—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Bang!
A gunshot echoed through the air, piercing his eardrums.
The Titan slave soldier, now a grotesque, discolored mass, collapsed to the ground, spraying green blood.
“Karin!! Karin!!!”
Karin Maven tried to stand, but her legs gave way, and she slumped to the floor.
Her uniform was rapidly staining crimson.
Her eyes fluttered, losing focus.
“Are you alright!!!!”
Luthers rushed towards her, catching her as she fell.
He quickly tore open her uniform to examine the wound, revealing a gaping hole in her chest.
Luthers immediately grabbed a hemostatic injection and plunged it into Karin’s thigh.
The wound was deep, but with proper first aid, she could be saved.
“C-Commander…”
“Stay with me! You’ll be alright!!”
His expression was frantic, but his hands were gentle, holding her shoulders reassuringly.
His concern was so apparent that she couldn’t help but smile, even as she coughed up blood.
“Don’t laugh! Don’t give up! Medic! Medic!!!”
Luthers desperately called for a medic, but there was no response.
It was understandable.
Their temporary field base had just been hit with a biochemical attack.
With everything in chaos, there was no way the medics could be readily available.
Karin Maven knew that too.
“It’s… no use… Commander…”
“Damn it!!”
Luthers cursed under his breath and dashed out of the communication center.
There was no time to wait for a medic.
He remembered there was an ambulance parked nearby.
If he could just get a first aid kit, he could treat her.
He had saved countless lives during his forty regressions.
Ever since his first, devastating loss, he had honed his medical skills as much as his combat and leadership skills.
As he stepped out of the communication center, the full extent of the carnage at their field headquarters came into view.
It was a horrific tragedy.
Soldiers were forced to turn their weapons on their former comrades, some collapsing in tears beside the bodies of friends they had been forced to kill.
Blood and bodies littered the ground.
Screams and shouts filled the air, along with the horrifying moans of those who had succumbed to the Titans’ control.
“The ambulance…!”
He sprinted towards the military ambulance parked in a corner.
Grabbing hemostatic agents and other emergency supplies, he returned to find Karin looking at him, her breaths shallow.
“Commander… Luthers Edan…”
The black-haired woman’s lips moved feebly, her voice barely a whisper.
Luthers frantically pulled out the medical supplies.
He poured hemostatic powder into the wound and injected a tissue regeneration agent into a smaller injury.
He had used this agent in his last cycle.
“Cough!”
Splurt.
Karin coughed painfully, spraying a mouthful of blood.
Amidst the sticky blood, a fluorescent substance shimmered.
“Ah… Ahh…”
“There’s… no hope.”
Karin’s eyes softened, a gentle smile gracing her lips.
She knew.
If she had been directly attacked by a Titan, treatment would have been possible.
They were destructive, specializing in tearing flesh apart.
But being attacked by an “infected” was a different story.
A parasitic Titan, evolved solely for the purpose of efficiently slaughtering humans.
The parasites teeming inside the long-range artillery Titans filled their bio-bombs, instantly transforming exposed humans into zombies.
And then, those infected would attack and infect their former comrades, who would in turn attack others…
That was how those Titans fought.
Karin had been infected the moment she came into contact with the parasite.
If the wound hadn’t been so deep, she would have already transformed into a Titan and attacked Luthers.
There was nothing he could do to change the outcome.
A sense of overwhelming helplessness washed over Luthers.
“Commander… hold my hand…”
“Please, don’t speak.”
Luthers took Karin’s hand.
And at that moment, a horrifying memory resurfaced.
A familiar sense of déjà vu.
No, it wasn’t déjà vu.
It was a memory from a previous cycle.
Crack.
His vision blurred, her black hair turning silver.
She had smiled at him till the very end, even as she coughed up blood.
Arwen Orka.
Her face overlapped with Karin Maven’s, his former lover from a past cycle.
He wasn’t projecting her onto Karin.
This was… a manifestation of his guilt.
The self-loathing that stemmed from failing to protect those precious to him yet again.
“Promise me… one thing…”
Arwen, or rather, Karin Maven, wheezed, her breaths becoming shallower.
Luthers, tears streaming down his face, could only nod silently.
“You… can forget me… those people… what happened… I don’t know, but those people you keep looking at…”
It was something she had always wanted to say.
