"Your name is Ioannis Poblecio Basileus."
When you became the heir to a distinguished noble house, you needed a name worthy of it.
I came to live as Ioannis.
"Young master. These are the subjects you will study today."
The head of the house thrust the qualities of an heir at me.
Administrative science, economics, military science, political science, noble etiquette. There were never enough hours in a day.
Just as he had seemed at first glance, House Head Liatris was a blunt, indifferent man.
He never once called me "son." In public or in private, he always used my name.
And I never called him Father. I called him House Head.
I traveled all over the world to prevent the war and built diplomatic ties wherever I could.
I even went to the Kingdom of Drossel from the original story and met the princess there, and I met Brigadier General Merculov, the main villain, as well as important figures from various countries.
When I returned from my diplomatic rounds, I came to a conclusion.
"It is impossible to stop the war."
The great war that would break out in the future was a war born of festering, long-suppressed problems: nationalism, history, politics, resources, religion, territorial disputes, class systems, and more.
It was impossible for one human being, no matter how strong, to block the flow of the world.
Even if I truly did stop the war with godlike diplomatic and political skill, it would only be a temporary fix. War was the process of a dam built by humanity holding, and holding, and then finally bursting.
Even if I stopped it, it would burst someday.
Then I would have to choose another method. If it was impossible to prevent the war, then I would end it quickly.
There was a route by which the children of noble houses entered politics.
That route was the military academy.
Leidenschaftlich was a nation with a strong military influence. Graduating from the academy, taking up a commission, and building experience before entering parliament was the standard path.
I entered the military again at the young age of twenty.
Even if I was going as an officer, the army was still the army. It was just as hard as ever.
"You said your name was Ioannis, right? I look forward to working with you."
At the academy entrance ceremony, a red-haired man approached me. He was about as tall as I was.
He was also a familiar face.
"Hajins."
"Huh? You know me?"
"A little."
The young Hajins scratched his head blankly. Seeing him like this, he really was handsome. Tall and solid, the kind of man who looked like he could make women cry with ease.
"My name is Gilbert. I look forward to working with you, Ioannis."
"Likewise."
Gilbert, standing beside Hajins, held out his hand. I took it.
He was a handsome man with navy-blue slicked-back hair. I studied him closely.
"...Is there something on my face?"
Gilbert asked when I kept staring. I answered casually.
"No. You’re just handsome."
Gilbert made a sour face.
It would feel strange if another man stared at your face and said something like "handsome."
Before any misunderstanding could grow, I corrected myself.
"Don’t get the wrong idea. I like women."
"You do? Whew. You had me worried there."
Hajins let out a relieved sigh.
Through the connection we formed at the entrance ceremony, the three of us stuck together. We made other friends too, but these two were the closest.
"Forget about only commanding from the rear because you’re officers. From now on, I’ll teach you hand-to-hand combat."
If there was one class at the academy that was the most interesting, it was hand-to-hand combat. Chivalric ideals still lingered, so they taught close-quarters martial arts.
"Haa... This is your first close-quarters fight, right? I’m nervous. Can I really do well if I just use what I’ve learned?"
"You’ll do fine, Hajins."
"Thanks. Gilbert, how much strength are you going to use?"
"Let’s see. Maybe about half."
At their conversation, I voiced my confusion.
"Only half?"
"Ah, Gilbert’s from Bougainvillea. A military family that’s been around for generations. He’s probably the best fighter here."
"Gilbert. Step forward."
The instructor called Gilbert.
"First, I’ll show you a demonstration. The weapons are a bayonet and a dagger. They’re all plastic swords, so don’t worry. Now then, Gilbert. Take your stance."
The hand-to-hand instructor sparred with Gilbert.
The two fought evenly matched. But in the end, the instructor won.
A mere cadet had the same level of skill as an officer. Everyone applauded.
"From here on out, you’ll pair up and spar. Begin."
The cadets found partners and began sparring.
"Ioannis, want to spar with me?"
Gilbert came over to me as I was getting my weapons ready.
"Aren’t you tired after just sparring?"
"I’m fine. Neither of us was serious anyway."
"Fair enough."
Gilbert and I moved apart and took our stances. Before long, all eyes were on us.
Tap tap!
The spar began. We tested each other as we attacked. Dodge, block, counter. And then, at the decisive moment.
I shoved Gilbert back to create distance.
"..!"
Gilbert was pushed back about three steps. Surprise was plain on his face.
While he was still reeling, I sent a high kick at him. My leg lashed out like a whip and struck his right side.
Gilbert crossed his arms to block.
Thud!
His defense was excellent. But he couldn’t absorb the impact, and his body bent sideways.
"Ioannis... are you even human?"
"I am."
Gilbert rushed at me with a soldier’s spirit. He gave it everything he had.
But he couldn’t beat me. I hooked his leg, knocked him down, climbed on top of him, and leveled a dagger at him.
With a snort, Gilbert raised both hands.
"I lost. I’ve never seen anyone this strong before."
I held out my hand. Gilbert took it and stood.
"The Garadric Empire has crossed the northern line."
Not long after I graduated from the academy, orders came down from above.
What had been waiting to burst finally burst. The war I had tried so hard to prevent came toward us as if it were only natural.
The war began with a preemptive strike by the Garadric Empire.
The reason was Leidenschaftlich’s abundant resources.
The Garadric Empire and Leidenschaftlich were both leading powers in the north and south. Naturally, they were tangled together with other nations like a spider’s web.
The war between the two countries dragged the entire world into conflict. Garadric’s preemptive invasion was only the spark. A mountain of problems built up by history went boom.
"What? You want to use a sword? I understand chivalry and all, but do you really have to?"
