9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 153 - Idiots and Fools (1)

“It’s been a while.”

Richard’s false smile was still kind, warm yet hollow, but he looked tired somehow.

“……”

I couldn’t say anything and just stared at him blankly.

A cold wind blew once, rustling Richard’s white coat that was covered in bloodstains. He squinted slightly at the bitter cold.

I had dismissed Captain Alina Himmel and dragged Richard straight up to the hospital rooftop.

The rooftop garden created for wealthy patients was desolate. Yellow dead grass and fallen, withered flower petals. I guess they didn’t have time to maintain it.

“I’m busy right now, so if you don’t have anything to say—”

“Richard, you.”

His calm voice suddenly brought me to my senses. I quietly fumbled in my pocket and pulled out a cigarette. Leaning against the railing, I turned my head to the opposite side and lit it.

He was a non-smoker, Richard.

“I didn’t expect to see you here. Did you volunteer for military service?”

Richard, standing upright in contrast to me, shook his head.

“How could that be. I was dragged here.”

“Dragged? You mean you were conscripted?”

“Yes.”

I glared at the cigarette that was already half burned out. Inhaling the nicotine seemed to clear my mind a little.

“When?”

“July 6th last year.”

“July 6th, 1903……”

I rolled the date around in my mouth, then suddenly jerked my head up.

“That’s even before Kruger declared war! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!”

“When would I have had the time?”

Richard smiled briefly out of habit. I traced through my memories for a moment.

July 6th, July 6th.

What happened that day?

“Ah.”

Soon a dumbfounded sigh escaped my lips.

“Of all days?”

“To be precise, July 11th. When I returned home, there was a notice stuck in my mailbox. The postmark was July 6th.”

As I listened to Richard’s words, I muttered the dates like a madman.

“July 6th.”

That night, I killed Lieutenant General Kaiser and robbed the National Research Institute.

“7th.”

Dragged away by Kruger and locked in an underground prison.

“11th.”

Official dissolution of the White Raven Order. Thanks to that, I was released just before dying.

“12th.”

I came to my senses. The day I had a tearful melodrama with my White Raven Order friends. Richard left us.

“15th.”

Kruger declared war on the entire continent. I went to the 1st Field Army Command…….

“Fucking hell.”

All the confused memories from that chaotic time lined up in order. A curse slipped out from my frustration.

Looking back, it really was a period when all sorts of things came crashing down at once. So naturally, I didn’t know about it.

At the time, the White Raven Order was paralyzed and their information network had stopped, and even Richard himself didn’t hear about the conscription notice on time.

When he found out, it was already…….

What exquisite timing.

Of course Kruger didn’t intend it. It just happened to align perfectly by sheer coincidence.

‘No, no, that’s not what’s important right now. Not some coincidence like that. No matter how perfectly things aligned.’

I stubbed out the cigarette and shook my head vigorously. I felt bad asking this right after meeting him, but.

“Is that why you left? The reason you cut us off was because of the conscription notice? Because you were going to be dragged to war?”

“No.”

But Richard flatly denied it.

“It might be more accurate to say I seized the opportunity. I always wanted to quit anyway. But I was actually conscripted in December.”

“……A month ago.”

One more bomb was added to my jumbled, messed-up head.

“Kruger knew.”

He had already anticipated before the war that military doctors would be in short supply and he’d have to mobilize civilian doctors.

The plan to inject soldiers with canil, the side effects, the repercussions from that.

He would have naturally considered all possibilities and prepared for them. That’s just like Kruger.

But sending the notice in July and conscripting in December—the fact that a doctor who was normally practicing was actually dragged to war—

“The canil distribution won’t end with just once. He’ll grind up more troops going forward. No, he’s anticipating that situations will arise where he’ll have to grind them up. Now all that’s left are the southern island nations and Rubellia, and beyond that……”

As I frowned and muttered, I suddenly noticed Richard trembling slightly from the cold. Come to think of it, my hands were so frozen I couldn’t straighten my fingers.

“Are you done talking?”

“Ha.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

“Sorry for keeping you in the cold. Should we go warm up by a fire somewhere?”

“No.”

“How cold. Weren’t you even curious if I was doing alright in the war? No, you must have known I was here as a commander but didn’t even contact me.”

“There was no reason to.”

Even when I deliberately acted clingy, Richard politely brushed me off.

“No reason? But we were friends, weren’t we?”

“Friends?”

Richard tilted his head as if genuinely puzzled.

“Were we?”

“Haha, fine, let’s say we weren’t friends. But we were comrades, right? Fellow revolutionary fighters.”

“Once upon a time.”

“Then.”

