9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 128 - Johann (2)

While recovering in the hospital, the year changed.

Many things happened during that time.

First, Johann paid for the boy’s hospital bills.

When he first learned that the boy was working for an absurdly small amount of money, that gentle child became so furious.

“This is ridiculous! You work so hard for so little! All that backbreaking work and it’s not even my weekly allowance!”

The boy quietly watched Johann, whose neck veins were bulging.

“Something’s wrong with this. Just wait a bit, I’ll fix it.”

Pure worry and passion could be seen in his eyes. The boy listened with one ear and let it flow out the other, thinking indifferently.

‘Once he encounters the filth he can’t handle, he’ll cool off immediately.’

Just like his stepmother had.

After pondering various things, Johann informed his parents and asked for help.

The elderly couple, who owned several businesses, granted their son’s wish. Soon the adults could no longer beat the boy or withhold his wages.

“See, sincerity gets through after all. Don’t just suffer alone in silence—speak up.”

At Johann’s cheerful words, the boy merely rested his chin on his hand and nodded.

Without correcting Johann’s absurd belief that good results came from him and his parents going around asking the neighbors for favors.

After that, the boy’s life became easier.

The days when he was treated to meals at Johann’s house or even stayed overnight increased.

Once his nutrition was adequate, he began to grow taller. Every night he suffered from growing pains, lying on his shabby bed massaging his calves.

The cuts and bruises covering his body healed, and his hair regained its luster.

The superior genetic makeup inherited from his paternal side hadn’t gone anywhere.

The boy gradually grew into a blonde handsome youth who was the spitting image of his father.

Enough for the adults who had ignored and despised him to look at him with new eyes. And enough for lustful women to secretly slip him bundles of money while making secret requests.

Of course, the boy politely declined. It was disgusting, and more than anything, he didn’t want to get stabbed by the women’s husbands or lovers.

Johann grew similarly tall and gradually began to take on proper features.

The two came to resemble each other in hair color, height, and facial features. Enough that anyone might mistake them for brothers.

However, there was no one who couldn’t distinguish between the brightly smiling Johann and the perpetually expressionless boy.

***

“I’ve been thinking.”

One day, Johann suddenly spoke up while they were reading books together in the mansion’s study.

The boy put down the thick academic text and leaned back in his armchair, looking at him.

When the elderly couple bought the mansion, they also purchased some of the furniture that had been there, and this armchair was among them.

The chair the boy had often used before. The seat still had faint stains from a drink he had spilled long ago.

“Couldn’t you really live at our house? That, um, that cabin you’re living in now is too cramped and cold.”

From around the time the boy’s broken ribs had fully healed, Johann often said absurd things.

The boy’s answer was always the same.

“Ask your parents.”

“They just smiled when I asked. But I should ask again. Mother! I have something to tell you!”

Watching Johann’s retreating figure as he hurried away, the boy tried to suppress his increasingly hopeful heart.

‘Don’t expect anything.’

No matter how virtuous the elderly couple might be, they were adults who had no relation to him whatsoever.

While it was common enough for a son’s friend to come over for meals and baths, living together was entirely different…

Even so, he couldn’t help feeling excited at the thought of living in this house again.

‘The human heart is truly fickle.’

That night.

He woke up needing to use the bathroom. As he quietly got out of bed, Johann also stirred and sat up.

“Going to the bathroom? I want to get some water.”

Walking barefoot down the cold hallway carefully to avoid disturbing the light-sleeping elderly couple, they noticed light and voices coming from the couple’s bedroom.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s too rude.”

“Huh? Why aren’t you sleeping—”

“Shh.”

The boy covered Johann’s mouth and pressed against the wall. Mrs. Werner’s shadow moving back and forth wavered into the hallway.

“Did you see that child’s eyes? He looked like he really expected us to grant Johann’s wish. My goodness! He should know his place.”

“Adoption is quite a presumptuous wish.”

“At first I dismissed it as a joke, but now it won’t do. I’m getting anxious about Johann associating with such a child…”

“The boy seems good-natured and hardworking. Telling them to break off their friendship might hurt Johann.”

