9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 204 - Eve (2)

The expressionless woman looked around the small room.

Whitewashed walls with simple furniture. A small window. Mountains of documents and well-worn books.

It was excessively modest and plain. Unbelievable as the living space of the Supreme Leader’s “most trusted” secretary.

This had been her room for twenty-five years.

Lucas Redan had truly told her everything. As if there was no longer any need to hide. No, as if he was unburdening his heart, speaking matter-of-factly.

“The Supreme Leader’s autobiography is all fake. You must have predicted that much, right? That perfect childhood was all lies. In reality, it was nothing but thorns and hardship…”

A pitiful, pitiful soul.

Born alone as an alien existence, living without understanding or being understood by anyone.

People hated, despised, ostracized, and persecuted him despite his causing no harm to anyone, eventually cutting him off from the world entirely.

Until his broken soul abandoned all expectations and shut itself away in its own space.

Driving him breathlessly into that corner…

“The great leader who guides the nation’s destiny. The one blessed by angels. A patriot more devoted to the country than anyone else.

Surely you don’t believe such praise, do you, Eve? You’re the person who’s observed Kruger most closely. He’s lazy. Indifferent to everything in the world—a lazy person who only cares about his own peace of mind. How about it? Doesn’t that sound much more believable than calling him God’s messenger?”

Lucas Redan spoke in a murmuring tone as he looked at her. That’s how she knew it was all true.

No matter how cunning and shrewd Lucas Redan was. No matter how certain she was that his mouth had brought about countless disasters. That demonic man was telling her only the truth in that moment. Which made him even more demonic.

The more she heard, the more sadness and pity welled up. She couldn’t bear how pitiful Friedrich Kruger was as a human being.

It was a shock too overwhelming to handle. She wanted to silence the devil’s mouth, but couldn’t even make a sound.

“He doesn’t love you.”

Lucas Redan said dryly.

“You love him. But he doesn’t love you. No, he was born unable to love anyone. Can someone who cannot feel fear truly feel love?

Eve, fear and love are like two sides of a coin. By the thickness of a sheet of paper, love becomes fear, and fear becomes love. Just like how I suffered terrible things as a child and mistook my fear of Kruger for love. You’re probably the same. Originally, fanatical love has its roots in fear.”

Finding something amusing, he suddenly writhed and burst into laughter.

“Haha! The fools of this land are the same. They began to love him to endure the merciless terror. Because if they didn’t love him, they could only suffocate and die. Because if they didn’t love him, they’d become too wretched being unable to shake off that oppression.

Ah, Kruger succeeded in a way. Single-handedly, he drew love from tens of millions of humans, didn’t he? Perhaps the seed of misfortune is that he himself can’t feel it. Forever trapped in the shackles of boredom, rolling around. Rolling and rolling, until he dies.”

Having finished his lengthy speech, he burst into roaring laughter again.

Eve slowly ran her hand across the desk in the darkness.

The gentle scratches and scuffs. Feeling those textures under her fingertips, she remembered.

Those twenty-five years.

“You really are the most capable. I’m reminded of it every time.”

“I can rest assured if you handle this matter.”

“Eve, follow me. One step behind.”

With the most beautiful smile, calling her with the most beautiful voice. Those ecstatic moments.

Yet he had never acknowledged her. Never loved her.

The only being whose every action and every word the Supreme Leader watched with deep interest and found entertaining was Lucas Redan.

When she saw those blue eyes, usually sunk in dull lethargy, suddenly flash. When she saw him burst into genuine, uncontrollable laughter instead of perfectly crafted fake smiles.

She herself didn’t quite understand what emotions she had felt.

The Supreme Leader had overcome all opposition to keep Lucas Redan by his side. She had doubted and doubted that decision again.

Would it have been better if it were love?

To think the two were bound by a blood pact. To think that if Lucas Redan died, he would die too.

The emotion the Supreme Leader felt wasn’t fear but interest. He wasn’t afraid of death. He wasn’t afraid at all of the ending where Lucas Redan would bring everything crashing down.

That was what felt hopeless.

What words should she say to a human who knew neither fear nor love? How should she convey her heart?

The sun was rising.

The clouds outside the window began to turn pink. Eve’s haggard face was reflected in the dawn light.

Having sat at the desk for hours without even lighting a candle, she finally reached out her hand. On clean, neat paper, she gripped her quill and slowly began to write.

「I loved you.」

***

They said a revolution had occurred.

In Eve’s forgotten childhood, they said a king had died. Nobles too, landlords too—they died in droves.

In a world that had become a sea of fire, they said her family had grown greatly. The entire village had become family.

Everyone was frantic in those times, so she wasn’t hit with stones or cursed at. No, the outside world didn’t know about this village at all.

Eve had heard such stories.

Held in a warm grandmother’s embrace, smelling the tickling smoke, gradually falling asleep.

Grandmother sang while patting her back. Those rough hands. The low humming voice.

The whole family sang. Sacred lyrics echoed. Eve sang along like talking in her sleep.

“Dear God, dear God, grant us mercy! Dear God, dear God, grant us peace!”

There had never been a lord in this place from the beginning. Though nobles and commoners were divided, no one cared about such class distinctions.

While the entire country was in chaos, Eve’s hometown village was peaceful.

