9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 54 - Nothing Happened (1)

I removed my mask and took a deep breath.

There was no one on the vast factory grounds.

As I had instructed beforehand, each team must have withdrawn after completing their mission, taking the wounded, the dead, and the rescued prisoners with them.

While looking at the Ossel headquarters that was beginning to burn in earnest, I turned around when Fael placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Let’s meet at the hideout.”

I unconsciously nodded at his words.

The hideout referred to the house in District 13 that we had secretly purchased.

That house, which shared a border with the backyard of Redan Tavern, had originally been a commercial building, but we had hastily renovated it and brought in beds and operating tables.

Team 3 scattered in different directions.

To avoid suspicion, I wiped the blood from my face and neck with a damp handkerchief and changed into the fresh clothes I had packed in my backpack.

Then I left the vicinity of the Ossel headquarters and ran between the factories, hoping the wind would scatter the smell of blood.

***

By the time I arrived in District 13, the sun had already set.

‘It shouldn’t have taken this long.’

Part of it was because this body was weak, but perhaps I had been dawdling.

‘How many people did I kill?’

I didn’t want to think about it, but it stuck to my mind and wouldn’t let go.

I walked through the winding back alleys toward the hideout.

Fortunately, the tavern had been closed for several days under the pretext of a vacation, so there was no one coming and going in the area. Though Ameli had gotten angry, asking if I was insane taking a vacation at this time of year.

The hideout looked like an empty house with no signs of life from the outside. Everyone inside must be keeping the curtains drawn and staying quiet.

…Or so I thought, but when I opened the door with my key and went inside, the house was full of commotion.

“Kyaa!”

As soon as I entered, I collided with a woman who was rushing down the stairs in panic.

“Ah! You’re safe.”

When I came to my senses, it was Hannah, stamping her feet with an anxious expression.

“More or less.”

My voice came out completely hoarse.

“What about the others? Did they arrive first?”

“Don’t worry. All the White Raven Order members are safe.”

“What about Fael?”

“He’s collapsed in his room. He said he used too much magic.”

As he had said himself, he didn’t have much magical talent but had pushed himself hard today.

“Oh wait, just a moment!”

Hannah ran straight to the kitchen. When I followed her in confusion, she was struggling to lift a large kettle from the stove.

I silently reached out to help. She gave me a grateful look and led me upstairs.

“The room at the end of the second floor.”

Carrying the heavy kettle, I climbed the stairs and walked down the corridor, where the commotion grew even worse.

“Aaahhh!”

“Slowly, breathe slowly.”

A woman’s ear-splitting scream mixed with what sounded like Richard giving instructions.

“Erika!”

“Lucas? Give me that.”

Erika burst out of the room and snatched the kettle from me.

“Don’t come in!”

“What’s going on—”

“Kyaaahhh!”

“Waaaahhh!”

At that moment, the woman’s piercing scream mixed with a loud crying sound, shaking the corridor before gradually fading away.

And I saw it.

Through the gap in the door—the makeshift bed covered in blood, the woman lying there exhausted and crying, and Richard carefully holding something small and bloody.

Erika and Hannah rushing to wipe down the woman’s body with warm water.

How should I express this?

The quiet peace after chaos had passed? A sacred time?

“Hah, damn…”

A sigh escaped for no reason. My knees buckled, and I stood there awkwardly for a long time with my hand against the wall.

“It looks like both mother and baby are safe. Thank goodness.”

Before I knew it, Daniel had approached and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“…Where are Oscar and Georg?”

“They went to rest after tending to the wounded. Erika kicked them out. She said three people were enough for midwifery duties and told us to just run errands.”

A chuckle escaped me.

“She was in labor and had fainted in the prison. We had quite a struggle when her water broke in the carriage.”

“That could have been a real disaster.”

“It really was dangerous since all the hospitals had already closed by then. It was lucky we arrived in time and met Richard.”

I could hear joy and pride in his voice.

