Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 11: Engineering Unit Senior Adjutant Iden (3)
The Main Castle's Financial Management Office was organized as if it wouldn't tolerate a single inch of disorder.
File cabinets were arranged at regular intervals, and not a speck of dust was visible on the floor.
The coldness unique to a space dominated by numbers pressed on the air.
Iden calmly spread the materials he had prepared on the treasurer's desk.
They weren't particularly special preparations.
Just a few pages of documents with facts written on them.
"This is the actual condition of the Engineering Unit."
He didn't mix emotions.
Location of cracks in castle walls, ratio of temporary reinforcements, moat management status, trap operation rate.
He pointed out the overall status of the outer castle defense line item by item.
It wasn't simple anxiety mongering, but speaking with figures and records.
"In this state, protecting the outer castle and normal operation of the Engineering Unit are difficult."
Iden spoke closing the last page.
"Additional budget allocation is needed."
The treasurer looked at Iden over his glasses.
After scanning the documents for a moment, he slowly shook his head.
"I understand what you are saying, but."
He maintained a cautious tone.
"This year's budget allocation is already finished. Immediate additional adjustment is realistically difficult."
Reluctance.
However, it wasn't an immediate refusal.
Iden didn't miss that subtle attitude.
The treasurer clearly knew about the existence of the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter and the power it possessed.
That's why he was trying to hide.
The profit gained by reducing the finance needed for prevention.
"And procedurally..."
The treasurer continued cautiously.
"Review takes time. There is also consultation with related departments. First, when the next year's budget allocation period comes, we will try to match the Engineering Unit's actual situation."
Eventually, words to stall for time.
Just as they did to the Engineering Captain, it was a ploy to make them endure one or two years like that and exhaust them.
Iden nodded with an expressionless face.
It was an expected reaction.
He didn't say more.
Catching the tail of words and dragging on was meaningless in this place.
He just wanted to verify.
He just wanted to witness directly with his own two eyes.
How deep Hamelon's pus is, how strong that rotting smell is.
And inside the head of Iden who confirmed it directly, it began to rotate quickly.
Hamelon's pus.
Perhaps he could squeeze it out and mold it into a bigger opportunity.
"Understood."
Iden, packing the documents, stepped back.
It was polite but there was no lingering regret.
Even the time wasted on arguing was precious.
Leaving the Main Castle, he headed somewhere straight away.
Iden, having come out of the Main Castle, stopped walking for a moment, then changed direction.
He had already made a conclusion.
Wasting time relying on administrative procedures was the most dangerous option in current Hamelon.
The place he headed to was the bank.
The building built with thick stones looked solid like a fortress.
There were no excessive decorations, but the atmosphere seemed as if trust and capital accumulated for decades permeated every single brick.
As he opened the door and entered, air mixed with the smell of metal, paper, and dye greeted him.
Iden placed the document he prepared in advance on the counter.
The official reward from the Wintel family received for capturing the Northern Barbarian Chief alive.
The employee accepted the document and began checking.
At first, it was an indifferent glance, but the gaze stopped at the part where the amount was written.
Once again, and once more.
He raised his head without a word, then soon nodded quietly.
It was a sign that what was written on the paper was correct.
"Please wait a moment."
Iden waited.
Here, rushing was an action that rather cut trust.
A while later, a dull sound echoed from inside the bank.
Sealed boxes were loaded onto a cart one by one.
The low sound of metal colliding spread along the floor.
Pamir, who was called out while waiting at the mansion, had his mouth drop open automatically.
"...."
The boxes piled up neatly on the cart were proving the size of the reward just by their weight.
Pamir shook his head grabbing the handle of the cart.
Regret that he should have borrowed a donkey if he knew this would happen was already making his legs heavy.
Iden checked each box and examined the seals.
He didn't know if it would be enough, but with this much, there would be no shortage to start full-scale repairs.
However, there was neither excitement nor satisfaction on his face.
As they left the bank dragging the cart, sunlight reflected on the boxes and flashed dazzlingly.
Pamir, who was dragging the cart sweating profusely, hesitated for a moment and asked.
"So, what do you intend to do with this much money?"
Iden looked at the cart once, looked ahead again, and answered shortly.
"Investment."
Pamir blinked his eyes.
"Investment?"
"Yes."
Iden's voice was low and calm.
And full of conviction.
"It's an investment buying time. Before the crisis strikes, equipping what is needed in advance."
Pamir still had a questioning face.
If it's investment, naturally one should head to a place where there is an investment target, but the cart was heading to the Engineering Unit main building.
Pamir closed his mouth.
The doubt wasn't resolved, but he decided to trust his intuition that volunteered to be the attendant of the person named Iden.
"And it's also an investment for my future, and an investment for the people."
Iden didn't look back even once.
He had absolutely no intention to waste time floundering in a rotten place.
It was time insufficient even if focusing only on striking forward.
