9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 30 - Modern Man's Physical Improvement (5)

Rippling waves touched my bare feet. A bone-chilling cold seeped through, making her toes curl.

The moonlight illuminated the white, ice-covered river in a dazzling display.

In the distance, beyond patches of frozen water, the shadows of towering trees swayed.

“Are you alright? Not uncomfortable?”

Erika quietly shook her head. Her disheveled black hair fell across her face.

“Well then, is this enough? Should we go deeper inside?”

Oscar looked at her with a worried expression, then suddenly lifted her up and headed deeper into the cave.

Though the thick reeds by the riverbank concealed the cave entrance, they had withered and dried in winter, so it would be wise to go further in before dawn broke.

This was the outskirts of District 13, still a natural area where no factories or residential districts had been built yet.

The Mire River flowed east-west through Lüdelheim, and this was a remote riverside area so overgrown with vegetation that people rarely visited.

When the White Raven Order was making concrete plans, the most fiercely debated issue was location selection.

They needed to hide without a trace from midnight until the evening of the day after tomorrow at the very least, so any place that wasn’t thoroughly secluded was immediately rejected.

Georg had suggested using the abandoned house for initiation ceremonies, but it was rejected as too dangerous since it was still on the edge of a residential area, no matter how remote.

Various other locations were proposed as candidates—rental warehouses, university basements—but when places with even the slightest connection to the members kept getting rejected one after another.

That’s when Oscar pulled this very cave from his old memories.

When he had left home and come to the capital with nothing, this was the place he had chosen as shelter after wandering around aimlessly.

He had stayed here quite a while, and no wild animals had ever come, and it was so remote that people didn’t even know about it.

After heated debate, they finally decided on this location, but the members couldn’t shake their worries.

However, Erika was completely fine with it. Really.

It had been quite a struggle just getting here since no streetcars ran through this desolate area. After walking for so long, her feet throbbed as if blisters had formed.

Today had been the last day to visit her mentor before graduation. Erika had left home dressed as beautifully as possible.

She wore a flowing dress and an expensive coat. She had carefully applied makeup to her face.

Of course, now her clothes were torn and she had wounds all over her body—a complete mess.

“Here, I’ll build a campfire.”

Oscar set Erika down on a relatively warm and dry rock deeper in the cave.

He unpacked his bag, stacked dry firewood, and lit it with a match, spreading warm air throughout the cave.

After confirming the wood was burning well, Oscar proceeded to take out a pistol, old clothes, blankets, bread, and other items.

He scattered these items on the ground, then walked around in hunting boots, dress shoes, high heels, and such, leaving footprints everywhere.

Now the cave had the atmosphere of a secret hideout that many people had clearly used.

“Phew…”

Having finished his work, Oscar sat down beside the rock where Erika lay. He hesitated, then pulled a white cloth from his pocket.

“Do we really have to do this?”

Erika nodded to indicate it was fine.

The reason she couldn’t speak was because she had a gag in her mouth.

Her mouth was completely filled with a bundle of cloth so she couldn’t even swallow properly, and her wrists and ankles were swollen from chafing against the thick rope used for binding.

When Richard had asked if they really needed to go this far, what had Lucas replied?

“It has to look as natural as possible.”

Something like that.

“Can’t be helped.”

Oscar spoke apologetically and covered Erika’s eyes with the cloth.

“Just bear with it a little longer.”

The world plunged into darkness. It felt like fear amplified the pain.

As she tried to relax her body as much as possible, Lucas’s pale face floated before her.

“Are you okay?”

During their last meeting, Lucas had asked very matter-of-factly.

When they were discussing who would be the kidnapping victim and Erika had volunteered, he had stared at her and asked three times.

“Are you okay?”

Erika had repeatedly said she was fine.

“This is something we’ll have to keep secret from your parents. They’ll be very shocked. Are you still okay with that?”

She couldn’t hide her cynicism at those words.

“Father won’t even care.”

“What about your mother?”

