Ch.189Side Episode – Border

The truck driver looked up at the sky. The Empire’s sky was always overcast, but today it seemed particularly gloomy.

“Stop!”

At the signal from the border guard soldier holding a red flag, the driver slowed down and cautiously approached the checkpoint.

-Knock knock.

A somewhat indifferent, almost irritable-sounding knock. As always, the driver turned the manual lever to lower the window, and the border guard sergeant with a cigarette in his mouth nodded slightly.

The sergeant smiled.

“It’s been a while, Grisha. Driving even on such a cold day.”

“Gotta make a living somehow. How’s the checkpoint? There’s a lot of snow falling.”

“Doesn’t matter. Snow falls every day anyway.”

The border guard sergeant, gently swaying the cigarette held between his lips, gestured with his hand. A young-faced soldier guarding the checkpoint waddled across the ice toward them.

Seeing the soldier’s face, driver Grisha clicked his tongue inwardly. What a shame to be stationed at this remote border where the only passersby were cargo trucks, tour buses, or smugglers.

To the middle-aged man, it was truly sad that a young kid barely over twenty was serving at such a desolate border. Especially since the boy was around the same age as his own son, it made a corner of his heart feel heavy, as if weighed down by a stone.

Sent him all the way to university just for him to fool around. Rotten kid.

Grisha gripped the steering wheel tighter, thinking about his son who had left for the city three years ago.

The sergeant asked:

“What are you transporting today?”

“The usual things I always move. Daily necessities and such.”

“So, contraband?”

“…Let’s just call them consumer goods for small pleasures.”

Side Episode – The Border

The items Grisha transported were foreign products.

He would buy products brought in through land routes (paths where monsters didn’t dwell) at cheap prices through “connections,” then sell them at a markup.

To put it in professional and elegant terms, Grisha was essentially a “daigong” (parallel trader).

Of course, it wasn’t an officially licensed business.

Strictly speaking, this was smuggling, and he could be tracked by the Tax Office’s wizards. Naturally, he would have no excuse if caught at a border checkpoint.

However, things in the real world rarely went according to the book.

The border guard captain had no hesitation accepting bribes, and the guards would easily let vehicles pass after receiving thermal-enchanted blankets to keep them warm.

Thanks to this arrangement, the border guards could put food on the table despite their meager salaries, and Grisha could send his son to university—a mutually beneficial relationship and Grisha’s know-how.

But.

Today was different.

“I need to inspect the truck.”

“…What?”

Grisha looked at the border guard sergeant with a shocked expression. The sergeant, twirling an unlit cigarette between his fingers, yawned widely and explained the situation.

Recently, distinguished guests from foreign countries had been visiting the Empire. Since they were all important figures, orders had come down to strengthen border inspections to prevent any possible incidents.

“Who exactly are these guests?”

“I don’t know either. Some say a saint has arrived, others say a hero… But a country bumpkin like me doesn’t need to know that much.”

Grisha’s head began to spin. His fingertips trembled, and his vision turned bright yellow.

Getting caught at inspection now would be disastrous. If the contents of his truck were discovered, even the border guard captain couldn’t cover for him.

Having finished this thought, Grisha hurriedly got out of the driver’s seat and approached the sergeant.

“What is it? So suddenly.”

“J-just a moment, please take this…”

Grisha extended both hands clutching a wad of bills. The rhythmically swaying cigarette stopped abruptly.

Cold sweat trickled down and froze. The familiar barricade of the border checkpoint looked like fortress walls today. The muzzle of the rifle slung over the guard’s shoulder seemed unusually large.

The border guard frowned, narrowing his brow.

“What is this?”

“Look, my livelihood depends on this… I’ll visit the captain soon too.”

“Not possible, Grisha. This isn’t the captain’s order but a command from headquarters.”

Perhaps moved by Grisha’s devastated expression, the border guard cleared his throat and spoke gently, as if coaxing him.

“Given our past dealings, I understand completely. Whatever’s in there, I’ll pretend not to see it, but first, open the truck doors.”

“……”

“I’ll just look and let you pass quickly. If you’re worried about goods getting damaged like last time, I promise I’ll only look this time.”

Grisha squeezed his eyes shut.