As his adjutant, Karin could see it.
The feelings she harbored for Luthers were undoubtedly love.
The very fact that she, who had spent her entire life focused solely on survival, could feel such emotions was a revelation.
But at the same time, she was also painfully aware that they could never be together.
His gaze, stoic yet filled with a hidden tenderness, was always fixed on something beyond her.
Not the future, but the past.
Karin didn’t know about Luthers’ regression ability.
She didn’t know about the countless deaths and losses he had endured over forty cycles.
Yet, she could sense that he longed for other women, not her.
When Lea Gilliard was shot.
When Charlotte Evergreen was shot.
And most importantly, when he spoke of Brigadier General Arwen Orka, who had betrayed him.
Luthers’ expression was always etched with a deep sorrow.
As his adjutant, a mere observer standing by his side, Karin Maven had resolutely let go of her feelings, no matter what happened.
She had already received the most precious gift—the memories of the past year she had spent with him.
“Please stay with them… Your place… is not by my side… but with them…”
Their intertwined hands trembled.
No.
No.
That’s not true.
I want you to look at me.
Focus on me, and forget all your worries.
I know it’s selfish, but human emotions can be so fickle.
But she couldn’t bring herself to say those words.
She couldn’t burden the war hero, already wracked with pain and regret, with her own feelings.
Captain Karin Maven.
The loyal adjutant of Brigadier General Luthers Edan – Director Werner Grimm of the Strategic Security Agency.
She couldn’t fail to fulfill her duty, even at the very end.
“I’m… sorry… I can’t… go with you…”
Transparent tears streamed down Karin’s cheeks.
Luthers looked into her eyes, his voice softer than ever before.
“…I will remember you.”
It wasn’t just her.
This forty-first cycle.
He would remember everyone he had formed a bond with, even those outside the Graveyard.
Even if he died and returned to the past, they were all connections he had to bring back with him as the regressor, Luthers Edan.
He didn’t mind living the same life forty, fifty, a hundred, even a thousand times.
He just hoped that next time, he wouldn’t have any regrets.
That was all he wished for.
“Thank you for your hard work, Karin. I’m so sorry.”
Luthers gently laid Karin’s hand, now cold and still, on the ground.
His loyal adjutant had died with a smile on her face.
He held her close, embracing her lifeless body.
The reports coming through the communication equipment weren’t optimistic either.
From the radio to his personal terminal.
They were all filled with resignation and despair.
[Luthers, it’s Erwin Staufen. The 33rd Mechanized Brigade has lost most of its strength… I don’t think we can continue the mission. It was short, but you were a brilliant commander. If there’s an afterlife, I hope we can continue our conversation there.]
[Luthers, it’s Arthur Philias. They broke through the center. It’s over. The capital has fallen. You did your best. It’s all my fault…]
[Brigadier General Luthers Edan!! Colonel Lydia is insisting on taking to the skies herself! Please, stop her!!]
[This is Drake!! We can’t hold them back with the 808th’s equipment! They’re getting stronger! What’s going on at the front?! Luthers, give us orders!!]
[Luthers, I’m sorry. I know… I have no right to say this… but I loved you. If you regress again, please don’t come looking for me. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry…]
[Commander Luthers, you worked hard this cycle too. Even if you push me away, I’ll keep searching for you. I’ll be watching over you from afar, wishing for your happiness. I love you.]
[…Commander? Commander?! The Holy Cross Brigade has assembled at the rendezvous point! But the capital… What happened to the capital? Brigadier General!!]*
Was it finally over?
The ending, achieved after all his struggles and sacrifices, was once again a devastating defeat.
He had hesitated countless times, but this time, it was truly time to end it.
Luthers Edan pulled out the pistol from his waist and placed the barrel in his mouth.
“This cycle was awful too.”
His usual monologue.
As he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, all hope extinguished…
Arwen Orka’s voice echoed in his ears.
Before he could even react, his consciousness was flung into oblivion.
And when he opened his eyes again…
Luthers Edan was standing on a high platform, gazing down at a sea of people.
“What… is this?”
He stared blankly at the crowd.
“The honor of being a war hero is yours, Brigadier General Luthers Edan. What do you wish to do now? Humanity is indebted to you.”
Arthur Philias, dressed in the President’s attire, smiled at him.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
[]
Karin shouldn’t have died