“Who said to cut it off immediately? We need to explain it properly. Johann will be a high school student soon. It’s time for him to develop discernment. And dear, didn’t you hear that story?”

“What, about how his mother was affiliated with the revolutionaries? That’s old news.”

At Mr. Werner’s words, Mrs. Werner lowered her voice. The boy and Johann held their breath and pricked up their ears.

“No, that the child killed his own parents!”

“What are you talking about? They were clearly executed on Supreme Leader’s orders—”

“Dear! Don’t carelessly mention His Excellency. Haah, that’s not what I mean. That child reported his parents to Ossel. There was a bounty on revolutionaries at one time, wasn’t there?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“Even if it’s just a rumor, isn’t it unsettling? He might have been too young to understand, but at twelve he knew what he was doing. After watching his parents die, what kind of feelings must he have harbored? Until now I let it slide because I felt sorry for him being friends with Johann, but…”

“Alright, alright. If you’re that worried, I’ll talk to Johann.”

“Thank you, dear.”

The rustling sounds of the elderly couple preparing for bed could be heard. The boy quietly slipped away and stepped backward.

Johann was looking at him with complex eyes.

After they each took care of business and returned to bed, Johann, who had been silent for a while, spoke up.

“Are you asleep?”

“No.”

“…I’m sorry. I didn’t know Mother had such a misunderstanding. I’ll explain it properly.”

“Be quiet. Don’t say a word about this. And from tomorrow, don’t meet with me anymore.”

“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“That’s not important. This is a world where people’s beliefs become truth.”

Johann didn’t seem to understand the boy’s words.

No, he definitely didn’t understand. The next day, when the boy decisively kept his distance, Johann actually came to the abandoned house where the boy lived a few days later.

“Father told me it would be better not to associate with you, so I said I understood. But I’ll come visit like this sometimes. There aren’t many people around here, so we won’t get caught.”

The boy tried to dissuade him, but Johann was stubborn.

At least two or three times a month, he would secretly visit and play before leaving.

Though “playing” just meant reading books he brought, so it wasn’t much different from playing alone.

He even bought various things with his allowance and left them there, so after about a year, the desolate abandoned house became a comfortable space too nice to be called abandoned anymore.

And on a spring night when they were sixteen.

The night when both their fates became twisted.

That day too, Johann was visiting the boy’s house as the sun was setting. Since it was near a small forest, it was quite dark, and there were no streetlights on the path.

When he entered the road, he saw someone stumbling drunk among the trees.

A notorious thug that the villagers had started avoiding. Famous for harassing everyone regardless of age or gender, and rumored to have some backing that even the police couldn’t touch.

He spotted the hesitating Johann and approached, grabbing his shoulder.

“Gasp!”

“I’ve been waiting a long time. Let’s really have some fun today. Damn, how long have I been holding back.”

“Wh-what…!”

The strong smell of alcohol and cigarettes wafting from the thug. As the sticky touch was felt, goosebumps rose all over his body.

“Hehe, you’re the spitting image of your old man.”

“I’m not him! I’m not!”

Johann, who was struggling desperately with him, fell onto the rotting leaves. Faced with the merciless, strong hands tearing at his shirt, terror washed over him.

The thug was clearly confusing Johann with the boy.

“Help me!”

While being strangled and struggling, Johann’s fingertips touched something bumpy.

When the boy came running after hearing the scream, the thug was already collapsed.

And Johann, trembling while holding a fist-sized rock stained with blood and brain matter.

The boy, who had calmly surveyed the surroundings, forcibly pulled Johann up and hoisted the man’s corpse onto his shoulders.

“We need to dig, so hurry.”

“D-dig?”

“Would you rather go to the police station?”

Johann, who had been shaking as if an earthquake had hit, eventually nodded tearfully.

“Help me…”

“Alright.”

The two buried the corpse in the forest behind the abandoned house.

While washing Johann’s exhausted clothes and removing the bloodstains, the boy said,

“It’s fortunate I was the first to find out. From now on, if anything happens, tell me. Don’t go to anyone else and get yourself in trouble.”

