raindrops pattered against the window frame. Early March—spring was still far off in the north. Even now, half-frozen sleet was falling.

Edvart thought it was fortunate. Buried in the noisy sound of rain, his crying wouldn’t leak out into the cold corridor.

Covering himself with blankets and burying his face deep in his pillow, even the clumsy sobs that occasionally burst out sounded terribly loud to his own ears.

The tumor had stolen his voice, but showed mercy by leaving behind funny wheezing sounds and disgusting hiccupping noises.

Fourteen years old.

No matter how sheltered he’d been raised in a peaceful royal palace, old enough to fully understand what death meant.

While the royal palace was hit by countless bombs and became a hellscape, while he was led away by the hands of strange soldiers to wear the heavy crown, while he heard explanations that he was king but couldn’t wield a king’s authority and had to obey the commands of the Schufaben Supreme Leader.

Only one thing dominated Edvart’s mind. Death.

His father had passed away.

His mother had passed away too.

At the moment of the bombing.

His father had been meeting with his retainers after receiving reports that Schufaben had attacked.

The merciless cluster of bombs collapsed and destroyed the palace hall where his father and his retainers had gathered.

He was told his father’s body was torn to pieces. Fortunately, his head was mostly intact except for some tears, so it was properly recovered and awaited burial.

His mother had been in the garden at that time. She was in the middle of setting up a defensive barrier with the royal mages hired at great expense.

But it was too late a response, and the incomplete barrier was shattered by dozens of bombs.

His mother’s body fragments were so entangled and mixed with those of the mages that they couldn’t be found in the end.

At that time, Edvart had been in this spire. He visited the library here every day.

As usual, he was holed up in the library reading and didn’t even notice the commotion in the palace.

By the time he realized something was wrong, bombs were already crashing into the ground far below and exploding.

Startled by the explosions, he tried to rush out of the spire but fainted at the hellish scene visible outside the window.

When he woke up, Schufaben soldiers were surrounding him.

They took the confused Edvart away, explained the situation, and handed him the crown.

Talk of holding a proper coronation after the funeral was over—he couldn’t understand any of it.

Everything was chaotic, noisy, and the surviving retainers and servants were either cowering in terror in corners or crying loudly.

Through the servants’ wailing and screaming, he learned of his parents’ final moments.

After a day passed, the palace became quiet.

The servants stared blankly in a daze, cleaning up corpses and dirty areas as the Schufaben soldiers directed.

Brigadier General Wagner, who had led the army in, praised them as loyal subjects who hadn’t fled even in crisis.

‘They probably just didn’t have time to escape.’

Edvart thought this.

And a little while ago, after sunset, the Brigadier General brought a new soldier.

Sitting on the throne, Edvart felt fear from the figure approaching step by step.

A young man who offered greetings with a somewhat indifferent, faint smile.

A physique and atmosphere that hardly seemed like a soldier.

However, Edvart found him hundreds of times more frightening than the soldiers carrying corpses.

He instinctively sensed that this man could shake and control his lifeline.

He had come to manipulate Edvart and Cortana as he wished. Surely that was it.

Edvart understood why Schufaben had invaded Cortana.

Greed.

The desire to always have a little more ruins everything. It was something the weak Edvart could neither eliminate nor control.

So rather than feeling wronged and angry, he felt sad and afraid.

He thought that under this man named Lucas Redan, Cortana would have everything stolen and collapse, or only a shell would remain under the puppet king Edvart.

That fear made him cry.

When the puffy-faced Edvart poked his head out from under the blankets, lights flickered before his eyes. From outside the window came the faint sound of rumbling thunder.

Edvart wiped away tears with the back of his hand. In his pajamas, he quietly got out of bed, put on his slippers, and approached the distant bookshelf.

Opening a thick encyclopedia revealed a small dagger nestled in a deeply carved hollow.

Gripping the perfectly fitting dagger, Edvart went to the cold fireplace and turned the candlestick with a creaking sound. The beautiful rose-patterned metal wall inside the fireplace opened to reveal a crawlspace.

The Schufaben soldiers didn’t yet know everything about this complex palace. So they had only posted guards in the corridors.

A passage barely wide enough for one small person to squeeze through. After crawling for a long time, Edvart finally hit a solid wall.

Grabbing the handle on the wall and pulling hard, the door opened.

A large, brightly lit room.

Edvart knew the military governor’s office very well. It had been his cherished library.

Though he hadn’t expected to see the commander the moment he emerged from the fireplace.

“Gasp!”

Edvart barely managed to cover his mouth before almost screaming. He couldn’t actually scream, but it was habitual. Biting his palm, he quietly observed him.

The commander lying on the carpet.

At first he seemed so precarious that Edvart wondered if something had happened to him. But soon the sound of soft snoring could be heard.

Somehow relieved, Edvart very carefully stepped forward one step at a time.

He slowly knelt beside the man’s body and raised the dagger. His hand was shaking uncontrollably.

If he struck down like this, he might be caught and killed. But Edvart believed that would be better for Cortana.

Finally, at the moment the dagger cut through the air and struck directly at the military governor’s heart.

Clack! came a sound.

“Woof woof! Woof woof woof!”

Suddenly the sound of a dog barking. The commander’s eyes flew open and met his panicked gaze.

The commander grabbed his wrist and muttered.

“Ha, I thought I’d at least die after sunrise.”

Then, in a slightly tired voice, he said this.

“Your Majesty, please leave such matters to your subordinates.”