"In close combat, there is no better weapon than a sword."
"That only works if you’re already close to the enemy. You’ll get shot and die before you even get there."
"Please trust me."
Assigned to the front, I took up a sword instead of a gun. In my previous life, I had used a sword as my weapon too. If my superhuman physical ability and swordsmanship were combined, I could surely change the course of the war.
War in this era was, in the end, trench warfare.
Whether by bombardment or by dropping bombs from the air, you still had to break through the enemy trench.
But this was also an era when artillery accuracy was a joke, and aircraft were barely worth mentioning.
The fighters of this age were so primitive it was almost embarrassing to call them fighters. How could you call a biplane developed by the Wright brothers a fighter plane?
Their only real role was reconnaissance.
Tanks had, of course, not been developed. It had barely been ten years since the biplane was invented, so what tanks were there to speak of?
In the end, people had to seize the trenches with their own bodies. That meant praying not to get hit by bullets and charging straight in...
Trenches. Dig a straight line into bare earth and install machine guns, and that’s a trench. Simple, isn’t it? But the firepower and stopping power were anything but simple. It was a demon.
When a machine gun rattled off ratatat, it could kill a hundred men with ease.
There was a reason the phrase trench warfare existed. You stuck your head out of the trench and waited, endlessly. There was no helping it. In trench warfare, the side that attacked was at a disadvantage. In fact, it wasn’t just a disadvantage; it was often annihilation.
There are stories from the First World War of incompetent commanders grinding their soldiers to death in the trenches until they were wiped out.
In that kind of situation, I was an asymmetric weapon.
My skin and muscles had enough durability to stop bullets. If I sprinted forward with this monstrous body like a tiger, I could reach the enemy trench in no time.
Once I got there, I would kill them with my adamantium sword. Someone who could beat me in close combat? There was no such person in this other world.
By the time I had turned the trench into a disaster, our side would charge in and seize it. That was how most battles ended in victory.
I fought hundreds of battles like that. But the war showed no sign of ending. There were endless trenches, but I was only one man.
No matter how well I performed, I couldn’t bring the war to a decisive end by myself.
And yet my achievements did not disappear.
"Congratulations on your promotion to major."
Before I knew it, I was in my mid-twenties.
I had become the youngest major.
"Hey. Ioannis, you made it back alive again."
The red-haired man, Claudia Hajins, smiled and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Haa~ It was really rough. Being an artillery officer isn’t easy."
Hajins, who had gone into artillery, spoke lightly. Even if artillery accuracy was abysmal, artillery was still indispensable.
"Hajins. Has there been anything unusual with Gilbert lately?"
Gilbert met Violet when he was in his mid-twenties.
In other words, this should be about the time Gilbert and Violet first met.
"Hm? Did something happen?"
So they still hadn’t met. I changed the subject and took out a bottle of wine.
"Nothing. Hajins, open this for me. I can’t lift my arm."
"What, you got hurt again?"
"Grenade fragments. It’s nothing serious."
It was an injury I’d picked up while attacking an enemy supply unit. Bullets were fine, but grenades were dangerous.
"Wow... when you say it, it really does sound like nothing."
I shrugged.
Hajins and I spent the time drinking wine. Because of the war, we rarely had time to see each other’s faces. So we finally had a chance to catch up after so long.
Before we knew it, dawn had come.
"Then see you later, Ioannis."
"Take care."
Left alone, I poured wine into my glass and savored it.
Even while talking with Hajins, all my attention had been on Violet.
"Where is Violet...?"
He still said Gilbert had not met Violet yet.
Then when would they meet?
"Could she have died?"
Had something happened to Violet because of the butterfly effect I had caused? My actions would have changed the history of this other world quite a bit. It wasn’t entirely impossible.
But I soon shook my head.
"No. Violet is on a remote island. The war wouldn’t affect her."
Violet lived like a beast on a remote island, then was picked up by Dietfried and entrusted to Gilbert.
There was no way the aftershocks of war could reach an uninhabited island outside civilization.
"I did become acquainted with Colonel Dietfried too. I should ask him when I meet him later."
Violet Evergarden.
That girl had been used as a tool of war at such a young age that she lived carrying wounds that could never be erased.
This place was not merely a work of fiction.
It was reality, where people lived and breathed. Living here, I felt that truth all too clearly.
What I ultimately wanted was peace. Of course, I didn’t wish for eternal peace.
But at least while I was alive, I didn’t want anyone to suffer because of war.
Violet, and everyone else in the world. It was an absurd dream... but dreams were supposed to be like that, weren’t they?
"Ioannis, are you inside?"
Speak of the devil, and Colonel Dietfried’s voice came from beyond the door.
"At your service. Ioannis here."
"I’ll come in for a moment."
I opened the door for him. A handsome middle-aged man with purple hair and green eyes stepped inside.
As soon as he entered, he frowned and looked at my right arm.
"Are you injured?"
"It’s nothing."
"I suppose so."
Colonel Dietfried casually poured himself some of my wine and drank it.
"Anyway, you assassinated the enemy generals this time, didn’t you? Thanks to you, their morale took a hit."
"Is that so? But what is that?"
Dietfried was carrying something like a burlap sack. It looked big enough to hold a child.
Twitch. The burlap sack moved.
...Could it be?
"It’s a present. I was going to give it to my younger brother at first, but he told me to give it to you instead."
"....."
"Use it as a weapon, and nothing more. Don’t show it any pity. Open it."
With trembling hands, I carefully opened the sack.
And what appeared was a girl.
Golden hair, disheveled like a beast’s.
Blue eyes like a still lake.
Though dirty from not having been washed, nothing could hide the girl’s beautiful face.
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