9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 154 - Idiots and Fools (2)

Nearly a month had already passed since the dawn of the new year of 1904.

The executive office on the top floor of the Redan Company building. The massive window that occupied one entire wall was completely covered with pure white snowflakes.

Erika Brightner, who had been diligently moving her fountain pen while seated at her desk, suddenly raised her head to gaze at the beautiful snow-covered scenery of District 13’s shopping district.

“It must be very cold.”

A soft whisper settled into the warm room.

Unlike here, the battlefield would be facing harsh, bitter cold. The snow falling from the sky would appear not as crystalline beauty, but as hateful waste.

“Lucas.”

There was a hint of tenderness in Erika’s voice, though it remained as cold as always.

Two weeks had passed since Lucas’s last letter arrived. The newspapers and radio broadcasts cheerfully proclaimed the fall of Pontinell, but Lucas’s letter was filled with false cheer and undeniable melancholy.

Having to look at corpses and count numbers every day—honestly, she thought it would be impossible to remain unaffected.

But sadly, that was the path everyone in the White Raven Order had chosen.

“I need to work hard at everything.”

Erika, who had momentarily fallen into sentimentality, shook her head and buried her face back in the paperwork.

The desk calendar was densely packed with a month’s worth of appointments.

She needed to meet with Oscar and Georg soon, and Namir would be coming at the end of January. She should also visit Bletter.

As she was systematically organizing company business and White Raven Order affairs in her mind, she heard knocking from outside.

“Come in.”

An elf half-blood secretary who showed no trace of her heritage bowed respectfully.

“Managing Director. I think you need to come take a look at something.”

“Yes. What is it?”

Erika asked while putting on her coat.

“One of our employees overheard a conversation among some applicants just now. It’s a family consisting of parents and children, but there are some suspicious circumstances…”

“The applicant’s name?”

“The Schiller family. The father who applied as the representative is Ernst Schiller.”

Erika’s footsteps stopped abruptly. Silence descended upon the elegantly decorated corridor.

“…Ernst?”

“Schiller.”

Erika returned to her office and examined the documents on her desk. Flipping through the applicant list page by page, she was able to find it.

“Professor Schiller.”

A bewildered voice escaped her lips.

***

“I heard there are really as many applicants as the rumors say. What if we’re rejected? They say over ten thousand people have already crossed over to the Great Desert…”

“Don’t worry, dear. I’ll do my best somehow.”

Ernst Schiller took his anxious wife’s wrinkled hand and patted her shoulder.

The waiting room prepared for applicants before interviews was clean and cozy, but somehow felt uncomfortable.

“Father, do we really have to go to the Great Desert?”

“I want to become a soldier like my older brother.”

“Are there airships in the desert too? What about horses?”

“You children! Father has thought deeply about this, so be quiet for a moment.”

His wife scolded the children who were whining without understanding the ways of the world.

“Number 153, please come in.”

When the number was called, a shabby family with children trailing behind them hurried out of the room.

Schiller looked at the number in his hand.

At this rate, it seemed his turn wouldn’t come for a week, let alone today.

So it was true that Redan Company employees had been busy conducting interviews all month long.

As he waited anxiously for his turn, suddenly an employee entered and called out to him.

“Is Mr. Ernst Schiller here? Please come out for a moment. Your family as well.”

While he was bewildered, the rest of his family was sent somewhere else, and Schiller was led up to the top floor. When he entered the room with the golden nameplate, he saw a familiar face.

“It’s been a long time, Professor.”

His former student, Erika Brightner, offered a light greeting.

“Coffee? Tea? What would you like?”

“I’ll have coffee.”

The appearance of his student, so drastically changed, made him feel awkward and unable to find a place to rest his eyes.

Soon an employee brought coffee and disappeared, but Erika did not speak. Unable to bear the restlessness, Schiller cleared his throat to break the silence.

“Ahem, ahem! Director Brightner. It’s been a long time. To think you’ve become an executive of such a large company—as your teacher, I’m proud of you. I’m always amazed by your achievements. Ah, I should have attended your father’s funeral…”

“Please speak comfortably, Professor.”

“I couldn’t do that. Even though we had a teacher-student relationship, you’ve become a proper member of society now.”

