9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 164 - The Paradigm of Lies (2)

“Ugh… I’m so stiff!”

I woke up grumbling from dawn. Every muscle in my body was screaming. When I lowered my head to check the rope tied around my waist, I could see the branches stretching out in all directions and the ground dizzyingly far below.

Last night, Captain Himmel and I wandered through the forest and made camp not far from the cave.

If we’d pitched a tent on the ground, we would have left traces, and there was also the problem of wild animals, so we climbed up into a tree. Well, I got carried up.

Captain Himmel wove together broken branches to create a decent sleeping spot. I wondered what kind of hardship this was in the dead of night, but thanks to her, I was able to sleep reasonably well.

“Are you awake?”

Captain Himmel, who had been perched on a thick branch, turned her head.

“Yeah. Did you sleep well, Captain? What are you doing?”

“I’m monitoring the deserters as you instructed. There’s been no particular movement yet. They appear to be sleeping.”

Captain Himmel handed over the binoculars. From atop a tree about five stories high, the cave was clearly visible.

I looked through the binoculars while tearing at the wild boar meat that was almost becoming jerky from drying out.

“It’s really quiet.”

I muttered while chewing the tough meat.

The sun was already high in the sky. The weather was so good today that the sunlight was blazing hot, instantly evaporating the water droplets remaining on the leaves.

“It’s getting hot.”

I petted Colin, who was whimpering with boredom.

Two military backpacks, an adult man, and a dog. I don’t know how many times Captain Himmel climbed up and down this tree yesterday carrying all that gear.

I was amazed once again by her strength, and I worried whether I could maintain such wonderful muscles in these conditions of poor food and sleep.

‘I’m having all sorts of random thoughts because I’m bored.’

I shook my head vigorously and lay down on the pile of leaves. The sky was so close I felt I could touch it, so I reached out for no reason, then spoke to Captain Himmel.

“Those guys were noisy all night, but now they’re really knocked out. Why don’t you get some sleep too?”

“I’m fine.”

“Don’t collapse on me. No matter how strong someone is, they can’t beat sleep deprivation.”

“…Thank you.”

A strangely peaceful time.

While Captain Himmel was sleeping, I also put down the binoculars and became lost in thought.

I don’t know how canil ended up in Rubellia hands, but anyway, having it floating around like that is a very bad situation.

‘Well, there’s no way such an outrageous drug could be kept under control forever. Not when they’re distributing it so freely. Since civilian exchanges between Schufaben and Rubellia have been completely cut off, we can safely assume there’s almost no risk of it flowing in through black markets. Still, if the war drags on…’

Side effects are erupting everywhere due to the prolonged war. But that doesn’t mean we can just end the war right now. I don’t have that ability either.

What I need to do now is.

‘I need to meet the Queen somehow.’

In this strangely twisted situation, I need to find a path forward again.

***

“Commander.”

“Huh? Mm?”

I opened my eyes with a start at Captain Himmel shaking my shoulder. I must have dozed off.

“They’ve started moving.”

“What, what?”

The moon was bright, so I could clearly see the shadows swaying and moving about. The deserters were walking somewhere again, giggling among themselves.

“Ah, I’m hungry! So hungry!”

“Just be patient. That’s why we’re going to look for food now, aren’t we? What are you, a pig or something?”

“What did you say, you bastard?”

“Hey, hey, let’s not get all sensitive.”

What are they talking about looking for food at this hour? All the animals would be hiding. I quietly got up and whispered.

“Can we follow them?”

“You mean tail them?”

“Yeah.”

“Get on my back.”

She knelt halfway down without hesitation and offered her back.

“What? You’re going to carry me? No matter how strong you are, is that possible?”

“It’s possible.”

Well, even so…

After hesitating, I settled on her back. I was scared, so I wrapped my arms tightly around her neck.

“Colin, guard the house well. Oh, Captain Himmel. Are you really confident?”

“Of course.”

She answered firmly, then carried me securely and leaped into the air.

“Hiiiik!!!”

