9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 188 - The Young Prince (4)

Eight years flew by in an instant after the knighthood ceremony. Days that were far busier and more hectic than the training period, which now seemed like child’s play by comparison.

He and his comrades protected the king, subdued rebellious forces in the provinces, arrested suspicious nobles and lords about whom unsettling rumors circulated, and infiltrated foreign countries to gather intelligence—ten bodies wouldn’t have been enough for all the work.

And amid all this, Kruger faithfully wrote letters to his ‘friend.’

「To my dear friend.

I am currently at the Colt Mountains. Another mana stone smuggling incident has broken out, so I was dispatched for this mission.

As rumored, this place is indeed quite peaceful and boring. At least the book you recommended is proving very helpful, so feel free to be pleased about that.

This mission seems like it will take quite a while. I probably won’t be able to return to Lüdelheim until next month. I’ll have to give up on our gathering. Would you please give my regards to our friends?」

「To my respected dear friend.

This gathering was successful. Greta told such amusing stories that we nearly split our sides laughing. The novel she wrote was also quite entertaining. It was a bit disappointing that you weren’t there.

Is the smuggling organization cleanup going well? I’ll be waiting for you to return and tell us your stories.」

Ludwig Pahel appeared to be a dull bookworm on the surface, but in truth, he was a man with blazing fire burning within.

He was passionate about philosophy and literature. Conversely, he loathed parties and romance, but instead formed a small gathering to socialize with like-minded friends who enjoyed intellectual pursuits.

The gathering attracted people from all walks of life. From poor artists to tavern hostesses, distinguished legal scholars, university students, soldiers, businessmen. Whether noble or commoner, everyone was equal friends in the gathering.

The person who had encouraged Ludwig to form the gathering was none other than Kruger. However, since he never actively participated in the gathering, no one was aware of this.

Ludwig spread liberal and republican ideas among his friends. Since only those with naturally free-spirited and rebellious inclinations had gathered, it was a natural phenomenon. The gathering gradually grew larger and more secretive.

By the time Kruger became captain of the knights, his friends had given the gathering a new name.

‘The Revolutionaries.’

***

“I, Friedrich Kruger, as captain of the knights of the Kingdom of Schufaben, swear to be loyal to the nation, serve the people, and as a servant of God and servant of His Majesty the King, I will protect His Majesty’s safety until the moment this life ends.”

“I, Leopold, heir to the great Berg dynasty, remember your oath.”

As Kruger solemnly recited his oath of loyalty, Leopold III placed the royal scepter against his forehead with an inappropriately stern expression.

“You won’t be able to escape now, Sir Friedrich.”

The king grinned and extended his hand to help Kruger rise.

“I have no intention of letting you go. Once someone has sworn loyalty to the Berg royal family, they must become the sword and shield of the royal family until death.”

“I am prepared, Your Majesty.”

Kruger answered gently and bowed his head.

That night, Kruger visited a mansion in District 3 of Lüdelheim.

“Welcome.”

Ludwig Pahel, who greeted him in the reception room, studied Kruger’s complexion.

“Judging by your appearance, it seems you have good news…”

“Yes, very good news indeed. The foundation has been laid now.”

Ludwig’s face went pale upon hearing Kruger’s story.

“Wasn’t that too hasty?”

He asked anxiously.

“Hasty? Hasty, Ludwig? It took me fifteen years to reach this position. No, if you count from when I set my goal, seventeen years.”

Kruger chuckled and spun the sword the king had bestowed upon him.

“But a blood pact! I never expected it to be not just a simple oath of loyalty but magic that binds you. For someone who might need to ‘assassinate’ the king if circumstances require it, to have your fate tied to his…”

“Don’t worry, Ludwig. I will definitely complete the revolution. Even if I must stake my life on it.”

“Friedrich…!”

“How about thinking of it this way. Do we really need to ‘assassinate’ the king? We just need to drag that madman out of the castle. The honor of taking the king’s head doesn’t have to go to me, right? It would be even better if he met his end at the hands of others—say, the people.”

“Hey, you!”

“Enough, Ludwig.”

Kruger abruptly rose from his seat and walked to the window. The familiar garden scenery spread below.

A strange emotion swirled in his chest. Already twenty years ago, that desolate scene flickered before his eyes.

The day his father committed suicide and his mother abandoned her child and left.

The garden’s scenery then was completely different from now—incomparably wretched. Withered trees and yellowed bushes, dead fish floating in the pond.

It wasn’t coincidence or fate’s trick that Ludwig had moved to this very mansion when he gained independence a few years ago.

Kruger had subtly recommended it, and Ludwig had followed without any suspicion.

“I investigated and found rumors that ghosts appear in this mansion. It seems the count who lived here twenty years ago committed suicide. Since then, strange phenomena keep occurring, so no family has lasted long here.”

On the day they came to view the house, Ludwig tilted his head at Kruger’s words.

“Twenty years ago would be when His Majesty ascended to the throne. What terrible incident could have happened then?”

“That might be the case.”

Kruger had recommended this mansion not out of any particular attachment to the past, but for purely practical reasons.

This place was appropriately isolated, and the somewhat gloomy atmosphere that lingered after the incident twenty years ago made people avoid it. So it would be easy for revolutionary friends to come and go, and easy to maintain secrecy. Ludwig had been convinced by this reasoning.

“My friend, I am patient. And I trust you. You are surely the leader who will complete our revolution.”

Kruger approached Ludwig, gripped his shoulder, and whispered.

“…Thank you for believing in me.”

Ludwig smiled with his usual innocent expression.

From the moment he encountered Kruger in that royal garden, he had become a puppet. A pitiful doll who didn’t even know he was dancing on someone else’s palm.

***

Five years later.

