9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 172 - The Paradigm of Truth (4)

“Why did you do it? You’re really stupid.”

Ah, here again.

Richard thought in a daze.

A blood-soaked snowfield.

A blood-covered boy holding a pure white, fluffy puppy glared at him with eyes full of contempt.

“What do you mean?”

“Stop pretending. Why did you jump into the flames like that? Did you want to die so badly?”

“I wonder.”

“You could join hands with that woman and tell the truth through the radio, sure, I get that. You could manipulate the corpses too. The risk of you getting caught was almost zero. But this is going too far, isn’t it?”

Contempt gleamed in the boy’s eyes.

“Since when were you an apostle of justice?”

“Was that really something worthy of being called an apostle of justice?”

Richard laughed bitterly, and the mottled wounds on the boy’s face and body became even darker.

“It was just a short radio broadcast. Is spreading a recording such a great deed?”

“Don’t you know, or are you pretending not to know? Why did you do it! You knew you’d die if you got caught!”

“You’re the one who doesn’t know anything.”

“You idiot!”

As the boy raged, the pure white puppy trembled and disappeared like smoke.

Richard suddenly raised his hand and looked at it. Perfectly intact hands and arms without a single crack. He slowly took a step forward.

“You’ll regret it, you’ll regret it as you’re torn apart and die—”

He suddenly pulled the boy into his arms.

“It’s okay now.”

Had he ever felt ‘pity’ for someone before?

The emotion of compassion didn’t suit Richard Enke.

Not because he was a cold, emotionless person. It was simply because all his thoughts were focused on survival.

In this hellish world, he had wandered searching for a way to live without hurting his body or mind.

With everything submerged under that single goal, he had forgotten how to live, how to love.

“You’ve suffered so much.”

So he whispered to the boy in his arms.

Now he understood.

He knew what emotion had dominated him since the day he was beaten by those thugs.

Extreme self-loathing.

Contempt and hatred for his own weakness had taken root and grown into a massive tree.

Richard decided to burn down that tree. Flames flickered across the vast snowfield where he, the boy, and the puppy stood.

Finally, his heart stung. An emotion he was feeling for the first time welled up.

Self-pity.

No, pity for everyone.

He could see young Richard Enke applying medicine to his wounded body.

Teenage Erika Brightner, tearing to shreds the dress her father had given her.

Lucas Redan, sobbing that he would kill Kruger.

Daniel Hartmann, who had left for the Great Desert, and Oscar Fisher, raging at the dragon’s death, and Georg Roman, selling newspapers on cold streets, and the soldiers he had seen on the battlefield.

Those who died, killed, were wounded, and wailed were everywhere.

In the center of it all, Sophia Kohl listening to the truth with a pale face.

After all of them flickered and disappeared, the boy in his arms melted away.

Finally, what remained before him was a single young man lying shot by a sniper’s bullet.

“Mother……”

Richard knelt on one knee and tried to stop the flowing blood.

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

The young man who had been looking at him pitifully closed his eyes. With bloodied hands, he straightened the young man’s tattered clothes.

“Richard.”

“Richard!”

But who’s calling me?

***

“Richard!”

Oscar was violently shaking his body.

“What…… What is it?”

“Snap out of it! If you want to live, get up quickly!”

Richard couldn’t understand the current situation.

He had definitely prepared himself to die.

In that moment on the battlefield when he realized the meaning of life, paradoxically, death was no longer frightening.

He had left too many traces while attending upper-class gatherings and university, so when the police caught him and he was beaten and tortured, he hadn’t minded.

But what was this now?

“Why on earth…… I don’t want to burden you all.”

“What are you talking about! Put some strength in your legs!”

Oscar, supporting Richard’s body, whispered in frustration. His body was lifted, and he managed to take one step at a time.

The body he thought was dead moved again, and his lungs, filled with water from the interrogation room, breathed once more.

“Act as naturally as possible, like you’re being dragged along.”

He nodded in confusion. When he came to his senses, Oscar was wearing a police uniform with an unfamiliar name tag.

