9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 23 - White Raven Order ― Richard (1)

The world is cruel.

The strong exploit the weak, and the weak despise those even weaker than themselves.

Richard dimly grasped this truth when he was very young.

Someone had gifted his parents, who ran a general store, some precious fruit.

That fruit, which even Richard, their only son, never got to touch, ended up in the mouth of the factory manager’s son.

That boy would constantly stop by the store and take expensive toys or sweets as if he were picking up items he’d left there.

The terrifying school teacher who took sadistic pleasure in corporal punishment was dragged away by the Ossel.

A few months later, Richard encountered the teacher in a neighboring village. He was crawling around with broken arms and legs, half-crippled, mumbling incomprehensible sounds.

A neighborhood thug kicked Richard’s puppy to death.

Richard attacked him and came home beaten to a pulp, crying.

His weak parents scolded him, trembling, telling him never to do such a thing again. The thug was the son of a corrupt police officer notorious for his cruelty.

The next day, the police officer came to Richard’s house and gave him a new puppy. He said his dog had given birth to a litter. He looked down arrogantly at Richard’s parents, who cowered in fear.

Late that night, Richard tended to his wounds alone and thought.

I am weak.

I survived because I am weak.

If I had been strong, if I had torn that bastard apart as I wished, not only I but my mother and father would have faced retaliation.

Richard raised the puppy with care.

Every morning, he put it on a leash and walked it past the police station.

Occasionally, the police officer would pat his head when they met on his way to work.

The gentle-looking boy with platinum hair like cotton candy smiled brightly, pretending to be happy.

His parents were relieved.

The puppy lived for eleven years.

It whimpered and died on the day Richard received his medical school acceptance letter.

The platinum-haired young man carried the dog’s corpse out in the middle of the night and secretly buried it in the backyard of the police station.

As he shoveled the dirt, he thought this would be the best gravesite.

Since he had received, he was simply returning the favor.

Over those eleven years, Richard changed.

His childlike vivacity and bubbly energy became much calmer, and his presence correspondingly weakened. The occasionally sharp glint in his eyes also became merely benevolent.

A good-natured, faint impression.

A comfortable atmosphere that made anyone feel they could approach him without burden.

Perfectly ordinary and unremarkable.

The world is ruled by the strong.

But the weak also have their own way of survival.

Richard always smiled broadly.

With his harmless smile, he treated everyone kindly and resolved fights with gentle words.

When someone asked for help, he never refused, and when they confided their troubles, he thoroughly performed the role of emotional garbage can alongside warm comfort.

He studied hard and exercised just enough to maintain his health.

He never stepped forward first, but when called upon, he didn’t back down claiming he couldn’t do it. Whatever task was given to him, he silently accomplished it.

Thus, Richard could avoid being hated.

However, he couldn’t be loved either.

Thanks to his gentle appearance and affable attitude, many people were drawn to him.

But after a few months, after a few years, they all gradually left Richard.

No, rather than leaving, their passion slowly cooled. Whether it was friendship or love.

He has an unsettling side despite his appearance, he doesn’t open his heart, he’s boring because he only says nice things, he has no real friends, only shallow relationships.

There was much talk behind his back.

Those who hadn’t experienced talking with Richard, who hadn’t been close to him for long, laughed it off as envy and jealousy, while those who had experienced all those nodded, saying it was all true.

Richard had things to say too.

Didn’t you make expectations on your own? I never gave any signals. Weren’t you the ones who poured affection on me and expected something in return?

But he never voiced these thoughts. He knew well that it would be of no use.

He simply smiled gently.

Since such things repeated every time, he grew tired. But he couldn’t stop. Instead, he smiled his fake smile more skillfully, more undetectably.

Richard’s mask grew thicker and thicker.

By the time he finally entered medical school, no one doubted his sincerity anymore.

Just a quiet kid who did his work well and was kind.

From exactly that position, he could avoid getting involved in troublesome matters.

