How to Get an Honorable Discharge? (3)
Shattered fragments of memory wander the past once more.
Eve's tender voice echoes.
Painful memories. I no longer wish to see them.
“...Elia, Elia?!”
Someone shakes my cheek vigorously to wake me from sleep. When I open my eyes, it's pitch black. I wave my arms around.
“Elia, it's too quiet around here.”
Eve's voice. From somewhere, the scent of violets wafts. Sadness surges in. Eve's voice has a power that stimulates the senses. Every time her voice rings out, accompanied by a warm feeling, the longing for mother spreads in my heart. But there's no time to indulge in sentiment. This is the battlefield. Having regained my senses, I press the night vision goggles.
“Elia Sergeant, what should we do now?”
About ten young men staring at me. I don't know what's going on, but Elia... no, Elia has known these children for quite some time.
“-Report personnel.”
“All 203rd Division, awake and assembled per scout report.”
The division members saluting towards me. A strange feeling of unfamiliar yet familiar. At that moment, the scattered puzzle pieces in my head snap together into one image. The 09th Sector, the 203rd Division made up of 'unregistered' people.
“Scout team, situation report.”
“Currently, enemy movements are unusually absent.”
The planet Arekate, home to the High Elves, is a desolate world. Outside the 20 registered sectors in Londinium, it's nothing but ruins, and the elves living outside suffer miserable lives. To survive, they raid supply lines between sectors or, in rare cases, sneak into sectors and live as 'unregistered' in poverty.
“Last radio intercept of the rebels?”
“Ordinary chit-chat.”
The raiders soon became organized armed groups and terrorized places within the sectors. Most raiders were ruthlessly killed by Londinium's regular forces due to overwhelming power, but the festering wounds eventually burst in the form of a horrific department store terror in Sector 03. About 280 victims.
The elders who had hidden the raiders' existence below the surface used the noisy media to silence them by pushing for surface-level negotiations with them. The rebels demanded 'residence rights within the sector,' 'safe living,' 'abolition of racial discrimination.' But the prideful elders of Londinium immediately broke off negotiations and labeled them 'rebels.' And in the war with them, we 'unregistered' were forcibly conscripted as 'heroes' facing them.
Wordplay.
Unregistered outside the residence area, 'rebels.'
Unregistered inside the residence area, 'heroes.'
Civil war among kin.
Forced conscription of orphan boy soldiers.
That was the 203rd Division.
It was my first squad.
“...When did the movements stop?”
I looked around and realized this place is a ruined High Elf temple. In the worship hall of the abandoned temple due to the war's aftermath, long benches are all broken and lying there as cover against bullets.
“About 30 minutes ago—”
“30 minutes ago? Are you kidding? Why wake me now?”
“Sorry, sorry.”
Hearing '30 minutes ago' made my sleep evaporate instantly. I was angry. Too late. These kids were letting their guard down after yesterday's small victory in the first battle.
“I reported the situation to the night patrol squad, but there was no significant gain so—”
“So you woke me now? Damn it, you bastards. Are you from the 201st Division?”
I spat out curses at the scout team member and stopped scolding, focusing on the sounds around me. Outside, not even the sound of a small bug could be heard. An unnaturally anxious silence hung around the temple ruins.
“Where's the 201st Division leader?”
“...Um, he's sleeping.”
“Something's wrong. Everyone, check your weapons.”
Eve leaned her back against the window wall and tilted her upper body to peek outside. Seeing that, I also looked out the window, and in an instant, something flashed in the abandoned bushes below, pointing this way.
“Eve!”
I instinctively grabbed Eve's arm and pulled her roughly into my arms. At the same time, the window glass shattered with a sharp crack, and the bullet that grazed the right side of the helmet she was wearing flew into the room like torn paper.
“Eh, what?”
The bullet that grazed the right side of the helmet Eve was wearing barely missed and tore the glass like paper, rolling on the floor. Eve, dazed by the ricochet's shockwave, couldn't regain her senses and fell with a thud on the floor.
“Huh? I just now—”
“Snap out of it, Eve!”
I took a bandage from the tactical vest and placed it on her head. Carefully wiping the blood flowing from her head, a small tear appeared. Fortunately. A graze. Just as I was relieved, I shouted with all my strength.
“203rd Division! Ambush! Enemy scale un-!”
Before my words could finish, the enemy soldiers who rushed in started shooting from all directions.
“-S-Sergeant! W-What should we do?!”
“Instructor! This is the 203rd Division, the operation has failed! Enemy ambush!”
I shouted into the radio. But the radio that should have responded was filled only with static from radio jamming.
“Damn it! Need to jam the frequency! Division, assemble on the first floor!”
I threw the jammed radio and picked up my weapon. Adjusting the sight to full auto, I placed my hand on Eve's shoulder and whispered.
“Eve, listen carefully from now on. The moment you go down to the first floor and escape through the back door, head to Point Delta. There will be two vehicles. Escape in that vehicle.”
“Delta? What are you talking about, Elia? I—”
“No time for arguments. If we're in this state, the enemies will have already surrounded us. Even if you escape, deliver it to headquarters. The operation has failed.”
Whether the engagement with the enemy had started, gunfire rang out loudly from all sides, but I remained unnervingly calm.
“Ah, no, Elia. Let's escape together—”
“Eve.”
I grabbed Eve's shoulder tightly.
“I promised, never to disobey my orders.”
My face had a slight smile as I said this, but Eve's face showed unbearable anxiety. From outside the building, the enemies shouted short commands into my ears. Close. The enemies are coming. I grabbed Eve's hand and led her.
