9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 43 - The Great Forest and Desert (2)

“Damn, the calculations don’t add up.”

The bandit leader muttered.

A moment of silence passed. I, crammed into the farthest corner of the hall, gradually shifted my position bit by bit.

When I was almost lying down, I could see the bandits without obviously lifting my head.

The leader seemed lost in thought, spinning what looked like some kind of mechanical device in his hands.

‘A detonator?’

If he pressed that thing, the bank would be finished.

“I’m warning you again! Release the hostages immediately and surrender!”

Once more, a magically amplified voice boomed through the building.

“Can’t be helped.”

The leader whispered something to the bandits. Then a masked female bandit ran to the window, dismantled and removed one of the iron shutters, then smashed the glass with her rifle butt.

Crash!

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

At that moment, bullets poured through the broken window.

“Kyaaah!”

People pressed themselves to the floor in terror.

‘These fucking idiots!’

I screamed internally.

Whether they had no intention of rescuing the hostages or what, those police or military or whatever they were had made the worst possible move. There was nothing good about provoking armed terrorists!

The masked female bandit stepped back slightly from the window and shouted outside at the top of her lungs.

“Listen up!! We are the White Raven Order! From now on, if you fire even one more shot or say anything that sounds like a threat, we’ll execute one of these bastards every minute!”

‘Fuck, that damn White Raven Order!’

My head throbbed as I rubbed my forehead against the cold marble floor.

‘Think! Please think!’

It was agonizing.

I felt like I was about to vomit from suppressing the Lucas inside me who was going mad with fear and disgust.

But I desperately racked my brains.

‘Investment, bank, artwork, radio, terrorism, White Raven Order, elves… Elves, did they say elves?’

Meanwhile, the police chief or commander or whatever outside was screaming.

“If you harm even one hostage…!”

Even though the only communication window was that one small window, somehow his flustered state seemed to come through.

“Hey, you!”

The female bandit grabbed a young woman nearby by the hair and dragged her toward the window.

“Sob, sob! Please spare me!”

Hiding her own body behind the wall, the female bandit suddenly shoved the woman toward the window and aimed her gun at her head.

“Think we can’t do it?! I’ll show you! I’ll kill this woman and then next—”

“Stooooop!!!”

I screamed hysterically.

An eerie silence fell.

Everyone in the hall turned to look at me, and I rolled on the floor, writhing before barely managing to get up.

“Take, take me as a hostage instead!”

As I gasped and shouted, the leader who had been watching my breakdown tilted his head.

“Boss, now that I look at him…”

One of the bandits quickly whispered in his ear. The leader’s eyes widened slightly, then he glanced at me.

“A hero, you say?”

His voice was dripping with mockery.

“You’ll become a hostage yourself?”

I stood awkwardly and looked up at him, nodding.

“But let the other people go!”

“Why should I?”

“While people are escaping, there’ll be chaos, and that’ll make it easier for you to escape. You weren’t planning to just keep this standoff going forever, were you?”

Though I was gasping for breath, he seemed to understand roughly what I meant. The bandit leader thought for a moment, then gestured to someone beside him.

“Gugh!”

A tall bandit grabbed my neck with his thick arm and dragged me away.

Gasps erupted from here and there. People who had been too frantic to even notice my presence until now belatedly recognized me and began to stir.

“No, you can’t!”

The woman who had been captured cried out anxiously.

“If you kill him…”

“Shut up.”

The now-useless woman was shoved by the female bandit and staggered before falling.

I felt my head being thrust out through the glass window. The gun barrel touching the back of my head. The remaining glass fragments scraping against the back of my neck.

My face contorted from the stinging pain and maddening tension.

“Nobody move!!! Do you know who this is?! This is Lucas Redan, the one you all worship as a hero! Move even a finger and the bullet flies! Want to see this bastard’s head blown apart?!”

I could see tremendous chaos erupting among the police officers lined up surrounding the bank.

“Shut up and tell Kruger! Tell him to stop that dog-like behavior and step down from the throne!”

The female bandit yanked me back and threw me down, then sat on top of me.

“Well, everyone got a good look, right?”

The bandit leader shouted and aimed his gun toward the window.

Bang!

With a loud noise, the jagged glass fragments that remained disappeared into pieces.

“If you want to live, get out now. You have exactly 5 minutes.”

But people looked at each other hesitantly, and crucially, they looked at me and didn’t move.

“I’m fine! Everyone escape, please!”

When I cried out desperately, the female bandit pressed down on my ribs.

Bang!

“If you want to die that badly, just stand there like idiots!”

“Kyaaah!”

When the bandit leader fired his gun at the ceiling, people finally scrambled toward the window.

“What the hell is that?!”

“They’re hostages!”

The police officers were flustered by the sudden flood of people and couldn’t respond properly. People pushed each other, desperately trying to crawl out through the narrow window.

In that pandemonium, I…

“Should we make an example of this guy?”

“Well, for now—”

I tensed my body and threw off the female bandit in one motion. Leaving the confused her behind, I ran toward the bandits who were packing their bags.

“Hey!”

I rushed at the bandit leader like I was body-slamming him, and before the others could subdue me, I shouted.

“Don’t kill me, take me as a hostage! Extort money or whatever! But let me meet your leader!”

A look of bewilderment flashed in his eyes.

“Because I want to join the White Raven Order too!”

I don’t even understand what I’m babbling about right now. But my instincts were screaming.

‘You can’t miss this opportunity now. You’ll definitely regret it!’

I have to get into their headquarters somehow.

“Did you suddenly go insane?”

