9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 113 - The Secret Garden (1)

Drip, drip.

The sound of water droplets falling from the ceiling. The stench of filth permeated the tunnel, and the humidity made his skin sticky.

The red-haired man carrying a small lantern trudging through the passage suddenly stopped in the darkness.

“This was the place, right?”

For nearly a month, he’d been going back and forth repeatedly, memorizing the sewer layout. If he’d known it would come to this, he should have asked Lucas to send him a map.

Oscar chuckled to himself and grabbed the ladder attached to the wall to climb up. He pushed open the heavy cover and poked his body out, letting fresh air flow into his nostrils.

A night close to the new moon. The empty lot between the factory and research facility was pitch black. The lights in the research facility in the distance were completely out for once, which was rare.

After closing the cover and standing up, Oscar stared at the neat research building with a contemplative expression.

When was it?

Probably when he was twenty-five, so 1900. Since it’s 1903 now, that would be three years ago.

He remembered how Lucas had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and persistently followed him around, saying he wanted to earn his trust. That was when he’d learned about this secret passage connected to the sewers too.

‘Feels like ancient history now.’

Lucas, who had been a 9th grade civil servant back then, had somehow landed a high position. It wasn’t that he envied that status. It’s just that when he looked back on what Lucas had accomplished…

‘Amazing guy. But what about me… hmm, what have I done?’

The 2nd Airship Assembly Factory where Oscar worked was incredibly noisy.

The sound of machinery running echoed loudly throughout work hours, making his ears half-deaf.

Naturally, proper conversation was impossible. The only times he could talk with anyone were briefly in the changing room during commute times and briefly during lunch break. Combined, it didn’t even amount to thirty minutes.

After work, he often hung out with the supervisors, drinking and listening to their stories, but the tales that workers living monotonous daily lives picked up were always trivial.

The couple downstairs had a fight to the death, someone got dead drunk and had an accident, some family fled in the night.

Such worthless gossip.

“That’s about it for this week.”

The information Oscar sheepishly provided might look substantial on the surface, but when analyzed, it was always insignificant.

He’d once been excited thinking he could access factory secrets if he became a supervisor, but that had been just wishful thinking. The really valuable information never made it down to their level.

As the White Raven Order’s intelligence network improved, it became obvious…

His friends had never mocked or reproached him, but inwardly, it always bothered him.

Pride? No, more than that.

‘Am I unnecessary?’

Erika managed her company with sharp efficiency, Daniel rode dragons across the great desert. Richard was a doctor who brought back high society gossip, and no one could match Georg when it came to the sheer volume of information he gathered.

When it came to high-level intelligence that they couldn’t access in daily life, they’d even made deals with Ossel several times.

For fighting, the Bletter elves, especially Assad, were experts.

So then, what role did the man named Oscar Fisher play?

‘I want to be more helpful too!’

The satisfaction he’d felt when they raided the Ossel headquarters long ago, rescuing people. He wanted to feel that again.

Just how could he do something useful?

While he was pondering this, suddenly that photograph of his older brother and Sonya appeared.

His blood instantly boiled in reverse.

That gentle, people-loving Sonya in civilian massacres?!

‘Why did I try to stop Kruger in the first place?’

It was ridiculous, but he’d never seriously thought about it.

It just seemed like something was wrong with this country, and what Kruger was doing really didn’t sit right with him.

Purging the opposition, dragging innocent people away to cripple them, stirring up the masses’ intense emotions as if he were some kind of god—all of it.

Right, he’d never thought of it as ‘his’ business.

Dictators are bad, so eliminate them.

War is scary, so stop it.

That level of awareness.

But now he felt it painfully.

If they couldn’t stop Kruger, Sonya and countless other dragons would be mobilized for slaughter according to human desires.

Just like the red dragons that were supposedly tamed by drinking sacrificial blood in the ancient elf kingdoms.

‘So then, what do I do?’

Honestly, he was furious beyond belief. He wanted to tear his older brother apart right now and push Kruger off some high place too.

But both were impossible.

