9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 202 - Liberation (2)

The Schufaben army headquarters at the military government office was turned upside down.

More precisely, the embassy where the military government commander—the highest authority of the military government office—resided was turned upside down.

“How the hell did you idiots keep watch?!”

The commander threw everything he could get his hands on, forcing the military government staff to duck their heads.

“You useless parasites!”

Thwack!

In the midst of this, an administrative officer got struck in the head by something solid and collapsed, but the commander paid no attention whatsoever.

And rightly so.

Resources were lacking, the handful of remaining troops were busy controlling the malcontents who popped up every time they forgot about them, and the officials and ministers—though the previous commander had coaxed and appeased them so they were working quietly for now—seemed to be having second thoughts judging by how things were going…

Day after day, barely scraping by without receiving any support from the homeland.

At least he’d been relieved that the king was young to the point of being childish, and mute to boot. In reality, all he did was cower in his room trembling like a wet bird chick.

But just when he’d let his guard down, he got blindsided hard.

From somewhere that brat had found the guts to expose the secret he’d been desperately hiding to the entire continent, nearly costing the commander his own head in the process.

After that, not knowing what trouble he might cause, he’d scraped together what little personnel he had to keep the king under thorough surveillance.

“He vanished without a trace from his bedroom and nobody saw anything? Does that make any sense?!”

“B-but the king never left his bedroom, and we were monitoring all the secret passages too!”

“What about the window?”

“No matter what, if he jumped from the 7th floor he’d die—”

“Did you morons never consider that a mage might have spirited him away?!”

“But our resources are so lacking we can’t even provide proper lighting—”

“Light torches then, you idiots!!”

The commander raged and stomped, seized by the urge to have all these incompetents shot. Be grateful for the reality where even firing a single bullet costs precious magic stones.

“Deploy every available soldier! Even if it leaves gaps in security and border defense, no matter what!”

“Should we mobilize the police force too?”

Thwack!

The administrative officer who had gotten up clutching his head spat blood and collapsed again.

“Is your brain a hat rack?! Going around announcing that the king has gone missing?!”

“S-sorry!”

“If you understand, then scatter!”

Schufaben forces combed through all of Cortana.

From the capital Carlton to the border city Hetzen, they formed small teams and frantically conducted random searches and inspected all kinds of facilities.

Even with all that effort, they couldn’t find so much as a hair from the young king.

They had no idea when, where, or how he’d disappeared in the first place, so there were far too few clues.

The commander, driven to hysteria, finally resorted to desperate measures.

「His Majesty the King has been kidnapped!」

「Suspected work of rebel organization!」

「Turn yourself in and find salvation」

Papers with sensational headlines and the young king’s face printed large as a door were scattered everywhere.

The military government’s proclamations promising huge rewards for finding and reporting either the king or the kidnappers were posted all over town.

They really did go around announcing that their king had gone missing.

Naturally, the entire country was furious.

People whose anger had boiled over to the point of explosion held demonstrations criticizing the military government’s negligence, and the officials suffered tremendous backlash, but the commander didn’t bat an eye and just repeated the same words like a parrot.

“Citizens of Cortana, we are facing an unprecedented crisis. Please, let us all work together to rescue His Majesty.”

And he pointlessly gathered clergy to hold prayer meetings and such.

“Everyone, please pray for His Majesty. That he may return safely to our side. Lord, please look down upon us with mercy.”

Of course, no amount of prayer brought the king back, nor did it make the kidnappers repent.

Several days passed like this.

When night fell on the capital Carlton, still bustling with demonstrators, and the commotion was forcibly quieted by the lack of magic stones to light the street lamps.

A red dragon appeared in the night sky once again. This time accompanied by an unfamiliar airship.

***

“Air pressure normal, speed normal. Arriving at target point in 10 minutes. Over.”

“No problems with the operation. Proceed as planned. Over.”

Fael put down the voice transmitter. Daniel confirmed the airship floating beside them through the cockpit window.

The airship flying alongside the red dragon Tan wasn’t particularly large, but its leisurely atmosphere was overwhelming in itself.

“Good thing it’s working properly.”

“Not bad for something made in a hurry.”

“I was sure we’d be caught.”

“You heard, Daniel. The military government commander cut off all communication with other countries.”

