Father (2)
Before I went to see Anton, I needed to know what Bones was thinking if I was going to touch Lieutenant General Max’s case at all. So I headed for the Commander’s Residence first.
Bones and Lucas—key witnesses in this whole mess—had been put up there for their protection. Witness protection was only part of it. The senior officers who had served alongside the sacrificed members of Team 2 were in a foul mood; if I’d sent the two of them to the officers’ quarters, they might have been harassed or worse.
Apparently the decision to lodge them in the Commander’s Residence had come at Yosef’s strong insistence. No more young officers should have to die, he’d said.
Sly bastard.
Bones had already asked to meet Lieutenant General Max and question him, but the two of them had been barred from any audience. The official line was that Max might pressure Bones into silence if they were allowed to speak.
And yet these two…
“Why are protected witnesses not locked in their rooms and instead training with my servant?”
I folded my arms and asked. Lucas, already drenched in sweat, broke out in a fresh cold sweat on top of it and answered.
“Th-that is… we were told we could move about freely while staying at the Commander’s Residence… When we said we would keep the same schedule as Lord Haydam, it turned out like this.”
“But do you really train on this brutal schedule every single day?”
And why the hell was Bones shirtless in someone else’s mansion?
“You think Taejeong put you through drills just to work you like dogs?”
“Taejeong—is that the servant’s name?”
“Who the hell is that little brat, anyway? He’s better than most officers. Don’t tell me he’s some secret weapon you’re raising, Lord Haydam.”
The nonsense coming out of his mouth told me Bones still hadn’t fully recovered from the shock of that day.
He’s forcing the bright act.
I could understand, at least a little, why he refused to stay cooped up in a room and was training with Taejeong instead. Moving the body kept the useless thoughts at bay.
Instead of calling him out on the fake cheer, I answered like this.
“Taejeong’s going to enter the military academy this year. Thanks to the two of you backing Platon’s graduation speech.”
“So that’s why you egged Platon on—to get that kid admitted. And that Darling Outsider guy too—”
“That’s enough small talk.”
He looked ready to change the subject the moment I brought up Max, so I cut him off and asked straight out.
“Have you prepared yourself?”
Bones’s face went sour.
“Prepared for what?”
“For when it turns out your father really did abandon you.”
“……”
His green eyes shook hard. Of course I knew Max hadn’t done it. But given what Anton and I were about to set in motion, Bones needed his heart steeled. Otherwise things would get messy.
“…If he abandoned me, then he abandoned me. What the hell do I need to prepare for? Fuck.”
He’d been trying so hard to look fine; the temper finally slipped out.
“In your case, I think you do. Lucas told me that getting your father’s recognition was your whole life—that if you were abandoned you’d just die.”
“Lucas, you little shit…!”
Bones spun around as if he meant to grab Lucas by the collar, but Lucas—already reading exactly what I was about to say—had long since made himself scarce.
“Goddamn quick little bastard, already running his mouth…!”
“Bones.”
I spoke to his back while he raged.
“If your father really abandoned you, are you going to die?”
Bones hesitated, then answered in a small voice.
“…Not anymore.”
“Not anymore?”
“Because I realized my father isn’t everything.”
When I narrowed my eyes like I didn’t follow, Bones flushed to the tips of his ears and spat the words out irritably.
“Fuck… I finally get that my life is worth something. I’m alive because those seniors let me escape, because someone ran all that way and slapped me awake, because some guy was screaming that he was going to save me. Even if that same guy turned around and ratted out every half-crazed thing I said to Lord Haydam—no loyalty at all.”
Still holding a grudge, I see.
“I wish we could have found the seniors’ bodies…”
Right—some of the senior officers from Team 2 had held the line so Bones and Lucas could get away. The one mercy was that Bones didn’t seem to be blaming himself for their deaths.
If it weren’t for his adoptive father, his personality would be sharp as a blade.
“If it really was Lieutenant General Max who did this… then he has to pay the price. No—I’ll make him pay it.”
Bones looked like he’d fully locked his mind down. This much was enough; I could move forward without worrying about him.
Still, Yosef… the more I think about it, the more that bastard pisses me off.
For the sake of his own advancement he had thrown officers willing to stand in front of their juniors straight into death without a second thought.
All because of rank.
Yosef had done it for power. Once Anton announced his retirement, Yosef was supposed to step down as well. With a power player of Anton’s caliber gone, Yosef’s own influence would only swell. He knew it was time to leave, but he didn’t want to. He was still the Commander’s closest aide; he had no intention of turning against the Commander. Yet simply to avoid suspicion he was expected to lay down his power? It must have felt unfair.