“Mm-hmm, thank you.”

Looking at Johann’s dazed face, the boy thought it really did resemble the face in the mirror.

After that incident, Johann trusted the boy like an older brother.

Yes, so that spring night was a great gain for the boy.

***

Their secret meetings, which weren’t really secret meetings, continued.

Until Johann became a high school student and the boy grew strong enough to handle quite a lot of work.

Unlike Johann, who remained naively innocent, the boy began making life plans.

It was a sure gamble, a step beyond his previous level of ‘save money and escape to the city!’

And in the summer when they were eighteen.

“Th-this is terrible! Mother and Father!”

Late at night, awakened by pounding on the door, the boy looked at Johann, who had turned pale and was babbling incoherently.

Just yesterday, they had been happily talking about which university to attend and whether they could still meet after going to university, but now he was trembling madly in confusion.

“The Ossel took Mother and Father away. Some rebellion charge, they said I reported them, but I don’t know what they mean, so, I mean…!”

“Calm down.”

After handing him a glass of water, the boy calmly asked:

“Did anyone see you coming here?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Let’s run.”

“What?”

“Do you want to be dragged away by Ossel and die?”

“No!”

Johann shook his head frantically in terror.

“Then let’s go.”

The boy and Johann ran through the night. Using all the money the boy had saved and emptying Johann’s wallet, they bought train tickets and chartered a boat.

“What do we do now? We’re going abroad.”

Facing the cold sea breeze, Johann looked at the boy with a gloomy, frightened expression.

“Will Mother and Father be safe?”

“Who knows.”

At the boy’s dry answer, Johann smiled faintly.

“At least I’m glad you’re here. Thank you, friend.”

“Yeah.”

The boy withdrew his hand from his pocket. The next moment, Johann’s eyes widened as he grasped his spurting throat with both hands.

“Guh…urk!”

The boy kicked him without hesitation. Johann, who had been standing at the bow, tumbled over the railing toward the sea.

Until Johann disappeared with a splash, still wearing that expression of disbelief, the boy quietly watched him.

“Haha, hahahaha!”

Then laughter burst out. For the first time in his life, violent laughter.

The boy, lying on the deck and laughing wildly, closed his eyes while looking up at Johann’s identification.

“Poor thing? You’re the one who’s pitiful, Johann Werner.”

The boy—no, the young man—muttered.

***

“Lieutenant Colonel! Are you awake?”

Faint sunlight stung his eyes.

As he slowly lifted his eyelids, First Lieutenant Philip Decker, with one arm in a bandage, was looking down at him with concern.

“The hospital.”

He tried to say, but his voice wouldn’t come out properly. Philip quickly brought a water cup to his lips.

While drinking the water, he felt his mind gradually becoming clearer.

After being imprisoned in the underground dungeon of Supreme Leader’s residence and losing consciousness, he had dreamed for a long time.

“Reporting your parents, what impressive loyalty! Your appearance passes too. Great expectations, Johann Werner.”

The words the Ossel interviewer had said.

“Save me, I’ll never defy you again, I won’t! Please, please, Johann!”

And the screams Finn Schäfer had made while dying, never realizing his true identity until the end.

It was a dream where all sorts of memories were jumbled together, but the feeling wasn’t bad.

Because it was all in the past now.

Because all the villagers who had mistreated him had disappeared, starting with Finn Schäfer, and he had survived.

‘Yes, me alone.’

Probably countless blood stains were on his hands. But Johann believed in neither heaven nor hell.

“Report.”

When he spoke after a long while, Philip snapped to attention.

“Reporting! White Raven Order chose to disband voluntarily, and Supreme Leader accepted their decision and released Major General Lucas Redan and you, Lieutenant Colonel! You are scheduled for promotion to the highest position in Ossel, and Major General Lucas Redan is scheduled for promotion to western front commander!”

“Things worked out well.”

“Major General Lucas Redan asked to be notified when you woke up!”

“I see.”

Lieutenant Colonel Johann Werner twisted his lips into a smile.