Fael replied with a calm laugh. Then he bowed his head to Edvart sitting in the cockpit.

“Your Majesty, we’ll arrive soon.”

The airship had been manufactured in the Great Desert. It was the result of gradually researching the blueprints Oscar had stolen, bit by bit in the Fa tribe village.

Because of this secret weapon, Fa tribe chief Fa-Shahin had to be careful about keeping his mouth shut for over a year after Elrahatan.

He’d been busy supervising airship research and manufacturing after handing over diplomatic authority to Fael and Namir.

The reason he’d devoted himself to this extent was probably because he’d seen through it with his characteristic wisdom.

How much this invention called an airship would help the Great Desert, especially the Fa tribe people.

Though he’d called it a secret weapon grandly, its real usefulness actually lay in its practicality. Things like merchants transporting large loads of cargo, or observing distant places from the sky to predict sandstorms.

Fael had looked somewhat strangely at Fa-Shahin’s childlike delight upon receiving the blueprints.

These weren’t the original blueprints but copies Oscar had drawn. Given Oscar’s mediocre artistic skills and the time constraints that prevented perfect copying, there were naturally errors.

After a year of building, fixing, building, and fixing repeatedly, the prototype finally turned out reasonably usable.

It was probably thanks to reducing the size and simplifying the structure from the original design meant for dragon transport.

The airship flew more slowly than dragons but much more stably from the Great Desert to Cortana.

They’d had to pass through other nations’ airspace along the way, but it went more smoothly than expected.

Just a few days ago, they’d declared war on Schufaben simultaneously with the birth of the Elven Federation.

The newly born nation had no diplomatic channels to speak of, and though it was broadcasting that only reached areas very close to the Great Desert. Still, continental nations reacted nimbly.

Except for the Cortana military government headquarters, which was pouring all its attention into the young king’s disappearance incident.

Elven Federation Cortana Support Forces

The airship with its banner flying in red letters received no attacks whatsoever.

“Wasn’t the national declaration ceremony too rushed? The preparations aren’t even finished yet.”

“You have to strike when they’re most distracted.”

Daniel laughed a bit emptily at Fael’s answer.

“That sounds just like something Lucas would say.”

“I guess friends grow to resemble each other. More than that, I’m just worried about Namir. He’s probably having a terrible time right now.”

“So you escaped from there. Did you plan it from the start?”

“Ahem, maybe.”

Fael wore a mischievous smile.

After the miracle of the magic spring emerging, Fael had changed a bit. For the better.

Though Namir, who ended up shouldering all the troublesome political problems, might jump up and down shouting “Not good!”

“I didn’t escape, Daniel. Namir can handle it too. I belatedly realized he’s not as much of a child as we think.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t escaping.”

Daniel muttered dazedly.

A little later, Fael spoke in a serious voice.

“Target in sight. Begin operation.”

The large embassy building appeared right before their eyes.

***

“Roooooar!”

With a thunderous roar, flames erupted from Tan’s mouth.

Red fire struck the embassy directly, and the building quickly began to burn. The guards who’d been dozing after fighting with demonstrators all day woke up with a start to the smell of smoke.

“Fire! Fire…!”

“D-d-dragon!”

Screams spread here and there as the embassy was instantly plunged into chaos.

“Launch!”

While the soldiers floundered in fear and panic, the bottom of the airship opened. Heavily armed troops began landing in droves with the help of mages.

Assad’s Bletter agents and the colonel’s guerrilla forces. All carried weapons that operated on magic water instead of magic stones.

Due to time constraints, the work of modifying existing weapons to be compatible with magic water had been done hastily. But even a hundred or so firearms were enough to throw the embassy into chaos.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!

Bang!

Boom!

“Wh-what’s happening?!”

When the commander woke up, the situation had already reached a point of no return.

Gunshots echoed everywhere, embassy guards were dropping like flies. He could even hear the roar of explosions.

“His Majesty has returned!”

“Freedom for Cortana!”

Resounding battle cries and flames reached his bedroom.

“Damn it!”

The terrified commander ran to a secret passage. But at the end of the passage stood Bletter agents in black clothes, waiting.

“Did you really think we wouldn’t investigate something like this when launching a midnight raid?”

“Aaaah!”

