9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 196 - Emergency (1)

If one could look down on the vast Great Desert from a god’s perspective, they would discover scattered settlements and several large villages worthy of being called cities.

And if they carefully examined the pattern of how those cities were clustered, they could easily distinguish each tribe’s territory.

Let’s roughly consider the Great Desert as elliptical in shape.

At the westernmost point, near the coast, lies Asma, the abandoned capital of the old kingdom. It’s a kind of holy site that no tribe touches.

On the southern coast, the Shan tribe has settled. Once prosperous through trade, now only fragments remain.

Northeast from Shan tribe’s territory stretches a vast wasteland.

Though all deserts look similar, there’s still a difference between land where people can live and land where they cannot.

The vast area from the western sea to the center of the Great Desert had been abandoned for a thousand years, lacking resources and having few water sources.

Following that land northeast eventually leads to a massive oasis. That most fertile place in the Great Desert is Fa tribe territory.

Past the Fa tribe village and further east live the Ban tribe, with Khal tribe above them and Teno tribe below.

Though the elves—no, the five tribal chieftains—had resolved to establish a unified nation, the tribes still only operate within their respective territories.

As they had for hundreds of years, they were content with news carried by traveling merchants. Recently, exchanges had become somewhat more active, though it was still rare.

One day in June 1904.

An ominous atmosphere hung over the pioneer village’s central square.

Daniel stood on the platform, looking down at the tense faces.

Workers clutching their families’ hands, glancing around anxiously. Feeling heavy guilt, he opened his mouth.

“Everyone. The company has gone bankrupt.”

Murmurs—the air shifted.

“All of you and I have become unemployed and now stand at a crossroads. Will you stay, or will you return? It’s harsh, but please make your decision.”

At the bombshell announcement, everyone’s faces turned pale. The murmuring grew louder until it was painfully noisy.

“Wh-what do you mean the company failed so suddenly! Bankruptcy?!”

“What happened to headquarters in Lüdelheim?!”

“What about our salary for this month?!”

Daniel waited until enough questions had poured out, then opened his mouth again.

“I know you have many questions. I’ll answer them one at a time. Please raise your hand if you’d like to ask something.”

Hands shot up from here and there immediately.

“You there, the gentleman holding the child.”

“Why did the company fail? Don’t tell me it was because the pioneer village only cost money and we didn’t produce results…”

Daniel looked at the honest man’s face.

Even in this situation, a worker worrying about the company—if Lucas knew, he would have laughed for a while then muttered an apology. He felt the same way.

“You accomplished truly amazing things. The company’s collapse is absolutely not your fault. I’ll be honest with you. The government considered Redan Company’s downfall to be due to my embezzlement. But that’s only half the truth.”

“What?!”

People’s eyes widened like saucers as they looked at each other.

President Hartmann embezzled?

That gentle, humble man?

The one who cared for workers more than anyone and treated them familiarly without airs?

It was unbelievable.

Such whispered conversations reached up to the platform. Daniel secretly smiled bitterly while recalling the script he’d refined over several days with Fael and Namir.

“Please calm down, everyone! I’ll tell you everything.”

When he raised his voice a bit, the commotion died down.

“It’s true that I committed embezzlement. However, it was a crime agreed upon with the directors. From the start, all of Redan Company’s funds were planned to flow into the Great Desert. Because…”

He inhaled, then exhaled.

“If the war dragged on, it was certain all assets would be seized by the government.”

“What does our company have to do with the war?”

Someone’s timid question was barely audible.

“As you all know, our country, Schufaben, is groaning under war expenses. The government nationalized all companies that collapsed due to economic crisis and seized their profits. There were many cases where corporate leadership was executed under false charges at the government’s… His Excellency the Supreme Leader’s orders, and assets were recovered to the national treasury. The Redan directors, worried about such things, deliberately collapsed the company.”

At the mention of Supreme Leader, everyone froze. Though it was hot desert midsummer weather, it was as if a cold wind were blowing.

