Chance Encounters
Kelun carefully unfolded the story about himself and Bell. His words were concise, but beneath them simmered a subtle anger toward the proxies and deep pity for Bell. Especially when he spoke of Bell—a faint smile even briefly touched his lips.
"When I saw the captain again this time, she seemed like a completely different person, so I thought she'd overcome that ordeal and grown even stronger. She didn't recognize me either. Even now, I wonder if I'm overstepping by worrying like this."
Kelun's words lingered like an echo. Silence settled once more among them around the table, but Roland crossed his arms and pondered seriously for a moment.
'Proxies killed people?'
It was quite a shock, and at the same time, oddly puzzling. When Roland himself had enlisted in the regular army and gone through non-commissioned officer training, all he'd heard about the training period was something vague like, "They were deployed to the civil war and quickly suppressed it." He'd never heard anything about "mercilessly firing on protesters."
Adolf spoke to Kelun in a calm tone, his bittersweet expression lingering. "You're doing it out of genuine concern for Captain Bell, right? I feel the same way."
"I'll make sure nothing like that happens again."
Kelun kept his sharp, simmering thirst for revenge buried deep inside. He didn't want to reveal it to Adolf, fearing it might make him dislike him.
While the two exchanged words, Roland eyed the proxies right in front of him, trying to imagine if they could really suppress a civil war like those proxies had. Absurdly, the image wouldn't come to mind—especially not with Lucia trembling as she set down her hot chocolate, her eyes brimming like she might burst into tears any second.
'Can't picture it at all.'
Roland chuckled and leisurely watched Lucia holding back her sobs. What would Adolf do if he got such an order? The thought crossed his mind briefly, but he immediately concluded his friend was the type who'd casually ask, "Why the hell should I do that?"
If he weren't a proxy, he'd probably get chewed out like a dog. Roland actually felt a strange sense of relief that Adolf was a proxy.
Kelun glanced at Roland with his arms crossed and said politely, "Ah, it seems I've ruined the mood. Sorry about that."
"Oh, no, no—I'm fine. Don't worry about it."
Roland waved it off with a cool grin.
"Must've been hard to talk about. Thanks for sharing."
Adolf was sincerely grateful that Kelun had opened up so honestly. Kelun, too, found himself unconsciously trusting Adolf—enough that it felt strangely unfamiliar even to himself.
"Thank you for saying that, sir."
As the mood lightened a bit between them, Roland took a sip of his coffee from the side. 'Did the military cover it up on purpose? Well, if I were high up in the management bureau, I'd have done the same.'
Roland slowly shook his head. He glanced at Lucia, still trembling as she fought back tears.
Then Lucia finally broke. "Hic—"
Roland let out an admiring laugh mixed with amusement as he watched her tears flow, his face saying as expected. The way she held it in until she couldn't was just too adorable.
"Lucia?"
Kelun visibly panicked, roughly grabbing tissues from the table and handing them to her. He pulled her shoulder into his embrace and patted her back quickly.
"What's wrong all of a sudden?"
Lucia buried her face in the tissue and mumbled with her head down. "Because... I kinda get how Kelun felt becoming a proxy, and what Captain Bell must've gone through back then..."
Kelun's face showed brief surprise, then realization dawned—she was a proxy too. A wistful smile crossed his lips.
"You idiot."
He gently stroked her thick, wavy brown hair. That's when murmurs came from the people sitting nearby.
"Is she crying...?"
Kelun flushed slightly and muttered, "Is this okay?"
The words carried the implication: a core combat force of the military, proxies who were busy being hailed by the people, crying in public like this.
Roland shrugged it off. "What's wrong with that? Sad stories make you cry sometimes. And she's cute, anyway."
Kelun let out a short "haha—" then suddenly narrowed his eyes at Roland.
"Cute, you say?"
"Yeah."
Kelun looked down at Lucia with an incredulous expression. She shrugged her shoulders dramatically once, then peeked up slightly—still sniffling, but with genuine surprise as she stole a glance at Roland.
'This idiot. Even now, she reacts to compliments about herself.'
Kelun nudged her shoulder lightly and pulled back the hand that had been stroking her hair.
"Well, thanks to Sergeant Roland's words, she seems to have perked up already."
Lucia dabbed her eyes with the tissue, clearing her throat awkwardly with an "ahem," though she still sniffled from the lingering sadness.