Erika smiled slightly. It was an expression completely unimaginable from her student days, when she had always worn a cold expression and was somewhat ostracized.

“You truly are a person of character, Professor.”

“But Director, do you have something to tell me? Why did you call me here like this…”

“I’d like to ask you something, Professor. Why would someone as successful as you apply? The Great Desert environment is harsh, and the physical labor is more demanding than you can imagine.”

“That is, I found myself in a position where I had to leave my teaching post.”

“Someone who was presenting papers at academic conferences until last month?”

“…!”

At Erika’s suddenly cold expression, Schiller’s breath caught. Erika rose from the sofa and looked down at him.

“I’ll ask directly, Professor Schiller. You said a conscription order would be issued, didn’t you? That you needed to escape quickly. What did you mean by that?”

Sharp eyes shot toward him as if they would pierce right through Schiller.

In that moment, Schiller felt as if he had traveled back seven years.

The stately buildings of Lüdelheim Comprehensive University. That day when he had faced the fresh-faced political science freshman Erika Brightner in his professor’s office.

“I believe Supreme Leader’s teachings are not perfect.”

The image of the twenty-year-old freshman speaking each word with emphasis overlapped with the twenty-seven-year-old cold-blooded businesswoman now radiating an overwhelming presence before his eyes.

That’s why Schiller was able to make the decision of a lifetime.

“…Director. Could you trust me?”

Erika slowly sat back down. Her expression had become calm, as if she had never emanated that ice-cold, sharp energy.

“Please tell me.”

Schiller waited patiently as he finished his coffee to the last drop.

“A wartime general mobilization order will soon be issued in Schufaben.”

He whispered with a voice filled with fear.

***

Ernst Schiller, 49 years old.

His had been an utterly ordinary life. At least, that’s what he thought of himself.

Born into a chaotic era where all sorts of ideologies ran rampant, he naturally became interested in continental politics and social systems, and naturally entered the political science department.

However, he was not a political person at all. He had no special dreams or talents.

He only knew how to protect himself and remain appropriately silent.

That kind of mediocre life.

After graduating from university, when the republican revolution broke out, he quietly devoted himself to research and smoothly became a professor after passing ideological screening.

He continued his lectures, always inconspicuous and hidden, delivering old-fashioned, theory-heavy content that wouldn’t get him persecuted by any faction.

When Friedrich Kruger staged his coup and forced his trashy philosophy on scholars, he inwardly rebelled but outwardly complied obediently.

His lectures consistently ranked first among courses that political science seniors advised juniors against taking. But other lectures weren’t much different.

Everyone had no choice but to parrot Kruger’s ideology and teach outdated theories.

When you’re a professor of ‘political science’—a field sensitive to current trends—and want to avoid being criticized by Ossel, that’s inevitably what happens.

Naturally, students’ enthusiasm hit rock bottom, and the political science department gradually became a place where people entered seeking connections and advancement rather than study.

Schiller thought he would remain such an ordinary professor and live out a peaceful retirement after serving his full term.

Among similarly ordinary students, until one freshman left a deep mark on his heart.

“I believe Supreme Leader’s teachings are not perfect.”

The voice of the young student speaking each word clearly and resolutely was painful to hear.

Of course, he knew it too.

While some professors upheld the Supreme Leader’s teachings as perfect, he knew.

He knew that the Supreme Leader’s theories were a mass of hatred and discrimination created purely for provocative agitation—theories that even the Supreme Leader himself didn’t believe.

That he himself, teaching these theories like a parrot, was also an evil person spreading hatred and discrimination.

But Schiller was afraid.

He feared that his life, his beloved family, and the budding life of the freshman would be destroyed.

“Stop! Please stop, Miss Brightner!”

He had driven Erika away without even listening to the end of her words. He completely covered up the events of that day.

After that, Erika never again spoke such dangerous words, and Schiller felt relieved.

And several years passed.

The dangerously shifting continental situation.

Just as he had tried to ignore his premonitions, the people gradually went mad for the ideal of “Great Schufaben,” and the Supreme Leader suddenly started a war.

Schiller’s eldest son Albert, who usually loved Supreme Leader and admired soldiers, happily volunteered for the army and left for the battlefield.

A few months later.

Schiller had no choice but to apply for Redan Company’s job posting. While thinking of his intelligent former student.