“Th-that’s impossible! His Excellency the Supreme Leader wouldn’t do such things!”

“That’s nonsense!”

“To commit crimes and make such pathetic excuses!”

Here and there, angry condemnations erupted. But that was only a small portion—most people watched nervously with frightened expressions.

“You may condemn me. I simply wanted to tell you the truth. But what’s important now isn’t the reason for embezzlement, but the fact itself that the company has collapsed. Everyone, will you return to Schufaben? Or will you remain in the Great Desert?”

A cold silence flowed across the square.

When the atmosphere became oppressively heavy, making it hard to breathe, one person raised their hand.

“If the company failed, how… can we stay? What would we do if we stayed?”

“I’ll tell you. If you choose to remain, what you’ll do is no different from before. Protect the pioneer village, search for resources, develop them. Instead, you won’t be employed by Redan Company but by me, Daniel Hartmann, personally.”

“If there’s no company, won’t more workers come? We thought this place, these resources would be Schufaben’s future…”

Feeling the confused atmosphere, Daniel bowed his head deeply.

“I apologize to you all. Schufaben is no longer in a position to care about the Great Desert or send troops. It’s only us now. At least for the next several decades. And…”

It was time to say the words he’d hesitated over most. He couldn’t even guess what reaction would come.

“As you know, we made a kind of agreement with the elves here. In exchange for allowing humans to settle in the Great Desert, we share the profits from resource development.

Deals hold very important meaning among elves. So even though the company disappeared, the agreement hasn’t been broken yet. Those of you who choose to remain will now… come to settle and live here. Together with the elves, depending on their goodwill.”

“Aaaaahhhhh!”

“That’s impossible!!”

“Live together with those mongrels?!”

“But those things are…!”

“What kind of nonsense is this!”

The square became explosively noisy. Amid all kinds of confusion, screams, condemnations, and outcries, Daniel squeezed his eyes shut.

“I have told you everything. Whether to return to the homeland at war, or remain in the Great Desert. Please, make your decision within three days.”

Daniel stepped down from the platform. Lacking confidence to cross the square that had exploded like a bomb, he hesitated when a stone flew from somewhere.

“You fraud!”

“You can’t do this!”

A staff member stepped in front of him. Over the staff member’s shoulder, he saw a familiar face.

“President!!”

Square jaw and thick brown hair.

The name was… Liam Weber, wasn’t it?

Seeing him hopping over on his prosthetic leg made his heart sink slightly.

“President, please tell me!”

Stopping the staff member who tried to intervene, he faced him directly.

“Really, really do we have to live with those mongrel bastards! Are you saying we didn’t control the barbarians, but made an equal contract!”

Eyes trembling with rage. His face, wet with tears, was burning red.

“Mr. Weber.”

Daniel placed a hand on his shoulder. The square’s scene seemed to fade into the distance.

Just eight months ago, the blood of the terrorist Ashtard—no, the condemned man disguised as Ashtard—had been spilled here.

Liam had lost one leg to fragments from the bomb Ashtard threw.

“I’m sorry for unintentionally deceiving you. But elves aren’t beings you can use as slaves. The Great Desert is their land, and we needed their permission to come here and mine resources. We made the best contract we could.”

“How, how could you…!”

Liam cried out in betrayal.

“President Hartmann, how foolish did you think we were! How miserable have you made us!”

The square’s noise had died down without him noticing. Everyone was looking this way.

Daniel just silently patted Liam’s shoulder.

This was a man who had despised, trampled, and hated elves all his life. But he was also a man who loved his family, respected his colleagues, and worked diligently.

This man who had lost his leg to elf terrorism learned that the boss he trusted and followed most was actually a traitor who had colluded with elves.

Daniel couldn’t even dare imagine that feeling.

Long ago, when Lucas insisted that the White Raven Order needed to join hands with elves to grow, he had felt that bewilderment, despair, and rejection. Multiply that by a hundred and it might approach Liam’s feelings.

