A War Hero With No Regrets – Chapter 70

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Last Shelter.

During the forty cycles, Luthers Edan had done everything he could.

His activities were not limited to the Graveyard or its nearby areas.

From the 1st to the 10th cycle, he tried to counter it with the Graveyard’s own forces.

There was no answer.

Comrades died day after day, and even if they barely defended the fortress, the result of the Empire’s destruction as holes were punched in other fronts did not change.

So Luthers quickly began to reach out to other fronts as well.

He reinforced the surrounding fortresses.

If he obtained information that seemed very useful, he quickly shared it with nearby units to respond.

He wrote daily reports and delivered them to the fortress headquarters on the eastern or western fronts.

The reports written with the blood of Luthers Edan and his comrades enabled other fortress headquarters to effectively respond to Titan attacks.

But only up to that point.

The result itself was still no different.

A fortress that should have fallen a month later fell two months later.

A front line that should have been pushed back and occupied a year later was pushed back a year and three months later.

It was literally just delaying the destruction a little longer.

Like that, in the twelfth cycle, Luthers was exhausted.

He decided to at least get his lovers from the previous cycles out.

This world had no answer anyway.

Let’s create a shelter safe from Titan attacks, evacuate there, and live with the ones he loved.

However, the only one who responded to his words was Lea.

Arwen looked at her exhausted lover with sad eyes and told him to rest well this time.

Charlotte also offered sincere comfort and cried with Luthers, but she didn’t stay by his side.

Because she couldn’t abandon her comrades.

Luthers had a next time, but for themselves in this cycle, there was no next time.

Wasn’t enduring as much as possible the very spirit that Luthers had emphasized so much?

Dedicate your life for the victory of humanity.

-You said not to waste even a single cycle. So please leave it to me this time, Commander Luthers.

-You’re tired, Luthers. …I don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry. It’s okay to rest for a while and come back.

The core members of the Graveyard, including the two of them, declared a fight to the death.

And they entrusted that mission to Lea.

-I hope you stay by his side.

-Sister….

-Let’s meet again in the next cycle. If it’s possible, that is.

The Titans evolved with each passing cycle.

It was unknown whether they adapted quickly or had something else.

But it was true that the future never flowed in the same form.

Then, with Luthers now broken down.

Someone was needed to directly witness the future of this cycle and record it in Akasha.

Today they fell, but tomorrow they would rise.

Arwen Orka and Charlotte Evergreen.

Everyone in the Graveyard sincerely believed in their commander.

Luthers Edan turned his back on the comrades who had been with him, desperately suppressing the boiling guilt.

Of course, at the end of it, only the abyss covered in guilt worse than death remained.

They succeeded in escaping from the battlefield with Lea, but she met her death here at 38 Neudink.

It was a strange disease with unknown cause.

They could only vaguely speculate that it was caused by the toxins emitted by the Titans that had completely contaminated the land outside the shelter.

In the end, Luthers couldn’t save her this time either.

He knew it, but that’s why her death was even sadder and more miserable.

From then on, Luthers never ran away.

If there was only despair at the end of running away, it was right to conform to the abyss and struggle within it.

Even if his already loose heart was shattered to dust once again.

He would die with them and live with them.

38 Neudink, which had been the last home of Lea and Luthers, became the ‘Last Shelter’ after that.

Not a place to run away.

It was transformed into a place to steadfastly prepare for the next cycle, even in a situation where the fortress was occupied and the entire country was violated.

Of course, there was no way the current Arwen knew that fact.

The fact that this wasn’t her first visit.

The fact that in the cycle where all her comrades had passed away, Arwen and Luthers had met their end together here.

And the fact that the content of the Akasha database that could be accessed here was written by none other than ‘herself’.

She remembered nothing.

Arwen just blankly stared at the entrance of the elevator that opened like a monster’s mouth.

“What is this…?”

Arwen muttered.

She had clearly come all the way here to find Luthers Edan, who was said to have returned to his hometown, but the person she was looking for was nowhere to be seen, and the entrance to a suspicious facility appeared.

If it had been Arwen’s original personality, she would have left the cabin at this point and devised countermeasures.

Responding to unexpected variables wasn’t her forte.

But.

She couldn’t do that.

Before she could even think, her legs moved first.

It happened in an instant.

She boarded the elevator as if possessed and pressed the only button that existed.

The heavy iron door slowly closed, and Arwen slowly sank into an unknown space with an unknown intention.

How far down did she go?

Ding.

As the door opened with an eerie mechanical sound, the lights in front of her turned on one by one.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

As if luring her.

“….”

Arwen slowly stepped out of the elevator.

As the name Last Shelter suggested, it was a complete bunker.

Colorless concrete.

The sound of a generator running from somewhere unknown.

It was a hideout made with great determination.

Arwen very carefully entered the first room.

It was a communication room.

From old communication equipment that was now obsolete and rarely used to the latest equipment that was just starting to be supplied.

They had everything.

“Oh my god.”