My voice was trembling faintly in a contrived way.

“You really aren’t coming back? To the White Raven Order.”

“No.”

“Those times meant nothing to you?”

“No.”

“Was it only painful?”

“That’s not it.”

Richard’s voice was extremely calm and gentle.

“Then why did you join the White Raven Order in the first place?”

I’d always been curious about this. How a man with no anger toward Kruger or passion for reform had gotten involved in such work. Just because Erika pushed him into it?

“Who knows.”

Richard’s freckled face, smiling innocently, looked truly honest and straightforward.

“I did what I could do. Because it was the best I could manage. Just like now.”

“A sense of duty? You always acted that way? Your calling as a doctor, your calling as a human being.”

“……”

Richard tilted his head at an angle.

“Does there have to be something like that?”

I looked into his eyes.

“How about I pull some strings as a commander? I could transfer you to the rear.”

“No need.”

“You’re not bothered by war at all.”

“No.”

I quietly closed my mouth. Richard was still Richard. He’d probably be an iron wall until the day he dies.

‘Damn, I’m acting like some clingy, obsessive guy.’

What would change by making a fuss telling him to come back.

Richard had never had any affection for the White Raven Order, not from the beginning, not from the time we first met.

It was just interesting that we ran into each other in a place like this battlefield, so I got a little overexcited, but the situation hasn’t changed at all from back then.

‘This is disgusting. Well, what’s the point of holding onto someone who’s leaving.’

I completely gave up.

“Alright, alright. Doctor, you should head back inside now. Go get some sleep or take care of patients or whatever. Anyway, it was good to see you.”

“It was good to see you too. Well then.”

Making lies that wouldn’t fool anyone, Richard turned and left the rooftop. I fiddled with the frozen railing and pulled out another cigarette while grumbling complaints.

“Ha, really. The men in this neighborhood are all so dry and boring. Johann too, and Richard, and Damier. It’s like a drought warning—they’re terrifyingly parched. Maybe the Schufaben region has bad feng shui……”

My memories with Richard disappeared cleanly along with the cigarette smoke.

Looking up at the twinkling stars in the clear sky, I organized the new deductions and information in my head piece by piece.

That’s about how much value my reunion with an old comrade left behind.

“Long live our Great Supreme Leader! New orders have arrived from the homeland! The 1st Field Army Command is now to merge with the 2nd Field Army Command and take charge of the Rubellia front’s eastern theater according to our Supreme Leader’s instructions!”

The fact that I wasn’t surprised by the news Deputy Commander Eisler announced so loudly. I had already anticipated it from my conversation with Richard.

Just about that much.

***

Ring-a-ling-a-ling!

The day at the 2nd Airship Assembly Factory always began with the frivolous and noisy bell.

Workers had to change into work clothes in the changing room and find their places in front of the conveyor belts.

For some time now, one more procedure had been inserted into that process.

“Everyone here? No one absent?”

Oscar, who came out of the supervisor’s break room, called out cheerfully and brightly as always.

Workers in work clothes lined up in the corridor in front of the changing room. They had been chattering among themselves but quieted down when they heard Oscar’s voice.

After finishing the headcount, Oscar held out the basket in his hand.

“Come on, you know the drill! One bottle per person! Be careful not to accidentally break them!”

At that moment, the workers’ eyes gleamed. They scrambled and even fought each other to grab the medicine bottles, then downed the medicine without hesitation.

“Kyah!”

“As expected, I can feel the strength surging, the strength is surging!”

“No problems today either!”

“Just drinking this makes all the hunger disappear!”

Oscar turned around with a laugh, “Hahaha.”

“Well, I’ll go take care of business and be back, so everyone wait in formation!”

The factory bathroom was absolutely terrible. Yellow-stained grime covered the walls, and it was thick with cigarette smoke like a raccoon den.

“Hey, Fisher!”

“Good morning!”

Oscar waved back to his fellow supervisor’s greeting and went into a narrow stall.

“Seriously, what a pervert. What? Drinking while taking a shit makes it taste better? I feel like throwing up.”

Between the sounds of relieving himself, he could hear his cigarette-smoking colleague’s grumbling voice.

“Hey, precisely speaking, it’s before taking a shit! This helps with digestion. It makes my stomach feel really comfortable.”

Oscar calmly retorted while slowly pouring the medicine down the toilet.

“Why don’t you shit at home?”

“What can I do when it comes out best here? I guess I’m destined to leave my bones at this factory.”

“You attach all kinds of bullshit to taking a dump. Seriously crazy bastard. Hack, ptui!”

His colleague jokingly teased while spitting on the floor.

‘Ugh, disgusting guy.’

