Is It Undue Hate or Undue Love?
Is It Undue Hate or Undue Love?
"Heugh... Heuuuh...."
The sobbing sound drifting from beside me made my eyes flutter open.
Irritation prickled as I turned my head to see a girl with no rank insignia on her shoulder boards. Which meant she was a trainee.
Her name was Frien, if I recalled correctly. A woman I'd come to know after getting locked up in the military police detention center yesterday.
With her light brown hair and black eyes, she appeared to be from the south.
Since we seemed to be from the same region, I'd exchanged a few words with her, and maybe she'd latched onto me because of that—waking up to find her pressed right against my side was exhausting.
I considered ignoring her, but it seemed like she'd just keep crying if I left her alone, so I opened my mouth.
"...It seems you've also forgotten that an Imperial soldier must not show tears carelessly."
Frien startled at my voice, then stopped her sniffling.
"I'm sorry! I-I'm so ashamed! I suddenly started thinking about my father back home...."
"Why your father? Is he ill?"
"That isn't it, but... he was so proud of me for enlisting in the Imperial Army, and yet here I am, locked up without even properly completing the training course. I'm such a fool."
"Did you just end your sentence informally?"
At my pointed remark, Frien's shoulders flinched.
"Ah, I-I'm sorry! I'll correct it!"
She was a walking disaster. I'd been looking at Frien coldly, but now I shifted my gaze forward.
"Didn't you say you were here because you refused to fire a gun on religious grounds?"
"That's correct. I applied to be a medic, so...."
"Even a medic needs to know how to shoot a gun. If an enemy tries to kill the soldier you're treating, are you just going to let them die?"
Frien didn't answer. More accurately, she couldn't answer.
"War isn't a children's game. If you want to play hospital, why don't you go find a kindergarten somewhere and teach little kids instead of walking onto a battlefield."
Dejected, Frien hung her head. Seeing that, I let out a sigh and added.
"Still, I think your will—that you volunteered for the military to save people—is noble. Volunteering when women aren't even subject to conscription would be impossible without a spirit of sacrifice."
"...Thank you, Lieutenant."
A faint smile flickered at the corner of Frien's mouth as she sat hunched up.
"Hearing your words, Lieutenant, gives me strength. I also understand just how much I'd been acting like a child. For the honor of my father the pastor, if I return to the training camp, I'll have to try hard again."
The informal ending had slipped into her speech again, but I decided not to point it out.
It seemed like an unconscious habit, and since I wasn't her direct superior, there was no need to correct it.
Anyway, so her father was a clergyman, which was why she'd hesitated to use firearms.
She must have been taught that taking life is forbidden, so it was understandable—?
'Wait.'
Her father was a pastor?
And on top of that, she was from the south, a woman, and she'd received disciplinary punishment during the training camp process?
A strange sense of dissonance crept in because it was so extremely similar to the backstory of an NPC I'd seen often while playing the game.
I secretly broke into a cold sweat and looked at Frien.
"Soldier. What precisely is your name, if you don't mind?"
"Pardon? Ah. It's Frien. My full name is Prien Lemiliart."
Hearing Frien's full name sent a chill through my pores.
Prien Lemiliart. That was the named NPC called the Saint of the Empire.
Because it was Frien who used her signature chant magic to cast a buff effect across the entire battlefield, literally turning the soldiers deployed there into killing monsters.
That was why, whenever word came that she was on a battlefield, commanders typically ordered a retreat unless they had an absolutely overwhelming advantage in force ratio.
I hadn't expected to encounter a named NPC in a detention center, so it was deeply flustering, but it wasn't something that really concerned me.
'I'm getting discharged anyway.'
Once I got discharged and left the Empire, I'd never see her again, so what use was taking any interest?
"I see. That's a pretty name."
So when I gave a casual reply, Frien blushed, seemingly embarrassed.
I didn't know much about her, but if she blushed at such a minor compliment, it was clear she had no experience with men.
What in the world was she doing enlisting in the army in the prime of her youth?
Well, I hadn't been any different; if my memories from my past life hadn't awakened at the operations command post, I, too, would have considered serving in the military the highest honor.
"Lieutenant Daniel Steiner?"
At that moment, a sergeant approached the iron bars and addressed me.
I raised my hand, and the sergeant, having confirmed my face matched the roster, pulled a key from his waist and opened the detention center door.
"Release. Follow me."
