Chapter 5
I secretly let out a groan, then straightened up while glancing around to see who was watching.
I wasn't sure how things had ended up this way, but for now I was the “promising young officer in the Operations Staff Office,” so I couldn't afford to act strangely and arouse suspicion.
For the time being, I had no choice but to carry out my duties calmly and plan for the future.
‘For now…….’
My priority was dealing with the documents that had come across my desk.
Exhaling softly, I picked up the documents beside the telephone and checked their contents.
Rustle─
When I flipped through them, they contained utterly ordinary matters.
Most were requests for operational authorization or approval to build military facilities.
The procedure was for me to review them first, approve them if there were no logical problems, and pass them up the chain.
【Operations Staff Officer ▶ Operations Staff Officer in Charge ▶ Deputy Chief of the General Staff ▶ Chief of the General Staff】
That was, roughly speaking, how approvals worked.
Since none of it was particularly difficult, I approved everything except documents requiring the readjustment of resources and personnel.
But when I opened the final document, I found myself flustered.
───────────
《Request for Approval to Construct a Logistics Branch》
Recipient: Operations Staff Officer in Charge (Colonel Ernst Bark)
Sender: Logistics Staff Officer (Captain Arnob Haubaut)
Date: March 16, 1944
Subject: Request for Approval to Construct a Logistics Branch on the Eastern Front and Select a Site
Officer in Charge: Operations Staff Officer (Second Lieutenant Daniel Steiner)
───────────
It was a request for approval to construct a logistics branch with nothing particularly strange about it.
If there was one problem, it was that I was listed as the officer in charge.
‘……Why?’
I couldn't understand it.
A logistics branch was a small supply depot that smoothly received supplies sent from the rear logistics headquarters, then resupplied the front lines.
In short, it was a crucial outpost built to secure supply routes and prevent supplies from being left unattended.
Logistics was important enough to be called the mother of war, so why entrust it to the operations staff officer?
And to a mere second lieutenant who had awkwardly taken over the post after receiving an accelerated promotion?
‘……There must have been some confusion in the report.’
No matter how I looked at it, this seemed like something I needed to report to the staff officer in charge.
Having made up my mind, I picked up the documents and entered the staff officer in charge's office, which had been set up inside the Operations Staff Office.
The staff officer in charge, buried amid all sorts of reports and documents, lifted his head when he heard my footsteps.
“Hm? Ah. If it isn't our hero Daniel!”
Colonel Ernst Bark straightened his back with a hearty chuckle, exuding the air of a kindly neighbor.
But one shouldn't judge a person by appearances alone.
Anyone who had risen to the rank of colonel in the Empire had surely weathered countless battles and hardships.
“Being called a hero is a bit burdensome when I only did what anyone would have done.”
Humility was a virtue regardless of the country. Apparently pleased by my deferential attitude, Ernst smiled and began to speak.
“So, Lieutenant. What brings you here?”
“I came to report that I have completed the initial review of the documents submitted to the staff office.”
“Ah. Already? Just as I'd heard, you're quite efficient. Hand them over.”
I nodded and placed the documents on Ernst's desk.
However, I did not put down the document proposing the logistics branch, which listed me as the officer in charge. Ernst tilted his head when he saw it.
“What's that?”
“It listed me as the officer in charge. Strangely, the approval fields for the superiors were blank, so I assumed the logistics staff officer had made a mistake.”
Ernst blinked a few times, then suddenly burst out laughing. Why was he laughing?
“Ah. I can see why you'd find it strange, but it wasn't a mistake by the logistics staff officer.”
“If it wasn't a mistake?”
“Headquarters deliberately gave you the assignment. As you can see, I've been rather busy lately, so one purpose is to distribute the workload. The other reason, you can probably figure out without my saying it, can't you?”
My brow furrowed of its own accord.
They were testing me from headquarters.
It was tantamount to telling me to prove that catching a spy and noticing the enemy troops hiding in the hills had not been mere strokes of luck.
Every military officer knew the importance of logistics, but building a logistics branch in a suitable location was no easy task.
The site had to be safe from enemy attacks, easily accessible, and spacious enough to accommodate vast quantities of supplies.
So they must have judged it the perfect task for gauging whether I was capable of serving as an operations staff officer.
‘Who was behind this? Was the chief of staff sounding me out…….’
I didn't know for sure, but this was an opportunity.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to showcase my incompetence to thunderous applause!
If I built the logistics branch in an impossibly terrible location, my evaluation would plummet, and once that happened, I might naturally be able to leave the military.
Excited at the thought of being discharged, I gave Ernst a crisp salute.