She rubbed the goosebumps that had risen at some point and approached the walkie-talkie.

The volume was turned down to the maximum, but when she listened carefully, she could hear something artificial among the heavy noise.

··-· -·· ·-·· -··· –·- ·— · ··-· · –· -·– -·- ··- ··-· –·· -·· — -·· ···- –·- ··-· –· ··- –· -·· -··· ·- -·-· · ·-··.

–·· ·- -·- –· ··- ··-· ·—- —– ·– ···· ··-· — · -··· · ·–· – ··-· — · ·–· ···· -·-

It was Morse code.

Moreover, it was a form too familiar to Arwen.

It was a signal used in the Graveyard.

The moment she realized that fact, her mind became chilled.

Luthers Edan, the Graveyard, the Last Shelter.

A feeling that something might be connected or not.

At the same time, she could intuitively realize that this place was not simply an abandoned bunker.

It was a place created with the intention of actual use.

Judging from the fact that the dust on the walkie-talkie was not wiped off, it could be assumed that, like the cabin above, no one had been here for a long time.

But the law was to always be prepared for the worst situation.

Perhaps.

Someone might be staying here at this very moment.

Arwen carefully took out the pistol she was carrying.

It would be a big deal if she was attacked in a facility like this.

There was no escape route, and above all, it was uncertain whether she could get out safely.

“—!!!!!”

With the intention of shooting whoever the opponent was, as soon as she left the communication room, someone was standing beyond her field of vision.

Bang!!!

Arwen reacted immediately.

Flames spewed from the muzzle.

However, the figure that had clearly been standing in front of her disappeared without a trace.

“Wh-what…?”

Did she see something that wasn’t there?

She was sure a man was standing there.

Arwen shook her head.

Let’s not get too tense.

Take a deep breath in and out, please calm down.

After calming her startled heart, she felt no signs of life inside the bunker she examined.

“It’s an illusion.”

Her whole body was stiff, and the back of her head was throbbing.

It must be because her energy had weakened a lot due to the overwork in the past few days.

There couldn’t be any ghosts, right?

She was the deputy commander of the Graveyard.

She had even won against the Titans, who were far scarier than ghosts whose existence wasn’t even clearly defined.

It wouldn’t save face if she cowered here.

Arwen headed straight to the next room.

The next room was a warehouse.

Most of them were preserved foods, enough to last for several years with ease.

It was indeed fitting for the identity of a bunker.

Just as she was about to check the contents of a half-torn box.

Someone whispered in her ear.

“In the end, you’re left alone again.”

“Eek!?!”

Arwen screamed and collapsed on the spot.

She looked back, but there was no one there.

And the echo began.

“You’re alone this time too.”

“You say you can do better next time. But when is that next time?”

“This is not a fate that someone like me can handle. Please, take away this terrible duty.”

“Sob, sob sob. Please. I’m begging you.”

The voice of someone sobbing pitifully.

Those voices were so vivid as if they were really coming from right in front of her.

“Aaah!! Aaaaaah!!”

Arwen just covered her ears and kept screaming.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

It was a nightmare.

She had to get out of here right now.

When Arwen got up from her seat and tried to leave the warehouse, a black figure flickering in the corner rushed towards her violently.

A ghost covered in blood, flashing blue eyes.

“Arwen!!!!!”

At the scream that sounded like it would stop her heart just by hearing it, Arwen hurriedly entered the next room.

Bang!

She closed the door and locked it.

“Huff… huff… ugh, bleeeh!!”

She couldn’t come to her senses.

The extreme fear that seemed to turn all her internal organs made her vomit everything in her stomach.

What the hell is it?

Titan? Ghost? What is it, what the hell is it…?

At that moment.

Something flashed through Arwen’s mind.

-By any chance, do you know how Commander Luthers Edan is doing these days?

-Ah, no, it’s just that I haven’t heard from him lately. Until last month, he occasionally sent letters along with living expenses to support us.

-I don’t know about his recent situation, but he always sends a fixed amount accurately every month to the same account.

This was 38 Neudink.

The place where Luthers Edan was presumed to have returned to.

But the neatly organized house was only covered with a thick layer of dust, with no trace of people.

Then that meant.

Arwen’s breath caught in her throat.

“…Could it be.”

Her legs were trembling.

Her teeth were chattering without her realizing it.

It felt like she could hear an angry voice filled with malice towards her ringing in her ears.

“Arwen Orka.”

“Don’t…”

“Arwen, Arwen. Look straight at what you’ve done.”

“Don’t, don’t—!!! Ugh, bleeeh!!”

Even though she had already vomited once, she felt her stomach twisting again.

Clang!

The pistol she was holding clattered to the floor.

“Cough, ack… hack…!!”

The moment she raised her head, a man hanging from the ceiling by his neck was looking at her.

Luthers Edan.

“This is your creation, Arwen.”

His grotesquely elongated tongue seemed to be mocking her, wriggling.

Arwen lost consciousness.

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