After leaving the underground interrogation room and walking down the corridor, steep stairs appeared. A policeman in his underwear lay sprawled at the bottom of the stairs.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t kill him.”

Oscar muttered when Richard looked bewildered.

They climbed the stairs to the first floor.

Brilliant light spread out, revealing the interior of Lüdelheim Police Station. Police officers, reporters, people involved in cases, and petitioners bustling about. And First Lieutenant Philip Decker.

Wait, First Lieutenant Decker?

Richard was confused once again.

“Chief, come out!!!”

First Lieutenant Decker burst through the police station door, shouting at the top of his lungs, and everyone’s attention turned to him.

“You bastard cops! According to Article 17, Clause 1 of the Special Law, I’ll have you all shot!”

“Please calm down……”

“You son of a bitch, let go of me!”

Several police officers rushed over and essentially restrained First Lieutenant Decker. While people gathered around, wondering what was happening, Oscar calmly passed through the hallway with Richard.

Just as they reached the back door leading outside.

“Wait! Sergeant!”

A young female clerk in uniform came running over.

“Are you escorting a suspect?”

“On orders from the chief.”

Oscar brazenly presented forged documents. The clerk who checked the papers stared suspiciously at his face.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before……”

Smack!

Suddenly Oscar struck Richard’s head.

“Where are you looking? Keep your head down, you bastard.”

Philip, who was being held by the police, turned his gaze. A subtle eye signal that only accomplices could recognize.

“You reactionary bastards! You’re the cancer of society!!”

Crash!

In the next moment, he threw one of the policemen with tremendous force.

“Oh my!”

The startled clerk turned her head, and Oscar seized the opportunity to grab Richard’s hand.

“Run!”

Instinctively, strength entered his legs. Though his body, bound for days, was sluggish with poor circulation, he gritted his teeth and ran, pulled along by Oscar.

“Wait! Stop right there!”

The clerk shouted, and the eyes of the police officers who had been struggling with First Lieutenant Decker turned toward them.

Bang!

Oscar burst through the back door with such force it seemed he might break it. Dozens of carriages lined up behind the police station.

When the two men hid among them, the door of an ordinary-looking carriage suddenly opened.

“Brother, hurry!”

“Georg?”

Oscar pushed the speechless Richard into the carriage and immediately jumped in himself.

Gunshots could be heard outside the violently racing carriage.

“Get down!”

Hot bullets shattered the window and embedded themselves in the opposite wall, then the carriage tilted and swayed.

“Whoa, hold on tight!”

A mad dash that turned his stomach inside out.

Richard was terrified they might overturn, but fortunately the gunshots soon grew distant.

“Phew, I thought we were dead.”

Richard looked with a bewildered smile at Oscar, who was sprawled on the carriage seat, sighing.

“What on earth is all this……”

“I’ll explain later. Welcome back, Richard.”

He pulled Richard into a tight embrace, just as the Richard in his dream had suddenly embraced his younger self.

The carriage stopped in a secluded neighborhood in District 1.

“A waste treatment facility…… No, the Ossel headquarters?”

As soon as he got out, feeling dizzy and squinting, a foul odor hit him. A man in uniform was walking toward them from among the piles of scrap metal. A low-ranking Ossel.

“Follow me.”

“Come on in. Erika is waiting for you.”

At Georg’s words, his whole body felt like it was freezing.

Erika.

Erika…….

Creak!

The heavy iron door opened. As he staggered inside, despite the shabby exterior, a magnificent hall came into view.

And there she was.

Erika Brightner. Really there.

“……”

“……”

The two people stood quietly, staring at each other in a daze.

If Oscar hadn’t pushed him, asking what he was doing, they probably would have stood there until sunset.

“It’s been a while.”

Only after Erika spoke did Richard come to his senses. For a reunion after nearly a year since the White Raven Order disbanded, it was a pitiful sight.

“You must be confused, but rest for a bit first and we’ll talk more about the details—”

“Erika.”

His cracked, hoarse voice slowly flowed out.

“I liked you.”

“What?”

“What did he say?”

Oscar and Georg’s screams rang in his ears.

