Something sticky clung to my back.
Strange. I had fallen asleep in bed.
I opened my eyes.
The sky was an unnatural black. There wasn’t even the glow of a neon sign.
I pushed myself up and looked around. Blood spread out in a vast, endless sheet.
Corpses floated in it. Some had their entrails spilling out; others had faces half blown apart.
"Major. What are you going to do after the war ends?"
Then a perfectly intact comrade asked me that. I ignored him with a strange look on my face. I wanted to see that face, but he had already died in battle.
The next moment, the comrade was torn to pieces in every direction. That was the last I saw of him.
When I ignored the comrade, a North Korean soldier appeared next, shouting in fury.
"What did I do wrong? What did I do wrong!!"
He hadn’t done anything wrong. He had been an ordinary young man dragged into war against his will. But he was my enemy, so I killed him.
I ignored him too.
The next instant, the North Korean soldier’s head fell into the blood.
At some point, a blunt sword was in my hand.
"Big brother, you have to come back, okay? Promise me."
A brown-haired girl smiled brightly and waved. I bit my lower lip. Ignore it. I had to ignore it.
And then, the next moment, the girl was naked. Her whole body was bruised, and fluids stained her skin.
"Y-you’re awake?"
The girl looked up at me with swollen eyes and pleaded with a weak, broken smile.
"I-it hurts so much. I’m dirty. Please save me."
I squeezed my eyes shut. It was that same hateful nightmare.
*
Major....
Major.
"Major."
A clear voice like polished jade rang out. It was Violet.
I sat up and pressed my fingers hard against my eyes.
"...What is it?"
"You were sweating abnormally while sleeping."
"I see."
I threw off the blanket. My whole body was soaked in sweat.
I’ll need to change clothes.
Before that, I reached toward the table. I needed some wine.
Whoosh
My hand caught empty air.
There was no wine.
I turned to Violet.
"Did you put the wine away?"
"Yes. Whenever you wake up sweating abnormally, you drink wine. Excessive drinking can cause heart disease and migraines."
"I’m fine, so could you bring it back?"
"No. Your health is in danger."
"I won’t die from this much, so don’t worry."
"But—"
"That’s an order. Where is the wine?"
Violet brought the wine back with a face that looked like she had a lot to say. It had been hidden under the bed.
I didn’t drink it right away.
The damp clothes clinging to me were unpleasant. While I changed, Violet came into view.
"Could you step outside for a moment?"
"Why? You have changed clothes in front of me before."
"Once you’re around your age, you shouldn’t be looking at another man’s body."
"Are you perhaps embarrassed, Major?"
"...I’m not. Get out."
"I have seen a similar situation in a book—"
"That’s an order. Wait outside until I come out."
Violet nodded and left.
I changed clothes and poured myself a drink.
Strong wine first thing after waking left my head spinning. That was the reason I drank it.
But the image of the child’s body parts from my dream remained vivid.
I drank straight from the bottle.
I pulled on my long coat uniform and left the barracks. Violet was waiting outside.
"Let’s go get some night air."
"Understood."
We climbed up onto the castle wall.
It had been three years since I started roaming the battlefield with Violet.
The fortress visible in the distance was called Intense. The final destination that would end the Great War.
So I should be glad we had shortened it by a year, I supposed.
I did not think of this world as merely a work of fiction.
This was another Earth, where real people lived.
I had done everything I could to prevent the Great War.
The reason it broke out was Garadric’s greed for resources.
As a diplomat, I had tried to secure peace between the two nations. But I had failed miserably.
The Great War had erupted as if it were fate.
It was, quite literally, a great war.
The north fought with the Garadric Empire at its center, and the south with Leidenschaftlich at its center.
It was a war tangled together by religious, racial, historical, and material reasons.
If you examined it closely, the war had been inevitable.
There was only one way for me to end it quickly.
Kill the enemy. It was what I did best.
An uneven difference in power only invited mutual destruction.
It was more efficient to crush them overwhelmingly and end the war fast.
It was ironic to put efficiency beside human lives... but that was war.
To the people at the top, soldiers were nothing but numbers.
Whether they were someone’s son, uncle, or father, in military documents they were written as a single digit: “1.”
I had conveyed modern military tactics to the command staff.
I had been a soldier in my previous life.
If it was the history of tactics, I knew it inside and out.
Of course, the command staff did not simply adopt my tactics as I suggested.
Still, several promising tactics were put into practice and achieved results.
As a result, the war that had lasted four years in the original story was reduced to three.
The fact that we were launching the operation to retake Intense tomorrow was proof of that.
*
Intense Fortress. The most critical military stronghold.
