MBD | Chapter 26

After finishing his business, Karl Heinrich was on his way back to his room. Thanks to the recapture of Helmstradt, the atmosphere at Fortress Feldburg was as good as it could get.

Although he didn’t go out drinking like the others, he didn’t mind the unusually excited air either.

“Ah, loyalty.”

Sergeant Sebastian, whom Karl Heinrich encountered in the hallway, nodded at him. Sergeant Sebastian was supporting a heavily intoxicated Everhart. The smell of alcohol was overwhelming just from looking at him, indicating how much he had drunk.

Even Sebastian, who greeted Karl Heinrich, seemed a bit tipsy. He approached the door with the unresponsive Everhart.

“Company Commander, where’s the key?”

“In my pocket…”

“It doesn’t seem to be there.”

“No, um, left side…”

Sergeant Sebastian, unable to distinguish left from right, fumbled around the right side.

Unable to watch any longer, Karl Heinrich took out his own key and opened the door for them.

“Thank you…”

“Just get him inside and put him to bed quickly.”

“Yes, sir!”

Sebastian helped Everhart onto the bed. So drunk was he that he sprawled out on the bed without even taking off his clothes.

“One of the soldiers seems to have made a particularly strong cocktail. I told him he didn’t have to drink it, but he insisted… I didn’t know he was so weak with alcohol.”

Karl Heinrich turned to look at Sebastian. His gaze seemed to say, “What does that have to do with me?”

“Haha, I said something unnecessary! Please rest!”

Unlike Everhart, Sergeant Sebastian, who felt uncomfortable around Karl Heinrich, quickly backed out of the room.

Lights flickered from the building across the window. Judging by the atmosphere, it seemed like it would be like this all night.

“Sleeping well, aren’t you?”

Karl Heinrich looked down at the deeply sleeping Everhart and couldn’t help but chuckle. At the same time, his gaze sharpened.

Back in the academy days, Everhart wasn’t someone who caught Karl Heinrich’s attention.

He was a typical naive noble young master who knew nothing about the world.

Everhart’s biggest complaints back then were about how the camouflage cream stung his skin during training and how muscle aches after training were tough.

To the noble Everhart, the world was nothing but kind. People had never been villains to him.

But one day, Everhart completely changed. To be precise, it might have been since the mock battle.

‘Was he hiding his true self? I don’t know what changed him, but…’

One thing was certain: the changed Everhart was refreshing to Karl Heinrich in many ways.

He sat on the edge of the bed, took out a flask of whiskey he had brought personally, and took a sip.

While he was silently drinking whiskey, Everhart, who was asleep on the bed opposite, groggily sat up.

“Go back to sleep.”

Everhart blinked slowly and looked at the whiskey placed nearby. Then he looked at Karl Heinrich and smiled without resistance.

“Is it nice, hic- to eat something delicious alone, you sneaky… bastard… Hope you go bald.”

“What…”

Karl Heinrich’s eyebrow twitched at the unexpected insult. Everhart, still not fully awake, wobbled like a roly-poly toy while sitting on the bed.

Thud.

Sure enough, Everhart’s head hit the wall. Leaning his head against the wall, he turned and extended his hand.

Knowing what that meant, Karl Heinrich clicked his tongue. He wasn’t foolish enough to offer alcohol to someone already drunk.

Everhart had no idea of Karl Heinrich’s feelings.

“On such a good day, drinking alone gloomily.”

“…”

“I’ll drink with you- that’s what I’m saying. How kind am I? Heh, just wait until you get promoted. There’s no superior like this anywhere in the world.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Of course I’m drunk, why wouldn’t I be? Alcohol is meant to get you drunk! A soldier doesn’t die from alcohol!”

In the end, unable to watch any longer, Karl Heinrich sat Everhart back down on the bed. If he left him alone, something noisy seemed bound to happen.

“Sigh, wait a moment.”

“Hurry up.”

At Everhart’s urging, Karl Heinrich reluctantly poured whiskey into a cup and sat back down.

“For our victory. Cheers!”

In Everhart’s toast, unable to even open his eyes properly, their glasses clinked in the air. Karl Heinrich drank while observing Everhart’s condition.