A strangled scream escaped me from the rising fear, and at that moment Captain Himmel’s feet lightly touched a thick branch.

I almost gasped in admiration at her nearly silent steps. With each movement of her legs, the lush leaves and extending branches rushed past us.

‘What is she, Tarzan?’

Was that kind of movement even humanly possible? It’s not like she uses magic like Ferint?

Even though it was a moonlit night, just identifying branches sturdy enough to step on would be difficult, yet she was calculating the distances and jumping.

‘She really is a match for Damier.’

Eyes closed, I followed the deserters.

They seemed to have been living in this forest for quite some time, chatting while moving forward without hesitation.

I could see them cutting through tough undergrowth with daggers and scratching marks on tree trunks.

How far were they going?

After a while, I whispered uncertainly.

“Don’t those guys seem like they’re trying to leave the forest?”

Captain Himmel nodded. She’d been running for over thirty minutes and her breathing was still this calm.

“Hold on tight. I’ll find a suitable spot and climb down.”

“What? Wait a—”

The Captain leaped into the air with practiced ease. She grabbed a thick branch firmly and swung her body.

“Hiiik!”

Thud!

Once more. She moved down relentlessly from branch to branch, going lower and lower.

About a minute later by my estimate, the Captain’s feet touched the ground lightly. Again, making almost no sound. Then she gently set me down.

“Ugh…”

“Are you alright?”

My legs were trembling and my knees buckled. I crouched down in a pile of fallen leaves, and Captain Himmel whispered softly.

“Yeah, yeah. I almost died but I didn’t actually die, so. Let’s hurry.”

I tried not to make any breathing sounds as I moved forward.

But there wasn’t really a need to be careful. The deserters were moving around noisily enough to drown out any small sounds we might make.

Crude jokes, profanity-laced banter, meaningless shouts.

‘How delightful.’

For deserters, no less. I followed Captain Himmel with a bitter smile.

Now that I saw her, she definitely wasn’t Tarzan but a ninja.

With a gait I’d never seen before, she killed even the slightest rustling sound and hid her body in the shadows of trees. Her stealthy and swift movements were almost impossible to follow.

As expected, the deserters left the forest.

After passing through areas where trees and undergrowth became increasingly sparse, we finally reached open plains. At that moment the deserters became completely quiet and quickened their pace.

With the much wider field of vision, we cautiously moved forward for about an hour. A disgusting smell began to waft over.

‘What is this?’

I pinched my nose tight at the brain-piercing stench, and Captain Himmel quietly handed me a handkerchief.

“It’s the smell of rotting corpses.”

My mind snapped awake like lightning had struck.

‘It’s no man’s land.’

Between the long lines of trenches.

The most horrific and tragic scene on any battlefield, where corpses pile into mountains and blood forms rivers.

“Keeek!”

At the strange sound, I looked up at the sky to see massive nocturnal birds of prey flying about. They were looking for corpses to feast on.

Squish!

“Hiic!”

I hastily lifted my foot at the unpleasant sensation of stepping on something. At that moment, something like a tickling clump of fur brushed against my ankle.

It was a rat the size of my forearm.

What I had stepped on was the half-rotted corpse of some soldier whose abdomen had burst open with all his intestines spilled out.

“Ugh, shit…”

The curse slipped out automatically.

“Commander.”

Captain Himmel grabbed me.

“Ah, right.”

The deserters were already too far away to follow with the naked eye. I pulled myself together and started walking again.

From the moon’s position, it seemed like it was already past midnight. My legs were aching terribly after walking for hours. But physical pain was nothing.

More than that was the increasingly creeping unpleasant premonition that was consuming my entire body. And that kind of feeling was never wrong.

We arrived at a place littered with corpses. Most were soldiers from the Schufaben side, and judging by their condition, they’d probably been hit by bombing.

“Hey, spread out!”

The deserters finally stopped. At the barely audible voices, we also stopped and hid in a gentle depression.

I held up the binoculars and stared intently in their direction.