Surrounded by dense forest, a quiet village by a small lake.

During the day people worked hard, sweating, and at night they all gathered where grandmother was.

The large cabin—no, the temple—built in the village center had a statue carved of their god. Without any fancy decorations, just a pure white shining statue. Humans couldn’t dare know God’s appearance. So like symbolizing an abstract concept, it was smoothly polished into a sphere shape.

People gathered under that statue and sang.

“Dear God, dear God, grant us permission!”

Eve’s grandmother ruled the village. Eve’s parents, relatives, rich people, poor people, natives, outsiders who had drifted in, men, women, children, adults. Everyone obeyed her grandmother’s commands.

All equally, helping each other, they plowed fields, hunted beasts, caught fish, and picked fruit.

No one oppressed or persecuted anyone else. There weren’t even the usual romantic troubles. Because everyone loved everyone and bore everyone’s children.

Among dozens of children born that way, her grandmother chose Eve. Because she was the child who could get closest to “God.”

They were happy, peaceful times.

Eve couldn’t make friends.

While children her age picked grapes in orchards, dug crops in fields, went on picnics in the forest, and swam giggling in the lake, Eve read books and memorized doctrine with her grandmother.

One, all humans are equal.

One, God loves humans.

One, the end times come through prophecy.

Besides that, she recited 188 doctrines every day.

If she got even one wrong, she had to endlessly carve the doctrine into wooden boards with a sharp carving knife. Even when she cut her hand, even when it hurt like her tendons might snap, Eve didn’t mind. Because her grandmother’s kind words moved her.

“Child, you are my chosen successor. Let’s prepare to go meet God.”

With her wrinkled face, gently delivering those words.

“Dear God, dear God, make us a promise!”

Every evening while the villagers sang, Eve danced the dance her grandmother had taught her.

Flowing fabric streamed down from her fluttering dress, and the fragrance of flower clusters decorating her entire body made her dizzy. Her Grandmother lit 188 candles, and their smoke tickled her whole body.

When she danced, all thoughts drained from her head. Leaping high toward the sky, higher and higher, she felt so excited she might truly sprout wings and fly away. She thrilled at the feeling of gradually drawing closer to God.

The days of being intoxicated by elaborately crafted fake happiness didn’t last long.

It was a night not long after she turned fourteen.

As usual, she danced before the people offering prayers and singing toward the sphere. When the moon rose high, the service ended.

“There’s an important meeting today, so send only the children away.”

Her grandmother commanded. The adults remained in the temple while only the children scattered to their respective homes.

Should it be called lodgings rather than homes? Here, one man and one woman didn’t marry. Naturally, they didn’t build houses as “family” units either. Everyone raised the children together, and children received sleeping quarters according to age. Only Eve lived in the annex attached to the temple with her grandmother.

The concept of “family” that the outside world spoke of felt strange to Eve. She half-believed that beyond that forest lay the hellish purgatory the adults described.

The children greeted each other and scattered. Because she was the “chosen child” who couldn’t associate with anyone, Eve sat alone on the ridge between fields, blankly watching the swaying grass.

It was a particularly bright moonlit night. In the distance, she noticed the shadow of a cart set up at the forest’s edge cast on the ground.

Once a month, a merchant’s cart would come deep into the forest to sell necessary goods to the village, which had cut off exchanges with the outside and lived in isolation.

The fat, good-natured merchant that her grandmother praised as tight-lipped and trustworthy. The children eagerly awaited the cart’s arrival because he generously shared candies and cookies.

‘That’s right, he came yesterday. But earlier at the temple…’

She had seen the merchant participating in the service today too. It was the first time. Suddenly, a mischievous thought occurred.

‘If I secretly take some candy now, I won’t get caught, right?’

Eve entered the quiet forest. The freight cart was piled high with candy. While carefully calculating to take just enough that it wouldn’t be noticed, she saw an unfamiliar book crumpled under the candy basket.

She loved books. She loved them enough to throw tantrums demanding more whenever her grandmother brought them to her.

But looking closely, something was strange. It was a bit different from the books she usually read. Staring intently, she thought it might be what she’d heard called a magazine.

As if bewitched, she picked it up and opened the pages, and stimulating text and photos jumped out.

A famous actress admitting to an affair with a company chairman, gold bars missing from a transport cart discovered in the yard of a ruined mansion.

“That corrupt world outside is so terrible, child. It’s full of things a pure-souled child like you could never understand.”

Children Eve’s age were curious about the “corrupt world.” They constantly tried to go outside the forest. There was even a child who secretly ran away and received harsh punishment from her grandmother.

Eve hadn’t been curious. She hadn’t wanted to leave this perfectly happy place. But now Eve’s sharp mind was frantically absorbing new knowledge.

All she knew were the doctrines memorized since childhood and the stories from books grandmother had strictly selected for her.

Being too smart was the problem. Just from the articles in the magazine, she could roughly guess what kind of place the “corrupt world” was.

Reading frantically as if devouring the sentences, Eve suddenly stopped.

「Demonic Cult Hideout That Corrupts Good Citizens Discovered!」

Below the large text was a photo of her parents and young Eve. Along with an explanation that a couple had fallen into a cult and kidnapped a young child.