If we captured it today, victory would be secured.
In other words, Intense meant the Northern Alliance’s full military strength was concentrated there.
While I was lost in thought, Violet was quietly staring at the obsidian brooch.
"...Violet."
"Yes, Major."
"You’ll obey anything if it’s my order, won’t you?"
"Yes."
"Then if, hypothetically... if I were to tell you to... die..."
"I would die."
"...What?"
"If that is your wish, Major, I would die."
Suddenly, Violet drew a dagger. And then she drove it straight toward her own throat.
I grabbed the blade.
The tip of the dagger stopped a hair’s breadth from Violet’s Adam’s apple.
If I hadn’t stopped her, it would have buried itself in her throat.
"What are you doing?!"
I shouted before I could stop myself.
"I thought you wanted me to—"
"I was just speaking casually. I didn’t mean it."
"I’m sorry."
"Don’t apologize. It’s my fault. I’m sorry... I’m truly sorry."
"Why are you apologizing, Major?"
"I..."
For an instant, the child from my dream overlapped with Violet in my mind.
They were different in race, gender, and era, but they shared one thing: both were victims of war.
"Major. Your hand is hurt."
"It’s fine."
I wrapped the wound with a bandage.
"Violet. Could you do me one favor?"
"If it is your order, I will obey anything."
"...Don’t die."
"Understood."
"No matter what happens, never die. Don’t try to die like that again, and if someone tries to kill you, survive even if you have to kill them first."
"Understood."
It was then.
"Ioannis! It’s been a while."
Hajins called from below the wall. Violet hid the brooch.
I raised a hand in a crisp salute and shouted back.
"Lieutenant Colonel Hajins."
Even after being disciplined, I was still a Major.
Hajins scratched his head awkwardly and climbed up the wall.
"...I told you not to call me Lieutenant Colonel."
"I can’t do that. You’re above me."
"Haha... Anyway. Did I come at a bad time? Should I come back later?"
He seemed to have heard my shouting.
I shook my head.
"It’s fine."
"Good. Then, Major Basileus?"
Hajins winked.
I said softly, "I never thought I’d have to salute you."
"In my case, I’ve only been sent to fronts where I could win without even fighting... And the military keeps its guard up around you. If we’re talking achievements alone, you’re practically at colonel level."
"Rank isn’t all that important to me. Your family is the one funding the army, after all."
"Which is why I can’t brag about getting ahead. I’m basically a parachute appointment."
Hajins draped an arm around me familiarly.
"More importantly, how have you been? And what’s with that scar on your neck?"
He tapped at the scar on my neck.
At that, Violet reached for her sword. She had mistaken Hajins touching my neck for an attack.
I raised a hand toward Violet.
"Violet, it’s a joke. He’s my academy classmate. He’s an ally."
Hajins looked at Violet. Then, as if remembering, he said, "The one I saw back at the training camp... You’re still keeping her at your side? That’s the girl, right? I heard she made incredible military contributions in the Battle of Capria... Rumor has it she’s your weapon, Major. There should be other things for her to do..."
"...I tried too."
I had tried to assign Violet to cooking, fortification work, and administration.
But the higher-ups were watching me and Violet.
Whenever I showed signs of trying to pull Violet away, they disciplined me without fail.
Clack!
Violet grabbed the hilt and took a ready stance.
"...Ah! My apologies. Uh, that is—"
"Violet. Call her Violet."
"Violet. That’s a lovely name. But you’re bringing her along for the Intense retaking operation too?"
"This is the last one. Once we take Intense back, it’s over."
"I suppose so."
As Hajins descended the stairs, he looked back up at me.
"You know, once the war ends, I’m thinking of quitting the army and starting a company."
"Really?"
"Then I’ll hire you too."
"I’d have a hard time with that."
I had to inherit the headship after my father.
"Then maybe I’ll hire the young lady Violet instead?"
"Could we talk alone for a moment?"
"About what?"
"Something important."
Hajins glanced at Violet and said, "Fine. Come to my barracks."
"Violet. Stay in the barracks. You can go to sleep first if you want."
"Ugh, it’s creepy when you talk like that."
"...I only talk like this sometimes when it’s just the two of us. I don’t do it often."
"Am I invisible?"
"You’re my friend."
"How touching. Come on in. I’ve got wine you like."
I went to Hajins’s barracks.
*
"...But is something wrong? You’ve seemed off since earlier."
"Nothing. I just had a bad dream."
"I see..."
Hajins rummaged through a drawer and handed me a cigarette.
"You smoke?"
"No. I got it somehow, but do you want it?"
I hesitated, then took the cigarette. I lit it with a candle and put it to my lips.
