9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 115 - The Secret Garden (3)

How many alleys had I peered into while walking around?

I didn’t see anyone else in as serious a condition as that drunken elf, but most were barely scraping by on their meager rations.

Well… it was a city full of miners more or less in the same boat, and anyone with money would have fled quickly before Hetzen was sealed off. That is, if they were still alive.

‘The public order doesn’t seem completely ruined right now. The terrible things have all passed, and reconstruction work is starting from downtown, so vitality is gradually returning. People are all on edge, but that’s something time will solve.’

Wouldn’t it be fine to just leave things as they are?

No, realistically speaking, there might not be anything more I can do.

Giggling laughter echoed from somewhere. Following the sound, I saw children gathered in a small clearing, playing.

“You throw the stone!”

“Okay! You’re next, Agatha!”

“Hey! You’re supposed to hop three times! Why are you hopping four!”

Children wearing cheap clothes distributed by the military government, grimy from not washing properly, and scrawny from not eating their fill during their growing years.

But when playing with friends, they were simply innocent, regardless of war or anything else.

‘Kruger is a bastard.’

Recalling the sentence I repeat like a mantra more than ten times a day, I crouched down and hid in the shadow of a crumbling building beside the clearing.

“Let’s rest a bit.”

“Yes, big brother.”

I thought my eyes would pop out. I whipped my head around fast enough to create a whoosh and stared at Captain Himmel, then regained my composure upon realizing she was simply staying in character.

“Geez, you startled me. I thought Alina had finally decided to play along with me.”

“I always play along well……”

“If that’s ‘well,’ then oh my, let’s not even talk about it.”

I shook my head and closed my eyes.

‘I’m tired.’

Walking around this city is oddly nauseating. The roasted corpses and bone dust and sparks and blood-stained roads…… those are gone now.

Still, the residents’ wary eyes and somehow fear-stricken expressions remind me of what happened during the roughly three days before the military government was established.

Even though several months have already passed.

I quietly listened to the children’s laughter. It’s like my own form of healing.

I was doing that for a while when suddenly different sounds drifted from the distance.

Light pattering footsteps. The children in the clearing jumped up and down joyfully.

“Hey, I told you not to go outside. Come in, it’s dinner time.”

“Awww, I don’t want to.”

“But you still have to eat. Come on, let’s go quickly!”

By then I had opened my eyes. An older brother had come to take the younger ones home, it seemed.

And a strange smell carried on the breeze. I looked toward the alley where they had disappeared.

“What is this smell?”

It was far from an appetizing food aroma—if anything, it was closer to a stench.

Sweet, but unlike the sweetness of sugar or carbohydrates, it was disgustingly sticky and nauseating enough to turn your stomach……

“Don’t tell me they’re picking up and eating just anything because they’re hungry?”

Could there be families not even receiving those meager rations?

“Let’s go take a look, Alina.”

***

The stench was flowing from a certain house. A residence with one collapsed wall covered by a large blanket.

Coming this close, my nose seemed paralyzed and I could barely smell it anymore.

I quietly crossed the alley full of building debris and peeked through a gap in the blanket.

The scene before my eyes looked like an ordinary dinner, but something felt off.

A middle-aged woman who appeared to be the children’s mother was fishing something out of a pot and chewing it with crunching sounds.

The small children whined that they didn’t want to eat, while the older child soothed his siblings and forced food into their mouths.

I stared blankly at this scene and whispered, forgetting my disguise.

“Captain Himmel. What are those people eating?”

“I’m not sure.”

What was in the pot looked like some kind of stew. The only unusual thing was that what was inside didn’t appear to be ordinary vegetables.

It looked like they’d chopped up some kind of long root and boiled it thoroughly.

That alone wouldn’t be particularly suspicious, but the problem was that all the family members were grimacing as if it tasted absolutely terrible.

At least the mother seemed conscious of the children as she attempted awkward acting.

“Ah, it’s delicious. Come on, one more bite, ahh.”

But the older child’s face grew more sour with each bite, and the smaller children gagged and spat it out, only to get smacked on the back and start sniffling.

‘Are they picking up and eating just anything because they’re hungry? But why force themselves to eat something so unpalatable? Why?’

It was too suspicious to just pass by. I looked at the house with no place to knock and tapped on the wall.

“Excuse me.”

I could see the family startle in surprise.

When I pulled back the blanket and entered the house, the mother who had bolted upright spread her arms wide and pushed the children behind her back.

“There’s nothing here. Anything worth money has already been sold. So just leave.”

Her tone was firm, but the woman’s body was already trembling. Enough to make me feel sorry for her.

I maintained an expressionless face to avoid agitating the woman and pointed at the dining table.

“What are you eating?”

“Th-that’s……”

“What business is it of yours, mister!”

While the woman was flustered, the older son stepped forward in her place. The woman turned pale and grabbed the child’s arm, pulling him into her embrace.

“Hey, stay still!”

“It’s not really any of my business.”

I shrugged and spoke in a rough tone.

“But it seems like quite an unusual stew, so I’m curious. What’s in it? It’s not ordinary vegetables, and from the looks of it, it seems like something brought from the mountains. What happens if you go into the mountains right now?”

Both the woman and boy’s faces turned white simultaneously.

I growled in my practiced voice, making threatening sounds.

“If you don’t want to be dragged away by soldiers, you’d better tell the truth.”

“Mom, I’ll get the knife. While he’s not looking, from behind……”

The boy grabbed the woman’s skirt and whispered. He covered his mouth thinking I couldn’t hear him, but of course I could see everything.

‘Was I too harsh?’

Feeling both sorry and guilty, I softened my voice a little.

“Don’t do anything dangerous, kid.”