“…Daniel.”

I barely managed to speak while supporting my swaying body.

“We did a good thing, right?”

Daniel smiled and nodded.

“Of course. At least for today.”

An indescribable emotion welled up, and I quietly lowered my head. I rubbed my face, which still felt sticky.

***

“Total rescued prisoners: 21. Escapees who got out on their own: impossible to count. Casualties: all White Raven Order members lightly wounded, Bletter 3 dead, 22 lightly wounded, 5 seriously wounded. I… I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry.”

After the chaotic time passed, a full day later.

The results of the raid were roughly tallied.

Even though we had prepared ourselves for this, the fact that several elves had died or lost the use of their limbs brought guilt and shock beyond what I had imagined.

“It’s okay. We didn’t rush into this thoughtlessly either. The members are actually happy that they gave freedom to so many people. So you don’t need to feel so sorry. Weren’t you trying to train yourself to be indifferent to whatever sacrifices might occur?”

“Don’t presume to know others’ feelings, ah damn!”

“Don’t move.”

I thrashed suddenly at the sharp pain. Richard was beside me, dabbing medicine on with cotton.

“Ugh! Anyway, about what to do with the rescued people.”

Most of the prisoners took quite a long time to recover their weakened bodies.

The White Raven Order and Bletter took turns nursing people and checking their conditions.

We had stockpiled plenty of food and medicine in advance, but who could have predicted we’d need formula and diapers? The women had to go out and buy them little by little without arousing suspicion.

The house was filled more often with a newborn baby’s cries than with the groans of the sick.

Everyone took turns making formula or changing diapers. I even learned how to make formula for the first time from a married elf woman.

Whenever I went to check on people’s conditions while wearing a mask, I got tired of being asked about what happened to the baby.

The sight of those who hadn’t even recovered their strength yet perking up their ears at the faint sound of the baby!

Perhaps it had become a source of hope for them.

The rescued people were diverse in age and gender.

From teachers to civil servants, janitors, factory workers, children who were still just middle schoolers, even police officers.

This was the result of Ossel’s ruthless investigations and rampant arrests while trying to root out the ‘White Raven Order.’

Most of them cried, expressed gratitude, rejoiced at regaining their freedom, and wanted to see their families.

We conducted individual interviews, asking their names, ages, occupations, and reasons for being taken by Ossel.

Though we didn’t record it, we kept it well in our memory.

That these ordinary people had suffered terrible violence under all sorts of absurd false accusations.

“The White Raven Order fights for freedom and equality in Schufaben. Just as we resist Ossel and Kruger who imprisoned you. We don’t ask for repayment. Just please let the citizens know that there is hope.”

People became doves of the White Raven Order and returned to where they belonged.

To hide the location of this place as much as possible, we blindfolded them and took them far away before releasing them.

Since Daniel had definitely burned the prisoner registry, the chances of them being pursued again were slim.

The person who took the longest to recover was the woman who had given birth.

She fell asleep like she had fainted right after giving birth, then woke up three days later but couldn’t regain her senses.

She ate the food we gave her and her physical responses were normal, but she was in a dazed state as if her soul had left her body.

Even when Erika and Hannah showed her the baby, she barely reacted, which worried everyone.

But then several more days passed and Richard came to examine her.

“Your physical condition has improved a lot. You should be able to go home now. I’ll prepare medicine for you to take.”

Only then did the woman burst into tears. It was such a violent reaction that both Erika and I, who were watching, were startled.

“Thank you so much, sob! I really thought I would die in that place, that my baby and I would never escape from that room…”

She poured out rambling words to us in our masks. After a long while, she wiped her tears and suddenly said,

“Please let me join you too!”

I froze at the unexpected words.

It wasn’t that others hadn’t said similar things, but those burning eyes were particularly shocking.

“You should think of your child first. Just please don’t forget us. Don’t forget the White Raven Order.”

When Erika gently shook her head and refused, the woman cried again.