***

His mind felt completely blank, as if it had been bleached white.

“I’m sorry.”

Before he knew it, Richard’s eyes had cleared.

“Richard, you……”

Erika’s face turned bright red.

Certainly, Richard had liked her.

He’d had no choice.

She was the most normal person among those around her. No, that’s what he had mistaken.

Richard had silently accepted whatever emotions she poured out.

A moody and sensitive adolescent girl.

Erika’s heart was as violent as a raging torrent, and deeper than she herself could handle.

But Erika slowly realized that he was somehow twisted.

His strangely distorted heart thoroughly shut out the world.

Even while doing dangerous things like joining the White Raven Order, he never revealed the sincerity hidden deep in his heart to anyone.

A man who had built walls on all sides.

This man who had been a friend for so long, who perhaps understood Erika better than anyone, had never once given her his heart.

And now, at this late hour.

“What do you mean by that! When I liked you, you never showed anything……!”

Even as Erika raged, Richard only smiled.

“What’s so funny!”

“That’s why I liked you. Because your burning like fire was brilliant. That’s why. I deceived myself out of fear. Afraid that I might end up walking into the flames with you.”

“What, what would burn?”

“My life.”

Richard murmured like making a confession.

“I really didn’t know then. That I liked you, or that I had something I wanted to do. I’ve decided to burn it all now.”

Looking at him smiling softly, Erika realized.

This wasn’t just a love confession. It wasn’t about wanting to date. It was something more fundamental—an exploration of the essential parts of life.

She was just confused about how to accept it. Suddenly Lucas’s words came to mind.

‘Good things are good things.’

That’s what he’d said.

“In that case.”

Erika, who had returned to a composed expression, sighed lightly.

“We’re still friends then.”

“Yes.”

“We’re comrades again.”

“That’s right, Erika.”

“Welcome back.”

Erika extended her hand.

Richard hesitated, then smiled and took it. It was the first truly honest expression he’d ever shown.

“Are you really Richard?”

“Brother, they say when someone changes suddenly, it’s a sign of death……”

Oscar and Georg were more terrified than confused.

“Are you two dating?”

“No.”

“It’s not like that.”

Richard and Erika answered Oscar’s question decisively.

“Do I have to explain everything for you to understand?”

“Ahem! Cough! No, I understand without explanation. Well then, shall we talk?”

“I’m curious about something.”

Richard, having completely regained his composure, spoke up.

“What kind of deal did you make with Ossel? You must have paid a price.”

“Ah, you noticed. It’s a long story, but the important thing is this. Ossel didn’t want the police to take you away from them, and we wanted to save you.”

“Then the price was—”

“Information.”

A cold voice came from above.

It was Colonel Johann Werner, leaning against the stair railing and looking down at them.

“What information?”

“The situation on the eastern front. How much of that record was true?”

Richard’s expression darkened. In front of the dry-faced Johann, after organizing his thoughts for a long time, he began to tell his story.

When and with what feelings he had been dragged to the battlefield. What he had seen and heard there. What he had realized in the process. What he and Sophia Kohl had done, everything.

“That must have been difficult.”

“Ugh, war stories really make me nauseous every time I hear them.”

Georg muttered with a pitying expression, and Oscar also shuddered as if suppressing disgust.

Johann, who had been standing with cold eyes, slowly opened his mouth.

“The conscription order will be strengthened.”

“That’s right.”

Erika responded emotionlessly.

“What’s the plan?”

“Why are you curious about that?”

“Because I need to collect on a debt.”

Johann lifted one corner of his mouth in a vile smile.

“Do you think I don’t know what you’re scheming?”

Erika bit her lips tightly. Richard asked about the ominous turn in the conversation.

“What does all this mean?”

“We pulled some strings in politics. Spread some bribes here and there too.”

“And Ossel covered that up for you.”

Erika nodded while glaring at Johann.

“What do you want?”

“I’ll call when the story breaks.”

Richard tilted his head in confusion.

“What story……”

“We’re going to bankrupt the company. So no one can take it away.”

An unbelievable answer came back.