9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 90 - The Clown (3)

“Ha, haha……”

I collapsed onto the snow-covered ground, laughing like I’d lost my mind.

The scene before my eyes was a hellscape.

Frozen blood mixed with white snow. Over there, a single arm. Over there, a single leg. Spilled entrails tangled together. A severed head that had fallen from a torn neck rolled along before precariously catching on some bushes and stopping.

Etin, Köller, Schwanz, Loch, Lang, Beed, Hoellope, Bay, and Schlesby.

No, fragments of what ‘had been’ them were scattered everywhere.

I brought my hand to my right cheek. For the first time in a very long while, my cheek itched like crazy.

I could only manage a light scratch instead of clawing at it furiously because Damier and Alina Himmel were watching me from beside me.

After we stopped fighting earlier, Damier said he had thought Himmel shot me. He said he came running when he heard gunfire.

Then he said there was something we needed to see and led us to this place.

The wreckage spread across the snowfield.

I reflexively suppressed the rising nausea and quietly closed my eyes.

The stench of blood remained, but blocking my vision seemed to calm my dizzyingly chaotic mind a little.

After settling my churning stomach, I opened my eyes.

“Why…… did you kill them all?”

My voice that came out with my breath was utterly hoarse.

“You know, don’t you?”

Damier asked back while wiping blood from a small blade.

“To use them as bait for war? Really?”

“I don’t know anything.”

Damier’s attitude was extremely indifferent. Inorganic eyes devoid of any emotion and a face that felt lifeless.

He was the most inhuman person I’d ever met.

Johann was just cruel and selfish in temperament, but he was greedier than anyone. Greed is undoubtedly a perfectly human emotion.

Alina Himmel, whom I’d thought was machine-like, was just a taciturn person who didn’t open her heart easily.

But Damier was different.

The problem wasn’t that I couldn’t read his intentions, but that there seemed to be nothing behind that paper-thin face……

‘How the hell did he manage that bumbling act? He could be nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor.’

I stared blankly at Damier while escaping reality with useless thoughts.

Appel Damier.

Before being dropped into this border unit, when I was in Lüdelheim, I had investigated the personal information of all ten majors.

He had just reached adulthood and was no different from the other majors—just a wealthy playboy young master who had lived comfortably.

There had been no hint anywhere that he was the type who could remain calm after such carnage.

‘The real Damier has probably been dead for a long time. Or he never existed in the first place.’

I felt sick to my stomach again. An assassin who had assumed someone else’s identity and infiltrated my surroundings.

“Damier, what’s your real name?”

“Why should I tell you that?”

An impudent answer came back.

Actually, since his tone was soulless, it sounded less impudent and more like he genuinely didn’t want to tell me.

“You’re definitely not royalty. Are you with Ossel? Or Ferint?”

This time there was no answer at all. Even in this horrific situation, I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

‘They should have sent someone more flexible.’

If they had, the mission might have been completed more perfectly.

“Won’t you answer anything I ask? Well, I don’t need to ask why you brought me and Captain Himmel here. Obviously you were looking for an opportunity to kill the captain.”

Finally, there was a reaction.

Sharp eyes pierced into me, so I gave Damier a sardonic smile.

You’re openly sharpening your blade and you thought I wouldn’t notice, you crazy bastard.

“Your superiors ordered you to eliminate all witnesses, didn’t they? You’d better confess what exactly your mission was.”

“Why should I?”

“Don’t you want to live?”

I threw out the question casually and studied his expression.

“You may be a human weapon, but Captain Himmel is no pushover either. Plus there’s me and Colin. You already failed once, didn’t you? You’re screwed.”

Himmel was quietly watching him according to my signal. In one hand a pistol, in the other the dagger she’d stabbed me with.

“Even if you could slaughter us all in an instant, what about after that? What ending awaits you other than being eliminated for botching the job? No, wait. You’d be eliminated even if you succeeded, or you’d live under surveillance for life.”

