9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 109 - The Boy King (2)

Philip grumbled but still pulled out a cigarette pack from his chest and handed it over. As befitting Ossel, famous for their substantial side income, it was smooth leather with gold plating.

I pulled out one cigarette, put it in my mouth, and looked at him.

“Got a light?”

“Can’t you carry your own?”

“I’m trying to quit smoking.”

Philip made a scoffing sound as if it was ridiculous. But it’s true.

Even if I haven’t completely quit, I’ve been gradually cutting back for years now with the thought that I can’t die of lung cancer. Though I do reach for them when stressful things like this happen.

I crouched in the corner of the terrace and puffed away at the cigarette. Philip was also smoking while leaning against the railing.

“What have you been doing all this time? Hiding around the royal castle?”

“What’s it to you, you reactionary bastard.”

Philip sneered. The title “reactionary” seemed to have really stuck in his vocabulary—he throws it around at anyone he doesn’t like.

“I was in Hetzen at first.”

“Hetzen? Ah, that mining city? The air force bombed it, didn’t they.”

My stomach churned again, so I sucked in the nicotine hard.

“You must have checked the mine conditions. Do you know who all knows? That we’re screwed.”

Philip chuckled and counted on his fingers.

“His Excellency the Supreme Leader, Lieutenant Colonel Werner, me and about six people under me.”

“Is that so. All together, less than twenty people. Wait, what about the Cortana side?”

What happened to the officials who exchanged letters with the king, the miners who were sworn to secrecy, the frontline civil servants, the scholars?

I could feel the blood draining from my face. Philip held out his hand to me.

“Pretty shameless to ask me to spill information for free.”

I bit my lips hard and roughly shoved the wad of bills I pulled from my wallet into his hand. In the refreshing night air, only the rustling sound of Philip counting bills could be heard.

Finally, Philip tucked the money into his pocket and said lightly.

“They’re all taken care of.”

A choking sob seemed to burst from my lips.

“You crazy bastard!”

I threw down the cigarette that had burned to the end.

“There was no need to go that far!”

“Why are you taking it out on me? Say that to His Excellency the Supreme Leader.”

“You insane murderous maniac!”

Philip, who had been calmly watching me rage, soon began gazing vacantly at the moon.

Kruger’s operating principles are all too clear.

No matter how unpredictable his actions seem, how capricious he appears, if you look closely, he’s devastatingly simple.

If something interferes with his goals, he ruthlessly discards it.

That’s all.

If rumors about magic stone depletion spread, it would be troublesome, so he mobilizes Ossel to ensure complete silence.

……That’s really all there is to it.

And that made my anger flare even hotter.

What if he had some irrational streak? What if there were softer motives behind his cruel actions?

Then I could have felt sympathy for him, fear. Or at least some emotion other than anger.

And I could have appealed to that to try changing something.

But what could I say to someone who pursues ultimate efficiency?

That he could control the continent without getting blood on his hands? Convince him of that?

When even I don’t believe it?

Clutching my mouth and writhing with frustration, Philip watched me with disgust before leaping over the railing and disappearing.

Left alone, I lay on the cold floor with my back against it, staring at the starlight while my mind raced furiously.

‘Maybe if I revealed everything to cause chaos across the continent……’

No. There would be brief chaos, but the mines aren’t only here, and countries that quickly find alternatives would soon come charging into Schufaben.

‘Or maybe scraping together what’s left in Cortana to arm troops and launch a surprise attack on the Supreme Leader’s residence……’

Am I insane? Who would follow such a plan? And even if we launched a surprise attack, what are the odds of success?

My head was in chaos, making me think all sorts of wild thoughts. If I make even the slightest mistake here, I’ll be caught and killed by Kruger.

‘Get it together.’

Kruger is a bastard. That’s already clear. Nothing new about that.

But who could have known?

That self-loathing would grow larger than my anger toward Kruger.

I went back to my room, closed the terrace door, and rang the bell.

“Did you call for me?”

“Ah, Captain Himmel. Thank you for your hard work today.”

“Thank you.”

