Chapter 6
I stopped halfway through my drink and stared hard at the soldier's face before me.
His face was flushed with excitement, and the respect steadily blossoming toward me made me uneasy.
At first, I'd been angry at the soldier for interrupting me while I was relaxing at the officers' club after work, but now I was gripped by an entirely different emotion.
That was because I'd just heard the news he had brought me: the site selected for construction of the logistics branch was an oil deposit.
What if I'd heard wrong? Please let me have heard wrong. Breaking into a cold sweat, I set my glass down on the bar and said,
“Soldier. If you don't mind, could you say that again?”
“Of course! I was told that a large amount of oil had been discovered beneath the site Lieutenant Daniel ordered us to use for the logistics branch! Captain Arnob, the logistics staff officer, contacted me over the radio and told me to inform you, Lieutenant, so I came running here despite the impropriety!”
This soldier's voice was far too loud.
Wasn't he shouting it to everyone in the vicinity in a voice that sounded desperate to boast about my achievement?
Thanks to him, not only the bartender but also people from other departments spending their leisure time at the officers' club were casting glances my way.
“Oil was discovered at the logistics branch?”
“Who discovered it? Don't tell me it was that rookie?”
“No, wait. Looking closely, that's Lieutenant Daniel.”
“Who's Lieutenant Daniel?”
“You don't know? The guy who caught a spy and got an accelerated one-rank promotion this time? The Central Intelligence Bureau must have taken quite a bit of flak because of him. The hill incident too….”
The gazes fixed on me and the voices I could hear here and there were weighing on me.
‘I won't be able to come to the officers' club for a while…….’
If I stayed any longer, it would feel like sitting on a bed of nails, so I stood up.
“If what the logistics staff officer told me is true, I can't not go inspect it.”
After straightening my clothes, I put on the peaked cap I'd left on the bar.
“I'll get permission to inspect the site from the chief of the Operations Staff. Thank you for bringing me the news, soldier.”
As I slightly lowered the black brim of my cap and thanked him, the soldier snapped a vigorous salute.
He looked moved somehow. I had no idea what, exactly, had moved him.
“It's an honor to be of help to you, Lieutenant Daniel!”
After returning his salute perfunctorily, I left the officers' club and secretly furrowed my brow.
‘The worst construction site I picked out turned out to be an oil deposit? What kind of nonsense is that…… The logistics officer must have made a mistake.’
Right. It had to be a mistake.
Oil was one of the highest-priority strategic resources in war.
Not only did vehicles need oil, but tanks could not move and fighter planes could not take to the skies without it. It was no exaggeration to say that the existence of oil fields could determine the course of a war.
That meant my standing within the Imperial Army would become even more firmly established after discovering oil.
In short, my dream of a dishonorable discharge had just moved one step farther away.
So please. Let the soldier's report be a mistake.
*
Unfortunately, it wasn't a mistake.
After ten days of complicated procedures, I finally went out to inspect the site, only to find oil gushing up in the middle of the Vardenplatz Plains.
The sight of an oil drilling rig operating with a deafening roar made me frown.
“Do you see it? That's the oil Lieutenant Daniel discovered!”
“Wahahaha!” Sergeant Vinter Enfeldt burst into a hearty laugh and raised his fist.
He was brimming with enthusiasm, as if he would have thrown an arm around my shoulders if I had been an NCO like him instead of an officer.
When I had ordered him to build the logistics branch here, he had glared at me as if I were some kind of human garbage, but now that the situation had changed, look at him.
As I looked at Sergeant Vinter with displeasure, the logistics staff officer standing beside me, Arnob, spoke.
“Lieutenant Daniel. On behalf of the logistics branch, I offer you my thanks. According to the report, there is enough oil buried underground to supply the Empire for the next twenty-seven years. This will become a powerful weapon for the Empire.”
“I see.”
“Yes. I've also contacted the Railway Department about it. We intend to connect a railway line to this logistics branch so that the oil can be transported more quickly. Once that happens, the Empire won't have to rely on imports because of oil shortages.”
Hadn't Arnob originally been an irritable and negative man about everything?
His first impression during the initial inspection had been closer to that of a pessimist, but now his eyes were brimming with hope. He even seemed to be experiencing a kind of euphoria.
I, on the other hand, could do nothing but sigh deeply. What meaning was there in earning military merit for an Empire that was going to lose anyway?
Perhaps Arnob took my sigh for one of relief (at the Empire no longer having to rely on foreign powers), because he turned to me and spoke in a proud, approving tone.
