9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 29 - Modern Man's Physical Improvement (4)

The snow-covered streets were slushy.

People hurrying along the gray stone-paved roads, clutching their coats tight against the cold.

I too wore Lucas’s most treasured gray coat, carefully watching my step to avoid slipping. The soles of my shoes were completely worn down—one wrong move and I’d be flat on my back.

“One newspaper, please.”

As always, I bought a newspaper from Georg.

“Long live the Great Supreme Leader!”

I cheerfully greeted everyone I encountered in the office with salutes and bright smiles.

This was the routine I’d followed religiously every single day since killing Hoffman and being ostracized. They must think I’m an insufferable pest by now.

But this charade would soon be over.

Entering the dim archive room, I dropped my smile and spread a newspaper across my desk.

Flipping through the pages of ‘Die Zetrom,’ a fairly well-known local paper covering only Lüdelheim news, I found a small article buried inside.

「The Supreme Leader’s Loyal Citizens Disappearing from District 13!」

「This newspaper has been consistently reporting on the missing persons situation in District 13 since the 15th. We have analyzed how District 13 residents make up the highest proportion of missing persons in Lüdelheim, and investigated the unfortunate reality that many disappearances go uninvestigated despite not appearing in official statistics.

However, yesterday an anonymous informant sent us a shocking letter. According to the informant’s claims, a significant number of the missing from District 13 were either fervent supporters of the great Friedrich Kruger, Supreme Leader, or people engaged in businesses related to the free government led by the Supreme Leader. This newspaper launched an investigation to verify the informant’s claims.

The results were astounding. Of the 168 citizens registered as missing last year, a staggering 95—well over half—turned out to be model citizens who regularly demonstrated their loyalty to the Supreme Leader, or businesspeople and workers engaged in government-related enterprises…」

The article I had drafted and Daniel had diligently fleshed out a few days ago was printed almost exactly as written, though with some stylistic changes.

Daniel really was a good journalist.

Insightful, with excellent writing skills.

Assigning such a friend to manipulate public opinion left a nagging guilt in the corner of my heart.

‘Though since I’m a government employee, can this even be called collusion between government and media?’

A chuckle escaped me.

The article was cleverly distorted fake news.

Daniel had been submitting a special feature article about District 13’s missing persons cases to the newspaper editor for several days now.

As a poor freelance journalist, Daniel usually took whatever work he could get from various newspapers.

This local paper was one of the few that regularly assigned him article slots, however small. Meaning he could publish consistently here. Though it did go through editorial censorship.

This time, Daniel had briefed the editor about writing an article on missing persons crimes, and the busy editor accepted when it seemed to have no obvious problems.

Here, ‘problems’ meant content that might upset the Ossel.

Honestly, I’d been half-skeptical, but Daniel’s years of hard work building trust through diligent legwork had made it possible.

After getting approval, I cleverly distorted—or rather, misused—the missing persons statistics I’d copied from the archive room. Deliberately falling into what you might call statistical traps.

The article claimed District 13 had a high rate of missing persons, but when calculated as missing persons per capita, it was only slightly above average.

The claim that many of the missing were Supreme Leader supporters was complete nonsense.

Of course, nationwide there were far more people who supported the Supreme Leader than those who didn’t. After all, if you didn’t declare your support, Ossel would drag you away.

The word choice of ‘fervent support’ was particularly malicious, since most Lüdelheim citizens had fervently supported the Supreme Leader during his early days in power, and few had since avoided attending major events, waving flags and chanting for the Supreme Leader. Whether willingly or unwillingly.

Finally, the claim that many missing persons worked in government-related businesses was a ridiculous distortion of causation.

The Kruger government had nationalized countless businesses and expanded military spending, greatly developing the munitions industry.

District 13, with its cheap land prices, housed several massive military industrial companies. The airship assembly factory where Oscar worked was one of them.

Unless you were living in the slums where no one cared whether anyone lived or died…

So if you were a District 13 resident living a normal, ordinary life worthy of being counted in missing persons statistics, it was perfectly natural to work for public enterprises and the like.

About four or five out of ten would fit that description.

Some people would probably see through the nonsensical nature of the article. Even more would probably just skip over it since it was a small, boring piece.

But that didn’t matter. I’d written it solely to show one particular person.

***

Walter Schlik forced his rigid lips into an upward curve.

He wanted to hide his faintly trembling hands, but the sound of his teaspoon clinking against the teacup had already given him away, leaving him no choice but to squeeze his eyes shut.

‘Even Ossel Major couldn’t touch a district office director. He’d need to be at least a colonel…’

He tried to analyze the situation coldly to calm his mercilessly shaking heart.

But no matter how many crises he’d weathered to reach the highest position in District 13’s administration, he couldn’t remain composed before the Ossel.

Though they both served the Supreme Leader, the authority and influence between civil servants and Ossel was like heaven and earth.

The fact that he, a district office director, had immediately rushed over at the mere summons of a major—not even the highest-ranking Ossel official in District 13—proved that point.

No matter that District 13 was the poorest district among Lüdelheim’s 16, with the most paupers, making the director position unrewarding; no matter that all district offices had seen their authority severely curtailed since Ossel’s establishment; no matter that a major handled practical affairs while the colonel was obsessed with torture.

No, such details were trivial.

“Why are you so nervous?”

His counterpart across the table asked in a rather amused tone.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, features carved like a statue.

Utterly beautiful—certainly beautiful enough to be selected for Ossel. But Walter knew well how wickedly those features could contort.

He’d been summoned several times to observe the interrogation of ‘subversive elements.’ The face that emotionlessly wielded the whip was exactly that of a demon.

