9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 193 - Hatred and Trust (2)

After circling around Nina for several days, Oscar had grown tired of her obstinate responses, like some precocious old soul.

“Hmm, maybe this isn’t working… Should I give up playing cupid? But if not now, when else will I have the leisure?”

Nina was acquaintances with the White Raven Order members, and she was even fairly close with Erika.

They’d naturally gotten to know each other through looking after Georg, and Lucas’s request had made him pay even more attention.

“Keep an eye on that Nina girl for me. She’s incredibly important to Georg.”

Lucas’s eyes when he said that were truly serious—so serious you couldn’t even joke about whether he thought he was their father or something.

“I have no idea what he’s basing this on. Is this what Lucas was bragging about—his eye for people?”

Either way, he trusted Lucas.

Today too, he went to spy on Georg while pondering.

Ah, there definitely seemed to be progress. The evidence was Georg’s bristling fury the moment he saw Oscar’s face.

“Brother, what did you say to Nina!”

“What?”

“You told her, didn’t you! You went and told her! Why would you do that!”

“Hey, what are you talking about?”

Georg was rambling incoherently, so Oscar grabbed his shoulders firmly and asked.

“Calm down a bit. Take a deep breath and explain slowly what you mean.”

“I like her…!”

“Nina?”

Georg clamped his mouth shut, his face turning bright red.

‘Aha?’

By this point, even an idiot would catch on. Oscar smiled knowingly and shook his head.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Liar! Then why is she avoiding me!”

“How would I know? You’d know better than I would.”

Oscar answered playfully, then looked at him with a serious expression.

“Nina’s avoiding you? Did you do something wrong?”

“Nothing like that. I just…”

Georg’s eyes wavered dejectedly.

“She said she was quitting work and leaving, so I tried to stop her a little.”

“Ah, right. I heard about that.”

“How did you know?! You definitely said something to Nina, didn’t you!”

“You’re so suspicious. I really didn’t—if you can’t believe it, go ask her yourself.”

“If you’re lying, I’ll beat you up!”

“Give it your best shot!”

“What am I supposed to give my best shot at!”

With Oscar’s non-encouragement encouragement, Georg shouted angrily and ran off determinedly toward where Nina was.

***

“Buy a newspaper! Newspapers! Check the news from the battlefield!”

Sure enough, Nina was hawking her wares as usual. Though there were no customers. Georg approached hesitantly, having lost all his earlier momentum.

“Pe, Perez.”

“What, kid.”

Her expression when she turned around was vicious enough to kill someone. Her chilly gaze pierced through Georg, making even the courage he’d barely managed to scrape together wither away.

“Could you not talk to me? I’m not in the mood to chat with you anymore.”

“Why are you acting like this!”

“We’ll have no reason to see each other in just a few more days anyway, so isn’t it better to cut ties quickly?”

Nina’s tone was cold as ice, and in that moment Georg heard something snap in his head.

Snap.

His gaze grew heavy and sank.

“Is that really all?”

“What…?”

Georg stepped right up to Nina’s face and looked into her eyes.

“Nina Perez. You’re hiding something from me.”

“What am I hiding?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that you’re hiding something. That’s why you’re suddenly pushing me away.”

“Ha.”

Nina snorted derisively and gave Georg’s chest a light shove.

“You’re the one with secrets, kid. The secret you haven’t told me for years now.”

“Did Oscar tell you that?”

“I don’t know why that brother of yours suddenly started bothering me, and I don’t want to know, but I’ve noticed for a long time. That you’re keeping secrets.”

Nina’s expression grew serious as she took a step back from Georg.

“I know too, Perez. I know that you’ve noticed. That I go around doing dangerous things with Brother Oscar and Sister Erika and other people. You’ve been pretending not to know for a long time.”

Georg’s voice had returned to calm by now.

“Right, I may not know exactly what you do, but you’re definitely a dangerous guy. So please stay away from me. We’ll be people who never see each other again if I just hold out a little longer, and I don’t want to get dragged into your reckless games now.”

Nina spoke sharply, her words laced with thorns.

Looking back, they’d been walking a tightrope for years already, he and Nina. Knowing each other inside and out while pretending not to.

‘It’s time to end this gray relationship.’

The newspaper boy—no, the young man who could no longer be called a boy—muttered to himself.

“Nina, Nina Perez.”

Georg reached out and brushed back her red hair. With his height now a head taller than Nina’s, he looked down at her.

