9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 68 - The Other World Conman (5)

“I don’t regret that decision.”

By the pond in the tranquil garden.

Marianne spoke with a voice lost in memories.

It seemed like young Charlotte, who used to shout “I’m a legendary mermaid!” might pop up from the pond at any moment.

“I thought that was the end of it. Losing Charlotte felt like my soul had been split in half, but it wasn’t something that had happened to me alone.

Lord Redan, a young person like you probably can’t imagine the horror of those times. The suppressed rage of the people became a wave of history that swallowed everything. Countless people lost family, friends, and lovers.

So I thought I was just another existence destined to fade into the back alleys of history. That it was over, that there would be no more tragedies.”

Marianne let out a soft sigh.

Then she looked at the naive young man who was listening to her story with wide, innocent eyes, completely absorbed.

Though he was already twenty-seven, his face looked unripe, as if caught between boyhood and youth.

Having seen that face, having read the spirit and ambition flickering in those black eyes that resembled Charlotte.

She wanted to tell him everything.

“I was wrong. The revolution wasn’t really a tragedy at all. At least, not for Charlotte’s remaining family.”

After handing power to the elected Prime Minister, Marianne spent her days leisurely at the White Palace.

All the while, she secretly sent people to Schufaben to monitor the situation and track down Charlotte’s daughter-in-law and grandson.

All the news that came back was heartbreaking.

Charlotte’s daughter-in-law, who had been living as a fugitive, eventually went to the revolutionary leadership.

She offered the family’s ancestral mansion and vast fortune in exchange for protection. Fortunately, the negotiations went well, and the mother and son were able to save their lives.

However, they had to go down to the Heidel region, which was nothing but a backwater village at the time, completely unconnected to the Redan family, and barely scrape by.

In the midst of this, the daughter-in-law fell ill, and the grandson tried to start a business with the remaining assets but struggled repeatedly in the chaotic political situation.

Marianne reached out to them several times. She tried to send money and even suggested they seek asylum in Rubellia.

Perhaps it was pride in being a member of the royal family. What came back each time was a polite refusal.

“And then, he appeared.”

Marianne muttered in a bitter voice.

Friedrich Kruger.

A genius knight commander and member of the revolutionary leadership.

Twelve years after the revolutionary government was established, Schufaben’s chaos showed no signs of ending.

Unlike Rubellia, where a relatively moderate new system had been established thanks to Marianne’s quick decision, Schufaben fell into the abyss, swept up in the resistance of the established powers and the corruption of the revolutionaries.

It was then that the hero Kruger rose up.

He purged all his old comrades and rebuilt the government from the ashes. An “efficient and fast” government where everyone obeyed absolutely, with him at the apex.

Unlike the revolutionaries who had been equals and couldn’t properly implement a single policy due to endless discussions and debates, Kruger pushed through policies by crushing the heads of opposition.

Peace came to Schufaben.

Of course, many things happened before that came to pass.

He needed sacrificial lambs for the “revolution,” and the remaining old royalty and nobility were good prey.

In the atmosphere of terror that Kruger deliberately fostered, they were either publicly humiliated in their villages or quietly taken away.

“Among those who were taken was Charlotte’s daughter-in-law—that is, Lord Redan, your grandmother. Did you know?”

“No… I didn’t know, Your Majesty.”

Lucas looked utterly shocked, his face turning pale.

“I didn’t hear it directly either. By that time, I had stopped spying on Schufaben and had lost contact with your father as well.”

“Meow!”

A cat that had been stealthily moving around the pond caught a fish and disappeared. As rustling sounds began to come from the grass, Marianne started walking again.

“I forgot about Charlotte for a very long time. No, it would be more accurate to say I deliberately tried not to think of her.

I thought it would remain just a wistful memory.

Whenever I occasionally heard stories about Schufaben, whenever I heard the people’s outcries that we should ‘liberate’ them from that merciless Supreme Leader who ruled Schufaben with terror as his weapon, the old wounds in my heart would ache just a little.”

Marianne smiled bitterly.

How arrogant those who had succeeded in “revolution” were.