“…”

She was at a loss for words.

Her mother—well, what emotions would that ghost-like woman feel upon hearing news of Erika’s disappearance?

“If you’re doing this just to rebel, it’s not a good choice.”

At Lucas’s indifferent advice, Erika shook her head.

“It’s either me or Georg anyway. But Georg…”

Erika glanced at Georg, who wore a serious expression.

“He can’t generate the impact you’re expecting. Originally, according to the plan, wasn’t I supposed to be the victim? Richard and Daniel each have their roles, and Oscar and Georg aren’t well-known like I am.”

“That’s true. But if you refused, Erika, I was thinking of scrapping the plan entirely.”

“Are you serious?”

Lucas smiled.

“No. Actually, I don’t want to do that. Please, Erika. I need your help.”

His earnestly contrived voice put Erika’s mind at ease.

She must have dozed off briefly, because when she opened her eyes, Oscar seemed to have already left.

He appeared to have covered her bound, huddled body with a blanket. Given how warm and cozy it felt, which didn’t match the situation.

Through the cloth covering her eyes, she could sense the faint light of the campfire.

For the next two days, or perhaps three.

***

A languid night.

I waited for Oscar to return from what he had claimed was night duty. Daniel and I had been drinking, pretending to be somewhat drunk.

To avoid arousing Mrs. Schmidt’s suspicions, whenever Daniel, Oscar, or I had secret matters to discuss, we would disguise it as drinking sessions.

Though there were genuine drinking sessions too.

Mrs. Schmidt worried that someone with a weak constitution was drinking too frequently. I laughed it off, saying it was nothing compared to before.

“Will the article actually be able to run? If that office director moves faster than we think…”

Daniel suddenly asked.

“Doesn’t matter. The rumor will spread somehow. We have Georg.”

I replied while flipping through the newspapers stacked on the table.

“I know that, but I’m worried something might go wrong somewhere.”

“Worrying won’t help—we’ve already started.”

Daniel looked at me with a somewhat unfamiliar expression.

“Lucas, at times like this, you seem much more suited for the leader position than I am.”

A deflating sound escaped from my mouth.

“That’s out of nowhere. Fine, want to give me that leader position and just do whatever I tell you? Then I’ll drive the White Raven Order into the abyss of destruction.”

“I mean I envy that boldness of yours.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. That’s because, unlike you guys, I’m…”

Not from this world.

I swallowed the words that were about to spill out.

I’m not from this world.

Whether my soul had entered Lucas’s body, or whether I was living as Lucas and had recalled a previous life from another world, I didn’t know.

Even now, his ghost or the remnants of his memories dwelling in this body were raging, calling the White Raven Order a bunch of bastards who deserved to be torn apart and killed.

Maybe I was acting more extreme to suppress that. Perhaps.

Of course, there was also the clear premonition that if I didn’t risk my life right now, I would certainly lose it someday.

“Different how?”

I grinned broadly.

“I’ve gained enlightenment.”

“Ridiculous.”

“More importantly, I’m sorry for making you do propaganda and fabrication. A journalist’s duty is to pursue truth, after all.”

When I changed the subject, Daniel’s expression grew serious.

“Journalists should be righteous, always report only facts, and never bow to external pressure?”

“Of course. Why, having second thoughts?”

Regret flickered across his face.

“Of course I want to be a righteous journalist too, but I’ve already violated journalistic ethics many times.”

“Oh ho…”

I had thought he was nothing but good and upright. No, I had long ago realized that no such person exists, but Daniel had seemed different.

“Working at a newspaper that hasn’t been shut down means exactly that, Lucas. I’ve never written false articles or articles praising the Supreme Leader. But the editorial department would add such phrases anyway.”

Daniel sighed.

“If your plan succeeds, I’m thinking of quitting journalism too.”

“Will the journalist become a tavern worker or something?”

“Yes.”

He seemed sincere.

“I tried to resist alone and change the media, but I couldn’t bring about any change. No, there was one thing. The more I did that, the more work dried up.