That was precisely why this meeting was unbearable.

Because he knew in his bones that Ossel’s ‘loyalty’ was on a completely different level from the civil service collective.

Though he’d spent a long time in bureaucratic life, he’d only seen two ‘genuine madmen’ who could rival The Ossel. Deputy Director Emil Hoffman and Clerk Assistant Lucas Redan.

But Hoffman was dead. Killed on charges of trying to frame Lucas Redan for elimination…

‘But why?’

As the office director who had been monitoring his staff, Walter knew best that there was no good reason for it.

Those two had been quite close and got along very well.

Though he’d learned of it belatedly, apparently Emil Hoffman had reported Lucas Redan to Ossel first.

And before long, he himself ended up hanging from the gallows instead.

‘He took revenge…’

Seeing Redan greeting people with bright smiles, only one possibility came to mind.

Whatever the detailed circumstances, his instinct told him Redan had definitely eliminated Hoffman.

Since then, he’d found Clerk Assistant Redan not just suspicious, but unbearably unsettling.

Walter monitored and evaluated staff daily. He never knew when he might earn someone’s resentment and be eliminated through Ossel’s hands.

It had reached the point of mild paranoid delusion.

Since he was nominally a civil servant serving the Supreme Leader, he couldn’t be fired without committing an actual blunder.

He’d been pressuring Redan to quit voluntarily, but this only made him more anxiously frantic—

And today, out of nowhere, he’d been summoned without explanation. By Major Johann Werner of Ossel.

Walter forced a smile as he looked at Johann.

“Ah, haha. It’s been so long since you called me, I’m excited to hear what you’ll say.”

Even as he answered, he worried whether it might sound sarcastic, but Johann just stared at him with emotionless eyes.

“Nothing to be excited about. It’s a trivial matter.”

He lacked the courage to retort about being summoned like a trained dog for trivial matters. He could only bow his head politely.

“Lieutenant Decker.”

At Johann’s gesture, the aide standing behind approached and placed several spread newspapers on the table.

After a moment of confusion, Johann kindly pointed to a small article.

‘District 13… missing persons?’

It was an article he’d never seen before.

Well, though he read newspapers daily, he didn’t subscribe to every single one, and there was little reason to pay attention to such regional papers.

When something important happened, he usually heard about it from his secretary rather than newspapers.

Before he could read it carefully, Johann spoke in his characteristically chilling voice.

“Wouldn’t it be better to resolve this before the higher-ups take interest?”

“Ah, yes yes, I’ll do that.”

He nodded without understanding what was going on.

When Ossel made a request—no, gave an order—refusing was foolish.

First give a positive response, then either figure out the task and handle it well, or if it seemed impossible, plead for mercy.

After leaving Johann’s house and boarding his private carriage, he sat in the plush seat and read the article carefully.

Soon a groan escaped his lips.

“How am I supposed to resolve this!”

People working at government-related businesses had gone missing in large numbers? So what was he supposed to do about it?

Find them all? Or assign guards to the factories and companies?

No, no.

Johann Werner wouldn’t make such an irrational demand. Besides, even if he did, he’d give such orders to the police chief, not the office director.

Since he’d only said to prevent it from reaching ‘higher-ups,’ he must mean to pressure this journalist into stopping such articles.

‘Too trivial a matter for Ossel to handle themselves.’

He couldn’t help feeling annoyed.

“Wait… the journalist’s name is Daniel Hartmann. Sounds familiar.”

“The journalist who came to the office for interviews last week.”

His secretary immediately answered.

That reminded him.

There had been a report about some young greenhorn claiming to be a journalist, pestering the office entrance wanting information about missing persons.

He should have broken that kid’s wrist then. Regrettable.

“First, send an administrative order to this newspaper, and find out who this anonymous informant is.”

“Yes, understood.”

He thought this would be sufficient.

***

Johann, who had been watching Director Walter Schlik’s carriage depart from the window, turned away indifferently.

“Satisfied now?”

“Yes, I won’t bother you with anything else. Not regarding this matter, anyway.”

Lucas Redan emerged from behind a pillar in the living room with a twisted smile.

Having secretly visited the night before, he’d explained his insane plan and requested help. Asked him to summon the office director and apply some pressure.

Johann had nearly burst into derisive laughter on the spot. Of course, if he were capable of any laughter besides his dry, maniacal cackle.

“Why should I do that?”

When he’d asked that, Lucas had repeated exactly what he’d said before, word for word.

That he’d become his hunting dog.

And that it was a way to raise and devour the White Raven Order more quickly.

“I’d rather not bother.”

Lucas’s response to that had been a sight to behold.

“Then I’ll report everything to your superior. The colonel, was it? I hear he’s a blood-crazed maniac. I’ll give him a detailed account of how you’ve been colluding with the White Raven Order.”

Johann had genuinely wanted to laugh.

Of course, he knew Lucas couldn’t actually do such a thing.

That colonel would tear apart Johann himself, Lucas Redan, and everyone else without a moment’s hesitation.

Lucas surely knew this too, making it an obviously shallow threat.

But what was truly amusing was that Lucas had threatened him while fully expecting Johann to see right through it.

“Cheeky little brat. Were you that eager to prove yourself a useful hunting dog?”

To be able to say with an unchanged expression that if you don’t help me, we’ll all die together, and to brazenly display such nerve right in front of Johann.

“Yes, that’s my wish.”

Lucas Redan smiled on his behalf.

***

The next day, shocking news struck Lüdelheim.

The daughter of a famous businessman and prestigious university student had gone missing.