Father (3)
Rumble…….
Yosef looked up at the sky where a thunderstorm was gathering.
These past few days, the sky had been anything but ordinary. Looking at the clouds alone, it would not have been strange if a blizzard had struck at any moment, yet the snow that actually fell was little more than sleet. At times the clouds would gather in one spot with unnatural density, only to suddenly clear, then cloud over again in a repeating cycle.
Even the weather station says they can’t pinpoint the exact cause…….
Fickle weather was never a good omen. Humanity had already faced extinction once before in the form of an ice age, after all.
And with the matter of Lieutenant General Max still unresolved, the weather has to turn unsettling on top of everything else.
It had been thirteen days since Lieutenant General Max was detained on charges of commissioning the murder of his adopted son, Bones. And still no disposition had been decided regarding him. Even with the testimonies of the Commander, Platon, and the Team 2 leader, why was the punishment being delayed?
Don’t tell me they’ve noticed something…….
If it was evidence, he had not left so much as a speck of dust. He had only spoken verbally with the colonel who had been the Team 2 leader, so only that colonel knew of his involvement in the matter. And that colonel had been disposed of, made to look like a suicide.
They say he was still selling Lieutenant General Max’s name even while hanging from the cliff. I really do raise one hell of a dog, if I do say so myself.
As loyal a dog as he had been, his handling of the job had been unsatisfactory. Of all things, Bones—Lieutenant General Max’s adopted son—had come back alive.
The original plan had been to kill Bones during the chaos of the subjugation campaign and disguise it as self-defense. Bones had a foul temper and was quick to flare up, so the story should have been that he had pointed a gun at his superior in a fit of anger and been shot dead in defensive fire…….
But then there was the unexpected situation where Team 1, with the Commander, was ambushed by large-class monsters during the search. Originally, after the search was complete, he should have been taken care of discreetly while the hundred-odd men were moving together, but with the original ten teams reorganized into five, it became impossible to handle him without others noticing.
The colonel, ordered to deal with Bones before the subjugation ended, must have decided on his own to put Bones into the reorganized Team 2 and take him somewhere out of sight to finish the job. With ten team members, handling it alone would have been difficult, so he must have recruited a few, and seeing that Bones and Lucas were alive, the officers he failed to bring over must have interfered.
Bones…… that bastard’s tenacious as hell too.
Even after hearing from the Team 2 leader that Lieutenant General Max had tried to kill him, Bones was still keeping his mouth shut. He had followed Max so devotedly that even if Max had tried to kill him, he would not want to sell out his father. Choosing silence instead of accusing the father who he believed had abandoned him was truly vicious of him.
Just as Yosef had raised a dog like that colonel, Max must have taken a proper dog into his household as well.
The fortunate thing is that His Excellency, Lord Haydam, and Anton’s son all heard the colonel’s testimony.
If only the Commander and Haydam had heard it, the pro-Daphne faction would have raised a major objection, but since Platon, Anton’s son, had also testified, no one from either camp was suspicious. Everyone knew that even if Platon did crazy things, he was not the type to bend his convictions and give false testimony.
The only evidence was the testimony that it was done on Lieutenant General Max’s orders.
But it’s strange.
What Yosef had ordered was to kill Bones disguised as self-defense, not to directly frame Lieutenant General Max. Though he had done it with the intention of bringing Max down, what Yosef had wanted was a scene where Max, enraged by Bones’s death, shot the colonel dead. He had not imagined that seven precious officers would die because of this. Killing the colonel and disguising it as suicide had been partly out of spite as well.
I even drilled it into him that if things went wrong and he was found out, he was to pin it on Bones committing insubordination…….
If a colonel of the pro-Haydam faction, not even the pro-Daphne, had moved just because of threats from Lieutenant General Max, there was no way the Commander and Haydam would not find it strange. Moreover, Max gained nothing by killing Bones. So why had that colonel falsely confessed that he had tried to kill Bones under Max’s threats? Had he been in a situation where he had no choice but to confess that way?
Anyway, now that he’s already given that testimony, there’s nothing I can do.
As long as no other evidence came out—no, even if other evidence did come out, the Commander would not suspect him. Even so, the fact that Max still had not been punished made Yosef restless. At this rate, it almost seemed as if the Commander had no intention of punishing Max at all.
Just then, someone knocked on the door of his office.
“Come in.”
“General.”
His adjutant entered, approached, and whispered in his ear.
“Lord Haydam has come to see you.”
“Lord Haydam?”
Haydam had never once come looking for him first. And for him to come at this particular timing of all times. If the zone’s successor had come calling, one might be expected to rejoice that an opportunity had arrived, but to Yosef he felt like the grim reaper himself.
It was partly because he had something to feel guilty about, but also because that angelic face smiling brightly as he casually wiped away the blood of Lieutenant General Batom that had splattered on his face had remained in Yosef’s mind as a kind of trauma.
No.
If it was the grim reaper, there was no point in fretting over it. It was not as if he could turn him away just because he was unwelcome, and if one was going to take a beating, better to take it quickly. Even Lord Haydam would not summarily execute him, the Commander’s closest aide.
“Lord Haydam is here and you’re asking me what to do? Tell him to come in and bring some tea.”
“Well…….”
The adjutant hesitated, then spoke in an even smaller voice.
“Second Lieutenant Bones is with him.”
“Second Lieutenant Bones?”
