Chapter 29
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 29
Clink.
I stared at the military medal resting in my palm. Shaped like a cross sword, its tips were sharp enough that I felt I might prick my finger if I handled it carelessly. Engraved on the blade was the Roman numeral 'VII'—the number seven.
The 7th Class Cross Sword Medal. Proof of great merit achieved in battle.
Among the Imperial Guard Cadets, only Ilay and I had received military medals. The other cadets and instructors reacted as though they'd expected nothing less. Listening to the instructors talk, you'd think there hadn't been cadets as outstanding as Ilay and me in the last several classes combined.
"It's ridiculous. Me, getting a medal."
Ilay slipped the Cross Sword Medal into his coat pocket with a faint smile.
A month had passed since Lillian's death. The award ceremony was finally over, and the events of that day were slowly fading from everyone's minds.
Perhaps Ilay had regained his composure—he walked around with his usual easygoing smile. But I could see the anxiety lurking beneath it.
"Luka, for the first time in my life, I regret slacking off on my training."
Ilay should count himself lucky I was the one hearing this. A guy who called himself lazy was being hailed as a brilliant prodigy. Any other cadet who heard him say that would've clutched the back of their neck in sheer frustration.
"Even if you'd trained, nothing would have changed. There were four Imperial Guardsmen. By that point, it was already over."
I stared at the crowd in the distance. Prospective officer cadets and Imperial Guard Cadets.
The Empire had moved up the recruitment schedule. News of the rebellion had reached the noble families, and now the nobles sought to prove their loyalty by sending their children to become cadets.
"They're all scrambling to gather," I muttered.
Ilay was staring at the same spot.
"I heard they made the standards pretty lax, too. So even the biggest idiot can at least become a low-ranking officer."
Old memories came flooding back for no reason. Three years ago, I'd been part of that crowd. It felt like only yesterday I'd had my first interview with the Imperial Guard Captain.
"Luka, I'm thinking of taking some leave and heading back to my family home for a while."
I didn't ask Ilay why he was going home. I only had a vague sense that he'd reached some kind of internal resolution.
We were approaching our final year as cadets. From the fourth year on, we'd be treated as associate Imperial Guardsmen—essentially no different from full Guardsmen, just without the full-armor prosthetics.
After a brief hesitation, I voiced the question I'd been carrying around all this time.
"...Why did Lillian smile even though her family died? Just saying they didn't get along doesn't explain it. I could understand if she'd lost her mind, but that wasn't the case either."
I brought up Lillian. I figured I'd earned the right to know at least this much.
Ilay rested his arms on the railing and propped up his chin. He looked down at the city with eyes that were more than relaxed—they were hazy. Inorganic structures towered high like a dense forest. Beyond the desaturated high-rises, the chaotic neon lights of the Lower District flickered faintly.
"Just as I'm meant to become an Imperial Guardsman, Lillian was a woman meant to serve as a bridge to another family."
"An arranged marriage?"
I figured it was a cliché story. Ilay kept talking, watching the sun set.
"If that were all, I wouldn't have bothered bringing it up. Lillian Ramones had her marriage partner decided the moment she was born. A man fifty years older than her."
"So she rebelled against her parents?"
"Keep listening. The man was a widower. When he offered the Ramones family a massive dowry, his conditions were incredibly specific."
I'd been listening half-heartedly, but now my curiosity was piqued.
"What kind of conditions?"
"Apparently the things he said while sending over photos, videos, and records of his late wife were absurd. He wanted the girl raised to be the exact same woman as his dead wife. From her appearance to her tone of voice, right down to her minor habits. That's why her name is Lillian, too."
I frowned, momentarily stunned by the sheer madness of it. A sickening demand.
"Lillian was raised like livestock within the Ramones family. Like a custom-made product built to a client's specifications. The one saving grace was that the man's late wife supposedly had deep ties to Bellato. That's how Lillian gained access to knowledge and books about Bellato—there was a condition that she had to be 'well-versed in Bellato culture,' after all."
"Then the Lillian we knew—that wasn't even her real face."
"...No one knows Lillian's original face. Not even she does. Every year she underwent surgeries to alter her appearance, so it would look as though she were growing naturally. They changed her pupil color, shaved down her facial bones, added implants."
"To replicate the voice, her vocal cords were swapped out for machinery early on. It must have been agonizing. They could have just changed her entire face once she reached adulthood, but the 'client' wouldn't allow even that. He insisted her physical identity be fixed from the very start."
Once again, I understood what happens when dark, twisted desires meet power.
"She was abused from the moment she was born."
"Lillian had to live with even her tastes and habits predetermined for her. Every time she strayed from that mold, she faced horrific physical punishment. Out of everyone in the family, they say only Claude—who wasn't much older than her—felt any sympathy for her."
Even I felt a small pang of sympathy for Lillian now. She'd lived a truly miserable life.
As I listened, a question surfaced.
"Then what did it mean when Claude offered to introduce Lillian to me? You said she had a designated marriage partner from birth."
Ilay gave an embarrassed laugh. He hesitated before speaking carefully.
"Actually... Lillian and I planned it. We told Claude that you were the Imperial Guard Captain's hidden son. That's why Claude approached you with the offer."
"Hey, you son of a—no, wait. Claude actually believed that?"
"To anyone watching, the Captain clearly paid special attention to you. And if you were his illegitimate son, it would explain how someone from a Double-Digit Orphanage managed to become an Imperial Guard Cadet."