As the bandit leader pushed my shoulder telling me to get lost, I could see his ear, the ear protruding from outside his mask.

I struggled and jumped up, then bit down hard on his ear.

“Ugh! Ah, ah, ah! Ahhhhh!”

“Boss!”

“Ah! Ah! It hurts hurts hurts hurts! Let go! Let go!”

Even though I didn’t bite that hard, he went wild and pounded my solar plexus with his fists.

“Hgh!”

The other bandits rushed over and pulled me off. Rolling on the floor, I grinned wickedly.

The ear soaked with my saliva. I scanned the tiny scars carved above it with my eyes.

The fog in my head cleared.

I felt like everything was becoming clear.

The leader, his eyes red and filled with tears, clutched his ear while pointing his gun at me with his other hand, glaring.

“You bastard…! I’ll kill you!”

“You’re an elf, aren’t you?”

At my whisper, his eyes hardened.

It’s not difficult to distinguish between humans and elves.

You just need to look at the shape of their ears.

Elf ears are long and pointed.

Human ears are short and round.

However, the reality is that there aren’t many other clear differences besides that.

After the Great Forest was destroyed, elves lived for a thousand years under the hot desert sun. Perhaps because of that, they often have dark skin.

But there are elves with pale skin and humans with dark skin.

The further west you go on the continent where the desert is located, the darker the skin becomes for both elves and humans.

The folk belief that elves have exceptional beauty doesn’t always hold true either.

The prejudice that elves are better at sensing magic certainly has some basis, but it’s not a distinguishing feature you can spot at a glance.

So, in the end, they’re closely related species.

In my opinion, humans and elves are probably biologically much closer than horses and donkeys.

Mules and hinnies can’t reproduce, but human-elf hybrid offspring can have children normally.

In the end, it’s quite easy for elves to disguise themselves as humans.

They just need to cut their ears.

As long as they can escape Schufaben’s strict administrative system, they can cut their ears, get a new identity, and pretend to be human.

In fact, there were rumors floating around that elves were doing exactly that, infiltrating human society and committing all kinds of crimes.

That bastard Lucas believed those rumors without a shadow of doubt.

Before me stands an ear-cut elf that I’d only heard about.

***

“You bastard!”

“Boss, are you okay?!”

When I came to my senses, all the bandits had their guns pointed at me. The elf waved his hand and glared at me.

“What the fuck are you? What do you do?”

“Me? Someone who wants to join the White Raven Order.”

“You? Ha!”

He snorted derisively.

“Where’s the reason to accept a brat like you? Just because you saved one girl and got praised by those idiots, do you think the world belongs to you?”

Was it too much of a stretch? My lips itched and I wanted to bite them.

“It’s more profitable to take me along anyway, isn’t it? I’ll cooperate obediently, so show me your real leader. I have something to say!”

“Acting all high and mighty with that pathetic hero name tag. How can we trust you?”

After thinking for a moment, he sneered and jerked his chin.

“Let him go.”

The female bandit who approached roughly grabbed my shoulder and untied my hands. Then the elf pulled something from his pocket and threw it.

What I caught reflexively was that thing from earlier…

“It’s a detonator. There are three bombs installed here right now.”

I glanced around the hall.

Not even 3 minutes had passed yet.

I could hear screams and shouting near my ears. People were crowding toward the narrow window.

Especially the bank employees, who had been near the counter far from the window when they started running, were just stamping their feet anxiously as they looked at the people blocking their way.

“If you really want to follow us, you need to show your resolve. Can you kill even the people you saved with your pathetic hero act? If so, detonate the bomb right here, right now. Press that device—”

Click!

When I pressed the button on the detonator, it made a metallic sound.

“Holy shit!”

“Cr-crazy bastard!”

All the bandits except the elf clutched their heads and crouched down.

And the explosion…

Didn’t happen.

Nothing happened at all.

I chuckled and threw the detonator back to the elf.

“Do you think I’m an idiot? If it explodes here, we all die, so you’d give the detonator to someone you can’t trust? You need to recite a specific spell to make it explode anyway, right?”

The elf glared at me like he wanted to kill me and ground his teeth.

“You’re not a coward.”

“Now that you know, hurry up and guide me.”

I could see the hand holding the gun trembling. I bit my lips and had a staring contest with the elf.

My heart was still beating painfully. So much that I could feel the movement of my blood vessels.

The elf, who had briefly raised his rifle as if he wanted to shoot me dead, gestured toward the back. As I unconsciously turned around, someone’s kick struck my leg.

“Gugh!”

It hurt like my bones were breaking, and as I flailed and fell, several people grabbed my body and stuffed me somewhere. Probably in a sack similar to the one holding money.

“Shut up and stay put. Make a sound and we’ll kill you.”

“Alright, let’s withdraw!”

With the elf’s voice, I began moving like a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.

My upside-down body shook violently, making me nauseous. I felt like dying.

I didn’t think to protest the unfriendly transportation method. Rather than that, I concentrated on figuring out which direction these bastards were escaping.

‘Stairs. Are we going underground? Well, a place like the National Bank headquarters would have emergency escape routes. But how did they know about that? Even considering the lax security of this era, still…’

Darkness, downhill, flat ground, then uphill, and then sunlight appeared again with flat ground.

The person carrying me picked up speed even more. My swaying body ruthlessly bumped against that person’s back.

BOOM! CRASH!

I was thrown somewhere and collided with a hard floor, while at the same time a tremendous explosion sounded nearby.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Be careful!”

Faintly audible screams. My body shook violently from the shockwave that started at the blast center.

At the same time, I lost consciousness.