Chapter 06
Selena continued recounting the story her older brother had told her.
The Lugens War.
A brutal conflict between the Empire and the radical elves.
Whenever the old fought over power and privilege, it was always the young who paid the price.
The Empire had won in the end, but the road to victory had been paved with blood and scars.
Her brother had been one of those who bled.
One of those who came back carrying wounds that would never truly heal.
He had nearly failed to return at all.
His family could have received nothing but a notice of his death.
They might have wept over his body.
Or worse—
They might have had no body to mourn.
But fortune had smiled upon him.
The heavens had intervened.
God had sent them a savior.
Faced with that man’s unbelievable courage, even the enemy had faltered and broken their encirclement.
Disguised as nothing more than an ordinary soldier, that savior rescued the trapped troops.
“…That’s how my brother managed to escape,” Selena said quietly, absentmindedly tracing the rim of her coffee cup.
“I’m so grateful to that person. If he hadn’t shown up, my brother—and hundreds of Imperial soldiers—might have died. Just like my brother said… he had to be a savior sent by God.”
“Y-Yeah… I guess that’s possible.”
Karl answered in an oddly stiff voice.
“Um… Selena.”
“Yeah?”
“That soldier… did your brother ever figure out who he was?”
“Hm? No. Back then everyone had gone through so much they barely had the strength to wash themselves. Everyone looked absolutely miserable—you couldn’t even tell who was who. That soldier looked the same, so my brother never found out exactly who he was.”
“I see… so that’s how it was.”
Sip.
Karl quietly took another drink of his coffee.
Yet somehow, he still looked uncomfortable.
There was no way Selena, sitting right across from him, wouldn’t notice.
He had listened attentively to everything she’d said until now.
But his reactions this time were strange.
It almost felt like he was forcing himself to hear something he didn’t want to hear.
Is he feeling uncomfortable?
…Ah.
That actually made sense.
Come to think of it, Karl had also served as an ordinary Imperial soldier.
Praising another common soldier so extravagantly in front of him might make him feel awkward.
He hadn’t done anything like that himself.
Hearing about someone else’s heroic deeds could easily make him feel inadequate.
As soon as that thought crossed her mind, Selena felt guilty again.
That mysterious soldier might have accomplished something extraordinary…
…but Karl had fought on the very same battlefield.
He had faced the same terror.
He had gathered the same courage.
He had fought the same war.
Even if he wasn’t that soldier…
He was still one of the Empire’s heroes.
“It’s okay, Karl.”
“Huh?”
“You fought just as hard.”
“…Y-Yeah.”
“You fought for the Empire too.”
“So you’re just as amazing as the soldier who saved my brother.”
She beamed brightly and even pumped her fist.
“You can do it!”
Thanks to her encouragement, Karl’s troubled expression softened ever so slightly.
Even if I wasn’t the only reason… I definitely played a part in making him feel this way.
So encouraging him like this is only natural.
A nobleman’s son who had enlisted as a common soldier…
How difficult must that have been?
And on top of that, he’d experienced war.
She was only comforting him because she felt sorry for him.
There were absolutely no other feelings involved.
Or so Selena told herself as she continued encouraging the man sitting across from her.
“…”
Meanwhile—
Gulp.
Karl drained the rest of his coffee in one go.
No matter how I hear this…
Isn’t she talking about me?
He was right.
The more he thought about it…
The more certain he became.
The soldier who had rescued Selena’s brother.
The lunatic who had led hundreds of trapped soldiers to safety.
That’s me, isn’t it?!
During the Lugens War…
There had been a time when he completely lost his mind trying to rescue his missing squadmates.
Military life had been hell.
The war had been even worse.
But despite all that, they’d become pretty close.
He didn’t want to find their corpses.
He wanted to drag those bastards home alive so he could yell at them himself.
Naturally, everyone else had tried to stop him.
His comrades.
His superiors.
Every single one of them.
“Have you gone insane?!”
“They’ve been trapped inside the elves’ encirclement for ages!”
“It’s unfortunate, but they’re dead!”
“They’re not coming back! Give it up already!”
Karl hadn’t even bothered listening to the rest.
He simply walked straight into enemy territory.
Alone.
“…Damn.”
Looking back on it now…
“I was completely insane.”
