9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 48 - The Scent of Blood (2)

So, the reason things turned out this way was…

“Do you think that’s right? Having someone hurt people under the name of the White Raven Order?”

“Hmm… Erika, I’m really exhausted right now, so my brain isn’t working too well.”

The day I returned from being kidnapped.

When I muttered with a tired expression, Erika looked somewhat embarrassed.

“Sorry for grilling someone who just arrived. But it was such a shocking story. Oh, and welcome back alive!”

“Now rest.”

Oscar cheerfully shouted while clapping his hands, and Daniel gently spoke while handing me a cushion.

“Thanks for worrying about me, everyone. I hope no one was hoping I’d die? Let’s meet again this weekend. If I fail to change your minds then, I’ll cleanly give up on joining hands with the elves. Oh, turn off the lights when you leave.”

With Richard’s face chuckling at my bland joke as the last thing I saw, my eyes gradually closed.

It had been a series of hectic days.

“Lucas! Why are you so reckless, child! Just quit the tavern and everything else and stay home!”

“Oh, Mrs. Schmidt, please don’t be so angry. It’ll ruin your pretty face. It’s all my fault.”

“I’d like to live just one day without worrying about you.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Sigh, please be more careful with yourself. And I packed lots of sandwiches, so take them with you later. Share some with Erika too. I wonder if you’re eating properly.”

“Thank you as always. I should give some to Georg too.”

“Who’s that?”

“Oh, a younger friend I know.”

After calming down Mrs. Schmidt.

“Lucas! What on earth were you thinking?! Do you have two lives? Why did you volunteer to become a hostage!”

“Ameli, shouldn’t my ex-girlfriend shed at least a few tears when I returned safely?”

“You call that talking?!”

“Sorry, it was a joke. This might sound like an excuse, but if I hadn’t stepped forward then, someone would have died.”

“Why did it have to be you! With so many people there, why! Why do something so unlike you!”

“This is who I am. This is who I’ll continue to be.”

“Don’t lie. You were absolutely not that kind of person before.”

“I became a better person. Thanks to you, Ameli.”

“What’s with the sudden flattery?”

“I’m grateful.”

“…”

After calming down Ameli too.

“What the hell happened? You really came back from the dead! My heart nearly fell out when I heard the news. A few free drinks won’t be enough to make up for this sin.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Here, one more drink. Since we’re meeting after so long, let’s stop the depressing talk. By the way, how’s Elizabeth doing these days?”

“And our Sonya?!”

“Oh, my friend! Oscar, you were here too? They’re both doing very well. I ran into Lieutenant Fisher a few times during joint training—”

After drinking with Second Lieutenant Ian Keller.

“Mr. Lucas Redan, nice to meet you. This is your second appearance, isn’t it? You’ve had quite a shocking experience recently—are you feeling alright?”

“Thanks to your concern. The memories still come back sometimes and it’s difficult, but I can overcome it.”

“That’s so like you, Mr. Redan. Shall I ask you a few questions…”

“…If I had stepped forward sooner, those people wouldn’t have gotten hurt. sob Oh, s-sorry.”

“No, not at all. Here, use this handkerchief. The terrorists are the bad ones, not you, Mr. Redan. The two guards were just unlucky to get caught up in it, so don’t blame yourself too much.”

“Sniff. Thank you.”

Only after going back and forth between newspapers and broadcasting stations for interviews…

“This week’s information summary is complete. So, shall we begin?”

***

“Let’s talk honestly.”

Lucas chewed his lips nervously while tapping his notebook with his pen.

There he goes again. Daniel let out a quiet sigh.

“What are you curious about?”

Richard leaned back in his armchair with a calm smile.

“Everything. The parts where you’re satisfied with me, conversely the parts you’re dissatisfied with, what you’re worried about, how you want to proceed.”

“That much?”

“I’m serious. I need to know things to find a path. As the strategist of the White Raven Order, I need to hear everyone’s thoughts.”

