The Northern Front
The cold hit her immediately upon arrival at the Northern Front. That was Julia Pahu’s first thought. Everything was dyed pure white. The uniforms of the passing soldiers, the military buildings, the distant plains, and even the mountains that towered so high their peaks seemed impossible to gauge—all of it.
“Julia Pahu, welcome back to the Northern Front.”
“I’ll be returning to Valter as soon as this subjugation campaign ends, so there’s no need to welcome me so warmly.”
He must have been a senior officer from her academy days. She couldn’t quite recall his name, but his face was familiar. Her icy response to the officer’s overly friendly greeting was so frigid it made him flinch and take a step back, as if burned by the chill.
“Let’s head straight to the operations division. I don’t particularly enjoy the cold of the north, so I’d like to finish quickly and return.”
“Yes, then right this way…”
She followed the man as he strode ahead at a brisk pace.
“Thank you for coming, Major Julia Pahu. Or is it Lieutenant Colonel now?”
“It’s still Major. And I’ve retired from service. Please address me as Lady Pahu.”
The old general’s lips trembled faintly as he greeted her. He looked exactly as she remembered. A rigid, humorless machine that churned out strategies. She had hoped that teaching at the academy might have softened him somewhat, but her grandfather was still the same man she had always known.
“How cold of you toward your grandfather after so long.”
“I’ve always been this way. Just show me the map. What exactly did you do to warrant calling me all the way out here?”
Even when he tried to lighten the mood, Julia simply walked past him without a flicker of interest and moved toward the tactical map. The moment she saw the deployed front line, she let out a short, stunned remark.
“……Am I dreaming right now?”
“Is something wrong, Lady Julia?”
“General Elton, why is a red flag flying over Norton Fortress?”
The general shrugged. Julia’s expression twisted into a savage scowl. Seeing her venomous face, he let out a small chuckle and signaled to his adjutant, who brought over a single report and handed it to her.
“The garrison commander of Norton Fortress used every connection and favor he had with the main family of House Juron to push the eldest son into this post. The boy showed clear signs of being a worthless degenerate, so we made him vice-commander of a defensive fortress that holds no real authority. But then he somehow smuggled in a massive amount of alcohol and threw a huge party inside the fortress. Rumors say it was an absolutely lavish banquet. The entire garrison got drunk, and they didn’t even bother posting sentries.”
All the supply officers who had delivered the alcohol were executed. Elton added that detail himself.
“Where is the commander now?”
“The responsibility was too great. He knew that surviving would only bring shame to his family, so he staked his life on command.”
A life offered in sacrifice served as a kind of absolution. When someone bet their life and then took it themselves, people tended to be lenient. Unless it was treason, even the Emperor—who was called the Iron Blood—would not press charges against the remaining members of the family. Since the matter was heavily entangled in politics and backroom deals were clearly involved, there was little room to voice complaints.
“……And the vice-commander?”
“That worthless bastard ran away by himself.”
“That insane son of a bitch……”
Yet even with absolution right before their eyes, those who failed to seize it met the same fate as always.
“Her Majesty the Empress was furious. He kept his life, but both arms were severed, and House Juron was demoted from marquisate to county. There was a clear failure on the part of the defense commander, but since the man died in battle, holding him accountable felt ambiguous, so that side was spared. If I had known he was such an idiot that he would lose his own life while trying to cling to the Juron connection, I never would have sent him to Norton Fortress.”
If one tore up the absolution right in front of them, their family and house would be punished. Since it had been a marquisate, the punishment could be considered relatively light.
Julia let out a long sigh.
“You really have no eye for people, General.”
“I’m regretting it deeply. Lady Julia Pahu, would you consider returning to the north? This time I will support you with everything I have. The reason I sent you from the Northern Front to the capital was all for your sake. Even if it meant kicking your eldest uncle aside, I wanted to make you the next family head, and also……”
She had not a single shred of lingering attachment to the family, yet General Elton’s proposal to support her with all his power was undeniably tempting. She had no interest in being acknowledged by someone or in receiving favors. However, the offer to provide the perfect conditions for her to fully exercise her talents was incredibly attractive.
“I’m fine.”
Two weeks ago, it would have been an offer worth accepting. But now things were different. A precious boy she would never trade for anything had completely taken root in her heart. Of course, he was a lewd child who relieved his sexual urges by ravishing his stepmother and other female teachers, but her feelings for Marei were strong enough to accept even that.