So he framed Max, the lieutenant general most likely to be promoted to full general next. If Max’s seat went empty, the entire staff would fall into chaos, and only Yosef would be able to clean it up. He chose to smash the balance so thoroughly that no one could drag him from his post—to expand his reach until he became immovable.
What he never saw coming was that the trap he set would nearly kill both me and the Commander.
Well… better this way, honestly.
If I hadn’t been dragged into it, the Commander would have looked the other way for Yosef’s sake. He wasn’t the sort to punish Yosef just to save Max. But because I had nearly died in the mess, I now had every right to stick my hands in. Meursault should have passed on my words by now, and still no order had come down from the Commander. That counted as permission in my book.
Time to go, then.
Fight fire with fire. Another slippery snake to catch the one named Yosef.
“Haaaah……”
Anton’s sigh was long and heavy. Looking at the man who seemed to have aged another decade since I’d last seen him, I almost understood why Meursault had felt sorry for him.
“My one and only son nearly dies the moment he becomes an officer……”
“I was the one who saved him, you know.”
He ignored me completely and kept pouring out the lament.
“And the second the boy comes back safe, the very Lord Haydam who stole my son shows up to sound me out—asking whether I knew my dear friend Lieutenant General Max is the kind of shameless bastard who would put a hit on his own adoptive son.”
“Anton. Did retirement turn you into a free-for-all?”
“Lord Haydam is the one who came back from the dead and decided to drop all formal speech. Though I must say the casual tone is rather more comfortable for me.”
“Stop dodging and just answer.”
Anton sighed again, laced his fingers together, and said,
“Lieutenant General Max is… not that sort of man.”
“Not that sort of man? Then who is?”
“……”
Instead of answering he glared at me.
“Did you honestly expect me to say Max is that sort of man? Why did you even come here?”
“I know Max isn’t that kind of person either. That’s exactly why I came to you, Anton.”
His eyes grew even more suspicious.
“What are you trying to say?”
With someone this wary of me, blunt honesty worked best. I answered flatly.
“I suspect Yosef.”
Anton’s expression changed. From the look on his face, he had already decided Yosef was the real culprit too. Still, he didn’t jump to agree.
“You do realize Yosef is His Excellency’s closest aide.”
“I know. And I also know that even after you stepped down from the general’s seat, Yosef is still clinging to his.”
“Yosef isn’t foolish enough to pull something like this.”
“In your judgment, Anton—between Lieutenant General Max and General Yosef, who do you think is more foolish?”
“……”
Anton frowned, fell silent for a moment, then spoke.
“You came because you want something from me.”
“Wrong, Anton.”
I crossed my legs and leaned back against the sofa.
“I’m here to help you get what you want.”
“And you know what that is?”
“Max is your friend. You don’t want him lined up against a wall and shot.”
“Bartom.”
Anton fixed me with an unreadable look.
“Bartom already died that way, didn’t he?”
Bringing up old business?
I had already settled the Bartom affair with the Commander. He didn’t seem to be digging up the past just to snipe at me…
Was he asking why I had bothered coming to him at all when I could simply dispose of Max the same way I had disposed of Bartom?
I had never once shown Anton goodwill, so of course he would question my motives. He probably thought that if I pretended to defend Max now, it was only so I could stab him in the back later.
Even so, Anton had no real choice but to move the way I wanted. From the perspective of a retired Anton, Max was a critical figure—possibly the next general after him. With Bartom already dead, losing Max as well would shake the pro-Daphne faction to its roots. Anton, who was trying to keep a foot in both the pro-Daphne camp and my own, could not afford that. And he would not want his friend’s name recorded in history as the shameless bastard who got seven soldiers killed.
“Earlier you said I stole your son.”
“Ahem……”
“Call this payment for the son I stole. Helping Max.”
“What are you—”
“Which means the help you give me this time is payment for the son I saved.”
“……”
Anton stared at me blankly for a moment, then lowered his voice.
“Do you understand what you’re saying right now?”
“I do. I’m saying we make Yosef—the Commander’s closest aide—into the culprit instead of Max.”
“Why in the world? Has His Excellency given permission?”
“He told me I couldn’t handle it myself.”
Only then did Anton seem to grasp why I had come to him.
“Don’t tell me you intend to use my hands for this. I am not Meursault. I do not shoot people just because someone orders it.”
“…Is murder the only thing that ever goes through either of your heads—yours or Meursault’s?”
“Then… what exactly do you intend to make me do?”
“What you need to do, Anton, isn’t kill anyone. It’s the opposite, if anything.”
“The opposite……?”
He tilted his head as if he truly could not follow. I looked at him and said,
“From this moment on, you’re going to bring a dead man back to life.”