***

“Director, please look at this.”

Erika examined the bundle of papers Schiller pulled from his inner pocket.

“This is a letter my eldest son sent. He’s currently serving as a soldier on the western front.”

「Mother, Father. I’m now in Hakleon. You know, right? The capital of Pontinell. Hakleon fell yesterday, and it was really chaotic all night, but I finally got a moment to write a letter today.

(omitted)

I received medicine called canil, and it’s really amazing. Just like our platoon leader said, fear disappears and courage wells up. Even when hurt, it doesn’t hurt and I become stronger too. I felt really good. Thanks to it, I could fight with spirit. The Supreme Leader truly is a genius.

(omitted)

I told you, right? I always wanted to be a hero. I think I achieved that dream yesterday. I became one of the main contributors to Hakleon’s fall. I’m so excited that I don’t remember the battle very well.

(omitted)

Don’t worry about me. I wasn’t hurt much, and I’m very healthy. I drink a bottle of canil every morning, and while it’s not as good as when I get injections, it definitely helps my health.

We’re going to Rubellia now. I can’t wait to conquer it. Then I’ll be able to see Mother and Father again soon. Please give my regards to my younger siblings.

— With love, your eldest son Albert.」

“What about this letter?”

The letter was ordinarily bright and hopeful. Except for the unpleasantly excessive praise of Kruger.

“Do you know about canil?”

“A little.”

To Schiller’s question, Erika managed her expression and answered calmly.

“Albert isn’t normally such a frivolous, excited child. Excessive excitement, numbness, memory loss. These are all drug side effects. Recently, the government has been distributing canil to various factories and companies to boost work efficiency. At the same time, rumors about addiction and side effects are gradually spreading.”

“I see.”

“Our army’s current achievements are remarkable. But the continent is vast, and Schufaben’s population and national power are far insufficient to swallow the continent without any resistance, aren’t they? They’ll squeeze the people somehow. Canil is certainly effective, but the fact that they’re already distributing such drugs and driving people hard…”

Schiller’s eyes shone with conviction.

“It means Supreme Leader has staked everything on this war. It wouldn’t be strange if a national general mobilization order were issued.”

“What exactly is this general mobilization order?”

“It means suppressing individual freedom and conscripting all manpower and materials for the state. Indiscriminate conscription and property confiscation would be representative examples.”

Erika drew a cold smile on her face.

“You’re truly wise, Professor. Your insight is excellent. So you’re trying to flee to the Great Desert in advance?”

Schiller’s face flushed slightly with shame.

“I know. It’s cowardly and dishonorable behavior. But I want to protect my family. If the Supreme Leader mobilizes that power, all my children might be dragged to the battlefield to die.”

“Haven’t you considered that your hypothesis might be excessive delusion, Professor?”

Erika threw out a slight provocation.

“I trust my judgment.”

“Then why are you telling me this story? What if I report you to the Ossel?”

“Director.”

Schiller’s tone was respectful, but his eyes had already changed to what they were seven years ago. Those eyes that looked after a particularly cherished student.

“I only believe what I see and judge for myself. Director—no, Miss Brightner. You were the only student who spoke the right words without abandoning your convictions.”

“…”

For a moment, Erika couldn’t continue speaking due to the waves stirring in her heart.

Her lonely wandering freshman days.

Around the time she was considering dropping out after seeing Professor Schiller’s terrified eyes, she met Daniel Hartmann. And the White Raven Order changed everything for her.

“…You remember.”

“As clearly as if it were yesterday. I apologize even now, Miss Brightner.”

Schiller bowed his head deeply.

“I was truly a fool back then. Even now, I’m a fool who only thinks of myself and my family. But at least I won’t deceive myself anymore.”

Erika was finally able to smile a genuine smile without pretense.

There had been a human who succumbed to oppression, abandoned his convictions, and lived crouched down, holding his breath while clinging to a thin lifeline.

But that human possessed eyes that hadn’t been tainted by the false world, and therefore could detect cracks in the oppression and begin his rebellion to survive.

That change was so delightful and moving that Erika laughed.

She reached out her hand to help up Schiller, whose back was bent at ninety degrees.

“Let’s go, Professor. To the Great Desert.”

At the gentle voice, Schiller nearly shed a tear of relief.