9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 178 - Equivalent Exchange (3)

This time I thought it might not end with just a slap. Maybe I’d get an uppercut or have my hair torn out.

But Ameli looked at me with trembling eyes in the silence, then firmly locked the back door and lowered the shutters. I tactfully checked the window curtains.

Loud footsteps thundered outside, then gradually faded away. Ameli looked around at the people behind me.

“Erika, Oscar, and……”

“Emma, and this child is Angela.”

“Emma. I don’t know what’s going on, but you fled in a hurry, right? Oscar’s outfit……”

Oscar smiled awkwardly and took off his wide-brimmed hat. Ameli gestured with a face drained of all humor.

“Follow me. I’ll arrange sleeping quarters. Lucas, you wait.”

“Thanks, Ameli.”

After she disappeared upstairs with my friends, I sat down on a chair in front of a table scattered around the hall.

A slowly melting candle flickered with dim light. They must be conserving mana stones as much as possible.

I absently ran my hand across the scratched table.

I once ate and slept here, chatted with customers and boasted about Kruger like an idiot. Days spent reeking of alcohol and tobacco, never sober. Even so, I believed I was clever and rational.

“Fucking bastard.”

A sneer escaped along with a chuckle.

Those memories had always been vivid, but now they weren’t. The things that had once felt half like my own memories now all felt blurred and distant.

When did it start?

Thinking about it, was it after Lucas stopped rampaging in my head? At some point Lucas Redan had completely shut up and vanished. Probably because I told him to get lost.

I felt a little wistful about it.

If Lucas were still acting all high and mighty and raging, I would have mocked him to my heart’s content.

In front of this wretched battlefield, in front of people suffering from hunger and drug addiction.

‘Look, see? This is what your godlike Supreme Leader has done.’

How would Lucas Redan have reacted? Would he have raged, telling me not to insult His Excellency, or would he have.

‘You helped with it too, didn’t you?’

sneered back at me.

Light footsteps were heard.

When I opened my eyes that had been closed without realizing it, Ameli in comfortable indoor clothes was walking over with a candlestick.

“Now tell me.”

Ameli flipped her flowing hair and sat across from me.

“What did you do, you bastard? Why did you come to me?”

“……”

It was an excessively calm attitude. I could only gape and make other conversation.

“I haven’t seen you look so comfortable in a really long time. It reminds me of the old days.”

“Why did you come?”

Sharp-eyed Ameli cut off my words with a single stroke.

“You were the only person I could trust.”

She let out a deep sigh.

“Haah, Lucas, you bastard. You climbed to such a high position and ate well for years, but didn’t even build up connections like that? What were you doing?”

“Right. I must have lived a pointless life.”

When I answered absent-mindedly, the corners of Ameli’s eyes curved upward.

“You should do things properly if you’re going to do them at all. You’ve always been like that. Always grand words first and sloppy follow-through! I thought you’d changed a little, but those parts are still the same……”

Oddly enough, Ameli’s nagging felt affectionate. Maybe because I could feel her feelings for Lucas too clearly.

“Are you listening?”

“Of course, I’m listening.”

After nagging for a while, Ameli seemed to notice I was listening with one ear and letting it out the other, glaring at me fiercely.

“I’m curious about something, Ameli.”

“You have something to ask me?”

Not missing the gap, I spoke slowly, though I still found it hard to shake my hesitation.

‘What am I hesitating about? From the moment I came here, I’m trash anyway.’

The voice of conscience mocking myself. I could barely muster the courage.

“When did you know? That I……”

“No longer praised the Supreme Leader? That you went beyond that to actually try to bring him down? That you decided to change this country?”

“Yeah.”

“From the beginning, Lucas.”

The emotion in Ameli’s eyes deepened.

“From when you appeared before me asking to open a bar together. Your eyes were sparkling. You acted smarter. You weren’t pathetic like before. And I saw your friends.”

“Friends?”

“Friends too good for you. But friends who still sincerely believed in and followed you. In front of those good people, you really…… looked like you were alive.”

“I was plenty alive before too.”

“No, when you were with me, you were no different from a dead person.”