As expected, heavily drunk, he showed no reaction after taking a sip of alcohol. Just as he was about to deliberately avert his gaze, thinking he might fall asleep like that.

“Dawn’s Light. That was your doing, wasn’t it?”

“That guy’s so-called religion was never sane from the start.”

Illegal labor exploitation, sexual exploitation under the guise of religious activities, confinement, threats, violations of financial laws, imperial defamation, and more—Viktor had over 20 charges against him.

“What I meant was, why did the whistleblowing happen at that timing?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“If left alone, you could have caught a bigger fish.”

There was one fact not reported in the media: the emperor’s grandson was related to Dawn’s Light.

In the original work, Viktor didn’t disappear so quickly with such heavy charges.

The government and media continued to report on him daily, all showing strong intentions for severe punishment as if they had agreed.

If all of this was to hide something related to Dawn’s Light, it made some sense.

‘William Lorankrantz.’

Though his mind wasn’t working well due to the alcohol, it was something he had thought about for a long time since seeing the press release, so it didn’t require much thought.

Karl Heinrich pretended not to know about the Dawn’s Light incident, even though he did, to catch the bigger fish, William Lorankrantz.

In the original work, it was quite a struggle to handle the incident when it was said that Crown Prince William was involved.

“What are you trying to say?”

“Are you not using formal speech anymore?”

“I don’t know if I should use formal speech for a hoobae-nim who calls a sunbae bald.”

“Does it bother you?”

When else would he get to tease him?

Karl Heinrich frowned and looked at Everhart. His gaze seemed to say, “Go ahead, say more.”

“So petty…”

Karl Heinrich downed the remaining whiskey.

Judging by his gaze, it seemed like if he said one more word, the glass he was holding might fly at him. And indeed, Karl Heinrich was tapping the empty glass with his fingers.

“…Sorry for causing trouble.”

Kang Woojin, who had reincarnated as Everhart, never imagined Viktor would use such a petty method.

Since that day, Everhart had reflected a lot in his own way. He realized he was dealing with this world too much with the common sense and mindset of a modern person. In a way, he was a bit naive too.

At least such mistakes wouldn’t happen in the future.

“What are you sorry for?”

“Just everything.”

Everhart didn’t bother mentioning William Lorankrantz, whom Karl Heinrich had missed. It might even raise suspicion.

Even though he had gotten closer to Karl Heinrich compared to the original work, Everhart was still a noble.

As long as Everhart remained a noble, there was an unbridgeable wall between him and Karl Heinrich.

It would be nice if the day when that wall could be torn down would come soon.

“That’s all I wanted to say.”

Staggering, Everhart got up, washed in the officer’s bathroom, and returned to his room, falling asleep as if he had fainted.

Karl Heinrich drank all the remaining whiskey alone. There was no further conversation between the two.

࿐⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

As soon as it was morning, Everhart went to see his superior, Alexander.

“What did you say?”

“I asked if I could be the one to interrogate that Rudolf or Santa guy. Didn’t I capture him?”

In response to Everhart’s confident attitude, Alexander silently drank his coffee.

“Capturing Rudolf alive instead of killing him was a good job, but leave the interrogation to the experts. There’s nothing good in seeing unpleasant things, is there?”

“I’ve already seen plenty of unpleasant things since morning, so I don’t know if there’s anything worse.”

At dawn, Eisenwald soldiers searched for Graupfeld militia hiding in the streets of Helmstradt and gathered the bodies of the deceased in the square to burn them.

The dead militia members were civilians, unlike the Eisenwald soldiers.

The smell of burning flesh was particularly pungent, and the smoke was acrid.

Having seen a mountain of corpses since morning, he couldn’t understand what was so terrible about interrogating one person.

At Everhart’s persistence, Alexander sighed.

“I’ll give you exactly eight hours. If you don’t get any information by then, leave it to the professionals.”

“Thank you.”

Bowing, Everhart went straight to the underground interrogation room. The interrogator, who received Alexander’s instructions, scoffed.

“What does a rookie know to be acting up?”