Oscar frowned but flushed the toilet and came out with the empty medicine bottle. He had to return the bottle. They said it was all factory property.

“As expected, another refreshing bowel movement this morning~!”

When he called out cheerfully, his colleague giggled and put his arm around Oscar’s shoulder.

A little later, as Oscar led the workers to the work area, the contents he would secretly record after work were steadily accumulating in his mind.

‘As expected, compared to the intravenous injection method, the addiction seems less severe. There are side effects of course, but they’re not intense yet. According to Erika’s father’s records, the effects should appear 10 hours after administration, but honestly it feels like it takes less than 4 hours now. Are they continuing to improve it? But it’s too early to feel relieved……’

From the day the factory manager suddenly brought canil calling it a ‘tonic,’ the workers began working with tremendous efficiency.

Medicine bottles were distributed to supervisors daily. Exactly matching the number of workers they were responsible for.

The factory manager threatened that if even one bottle was diverted or stolen, he’d immediately report them to Ossel.

So all Oscar could do was secretly reduce the amounts little by little and carefully observe and record the workers’ conditions.

Using the secret passage Lucas had told him about to infiltrate the factory and tamper with the medicine bottles stored in the warehouse.

Opening each bottle, pouring a little down the drain and mixing in water to dilute it.

Press the cap down firmly to reseal it and slip out of the building avoiding the guards, and that’s it!

It sounds simple when he says it like that, but it was work that came with tremendous tension. Wearing a mask to cover his nose and mouth and trying not to breathe as much as possible, he did this every night.

That’s why Oscar’s complexion had turned deathly black recently.

“Hey Fisher! What’s with that expression? Didn’t sleep well again today?”

Enough that his colleagues asked with genuine concern.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Answering half-heartedly, Oscar headed toward the work area.

‘I’m tired.’

But there was no other way.

If he openly prevented them from taking it or diverted it, he’d be fired immediately, and he might even face physical retaliation.

Lucas or Daniel would probably come up with some brilliant idea, but Oscar wasn’t smart enough for that.

So for now, this was the only way. At least it would make the workers get addicted a little more slowly.

But even watered-down medicine was still medicine, so the workers praised canil, saying their whole bodies surged with vitality and they felt less hungry. There were many who clung to supervisors trying to get even one more bottle.

“I want to give it to my starving daughter! And my wife too!”

Today was the same.

At quitting time, a middle-aged worker much older than him took Oscar to a corner of the work area saying he had something to discuss, and pleaded.

His bloodshot eyes were red and inflamed. It was a canil side effect.

Oscar suppressed a sigh that wanted to escape and deliberately scolded him.

“Shut up! Didn’t you hear what the factory manager said?! This kind of solicitation is also a crime! If you spout this nonsense one more time, you’re dead!”

Only then did the worker seem startled, bow his head low, and leave.

The talk about daughter and wife was 99% lies. He probably wanted to drink it himself. Or sell it.

“Hoamm……”

“Why don’t you go get some sleep, Fisher? Give me that chip.”

At night, he always played card games with his colleagues at the underground gambling den. When Oscar yawned deeply, one of his colleagues giggled.

“No, I can’t do that! Today I’m definitely going to win, really win!”

Oscar cheerfully shot back while throwing a card onto the table.

He showed his face at the gambling den cutting into his sleep time to gather information.

With Richard gone, Lucas at war, and Daniel in the Great Desert, he couldn’t see Erika and Georg very often either.

But that made Oscar burn with a sense of mission. No, something like an obsession that he had to obtain every piece of information, no matter how trivial.

“How about a drink? I heard it really wakes you up.”

When Oscar rubbed his sleepy eyes, another colleague asked innocently.

“What, whiskey? Idiot, that makes you sleepier, not more awake.”

“No, not that. Canil, I think it was.”

“Where’d you get that?”

Oscar’s eyes snapped open as he looked at him.

“The owner here sells it bit by bit.”

The answer came back nonchalantly.

Oscar reflexively covered his nose while quickly scanning the dark interior of the gambling den.

Finally he could see glass bottles scattered here and there.

That’s right.

Just as addiction symptoms were gradually appearing among supervisors and workers despite Oscar’s efforts.

The more the factory manager made threats, the more active the canil smuggling and black market sales became.

‘Ah, maybe the factory manager is the one selling it.’

And maybe the Supreme Leader was encouraging this kind of phenomenon.

While distributing hundreds of thousands of bottles of canil to various factories and companies, he couldn’t have failed to anticipate results like this.

‘Damn.’

Oscar barely suppressed the urge to grind his teeth in anger.

Kruger was slowly addicting all of Schufaben.