“Julia Pahu……”
“……This is the last time I will say it, General. I have left the family. If you bring up anything related to them again, I will throw away the Emperor’s request or whatever it is and return to Valter immediately. So, General, what is your objective?”
“Yes, an old man’s lingering feelings must have looked rather unsightly… Let’s speak seriously. Our goal is the recapture of Norton Fortress. Right before your retirement, Lady Julia, you were involved in the operation to retake the fortress when it fell. I would like to hear your thoughts on a recovery operation.”
Norton Fortress was a stronghold that fully deserved to be called a natural fortress. The Empress had poured enormous funds into it. Its role was to serve as a massive shield, blocking the invasions of orcs and monsters descending from the northern mountain range. To hear that it had been taken was something one would normally dismiss as nonsense. As for the idiot who had shat out such a massive disaster, she had no interest.
“I need the full situation across the entire Northern Front. Please prepare the materials.”
Julia gripped her pendant tightly. It looked like the strategy meeting was going to be very long.
“Do you see any possibility?”
“Yes, General.”
In Julia’s view, there had been no need for her to come here at all. The geniuses who had clawed their way up from the military academy were staking their lives on drafting operations; it would have been strange if they couldn’t manage it. The only problem was that the fools under General Elton lacked the eyes to tell which were gems and which were garbage.
“Since we’re in private, speak comfortably. Even if you have severed ties with the family, that doesn’t mean you’ve severed ties with me.”
General Elton filled a crystal glass to the brim with wine. The elderly general, nearing retirement, looked far smaller than he once had.
“……Would ‘Grandfather’ be acceptable?”
“Call me whatever you like. Whether you know it or not, you are still my granddaughter. Are you satisfied with life in Valter?”
Julia’s face flushed with momentary embarrassment, a faint red blooming across her cheeks. Just thinking of the young boy who had never even reached her neck made her heart pound like a girl experiencing first love. She quickly cleared her throat to suppress the feverish emotion rising within her.
“When that green lizard took you away, I was worried sick, but it seems it turned out to be a blessing for you. Not bad… Yes, not bad at all… So, what kind of fellow is this rascal you like?”
“He’s a student.”
General Elton’s hand, which had been raising the glass to his lips, froze. He refilled it with wine and slowly wet his mouth again.
“A student… That’s rather young. Is he from the Imperial Officer Academy? Or the Imperial University?”
“He is my student.”
The old general stared intently at his granddaughter. His eyes seemed to be checking whether she had suddenly developed a sense of humor after retirement and was playing a prank. Julia’s eyes remained perfectly calm and serene. That rascal. No—his granddaughter was a teacher at Valter School. So the boy was a high schooler? To Elton, that age still seemed like little more than a bloody infant, but if his granddaughter liked him, he could try to understand.
“……If he’s your student, then he must be aiming for the officer academy.”
“He says it’s still undecided.”
“Don’t people usually decide by eighteen? Especially at that green hag’s school.”
“Marei is fifteen.”
The crystal glass in the wrinkled hand shattered into pieces. The wine inside spilled down, staining his clothes, but General Elton had no attention to spare for such trivial matters. Having survived decades on the battlefield and priding himself on being able to respond flexibly to any situation, he simply leaned back in his chair and let out a deep sigh.
“Fifteen…? Not twenty-five? Not thirty-five?”
The place called Valter School did house both a middle school and a high school together. Though physically separated, they shared the same name. Even though she had cut ties with her family, the weight of blood could not be erased. Elton, who had only heard snippets of his granddaughter’s news, knew that Labella was teaching high school students. But fifteen? Unless he had gone senile, that was still middle school age by any common standard.
“He skipped grades.”
As if she had read his thoughts, Julia answered briefly. General Elton felt a heavier numbness than when he had looked at his youngest son’s portrait, and he slumped deeper into his chair.
“……May I ask which family the boy is from?”
“That is confidential.”
He felt as if dozens more wrinkles had appeared on his face. She had been a clever child from a young age, an obedient granddaughter who never rebelled against her elders. From the moment she declared she would become a soldier, Julia had monopolized Elton’s love. To him, who had passed the position of family head to her eldest uncle and was now burning his final flames on the front lines, she was his last remaining treasure. Yet his wish for her to live comfortably in the capital rather than the harsh Northern Front, combined with the current head of House Pahu—who did not want Julia building fame in the north—had aligned to send her to the capital on what she perceived as demotion (though most saw proximity to power as a stepping stone for advancement).
“Do you still hate us that much?”