Though they had achieved the same revolution, why were the paths the two countries took so different?

“Then suddenly, I heard your name, Lord Redan. They said a remarkably brilliant young man had appeared, charming the nobility. They said he was a descendant of royalty from Schufaben.

Suddenly, like a dam bursting, memories of being with Charlotte came flooding out. I missed her so much that I looked into what had happened to that proud daughter-in-law and grandson.

Though I regretted learning that the daughter-in-law had been dragged away and killed by the Special Police Ossel, and that the grandson had died in an accident with his wife.

After that, I spent several sleepless nights wondering whether I really needed to meet you.”

She turned around, leaning on her royal scepter. The young man who had been quietly following was watching this way with shaking eyes.

“Why… why are you telling me such a story, Your Majesty?”

A powerless voice flowed from his lips.

“Well, perhaps I was just looking for someone to vent my complaints to. When you get old, you want to tell old stories to anyone.

I’m sorry for confusing you. But I really wanted to tell you what kind of person your great-grandmother was.”

Lucas Redan said nothing.

While they made a complete tour of the White Palace, he maintained quiet silence.

Until Marianne asked a question.

“What’s your favorite food, Lord Redan?”

“Huh? Oh, lemon cake.”

“Then let’s have cake together before you go. The palace chef is quite skilled. I’m sure you’ll be satisfied too, Lord Redan.”

Marianne smiled kindly as she looked back at him with his bewildered expression.

***

‘It’s a lie! A lie! It’s all lies! Everything that old woman said is fabrication! It’s divisive scheming and plotting!’

“Shut up.”

‘Grandmother was eliminated because she couldn’t keep up with the flow of the times! It’s not like the old woman said, that she was dragged away innocently! She was punished because she didn’t recognize the grace of the Great Supreme Leader and engaged in curses and slander!’

“Be quiet!”

Bang!

I irritably punched the area around my heart. Along with the pain of my sternum caving in, the Lucas bastard inside me, who had been raving like a madman, finally shut his mouth.

This bastard seems to be getting more talkative lately.

I looked around stealthily and saw that there was no one in the midnight park. Fortunately.

I chewed my lips and fell into thought.

Things like the legitimacy of the republican revolution, or the contradictions of revolution in the eyes of the blue-bloods, or the path the old queen had walked—none of that was important right now.

What mattered was something else.

‘Why the hell did this bastard become a Kruger fanboy? And why doesn’t he have any memories?’

Common sense dictates that it doesn’t make sense for someone whose grandmother was tortured and killed as a reactionary to evolve into a Supreme Leader fanatic.

‘What kind of crazy bastard would do that?’

I could understand why his father slapped Lucas when he went on about Kruger.

I racked my brain.

I dug through Lucas’s memories, trying to recall what had happened in 1882, the year Kruger came to power.

At that time, Lucas Redan was seven years old.

Even if he was young, there’s no way he wouldn’t remember something like this…

“What the hell is this?”

My vision began to blur. Even when I wiped away the tears, more kept flowing.

In my throbbing head that felt like it would split, memories slowly began to take shape.

The memory of his sickly grandmother being dragged away, the memory of his father being beaten while trying to stop them, the memory of his mother hiding the crying ‘me’ in her skirts and screaming that we had nothing left.

“Heh heh, you despicable bastard.”

I wiped away the tears that were flowing like a turned-on faucet, completely against my will, and cursed.

Charlotte’s daughter-in-law—that is, Lucas’s grandmother—was an incredibly strong-willed woman.

That’s probably how she was able to lead the household through that chaos.

But even she, who had survived the revolutionary period, couldn’t do anything against Kruger’s cunning oppression.

Lucas Redan, who had practically been raised by his grandmother since his busy parents were always away, simply couldn’t accept her miserable death.

So he just buried it.

He erased those scenes from his brain and instead became fanatical about the Supreme Leader.

His primitive terror of Kruger had twisted into blind devotion.

It sounds insane, but if you think of it as a defense mechanism, it’s not incomprehensible.