"Unbelievable. Every single one of you."
I let out an annoyed sigh.
"The Imperial Guard Captain is from the Custoria family. They figured if Lillian could somehow marry you and bear your child—a child of the current Captain's bloodline and of Custoria blood—she could be set free. I agreed to some extent, so I passed your information to Lillian beforehand."
"I feel absolutely disgusted right now."
So they'd tried to play me, to use me behind my back? Whatever sympathy I'd felt for Lillian vanished in an instant.
"Sorry, Luka. I just wanted to help Lillian that badly. And honestly, I thought you and Lillian would've made a pretty good match."
"Cut the sweet talk. That lie was bound to come out eventually. How were you planning to handle the fallout?"
Ilay scratched his chin and smiled.
"By the time it came out, you'd have already become an official Imperial Guardsman. A promising rookie favored by the current Captain, no less. Neither the Ramones family nor her fiancé would've been able to touch you easily. I'd have done my best to help you, too. Back then, we had no idea the Ramones family would turn out to be the ringleaders of the rebellion."
Claude's offer and Lillian's approach hadn't been coincidences. It had all been orchestrated. I felt angry and hollow at once.
I shifted my gaze to glare at Ilay. He avoided my eyes.
Ilay was my friend. But he was not a good person. If necessary, he would use and deceive others. He'd killed his own subordinate with his own hands, and he'd lied to me.
And yet—funny enough—I still trusted him. In a situation where he had to weigh his own life against mine, he would willingly act for my sake. In his hierarchy of priorities, my life ranked quite high.
Ilay cared about me. Of that, I was certain. I'd felt it during the incident with Lillian, too.
"Ilay, have the ribs I broke last time fully healed?"
I asked calmly. Ilay tilted his head as he brought a cigarette to his lips. Since returning from the last battle, he'd taken to smoking on occasion.
"Ah, were you worried about that? They're not quite—wait, hold on! This is—!"
Realizing the intent behind my question too late, Ilay panicked. The cigarette fell from his mouth.
I clenched my fist.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bone was satisfyingly crisp. Feeling much better, I pulled out my terminal and called the medical bay. An android would arrive shortly.
* * *
I visited Kinuan regularly. Today, too, he was reading while drinking tea. He was a man with many old-fashioned habits.
"Well, well. Our war hero has finally arrived. I heard you received the Cross Sword Medal?"
Kinuan greeted me as he closed his book. But those words were no compliment. He was anti-Empire.
"It's just a 7th Class medal. They're a dime a dozen. Nothing compared to your illustrious record, Instructor."
I didn't wait for an invitation to sit, casually slumping into a nearby chair. The formality between Kinuan and me had mostly vanished. We were closer to master and disciple than superior and subordinate.
"I read your report as well. You took the lead quite aggressively. An achievement worthy of a medal. Ahem—a truly enthusiastic and exemplary soldier indeed."
"You're being exceptionally sarcastic today. I just wanted to test the Akies Combat Style in actual combat. And to see where my limits lie."
It was half-true. I'd been waiting for a large-scale real combat situation like this. An opportunity to test my abilities.
Of course, the reason I'd been so active in the fortress underground was because of Lillian and Ilay.
Regardless, my actions—a mix of truth and lies—didn't easily draw suspicion. Everyone knew my hunger for achievement was extraordinary.
"Looking at your combat records... it's clear you made good use of the Akies Combat Style. However, it was a battle that relied entirely on your individual prowess. As a commander, you have a flaw. Did your subordinates not listen to you?"
"No. They were all excellent soldiers of the Empire. Men who'd leap into the jaws of death at the command of an unfamiliar platoon leader."
At my words, Kinuan stroked his chin, lost in thought for a moment. After a short silence, he picked up the teapot and poured tea into my cup.
"...Then, for a commander, you were soft-hearted."
"Excuse me?"
Something suddenly came to mind. I'd heard it in a dire moment, so I hadn't paid it much attention until now, but Ilay had once said something similar to me in a similar tone.
'Luka. You've got quite a few platoon members left. I've thought this for a while... but you really are a soft-hearted guy.'
The meaning behind those words seemed to be the same as what Kinuan was saying now.
"You chose to shoulder more of the risk yourself rather than spend your platoon members. That's why I called you soft-hearted."
"Because that prevents any loss of combat strength."
I stated my view calmly. I'd kept fighting while minimizing casualties among my platoon members.
"Do you truly believe that? If you take the lead in battle, the accumulated strain on your nervous system will slowly cloud the judgment a commander needs most. You expended a resource that should have been preserved, just to protect your platoon members. To put it coldly—preserving your combat capability and your judgment is far more important than the lives of one or two soldiers. What if you'd been injured or killed? That's a loss the entire platoon combined couldn't make up for."
"So you're saying I should have treated my platoon members as expendable?"
I asked sullenly.
"An outstanding commander must know how to spend his subordinates when necessary."
"...I'll do so when the time comes."
"Judging by the combat records alone, your platoon should have suffered twice as many casualties as it did. You took that damage in their place."
Honestly, I couldn't help thinking, Shouldn't I be praised for that?
Kinuan chuckled softly, as if reading my mind.
"But I like this about you. It's very 'Good Boy' of you."
"Next time, I'll be sure to actively spend my subordinates."
I replied coldly. Kinuan only offered a faint smile.