“Strategist? Who’s the strategist?”

Georg giggled.

“Me. Daniel’s the leader and I’m the strategist. Isn’t that right?”

“Oho, so you’re the second-in-command? Well, it’s not wrong considering the plans that come from your head.”

“Right, so confess everything.”

Perhaps it was difficult to suddenly bare their hearts, as everyone seemed hesitant.

Just before blood would flow from Lucas’s lips that he was chewing fiercely, Daniel stepped forward. He was the ‘leader’ after all.

“I’ll go first.”

Throughout the long conversation that followed, Lucas didn’t interject a single word and just listened silently.

Everyone was grateful to him.

For saving the White Raven Order from Ossel and forming cooperation to reduce the chances of arrest. For providing various good ideas.

For running around until his body was ready to break, spreading the organization’s name and packaging it as a representative group opposing the Supreme Leader.

Erika also said she was grateful for how he came to persuade her multiple times when she had left. Richard just smiled quietly.

Conversely, when Lucas took the stance of listening to everything, it became easier to pour out the emotions they had been secretly harboring.

His jumping into reckless situations every time. While fortunately producing good results, the dangers had also increased as a trade-off.

It was something they had prepared for, but sometimes it was frightening, Daniel confessed.

Even if unavoidable, they had made many unnecessary sacrifices.

That was indeed the problem.

Torture and murder!

Knowing full well about the inhumane acts happening everywhere, there was no way to maintain sanity.

Either become numb to fear like most citizens, treating it as ‘nothing’ and ‘ordinary daily life’, or continue to be aware of the fear and fight against it.

All White Raven Order members were the latter, which made them even more sensitive to sacrifice.

“All the plans so far were done together. The unexpected side effects are sad, but Lucas, you’re not at fault. We all agreed to it.

But this is different. Even if joining hands with Ossel was unavoidable, now all sorts of cruel acts will happen under the White Raven Order’s name. I hate that.”

Erika spoke coldly. Daniel could read her characteristic stubbornness in her eyes.

If she didn’t have that much backbone, he never would have approached her.

“Is civilian sacrifice really necessary? Last time that, Finn Schäfer was a bad guy, but no, actually even he hadn’t really committed a crime worthy of death.”

Thud!

Hearing Oscar’s hesitant words, Lucas put down the fountain pen he had been writing with earnestly onto the table.

“I’ll be honest. There’s no revolution without bloodshed.”

“…”

Suffocating air filled the hideout.

***

“What did you guys say? That Kruger should be judged by the people and die. That everyone should realize the Supreme Leader’s crimes and agree to execute him. That even though it’s deadly difficult, it must be done! Do you know how much that impossibly idealistic goal limits our cards?”

“What?”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying it’s bad. I’m not saying it’s impossible either. If I thought so, I would have quit long ago.

But listen, to achieve that, we can’t assassinate Kruger or stage a coup. We have to persuade the people solely through conviction and make them bring him down with their own hands!

Do you think such a thing can be accomplished through conventional methods? This country’s common sense is obedience to Kruger in the first place. We’re the ones going against that common sense!

That bastard is a lunatic who controls the entire country and manipulates it as he pleases! Is it possible to oppose him through kind, gentle methods that hurt no one?! Is it possible?!!”

Oh no.

Daniel lightly rubbed his temple.

Lucas was starting to go on a rampage again.

He found fragments of the ‘past’ Lucas in the ‘present’ Lucas’s appearance.

Blindly fanatical belief bordering on madness.

Before, he blindly loved Kruger, and now he blindly hated Kruger.

Daniel speculated that something had happened that completely flipped the worldview in his head.

Anyway, past or present, once Lucas fixated on something, he charged forward frighteningly like a broken train.

That paradoxically emanated an intensely captivating energy.

The sight of him passionately arguing with gleaming eyes, even if it looked utterly unstable.