Had the time come? It seemed the higher-ups had finished assessing the situation and convened a court-martial.
Frien, who sat next to me, didn't seem to realize that, blinking her clear eyes with an innocent look on her face.
"You're finally getting out. It was an honor to have spoken with you, Lieutenant."
With a slightly sullen expression (though inside I was cheering), I nodded, rose from my spot, and followed the sergeant.
I passed right through the military police office and stepped outside the building to find Captain Philip standing there.
He was holding some sort of box in his hands, one that exuded an inexplicably high-class aura.
"Ah. You've arrived?"
Captain Philip flashed me a kindly smile.
Something felt strange, but I first saluted to observe proper courtesy.
Philip, having received the salute casually, approached me.
"Originally I'd intended to get you out a bit earlier, but there were various procedures to go through, so time got delayed. You've spent time in the General Headquarters yourself, so you understand, yes?"
I understood. The military valued reports and procedures more than life itself.
But he'd intended to get me out earlier? Sensing something ominous in the nuance of his words, I stared at him, and Philip held the box out to me.
"This is a reward for your distinguished service, Second Lieutenant Daniel Steiner. No, rather. I should now address you as Lieutenant."
What the hell kind of nonsense was this? Blinking vacantly, I accepted the box and opened it.
Inside lay a badge bearing two diamonds, the symbol of a lieutenant, and a set of shoulder boards.
Bewildered, I raised my head and looked at Philip, and Philip smiled a gentle smile, as if telling me I was free to feel proud.
"Your judgment was correct. Major Karl Heimlich has been proven a spy for the Allied Nations. Accordingly, to commend your military merit, higher command has skipped the promotion review and granted you a special promotion of one rank."
"...Special promotion of one rank? You mean me?"
"Indeed. The foundational ideology of the Imperial Army is reward merit, punish failure, after all. Furthermore, since the operations staff officer position is to be vacant for the time being, higher command has ordered you to carry out the duties of acting operations staff officer."
Was this a joke? I'd assaulted my superior, that superior had turned out to be an Allied Nations spy, and thanks to that I got a one-rank special promotion? This was truly absurd.
"At this rate, you might just overtake me. Anyway, congratulations!"
...But Philip's congratulations were confirming that this situation was indeed real.
And so, swallowing my tears like hot mustard, I had no choice but to shake Philip's hand and sing the praises of the Empire.
*
I used up the week of reward leave granted by higher command and returned to the Imperial General Headquarters.
When I entered the building and walked into the operations staff office, the gazes of the staff officers who had been conversing focused on me.
They soon began to crowd around me with smiles on their faces.
"Lieutenant Daniel? If it isn't our hero!"
"Even if he was a spy, it must have been difficult to attack the superior you served—what tremendous courage!"
"To have consecutively amassed two meritorious deeds recently is astonishing. Do you know your name has come up from time to time in higher command?"
I didn't stack up those meritorious deeds because I wanted to, you guys.
Other people's hearts were rotting away, and yet they kept congratulating me without a clue, driving me to frustration.
"Please, hold your praise. I merely acted with a heart of service to the Empire."
Still, I couldn't just ignore their goodwill, so I answered with a smile.
Only after exchanging welcoming greetings for some time did I walk over to the desk prepared for me in the operations staff room... the spot where Major Karl had once sat and worked.
It seemed all of Major Karl's personal effects had been cleaned out, as the area around the desk was tidy.
On the desk sat a war situation map, a few documents, and a telephone, but the most conspicuous item was none other than a nameplate.
【Acting Operations Staff Officer / Lieutenant Daniel Steiner】
Even if it was a temporary post, entrusting an operations staff officer position to a lieutenant was truly an unprecedented move.
An operations staff officer position was important enough within the General Headquarters that it warranted a personal office. Normally it was never entrusted to a mere lieutenant.
Which, in other words, meant that higher command considered me that useful of an asset.
It was absurd that I, now three months into my commission, had been specially promoted one rank to lieutenant and then snatched the acting operations staff officer post.
I was literally an elite among elites, and one could say it was no longer a smooth road ahead but a path of flowers stretching out before me.
Which was directly synonymous with the path to a dishonorable discharge having become far more treacherous.
'....'
Listening to the chirping of birds drifting in from outside the window, I sat down and pressed my fingers against my furrowed brow.
'Why the hell is this happening to me....'
It truly felt like I was going to lose my mind.