9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 114 - The Secret Garden (2)

Edvart suddenly thought to himself.

That he had never seen such sincere eyes before.

If this person’s confession, anxiously smiling before him, was false, and if those trembling hands were also false, then there would be nothing left in this world to believe in.

This was precisely the limitation of Edvart, who was only fourteen years old.

His mind had been battered to pieces by the relentless barrage of misfortune’s punches. His body weakened by prolonged fasting.

In such a state, he had no choice but to foolishly fall for Lucas Redan’s acting.

‘Seeing how desperately he’s clinging to me, there must be something to it.’

This intuition, along with the defeatist consciousness that there was nothing he could do even if he continued to question and scrutinize, played a part as well.

“I simply want to live.”

Edvart turned his gaze away from Lucas Redan, who spoke calmly, to look at the empty plates.

「Who could possibly threaten you? Even now you’re doing whatever you please.」

“Hah, there are many, Your Majesty.”

Lucas stood up and looked down at him while pointing to his own chest.

“Haven’t I already nearly died twice? Once from Your Majesty, once from an old woman who lost her son.”

Edvart’s mouth fell open as he stared at him intently.

‘The wound……’

That serious wound from the gunshot. Where did it go?

「Don’t tell me that incident」

When Edvart couldn’t bring himself to press the keys, Lucas smiled faintly at the corner of his mouth.

“You’re very perceptive.”

Strength gathered in his brow. The boy’s fingers danced over the keys.

「No, how pathetic. To realize this so late. You, who sleep wearing protective gear even when resting, would never have appeared before people without any preparations……」

“You’ve guessed exactly right, Your Majesty. It was all fake. A show I orchestrated.”

「Why?」

“As I’ve already said, because I want to survive.”

「Even so」

“Your Majesty, I could die at any moment without it being strange.”

Lucas continued without waiting for his typing to finish.

“Your Majesty and your loyal subjects, the people, the Supreme Leader’s lackeys who monitor me. They’re all targeting my life. The only things I can trust are myself and my meager army.”

He said.

That he was currently standing in a very precarious place. That it was no different from a crumbling cliff where one wrong step would immediately sweep him away in giant waves.

「But why did you tell me it was fine to kill you? You even taught me how to stab the throat.」

Even when Edvart asked in confusion, his smile remained unchanged.

“Because then Your Majesty would have feared me.”

For a moment, anger surged up and he tried to throw a plate, but Lucas quickly blocked it.

“Once is enough, Your Majesty.”

He swept back his hair to show his torn forehead.

「What do you want?」

Lucas stopped smiling and bent down to meet the boy’s eyes.

“Edvart.”

“……!”

“No, Ed.”

His hand rested on Edvart’s shoulder. Strength gradually entered his fingers. He whispered to the boy who was gritting his teeth and glaring.

“Don’t you want to live?”

For a moment, words caught in his throat.

‘Did I want to live?’

And thinking once more.

‘Ah, I did want to live.’

Near his heart, he felt a strange warmth along with a sharp ache.

He had thought it didn’t matter if he just died like this, but actually it wasn’t true.

Actually, he wanted to survive, he was afraid to die.

Like his parents, like the people of the palace, like the residents of Hetzen—he was more afraid than anything else in the world of dying horribly.

That’s why he couldn’t resist, couldn’t do anything.

‘Cowardly.’

He had always been a pathetic coward anyway. It wasn’t even surprising.

To Edvart, who hung his head, Lucas Redan whispered once more.

“If you want to live, keep me alive. I’ll keep you alive too.”

***

Edvart issued a proclamation.

For the first time since Cortana was occupied by Schufaben, it was done without going through the military governor.

The content was very simple.

‘I appoint Military Governor Lucas Redan as my Lord Protector.’

Some were relieved, some grieved, and some were enraged.

There were those who claimed the young king had been threatened by the military governor, and those who wondered how a foreigner could hold the position of Lord Protector anyway.

Lord Protector was a unique system of Cortana alone.

When the king was young and inexperienced, the most powerful minister would be made Lord Protector to serve as regent.