Rustling shadows. They had scattered everywhere and were searching through the corpses. There was no need to speculate what they were doing.

“I expected as much.”

When I muttered, Captain Himmel tilted her head curiously.

“Theft?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

I felt like I might throw up from disgust.

Killing enemy soldiers and stealing their belongings is very common on battlefields. But this wasn’t some band of thieves—to organize themselves and crawl out to loot corpses like this.

And their real purpose wasn’t food but…

“Found iiiiit!”

“Shut your mouth, you bastard!”

“Jackpot! Jackpot! There are three bottles left here!”

“What? Really?”

The sight of them finding canil in the pockets and bags of corpses and grinning with joy.

The canil-charging tactics hadn’t been used here yet. The orders had only come down recently before Deputy Commander Eisler burned it all.

But since so many addicts had been produced during the recent Hakleon siege, they had no choice but to continue distributing canil to over a quarter of the soldiers to keep using them.

Due to the nature of trench warfare where medical supplies were hard to deliver on time, it was also abused as a painkiller.

So it wasn’t strange for canil hidden away in pockets to turn up like this.

The deserters gathered supplies like a pack of hyenas and finished preparing to return before dawn.

“Let’s go, the snipers will be coming out soon.”

From what I could hear, they seemed to hit and run before snipers became active.

After they left, I collapsed in the depression.

“Commander.”

“Yeah, let’s head back too. Just let me rest a little.”

I answered weakly and closed my eyes.

Canil.

That damn canil!

Would things have been different if I had destroyed that research facility back then? Where will this insane drug lead this war?

***

Life as a natural man in the forest was boring and routine.

Since our surveillance targets lived that way, we had no choice but to do the same.

Getting up at dawn to repair our sleeping quarters in the trees, washing at the stream, going hunting with Colin, or anyway handling the daily tasks necessary for survival.

Then spending the boring hours until sunset. Sitting quietly with binoculars, monitoring whether the deserters might wake up early.

Of course, that never happened.

The deserters were hilariously regular in their upright lifestyle. Just with day and night reversed.

So we alternated taking naps with Captain Himmel and endured patience tests while organizing our future plans.

“Sawing expert! For a full 21 years devoted only to cutting down trees, the master of sawing, Ms. Alina Himmel!”

Another boring day passes.

Watching Captain Himmel reinforce our sleeping area by trimming wood with her dagger, I made a lame joke, and she turned her head with a wooden expression.

“This isn’t a saw.”

“I know that, Captain. When will you get used to jokes?”

“…”

I chuckled and lay down on my sleeping bag to look toward the cave.

“It’s been a week since we came to this forest. And we met those guys?”

“Today makes it the fourth day.”

“I see. What are the chances of those increasingly agitated guys doing something reckless?”

Having canil parties every night, the deserters’ condition was getting worse and worse.

‘Can’t they feel it themselves?’

Of course they can. They’re just living like there’s no tomorrow.

Night came again and the moon rose.

It’s a new moon.

A large bonfire blazed in front of the cave like the past few days. The figures illuminated by that firelight were no longer warm and cheerful.

“You bastard, is this all there is?”

The sergeant had a private standing at attention and was tearing into him.

“Ugh! Sorry!”

“You need to get beaten more, you bastard!”

“But yesterday was, gaaaaah!”

“Where do you get off making excuses!”

The dull sound of military boots stomping on his head and kicking his stomach repeatedly echoed.

I could roughly guess what had happened. There had been air raids last night, so they’d had to rush back. That must have depleted their canil reserves.

People who hadn’t been eating properly, hadn’t been doing other activities, and had been living dependent only on canil were bound to explode like this.

“If this is how it’s going to be, shit, why did we run away in the first place! Why! Why! Why!!!”

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Why! Am! I! Here! Aaaaah! Why!!!”

The sergeant cried out in agony.

“Ugh…”

“He’s going to kill that kid at this rate.”

The private was already collapsed on the dirt, trembling.

“I’ll create a distraction.”

Captain Himmel quietly picked up a stone.