“Run! You have to break away from here!”
We rushed down the stairs to the back door. When we reached the first floor lobby, allied soldiers preparing for a last stand came into view. Sharp light beams crossed the surroundings like signal flares, and sparks flashed as bullets hit the walls.
“Elia Sergeant!”
The 201st Division leader, who had been taking cover behind the temple's pillars, saw us coming down the stairs and shouted. I laughed at him and shouted back.
“You bastard, you were probably sleeping even after receiving the report?!”
“Shut up, you filthy elf girl! If you don't want to die, defend the rear!”
“Hah, seeing your unlucky face today will be the last time!”
“Ghk! When I get back to headquarters, I'll twist your neck!”
As soon as his words ended, the heavy machine gun sound rang out again, vibrating with the smell of gunpowder in the air. We left them behind and ran with all our might towards the back door. But the back door we arrived at was the same situation.
“Ahh-!”
One of the division members hiding and shooting from behind the temple's large pillar screamed and fell to the floor. He kept gasping as if he couldn't believe he was shot, but blood was spurting like a fountain from the already pierced wound.
“What are you staring at? Lower your head!”
I grabbed Eve's head. In the blink of an eye, two bullets thudded into the wall where my head had been. Bright flashes flashed left and right of the long worship bench we were taking cover behind.
“Eve, return fire! Raise your gun!”
Despite my command, Eve couldn't take her eyes off the dying division member on the floor. His face was deathly pale, clutching the wound from the bullets, his body twitching in convulsions. His eyes were wide with shock and fear, and it seemed he couldn't even scream. He swallowed his last breath and crawled towards us with all his might.
“E, Elia, I, I'm not dead yet...! Breathing—”
“I can't save you! He's dead, it's a fatal wound!”
Two more bullets pierced the crawling one.
Eve's breathing quickened as she watched.
Her trembling grew more intense.
“Hah, hah- haup, hahugh,”
“Snap out of it?”
Responding in the direction the bullets were coming from, I calmed Eve.
“I, I don't want to die, haup, I don't want to die, I don't want to die!”
“Eve?! Eve!”
Panic.
Just as Eve panicked, my heart started beating dangerously fast. Facing the dead and eyes, the suffocating pressure makes oxygen scarce. Mocking my inability to shake off fear, the dead division member's body stares at me with a lewd smile.
“Hah, haup. Damn it, damn it!”
Sweat poured down like a flood, and the hand holding the gun twitched. My eyes stung from the gunpowder smoke spreading everywhere. Consciousness was fading. Can I escape from here? How many died? How to get Eve out? Where to run? Will I die like those kids soon? If today is the day I die, if I can make one wish before dying, mother, I want to see you.
“...It's okay, Elia. Everything will be okay.”
At that moment, someone's kind voice rang in my ears.
“Come closer. Yes, like that.”
Even in the midst of my body burning like a fireball, that kind voice was clear. A voice that brings comfort just by listening. But soon, in the midst of excruciating pain that seemed to crush the skull, I writhed again in her arms.
“You can hold me tighter. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt.”
Hot heat filled up to my neck.
Breathing became painful.
I clung to mother more strongly.
“Look only at my eyes, inhale, exhale, you're doing well.”
In the emerald eyes, there's a world spread out like the universe. That world is entirely mine, so I could make all the troubles in this world seem like tantrums to her as if they were inside me. I was sucked into those eyes. A new scene follows.
“You’re asking strange questions, Elia.”
Mother.
The name I never called out.
At that time, I didn't understand.
You who loved me, the orphan.
“When you have something precious, it's natural to want to protect it.”
So, I will protect this child.
Just as you did for me.
I will give everything to love.
“-Eve Corporal! Command!”
I slapped Eve's right cheek.
Her irregular breathing suddenly cleared.
“Hah, haup, E, Elia!”
One more.
Eve's cheek flushed red.
“Don’t be so whiny, look straight into my eyes, you rotten girl! Do you see me as a corpse?!”
I growled and continued.
“Dig into your ears and listen carefully, Eve! If you can't escape to headquarters, not only the soldiers here in 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, but all soldiers waiting in the rear will die!”
My shouting face turned red. A faint tear gathered in the corners of Eve's eyes. At that moment, an explosion sound rang out, the floor shook with tremendous noise. But I ignored it and stared fixedly at Eve's two eyes.
“If you won't listen to the order, kill me with your own hands, and you die here too!”
I pulled out the pistol from my waist and forced it into Eve's hand. Then, I pulled her hand that was forcing the gun towards my forehead.
“Kill! Kill me quickly, and whether you die here or not, do as you like!”
“Hahup, I can't, I, I can't—”
“Kill! I said kill!”
Eve tried to turn the gun muzzle fixed on my forehead, but my hand held hers firmly so she couldn't. Hot tears flowed from Eve's eyes.
“I don't want to, I don't want to, haup, sorry. Elia, I, I...”
“Eve.”
I hugged her tightly.
It was a bit awkward, but
Mother must have...
“Please, I'll follow right away.”
My heart was about to burst.
But my resolve, desperately suppressing fear.
“Point Delta. Got it?”
In my small whisper, Eve nodded.
The sound of the building's interior walls cracking and breaking intensified.
It seemed about to collapse unable to withstand the explosion.
“Run!”
I pushed Eve strongly and shouted. As if my words were the trigger, she rushed forward fiercely. Watching her back moving away from me, I took out the bombing coordinate designer.
“...Mother.”
I had already prepared for death.
One thing I regretted—
The word I hadn't tried yet.
“-I love you, mother.”
Eve, at least you...
I hope you can return to someone precious.