“Thank you for believing in me! I will do my best to construct the logistics branch!”
Apparently pleased by my words, Ernst smiled and nodded.
“Good. I'll provide ample funding, so don't worry and proceed with the work.”
“Understood!”
Even as I answered energetically, I wore a sinister smile inwardly.
‘I'm sorry, but you'll regret this before long.’
Because I was going to build the logistics branch in the theoretically worst possible location.
*
Two weeks later, the rear line of the Eastern Front.
The Vardenplatz Plains.
Vroooom─
The ground seemed to tremble as heavy machinery entered the plains and hauled construction materials around.
Captain Arnob Haubaut, the logistics staff officer watching from afar, did not like what he saw.
‘What on earth is headquarters thinking? Entrusting the construction of a logistics branch to a lieutenant who is practically still wet behind the ears…….’
That damned bastard had ordered it built on the Vardenplatz Plains, and now all sorts of manpower and resources were being squandered.
‘Why on earth are they telling us to build a logistics branch here?’
The Vardenplatz Plains were a barren expanse. In other words, they were extremely vulnerable to enemy artillery bombardment.
To prevent that, they would have to build separate defensive walls, resulting in a massive waste of materials.
Was the need for defensive walls the only problem? If they were going to build a logistics branch on the plains, they should have picked somewhere that could make use of existing roads.
But there were no usable roads anywhere near the Vardenplatz Plains.
Which meant they would have to lay a new road all the way to the Vardenplatz Plains.
If they laid an access road, they would have to lay an exit road as well, doubling the budget.
It was nothing short of wanton squandering.
‘Daniel Steiner, was it? That damned young brat…….’
The Empire's tax money was being wasted in real time because of a young officer who didn't even know the basics of logistics.
Arnob had never considered himself particularly patriotic, but watching the nation's tax money being wasted right before his eyes was making patriotism well up in him of its own accord.
But how could a mere captain serving as logistics staff officer defy an order from headquarters?
Even though Daniel Steiner was lower in rank than he was, his authority was immense.
His dissatisfaction continued to grow inside him, but the fact that he could not say a single word in front of Daniel was proof enough.
When Daniel had come to inspect the site a week earlier and ordered them to proceed with construction as planned, Arnob had been unable to object.
Unlike his true feelings, Arnob too was ultimately just another bureaucrat of the Empire, with no choice in the matter.
‘When headquarters says jump, you jump. What else can I do…….’
Feeling stifled, Arnob took a cigarette case from his breast pocket, pulled out a cigarette, and put it between his lips.
When he took out a lighter and lit the cigarette's tip, the radio hanging from his shoulder strap crackled.
─ Logistics Officer! Do you read me!?
He only ever contacts me when I'm smoking. Arnob took out the radio, pressed the transmit button, and replied.
“You forgot your rank and name again? If you're going to be like that, how am I supposed to know who you are and answer?”
─ Ah! You're so fussy. Sergeant Vinter Enfeldt! Is that good enough?
“Good enough. Why are you contacting me?”
─ Well, you know how we conducted a soil survey? We brought in experts and everything.
Arnob nodded.
Conducting a soil survey before putting up a building was only natural.
It had become mandatory after a building erected thoughtlessly some time ago had collapsed along with the ground, resulting in casualties.
─ The experts' results came in today, and I don't quite know what to say. It made me think headquarters hadn't assigned this to Second Lieutenant Daniel Steiner for no reason after all.
Hm? The sergeant had been cursing Daniel alongside him only yesterday, so Arnob was puzzled by the change in attitude.
“Just get to the point. What exactly did the results say?”
─ Hahaha! Well, you see……!
The sergeant cried out in a delighted voice.
─ It's oil! Oil! They found oil beneath the ground! And a huge amount of it—enough to be worth extracting!
Thanks to that, Arnob dropped the cigarette he was holding.
‘What?’
Oil? The Vardenplatz Plains had been an oil field?
If so, then it wasn't Daniel who didn't know the basics of logistics—it was Arnob himself.
Exhaling hollowly, Arnob raised a hand and wiped his face.
‘Could Second Lieutenant Daniel Steiner have…….’
Had he known about all this from the very beginning? Once he thought that, Daniel's shameless attitude began to make sense.
Letting out a low laugh, Arnob clasped his hands behind his back in self-mockery.
‘Apparently…….’
An extraordinary talent had joined headquarters.
*
Meanwhile, Second Lieutenant Daniel Steiner, who had heard that the Vardenplatz Plains, where construction of the logistics branch was about to begin, were an oil field─
‘Why?’
was growing increasingly flustered in real time.