“Back then…… I was a bit like that.”

How pathetic must I have looked, always dependent on alcohol and tobacco, parroting what came out of the radio like a parrot while proudly thinking it was original opinion.

Ameli reached out her hand to touch my gaunt face, then hesitated and stopped.

“I don’t know what you went through during the two years we lived apart. But the changed Lucas Redan was really cool. He looked precarious too. I thought every night that maybe you’d be dragged away and killed tomorrow. While watching you laugh and chat with customers.”

“If you knew it was that dangerous, why did you stay with me? Why did you tell me I could come back anytime when we parted? Ameli, you could have run away from me, so why did you keep staying?”

Ameli didn’t answer.

“……Lucas.”

Ameli slowly raised her head and looked at me. Complex emotions were pooled at the corners of her eyes.

“I have something to ask too.”

“Ask a hundred things and I’ll answer them all.”

“You don’t.”

Ameli spoke each syllable clearly with a voice that seemed to struggle and tremble.

“Love me, do you?”

For a moment the candle burning quietly on the table flickered. My breathing had become that disturbed.

“No, I love you, Ameli.”

I looked straight at her. Into the pupils within those elongated eyes.

“I loved you, and I’ll continue to love you. As a human being, you have a noble soul. But, yeah. Not as lovers.”

Memories came to mind of fighting and arguing with her, screaming at each other, then making passionate love as if the world would end tomorrow.

Those weren’t my memories. They were no different from illusions.

“Thank you, Ameli. I loved you. More than words can say. But that flame went out long ago. What remains in me now is only endlessly deep gratitude and regret. You know that too.”

I smiled gently and reached out to wipe her cheek. Transparent tears flowing quietly from her large eyes wet my hand.

“You saved a person’s life, Ameli. If you hadn’t taken me in and fed me here, I would have died on the streets long ago. The years I spent with you sustained me.”

Until my soul entered this body without knowing why.

“So you don’t need to have regrets anymore. You did enough.”

“Lucas.”

Her voice was choked. Ameli took out a handkerchief to wipe around her eyes, then stood up and asked.

“Did you think that giving that answer would make me kick you out right away? Shouldn’t you lie and say you love me to secure shelter?”

“You wouldn’t do that. And I don’t want to lie anymore.”

“You really are cruel to the end.”

Saying that, a faint smile appeared on Ameli’s face. It was an expression that somehow looked relieved.

She picked up the candlestick again and gestured to me.

“Follow me. The room you used became a storage room.”

“Just a blanket is fine. I’ve slept in caves and on tree branches.”

“Really?”

“I don’t lie anymore, I told you.”

The dusty storage room was full of Lucas’s traces. Really full.

Like the terribly drawn portrait of Ameli he’d scribbled with his awful artistic skills, or clothes he used to wear. There was even a small sofa with cigarette burns everywhere from lying around all day.

I fell asleep on that sofa under a blanket.

And the next morning at dawn, Ameli woke me up. As soon as I opened my eyes, I saw faces I hadn’t encountered in a really long time.

“Hello Georg. And…… Richard.”

When I drew out the end of my words, Richard smiled awkwardly.

“It’s been a while, Lucas. About last time……”

“Forget it, I heard from Sophia. I didn’t know Emma was this quick-footed though.”

“I was startled when a person fell from the chimney in the middle of the night.”

“At our apartment, she came in by removing the window.”

As expected of a skilled criminal.

“You’ve roughly heard the story, right? Then everyone gather around. Let’s start the meeting.”

***

After the Supreme Leader’s rebuke fell, a massive purge swept through the civil service. Central administrative departments, police, military, district offices, national banks.

Evidence of corruption and incompetence poured out endlessly.

Someone had built collusive relationships with elf factions to help them cross legal lines and rake in money, someone had turned a blind eye to various companies’ accounting manipulations. They’d sold canil to addicts or helped upper-class children avoid conscription.

From top to bottom, corruption was so widespread you could say nowhere was unrotted.

Nevertheless, Schufaben had run very well until now. That was thanks to the elaborate system created by His Excellency the Supreme Leader. Everyone praised it that way.