It had appeared exactly twice throughout the history of the Cortana dynasty, and both times they had governed excellently and assisted the king without personal ambition, earning great respect from the people.

“This makes no sense! A foreigner as Lord Protector!”

“But from what I hear, His Majesty seems to trust and follow him greatly……”

“As expected, the king is young and easily deceived.”

「It seems much more dangerous now. Everyone is angry at you.」

When Edvart scribbled on paper, Lucas, who had been pouring tea in front of him, smiled broadly.

A leisurely afternoon.

These days Edvart carried paper and a quill pen instead of the typewriter.

It was at Lucas’s request. The typewriter was too noisy and carried great risk of information exposure.

“No, the opposite. They’re angry at you, Ed.”

「Why?」

“Because they’re disappointed. Because they all felt that you handed over power to me of your own accord.”

「Even though I was threatened into it?」

Edvart was being sarcastic, but Lucas remained calm.

“The inner circumstances aren’t others’ business to know. They simply saw the truth they didn’t want to believe right before their eyes.

Ed, that you’re far too weak. That you’re too small, young, and incompetent a king to rely on.

So they now know that you would never rally soldiers to drive out foreign powers, or at the very least show your integrity by taking your own life.”

Lucas’s words calmly pierced Edvart’s heart.

Strangely, it didn’t feel like an insult. He was simply telling him facts without any emotion.

「Then what should I do now?」

“Well. Ed, how do you find the king’s position? Are you happy that everyone reveres you?”

“……”

「No, I’m scared.」

Standing above Cortana’s two million citizens, bearing their expectations.

Then Lucas laughed.

“Then that’s perfect. Keep doing this. People will begin to feel that expecting or demanding anything from you is shameless and sorry. Because they’ve started thinking of you not as a king but as a pitiful child.”

And he burned the paper covered with black letters with his lighter. Edvart quietly nodded while watching the paper burst into flames and turn to ash.

***

Only about three months had passed, but the acrid atmosphere that had covered Hetzen was almost completely gone.

The tram station was quite bustling. There were far more people getting off than boarding, probably laborers who had flocked here looking for work.

I had received reports about this. Since there were no signs of the mines reopening, the miners scattered throughout the country in search of other jobs.

The military government was doing everything possible for Hetzen’s reconstruction.

Building barracks to house refugees, collecting bodies to hold funerals, distributing food and daily necessities, cleaning the filthy streets, rebuilding collapsed buildings starting with essential facilities……

It was a project requiring massive budget and manpower, but Cortana’s treasury, built up from selling magic stones all this time, wouldn’t be emptied by this much.

Perhaps because of all this money being poured in, Hetzen’s downtown area was strangely filled with a hopeful atmosphere.

“The living do live on. Wherever they are.”

A loud clanging and banging noise from right in front drowned out my muttering.

They were repaving the broken roads. The major street crossing the city had few intact sections.

Hetzen was a kind of planned city.

The moment the magic stone mines were discovered, the swift Cortana royal family built a city for miners below the Colt Mountains.

Ironically, this made reconstruction relatively easy. Since building locations were strictly determined.

Cortanians would be offended if I said this, but it somehow felt quite similar to Schufaben cities.

Clang! Clang!

“Food service begins!”

Walking a bit further, I saw a low-ranking official ringing a large bell and shouting loudly near a food distribution center built near the construction site.

People who had been standing in long lines with bowls in hand swallowed their saliva. Under the watch of several soldiers, officials ladled out meat porridge from large pots.

“They won’t have much strength eating that.”

The food distribution twice a day had a monotonous menu. Fish porridge during the day, bread in the evening.

No matter how much money Cortana had, having to feed, clothe, and house nearly 100,000 people every day made this an unavoidable choice.

I could see soldiers watching to make sure people didn’t cut in line or cause trouble with the officials.

Cortana was also bearing the cost of stationing two infantry battalions.

I had deployed 1,000 of the 2,000 men to mine security, 500 to the palace and Carlton, and the remaining 500 to downtown Hetzen.

This was my best effort.

Unless Kruger provided about eight more battalions, I couldn’t monitor everywhere.

While staring intently at the people receiving food, I made eye contact with one soldier. He glared fiercely, so I quickly turned and left.

