I Became an Officer in Another World in Just 5 Minutes - Chapter 242

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 242
Let me think about this rationally.
The probability it’s real?
“Twenty percent.”
Actually, it feels even lower than that.
But what if it is real?
That’s the problem.
‘Damn Seto Count, toying with people like this?’
He’s definitely a cunning bastard.
“Where’s the report that came up from Salt Castle?”
“It’s on your desk, sir.”
I went to my seat and examined the report.
-08:30, confirmed information that mithril was loaded in the carriage that arrived at Salt Castle.
Subsequently confirmed mithril being unloaded from the carriage that arrived at the Feudal Lord’s Castle….
It seems the agent even directly witnessed the mithril.
‘If it was confirmed at the Feudal Lord’s Castle, then it’s real.’
By the way, I currently lack the authority to know what position this agent holds at Salt Castle.
“Ah, my blood sugar’s dropping.”
My head suddenly spun.
This is getting dangerous.
‘I need to push Rena to open that cake shop faster.’
Looking at it now, I seem more desperate than Rena is.
Crunch
After an emergency transfusion of candy, I organized my thoughts calmly.
The conclusion remained the same.
Low probability, yet unsettling.
And deciding what to do in this situation naturally falls not to me, but to Major General Gadus, whom I’d just met.
* * *
“Once you decide how to proceed, I’ll move immediately.”
Major General Gadus spoke toward the communication device with a troubled tone.
On the other end were the Commander-in-Chief and the Emperor.
-Mithril.
I didn’t need to see it to know.
Right now, the Emperor’s brow would be more furrowed than ever before.
-How much time would it take to verify if this is true?
The Emperor’s question.
The one who had to answer was Colonel Eden, stationed at Belzium Castle with the rank of Chief Inspector.
“Assuming we mobilize all available personnel for the investigation and everything proceeds successfully, we’ll need a minimum of two weeks.”
From the Intelligence Agency’s perspective, that was genuinely a short estimate.
But objectively, two weeks is far too long for the current situation.
-By that time, wouldn’t they have already finished mining and left without anything seeming amiss?
“I’m afraid I cannot say otherwise, sir.”
-This is troublesome.
With the Emperor’s words, a heavy silence descended upon the room.
Several seconds passed like that.
While I held my breath waiting, the Emperor’s voice came through the communication device.
-If we were to gather forces to strike that location now, we would instead expose ourselves to a counterattack on our weak points.
Truly, this is a headache-inducing situation.
In circumstances like these, the Emperor’s decision was to take a break.
-Let’s take some time to think this through and reconvene for another meeting this evening.
“Yes! Understood! Long live the Emperor!”
“Long live the Emperor!!”
The commanders who had been holding their breath in the conference room simultaneously raised their voices and saluted.
The moment the communication device disconnected.
“Sigh.”
“What in the world is happening all of a sudden.”
To exaggerate slightly, they looked as though they’d aged ten years.
Compared to this morning, they were practically different people.
“He’s asking us to find a solution, but is there any option besides going out and fighting?”
At Deputy Commander Alick’s question, Major General Gadus shook his head.
“I cannot think of one either. However, one thing is certain—we cannot afford to go out and fight.”
Our forces numbered sixty thousand.
Certainly a formidable army, but everything in this world is relative.
“Could the Intelligence Agency not have confirmed this information more quickly?”
Alick asked while looking at Colonel Eden, and the answer was the same.
“If you’re referring to the mithril, we reported it immediately upon discovery.”
“No, we should have learned of such intelligence sooner so that we could have prepared in advance….”
“Spare us the pointless talk, Deputy Commander.”
Major General Gadus cut off Alick’s attempt to blame the Intelligence Agency.
“Let’s take about an hour to rest, then reconvene. In the meantime, consider the matter from various angles.”
Just as the Emperor had decided to take some time to think.
Major General Gadus made a similar judgment and left the conference room.
“Though the Instructor said otherwise, the Intelligence Agency should have paid closer attention to this.”