“Fortunately, because His Excellency the Supreme Leader’s iron rules were consistently maintained, even after immediately arresting and investigating corrupt officials, there’s no personnel vacuum……”

Supreme Leader Secretary Eve Clothier noticed Kruger’s bored expression and turned off the radio.

“The total number confirmed to have charges is 529 people.”

“An ambiguous number.”

Kruger’s voice was full of boredom.

“What should we do? Eve.”

“When Ossel’s investigation ends, you should purge them all. They’re traitors to the nation, aren’t they?”

“Do you trust Ossel?”

“……”

At the slow question, Eve closed her mouth. Not because she had nothing to say, but because she knew she couldn’t sway the Supreme Leader’s heart.

Kruger leaned back in his armchair with an even more bored face. The golden dragon Chryseus waddled over and acted spoiled.

“Let me hear about the White Raven Order matter.”

A troubled expression briefly crossed Eve’s cold face.

“Erika Brightner and Oscar Fisher are both missing. Their whereabouts have been unclear since yesterday afternoon. No clues were left at their homes or workplaces either. The report says they vanished like smoke……”

“Interesting! Should we prepare to receive guests then.”

Vitality returned to Kruger’s voice.

Eve wanted to ask. Why was this interesting? Who would they be receiving? But since that wasn’t permitted behavior, she could only bow her head and withdraw.

Shortly after, a Supreme Leader Department official appeared soundlessly and reported.

“Lucas Redan is making a fuss saying he must see His Excellency the Supreme Leader.”

“Where?”

“Well, the controlled area below the residence.”

“Hahahaha! Didn’t I tell you to prepare, Eve!”

The sight of the Supreme Leader bursting into laughter. Eve felt confused by the unpleasant sensation creeping up.

***

“The general arrangement is done, anyway.”

Walking down the empty dawn street, I muttered to myself.

With a hat and mask outfit, I don’t need to worry about being recognized. I even left whining Colin behind.

“How should I go?”

When fleeing from Erika’s house, I’d roughly made a plan. I need to meet Kruger again.

The problem is, I’ve never directly walked into the floating castle and faced Kruger myself.

It was always either Kruger’s invitation or being kidnapped by Supreme Leader Department officials.

‘So…… if I go to the center of District 1, there’s a plaza that’s normally a controlled area, and inside there’s a platform where they travel to and from the castle by magic. Come to think of it, people who weren’t invited originally can’t enter at all.’

That’s why I want to stay by Kruger’s side. Otherwise there’s no way to kill that bastard.

I took the quiet tram toward District 1.

The tram that was only half full had mana lamps that occasionally flickered on and off. While sitting in a seat with my head down dozing, Ameli’s words echoed in my ears.

“Are you really going to go die?”

No, I’m going to kill.

If I’d answered that, I really would have gotten in trouble, so I smiled and said goodbye.

“I’ll try my best not to die.”

I got off at a nearby station and headed for the plaza. The wide open space where a royal castle once stood, now just paved ground with nothing else, was completely empty.

Beep beep beep!

Beep beep beep beep!

I walked into the controlled area past the entry prohibition line rippling blue with mana. Immediately alarms sounded and guards and mages on duty came running.

“Stop right there! Stop or we’ll shoot……!”

When I took off my hat, the guard pointing his gun hesitated.

“I’m Lucas Redan. I’ve come in response to His Excellency the Supreme Leader’s summons.”

“Command authorization?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Entry permit?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then we have no choice but to execute you!”

I chuckled and took a step closer to him.

“Sure. If you want your head cut off.”

It was baseless confidence. But it was definitely effective. No one could move easily and the standoff continued.

How long passed? From behind, a man in gray uniform slowly descended on a golden disc.

“Stop. His Excellency’s orders.”

At his gesture, the soldiers and mages dispersed. The Supreme Leader Department official approached me and bowed.

“Let’s go. His Excellency has permitted an audience.”

I flew up toward the floating castle, toward the tiger’s maw.

Looking down at the enormous city growing smaller and smaller, I imagined it writhing and moving alive to swallow the floating castle.

Because I’m going to make it that way.