9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 99 - White Raven Order ― Daniel (2)

Her nickname was still Angel.

Honey-colored hair, bright blue eyes.

The madam cherished Johanna, who had a noble appearance unbecoming of a whore.

The family portrait she had brought clutched to her chest was torn apart, with only her section hung up on the wall. Customers would look at that picture and request Johanna.

Johanna gradually recovered her spirit.

And after a few years passed.

She met a handsome young man with black hair, a tall frame, and melancholy eyes.

Richard. His name was Richard.

The two had what could be called the “love of the century.”

This was definitely not Johanna’s self-assessment. Richard’s friends would tease them by saying so.

Richard was a member of the revolutionary faction.

Not a high-ranking executive who had risen to great heights, but someone with considerable influence nonetheless.

Such a man would visit her every week with a shy smile.

Escaping the dim and gloomy red-light district, they would walk hand in hand along the riverbank or watch performances together.

He bought her many pretty necklaces and dresses. When she delighted in his gifts, he would smile so wide that dimples appeared.

Johanna dreamed happy dreams every night.

Dreams of wearing a pink wedding dress and holding a wedding ceremony. Dreams of going on a honeymoon to the warm southern seas and being loved to her heart’s content until the day she died.

Thinking that Richard would soon rescue her from this place, she could forget the musty and filthy lodgings, the greasy stares of customers filled with contempt and desire.

So when her period stopped and her belly began to swell, she was overjoyed. She firmly believed that the life in her womb was the fruit of love.

One night, while walking together in the park, Johanna whispered sweetly.

“Richard, my love. I’m having a baby. We’ll get married soon, won’t we? We will, right?”

Richard’s footsteps stopped instantly.

He remained silent the entire time until they parted, then spoke coldly under the red-light district’s glow before turning away.

“Don’t cling to me. I’ll give you child support at least, so take care of yourself.”

Leaving her standing there stunned, he truly never came to visit again.

***

Johanna couldn’t bring herself to abort the child. Having no choice, she was kicked out of the red-light district and pushed into a back-alley tenement.

The madam threw some small change at her and cast her out. Once again, she survived through begging and prostitution.

A few months later, having given birth to her son alone in her room, Johanna stood before a civil servant to register the birth.

“The child’s name?”

The indifferent-looking civil servant asked. Johanna shook her head.

“Then shall I just write anything?”

That’s how her son received the common name Daniel.

Both before and after giving birth to her son, Johanna visited Richard’s mansion many times, but was always chased away by the gatekeeper.

Johanna continued working, leaving Daniel lying in a corner of the room.

Daniel was a well-behaved baby.

But customers didn’t like the sound of a hungry baby crying, and in her growing poverty, Johanna sold off everything Richard had given her.

When Daniel was about five years old.

There was a time when he was very sick, perhaps with the flu.

Unable to afford medical bills and stamping her feet in frustration, Johanna carried her child, who had become a burning mass and was suffering, to Richard’s mansion.

She pounded frantically on the iron bars surrounding the estate, and the gatekeeper came out.

“You can’t do this. Please go back quickly.”

“The child is sick! Let me see my husband!”

At those words, the gatekeeper hesitated, then soon called for his master.

“What on earth is this about?!”

Richard appeared, irritated. A seductive woman with a rosewood pipe was with him.

“Your child is very sick. I’ve run out of money and can’t go to the hospital.”

“Oh my, how pitiful.”

The woman murmured while exhaling cigarette smoke.

“Hah…”

Richard sighed deeply and looked at the woman.

“Go inside.”

For the first time in years, Johanna was able to spend time alone with Richard. He pulled out a bundle of bills from his wallet and spat out.

“Don’t let my son die. Don’t spread any unsavory rumors.”

“…I understand.”

After going to the hospital, Daniel quickly recovered.

A few months later.

Johanna, who had rarely woken from her afternoon nap, stared blankly at Daniel.

The child was struggling to read a newspaper he had picked up from outside.

“Sweetie, come here.”

“Mom!”

When Johanna called gently, Daniel approached with a beaming smile, toddling over.