Soon.
"Se, Senior Adjutant-nim? Wh, what is all this?"
The cart loaded with investment funds arrived in front of the Engineering Unit main building.
"...So to summarize, since there is no answer for supplementary budget, you brought the reward received from the Wintel family?"
"Yes."
Iden lowered his posture as much as possible.
There was a feeling of rushing a bit with a little over 1 year left.
Military is traditionally a place where obedience to orders and hierarchy must be clear.
Going against the reporting system and requesting the Engineering Unit's supplementary budget arbitrarily was definitely wrong.
"...Why?"
Fortunately, Erwin threw a question instead of reprimand at the Senior Adjutant's independent action.
The war hasn't started yet.
Tension was taut, but there was no official declaration nor large-scale troop movement.
Now was merely 'unstable peacetime', and the choice to repair the outer castle defense line spending even personal funds at such a time was outside Erwin's common sense.
Although it was the best choice for Iden who knows the future.
"I judged that it would collapse even at a small air raid if left like this. If I committed disrespect, I apologize."
Erwin stared at the bundles placed on the cart.
She couldn't understand.
It's not wartime, no, there isn't any situation quasi-wartime, so why go ahead to this extent.
Furthermore, he was a person with the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter.
There was no reason or duty to suffer spending private funds.
If he wanted, he could have moved to a much safer and cooler position, but she absolutely couldn't understand Iden contributing even his private funds, and therefore, as the Engineering Captain, it was right to prevent the Senior Adjutant's sacrifice.
But Erwin couldn't stop him.
Because the Engineering Unit didn't have the leisure to stop that.
And she also, as a noble's daughter, had spent her funds on the Engineering Unit.
A sacrifice identical to herself.
Erwin had neither justification nor will to block that.
As Iden said, the current outer castle defense line was weakened enough not to withstand even a tiny air raid, so repair was urgent.
She decided to solve the doubts later.
Erwin nodded silently towards Iden.
It was everything an incompetent Captain could do.
The outer castle defense line repair work started like that.
For the first few days, Iden was clearly clumsy.
The structure learned through documents and the sense of the site were different, and the load calculated by theory often missed in front of the actual weight of stones.
There were times he dismantled supports again because he caught the angle wrong while setting them up, and was even scolded by engineers for reading the slope of the drainage wrong.
"Senior Adjutant-nim, if you leave it like that, water will pool."
"Ah, we must fill from over there, not this side."
Iden didn't make excuses.
He nodded humbly, and moved his hands again himself.
Checked the wrong part, asked why, and didn't repeat the same mistake next time.
His uniform was quickly stained with dust and sweat, and rough calluses formed on his palms.
He learned rubbing shoulders with unit members like that.
What sound a stone of the castle wall makes when it's dangerous, where the limit a temporary reinforcement can withstand is, why trap maintenance requires a lot of work.
Things not in books.
Senses that can only be obtained at the site piled up in Iden's body layer by layer.
A few days passed, and his hand movements changed.
Instructions also became specific.
"Don't pass this temporarily, it's better to replace it entirely."
"If we fix it now, it will endure twice during a siege."
Engineers began to follow his words naturally.
The fact that the Senior Adjutant isn't a figure sitting only at a desk, the point that he is a person getting covered in dirt and carrying stones together was turning into trust.
"Heave-ho."
Melissa was also helping out at the site following her Senior Adjutant.
The atmosphere of the Engineering Unit, where heads were always lowered, also changed little by little.
Jokes were exchanged during work, and voices suggesting the next process first came out after finishing.
Instead of resignation that 'it won't work anyway', the energy that 'we can do it if it's now' filled the site.
Furthermore, who is Iden.
Isn't he a Summoner skilled enough to win a duel with the Northern Barbarian Chief now.
For insufficient manpower or heavy work, summoned beasts were deployed, raising work efficiency remarkably.
Erwin, who watched that appearance standing by the office window, was silent for a while with her arms crossed.
The worry she recalled when she first sent Iden was losing its place little by little.
Not perfect, but a person who knows how to learn.
Above all, the attitude of not turning away from the site was something the Engineering Unit hadn't had for a long time.
"...Amazing."
In that one word, acknowledgment was contained.
The outer castle defense line still had a long way to go.
But there was a clear change.
More than anything else, they were regaining the sense that they were protecting this city.
She was grateful.
For everything.
Iden, who makes sacrifices and hardships he doesn't bother to do, Iden who makes her recall her past self overflowing with spirit and will.
Erwin looked at Iden standing by the window for a long time.
Although it was something she, who lived as a workaholic all her life, couldn't know yet why he looked cool somehow.
"Phew, with this much, the 'repair' work is finished."
"Huh? Senior Adjutant-nim? Is there something left?"
Like that, 6 months passed quickly, and Iden started the next work with the remaining funds.
As they say, the best defense is offense.
The next work was offense.