I relaxed my rigid expression and gave a goofy grin.

“Seeing you today, you really were impressive. But it seems you didn’t truly want to kill me?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand what you mean.”

“That day, I mean. When you stabbed me with the knife in the army. You didn’t act this quickly then.”

“That may be true.”

“You really are an honest person, Captain Himmel.”

I felt a bit calmer. So I opened up to her.

“Don’t you find me disgusting?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“You know what I did today, don’t you. Of course, you had a hand in the plan too. Wasn’t it painful to follow orders?”

The captain, who had been tilting her head in confusion, finally looked as if she understood.

“It wasn’t painful.”

“Why not? It was deceiving the world, it was hypocrisy.”

“Didn’t you say this was the only way for the commander to preserve his life?”

Right, I had definitely told her that when I recruited the old woman through her and put the gun in her hands.

“But is this really the only way?”

“I can’t think of a better path.”

Captain Himmel answered lightly. Perhaps because of her simple and upright attitude, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Pfft……! Hahaha! Thank you, Captain. You really are the best aide.”

“Thank you.”

***

I’ve been having nightmares frequently lately.

I thought it was natural when under a lot of stress, and dismissed it indifferently.

“Still, this is a bit strange.”

I thought as I looked around the ruined Hetzen. To be tormented by imagining a city I’d never even been to.

Empty streets filled only with collapsed buildings, and in the distance, a small human shadow approaches.

When he came closer, I saw it was the boy king, Edvart Piast. He held out his cupped hands. Blood, eyeballs, and entrails in his palms.

“Ah, please stop.”

I pinched the back of my hand while looking at the boy king, who was unusually expressionless.

“Grrrrowl! Woof woof!”

I opened my eyes to the noisy sounds, and apparently someone else had pinched my hand, not me.

A man looking down at me in the darkness.

‘Who is it?’

I sat up first and hugged Colin, who was growling and warning me, to calm him down.

“That’s right, that’s right, good job, Colin. But don’t attack.”

The man removed his mask. Ossel, and even a Ferint operative. What kind of day is today?

“Second Lieutenant Appel Damier?”

“I’ve been discharged.”

He corrected me in a mechanical voice.

“You only withdrew your fake enlistment in the army, didn’t you? Doesn’t Ferint also follow a military system?”

“Not second lieutenant. Just call me Damier.”

“Anyway, you woke me at the right time. What’s the matter?”

“I came to confirm whether you really took a bullet to the heart.”

I clicked my tongue. What nonsense.

“I don’t know how many Ferint operatives have infiltrated, but you must have easily figured out that today’s incident was staged, right? Even Ossel knows.”

Damier nodded slowly.

“But the higher-ups prefer certainty.”

“Well, fine. By the way, what has Ferint been doing all this time? From the looks of it, you were active in Carlton.”

“……”

“Right, classified. I don’t need you to tell me—I can roughly guess. Making sure the royal couple died for certain, eliminating mages, keeping Ossel in check, or monitoring me. You probably wrote detailed reports of my every move to His Excellency the Supreme Leader. Well, you probably filtered things appropriately on your end. Am I wrong?”

“……”

“Guess I’m right.”

Now I was completely awake. Anyway, Damier didn’t come to listen to my deductions.

“So, what’s the real reason you came to find me?”

The man who had been standing quietly held out what looked like a report. I lit a lamp and read it carefully.

“Hmm…… This is surprising.”

If it’s not fabricated, it was quite a big loss. But why give this to me?

“What’s your reason for helping me? This isn’t a decision you made on your own.”

“It’s His Excellency the Supreme Leader’s will.”

“Hah, really.”

I felt it again.

I’m a bullet sponge.

Damier tried to escape through the ceiling ventilation shaft.

How is a person capable of such positions? Is it thanks to magic?

I watched Damier hanging from the ceiling like a bat for a moment in admiration, then suddenly called out to him.

“Damier.”

Damier, wearing a mask and hanging upside down like a bat, stopped moving briefly.

“If Ferint ever gets a mission to kill me, you take it.”

“Understood.”