When I realized that the senior journalists who praised Kruger had become turncoats through the same process as me, I was so sad I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid I would become like that too.

So maybe that’s why I agreed when you planned this. If I have to write false articles, I’d rather write them for friends than for Kruger.”

It was a sudden confession.

I listened quietly, suppressing the rising intoxication.

“Now I understand what you meant. As long as Kruger sits on the throne, this tragedy will just repeat. To truly reform the media, it seems we’d have to take Kruger’s head first. Until then, the handful of righteous journalists left will just be captured and killed.”

Daniel’s words were quite radical. Uncharacteristically so.

While one part of my heart felt chilled, I kept wanting to grin.

It was approaching six months since I had fallen into this world.

As much as I had struggled frantically, the people of this world had changed too. That is, my friends in the White Raven Order.

If I hadn’t entered Lucas’s body, they never would have planned such an insane kidnapping scheme, much less agreed to it.

“Daniel, I’m moved.”

“What do you mean?”

I was so grateful that they had changed as I wanted, that the White Raven Order had laid a very small foundation that could actually take Kruger’s head, that they had finally taken that first step.

“You’ve never revealed your inner thoughts like this before. It makes me think you’ve truly accepted me now.”

When I deliberately spoke sappily, Daniel looked flustered and embarrassed. How long would I be able to see such scholarly innocence?

I hoped the members would become more, more, more corrupted.

Only then could we overturn this damned world.

***

“Administrative order! Do not print any articles by Daniel Hartmann—that’s the office director’s instruction!”

The newspaper office, bustling as usual.

The journalists who had come to work at the crack of dawn were skimming through the hot-off-the-press newspapers when they looked bewildered at the sudden demand from the civil servant who had burst in.

“What’s this about?”

When the publisher stepped forward, the civil servant showed his identification card with an annoyed expression. The characters for “7th Grade Clerk” were stamped on it.

“I’ll say this only once more. Remove Daniel Hartmann’s article from the newspaper. Here’s the order.”

The publisher read the paper he handed over and made a blank expression.

“We already distributed them.”

“Pardon?”

“The newsboys already took them and left. They’re probably busy hawking them on the morning commute right now.”

The civil servant’s expression turned to horror.

“If you had come about three hours earlier when the printing press was running full steam, we could have made corrections, tsk tsk.”

The publisher wasn’t intimidated at all. It was well-known that the office director position was just a facade these days.

No matter how small the newspaper, censoring articles without reason was something only Ossel could do.

Rather than freedom of the press, it was simply because the Ossel had gradually stripped away the office’s authority.

“Im-immediately go out and collect them!”

“What are you saying?”

“Collect them! Are you going to disobey an administrative order!”

The publisher thought to himself that what good were administrative orders when even the lowest patrol officers wouldn’t cooperate without Ossel’s permission these days.

However, the civil servant’s position was different. No matter how much the office director was ignored outside, he was still a towering superior to him. Someone who held his leash.

When he made such a fuss and pressed so hard, the publisher sent the newspaper staff out to collect today’s papers.

‘This won’t stop the rumors from spreading, young man.’

While clicking his tongue inwardly.

Whatever method he had used, Daniel Hartmann had brought in a massive scoop.

As soon as the newspaper office opened this morning, he had burst in gasping and shouting that this was urgent news that had to be reported.

It was presumptuous behavior, but when he read the article brought in, it was truly eye-popping news, so he immediately stopped the printing press and revised the front-page article.

And he had distributed newspapers to the newsboys at lightning speed, even threatening them to hurry!

“Newspapers! Newspapers! Breaking news! The only daughter of President Brightner went missing last night!”

“Hey, you there! That newspaper is subject to collection!”

Georg watched in admiration as a civil servant with a red face gestured at him and came running.

“Wow, the rumors will really spread fast.”

He pretended not to notice and waved ‘Die Zetrom’ Daily, which meant ‘The Center.’

“Breaking news!”