9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 110

The Boy King (3)

More than ten days had already passed since the young king declared martial law.

The detailed provisions beyond temporarily entrusting administrative authority to the military governor commander didn’t really affect ordinary citizens much.

Things like renewing mercenary contracts while reducing their scale, reorganizing the army’s armaments, or sealing off Hetzen—which had become a land of death—and prohibiting entry.

No matter how merciless the bombing had been, it couldn’t kill everyone, and quite a few people had survived in Hetzen.

Whether it was foresight or something else, the late king had temporarily moved miners around under the pretext of maintaining the nation’s mines, so the population remaining in the city during the bombing was only about half the usual number.

The city’s merchants would have been devastated, but thanks to this, the miners and their families had saved their lives.

Add to that the people who had believed the war threat theory and left. They must be feeling fear, emptiness, and anger scattered across the nation right now.

Anyway, instead of driving the Hetzen refugees out of the city, the military government announced it would distribute relief supplies like food and tents.

The refugees, having lost the strength to resist, had no choice but to accept.

Other than that, the only part of martial law that ordinary people could really feel was probably the suspension of train operations after 9 PM.

They said it was for public safety, but in reality, it was just a measure to save even a little bit of magic stone.

‘I wonder how long we can keep it hidden?’

I fell into thought while watching the scenery flash by through the train window.

Keeping it secret forever was impossible. How many industries were tied to the mines, how many mouths to feed.

The late king had shut down all the mines nationwide under the pretext of safety inspections and new technology testing.

And since the military government took over, everyone was accepting that mining resumption was delayed because assessing the situation takes time.

But it was obvious they’d soon notice something was wrong. The related industries running on thin ice would collapse the moment the magic stone reserves were depleted.

Honestly, it’s not my problem. If only I could get out of here before then!

Not much time left.

At least right after the occupation, we cut off export routes and redirected all supplies to Schufaben, and I’m monopolizing mine operations without handing them over to the military government.

But no matter how much I stretch it, the magic stones will run out in about three months, and I’ll be thrown away.

‘I need to find a way out before then. First, I need to make this kid face reality.’

One car of the royal train was furnished entirely as quarters for the king.

Even though traveling across Cortana from east to west, north to south took three hours at most, it was an ultra-luxurious compartment complete with a bed, dining table, bookshelf, bathroom, porcelain vases, cushions with gold trim—everything you could imagine.

And the boy king sitting in front of me right now was expressionless.

He was just leaning back on the plush sofa, staring into empty space with unfocused, clouded eyes.

He’d been in this state since the moment we boarded the train. Except for occasionally startling awake and sighing.

The day I told him the reality of Cortana, the king’s shocked face was so severe that I’d stayed away from him for a while, thinking I should let the shock settle.

And now I was taking him to confirm it with his own eyes……

‘Don’t tell me something happened to his head?’

***

The Blue Eagles had scattered bombs evenly throughout Hetzen, but they left the facilities near the mines and the train station untouched.

In the ash-covered city, only the train station remained bright and clean.

The train quietly slid along the rails. When I got off on the platform with the king, Brigadier General Eric Wagner saluted as if it were the first day.

“Long live the Great Supreme Leader! Have you arrived, Your Majesty, Commander?”

“……”

“Long live Supreme Leader. The carriage?”

“It’s ready.”

The train station, where sunlight filtered through pale glass. Only the crisp sound of soldiers’ footsteps echoed on the polished stone floor. That very quietness was tragic.

Surely refugees whose homes had been destroyed would have flocked here, making this their shelter from wind and rain. But Brigadier General Wagner would have cleared out both people and dust. Driving away resisters with guns and bayonets.

I had ordered him to use force as gently as possible when necessary, but I wondered if he’d followed that well.

We crossed the spacious carriage through the city streets full of destruction.

Collapsed buildings, rough upturned roads, people peeking out from ramshackle shacks built haphazardly, watching the marching soldiers with fearful expressions.

Honestly, it resembled a nightmare city so closely that it was shocking.

The scenes hit hundreds of times sharper than the war correspondent photos I used to look up back on Earth.

‘Kruger really is a bastard.’

I thought this anew while calming Colin, who was growling as if he’d caught the scent of blood.

Even though Brigadier General Wagner and his 2,000 soldiers had worked hard to clean up the corpses, a few days hadn’t been enough.

The road to the Colt Mountains was thoroughly controlled. Wire fences were erected, detection devices installed, and mines planted here and there.

The carriage that had been running along the well-maintained road for a while finally stopped on a plain that appeared.

“We’ve arrived, Commander.”

Taking a deep breath and getting out, I could see dozens of temporary buildings and living facilities. They were empty now, but they must have been dormitories for miners.

“The mine is over there. As you’ve already been briefed, there are seven villages like this just in the vicinity.”

One village per mine.

We walked toward the unsealed mine in the distance. I could see the king’s pace slowing. But eventually he had no choice but to arrive in front of the dark cave with its gaping mouth, and I asked the king for the first time in ten days.

“Your Majesty, would you like to go inside?”

“……”

I smiled kindly and handed him a feather pen and notebook.

「Do I have a choice」

The king, his face deathly pale, couldn’t finish writing and whipped his head away.

“Of course you do.”

After standing still for a moment, the king moved toward the cave on his own.

I hurried after him and pulled a safety helmet that Brigadier General Wagner handed me snugly over his head.

Following the brigadier general’s guidance, we rode a mine cart down, down, down. To a space that would be plunged into complete darkness if the torches were extinguished.

Though they called it the largest mine in history, the mine cart tracks weren’t laid very deep.

