9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 60 - Catastrophe (3)

“So, what the Colonel has done, that is. Eric Klein?”

A quietly rumbling train.

The dining car had a calm and elegant atmosphere.

For some reason, it reminded me of the hotel restaurant I went to entertain high-ranking officials in Korea. Just like back then, there was that feeling of something heavy sitting in my stomach.

I had originally bought a first-class ticket, but came to the dining car after whining that I was starving to death. With people around, neither pursuers nor Ossel agents would be able to run wild freely.

“That’s right! How many times are you going to ask?”

Philip snapped irritably.

“I just can’t believe it. He’d go this far? That Johann? For me?”

At my pestering, Erika, who had been frowning, quietly kicked my shin.

“Lucas……”

It meant not to provoke Ossel unnecessarily.

Erika was quite anxious about the current situation, and though she didn’t show it, she was keeping Philip heavily under guard.

“Got it.”

I obediently shut my mouth and tried my best to run simulations.

‘The Colonel is targeting us. Because he found out that Johann either condoned or, in the worst case, instructed White Raven Order’s crimes. He’d consider it as joining hands with traitors. Then how would Johann respond?’

The first thing that came to mind was annihilation—killing all the White Raven Order members.

But I soon chuckled.

‘A situation where he himself could be branded as a reactionary at any moment. Plus, White Raven Order has six members. Not a large number, but not so few that he could easily massacre them all. If he rashly made a move and it backfired on him…… He probably thought it would be better to put me in his debt. What an honor. To think he’d evaluate me so highly.’

Once I roughly grasped Johann’s intentions, the next thing that came to mind was anxiety and worry.

“Hey, what happens to the other people? Daniel and Oscar, Georg, Richard. They must be working their own jobs, so how are you planning to extract them?”

“How should I know? Some people went to fetch them in groups, so if they’re lucky they’ll live.”

Philip answered gruffly.

So those guys would also be dragged across the border by Ossel’s hands.

“Then what about the people around us? If the Colonel goes after them too?”

“That’s not my jurisdiction. The Major will handle it well, so just wait.”

From Philip’s excited tone, infinite trust in Johann seeped through.

‘As expected, he’s good at taking care of his own people. He should have been a politician instead of an Ossel—what a talent.’

I gave a brief inner commentary and suppressed the anxiety rising enough to make my heart race.

Damn, I feel like I’m going to die.

“Your chicken stew, sausage with mustard sauce, and chocolate milk are ready.”

A man in a neat conductor’s uniform approached, pushing a food cart. Smelling the savory aroma made my stomach churn.

I savored the chocolate milk, Erika the sausage, and Philip the stew.

“Childish taste.”

“Would you shut up?”

The dining car was quiet, but nearby there was a dining couple, a band playing gentle music, and conductors visible.

When I had drunk about half my milk.

“Your dessert is ready.”

The same male conductor from before approached again.

“We didn’t order any……”

When he opened the cover of the silver tray, something sharp and black was briefly visible.

“Woof!”

“Duck!”

Colin, who had been lying quietly, barked loudly at the same time Philip shouted and threw a seat cushion.

Bang!

With the gunshot, the cushion burst open, scattering feathers.

Crash!

Philip pulled the tablecloth and threw heavy plates at him. Food went flying everywhere.

“This son of a…!”

I grabbed Erika’s hand and crawled under the table.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Kyaaaaah!”

Above us, the sharp sound of gunfire continued to ring in our ears.

“You reactionary bastard!”

Thud!

Philip must have jumped up by stepping on the table—I felt the impact.

Crack!

The gunfire stopped. A pistol clattered to the floor.

Cautiously sticking my head out, I saw Philip with a frown and the conductor—no, the Colonel’s bodyguard—trembling with a knife in his chest.

At the table over there, a couple with pale faces were clinging to each other. The band was also trembling while clutching their broken instruments that had been hit by bullets.

“……As expected, Ossel is Ossel.”

When I spoke with admiration, Philip shrugged his shoulders.

“Of course. Don’t compare us to private security companies. No matter how much the Colonel handpicked only veterans, they’re still children compared to Ossel.”