Then I rummaged in my pocket and pulled out a 500-pelt bill.

“I’m not trying to harm you. I’m just curious about what that stew is that you’re eating so desperately. If you tell me, I’ll give you this.”

The woman looked back and forth between the bill and me in surprise. Hetzen didn’t seem to have collapsed to the point where currency was worthless yet.

“Oh, I understand. But you can’t tell anyone else.”

“Of course.”

***

“It’s really nothing special. The children brought some roots from the mountain and we put a little in.”

“Just that? Why did you bring roots in the first place?”

Sitting around the dining table listening to the story, I peered at the stew in front of me. The woman had ladled out a bowl for me, saying to have some, but it didn’t look particularly appetizing.

The boy who had put the surprised siblings to bed came back and added to the explanation.

“We went to the mountains recently. The rations are really just a pittance, you know. When we begged saying it wasn’t enough, they wouldn’t give us more. Anyway, so we went to the mountains to pick berries or something. Besides us, lots of people secretly go there. The men hunt and stuff. But that day, someone had already picked everything clean, so we went into places without paths too.

Then we saw some Schufaben bast—I mean, people. At first I thought they were soldiers. Usually they don’t come that way because they’re guarding the mines.

But it seemed like a big problem, so I hid and watched, and they didn’t really seem like soldiers. Their clothes were all different, for one thing. Some wore white coats, others wore all black clothes.

They seemed to be planting something in the ground. Talking among themselves about something. When I looked closely, it was some weird-looking roots, so I thought they must be edible since they were planting them.

That day I was scared so I ran away first, but the next day when I went near that area, they had planted tons of those roots. So I pulled up a few and brought them back.”

“When the child brought back a plant I’d never seen before, I was worried it might be dangerous, so I just put them in the cupboard. But one day the rations didn’t come properly, and we were so hungry……”

The woman hung her head deeply as if she’d committed a crime. Well, it is a crime from the Supreme Leader’s lackeys’ perspective.

‘The guys in black clothes are obviously either Ferint or Ossel. The white coats? Doctors? Researchers? Probably researchers. But what’s so special about this plant……’

I absentmindedly picked up a piece of root with the spoon I’d been stirring the pale stew with and ate it.

“Blech!”

I immediately spat it out.

“Wh-why would you eat something so disgusting! No matter how hungry you are!”

I was so appalled that I slammed down my spoon and demanded an answer, causing the woman to shrink back.

“I-I’m sorry!”

“Eating that makes you not hungry! You don’t know anything!”

The boy got angry seeing his mother trembling and shouted at me.

“It makes you not hungry?”

“Ah…… this child is right.”

The woman nodded.

“It tastes really bad, but after eating the roots, you don’t feel hungry anymore.”

“It’s not just because your stomach gets full from eating something, right?”

“No. It’s a little different from that feeling. How should I put it, it makes your mind sharp. It makes you feel good too, and oh, sometimes your body feels itchy.”

‘What?!’

I stared at the woman with a dumbfounded expression.

‘Doesn’t this have drug components?’

Brain getting sharp, feeling good, forgetting hunger, body feeling itchy.

Those are exactly drug symptoms.

‘Should I try experimenting……’

I suddenly felt curious. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but looking at the two people before me, it didn’t seem particularly harmful.

“Well, that’s quite surprising.”

I tried to pick up another root to eat. But then, Captain Himmel sitting beside me turned and knocked my hand away.

Clang!

“Ah, sorry.”

The captain apologized as if it was an accident and picked up the spoon for me.

‘Right, what was I thinking.’

Whether it’s drugs or not, what if it’s a deadly poison if you eat too much? I came to my senses and stood up from my seat.

“I understand. Thank you for answering honestly.”

“No, we should thank you. Um, this story……”

“Of course I won’t tell anyone, so don’t worry.”

The woman visibly relaxed.

“Instead, you should stop eating this. Most importantly, if those Schufaben soldiers find out, they won’t just let it slide. The smell is terrible, so it’ll be hard to hide.”

“But……”

“If you need food, use this.”

I held out a bundle of bills.

“Th-thank you.”

“No need to thank me. I’m sorry for barging in during your meal time. Um, but.”

I looked at the boy and met his eyes.

“Will you show me where it is?”

***

I hadn’t planned to interfere. I just needed to see it with my own eyes.

“And leave evidence like this behind.”

I sat on a tree stump, examining the unknown plant.

At first glance, it looked like ginseng or something similar. Red flowers, multiple leaves, white elongated roots.

“Wow…… but this really is like a secret garden.”

My voice barely came out because I was tired, so I wheezed as I muttered.

It had already gotten dark, making it very difficult to find the path the boy had described. Without Captain Himmel, someone with my poor stamina would have gotten lost halfway.

But following the landmarks the boy had told us about, we were able to confirm a particularly lush green corner just as he’d said.

A space cleverly surrounded by trees, bushes, and rocks. I’d wondered if Ossel or Ferint would be standing guard, but no one was watching.

Passing through the rock crevices and between the tree shadows, I found leveled earth and furrows.

Whether it was the Supreme Leader’s orders or not, they had secretly created a field here and were growing suspicious plants.

‘There’s nothing I can do right now, so for the time being.’

I had pulled up one of these ginseng-like things from the edge of the field where it would be least noticeable.

I should keep it safe—it might come in handy someday.

“Now we need to get down before someone comes. Captain Himmel, would you mind carrying me? I absolutely can’t move.”

Captain Himmel stoically bent down.

“Get on.”

“Just kidding!”

I giggled and waved my hand, but an hour later it wasn’t a joke anymore. I had slipped on the damp earth and tumbled.