“……What should I do?”
Why would Lord Haydam bring along the fellow who was supposed to be under protection at the Commander’s residence to come see him? Yosef was about to fall into contemplation again when he realized this was no time for that. The grim reaper was not only frightening but also ill-tempered, so there was no telling what might happen if he left him standing outside the door for too long.
“……Show them both in. I’ll prepare the tea myself, so you may leave.”
“Yes, General.”
After the adjutant left, a short while later, a smiling Haydam and a haggard-faced Bones entered the office. Confirming Haydam’s clear face, Yosef was inwardly surprised.
They call it the Miracle of the Crevasse, and indeed, not a single scratch on him.
How could he be so unscathed after falling from that cliff? The eyes looking at him still showed not the slightest respect for a fellow human, and for a moment even fear rose in him.
Is that the look one gives a fellow human? Who would take this child for a ten-year-old raised in the slums? Even a monster’s cub couldn’t radiate such a fierce aura…….
He thought he could somewhat understand Anton’s feelings in hastily deciding to retire and withdraw from the military.
No, no.
That Anton was just a coward who ran away for fear of something happening to his son. Currently the Commander’s closest aide, and in the near future dreaming of the role of Haydam’s advisor, Yosef greeted the two with a good-natured smile on his face.
“It’s been a while, Lord Haydam. When I heard the news of the subjugation campaign, this old man was so shocked. I’m glad to see you safe and sound like this.”
“I didn’t know you were worrying about me that much. Since you never once came to visit me in the hospital, I thought you’d forgotten. At your age, I suppose it gets hard to remember whether His Excellency even had a child or not?”
There was plenty of bone in the words, but from his observations so far, if he got entangled in Haydam’s words it would not be a matter of the words’ bones—he might not even be able to collect his own bones—so Yosef pretended not to understand the meaning and laughed heartily.
“I heard the newly commissioned officers were staying in the hospital room around the clock, so I refrained from visiting as I thought it might make them uncomfortable if I came. I hear they took good care of Lord Haydam while you were hospitalized?”
Naturally turning the conversation to Bones, Yosef invited them to sit rather than stand there.
“Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
“Thank you, General.”
Second Lieutenant Bones sat down promptly, whereas Haydam stared at him for a moment as if thinking something, and only sat when it seemed Yosef was about to urge him to take a seat again by moving his lips.
“Sure. For now.”
—along with that meaningful remark.
Yosef tried not to be shaken as he went over to the tea set prepared on one side and put the water on to boil.
“So, what brings you to this old man? I was under the impression that Second Lieutenant Bones has recently…… been refraining from going out due to some unpleasant business.”
“Nothing much. I just wanted Yosef to help with one thing.”
Help…… he said?
Is Lord Haydam asking me for help right now?
Yosef relaxed a little from his tension and asked as he prepared teacups for three.
“You mean Lord Haydam needs my help?”
“To be precise, not me, but Second Lieutenant Bones here needs help.”
“Second Lieutenant Bones?”
“Bones, speak freely. You can tell Uncle Yosef.”
The address “Uncle Yosef” sounded rather sweet to his ears, so Yosef looked at Bones as if ready to listen to anything. At that, Bones flinched in surprise and hesitated, unable to speak up readily. Yosef waited patiently for Bones to find his words.
Only after the boiling tea water had been poured into the cups and set before the three of them did Bones finally open his mouth.
“I want to testify that my adoptive father…… Lieutenant General Max tried to kill me.”
Yosef raised one eyebrow slightly.
He’s been keeping quiet all this time, and now he’s suddenly changed his mind?
Yosef glanced at Haydam, but Haydam was merely wearing a faint smile as if to say the two of them should talk from here. Turning his gaze back to Bones, Yosef asked.
“……Why do you need my help for your testimony?”
“I would like the General to accompany me while I testify.”
Hmm.
Asking him to accompany meant asking for protection so he could testify safely. It was not strange for Bones to make such a request of him. In a situation where Max might have commissioned his murder, he could not very well ask a pro-Daphne faction officer to protect him. And Yosef himself had recently actively pushed for Bones and Lucas to receive protection at the Commander’s residence, so he must have thought Yosef would gladly help.
“There’s nothing difficult about that, but for something like that, why…….”
When Yosef’s gaze turned to Haydam once more, Bones replied as if he knew what he meant.
“You’re wondering why I didn’t ask Lord Haydam.”
“That’s right. His Excellency is aware that you and Lord Haydam are on particularly close terms, so there’s no reason he wouldn’t help, is there?”
“I did ask Lord Haydam to speak to His Excellency, but…… for some reason, His Excellency seems to think that Lieutenant General Max is not the culprit.”
At those words, Yosef felt as if his heart had plummeted.
His Excellency thinks Max is not the culprit……?
He almost showed his panic, but Yosef forced himself to maintain his composure and asked in a tone of puzzlement.
“If not Max, then who on earth would do such a thing?”
“Well…….”
When Bones could not answer readily, Yosef, unable even to think of setting down the teacup he had lifted, swallowed dryly in his anxiety.
Don’t tell me the reason he brought Second Lieutenant Bones along to see me is because His Excellency suspects me as the culprit?
This time Yosef could not wait for an answer any longer and had to ask again.
“Who is it, I said?”
“It’s someone in this room.”
Yosef dropped the teacup he had been holding without realizing it.