9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 8 - I Need to Get Out of Here (2)

I had been a salesman.

And quite the ace of a successful department at that.

The saying ‘company dinners are an extension of work’ is usually dismissed as self-rationalization by alcohol-loving old-timers, but for me, it was an undeniable reality.

I had constantly played the fool at drinking sessions without warning, built up my alcohol tolerance, and even gained the mysterious ability to stay sharp-minded even when completely drunk.

So even if I’d entered the body of a tuberculosis patient with a weak constitution, there was no way I’d lose my mind over just one beer.

“Hey there, Lucas!”

I was briefly slumped over the bar table, rubbing my flushed face, when suddenly someone called out to me from behind.

Daniel Hartmann.

Thinking I was completely wasted, he forcibly pulled me up and dragged me outside.

Well, looking at Lucas’s memories, it wasn’t the first or second time Daniel had come looking for him passed out in a tavern and led him back to the boarding house.

‘He seems like a kind fellow. But then again, why does he seem so wary of his surroundings?’

I pretended to stagger while observing Daniel’s profile.

He was smiling, but his lips were slightly tense and his eyes moved rapidly.

No matter how I looked at it, those were the actions of someone secretly surveying their surroundings.

‘Is something going on? My head already hurts, and now why is this guy acting like this too?’

We arrived at the boarding house without incident, and I flopped onto the bed pretending to be in a drunken stupor.

But Daniel glanced down at me, then instead of leaving right away, he started rustling around nearby.

‘What’s he up to?’

Listening carefully, it seemed like he was searching through various parts of the room.

He was trying not to make noise, but how could I not hear the sound of drawers opening and closing!

His reach extended even to beside the bed. Getting irritated, I sat up and grabbed his wrist.

“What are you doing?”

When I glared at him and asked, Daniel’s face stiffened for a split second.

Then it relaxed smoothly.

“Looking for hangover medicine.”

“What?”

“You always take some and sleep after coming back from drinking, don’t you? You said it makes your stomach feel better in the morning.”

He spoke nonchalantly and continued searching through the drawer beside the bed.

“Here it is.”

Daniel grinned and pressed a brown bottle that looked like some kind of medicine into my hand.

‘Refreshing Dawn!!’

The label was printed with a picture of a handsome man showing his teeth in a smile while giving a thumbs up.

“Make sure to drink it before sleeping. You said you paid a lot for it.”

“Sure, thanks, buddy!”

After Daniel left saying good night, I stared intently at the closed door.

‘That guy’s no ordinary fellow either.’

Thinking that I seemed to have one more thing to worry about, I downed the hangover medicine in one shot.

“Ugh!”

A hellish bitter taste struck my mouth.

***

The same morning as usual.

Daniel acted as if nothing had happened, perfectly composed, and the hangover never came.

Mrs. Schmidt, who was setting a plate in front of me, carefully brought up a topic.

“Lucas, Daniel. About this month’s rent.”

“Ah, is it that time already?”

I looked up toward the calendar hanging on the kitchen wall.

A modest oiled paper calendar that looked like it would be pasted when making announcements. I could see dates marked with red crayon X’s.

Today was August 4th.

Lucas’s payday.

Perhaps because it was a dictatorship that pursued efficiency, Schufaben had set payday for almost all workplaces at the beginning of each month. That’s why Mrs. Schmidt usually collected rent on that day too.

“I’ll give it to you as soon as I get home this evening, Mrs. Schmidt.”

But the lady waved her hands vigorously.

“No, no. Lucas, how many difficult things have you had this month? So I was going to say you don’t need to pay.”

“Mrs. Schmidt, what about me?”

“Daniel, you didn’t have anything particularly difficult, did you?”

“This is discrimination, how cruel!”

Seeing the noisy scene, a chuckle escaped me.

In a way unlike myself, but very much like Lucas, I raised my energy and shouted.

“Thank you, Mrs. Schmidt! But how could a man born as a respectable gentleman shirk his responsibilities? I’ll pay every penny without fail, so don’t worry! Haha!”

