TYBMB 02

Chapter 2: Who Cares About You?
(Original date: 2024.01.02.)

I felt sorry for the Commander, but I could tell his time was running out.

I gripped his hand tightly, and also clutched the necklace around my neck.

The necklace had been left to me by my late mother.

Wasn’t it said to possess power in moments of danger?

I was sure I’d heard that. But now, in this moment where I teetered on the edge of death, it was proving to be of little use.

All it did was calm my heart a little.

“Yulia! Get a hold of yourself! Yulia!”

Though I’d closed my eyes, having accepted my end, the Commander’s voice kept calling out to me.

I didn’t bother clinging to my fading consciousness and simply let it go.

So this is how my life ends.

That’s when I felt a strange energy pulse from the necklace clenched in my hand.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying inside a military tent.

Not the grand banquet hall of the imperial palace I’d last seen—just a plain, rugged tent.

I was laid out on a simple cot inside.

I’d thought I might be in heaven, having been poisoned so unfairly after living an honest life.

But no matter how I looked at it, this wasn’t heaven.

Still dazed and confused, someone entered the tent at that moment.

“Vice-Commander! You’re awake?!”

The moment I saw the person’s face, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Fiery red hair, a mischievous face sprinkled with freckles…

It was a face I had missed so much, I’d sometimes seen it in my dreams.

Seeing that face, I gave a soft, bitter laugh.

So it is heaven after all.

Otherwise, how could someone who died three years ago at the hands of a monster be walking around like this?

The young man who had just walked in—Karl—was my subordinate who had definitely died three years ago and turned to dust.

I had buried his body with my own hands, so there was no doubt that he was dead.

I had cried so much, stroking the cold, lifeless face of my fallen subordinate.

So if he was here now, this had to be heaven—or some kind of afterlife.

I felt my chest tighten with a bittersweet joy as I spoke to him.

“I’m so glad to see you again. When I buried your body… I thought we’d never meet again. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I cried a lot.”

“…Excuse me?”

Karl looked confused for a moment, then let out a light laugh.

“Oh, you must have had a dream! A dream where I died, huh? Even if it was just a dream, the Vice-Commander cried for me? Should I be honored…?”

“Wait… dream?”

“Yes, it must’ve been a dream. I’m alive and well, as you can see. It’s you who nearly died, Vice-Commander.”

While I sat there bewildered, Karl continued talking nonsense.

“No one expected such a powerful monster to be hiding in the 3rd Rift in Count Harknestein’s territory.”

The mention of the 3rd Rift in Count Harknestein’s domain made my ears perk up.

A rift was, quite literally, a tear in space-time.

Beyond the rift lay a world completely different from our own.

The monsters that attacked the Empire all came from there.

So the Empire’s elite anti-monster force, the Silver Knights, and I—its Vice-Commander—had spent the past ten years fighting off these monsters and closing the rifts.

The 3rd Rift in Count Harknestein’s territory that Karl had just mentioned was one that we had successfully closed five years ago.

That was ancient history, so why was he talking about it now?

What on earth was going on?

While I puzzled over this, Karl kept talking.

“If Commander Martin hadn’t rushed into the rift to save you, who knows what would’ve happened… But rest assured, the rift was safely closed.”

Though it was five years ago, Karl’s words brought the memories flooding back.

Back then, we’d underestimated the small size of the 3rd Rift and assumed it only held weak monsters.

We’d been careless.

I’d gone into the rift alone without taking any subordinates—and nearly died in there.

There had been a monstrously strong creature lurking inside despite the rift’s modest size.

I could have died for real. If Commander Martin hadn’t shown up when he did to save me.

He’d taken down the monster, pulled me out, and we’d escaped the rift.

So now, a subordinate who had died three years ago was alive and talking about an event from five years ago.

Suddenly, a wild thought occurred to me.

It made no sense—but could it be… I had come back to the past?

Needing confirmation, I asked Karl.

“What year is it right now?”

“It’s the 68th year of the Heldenberg calendar.”

The year I died from poison was 73 Heldenberg.

So this really was five years in the past.

What the hell had happened?

Instead of going to the afterlife after dying… I had returned to the past?

As I reeled from the confusion, Karl said something even more baffling.

“Oh, and Commander Martin will be here soon. He was really worried after you collapsed.”

“The Commander… was worried?”

“Even if he doesn’t show it, he cares for you deeply, Vice-Commander.”

Just as I opened my mouth to reply to Karl’s words, someone beat me to it.

“Ha. Who says I care?”

It was Commander Martin, just stepping into the tent, responding flatly to Karl’s statement.

And when I saw his face, I was startled yet again.

He looked so much younger than I remembered.

Could it really be… that time had truly turned back five years?

I quickly did the math in my head.

If this was five years ago, the Commander should now be 26 years old.

He was one year older than me.

26 years old. No wonder he looked so young.

Come to think of it, my own body felt oddly light—probably because I’d returned to my 25-year-old self.

Anyway, the now-younger Commander grumbled at me with a slightly gruff voice.

“Why would I care specially about Vice-Commander Yulia? If she goes down, the entire knight order suffers. That’s what I was worried about.”

Hearing his younger self speak like that, I felt my mind go blank for a second.

And the Commander immediately pointed it out.

“What’s with that dazed look? Did the monster in the rift hit you in the head or something?”

This 26-year-old version of the Commander was far more curt and cold than the one I remembered at 31.

He didn’t seem at all like the man who had held my hand as I lay dying and gently begged me to hang on a little longer.

Well, I guess it made sense. At this point in time, we hadn’t known each other very long—so he probably didn’t like me much yet.

I had joined under Commander Martin and become Vice-Commander at the age of 24, and before that, we’d had little interaction.

In other words, we had only known each other for a year at this point.

Also, at this time in my life, I had been deeply in love with Ernant… and had even resented the Commander for threatening his position.

To Martin, I was just one of Ernant’s people, so it was natural for him to be curt with me.

I tried to reassure the Commander, who was looking at me with clear irritation.

“My head’s fine.”

“That’s a relief. You already had bad judgment, going into an unverified rift alone. If you’d gotten any worse, we’d be in real trouble.”

“…”

“You almost died because of your recklessness. You realize that, don’t you?”

I couldn’t argue.

I’d been young and foolish at 25. Entering an unknown rift alone was indeed reckless.

“I understand. I’ll be more careful.”

“Tch.”

“And—”

I steadied my shaking heart and slowly continued.

“Thank you for saving me.”

“…”

I meant it.

I was grateful to him for saving the foolish, impulsive 25-year-old me who nearly died in a rift.

And I was grateful that he mourned the dying 30-year-old me, who had been poisoned by the man she loved.

Martin was truly someone who deserved to be thanked.

That’s all I meant to express—but for some reason, the Commander just stared at me blankly, as if he were seeing something strange.

Then, suddenly, he strode over on those long legs of his and gently cupped my face with his large, warm hands.