It was only a matter of degree—all the workers gathered in the square would feel similar anger.

That’s why Daniel had hesitated to stand on this platform. But ultimately, the sense of duty that the truth must be revealed someday had driven him. Perhaps the faint journalist’s instinct had flickered.

“Mr. Weber, was it?”

In the quiet square where only Liam’s sobbing echoed, a calm voice suddenly intervened.

A gaunt young man with a prosthetic leg like Liam, supported by his father, was walking this way.

“Professor Schiller?”

It was Ernst Schiller and his son Albert Schiller.

Ernst Schiller was a political science professor and Erika’s mentor from university. A person with such insight that he detected the threat of war and fled all the way to the Great Desert with his whole family.

“You.”

Albert Schiller walked up to Liam and looked straight at him.

“I heard you lost your leg because of elves.”

“Yes, those mongrels…!”

“But I lost my leg in war.”

Albert’s voice was low and calm. But it carried enough force that everyone surrounding them could hear.

“Certainly elves are a difficult people to get along with. But they’re at least opponents you can talk to. War—you can’t communicate with the monsters of war. You can’t negotiate. Do you know war?”

“That’s…!”

“The government distributed drugs called canil to us. Canil numbed pain and made us charge at enemies with laughter even if arms and legs were torn off. I wasn’t shot, but had my leg amputated due to side effects from the drugs. I still take medicine for withdrawal symptoms.”

Liam’s wailing had stopped without him noticing. He shrank back a step from Albert as if afraid.

“I have no interest in what lies the company told or how vile the elves are. I’m simply grateful to God for one thing—that our family fled here and escaped the war.”

Professor Schiller, supporting his son, looked around at the people holding their breath.

“Everyone, we all know. What state Schufaben is in right now. And how much safer we in the Great Desert are compared to people in the homeland.

I don’t want to blame the president, even though there were lies and deceptions. If we hadn’t left Schufaben, we would surely have lost our lives.”

Professor Schiller’s words were simple but persuasive.

Not for any other reason—because everyone knew.

Recently the pioneer village had been stirring. No, not recently, but for quite a while. Precisely, since the last workers arrived from Schufaben.

Though this was a region with no newspapers or radio contact with the homeland, they steadily received news through the workers who kept being selected and sent.

And though that news was always of victory after victory, surely they couldn’t hide everything when the war situation had deteriorated this badly.

From the start, over half the workers here had urgently applied to Redan Company after the war broke out and the economy tilted—either to put food on the table or to avoid conscription.

As the war deepened, more workers with such circumstances kept increasing. The pioneer village people had noticed this change too.

The secret that the company had joined hands with elves was the same.

Though they kept it quiet among themselves, the workers had vaguely realized that the mined resources weren’t going to the homeland.

Did war-weary Schufaben have the luxury to reach into the Great Desert?

They had discussed such things.

“I agree with the professor.”

A slender man suddenly emerged from the crowd.

It was Thomas Himmel, husband of Lucas’s adjutant Captain Alina Himmel. He was holding his young daughter Lucy in his arms.

He had come to the Great Desert after receiving Lucas’s letter and meeting Erika. Thanks to Erika conveying the story through Thomas, Daniel had been able to roughly grasp outside news.

“Everyone, I’m the person who arrived here most recently. Just a month ago. When I left, Lüdelheim was truly hell. Those who came with me will know.”

At Thomas’s words, people stirred again. Before long, anger toward mongrels and traitors had faded, and the weight of survival pressed on everyone’s shoulders.

Daniel exhaled in relief and quietly stepped back.

While preparing for Redan Company’s collapse, Daniel, Fael, and Namir had urgently discussed countermeasures.

What to do with all these workers. How to handle them after using them thoroughly for their own purposes.

After countless worries and discussions, the three finally reached agreement.

Let them know the truth. And let them choose. The three of them would face the aftermath.