As if announcing that construction had been hastily halted midway, various tools were scattered at the end of the tracks. I could even see a massive mining machine in the corner over there.

Getting off the mine cart, I picked up a pickaxe that was lying on the ground.

“Behold, Your Majesty.”

Blue light embedded in the wall, sparkling. Toward that mystical light that seemed to bewitch people, I swung the pickaxe down with all my might.

Clang! Clang!

The soft dirt and stones around it fell away, revealing a long vein.

Clang!

And when I struck with all my strength, a magic stone the size of my forearm fell out with a thud. Only the tip end glowed blue—the rest was no different from an ordinary rock.

“Do you understand? The letters and diary the late king left behind are not fake. You saw the half-moon seal on them yourself. Magic no longer flows through the land of Cortana.”

I quietly announced the reality, handing the king the stone that still held a bit of warm energy.

“……”

The king’s breathing was shaking so violently that it almost sounded like he was saying something.

「Why did you bring me here?」

“Because you absolutely wouldn’t believe it. Your Majesty, you are the king of Cortana. You must overcome this crisis.”

I quietly bent down and whispered in the boy’s ear.

“Schufaben swallowed Cortana to seize the magic stones. But now all Cortana holds are ordinary rocks instead of magic stones, and no one outside knows this fact. Your Majesty, what should I do?”

I belatedly realized that the king was trembling all over, tears streaming down from his large eyes.

“Ugh, uugh…… huuup!”

The king, who had been looking down at the magic stone that had become almost a rock, staggered and collapsed with a thud.

“Your Majesty!”

I quickly threw myself forward. Fortunately, I managed to catch him just before his helmeted head hit the ground.

“What happened?!”

“The king collapsed. Hah, I didn’t know he’d be this shocked.”

“No wonder. I almost fainted when I heard your story, Commander.”

Indeed, Brigadier General Wagner had looked like his eyes might pop out the day before coming down to Hetzen. And he kept repeating like a madman, asking what we should do.

Right now in this mine, there were only me, the boy king, and the brigadier general. I’d even left Captain Himmel in Carlton.

I couldn’t yet fully trust the brigadier general, but I couldn’t keep this secret from him while devising countermeasures either.

More than anything, since he was deploying many troops to defend Hetzen, he’d find out eventually anyway.

“Once again, this fact must not leak to anyone.”

“I understand, sir.”

***

“It’s been a while.”

Queen Marianne I, with her wrinkle-free smooth skin, white hair pinned up, and a thin gold crown on her head, smiled slightly when she saw the man who appeared before her.

He was dressed entirely in black with a mask due to moving under cover of night’s darkness, but she could tell just from his eyes.

That this was a messenger sent by her friend, Lucas Redan.

“You worked hard again today. It must be difficult climbing the high walls of White Palace every time.”

The man silently handed the queen an envelope with no seal and disappeared out the window.

It was the same scene as always, so the queen didn’t feel surprised or offended as she opened the envelope.

Marianne had asked Lucas.

How did the war happen, and how did you become Cortana’s military governor commander? Has our promise become void?

With Marianne’s full support, Lucas had climbed quite high in Schufaben.

Now it was Lucas’s turn to grant Marianne’s request, but the Continental Conference he had ambitiously promoted to prevent war was reeling from Kruger’s blow, and the continental nations were fighting among themselves with divided opinions.

At least the general assessment was that Lucas Redan was trying somehow to make up for his homeland’s atrocities.

He had brought Cortana’s power holders to form a military government, and except for control of the mines and military, he had entrusted all other matters to them.

After holding a joint funeral service, he had also actively implemented relief policies in areas devastated by the bombing.

The Rubellia nobles, especially those who had invested money in the Redan Company, insisted stubbornly that he was a good young man trying somehow to preserve peace.

Of course, there were just as many opinions that he was merely a puppet of the dictator Supreme Leader.

The queen thought neither set of words adequately described Lucas Redan.

He was neither purely good nor loyal to the dictator. Simply……

‘A person who stakes his life to survive.’

That was Lucas Redan.

Such bizarre behavioral principles had made him who he was today.

Marianne read through Lucas’s letter, received after such a long time, in one go.

「I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I couldn’t stop him.」

The long letter that began this way passed through

「Now it’s just a matter of time. If you strengthen your defenses and hold out, he will surely collapse on his own. Even if his army sweeps across the continent, it’s just temporary momentum that won’t last long. I can swear to it.」

this unfounded confidence, and ended with

「Your Majesty. Please attack me. You are a major shareholder of Redan Company. So you can grab and shake the company. Please show people the terror of money. I beg you.」

this request.

Marianne found herself bursting into laughter without realizing it.

Why Kruger had invaded Cortana so hastily, what truth Lucas was hiding behind Schufaben’s subsequent silence, and regarding circumstances he couldn’t reveal, how sorry Lucas felt about the recent daily incidents.

None of that mattered anymore. Not when she was seeing such unimaginable schemes.

Marianne thought of the Redan Company shareholders who had been secretly hiding and rejoicing.

When war broke out and Lucas Redan was appointed military governor commander, they had cheered inwardly, expecting a windfall.

The Redan mining company had said it would develop the Great Desert, but there was no way it wouldn’t touch Cortana’s overflowing magic stones.

Hadn’t the company’s founder and CEO, ‘Little Prince Luca,’ gained the power to handle Cortana as he pleased?

“Money will be duplicated!”

The rumor that an investor had shouted this at a party had secretly reached Marianne’s ears.

The sight of investors already clamoring for shareholder meetings and various schemes was both amusing and contemptible, but Marianne wasn’t disappointed.

Humans were that kind of creature anyway.

Now it was time to give them a wake-up slap to the back of the head.