“Yes, yes, thank you for saving our lives.”

“Lucas! We don’t have time for this. More will come.”

Erika shouted urgently.

She was right. They wouldn’t have sent only one pursuer. Even if they had, passengers or conductors who heard the gunshots would come.

No, I could already hear loud footsteps.

Philip threw open the dining car door wide.

“Run!”

I grabbed Erika’s hand and ran. As soon as we burst out of the cabin, three pursuers came pouring out of the first-class car.

Bang! Bang!

Philip, who had slid across the wooden floor out of the dining car, barely managed to close the door.

“Hurry!”

My ribs hurt like hell, but I ran blindly. Past the tail car, there would be an exit that could be opened manually. But then what?

Bang! Bang bang!

“Damn it!”

I could hear Philip engaging in a gunfight behind us.

The passenger cars were in chaos.

People were either covering their heads, bustling around trying to get out, or building barricades with their luggage.

“What the hell is this!”

I knocked down the barricades with all my strength. Erika leaped over the pile of bags.

Thump!

Philip stepped on a bag handle and tumbled over. I let go of Erika’s hand and pulled him up.

“Damn……!”

“Woof! Woof woof!”

Colin leaped through the air and slammed into the shelf. Objects came tumbling down, and the pursuers’ bullets went wide.

In that moment, Philip quickly got up and ran fast.

Erika, who reached the tail car first, pulled hard on the door, and tremendous wind came rushing into the passenger car.

Bang!

Just before the gunshot rang out, she staggered and was sucked outside.

“Grrrrrr!”

“You son of a bitch!”

Colin made a bone-chilling growling sound and pounced on the approaching pursuers. Swift movements like a tiger. And he opened his mouth wide.

“Colin! Bite them!”

“Aaaahhh!”

With screams, blood splattered. Gunshots also mingled chaotically.

“What are you dawdling for!”

Philip pushed me hard, and I hit the wall before tumbling outside.

“Urgh! Damn it!”

I rolled across the narrow boarding platform and almost fell off. I desperately flailed and grabbed onto the thin railing, hanging there.

“Ugh……!”

My muscles are too weak for this kind of thing!

Then someone grabbed my arm tightly. It was Erika, who was precariously leaning against the railing while dodging bullets flying from inside.

“Hah, hah, thanks, Erika.”

I barely managed to get up and crouched down.

‘I almost departed this world for real!’

As soon as I came to my senses, I quickly took off my suit jacket. I threw it toward the inside of the train where the commotion was happening, and aimed my loaded pistol through the door.

“Damn!”

The opponent stumbled as their vision was blocked by the fluttering clothes for just one second.

Bang!

When I pulled the trigger, the bullet hit the woman’s thigh directly.

As she screamed and staggered, Philip, covered in blood, stabbed a knife into her neck. Then he shot the man Colin was holding, blowing his head off. It all happened in an instant.

Another pursuer was already lying face down on the floor with his throat torn out by Colin.

“Woof! Woof!”

Colin, with blood on his face and teeth, came trotting over.

“Sorry, are you hurt?”

“Just grazed a little…… Ah, were you talking to the dog?”

Philip, who had soon come down to the platform, answered curtly then shut his mouth.

I ruffled Colin’s trembling fur, checking for wounds. Fortunately, seeing him panting happily, he didn’t seem badly hurt.

“Hah, damn it.”

Along with relief, nausea rose up. Too many life-threatening situations.

“We’re approaching a slow section soon. When I signal, jump.”

“Got it.”

At Philip’s command, Erika answered calmly. Her body was trembling faintly.

Shortly after, the train tracks curved gently and the train’s speed slowed.

“One, two, three, jump!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and threw my body off the railing.

“Urgh!”

I felt a strong impact on my back. My rolling body ended up buried at the bottom of a gentle hillside blooming with wildflowers.

I stretched out my aching arms and legs and took deep breaths.

Stars were rising in the darkened sky. Unfamiliar stars that were hard to see in the city, and in Korea.