“Hey, Lucas. I understand what you mean. But think about it. We’re not against sacrifice itself. We just don’t want to drag innocent people into it too. That, what was it?”

“Bletter.”

“Thanks, Georg. Right, Bletter too—they haven’t really done terrorism or anything so far, have they?”

At Oscar’s words, Lucas chuckled and shook his head.

“Because there was no gain from it. Because they couldn’t raise a cause like ‘End elf discrimination!’ They changed their direction of activity after the White Raven Order appeared. To cause trouble freely under our name and make Kruger lose public support.”

“Right, they owe us. So can’t we persuade the elves? To ask them to operate in a way that minimizes casualties?”

“Why should we?”

Lucas asked back coldly, a mad smile forming on his lips.

“To achieve our goal, the people must hate Kruger. Usually people hate their leader when life gets hard. When the economy collapses or public safety is shaken.

But is Schufaben like that now? No! Kruger, that cunning and crafty bastard! He’s governing well enough that the majority of citizens can’t complain. While drilling holes in the heads of those who rebel!

That means if you just don’t rebel, life is reasonably livable—so who would try to rebel? Except for us and bastards like Bletter.

So we need to provoke the citizens. We need to create reasons worth rebelling for even if they fear guns and swords.

We can’t make the economy collapse with our capabilities, and even if we could, the damage would be enormous so there’s no reason to try.

The most efficient thing that suits us perfectly is only worsening public safety. When a few important people die or get kidnapped, it shows immediately.

Of course, even that is too big a job for us to do, but people who’ll do it instead have appeared, right? It’s a chance to bring down Kruger without getting blood on our hands—why are you opposing it? Why! Why?!!”

Lucas howled like a madman and huffed angrily. He rubbed frantically at his right cheek as if something was stuck to it, and moisture seeped into his bloodshot eyes.

Daniel quietly watched Lucas’s extremely unstable state, then approached the whimpering man and patted his shoulder.

“Lucas, we’re not the only ones suffering. You’re the same.”

At those words, Lucas’s expression, whose momentum had died down, stiffened in shock. Erika also crossed her arms and spoke calmly.

“You thrashed around in your sleep yesterday. You also talked in your sleep saying there was too much blood. In an agonized voice. If it’s that painful, why are you obsessed with killing people?”

Lucas, who had been standing blankly, covered his eyes with trembling hands. After wiping away tears with swooshing sounds and lowering his hands, his bloodshot eyes were bright red.

“Hmm, I didn’t know. I went straight home yesterday… Lucas, if it’s that painful, stop. Worsening public safety, provoking citizens’ dissatisfaction—that’s all fine. But you don’t necessarily have to actually kill real people, right? For example, staging another kidnapping like last time. Wouldn’t that be enough?”

Lucas replied in a hoarse voice.

“How long do you think that will work? The effect has already worn off. Now they’ll only believe it if real corpses show up.”

Biting his lips tightly, he shouts.

“Damn it, I’m pathetic for having nightmares every night just because some guard’s head exploded next to me, but still, you idiots! How long did you think we could keep fighting purely?!”

“Hey, are you done talking?! We were worried about you!”

Oscar, whose temper flared, rushed forward and grabbed his collar.

“Brother!”

“Calm down and let go of that hand.”

Thanks to everyone rushing to separate them, Lucas only fell on his butt instead of getting beaten.

“Heh heh, heh heh heh, did you hit me?!”

He who had been laughing madly suddenly stopped laughing.

After taking deep breaths for a long while, when he raised his head again, his face was the same as usual.

“Lucas?”

“…You agree that this method is efficient, right? That some sacrifice is necessary? That the only mountain we need to cross is our conscience?”

A moment of silence flowed.

And starting with Richard, everyone nodded.

Lucas smiled while trembling.

“It seems we need to get used to death. Let’s start step by step. Beginning with killing the bad guys.”