9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 212 - Fire (5)

He had wondered why White Raven Order and the green dragon had left in the middle of everything.

Before nightfall, they had scattered all the flyers. As time passed, the protest became excessively heated. In the chaotic, noisy, confused situation, Christian belatedly realized the green dragon had vanished. When he asked people around him, they said it had flown away without a word some time ago.

He figured they must have gone to handle some other important matter. Earlier, when he saw the dragon return, he was even moved internally, thinking they must have been busy gathering supplies to save the protesters.

But that wasn’t it.

The police resort to violent suppression. They shoot rifles and massacre the protesters. The enraged protesters completely turn against the government, and the uprising ignites. White Raven Order knew all along. How many people would die, how great a storm that spark would bring.

That’s why they left.

Because if they swept away the armed police force with the dragon’s power from the beginning, the people wouldn’t even have the chance to shed blood and feel true anger.

‘They’re insane.’

It’s truly an absurd gamble.

Was White Raven Order always this kind of organization? One that condoned murder and violence, using forced shock to awaken people.

‘No, wasn’t it already like that, judging from the incidents reported in the newspapers?’

He couldn’t tell how much of the media coverage had been truth and how much lies. But seeing White Raven Order deliberately sacrifice some of the protesters, then bring doctors to treat them, he felt indescribably complex and subtle emotions.

And he thought Oscar Fisher, who was looking at this carnage with benevolent eyes, was truly like a madman.

A tremendously noble and great madman.

“What are you planning to do from now on?”

Oscar asked casually, as if he hadn’t noticed his shock.

“……”

Christian, who had been silently keeping his mouth shut, looked around once more.

People helping each other clean up traces of the night before and soothe their pain. People clutching the corpses of family and friends, wailing.

What on earth did he want to do?

“Excuse me, could I borrow that for a moment?”

His deliberation was brief. When he asked politely, Oscar handed him the megaphone. Christian took a deep breath and calmly opened his mouth.

“Everyone!!”

His greatly amplified voice echoed out. The surroundings, which had been noisy enough to hurt one’s ears with screams and groans, quietly settled down.

“Let me greet you once more. I am Christian Wamel, student council president of Lüdelheim Comprehensive University. No, I was. Until last summer, when I held a protest and was arrested by Ossel.”

Christian faced everyone with trembling eyes.

“Many things have happened, but I have returned, and I have revealed the truth to you all. But everyone, what do you want to do now? No, what should we do?

Much blood has been shed. Schufaben citizens have died and been injured, whether our protesters or police, regardless of which side. More citizens have been sacrificed on the battlefield. Yet I want to ask. Where is the Supreme Leader?”

The air stirred.

“Where is His Excellency the Supreme Leader, whom we so respected and followed, what has the Supreme Leader been doing while people died and were injured? Not just today. War and protests have continued, and casualties have kept increasing. But the Supreme Leader remained silent. He merely pushed more, ever more young people into the battlefield, and only watched as police brutally suppressed protesters.”

A hollow laugh escaped him.

“Where has the Supreme Leader gone, who just months ago came before everyone to give speeches? Where has he hidden himself, the one who threw tens of thousands of lives into hell’s flames while calling for us to work ourselves to the bone for the great Schufaben Empire? After instigating all this chaos, what is that coward thinking, suddenly choosing silence?

Everyone, therefore I dare propose.”

Christian trembled with both fear and elation as he spoke each word clearly.

“Let us go to the Supreme Leader’s official residence. Let us drag the Supreme Leader out and ask him there. What does he want to do? Let us tell him our story. Tell him to stop now.”

Tense tension.

No one opened their mouth. Neither ‘Let’s do it!’ nor ‘Absolutely not!’—no refreshing answer came from either side.

The words “Supreme Leader” carried that much weight, that much fear.

Then Oscar, who had been sitting perched on a box, stood up and extended his hand to his way. Caught off guard, Christian handed over the megaphone, and Oscar gave an inappropriately refreshing smile for the situation.

“We of White Raven Order have been resisting the Supreme Leader’s tyranny for years. You all know this. You know we opposed the indiscriminate war and worked to end the dictatorship. That intention remains unchanged even now. We told you. White Raven Order wants only freedom and peace. We will go to the Supreme Leader’s official residence. There we will show the Supreme Leader White Raven Order’s will.”

The atmosphere shifted slightly. The silence turned to murmuring sounds, then grew louder into buzzing.

“I, I’ll go too!”

“I want to tell him to stop this pointless war.”

“That bastard who stole my son! If I don’t see his face with my own two eyes, I’ll die of rage.”

Oscar, seemingly satisfied, put down the megaphone and looked back at Christian.

“My friend told me this. One person’s cry is noise, several people’s cry is violence. Then what would everyone’s cry be?”

“Ah, well, that would be…”

“The spirit of the times, he said.”

“The spirit of the times?”

“It’s your first time hearing that term, right? Maybe my friend just made up the word himself.”

Oscar gave a refreshing smile.

“The spirit of the times…”

Even without knowing the exact meaning, somehow it resonated faintly.

“The spirit of the times that the Supreme Leader instilled in Schufaben is now over. So let’s go—to finish off the dictator.”

The spirit of the times they had created here began flowing toward one point.

The protesters, having gathered themselves, marched toward the center of Schufaben, toward the aerial fortress where the Supreme Leader cowered.