“Hah, hah……”

Erika, lying beside me, let out a deep breath.

***

Soft symphony flowed gently from the gramophone.

“Flute.”

A majestic sound joined in low, making people’s hearts race.

“Pipe organ.”

String instruments like wind sweeping through caves were added, heightening the tension of the piece.

“Cello.”

Lieutenant General Leon Kaiser, who had been identifying instruments with his eyes closed and a slight smile of enjoyment, slowly rose from his armchair.

“The symphony that Supreme Leader favors is truly beautiful, isn’t it, Lorenz?”

His adjutant, Major Fabian Lorenz, who had been standing like a statue beside the chair, stiffly nodded his head.

It was an overly insolent gesture for a major to show a lieutenant general, but the lieutenant general didn’t mind at all.

“The title is wonderful too. ‘Hero, 1882’…… You can tell at a glance it’s a piece commemorating Supreme Leader’s revolution of 1882, can’t you? Plus, I heard the composer is a pure Schufaben with no mixed blood whatsoever, so it’s truly worthy of being dedicated to Supreme Leader.”

He, who had been rambling, clicked off the gramophone. Then he looked at the man standing at attention in front of him, whose face had turned bright red and was breathing heavily.

“Tell me once more, Colonel.”

Lieutenant General Leon Kaiser had received Eric Klein’s phone call and decided to meet him in his office.

Not at Ossel headquarters.

That place had already been demolished, and they had obtained a new building to set up offices. Of course, the ruined abandoned factory looked the same from the outside.

Anyway, the lieutenant general asked in a gentle tone, and the colonel repeated the same question.

“Is it true that you, Lieutenant General, assigned Major Johann Werner a secret mission? If so, then why did you give me information about those reactionary bastards?”

The lieutenant general stroked his perfectly managed golden hair and thought.

‘Stupid.’

That’s what.

He had already known about Colonel Eric Klein’s stupidity, but this was stupidity beyond imagination.

‘Does he really not know why I gave him the information?’

Lieutenant General Kaiser managed all of Schufaben Ossel.

That meant he was among the top five most powerful people in Schufaben.

Power brings many things with it.

Envy, jealousy, threats, money, honor, information.

Yes, power brings information.

Special Police Ossel was fundamentally an intelligence agency as well.

Standing at the top of Ossel, information flowed in even without deliberately digging into others’ affairs.

For example, like the report about White Raven Order that had been submitted to Major Johann Werner.

A bundle of documents that happened to flow in during the process of rebuilding the intelligence network after the Ossel headquarters attack.

When he saw it, what the lieutenant general thought wasn’t ‘Let’s arrest White Raven Order and present them to Supreme Leader!’ or anything like that.

He just decided to conduct a ‘test.’

There was a wall between Colonel Eric Klein and Major Johann Werner.

The colonel was ignorant of politics, and the major was overly meticulous.

While the colonel was obsessed with ‘interrogation’ and neglected other matters, the major would have taken control of the entire District 13 and manipulated everything to his taste.

That subtle power relationship was visible to the lieutenant general’s eyes. Then, let’s pit them against each other.

After observing how they dealt with it, how they tried to satisfy him, he could choose one of them, both of them, or neither.

So this was an artificial second test that the lieutenant general had prepared after the unintended first test of the Ossel headquarters being raided.

The lieutenant general called the colonel and handed over the documents.

“This is information Major Werner received. You try using some force.”

And he watched.

‘The major sold my name to avoid blame. And he would have tried to deflect to me with different words.’

Johann Werner was a dagger.

He knew how to move secretly and had strong patience. But he was a dagger that might someday stab his master’s throat.

‘Colonel, you’re too stupid. Whether I really gave secret orders or not, contacting me now isn’t a very good move.’

Eric Klein was a greatsword.

Simple-minded and only knowing how to crush enemies, but a greatsword that would faithfully follow his master’s commands.

He made his choice.

“Colonel Klein, the secret mission is the major’s fabrication. Eliminate him.”

“That bastard traitor……! I’ll definitely tear him limb from limb!”

The colonel snapped a salute.