“I do not decide who I love based on such petty emotions. And I believe it would be good if we married. If he would at least accept me as a concubine……”
Elton, who had been searching for a new glass, took several deep breaths before lifting the wine bottle and drinking straight from it like water. With his mind growing hazy and his judgment blurring, he was forced to fully accept that this was a dream. A terrible nightmare. Damn it all!
“The capital is a much better place for promotion than this frozen hell! I believed you would do well there too. Considering the achievements you built on the Northern Front, you don’t need to wander battlefields anymore!!”
“I didn’t leave the military because I had any particular complaints. Loren—that green dragon—simply said she would grant what I desired. I don’t know if it was her intention, but I have found what I wanted.”
Her ice-blue eyes, colder than the pure white snow, stared at Elton with an expressionless face. When he asked if she was expressing trivial resentment toward the family or toward him, she simply spoke her mind calmly, without even smiling.
“No matter how many times I say it, I have no complaints about my reassignment, about the current head of House Pahu, or about you, Grandfather. To be more specific, we were simply family once.”
We were family. The words implied they no longer were.
“I decided for myself. I went to Valter because I wanted to. The reason I left the family was because neither the current head nor you, Grandfather, had any intention of accepting my wishes. I raised the name of House Pahu highest on the Northern Front. I believe what I received from the family is enough. Are all those military achievements still insufficient?”
“That’s not what I meant, Julia.”
“Please call me Lady Julia, Grandfather.”
Had Marei seen her, he would not have recognized her as the homeroom teacher. Her response was so cold and rigid. But to Elton, it was both extremely familiar and intimate. The monster of the Northern Front who never hid her sharply honed claws. Not ‘Teacher Julia,’ but ‘Soldier Julia Pahu.’ The general slashed at the air with the edge of his hand as if cutting a throat. Unable to contain the boiling anger inside, he forced more alcohol down his gullet.
“Julia.”
“It’s Lady Julia.”
“Julia!!”
“I said, it’s Lady Julia.”
BANG!!
Unable to control his rage, Elton slammed his fist on the table, shattering it to pieces.
“Do you even realize how old you are?! Love with a fifteen-year-old bloody brat?! If you’re going to tarnish the family name, at least have some limits! Dating a child who is still practically an infant?! And one of your own students at that!?”
“I am no longer a member of the family, Grandfather.”
“Do you truly believe you can throw away the name of this family? Even if you walked out on your own and severed ties, to the world you are still a daughter of House Pahu!! And yet you say concubine? You said concubine!? A daughter of our house, which has protected the north since before the Empire was unified, becoming a concubine!? Even if the Emperor himself were a man and asked to take you as his concubine, that would be outrageous enough to rage over! But a mere fifteen-year-old brat’s concubine!? Have you gone mad, Julia Pahu!!”
Julia let out a light sigh at her glaring grandfather’s furious gaze.
“Think whatever you like. I will simply live the way I want to live. If we marry, I will change my surname. Just like my mother did.”
“Tell me the truth! You’re doing this because you dislike your eldest uncle and resent this old man!”
“……If that’s what you want to believe, then believe it. I simply told you honestly because I still consider our relationship. If you don’t want to believe me, then don’t. Is that all you wanted to say?”
Even as Elton pointed his finger and raged, Julia remained seated in perfect military posture. The only thing that made her blue eyes flicker with irritation was the thought that he was making a light joke.
“I have nothing more to say to you. Get out!”
“Are you sure you don’t want to hear the rest of the operation briefing?”
“Get out. Get out…! Get out!!!”
Julia gave a small nod and left the room. General Elton clutched his chest, breathing harshly as he failed to calm down. After steadying his heart that felt ready to burst several times, he grabbed the wine bottle. After gulping down several mouthfuls, he contacted his adjutant.
“Valter School, fifteen years old, Marei. Investigate him immediately!!”
“—Pardon?”
The dumbfounded voice of his adjutant coming through the communication device caused the wine bottle in his grip to shatter into fragments.
“I said investigate him right now!!! I don’t care about the surname or anything else—just find the fifteen-year-old boy named Marei! The one attending Valter School!!”
Even the communication device could not withstand the old general’s strength and was crushed to pieces. He simply hadn’t wanted to admit it. That his own granddaughter had fallen for a mere child and uttered words like ‘concubine.’
“Julia…… Just what are you thinking……”
The old man’s voice, like a lament, echoed through the empty room before fading away. The wine bottle rolled across the floor.