Johanna grabbed Daniel’s body. Then, after looking at the child for a moment, she raised her hand high.

Smack!

“Waaaaah!”

A red mark appeared on his arm.

Smack! Smack!

The more Johanna swung her hand, the more marks accumulated.

“It hurts! Mom, it hurts! Stop!”

Johanna pinched and twisted the reddened white arm with her fingernails. Soon, dark bruises began to appear.

“Shut up, you brat! Let me get some sleep!”

Daniel was crying so hard he could barely breathe, letting out piercing screams. The woman next door banged on the wall with curses, telling him to be quiet.

After a long while, Johanna lowered her hand and laughed at the child’s mottled body.

“Stop crying. We’re going to see Dad.”

At that, Daniel stopped crying.

***

Johanna hurt Daniel.

She hit and pinched him.

She burned his body with cigarettes and cut him with bottle shards to draw blood.

When the wounds became sufficiently horrific, she would visit Richard’s mansion.

“Your son is hurt!”

Richard would get angry. He would ask how she was managing the child, tell her never to come again, not to go around talking about it elsewhere, and press money into her hands.

Then Johanna would use that money to pay rent, buy alcohol, and purchase cosmetics and pretty clothes.

And after a few months passed, she would lay hands on Daniel again.

Daniel gradually became quieter.

At first, he would cry and beg for forgiveness, but after it was repeated over and over again, he eventually stopped crying.

During that time, many things happened.

The revolutionary faction fell and Friedrich Kruger seized power.

A redevelopment boom swept through all of Lüdelheim, clearing away shantytowns and slums.

However, the tenement where Johanna and Daniel lived always remained the same.

1889.

Daniel disappeared.

It was on his sixteenth birthday.

Johanna woke up late, ate dinner, and received customers. Then she fell asleep when the sun rose.

She only realized her son had disappeared three days later.

She searched the entire back alley for Daniel. But no one had seen her son.

He had vanished. Without leaving a single letter.

The only change was that the newspapers and paper, pens and ink that had been gathered in one corner of the room were gone.

Johanna noticed this belatedly and immediately went to the mansion, pounding on the iron bars.

“Richard! The child has disappeared!”

But this time, he neither conversed with her nor gave her money.

“The kid at least has some sense. Don’t ever come here again.”

The door closed before her eyes.

***

Johanna returned to the tenement.

Day by day, she lived without any thoughts, selling her body and appeasing customers’ whims.

But for some reason, her income decreased daily, and her body grew increasingly tired.

On one exhausting day.

Unable to sleep, Johanna wandered under the bright sunlight and stopped in front of a large mansion.

“Richard, Richard!”

When she rattled the bars, the door opened and out came that seductive woman she had seen only once long ago.

Still smoking her pipe, the woman looked Johanna up and down and said.

“He’s dead.”

Johanna froze. The woman kindly added.

“He died of syphilis. I told him to call a doctor, but he was too ashamed and hid it until it was past the treatable stage and died.”

She smiled coldly.

“He never loved you. He didn’t love his son either. Even for a child born from a whore, he just wanted to avoid the bad reputation of not taking responsibility after sowing his seed. When his son ran away, he couldn’t have been more relieved. He was such a crude man.”

The woman exhaled cigarette smoke and said languidly.

“So don’t come here anymore. We’re having difficulties too.”

The door closed.

***

Time passed again.

One day, while preparing for business, Johanna suddenly stopped applying her makeup.

The shabby woman reflected in the mirror.

Her blonde hair had begun to turn white, and her vivid cornflower-blue eyes had faded to gray like dirty ice.

There was a woman who seemed like she could never be loved by anyone, any man ever again.

“Daniel…”

Johanna murmured. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Johanna went outside.

She had nowhere to go.

She simply wandered the streets.

Not the back alleys, not the neighborhood where mansions clustered, but the main thoroughfare where countless people came and went.

And at some point, she realized.

Excited people were all rushing in one direction.

Before she knew it, the crowd around her had grown so thick that even if she stopped walking, she would be pushed along.