“The Chief Inspector should have sent someone with more experience. Tsk, tsk.”
The generals each offered their remarks as they passed Eden on their way out.
The reason they were doing this was simple.
It seemed impossible to perfectly resolve the problem that had just arisen.
So someone would eventually have to be held accountable, and it was easier to align their stories if they predetermined the culprit beforehand.
In this brief window, they had devised a method for their own survival.
“With all due respect, given the gravity of the situation, I shall take my leave first.”
Colonel Eden saluted with his usual expressionless face before leaving the command headquarters.
“Sigh.”
The moment I stepped outside the building, I lit a cigarette, my expression twisted more than ever before.
“Disgusting bastards.”
For the first time in ages, revulsion welled up inside me, and I ran my hand through my hair.
‘Those cowards who stayed hidden in the Fortress.’
Of course, even with all their schemes, they couldn’t have stopped Mithril as a variable.
But when the situation explodes, they should at least consider joining forces.
Moving only to avoid future anger—it was hard to call them soldiers like myself.
“This damn military truly has no answers.”
For once, I understood Paran’s desire to leave the service.
* * *
“Oh! You’ve arrived!”
The moment I saw Colonel Eden enter the office, I jumped to my feet.
“Running like a dog, I see.”
“A dog? At least there’s the nicer term ‘puppy.'”
This man had no manners in his speech.
“A puppy isn’t this big. Anyway, your stomach must be aching. You’re probably still digging for Mithril right now.”
“Yes, it’s absolutely maddening.”
He understood my feelings with perfect accuracy.
And what mattered here was—
“Wait, how many cigarettes did you smoke? The smell is overwhelming.”
From South Korea to the Lyckan Empire Army, years of military service had made cigarette smoke feel like ordinary air to me.
But this was excessive.
“Four, I think. I don’t remember.”
“You’ll die that way.”
What was he, some kind of actor?
Chain-smoking like this.
“Concerned about me? How touching.”
Colonel Eden said this while tossing the empty cigarette pack into the trash.
“If you want to touch my heart, stop the enemy’s Mithril mining.”
“That’s not something I can control. Our role is to verify the truth first.”
“Of course.”
The Intelligence Agency fights with information, so it was an obvious statement.
“I requested a two-week timeframe, but the response wasn’t favorable.”
“Two weeks, sir?”
Do we have some teleportation magical device or something?
How exactly did they expect verification in two weeks?
And why was the response so poor?
“In that time, they’ll have mined all the Mithril and left.”
Colonel Eden spoke with a weary expression.
I could tell at a glance that he’d chain-smoked his way through the stress of the meeting, pushing himself to the limit.
“Blocking the carriage’s route… that won’t work either, will it?”
The enemy numbered one hundred thousand.
Salt Castle also had tens of thousands of troops stationed there.
We might succeed once, but that’s where it ends.
“Personally, I believe the claim about having Mithril is a lie. Don’t you think so?”
At Colonel Eden’s question, I paused briefly before nodding.
“I also believe the probability of it being a lie is greater than fifty percent.”
“At this point, we need to be willing to gamble on what we can afford to lose, but those greedy old men hate letting go of even a single thing.”
‘Why is he so angry today?’
His words were unusually blunt.
‘But looking at the situation, he has every right to be angry.’
People, after all.
Need to know when to give up.
How could he not be frustrated when they demand he verify the truth immediately without any reasonable plan?
‘We could just take Adman Castle as planned.’
Of course, from my perspective, it’s better to settle this conclusively.
Taking Adman Castle won’t cost me anything anyway.
“Still, it is Mithril. Don’t you think some verification is necessary?”
“Tch, as if verification is easy. You speak too carelessly.”
Since we were indoors, Colonel Eden sucked on a candy instead of a cigarette and approached the map.
“Entering the mine itself is obviously impossible.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Unless we had an invisibility cloak, there was nothing more to say.
The enemy had already erected palisades and maintained strict watch patrols.