Returning to his original dilemma, as he searched for a way to resolve this anger and self-loathing, he finally realized.

‘What I can do.’

So Oscar Fisher decided to infiltrate the factory.

***

‘The plan is perfect. It was decided in a fit of anger, but…!’

To infiltrate the research facility, today was the only chance. The one day a year when the research director’s birthday came around.

In his eight years of working there, he’d learned that the research director only stopped squeezing the researchers and let them go home early on his birthday.

Carrying a magic lamp with the power turned off, he quietly moved forward.

Recently, he’d been going through the sewers every night, lurking around the research facility. Finding a way in was easy.

‘These guys are getting sloppy.’

Was it complacency? The guards weren’t very diligent.

Oscar pressed himself against the tall concrete wall, moving in the shadows.

After waiting for a while, the sound of casual chatting briefly stopped and a red light appeared in the darkness.

They were smoking cigarettes.

‘If you’re going to keep watch, shouldn’t you at least keep something lit? Idiots.’

The big floodlight had been broken for nearly a month now, but the factory manager had no intention of ordering a new one.

From what he’d heard, the manager had laughed, saying what need was there for lighting when the research facility’s lights stayed brightly lit until dawn anyway.

The researchers probably shed tears of blood.

‘The guards patrol inside and outside in shifts, so…’

As expected, he entered the research building through the back door that was wide open.

The dark, quiet interior felt eerie.

Oscar crouched down to avoid being seen through windows and slowly duck-walked forward.

There was no way to figure out the patrol routes, but at least he knew which research room the researchers mainly used.

For ten days, it was the room where shadows appeared most frequently in the windows.

‘3rd floor, center room.’

Moving while holding his breath made his heart race so hard his chest hurt.

Tap, tap.

‘Ah, damn.’

Footsteps could be heard in the distance, so he quickly hid on the stair landing. After waiting a bit, a guard passed by with a flashlight.

The 3rd floor was particularly cold.

‘Is this it?’

The research room door was securely locked, but there weren’t any magical security measures in place.

When he earnestly poked at the keyhole with a metal rod, the lock soon came undone. This was another skill Oscar had learned during his wandering days after leaving home.

He wrapped the lock in cloth to muffle the sound, quietly removed it, and entered the research facility.

‘Wow…’

Oscar was internally amazed.

Books and documents scattered everywhere, incomprehensible formulas densely written all over a large blackboard, pictures stuck so thickly that the walls couldn’t be seen.

‘What a mess.’

Of course, he hadn’t expected important materials to be nicely laid out with a flourish, but this was beyond distinguishing what was what.

‘Still, can’t be helped.’

Oscar quietly drew the curtains and firmly closed the research room door. After taking a deep breath, he turned the magic lamp to its dimmest setting and began examining the materials.

‘This looks like something brought in for formula reference, and this is…’

Since he had to avoid making noise and be careful not to disturb the original positions of the already chaotically scattered materials, his progress was slow.

Still, there were materials that even an outsider like him could tell were important.

For example, blueprints for something spread out large on the only clean desk.

「Reduce dependence on biological weapons and create transportation that can conserve resources. High utility as weapons as well.」

「Development cost: xxxxxx pelts.」

「Approved.」

‘A new type of airship?’

He’d been assembling airships for eight years.

With his experience, Oscar roughly guessed the identity of the blueprints and suddenly recalled the days when he’d waited for test flights of airships under development to see Sonya.

Back then, he was certain they’d developed huge airships that could “safely transport dragons to operational areas without exhausting their stamina.”

But looking carefully at these blueprints and the reports beside them, it seemed like they were planning to develop airships that could completely replace dragons in the future.

‘That’s wonderful news.’

Without realizing it, Oscar grinned and pulled paper and pen from his pocket, beginning to copy down exactly what was written in the report.

It wasn’t just a letter or two, so his arm started aching, but there was no choice.

‘I’m not Lucas, after all.’

Even though Lucas could be somewhat annoying, he’d always thought of him as an incredibly smart friend. He’d often seen him summarize and record only the key points while reading something.