"Well then, we'll head out first. Sir. Sergeant Roland. Have a great vacation."
"Have a great vacation! Sorry about earlier~!"
In contrast to the polite Kelun, Lucia bowed her head repeatedly, her face beet red from belated embarrassment over crying.
Roland waved with a sly grin. "Yeah, have fun on your date."
"It's not like that. I don't like that kind of teasing."
Kelun shot back immediately, and Lucia puffed out her cheeks slightly.
"Me too!"
Kelun's expression crumpled faintly, but Roland just snickered and kept waving.
"See you at the combat response unit office later, then."
Adolf smiled warmly.
"Yes, until next time, sir."
"See you next time~!"
Lucia and Kelun waved as they started walking down the snow-covered street. Once they were a bit farther away, Roland nudged Adolf's arm.
"Life won't be boring for you now. Things are gonna get fun."
Adolf paused thoughtfully before replying. "Being with you has been fun all along."
Roland blinked in bewilderment at that. Then, with a somehow displeased look, he said, "Adolf, as your friend, here's some advice: guys don't pay that much attention to their same-sex friends."
Adolf's face fell a little. Roland rubbed his forehead.
"You're doing it right now. Real men don't wear their emotions on their sleeves like that."
"That's a tough one. Why do we have to live like that?"
"Huh?"
"Shouldn't we be honest with our friends?"
Roland clamped his mouth shut. The crunch of snow underfoot and the cool wind suddenly sounded sharper. He knew he should argue back, but the question left him speechless—his mind went blank.
"See? Nothing to say, right?"
"No, no—listen up. You're a guy. I'm a guy."
"Yeah, that's true so far."
The two dudes stood in the middle of the snowy street, faces surprisingly serious.
"Okay, assuming that's right? Between close guy friends, you don't have to be that considerate. There's this unspoken trust."
"Unspoken trust?"
"Yeah, exactly. We've gotten along great for so long, right? So you don't have to tiptoe around each other. You just know the other guy's got your back."
"Hmm..."
Adolf shoved his hands in his coat pockets and narrowed his eyes.
"Don't squint like that—I'm serious."
"Got it. I think I kinda get it."
"Good. Great progress."
Roland nodded in satisfaction. A brief silence fell.
Adolf sorted through Roland's words with a fairly serious expression. Oh man, if you were a girl, at least it'd be fun. Roland felt a headache coming on as he asked, "So, Adolf—what should we do now?"
"Wanna catch a movie?"
"Ooh, even if there's not much to do inside the barrier... Oh..."
"What's the problem now? It's not a new release, but there are plenty of old ones we haven't seen."
Roland gave up arguing about the awkwardness of two guys watching a movie alone. His own points weren't absolute truths anyway. In this day and age.
"Movie first, then hit a bar."
"Figures. But Lumen Guard probably checks IDs strictly?"
He meant they wouldn't sell booze to minors as easily as the bars in Valhalla Disk. To Adolf, Lumen Guard felt more sophisticated and coldly efficient than warm and welcoming.
"We'll just go for it."
"Haha, yeah."
The two finally agreed and strolled slowly through the barrier city. Management bureau drones occasionally patrolled the skies overhead, and electronic billboards scrolled familiar military directives.
As they reached the crosswalk to the theater, a few cars passed by—not many. Then a column of military vehicles approached along the road, heading toward the management bureau in a long line.
Two multi-purpose vehicles from the bureau, escorted by special transport drones. The side of the last vehicle bore the insignia of the Intelligence Analysis Department.
Adolf and Roland stopped at the crosswalk, watching the procession.
"Wonder what's going on now?"
"Don't jinx it, Adolf. Words can come true."
"Words can seed things, huh? Neat expression."
Roland laughed in disbelief, then felt pathetic for chuckling at it and shut his mouth. Laughing at stuff like this? Ridiculous.
As the vehicles passed and the signal changed, people appeared on the other side of the crosswalk. A girl started crossing boldly from the opposite direction, arms full of bread bags.
"Huh?"
Adolf reacted first. Silver hair cascading over her shoulders, gleaming in the sunlight. Casual clothes, but still eye-catching. And that petite frame making the bread bags look even bigger.
"...Isn't that Captain Bell?"
Adolf smiled brightly without realizing it. Roland glanced at his friend and narrowed his eyes.
Words really do seed things.