“Then ultimately, we can only confirm the movement of Mithril on the road between here and the mine.”
Colonel Eden pointed to the path between Salt Castle and the mine.
“What should we look for there?”
“If I have to spell this out for you, is there something wrong with your intelligence?”
‘Wait, what exactly did he explain?’
He makes a gesture and then grumbles.
“Think about it. If they’re pretending to have Mithril, what would the Mithril we saw actually be?”
“Obviously something brought from the Capital, wouldn’t it?”
“Exactly. But do you really think they’d bring enough for an entire mine? And to the Front Line at that?”
I shook my head at Colonel Eden’s words.
No matter how much the Imperial Court valued it, Mithril was a mineral that had to be treated with utmost care.
“That doesn’t seem likely.”
“It’s not ‘doesn’t seem likely’—it’s definitely not the case.”
“Ah, yes.”
He seems to be in quite a foul mood, so I need to accommodate him as much as possible.
‘Military life is truly exhausting.’
Meeting with superiors is already a blessing in itself.
Whether in South Korea or here, my luck has been consistently abysmal.
“In the end, they’re cycling a certain amount of mithril back and forth to deceive us. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“So you’re saying Salt Castle and the mine are being put through an endless cycle?”
“That’s correct.”
At Colonel Eden’s words, I folded my arms and let my mind work through it.
‘That would certainly explain it.’
There’s no other way mithril could keep appearing in the carriages.
“So the conclusion is that if we intercept the carriage traveling from Salt Castle to the mine and find mithril inside, then they’re lying. Is that right?”
“Now your mind seems to be functioning properly.”
“But how would we even know which carriage is carrying the mithril?”
Do you have any idea how many carriages pass back and forth in a single day to maintain an army of one hundred thousand?
Easily dozens, and Colonel Eden’s answer to this was straightforward.
“That’s precisely where the problem lies.”
Colonel Eden wore an expression of considerable distress.
Watching him, I was thinking this was indeed a difficult problem.
When Lieutenant Colonel Larsen approached.
“Chief Inspector, we’ve just received an additional report from Salt Castle.”
“What’s the content?”
“It concerns the investigation into the mithril. Apparently, the first mithril arrived four days ago.”
“Four days ago.”
“The next batch came two days ago, and though the samples are limited, it appears they’re arriving at two-day intervals.”
As I listened to Lieutenant Colonel Larsen’s report.
Something felt off.
‘The intervals are too short.’
It takes three days by carriage from the mine to Salt Castle.
A simple round trip would be six days.
Then does that mean all three batches of mithril that have arrived so far are completely different shipments?
‘They brought that much mithril?’
Something doesn’t add up.
“Chief Inspector, does the Adits Empire possess a large quantity of mithril?”
At my question, Colonel Eden paused in thought before speaking.
“If we’re talking about the Imperial Court’s reserves, they likely have less than we do. They use it more for research through the Abiel Ducal House rather than accumulating it conservatively.”
At Colonel Eden’s words, I habitually picked up a pen and fell into thought.
‘What if all three aren’t different shipments? Then how would that even be possible?’
A way to reduce the round-trip time.
It was simpler than I initially thought.
“Chief Inspector, isn’t this not using carriages at all?”
“Not by carriage?”
“A carriage would take four days, but if one rides a horse without rest, it’s possible to cover the distance in a single day, is it not?”
I’ve never touched mithril, but I know it’s not a heavy metal.
‘On the way here, I had to keep up appearances with the others, but on the way back, there’s no such constraint.’
There’s no need to rely on a slow carriage.
“Simply riding a horse at full speed… that certainly makes sense.”
Eden finished his thoughts and studied the map.
“To cover this distance in a single day, one would definitely need to ride at maximum speed.”
“Yes, so if we watch and catch someone riding at full speed—”
“They’ll be carrying the mithril.”
“Precisely.”
Unintentionally, our eyes met directly as Eden turned his head.
“You’re not unintelligent.”
“I never was.”
The military simply has a way of making even the brightest minds appear foolish.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————