The elves might have been weaker in head-on battles…
But when it came to encirclement tactics?
They were monsters.
Especially in small-unit engagements.
Once you got trapped inside their net…
Nobody came back alive.
Yet somehow…
Somehow…
Karl never encountered a single elf.
Instead, he found his missing squadmates.
And even now…
He still remembered the first words they exchanged.
“You crazy bastard! Why the hell did you come here?!”
“The hell’s wrong with you?! I came to save your asses!”
“That’s exactly why you’re insane! Did you come here to die?!”
Every single one of them had been out of their minds.
What if the elves had heard all that shouting?
Wouldn’t they have been captured…
…and had their scalps peeled off alive?
But Lady Luck smiled on them again.
Despite making enough noise to shake the entire forest…
Not a single elf appeared.
Supporting one another, they began making their way out of the woods.
…Then we found more soldiers.
At first, Karl thought there were only a handful.
But there weren’t.
A few became dozens.
Dozens became hundreds.
There were more than an entire company.
Like his own squadmates, they had all missed the retreat and become stranded deep inside enemy territory.
They couldn’t keep fighting.
They couldn’t escape.
Surrender wasn’t even an option.
And to those isolated soldiers…
Karl said something equally insane.
“Come with us!”
“I made it all the way here without running into the enemy!”
“Whether we die here or die trying, what’s the difference?”
“If we’re going to die anyway, wouldn’t it be better to die a little closer to home?!”
You absolute lunatic.
What if the enemy had ambushed you?
At least where they were, they’d built defensive positions.
They could probably have held out for a while.
If Imperial reinforcements arrived, their chances of survival would have been much higher.
But back then…
Karl wasn’t in his right mind.
His body had been flooded with adrenaline.
The other soldiers…
Even the officers…
They weren’t much different.
Every one of them desperately wanted to escape that hell.
It was pure survival instinct.
We were lucky.
Unbelievably lucky.
Absurdly lucky.
As hundreds of soldiers abandoned their positions and retreated…
The enemy never attacked.
Not once.
No one fell behind.
Everyone supported one another as they walked.
Step after step.
Eventually…
They safely reunited with the Imperial main force.
Everything afterward had been a blur.
Karl simply took his squadmates and returned to his own unit.
“You insane idiot! Orders! What happened to following orders?!”
“Aaaagh! Lieutenant! My ribs!”
“Your ribs?! If the elves had caught you, they’d have peeled the skin off your damned head!”
His platoon leader had chewed him out mercilessly.
Why hadn’t he obeyed orders?
Why had he pulled such a suicidal stunt?
…Of course, immediately afterward…
The lieutenant thanked him.
For bringing everyone back alive.
That was the whole story.
After rescuing his squad, Private First Class Karl had been promoted one rank to Corporal.
It had also become one of the reasons he eventually earned the rank of Sergeant before leaving the military.
“Karl? Karl!”
“H-Huh?”
“Are you listening to me?”
“Y-Yeah. Of course I am. Thanks… for saying all that.”
For a brief moment…
He considered telling her.
That the soldier she was talking about…
Was probably him.
That he was the one who had saved her brother.
That, somehow…
That’s how things had turned out.
…
No.
Forget it.
There was no point.
It wasn’t a memory worth reminiscing about.
Back in his previous life—
Movies.
Games.
TV dramas.
Watching all those war heroes…
He had often thought,
Man… I wish I could be like that.
To be praised.
Admired.
To walk around proudly with everyone looking up to him.
But after actually experiencing war…
Those memories were the last thing he wanted to remember.
It wasn’t something to boast about.
It was something he wanted to forget.
That place had been hell.
A filthy hell where someone always had to die.
Imperial Ministry of War
Minister’s Office
“Are you certain about this?”
“Yes, Minister. We’ve gathered as many eyewitness accounts from those who were present as possible. Comparing them with testimony from the commanding officers and unit leaders, I’d estimate there’s at least a ninety-seven percent probability.”
“If there’s still a three percent chance we’re wrong… that’s not exactly insignificant.”
The Minister of War muttered as he reread the report.
“…Very well.”
“Forward it to the Imperial Household Ministry.”
“And then…”
“We’ll await His Majesty the Emperor’s decision.”
The title on the report read:
[Recipient of the Empire’s Medal of Honor]
Karl Adelheit