Mrs. Schmidt’s face reddened as if moved, but Daniel narrowed his eyes slightly.

“What’s gotten into you, Lucas? You used to go crazy over anything free.”

I spread my arms wide with a serious expression.

“Ah, Daniel! I’ve been reborn. Just as Supreme Leader did, I’ve strengthened my resolve through hardship and trials. I’m going to become a true man now!”

Even though they were my own words, I felt goosebumps rising on my arms.

“Haha, yes, my friend! That’s a wonderful thought. I’m always cheering you on.”

Daniel put his arm around my shoulder with good humor. But when I glanced at him while smiling, the doubt in his eyes remained unchanged.

‘Tsk, not buying it?’

I’m not an actor, and no matter how hard I try to act like Lucas, there are limits.

That’s probably why I kept drawing suspicion from both Hoffman and Daniel.

‘It would be convenient for everyone if they just accepted that the shock of torture changed me as a person.’

Hoffman aside, Daniel seemed like quite the suspicious fellow.

‘It doesn’t seem like his original personality. Just what are you hiding?’

Even smiling and muttering to myself didn’t produce any answers.

***

Even after being completely alone at the office, I continued to treat other people without restraint.

When our eyes met, I would smile or give a slight nod as courtesy. Well, even so, the other party usually felt awkward about it.

“Am I some kind of plague patient?”

Grumbling, I entered the archive room that was my own space.

From my colleagues’ gazes, I could feel the blatant inner thought of ‘please just leave on your own.’

Good heavens, even in a fantasy world there’s a culture of giving hints to resign voluntarily! This is one aspect that didn’t need to be exactly like Korea.

Anyway, once I’ve gathered some money and information, I’m planning to leave even if they try to hold me back.

With that in mind, I began going through the documents organized in the archive room one by one.

Lucas’s understanding of the work had been at a dismal level, so everything was completely new content to me.

Surveys of railway networks passing through the capital, tax systems, population and gender ratios, occupational distribution, lists of subversive elements, and so on.

Although there were limits to the information held by a small office in a corner of Lüdelheim, if you looked carefully through the old file folders, they were packed with useful knowledge that could be helpful.

‘Since I’m going to quit anyway, I need to suck out every bit of marrow before then.’

The words of a senior who had changed jobs because he couldn’t endure Manager Kim’s hysteria came to mind.

After concentrating on analyzing the materials for a while, lunchtime soon arrived.

I set down the thick file folder for a moment, ate a sandwich, then leaned against the window and lit a cigarette.

Unlike my original body, Lucas’s body was in a hopeless state, so I was trying to quit if possible, but I was severely addicted and couldn’t quit all at once.

‘Reducing from a pack a day to half a pack is already a miracle, isn’t it?’

Grumbling, I blew smoke out through the small window.

Whine whine!

I was leisurely enjoying my after-meal smoke when I heard the sound of some animal whimpering from somewhere.

“What, what is it?”

I stuck my neck out the window and looked around, then looked down to see a small black ball of fur that could fit in my palm limping around.

“A puppy?”

It was a neighborhood mutt that looked like it hadn’t had its fur cut in ten years.

Among the fluffy, faded black fur covering its face, bright little eyes that had barely managed not to be buried looked up at me.

“Little doggy, are you hungry by any chance?”

I quickly hid my cigarette and threw down half a piece of leftover sandwich, which it devoured hungrily before looking up at me again.

“Sorry, there’s no more now.”

The puppy whined disappointedly and curled up its body.

I felt quite sorry for it, but soon the bell announcing the end of lunch break rang. I quickly closed the window and began concentrating on memorizing documents again.

***

Just before quitting time, someone knocked loudly on the archive room door, so I went out to find an envelope neatly placed on the floor.

A salary envelope.

Usually they would gather all the employees and distribute them at once. This was the first time they’d left it like this in a ‘take it and scram’ fashion.

If I had been a new employee, my eyes would have reddened with humiliation, but I’m someone who had already rolled around the harsh industry floor for nearly 10 years.

Compared to the vicious power trips I’d often seen, heard, and experienced, this much was just cute.