The woman’s name was Ema.

From that day on, Ema, who had regained her spirit, personally breastfed her child and repeatedly thanked everyone who had helped her.

On the day she could finally go out into the world,

“Really, how can I ever repay this kindness? I’ll never forget it.”

Ema bowed her head with tears in her eyes, then hesitated before asking,

“This is presumptuous, but may I ask one favor? The baby’s father passed away before he could give the child a name. I have no other family. Could you please name the child?”

It was an unreasonable, perhaps even rude request.

However, Erika looked at the small child sleeping peacefully. After a long silence, she whispered,

“…Angela.”

“Thank you, really thank you.”

I blindfolded Ema, who kept bowing, and put her in the carriage.

That evening, I casually asked Erika,

“Why Angela, of all names?”

“It’s the prettiest name I know. She’s a pretty baby.”

I laughed at her cool answer.

***

When everything was finished, the date had already moved into August.

Erika, Daniel, and I went back and forth between the boarding house and tavern, living as before. Oscar, Richard, and Georg continued their livelihoods as if nothing had happened.

There were several people among the White Raven Order who wanted to fight together, but considering the danger, we promised to meet again in the future.

Of course, we didn’t stop Fael from recruiting elves who had lost family members into Bletter.

Once the hideout was empty, there was something else we needed to tackle.

“Now we can finally take a look at these.”

The White Raven Order members, Fael, and Assad sat around the hideout.

The classified Ossel documents that Daniel and Team 4 had stolen.

It was time to sort through them.

“We already looked at the Ossel registry… What’s this? Ah, surveillance records of high officials. This could be helpful.”

We spent several days classifying, reading, organizing, and memorizing the massive amount of material.

Most of it was observation logs of ‘persons of interest,’ but how many of them were actually hostile to the regime?

“These Ossel bastards really are empty-headed.”

That’s what came out naturally. The Ossel materials were that much of a mess.

What good did neat handwriting, format, and sentences do?

They obsessively suspected people who seemed completely unrelated, got caught while tailing them, or there were traces of embezzling military supplies. It was just a continuous series of corruption and blunders.

“This is ridiculous. I’m embarrassed just reading it.”

But even such information would be useful somewhere if collected.

We really did discover some surprising facts.

“Lucas, could you take a look at this?”

Daniel, who had been concentrating on reading through the materials like the former writer he was, suddenly called me over.

「Military Animal Development & Training Plan—Focusing on Potential as Lethal Weapons」

It was a biological weapons research report that Ossel had jumped into at Kruger’s command but had now almost completely halted.

Records of selecting, breeding, and training animals that could be used on the battlefield, excluding dragons.

The development process, which even enlisted the help of breeding experts and mages, was a continuous series of animal abuse that could not be adequately described as horrific.

The experts seemed to have settled on ‘dogs’ as the species to be tamed as biological weapons.

Ossel had secretly attended underground dog fighting competitions to confiscate the strongest dogs, indiscriminately crossbred all kinds of hunting dogs, and used torture and magic spells to instill instincts for attack and obedience in the dogs… They had committed every conceivable atrocity.

However, due to excessive aggression and genetic diseases that became apparent with each generation, they eventually had no choice but to temporarily suspend the project.

“The facility hasn’t been shut down yet.”

“Look at the page after that.”

I looked at the ‘breeding results’ that Ossel had at least evaluated as ‘successful.’

The photos had brief explanations attached, and one familiar photo…

“This is Colin?”

Colin, who had been sleeping at my feet, perked up his ears and woke up.

“Woof!”

Genius that could be considered a mutation. Magical potential through continuous mana injection. However, the possibility of it being a hereditary trait is slim.

Escaped due to poor management, search required.

Looking carefully at the date, Colin’s escape date roughly matched when I had fallen into this world.

“You had so many secrets, didn’t you?”

When I stroked his black fur, Colin panted happily and barked with joy.