“……It doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t matter if you die?”

“Either way. If you knew what kind of place the Royal Guard is, you wouldn’t ask such stupid questions.”

I laughed, “Ah.”

“So it was Ferint? I thought so. You’re already used to living under surveillance anyway, and you’re confident they won’t kill you considering the money spent training a talent, right?”

Special Police Ossel, Royal Guard Ferint.

Kruger’s two wings.

If Ossel was deeply embedded in citizens’ lives, Ferint was much more secretive and closed off.

How their system worked, how they filled vacancies, what missions they carried out. Everything was shrouded in mystery—the Supreme Leader’s secret private army.

“But do you think the Supreme Leader is that rational? Ridiculous.”

“……”

Damier stared at me quietly. With inorganic eyes, as if trying to intimidate me.

But I felt no fear. In front of such a slaughterhouse scene, I just felt nothing at all.

I met Damier’s gaze.

“If it doesn’t matter whether you live or die anyway, how about helping me out? It certainly wouldn’t be bad for you either. No, words like this won’t work. If you don’t help me, I’ll use all my power to ruin your future. You’d better decide quickly. We need to frame all this as Cortana border guards’ doing.”

A brief silence flowed.

Swish—

The moment Damier raised his arm, Captain Himmel clicked and aimed her gun. But instead of attacking us, he pulled out a small metal device from his inner pocket.

“101.03.872, 101.03.872. Mission complete. Lucas Redan, Alina Himmel alive. Mission complete. Lucas Redan, Alina Himmel alive. Over.”

“Stand by at current position. Over.”

Having finished the transmission, Damier put the device back and looked at me.

***

Damier didn’t know much. He too was just one of countless cogs executing the Supreme Leader’s orders.

Schufaben operating like clockwork, Supreme Leader Kruger like an engineer tightening, polishing, and oiling the parts.

But if you don’t apply enough lubricant, things like this can happen.

For instance, parts that should have died coming back to life……

Damier had been working for Ferint since childhood, but he never told me his real name to the end.

I wasn’t interested anyway, so I let it slide.

What mattered was that Damier had heard more than Captain Himmel, at least. Because he had been assigned to monitor the captain.

He had infiltrated as a disguised ‘Appel Damier’ and entered the military as one of the majors from royal families.

Every night he communicated with his superiors and waited for the right moment, and today, January 1st, when the order finally came down, he poisoned and killed the majors.

All that remained was to confirm that Himmel had definitely killed me, but then new orders came down.

“The Supreme Leader tried to spare me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Right, you really don’t know whether it was truly the Supreme Leader’s will or not—of course it was the Supreme Leader.”

I scratched my cheek irritably. Still, it seemed my actions had saved my life.

‘Kruger, so you were watching me after all. Did you become interested when I matched your plans? So at the last moment you changed course and spared me.’

Sacrificing Lucas Redan and the majors. Framing Cortana. Even executing it on January 1st, the start of the new year, for dramatic propaganda.

My delusional thoughts had been correct.

That bastard was definitely preparing for war.

‘Fuck, what do I do now.’

I seemed to have survived for now. Kruger had taken notice of me. Since he became interested in me, he must have spared me at the last moment to use me for something else.

But if war really breaks out……

I can’t stop it right now.

I’ve been struggling in this world for over three years trying to prevent that.

My fingertips started trembling. My right cheek was now moving beyond itchy to stinging pain.

“So, what do you want to do?”

Damier asked me. I chewed my lips and answered blankly.

“Nothing special. Major Damier, Captain Himmel, you’ll both become witnesses like me. Making the Supreme Leader think it’s more profitable to keep you alive that way rather than eliminate you. Damier, you’ll probably have to live as ‘Appel Damier’ for a while, maybe forever.”

Damier stared at me silently.

“I said it doesn’t matter.”