“Thank you! Good work this month too!”

Snorting, I picked up the envelope and shouted toward the quickly retreating figure.

“Your account balance is 2,530 pelt.”

National Bank of Schufaben, Branch 19.

I swallowed the sigh that naturally wanted to escape at the blunt bank employee’s words.

‘This, this wastrel bastard!’

Lucas, who had lived a debauched and undisciplined life, didn’t even know how much his total assets were.

So I had come to check my savings for future plans, and it was only 2,530 pelt! 2,530 pelt!

Simple comparison is difficult, but considering Schufaben’s prices, a 1-pelt bill feels similar to 100 won in Korea.

That means Lucas’s savings after 3 years as a civil servant are only about 250,000 won!

‘I used to put half my salary into savings! I lived diligently for nothing. If I’d known I’d end up in a place like this, I would have lived freely spending as I pleased.’

I felt unreasonably resentful and bitter.

Of course, Lucas hadn’t just squandered money recklessly. It’s just that he had poured all the meager savings he had managed to accumulate into preparing for that play.

‘What a despicable bastard.’

Why do I have to suffer like this? My teeth ground together.

“Will you be making a transfer?”

“No, please withdraw it all.”

Coming out with a slightly thicker envelope, I glanced back at the bank’s main entrance.

A magnificent building constructed of marble with a splendid gold-plated sign and stern guards.

But to my eyes, it looked exactly like the entrance to an express train to hell.

Whether Kruger was truly as clean as the newspapers praised or whether he engaged in corruption like countless other dictators was unknown. Nine times out of ten, they were probably controlling the media.

In any case, keeping in mind the possibility that national bank assets were being misappropriated at will, I withdrew my paltry savings in full.

I wasn’t planning to move to a private bank. You never know when a dictator’s single word might requisition it, and above all, if war broke out, bankruptcy would happen in an instant.

Even in the best case scenario, they’d probably confiscate all assets for war expenses and force me to buy government bonds of dubious value.

‘Let me hide it at home for now.’

Of course, considering war situations, it would be best to convert to precious metals or foreign bonds, but I couldn’t afford such things.

The money I currently had was roughly 20,000 pelt, combining today’s salary of 15,000 pelt with everything in my wallet.

No matter how low civil servant pay might be, if someone in their third year hadn’t even saved 2 million won, anyone would look at them with worried eyes.

Well, considering he was the type to dive into work using his own money, I suppose it was expected.

‘At this rate, retirement is out of the question.’

Even if I lived like a miser from now on and saved most of my salary, it would take 10 years to quit being a civil servant and escape to somewhere safe.

I suddenly felt miserable.

This country must have handsome rich young masters too, so why did I get to possess a guy like this?

Was it karma for envying civil servants while worrying about job insecurity?

I was trudging along thinking of ways to somehow make money when I felt familiar panting sounds and small movements behind me.

“Don’t tell me.”

I stopped walking and stood still, and the faded ball of fur approached and looked up at me.

“Are you the one from earlier?”

It was the puppy I had shared my sandwich with during lunch break.

I thought I had briefly seen it curled up in a narrow alley when leaving work, but when had it followed me here?

“I told you I don’t have anything more to give.”

Just as I was shrugging my shoulders in perplexity and trying to move quickly, something caught my eye.

In the middle of the busy downtown area filled with people getting off work, a familiar face suddenly appeared across the street.

‘Daniel Hartmann?’

That guy who usually kept a good-natured smile attached to his face was now expressionlessly looking at his pocket watch, then gazing at buildings in the distance while pacing around.

“He shouldn’t have any business coming this way.”

As far as I knew, the newspaper where Daniel picked up work was in the complete opposite direction.

Unless he had business at the bank like me, it seemed he had an appointment with someone. An interview perhaps?

“Woof!”

Suddenly the puppy barked quietly and rubbed its body against my leg.

“How exactly did you find me? Or have you been following me this whole time? Do you have a talent for tailing people despite being a dog?”

I petted the panting creature and chuckled while muttering.

“Tailing, huh.”