Satisfied with such a life, he was diligently attending school when, on a winter day, he met Erika.

***

Richard stood in front of the massive hotel he had seen every evening on his way home from school through the tram window.

Over twenty stories high with dazzling lights. Lavishly decorated flowers.

A grand charity party was being held in the hotel’s hall, and he had to attend because a professor who favored him had given him the invitation, saying he was too busy to go himself.

This wasn’t his first luxurious party.

Thanks to his ability to easily win anyone’s favor, he could become friends with rich young masters and ladies, and he was regularly invited to their birthdays and other occasions when they wanted to show off.

However, this was his first time setting foot in a social venue for ‘high-ranking people’ with so many attendees.

Famous actors and military generals, businessmen and professors, even journalists.

He wasn’t particularly pleased.

‘How annoying…’

Simply to avoid disappointing the professor, he massaged the muscles around his mouth with his hands to relax them and entered the party venue.

He planned to eat some delicious food, make meaningless self-introductions to a few people, kill some time appropriately, and then leave.

The party hall was very crowded.

Under the glittering crystal chandeliers, an auction of the attendees’ prized possessions was taking place.

The enormous proceeds from selling these items would be used for relief of the poor.

During the revolutionary government period, when the economy fluctuated wildly and mass unemployment emerged that the meager budget couldn’t handle, these charity parties had been encouraged.

By now, it had degenerated into an event for upper-class people to flaunt their superiority and foster friendships.

‘How boring.’

Richard sat in a corner chair, watching the nearly finished auction while picking grapes from a golden tray.

The juice of the soft, sweet flesh stained his tongue.

The rare fruit he had so desperately wanted to eat as a child, which had made him first feel loss and deprivation when it was taken by the factory manager’s son.

If only he had known he could get it so casually like now.

If that had been the case…

“360,000 pelts! Are there no more bids? Sold to Mr. Brightner, who made the highest bid!”

When the emcee cheerfully shouted from the distant platform, a portly middle-aged man took the actress’s dress and shamelessly joked good-naturedly.

“Well, looks like I’m going to get scolded by my wife again.”

People burst into laughter.

He had heard the surname Brightner through rumors. The president of a textile factory that was growing frighteningly fast recently.

“…Disgusting.”

There was a voice that pierced his ears vividly.

Reflexively turning his head, he saw a girl who looked exactly like the company president Brightner, but unlike his hearty laughter, she wore a coldly hardened expression as she leaned against the wall in a navy dress.

‘Disgusting?’

Did he mishear just now?

‘Oops.’

Richard must have been staring too long, because the girl sensed his gaze and glanced down at him.

What are you looking at?

Her eyes held that kind of arrogant look.

Richard reflexively smiled gently and, following the upper-class etiquette he had picked up, offered a handshake.

“I’m Richard Enke.”

The girl hesitated reluctantly before clasping his hand.

“I’m Erika Brightner.”

“Ah, President Brightner’s…?”

“Yes.”

Erika left a curt response. After that, neither of them had anything to say.

As they stood there blankly for a moment, they heard someone approaching with brisk footsteps.

“Don’t tell that person what I said earlier.”

Erika whispered almost inaudibly while adjusting her dress hem.

“Having fun?”

“Father.”

President Brightner handed his daughter the actress’s dress.

“I’d like you to wear this dress. It would suit you well. But more importantly, who is this gentleman?”

Richard bowed slightly.

“I’m Richard Enke. I attend Lüdelheim Medical University.”

“Oh!”

The president let out a pretentious exclamation and shook his hand.

“I’m Emmett Brightner. Lüdelheim Medical School—isn’t that the elite of elites? However, no matter how prestigious the university, they wouldn’t send invitations to students, would they?”

When he tilted his head questioningly, Richard politely added,

“Professor Bauer sent me in his place due to his conference attendance.”