Damier left an indifferent response and disappeared without a sound.

***

The commander didn’t come this morning.

For the first time in a long while, Edvart was able to eat breakfast in peace.

On one hand, he was quietly worried. They said he’d taken a bullet to the chest and underwent emergency surgery—no matter how many magical healers they mobilized, it wasn’t a wound that would heal in a day or two.

It probably wouldn’t happen, but what if he just died?

He remembered that moment in the fancy carriage when he’d cowered and heard gunshots.

Startled, he’d pulled back the curtain and looked out the window to see the commander collapsed among the people. The profound despair he’d felt then…….

The commander was someone he wanted to kill, but also someone who must not die.

That was truly a difficult situation.

When he’d sobbed and bowed his head before the people, he’d felt both shame and relief.

But returning to the castle and thinking it over, he suspected that was exactly what the commander had been aiming for.

The moment he realized that, he felt as cold as if ice had been shoved down his back.

It was like being trapped in a deep swamp.

How could he escape from here? No, even if he escaped, wouldn’t an even worse hell be waiting outside?

After finishing breakfast, Edvart visited the library.

Though he was in a state of semi-confinement, he could at least move freely within the royal castle. More precisely, people didn’t care what he did or where he went.

Perhaps because they knew he couldn’t escape anyway.

He’d never tried going outside the royal castle, but maybe they’d let him out obediently. That’s why he felt it was ‘semi’-confinement.

Hiding between the lined bookshelves, he pulled out a small folded note from his pocket.

As he was returning to the carriage after his speech yesterday, feeling completely drained, careful hands had approached. Before he noticed, warmth had penetrated his hand, leaving a small rustling piece of paper and disappearing.

Startled, he’d looked around to see only a few attendants and guards. Clutching his fist, he’d gotten into the carriage and unfolded the paper.

It was a letter soaked with sweat.

Edvart had hidden and read the letter over and over.

‘Leading troops to rescue me……’

「First, we will occupy the mines in Hetzen where surveillance is lax. With those resources, we will recapture the royal castle, so Your Majesty, please don’t be alarmed.」

A ray of light in the darkness.

But Edvart felt strangely uneasy.

Of course he was very happy. He’d thought the people’s will to resist had been completely shattered, especially because of the funeral.

The letter writer identified himself as a colonel who’d been demoted while guarding the border. There was a heart-pounding hope that he would end all this suffering.

But.

‘Things can’t go that smoothly.’

Somehow, such pessimistic thoughts came first.

‘Can I trust this?’

As he was mulling over the letter, someone knocked on the library door.

“Your Majesty, it’s the Military Governor.”

Edvart was startled and quickly shoved the letter between the pages of the book he’d had open.

The commander who entered through the heavy door looked perfectly fine.

“I come to see Your Majesty.”

Edvart hurriedly looked around, then realized there was no typewriter in the study. He had no choice but to use the paper and ink scattered nearby to scribble letters.

Since he’d come alone without an attendant, the commander had to come close to peer at the paper.

「Commander, I heard you had an accident yesterday……」

“Thanks to Your Majesty’s great grace, I’m recovering quickly.”

The commander showed him the bandages wrapped tightly around his torso by lifting his clothes slightly and smiled.

“More than that, Your Majesty, I heard something strange yesterday.”

「What was it?」

Cold sweat dripped onto the paper. The letters were becoming increasingly crooked.

“That Your Majesty has been exchanging letters with someone. Trying to kill me again.”

Edvart’s face went white. He gripped the book at his side tightly and just hoped the trembling would stop.

“……”

“Your Majesty.”

The commander’s smile seemed to contain no sinister undertones.

He approached Edvart smoothly and took the book. It was such a natural movement that calling it ‘snatching’ would be inappropriate.

“You can kill me however you like. But Your Majesty, joining hands with this person would be a mistake.”

「Why……?」

Cold sweat dripped onto the paper. The handwriting was getting more and more crooked.

He opened the book and found the letter. As if he didn’t need to read it, he returned it to Edvart and calmly delivered the death sentence.

“Because Cortana has no magic stones left.”