“The disguise worked quite well. Don’t you think?”

“Yes, it d—”

“Hey.”

“Ah, right. I, no, I had trouble recognizing you too.”

When I turned around and asked, Alina Himmel, who had been quietly following, reflexively answered in her stiff manner before hastily correcting herself.

I chuckled and fiddled with my hair, dyed a messy brown.

After secretly dyeing my hair, getting shabby clothes, and changing my posture, gait, and even voice, when I stood before a mirror, even I thought ‘who is this guy?’ I looked like a completely different person.

Captain Himmel also wore a long-haired wig and changed from her uniform to civilian clothes for once.

Still, she couldn’t hide her sharp gaze and disciplined atmosphere, but no one seemed suspicious.

In an unstable area, being alert was only natural, so it might actually look more natural.

Today’s concept would be siblings from Schufaben looking for work.

I heard such people were gradually increasing as Schufaben companies went bankrupt one after another.

I had thought about posing as Hetzen locals, but it seemed difficult to disguise our speech patterns completely. Though Hetzen was close to Schufaben and had similar accents, sounding like Schufaben rural dialect was unavoidable.

Well, since we were just taking a light look around, we probably wouldn’t have much conversation with others.

“Would a married couple have been better than siblings? What do you think, honey?”

When I joked, Captain Himmel instantly flinched and wrapped her arms around her shoulders as if disgusted.

Looking at me with contempt as if seeing a cockroach, she then looked away in embarrassment.

“I’m sor— I mean, sorry.”

“Haha! It’s a joke, don’t misunderstand. Even I don’t have a hobby of hitting on married women. Don’t worry, Alina.”

“Well, hah……”

Captain Himmel sighed with her face slightly reddened. Then she seemed to give up and shut her mouth.

We moved away from Hetzen’s destroyed downtown toward the city’s outskirts. The further we went, the more ominous the atmosphere became despite the bright daylight.

‘This must be much improved. They said extreme chaos continued until the military government was established.’

I knew what had happened then, but didn’t want to recall it.

I bit my lip tightly and stepped into an alley filled with broken houses.

I could see tents set up against buildings that were nothing but frameworks.

Though temporary shelters similar to military barracks lined the area near the main road, some people apparently didn’t want to leave their destroyed homes.

Brigadier General Eric Wagner, the security commander, had once reported on this issue.

I had replied to leave them alone unless absolutely necessary, since we lacked soldiers to forcibly drive them all to shelters and didn’t know what kind of backlash it might provoke.

“What are you? Get, get lost!”

Thwack!

I had been peering around between the tents.

Most tents were empty as people had gone to work, but from one of the tents, a man threw something like a broken brick.

Fortunately, thanks to Captain Himmel’s amazing reflexes, it hit her solid arm instead of my head before falling.

“Alina, no.”

I stopped her from drawing the sword from inside her clothes and asked the man, who reeked of alcohol.

“What are you doing? Drinking yourself stupid in broad daylight.”

“I, I, I’ll kill you!”

The man glared at us with bloodshot eyes at my rough tone. He was clearly not in his right mind.

“There’s plenty of work over there. They even give you food. So why are you like this?”

“I, I am! A dirty elf!”

The man croaked and screamed.

“They killed them all! Said we colluded with Schufaben and killed them all.”

The man croaked and then collapsed onto the ground. For a moment I was startled and flinched, but soon the sound of snoring echoed.

I looked at the man’s ears lying on the blanket. The tips were neither rounded nor pointed, but jagged.

‘Did he cut off his own ears to survive?’

They said it happened everywhere right after the bombing. Massacres……

All kinds of rumors spread uncontrollably, including the ridiculous story that greedy elves had sold magic stones to Schufaben.

The troops from Ossel and Ferint who entered under the Supreme Leader’s orders had no interest in whatever hell unfolded in Hetzen. Until the military government was established, this place was……

Ah, I ended up remembering it after all.

I quietly looked down at the elf, then signaled to Captain Himmel.

“He’ll suffocate and die like that.”

After helping the elf lie properly, I took Captain Himmel and moved on.