TDBCD 05

Chapter 5

Abel Claren.

The son of an insignificant baron family with no territory of its own.

Around this time, she had been suffering all kinds of bullying from Abel. The bullying only stopped after the war broke out and his conscription papers arrived.

In other words, she was supposed to be tormented by this bastard for the next few years.

Normally, that was.

“You went to make a house call at a nearby count’s family yesterday, didn’t you? Help your poor older brother a little. If I make a big profit, I’ll pay you back double.”

Abel, who had fallen over and was grinning foolishly, shouted while spreading both arms dramatically.

It was fortunate that she could only afford to rent a building in a secluded area because she had no money.

If it had been in the center of town, this bastard, who did not care at all about being overheard, would have caused rumors to spread throughout the neighborhood that she was a woman.

“How long are you planning to live so pathetically?”

“Oh, pathetic? Your older brother was just a little unlucky. But now that I’ve met my little sister again… I suppose I’m lucky?”

A sharp light appeared in Abel’s dull eyes.

Even after seeing him again, he really was exceptionally clever when it came to doing bad things.

Abel had waited until she got a job, then appeared in front of her as if to show off and extorted money from her.

After exploiting her house-call fees under the name of a “famous doctor’s fee,” he had blown every penny at the horse races and gambling houses in the port city.

Abel’s very existence was solid proof that she had stolen someone else’s identity as a doctor, so Ibel had no choice but to give him money.

“That’s all the money I have right now.”

Ibel took an envelope of money from the drawer and threw it at him.

Abel caught it, sniffed it, and then smiled broadly.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go with that. But prepare more next time. I have to start paying off my bar tab, too.”

…Should I just put a pistol in that loose mouth of his?

She barely managed to hold on to her sanity, which had almost vanished without a trace for a moment. Leaning against the window, she watched Abel leave while grinning and making a fool of himself.

“Even if I live the same way as in the past, I’ll just be drafted and dragged away anyway……”

Suddenly, she remembered what the Grand Duke had said right before his death.

“It wouldn’t be bad to get married and become a good husband. Take care of a family… Live like everyone else.”

Perhaps he had placed this advertisement so he could do just that.

Or perhaps God had performed a miracle so that he could try living that way. Not that she was particularly religious.

After thinking for a long time, Ibel took out an old travel bag around sunset. She neatly packed various tools, then took out the travel money hidden in a secret pocket inside the bag and counted it one coin at a time.

It hurt to have her house-call fee taken from her yesterday, but she had always set aside 10% in preparation for situations like this.

‘But the problem is, where am I supposed to go to apply for the advertisement?’

That small problem was solved by a newspaper advertisement published the next day.

[-.- — -. .-. .- -.. / …- — -. / . -… . .-. … – . .. -. . / .-.. .. -.-. …. – . -. / .-.. .. -. -.. . -. … – .-. .- … … . / .—- ..— . / .–. — … – -.-. — -.. . / .—- —– —– .—- …–]

The advertisement section contained nothing but Morse code, without a single explanation.

It was truly something he would do.

Ibel naturally deciphered the code.

“Konrad von Eberstein. Lichtern Linden Street, number 12. Postal code 10013….”

Ibel’s eyes lingered for a moment on the name Konrad.

‘So that means he should still be alive at this point in time.’

Now that she knew where to go, she decided to leave before Abel came looking for her again.

Ibel firmly locked the door, grabbed her bag, and did not look back.

Just like the Grand Duke had done, she too had taken a step toward changing her fate.

“Do you really think the person you’re looking for will recognize this and come here?”

A few days after the strange advertisement from Bavaria had caused a stir in the capital, at the Grand Duke’s secret residence in the capital.

Only a handful of people knew about this secret place, including the Grand Duke himself, his most trusted aide Matthias, and Colonel Konrad von Eberstein, who had been loyal to him for many years.

Normally, the secret residence was empty, without even anyone assigned to maintain it.

But today, the shadows of two people stretched long beneath the window.

Just before sunset, Victor looked at the red sky and quietly replied.

“She will come.”

“Could you at least tell me who she is or where you met her? I don’t understand any of this. You told everyone that you were staying in your territory, but then you suddenly said you had to hurry to the capital….”

He had come to meet a comrade with whom he had crossed a depth deeper than any nightmare.

He was not the kind of person who could casually say such embarrassing things out loud, but even if he told the truth, there was no way Matthias would believe him.

“No.”

Victor cut off his aide’s complaints and turned his gaze toward the yarrow and dandelions growing thickly along the road.

A few minutes later, someone appeared beyond the grass swaying carelessly in the breeze.

Platinum-colored hair glowing strangely beneath the setting sun. Long, thin eyelashes and full lips.

And amber eyes that reminded him of the midsummer sun.

Whenever he saw her gritting her teeth and trying to save people amid the ashes falling like snow, he always had the same thought.

That he might be sucked into those eyes if he was not careful.

‘She really came.’

The moment Victor finished that brief thought, Matthias became excited.

“Huh? Oh, someone really came! But they look like a boy! And their hair is short, too!”

“Bring them inside politely.”

“Yes, sir!”

Matthias hurried down in confusion, while Victor quietly waited.

An ordinary person could not read Morse code. Only someone connected to the military could understand it.

There was a risk that the secret residence would be exposed, but once his purpose was accomplished, he would abandon this place anyway, so it did not matter.

It was not as though they were in the middle of a war right now.

Meeting Abel again was more valuable than a single secret residence.

Besides, the code he had published in the newspaper was not standard Morse code in the first place.

It was a Morse code system separately created by the Bavarian army during the war.

‘By now, people are probably going crazy trying to decipher it here and there.’

It would not be easy.

It had been created by a soldier with an almost frightening talent for cryptography.

“Hello. I’ve come to apply for the position of contract Grand Duchess.”

The voice coming from in front of the open door was calm and steady. Hearing that same indifferent way of speaking, Victor somehow let out a small laugh.

Even though he was not someone who often laughed.

“At this point in time, you shouldn’t be able to read Morse code. There’s no way an ordinary doctor could know the code used by the Bavarian army.”

“……”

“If you couldn’t find your way here, I was going to use another method. But it seems that won’t be necessary.”

“It has been a long time, Your Grace.”

Her voice resembled cool air.

The moment he heard it, it was as if she brought autumn into the heat of summer.

Victor slowly turned around and saw someone much thinner and more fragile than the figure in his memories.

The light of sunset seeped upward from the hem of her trousers, gradually dyeing her entire body in a warm reddish-brown glow.

When she stepped forward, the memories he could never forget no matter how hard he tried came vividly back to life.

“I couldn’t believe it for about a day. Was it the same for you?”

“Yes. Seeing that Your Grace also returned safely, I suppose… I’m not completely insane after all.”

They had died tangled together, and they had returned to the past at the same time.

This was neither a dream nor a hallucination.

What could be more certain proof than each other?

“Bavarian Grand Duchy Autonomous Army, Medical Corps Second Lieutenant Abel Claren. Reporting safe return.”

The salute of placing the right fist over the left side of the chest was unique to the Bavarian Autonomous Army.

Twelve people had survived until the very end from the massive army of fifty thousand.

She was one of the survivors who had endured until the very end on the front lines.

This really works.

Ibel muttered inwardly as she lifted her glass.