But Oscar didn’t have the ability to distinguish what was important information and what was useless, so he had no choice but to copy everything as it was.

Heat gradually built up in his body and sweat beaded on his nose. His arm had already become stiff and numb from writing at lightning speed.

Finally, when he’d drawn the airship blueprints as similarly as possible and checked and rechecked the specifications two or three times with aching eyes before copying them down, Oscar was already exhausted.

“Ugh…”

Rubbing his right arm that was crying out in pain, he pulled out his pocket watch.

‘Damn, already this time?’

4:30 AM. If he dawdled any longer, the sun would rise.

‘One more thing! Anything!’

Something worth copying, something useful—wasn’t there anything? Crawling around on the floor, he discovered a thin report wedged beside the trash can.

‘Human capability something, experimental results something…’

He only confirmed the content with his eyes without analyzing it with his brain, scribbling down the report’s contents frantically.

After that, it was already past five o’clock.

‘I really have to go now!’

After returning the report to its original place, Oscar was about to open the door when he took one last sweeping look around the room.

‘Hm?’

As he swept the magic lamp in a wide circle, something like a dark sack silhouette appeared in the far corner. Squinting, he extended the lamp further.

At that moment, a pale face revealed in the light.

“Hiiic!”

Crash!

Startled out of his wits, Oscar made a loud noise and fell on his rear before tumbling out.

“Hah, hah, damn!”

Sitting there clutching his face, he sneakily peered through the gap that hadn’t fully closed.

A man with disheveled hair slowly sat up then collapsed again.

“What is it… just a dream…”

His muttering could be heard faintly.

“Whew!”

A sigh of relief escaped.

‘A researcher who’d become one with a cot.’

Some enthusiastic person must have stayed alone to work and briefly dozed off. The guard probably locked up without knowing about it.

“Ah, seriously… thought my heart was going to fall out.”

Oscar calmed his startled heart while quietly waiting. Once he was certain the researcher had fallen asleep, he locked up again and leisurely left the building.

Avoiding the guards who were changing shifts, he slipped into the sewers, then emerged in a nearby alley to let the wind carry away the smell.

An hour later, hiding in a corner of the train station, he mixed in with people getting off the train and returned to the factory.

“Hey, Fisher! Why didn’t you come yesterday?”

In the supervisor changing room, a colleague he often hung out with wrapped a strong arm around his neck.

“I had a date with a really lovely lady. Instead, let’s go all night tonight! Tomorrow’s the weekend!”

When he cheerfully shouted, those who had gathered around laughed approvingly. Oscar also smiled slightly and thought.

‘I should hand this over to Erika first. It’ll be safer than me holding onto it.’

***

“Your Majesty. Did you sleep well last night?”

「Yes. And you?」

Edvart gave a short response while greeting Lucas Redan, who had come for his morning greeting.

Last time, after Edvart had completely exposed himself emotionally in front of him, the commander hadn’t mentioned that incident again.

However, Edvart felt that something about the atmosphere between them, the air itself, had changed.

He no longer kept his guard up against him, and more than anything…

“Ed.”

「What.」

It was because Lucas Redan had completely abandoned formalities.

“Ed?”

「Ah, what!!!」

At first, this had been a very strange feeling, but when Lucas kept acting like a friendly older brother when no one else was watching, he’d somehow gotten used to it.

Rather, calling him ‘you’ or ‘commander’ felt more awkward now.

Lucas grinned and strode over to sit in front of him. Colin followed along and stuck his snout toward him.

Edvart tried not to show how delighted he was while petting Colin.

“I’m planning to go to Hetzen today.”

Buried in the smooth fur, Edvart’s hand, which had been moving diligently, suddenly stopped.

「Why Hetzen?」

“For reconnaissance.”

「What if I come along?」

“That won’t do, Your Majesty.”

Edvart made a slightly disgruntled expression before quickly giving up. He would never put the king in danger.

The day he stopped his hunger strike.

With puffy eyes, Edvart had asked Lucas.

「What exactly do you want from me?!」

Then Lucas had dropped to his knees in a bow and shouted.

“Your Majesty, please save me!”