He bit his lip hard, deliberating, then reached into his pocket and pulled out another wad of cash.

The border guard’s expression became quite interesting when he saw several months’ worth of his salary in cash. In this rural town without even decent restaurants, let alone cultural facilities, such money was a rare sight.

As the border guard began to hesitate slightly, the smuggler, noticing this, offered him matches made by the Magic Tower that could withstand strong winds.

“These are matches made at the Magic Tower. They don’t easily go out in strong winds or cold.”

“……”

The border guard’s arm moved.

For a moment, Grisha worried he might be beaten and the vehicle forcibly inspected, but nothing of the sort happened.

The sergeant took a match from the box, lit his cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled with a “whoosh.”

“Grisha.”

“…Yes.”

“What about that fellow?”

The sergeant nodded toward the soldier, asking how Grisha planned to silence him.

Naturally, in such situations, bribes needed to be given to the soldier too, and the matter could be quickly resolved by giving him a portion of the money Grisha had offered, but the sergeant didn’t want to do that.

After all, no one picks up just one coin when both coins and bills are lying on the street.

Realizing this, Grisha quickly pulled out more cash from his wallet and offered it. This wasn’t his usual bribe money but came from his personal funds.

The sergeant smiled with satisfaction as he pocketed the money.

He took not only the two wads of cash Grisha had offered earlier but also half of the money meant for the soldier, stuffing it into his own pocket. What a thief.

As the sergeant grinned, Grisha forced a smile, pulling only at the corners of his mouth. Only the young soldier who suddenly received pocket money looked bewildered.

The border guard sergeant, exhaling smoke, cheerfully exclaimed:

“Very well. Pass through!”

The barricade that had seemed like an iron wall rose, and Grisha hurriedly climbed into the driver’s seat and stepped on the accelerator.

“Ah shit, what bad luck today…”

The old truck rattled through the checkpoint. Grisha’s curse was drowned out by the howling wind and engine noise.

Actually, getting caught this time wouldn’t have been so bad. There was no place in this border region where bribes didn’t work, from the border guard captain to the local police.

Even if he had been caught at the checkpoint just now, his friends would have kept him in an office for a few hours instead of a cell, then let him go home after paying a trivial fine.

But not today.

Driving through the snow, Grisha’s gaze shifted to the rearview mirror.

“……”

Sturdy men were sitting in the back of the shabby truck. Among his usual contraband were unidentifiable electronic devices, heavy bags with unknown contents, and military uniforms slightly visible beneath rolled-up pants.

Grisha’s “acquaintance,” who usually sold him foreign goods at cheap prices, had suddenly asked him a few days ago to smuggle several people into the Empire.

He had refused, saying he might be shot if caught, but the amount his acquaintance offered as payment was enormous. It was money his college-student son would barely make in ten months of working.

That’s why he was scared.

For merely transporting a few people and their luggage, the payment was far too large.

Grisha knew neither their names nor their nationalities.

There was even a beastkin among the illegal immigrants.

-Twitch twitch.

Singed skin with glossy fur, cat ears swaying gently among black hair, and vertical green pupils. The typical appearance of a cat beastkin.

Like the other illegal immigrants, Grisha didn’t know where the beastkin came from or what their name was.

Perhaps it was better not to know.

“…!”

Grisha’s eyes met the cat beastkin’s in the rearview mirror. The beastkin, who had been manipulating a brick-like electronic device, fixed their gaze on the back of Grisha’s head.

The moment their eyes met—the beastkin had been wrinkling their nose as if uncomfortable—Grisha turned his head and lowered his gaze.

Through the truck’s engine noise, he could hear conversations from the cargo area.

“…@#%@#%?”

“#$%@#$@.”

He couldn’t understand the foreign language, which made it all the more frightening. Grisha turned the steering wheel, suppressing his desire to escape from the truck immediately.

It would be best to forget about this deal.

With that thought, the smuggler Grisha fixed his gaze straight ahead and stepped on the accelerator.

The truck pushed through the falling snow and moved forward,

And the fallen snow covered the tire tracks left in the mud.

Thus, the truck carrying the Abas intelligence officers crossed the border and ventured deep into Imperial territory.

Side Episode – The Border -END-