“Wh-what? What are you doing!”

“I have another secret besides that one. Want to hear it?”

“What?”

“I like you.”

For a moment, the autumn wind that had been blowing endlessly seemed to stop.

Nina stood there speechless, unable to even think of pushing Georg away, staring up at him blankly.

The next instant, Nina’s face turned bright red as if a bomb had exploded. Even her red hair stood on end, making her look like she was burning.

“I like you. So don’t go. I don’t want to let you go.”

“……”

“You didn’t know this secret, did you? Nina.”

“B-but.”

Nina, her face flushed with heat, slowly opened her mouth.

“You’re younger than me.”

“I’m an adult now too.”

“You’ve got lots of girls chasing after you!”

“Do you think I’d go out with anyone other than you?”

“I don’t have anything to my name.”

“I’ll take care of you.”

“Romance and stuff would just get in the way of your work!”

“How could that be?”

Georg carefully took Nina’s hand. He wiped away the tears that were somehow glistening in her eyes.

“You stupid kid…!”

Nina cried quietly.

“You’re dangerous, so if I stay by your side, you’ll definitely get more dangerous trying to protect me—”

“So that was your secret, Nina.”

Georg whispered in her ear. His sparkling wheat-colored hair tickled Nina’s pale cheek.

“For months, no, for years I’ve been worrying that ultimately we can’t be together—”

“You thought we should break up? Among all the reasons you gave, there still hasn’t been one that says you hate the man named Georg Roman.”

“Kid…”

“It’s Georg.”

He whispered with a laugh in his voice as he pulled Nina into a tight embrace.

“I’m not a kid anymore, Nina.”

Nina cried for a long time.

Years and years ago, back in their childhood when both their bodies and hearts were still immature. Even during their days of fighting and clawing at each other, she’d never cried. So Georg was seeing Nina’s tears for the first time.

“I never imagined there could be someone whose crying face was this beautiful.”

“Pfft, ahaha!”

At his joking murmur, laughter burst from Nina’s lips. She wiped her tears with the handkerchief Georg offered while giggling.

“Haa, kid—no, Georg. Are you serious?”

“I’m serious. I’ll answer until you believe me.”

“Georg, Lucas likes…”

From who knows where, Oscar, who’d been leisurely watching the two of them make a scene from between the buildings, spoke up casually.

“Lemon cake best of all. Make sure to serve it at the wedding reception.”

“What nonsense!”

Nina, having regained her senses, clenched her fists and started pummeling him.

“Phew, I have something to ask.”

Nina, who’d stopped crying, pulled out a small folded newspaper clipping from her pocket.

“This wasn’t you, was it?”

Georg looked at the article and chuckled. He could guess why Nina had started avoiding him.

“Nina, you thought I got revenge on your boss who stole your money? That wasn’t me. Though I could certainly get worse revenge for your sake.”

“If it’s not you, then it’s not. Don’t talk nonsense!”

“You don’t like it?”

Nina’s face turned bright red again.

After finally cooling down, Nina crossed her arms and looked up at Oscar.

“I thought Oscar was spouting useless nonsense about this to try to drag me in.”

“You really misunderstood big time. I was just going to tell you that Georg likes you.”

“Brother, I’ll forgive you. I thought you were acting all happy and excited lately and caused trouble, but anyway, things worked out.”

Georg said with a smile. If things hadn’t worked out, he would’ve torn Oscar apart.

“Our little kid’s really become an adult now. You’re a man, a real man.”

Oscar muttered while rubbing his suddenly chilled neck.

“Enough small talk—tell me too. What exactly are you all up to?”

At Nina’s straightforward question, Oscar gave a troubled smile.

And so Nina became a White Raven Order member after Ian.

Everyone welcomed her while worrying.

Though Oscar did groan after getting several smacks on the back from Erika, but that was just a minor issue.

***

Ossel headquarters had always been stuck in the garbage dump.

It was originally disguised as a garbage dump, but after so long, it had become impossible to tell whether the garbage dump was Ossel headquarters or Ossel headquarters was a garbage dump.

‘Maybe this is Ossel’s original fate.’

Spouting destiny theories he didn’t even believe himself, Johann Werner raised one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile.

Ossel was originally trash.

Ossel was a place where only such people gathered, and they were always doing trashy things.

For example, right now the underground interrogation rooms and prison cells were packed full of students who’d been arrested during protests.