“That’s fortunate. By the way, are people coming to clean this up?”

He pulled out a pocket watch and glanced at it.

“They’re coming at exactly 7 AM.”

“About 30 minutes left? First……”

“Photos.”

Damier pointed to the large camera hanging around his neck.

‘To think he fought so agilely while carrying that thing.’

No, more than that.

“You didn’t forget?”

My request to take a nice photo of my corpse.

“Just in case.”

What an unpredictable guy.

I began staging the scene with Major Damier and Captain Himmel.

“Captain, when I signal, please stab my chest a bit. Yes, like that. Shh, shh, Colin. It’s not real harm.”

“Woof woof! Woof!”

When Himmel took position, Colin started thrashing about. I gently petted Colin to calm him down.

Earlier when Himmel and Damier were fighting, Colin had stayed by my side with his teeth bared. Seeing him whimpering and licking my face, he must be quite anxious.

“Colin, this is acting. Pretending. Similar to what we did with Erika in that cave before. Shh, shh.”

“Do we really have to do this.”

Captain Himmel seemed reluctant.

“We have to. To send the strongest possible signal to His Excellency the Supreme Leader.”

“Why are you going this far to save mine and Major Damier’s lives? You’d be safe without doing this, so why……”

“I told you, Captain. To send a signal to His Excellency the Supreme Leader.”

That I’m smart enough to read your true intentions, but I won’t use that to oppose you.

I’m a clown.

Dancing only on Kruger’s palm, for Kruger, as Kruger directs.

At least I had to make Kruger believe that.

‘But you’ll have to become my clown too. That’s only fair.’

If that could be achieved, spilling a little blood would be nothing. A completely profitable deal.

Captain Himmel looked anxious. After confirming that Damier was busy moving the majors’ corpses around, she lowered her voice.

“Wouldn’t it be better to eliminate Major Damier at least? He’s an untrustworthy person.”

“Captain, just an hour ago you stabbed me. Do you think you have the right to say that?”

Himmel lowered her head.

“I’m joking. I trust the captain, and I’m trying to trust Damier too, though less so. At least for today.”

Pure and straightforward Captain Himmel was easy to trust. Damier…… I had no choice but to trust him for now.

That was the conclusion both my reason and instincts reached simultaneously.

It was time.

5 minutes before 7 AM.

Just enough time that even if I went into shock from extreme pain, I wouldn’t die if given emergency treatment.

“Damier, I’m counting on you. Take a really magnificent shot. Captain Himmel, you know to avoid the heart, right? Oh, and Colin, that dog I mean. Take him to Lüdelheim District 13, Redan Mining Company and they’ll take care of him. Sorry for the trouble, but please. Are we about ready? Now, for our families.”

I removed my bulletproof vest and handed it to Damier. Captain Himmel raised the dagger with all her strength.

The next moment, lightning flashed before my eyes.

There was no pain, nothing. Every cell in my body froze, and my breath caught. My head went completely empty as if blood wasn’t flowing properly to my brain.

Slowly looking down, I saw the dagger embedded quite properly in my chest.

“Just a little, pull it…… just a little……”

When the blade that had been stuck to my skin was pulled out just slightly from my body, blood properly soaked my clothes.

I staggered and collapsed just like that. The back of my head touched something cold and soft.

Through my gradually darkening vision, I saw snowflakes beginning to fall again.

Colin’s whimpering cries and the click-click of camera sounds.

And just before losing consciousness, the sound of many people’s footsteps.

My vision went black.

***

“Haah……”

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a clean bed in a warm, cozy, pure white room.

I lay there listening to the quiet ticking of a clock’s second hand.

Realizing that I felt no pain or foreign sensation anywhere in my body, I slowly sat up.

Looking down at what was clearly hospital clothes, I unbuttoned them.

On my gaunt exposed chest, there were no wounds, not even old scars. None on my collarbone or arms either.

I couldn’t help but grin.