Ludwig led his comrades in proclaiming revolution.

Rumors spread that Kruger had assassinated the king. During the chaos that followed, the knights ruthlessly slaughtered royals and nobles who refused the revolution.

The revolutionaries were truly beside themselves, capturing and killing even minor provincial lords, while Kruger also indulged freely in massacre under the banner of ‘revolution.’

‘I must cut down all who might stand in my way.’

It wasn’t difficult work.

He had already poisoned all the circus troupe members to erase his past.

And now, for his future.

Kruger traveled throughout the country with blood still wet on his blade.

Killing and killing again, anyone who might interfere with his rise to the top.

After several months of madness, all royals and nobles were either killed, fled, surrendered to the revolutionaries, or survived by keeping a low profile and remaining inconspicuous.

About seventy percent of the ‘noble blue blood’ evaporated, and the age of the revolutionaries began.

Ludwig and the revolutionaries burned with passion for their ideals.

But talking big in drinking sessions was clearly different in difficulty from putting things into practice once they held power.

The revolutionaries divided up the new government positions among themselves and implemented various policies, but reality was harsh.

Although they had been united by the single cause of ‘revolution,’ once they gained power, their opinions split in all directions.

The presidential palace and parliament became battlefields daily, with policy proposals getting torn to shreds.

Ideologies and beliefs are always perfect only in one’s head. Reality is a dogfight of tearing and fighting; dreams grow stale as empty demagogy.

The dreamers learned the truth with their whole bodies. Idealists with broken wings fell.

“What good does it do for me to be president.”

One day Ludwig muttered to Kruger with half-dead eyes.

“Every time I try to implement any policy, it’s opposition! Opposition! Opposition! Since they’re all people who used to have their own opinions, their stubbornness is formidable. Trying to persuade them one by one takes too long! At times like this, I’d rather…”

“……”

“I’d rather have become a king…”

“You should rest a bit.”

Kruger spoke gently and made him a cup of tea. With some very mood-lifting medicine mixed in.

During the twelve years the revolutionary government lasted, Friedrich Kruger remained solely as captain of the knights, without taking any other position.

Ludwig repeatedly asked if he was really alright with that, but Kruger turned down appointment after appointment and stayed with the knights.

Because of this, he was able to create the personal guard ‘Ferint’ that was loyal only to him.

Just as he had when assassinating the king.

‘The Night the Holy Spirit Descended.’

One summer night in 1882.

Kruger led Ferint in killing knights who didn’t belong to the personal guard. After that, he attacked members of parliament who had once been comrades, and finally visited the presidential palace.

“I knew it would be you.”

The sparkling eyes of youth had disappeared somewhere, and though his appearance remained the same, Ludwig looked haggard and lifeless as he spoke.

“Friedrich.”

His hands trembled as he gripped the table and struggled to his feet. A medicine bottle that had been precariously placed fell to the floor. Crash—the bottle shattered with the sound, and a sweet fragrance spread.

“You must be disappointed in me. I betrayed your trust. The more I struggled, the more this country seemed to sink into a quagmire. Every night I thought about it. If you had led the revolutionaries instead of me, Schufaben would have become much more beautiful than it is now. Regret pierces my heart and I can do nothing.”

He spread his arms toward Kruger, who waited quietly.

“Kill me, friend.”

Kruger granted Ludwig’s final request.

***

At first, I stood in a world that seemed patched together like cut and pasted pieces of paper.

People and houses, trees and clouds.

Everything was made of rough pen lines and crude materials.

Just like an old comic book. No, like a roughly carved woodblock print.

The feeling was too different from the splendid royal castle or the ‘Hall of Memory’ from earlier.

The faded, creakily moving pictures gradually became clearer over time, turning into a crackling silent black-and-white film, then progressing beyond color films to finally reach the level of actual scenery near the end.

Finally, the moment Kruger stabbed Ludwig Pahel, we were thrown back outside the book.

“……”

I wavered briefly between feeling violently nauseous and just wanting to forget everything and fall asleep.

To actually see—no, experience—that bastard’s past so directly.

This is pretty fucking terrible.

Fortunately or unfortunately, experiencing Kruger’s life seemed to be a side effect of this mystical illusion magic, not something anyone had intended.

“……How was it, Lucas.”

Kruger, who had been standing like a statue, finally smiled and spoke.

“I cannot feel fear.”

“I understood that quite well.”

I answered curtly while calming my motion sickness.

“So, what did you feel? Do you pity me? Feel sorry for me?”

Pity him?

A child born with the emotion of fear surgically removed by nature.

Unable to be accepted by the world, he endured terrible hardships and decided to build his own impregnable fortress that no one could touch.

He needed power for that, so he became a knight, created the revolutionaries, and brought down the kingdom.

When even those revolutionaries self-destructed as expected, he promptly stole the throne and completed this floating castle…

‘The war too—that must be why.’

Now Kruger’s insane actions make sense.

His perfect organization of Schufaben’s systems was to have a smoothly running country beneath his feet, free from troublesome noise.

The war he waged against the entire continent was an obsessive-compulsive reaction to eliminate any existence that might threaten him.

Perhaps not an imperialist, nationalist, power addict, or pleasure killer, but just a little child who wanted peace.

So, do I pity him?

“Not at all, Your Excellency.”

I shook my head at him, whose trembling had completely stopped.

“Nothing has changed.”

“Ahahahaha! Same thinking, Lucas!”

Kruger burst into laughter and clapped his hands. The Hall of Memory collapsed once more.

Time hadn’t flowed at all.

We still stood facing each other, holding the cube containing the oath’s blood.

“……”

When I smirked, Kruger also smiled in response.

Nothing had changed.

I’m still going to kill that bastard.