Protests had been spreading like wildfire lately. Starting from Lüdelheim to small provincial cities, with universities as focal points, demonstrations broke out several times a week.

The slogans the protesters chanted were always similar yet slightly different.

‘Don’t hide the truth!’

‘We’re starving to death!’

‘Save the workers!’

University students, housewives, the lower classes, clergy.

People from all walks of life had rushed into the streets, spewing their grievances.

What suppressed them wasn’t police or Ossel, but other protesters. Forces that treated anti-government demonstrators as brain-rotted reactionaries or insane conspiracy theorists held counter-protests.

‘Uphold the grace of His Excellency the Supreme Leader!’

‘Hunt the traitorous beasts!’

‘Schufaben will surely win!’

The slogans they chanted were usually more provocative. Sometimes it escalated into brawls, but such details weren’t reported in the media.

Well, naturally.

Those counter-protests were actually government-sponsored demonstrations. Joint operations between police and Ossel.

Johann mainly created the slogans, and the police provided the manpower. Ossel members were all blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauties, so they’d be awkward forming a protest crowd.

The government protesters suppressed their ‘enemies,’ confiscated and burned subversive materials. Some fell into Johann’s hands.

“Today’s battlefield situation report. The sky is clear, the sun is blazing. Thanks to that, the stench of rotting corpses is vibrating all the way to the airships. Ladies and gentlemen, those of you who haven’t smelled this odor should consider yourselves lucky.”

Lüdelheim District 1, top floor office of Ossel headquarters.

Johann was listening to a radio news recording he’d obtained yesterday.

Lately, these kinds of recordings had been circulating disguised as ordinary music albums, but their true identity was an illegal broadcast transmitted by a woman named Sophia Kohl from the border area with Rubellia.

‘The woman who joined hands with Lucas Redan.’

Even without reading the letter Lucas had left, he could have guessed whose efforts had spread this broadcast, which was only secretly listened to in remote rural areas, all the way to Lüdelheim.

Sophia Kohl reported battlefield conditions daily and propagandized that Schufaben was hiding the truth. Naturally, it was an operation with Queen Rubellia’s full support behind it.

Those recordings were scattered by people working under the queen who secretly traveled back and forth to Schufaben, and were spread further by those impersonating the White Raven Order.

Johann could easily map out the distribution routes in his head.

The albums confiscated from university club rooms and underground bars. Those stacked in Ossel headquarters’ basement as evidence would someday become his weapons.

Knock knock!

“Colonel, it’s time to depart.”

First Lieutenant Philip Decker politely knocked and announced the schedule from outside. Johann turned off the gramophone, stood up, and put on his coat.

***

The road to the aerial fortress was heavily guarded by soldiers.

Upon reaching the central plaza of District 1, you undergo a body search and use magic to fly up to the castle in the sky.

Johann stepped onto the golden disc. Beside him, Lüdelheim Central Police Chief Heinrich Mates whispered with a displeased expression.

“Colonel Werner, watch your tongue in front of His Excellency the Supreme Leader. Don’t let slip any of the suspicious and dirty business Ossel handles.”

“You’re short-sighted. If I were plotting such things, do you think His Excellency the Supreme Leader wouldn’t know?”

When Johann scoffed, Chief Mates’s face flushed with anger.

Chief Mates was a typical lackey to authority.

He was frantically eager to gain his master’s favor, but was incompetent and stupid, so he couldn’t obtain real benefits.

For example, you could tell just from how he had frantically chased after Erika Brightner when she was wanted for economic crimes a few months ago.

Johann had naturally caught on the moment he saw the wanted poster.

‘There’s no way the Supreme Leader would be interested in someone like Brightner. She’s just bait to lure Lucas Redan.’

But Chief Mates had taken the wanted poster at face value, searched high and low for Erika, and came up empty every time.

He’d visited the Brightner mansion, but it had an obviously declining atmosphere. The gaunt Mrs. Brightner was living in poverty with just one maid.

“We’ve been out of contact with that child for a long time.”

The lady had answered curtly and turned her back.

Beyond that, he’d searched Lucas Redan’s house, businesses that had dealt with Redan Company—anywhere suspicious—but ultimately got nothing.

Recently, when Erika’s wanted poster was withdrawn, Chief Mates got a harsh slap to the back of the head.

Johann smiled mockingly at him while mentally reconstructing First Lieutenant Philip Decker’s report. Meanwhile, following a civil servant, they arrived at the topmost floor of the aerial fortress’s highest tower.