***

The flames of protest would not easily die down.

After a day passed, the rumors spread even wider. Now the entire city was stirring to such an extent that even those who felt fear and shut themselves up in their homes could never ignore it.

Georg and Nina occupied the newspaper company’s basement and kept the printing press running until the mana stones wore out.

“Ah, this piece of junk! It needs to be replaced again.”

In the midst of stacks upon stacks of thousands of flyers, Nina banged the printing press. The rattling machine started turning again.

“I told you machines only listen when you hit them.”

“Be gentle, Nina.”

Georg organized the flyers that kept printing endlessly.

“We’ve printed enough of these, right? We’re running low on paper too.”

“Now we need to move these, but when will Oscar come to help us? I thought he’d arrive at just the right time by now.”

“If he doesn’t come, we’ll have to do it ourselves.”

“The two of us can’t handle it. You’re weak too, kid.”

“Me? I’m pretty useful.”

“Kyah! Don’t suddenly lift me up like that!”

Georg suddenly scooped up Nina. Nina, whose feet instantly left the ground, shrieked and slapped his bulging muscular forearms.

“Ow, stop, stop it, mmph!”

“Quiet.”

Georg’s mouth was suddenly silenced while he was flailing to avoid her hands. After a brief surprise kiss, Nina, who had slightly parted her lips, lowered her voice.

“I think someone’s coming.”

“What?”

Georg hastily put Nina down and extinguished the lamp. Sure enough, footsteps coming down the stairs could be heard. Not just one person. At least six or more.

“Damn it…”

Georg cursed under his breath and pulled Nina behind the large printing press to hide. A moment later, the basement door opened.

“Georg, are you here?”

The voice that carefully came through was unexpectedly familiar.

“Huh…?”

When he cautiously peeked out his face, he could see boys holding small matches, looking around the dark basement. Georg’s mind went blank.

“How did you guys get here?”

“There you are! We were worried because you didn’t come home!”

The boys’ faces, which had been anxiously searching the basement, brightened instantly.

“Outside is complete chaos, you know?”

“After Nina quit, you kept going places too. Um, and for years you kept disappearing at night, but no matter what excuses you made, there’s no way we wouldn’t notice.”

“Whatever you were doing, it was clearly dangerous.”

“Since yesterday you haven’t been home or contacted us, so we were really worried. We thought maybe you died in the protests.”

“But when we looked at the flyer we picked up off the ground, the scratch marks from this printing press were exactly the same. I used to work here briefly as an errand boy, you know. This place went bankrupt, but I thought maybe it was you. Just a guess.”

“Turns out we were right!”

At the sight of his younger brothers chattering away like chicks, one word each, Georg felt dizzy.

‘Since when have they known?’

That might not even matter.

“You stupid kid. I thought you’d completely figured it out.”

Nina quietly stood up and muttered.

“Little kids younger than this kid, go back if you know it’s dangerous. Do you realize what kind of life-threatening work we’re doing?”

“Of course we do. That’s exactly why we came this far.”

One boy answered firmly.

“We don’t know exactly what you and she are doing. But the fact that you haven’t been caught so far means that in this chaotic situation, you’re even less likely to be caught.”

“My god, what kind of logic is that!”

“It’s not some weird logic! We’re fly-weight lives anyway! If you hadn’t fought the thugs, fought the bad adults, fought the guys from other districts to protect us, we would have died several times over already!

“That’s right, so we have to help you too. If this protest fails, Schufaben is finished anyway. So it’s better to help even a little. We figured out at least that much too!”

“Why don’t you trust us? It’s been years, but you still only see us as little kids!”

Georg found something familiar in the boy’s indignant face.

“You’re too young.”

“What does being young have to do with anything? I absolutely want to get revenge on the Supreme Leader. So please, please accept us!”

Himself, throwing tantrums and making demands when Daniel tried to dissuade him, saying he was too young and it was too dangerous to join them.

That’s how he became part of White Raven Order and came this far.

‘Compared to back then, I’ve grown much taller and bigger now.’

He was no longer a child. And his younger brothers, who had endured all the harsh winds of this brutal world alongside Georg, weren’t either.

“…Alright, let’s do it together.”

At Georg’s words, smiles bloomed on the boys’ faces.

“Kid!”

“Nina, they also have the right to choose what they will and won’t do. Actually, everything they said is right. How many years apart are we from them anyway?”

“That’s… but it’s dangerous.”

“It’s okay. Right now the police don’t have the luxury to worry about bottom-feeder lives like us. And I think having even one more person causing a ruckus would actually make it safer. We need to make it as confusing as possible.”

Nina, who had been staring intently at Georg, finally nodded.

‘She was worrying about me. Even if she didn’t show it.’

Suddenly she seemed lovable to him. But now was the time to work busily.

“Well then, shall we start by spreading these flyers?”

The boys scattered throughout Lüdelheim. Not only to District 13, their home turf, but also to other areas where protests had begun.

“Everyone! Extra edition! Extra edition!”

“Please look at this! Amazing news has come out!”

“Are you curious about the situation on the eastern front? Please read this flyer!”

Some kids sold flyers mixed in with newspapers, others climbed onto random office building rooftops and scattered them. Still others shouted loudly while throwing bundles of flyers into the courtyards of houses.

As flyers covered the streets, the protesters also grew like a snowball. Lüdelheim was sucked into a whirlpool of chaos.