Of course, seeing their son completely lose it must have rotted his parents’ hearts.

The more they scolded him, the more their son went astray, and they died without being able to carelessly reveal their family history.

“But what am I supposed to do now?”

Irritation seeped into my muffled voice.

“…Should I get revenge?”

Would it have any meaning?

This isn’t “my” story.

Besides, I was already planning to kill Kruger anyway. Whether it’s revenge or whatever.

I just understood Lucas’s unpleasant psychology, but nothing was going to change.

Ah, there is one thing.

“I can use this.”

A sly smile crept across my lips.

How much had the queen looked into about me?

That I had been going around praising the Supreme Leader, that I had been elevated as a hero, that I was connected to an organization called the White Raven Order.

Did she call me knowing all of that?

One thing was certai. The queen had favorable feelings toward me. Because I resembled my great-grandmother Charlotte.

I needed to make the most of that favorability.

I got up from the bench. Snowflakes falling from the sky touched my face coldly.

“I’m back!”

“Welcome back. Did it go well?”

When I returned to the mansion, Erika, who was eating dinner, asked. Daniel, who was reading the evening paper, just raised his hand in greeting.

“Yeah. More or less.”

I picked up the bowl that a maid had set down and left.

“It looks like you two will have to lead the party from now on. Will that be okay?”

“It won’t be too difficult, but then what will you be doing?”

“I have to go seduce Her Majesty the Queen.”

At my whisper, Erika’s expression became complicated, and she sighed.

“Do well.”

“Of course, I always do.”

***

“I greet Your Majesty the Queen.”

On the second day I visited the White Palace. I met the queen in a more comfortable hall rather than the audience chamber.

“Please sit comfortably. I was truly surprised that you requested an audience first.”

“I apologize for causing Your Majesty concern. But the lemon cake you served last time was so delicious. And I…”

I pretended to hesitate, took a deep breath, and met the queen’s eyes.

“Thanks to what Your Majesty told me last time, I was able to recover lost memories. I… I’d like to hear more old stories.”

A smile appeared on the queen’s face.

“As much as you’d like, Lord Redan.”

***

Major Johann Werner—no, Lieutenant Colonel—looked down at the desolate vacant lot outside his office window.

Lieutenant General Kaiser had finally found suitable land in District 1 and rebuilt the headquarters.

‘A garbage dump after the abandoned factory.’

Johann’s lips twisted.

Well, it was fitting for Ossel to be stuck in a place like this. Isn’t Ossel all about trash doing trashy things?

“First Lieutenant Decker.”

“Sir! First Lieutenant Philip Decker!”

A groaning sound was heard.

“Get up.”

“Sir!”

Philip, who had been pressing his forehead to the ground with his hands behind his back, raised his body. His forehead was red.

“Have you reflected?”

“Sir! I deeply regret neglecting the safety of a special protection target and failing to faithfully carry out my superior’s orders!”

He shouted until his voice cracked.

This was Philip, who had been assigned to escort Lucas Redan to Rubellia last time but had failed to control the rampaging Lucas and let him escape.

Thanks to that, Lucas was able to kill Colonel Eric Klein, and things worked out well in various ways, leading to Johann’s promotion to lieutenant colonel.

Still, a mistake was a mistake.

Even though Lucas had threatened his own life by putting a gun to his head, Philip should have tied him up to prevent such an incident.

“I suppose you’ve been punished enough now.”

“Thank you!”

Philip’s eyes glistened with tears.

Since things had worked out well, he had gotten off with just daily punishment drills for three months, but if things had gone wrong, he would have died by Johann’s hand long ago. If Johann had been alive, that is.

‘That mad dog.’

Johann’s eyes glinted coldly.

Lucas Redan had made an agreement—not quite an agreement—with Johann and had crossed over to Rubellia to engage in some conspiracy.

He had boasted that he would return spectacularly within three years at most, but we’d see about that.

“First Lieutenant Decker.”

“Sir!”

Philip quickly understood and gathered Johann’s bag and coat.

Tonight was fieldwork.

He was going to meet the leader of those pointy-eared mutts.