“Come to think of it, you're entering your fourth month since being commissioned, yet you've already achieved three remarkable feats. I wonder if you'll be promoted again before long.”
Sergeant Vinter cut in, raising his voice.
“Hahaha! Indeed! At this rate, Lieutenant Daniel might even outrank you, Captain! That would be quite a sight, wouldn't it?”
Watching the two of them make such a fuss over my promotion, how should I put it……
I was grateful for their congratulations, but from my perspective, receiving them was terribly uncomfortable.
“You're too kind. I have no desire for another accelerated promotion.”
No sooner had I finished speaking than the two of them stopped breathing and stared hard at me.
Just as I was wondering whether I had made some kind of verbal blunder, Arnob cleared his throat and spoke in a rather serious tone.
“……I still have a long way to go. Hearing you say that you don't want a promotion makes me feel so small. I had thought that devotion to the Empire naturally deserved its reward.”
“Lieutenant Daniel Steiner is the very model of a soldier. How can you harbor such noble thoughts…….”
No, hadn't you two treated me like a complete rookie during the first inspection?
It was absurd, but not incomprehensible.
Compared to me, both of them probably possessed at least some loyalty to the Empire.
From Arnob and Vinter's perspective, it was only natural that my statement—that I did not want a promotion despite achieving such great military feats—would sound noble.
In reality, I didn't want a promotion because I wanted to escape the Empire, but there seemed to be no need to tell them that.
I saluted Arnob.
“Now that my inspection is complete, I'll return to General Staff Headquarters to submit my report. In any case, both of you should work hard on the construction of the logistics branch.”
“Of course. Just leave it to us.”
After Arnob returned my salute, I lowered my hand and turned away.
When I climbed into a nearby military jeep, the driver started the engine.
After adjusting my collar, I glanced out the window and saw Arnob and Vinter looking at me with admiring eyes.
It was so burdensome that I quickly turned my head forward and said,
“Let's go.”
“Yes, Lieutenant.”
The driver pressed the accelerator, and the jeep jolted forward.
Since the road was still unpaved, I had to put up with the bumps.
As I rode along while gripping the ceiling handle, I happened to glance at the rearview mirror and broke out in a cold sweat.
Arnob and Vinter were still watching us.
I felt like a public official being treated with the special deference reserved for a cabinet minister.
Hmm. I really shouldn't come back to the logistics branch from now on.
*
The news that oil had been discovered in the Empire's Vardenplatz Plains spread across the entire Empire in an instant.
To announce the joyful news, newspaper companies kept their presses running day after day, while boys on the streets shouted, “Extra! Extra!” and sold the papers in their hands like hotcakes.
Naturally, the Imperial royal family was not unaware of the news.
“Is it true that a massive oil deposit has been discovered in the Vardenplatz Plains? Who on earth discovered it?”
At the question from Princess Selvia von Amberg, a girl with blue eyes like lapis lazuli and golden hair like rays of spring sunlight, Chief of Logistics Kaspar Benedict set down his utensils.
Kaspar Benedict, whose shoulder boards bore four stars, was a full general overseeing the Empire's logistics, but before the princess, he was nothing more than a subordinate.
“Indeed. God has bestowed a truly gracious treasure upon the Empire.”
“It wasn't God, though.”
Kaspar's shoulders jerked. He wondered if the princess intended to blaspheme. But the princess had no such intention.
“The one who discovered the oil beneath the Vardenplatz Plains was a human being. I am asking who that human being is.”
“Your Highness, he is merely an orphan of unknown origins whom Your Highness has no need to know. So…….”
Selvia's eyes narrowed.
“Chief of Logistics. Since when has the Empire judged people based on their origins in its evaluations? Have you forgotten that the Empire is at war?”
Selvia was indirectly telling him to answer her question.
Kaspar knew that as well, so he lowered his head and answered.
“As far as I know, it was Lieutenant Daniel Steiner who discovered the oil deposit. I believe he is currently serving as acting operations staff officer at General Staff Headquarters.”
A lieutenant? Had someone who was barely a lieutenant really discovered an oil deposit?
Selvia had naturally assumed that a high-ranking official had poured money and manpower into finding the oil deposit, so this came as a rather fresh shock.
‘……Interesting. In more ways than one.’
If he was only a lieutenant, there was a good chance that he was still a political blank slate.
There could be no better time to bring him over as an ally.
She had to keep as many capable people by her side as possible.
That was how she could increase her chances of inheriting the throne.
“Lieutenant Daniel Steiner…….”
As Selvia lightly tapped the dining table, a faint smile spread across her lips.
‘I should go meet him soon.’