"Thanks."
"If you’re that stressed, you should’ve smoked."
"I can’t smoke in front of a kid."
"You really do care about that girl. You didn’t even make her take the drugs the army hands out."
It was common to give narcotics to child soldiers. Once drugged, they forgot fear and charged forward.
That was one of the tactics some countries used with child soldiers.
They were small in build and could stir pity in the enemy.
"How could I make her take something like that?"
"Fair enough..."
"Hajins."
"Yeah?"
"I’m going to die."
"W-What? Die? What are you talking about?"
"I’m going to fake my death. I’m not really going to die."
"Why in the world would you do that?"
"Violet. That child depends on me far too much. She’s the kind of girl who would die if I told her to."
"...."
"If I stay alive, Violet will spend her whole life relying on orders."
"That’s like..."
"A tool. Violet thinks of herself as a tool."
"Does it have to be that way? You should stay by her side and take care of her."
"I’ve done that for three years. But you know this, Hajins. A child who has gone through war doesn’t have a normal mind..."
"True."
The brains of adolescents who went through war during the period when they should have been forming their identity were abnormal.
When these children became adults, they either became drug addicts, disabled, or killed themselves.
"Violet will... probably try to live her whole life as my tool. That’s how her mind was shaped."
At a crucial stage in her mental development, she had been threatened with rape and forced to kill people.
She had grown up under threats, without receiving the love she should have had.
And then she became my weapon.
Violet’s mind had already been twisted.
"So you have to help her from your side."
"She’s a child who calls herself a tool. And... I’m the one who made Violet into a tool. I have to disappear from her life. Only then will she be able to live her own life."
"...I don’t know."
Hajins let out a deep sigh.
"Haa... Fine. What about your family? What are you going to do about that?"
"You know our family has always been quiet and reserved. I’ll just inherit the headship in silence."
Hajins scratched his red hair hard.
"If you’re going that far, then I can’t exactly refuse. What do you need me to do?"
"...After the battle ends, tell Violet that I died."
"Damn it... How am I supposed to say something like that to such a cute girl?"
I took a drink of wine and said, "You know the Evergarden family, right?"
"Of course. They’re a distinguished family in Leidenschaftlich."
"I asked Mrs. Evergarden to take Violet in. Set up a meeting between them. Make it feel natural."
"Thanks to you, I’m going to build connections with a noble family~ I’m glad I chose a good friend."
"And also..."
"What, there’s more?"
I snorted softly.
"It’s nothing much. You said you were going to start a company, right? Hire Violet."
"Do you even know what kind of business I’m planning to run, and you’re already asking me that?"
"Hmm, a mail business?"
"Huh? How did you know?"
"A hunch. So, will you hire her or not?"
Hajins shook his head.
"I was actually the one who wanted to ask you. If we’ve got such a lovely young lady, of course sales will go up."
"That’s true."
"But... how are you planning to fool everyone? You and that girl are in the same unit."
"There’ll be a fierce battle. It’ll be hard to tell who’s who. I’ll slip away once the tide of victory has fully turned."
We talked happily until dawn. Gilbert joined us partway through.
"It’s been a while, Major Basileus."
"It’s been a while for you too. Have you been well?"
"I’m always the same."
We spent time together, friends reunited after a long while. It was a comforting time.
As the conversation drew to a close, Hajins, drunk, said, "Graaah... Tch, but you’ll come by often, right? To see me."
"I’ll visit from time to time when Violet isn’t around."
"That’s good enough."
I returned to the barracks.
Violet was asleep on her side.
I sat down beside her bed.
I gently smoothed down Violet’s tangled hair.
*
The day of the decisive battle drew near.
I checked my weapons one last time.
I wiped my sword with an oiled cloth.
This sword had been made for me by my family. They had summoned master craftsmen to create a blade that was both a weapon and a work of art. It was one of a kind.
Its blade was made of adamantium, so unless a building collapsed on it, it would never break.
I put the polished sword away and checked my firearms. A bolt-action rifle and a World War I pistol.
"Major."
Violet came into the barracks.
"Have you finished preparing for battle?"
"Am I no longer needed?"
Violet said it with a face shadowed over.
"...What are you talking about?"
"As a result of being disposed of... am I being sent to Lieutenant Colonel Hajins?"
"Disposed of? You’re a person, Violet."
"Am I no longer... able to receive your orders, Major?"
Violet looked at me with an expression as though she might cry at any moment.
I walked over to Violet. I carefully pulled her into an embrace and patted her back.
"You haven’t done anything wrong. The decisive battle is only a few hours away now. ...Shall we talk about this later?"
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