After moving among the people for dozens of minutes, she found herself in District 1’s plaza.

The Supreme Leader appeared in the distance and began his speech. Then a short man who was praised as a hero also gave an enthusiastic speech.

“War! War! War!”

Among the frenzied people, Johanna wanted to leave but couldn’t move at all.

Then, suddenly, a commotion arose.

“It’s a dragon!”

People scattered in all directions, turning the plaza into chaos.

Johanna was pushed down by someone. With both hands on the ground, she looked up at the massive creature casting a shadow overhead.

From the platform, the short man shouted something. Then the confusion settled, and the dragon descended into the space cleared of crowds.

The moment she barely managed to stagger to her feet, her heart nearly stopped.

Daniel, her son, was descending from the sky riding a dragon. Just like an angel.

“Daniel! Daniel! My son!”

Eyes wide as if they might pop out, Johanna tried to run to him but was blocked by a wall of people.

“Hey, why are you pushing!”

“Ah, lady! Come on!”

People she bumped into complained.

“Everyone, please give a round of applause for the hardworking employees of Redan Company!”

The plaza was engulfed in thunderous applause.

In the center of it all, Daniel was smiling. Brilliantly.

***

“Good morning…”

Still dragging my exhausted body, I came down to the kitchen and smelled something delicious.

“Daniel, sweetie, eat a little more.”

It was morning.

The other friends were nowhere to be seen, and only Daniel was being held captive during his meal.

Mrs. Hartmann was attending to Daniel almost like a mother bird regurgitating food for her baby bird.

I could see why everyone had left early. They must have found that sight uncomfortable to watch.

I had brought Mrs. Hartmann home that day. She looked so pitiful, and I wanted to give time to the mother and son who were reuniting after years.

“It’s been so long since you’ve seen your mother. Take good care of her.”

I had given Daniel time off, and though he didn’t say anything, I could sense his reluctance.

And without a word of thanks, the lady just followed Daniel around, and here she was again today.

On the surface, she just looked like a mother who was a bit excessive in caring for her son. But there was something inexplicable about it. Something sticky and unpleasant…

Even that good-natured Oscar was terrified.

‘Maybe I should have just sent her to a hotel.’

I sighed and passed by the two of them to go wash up.

***

“Daniel, here, eat more. Here, there’s pie too.”

“…Yes.”

“My precious baby!”

Johanna’s hand touched Daniel’s hair. He nearly shuddered at the feeling of every hair on his body standing on end.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was awkward beyond words.

This was Johanna’s third day staying in this house.

Daniel hated this situation.

Her taking over the kitchen as if it were her own, kneeling beside his bed every night patting him and telling him to sleep well, sending him those misty, damp gazes as if looking at the most beloved thing in the world.

Being unable to talk with the White Raven Order members because of her, Lucas being busy running around all day but enduring the discomfort and treating her with extreme courtesy.

Everything…

No, the very existence called mother.

It was disgusting.

Daniel turned off the radio and faced Johanna.

“Mother, why did you come here?”

“I found you, my precious son.”

His heart pounded with tension. Just looking at those eyes made the world seem distorted.

“It’s already been three days. That’s enough, isn’t it. Please leave.”

The light went out of Johanna’s face.

“How can you say such a thing.”

“Mother!”

Daniel’s breathing became rough. Johanna picked up a fork that was lying on the table.

“Gasp!”

Daniel unconsciously cowered and squeezed his eyes shut.

Stab! A terrible sound.

“Mrs. Hartmann!”

Lucas’s shocked voice rang out. When he cautiously opened his eyes, Johanna was holding up her arm, which was trickling blood, with a pitiful expression.

“Look. Mama is hurt.”

Ah, he felt like he was going insane.

Daniel shot up from his seat and ran away. Not knowing where he was going, he ran through the streets frozen with cold.

“Daniel!”

Lucas chased after him.

“Ha, Mrs. Hartmann… I’ll go get some medicine.”

Oscar moved awkwardly. Namir, who had been unable to make a sound while holding back hiccups, hurriedly followed him.