Assad, who muttered mockingly, shot the commander in the leg. He carried the writhing, fallen man like a sack of grain and escaped the flames outside.

The commander was dragged out bound hand and foot and thrown before the guerrilla forces.

“Hooray!”

The Schufaben flag hanging on the embassy’s front burned up. On the high roof where the flames couldn’t reach, a new Cortana flag was planted.

“Ah…”

Amidst the dizzy sounds and searing heat of the flames, Edvart watched the chaos in a daze.

So it was this easy.

Liberating a country wasn’t as noble, great, and difficult as he’d thought. Then maybe being king wouldn’t be such a headache either.

All sorts of thoughts swirled in his head.

***

“His Majesty has returned!”

“Freedom for Cortana!”

The guerrilla forces that recaptured the embassy marched through Carlton’s streets. People who’d been hiding in terror at the loud noises began coming out one by one.

And seeing the tightly bound commander being carried on a horse at the very front, they joined in as if enchanted.

The marching crowd grew larger and larger, soon filling the entire boulevard. Overwhelmed by their momentum, Schufaben forces quickly surrendered or fled.

By sunrise, the guerrillas who’d reached the royal castle opened the firmly closed gates for their king.

Edvart looked up at the magnificent and beautiful castle. His home, where he’d lived his entire life yet still felt only strangeness.

He took a breath and slowly stepped inside the gates.

“Long live His Majesty! Long live! Long live!”

Thunderous cheers burst forth. Edvart looked at the castle once more, and at the dragon circling in the sky as his escort.

Edvart’s knee slowly touched the ground. His hand brought the crown he was wearing down to the earth.

A crown that had somehow been placed on his head during the march.

He remembered wearing it when boarding the dragon on the day he was ‘kidnapped,’ but afterward he hadn’t paid attention to where it ended up. Had Daniel hastily found it and put it on him? Or was it Fael?

He didn’t know.

Originally, to Edvart, the crown was that kind of existence. Something placed on him regardless of his will, weighing him down.

A crown of pure gold with diamonds and sapphires prettily embedded.

When Edvart quietly placed it on the dirty street, it quickly sank into a dust pit.

‘I did nothing. Yet Cortana found its way.’

Edvart truly had done nothing.

“Don’t do anything, Ed.”

Just as Lucas had advised.

He bowed deeply to the crowd who had stopped cheering in shock. The magnificent crown at the people’s feet sparkled in the dawn sunlight.

***

「Cortana no longer needs a king. I return all rights to the people and wish to return to being an ordinary boy.」

Cortana was liberated.

And Edvart’s final royal decree as king was scattered throughout the nation.

Republicans who’d been oppressed for so long quickly rejoiced, parliament erupted in chaos, and most citizens fell into confusion. Amidst all this commotion, Edvart firmly refused the pleading officials and ministers.

「I—no, I never had outstanding qualities as a king to begin with. This matter too was only accomplished through the elves’ help and good fortune combined. There are many far wiser and more capable people than me, so entrust the government to them.」

It seemed it would take some time for Edvart to truly cast off all his duties.

While Cortana buzzed with the joy of liberation, the king’s bombshell declaration, and diplomatic issues with the Great Desert and magic water import agreements.

Fael and Daniel began preparing to return.

「Thank you.」

On the day of departure, Edvart, who’d come to see them off, greeted them.

「Take care, and please give Lucas my regards.」

The flag fluttered vigorously. The dragon and airship rose into the sky.

“Fa-Elhar.”

Daniel, who’d climbed onto Tan’s back and was looking down below, quietly called his friend. From the ground, Edvart was waving with a much brighter face than before.

“Edvart Piast really is a courageous boy.”

“Yes. There will never be anyone else, now or in the future, who throws away his crown because he doesn’t want to be king.”

A boy who’d endured so many terrible things, yet overcame them all and finally showed the bearing of a true king.

But a boy who stepped down from the pinnacle himself.

Daniel realized what he had to do the moment he saw him lay down his crown.

“Fael, I have to go back.”

Daniel muttered.

“Running away is over now.”

“So the long, long wandering is finally ending? Lucas will be happy.”

Fael grinned and made the joke. No, he was serious.

On the day Cortana Kingdom was reborn as Cortana Republic, Daniel crossed the border. Over the Colt mountain range, to Schufaben.