“Ah, Professor Bauer—I know him well. Are you also aiming to become a surgeon?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“If you learned under that Professor Bauer, your skills must be good too. Oh, right. I twisted my foot when entering the party hall and my ankle is throbbing—could you perhaps take a look at it?”

It was a bewildering request. Next to him, Erika was openly frowning.

‘A businessman who climbed to that position can be this shameless and rude.’

However, it didn’t feel like it was meant to humiliate him or full of malice. Perhaps this kind of cheerfulness was his strength as a businessman.

‘I’m still a freshman, so my learning is insufficient.’

He was about to say, but the social mask that had steadily thickened over the years prevented it.

“Then, please put your leg up here.”

Richard sat in a chair and positioned himself. After palpating the president’s bare foot that was placed on his thigh, he applied pressure to the ankle.

Crack!

With a short sound, the displaced bone found its place, and the president burst into surprised laughter.

“Haha! Excellent! It doesn’t hurt at all!”

He jumped around like a child in joy. Richard wiped his hands with a napkin, muttering to himself that this wasn’t a bone-setting clinic, but anyway, it was fortunate that he had made a good impression.

That day, President Brightner, who had taken a liking to Richard, asked if he could become Erika’s tutor for college entrance exams.

And for quite generous compensation at that.

For Richard, who was saving money to open a private practice after graduation, there was no reason to refuse.

***

Richard visited the Brightner mansion twice a week.

That’s how he learned that the household was desolate and bleak, contrary to appearances.

On a day when rain was pouring down heavily, after calling to say he would be a bit late but arriving early instead.

Heading toward Erika’s room, he stopped at the sound of fabric tearing.

Through the slightly open doorway, he could see Erika tearing and cutting the dress she had received at the charity party.

Sensing his presence, she whipped her head around.

“Are you going to tell Father?”

Richard entered the room with a slight nod.

“I don’t care what you do, miss. I’m just a tutor.”

“That’s good.”

Erika rubbed her eyes.

“As long as you’re not a spy Father sent.”

“How could that be?”

“Then why on earth are you at this house.”

Suddenly, a tear fell from Erika’s eye.

“You should know by now. That this is a place twisted beyond repair. Why exactly are you staying?”

“Well, I was offered a job—”

“Why aren’t you curious? About why I’m tearing this expensive dress, why I hate my father. Why doesn’t anyone, anyone, wonder about me?!”

Erika cried bitterly.

The passion, sadness, and embarrassment of a sixteen-year-old girl in puberty was fully conveyed.

Richard quietly comforted her. Until her crying subsided.

He realized she was a dangerous child who, contrary to her cold exterior, harbored flames in her heart.

He was also aware that she had fallen for Richard, the only one who listened to her.

He had simply been faithful to his usual role as an emotional garbage can.

He pretended not to know any of it.

However, five years later.

Erika, who had safely entered university, suddenly extended her hand and dragged him into the swamp. Into an anti-establishment organization called the White Raven Order.

***

Richard had no regrets.

A life lived to avoid disappointing others.

He entered medical school according to his parents’ wishes.

He had no interest in the idea that being a doctor was a good profession for making a living because there was always demand.

He joined the White Raven Order following Erika.

Though he had complaints about Kruger, he wasn’t to the point of wanting to start a revolution. However, because he didn’t want to disappoint the members, he participated moderately, just enough to be satisfactory.

Yet he was actually feeling doubt.

‘You were looking down on us. From the beginning, it was obvious you treated us like kids playing secret society games.’

When Erika got angry at Lucas Redan, Richard smiled bitterly to himself.

‘Right, this was all a game.’

He naturally knew that Erika had noticed his mask. A teenage girl was honest about her emotions, after all.

It was just surprising that she continued to treat Richard as a friend even after that.

‘That’s probably over now too.’

Richard thought as he handled Erika’s medical records.

He had no regrets.

Just a faint sense of wistfulness passed through him.

Knock knock knock!

A nurse knocked on the door.

“Doctor, a letter from President Brightner has arrived.”

It was a party invitation.