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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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As she was bitterly biting her lip, Werner, who had been looking out the window, opened his mouth.
“I’m a bit… confused. Karin.”
“Ah… Since we’re returning to Forbidden Lake tomorrow, you should get some sleep today at least. You were in the hospital room all day yesterday too.”
“That’s fine, you don’t need to worry about it. Instead, could you call the people upstairs for me?”
“Ah… yes, yes sir! I’ll be right back.”
“Thank you, Karin. You’ve worked hard too, so get some good rest.”
She saluted Werner and carefully left the room.
“…”
Lea Gilliard.
Karin savored that name.
It was the name he had desperately called out on the first day they arrived at Branberg in the Eastern Military District when he had a seizure.
It was a fact Karin, who had stayed by his side all night, could know.
At first, she thought Werner might be missing a deceased lover or family member, but she was a person who was alive and well.
Moreover, she wasn’t even family.
She was a former comrade.
In the end, the conclusion Karin reached after much contemplation was one.
‘She unilaterally left Werner.’
There was no other answer.
Karin recalled the image of Werner lying on the floor, reaching out his hand towards her.
It was a scene that was hard to even imagine, but that’s why it couldn’t be more miserable.
“…”
Karin felt like her heart was being pricked for some reason.
It was painful because the many memories of being abandoned came to mind.
But she couldn’t show it.
She couldn’t hold him back here too, could she?
Werner Grimm was already having a hard time.
Then, as his adjutant, she just needed to be faithful to her duties.
Karin clenched her fist tightly and tried hard to compose herself as she went upstairs.
To the place where the collaborators the director had personally brought were temporarily staying.
===
When Karin left, Werner sighed, covering his face with his hands.
It was a mistake.
If he had been a little more careful in identifying the personnel, if he hadn’t let his guard down by relying solely on his sight.
The mishap of Lea Gilliard being seriously injured wouldn’t have happened.
The feelings of regret that he had tried not to acknowledge came rushing in like a tide.
What if Lea had died here?
Werner would have thrown himself out the window without hesitation.
The choices he had made to protect her had once again driven her to death.
He would have atoned with the pain that accompanied death and at the same time started the next cycle to repay that debt.
Of course, thanks to bringing the nanomachine treatment, he was able to at least prevent the terrible incident of her being killed.
But the fact that he had failed was still a failure.
Just because Lea survived didn’t mean that fact disappeared.
In the end, Werner had no choice but to make a decision.
A peaceful life? Retiring from the military and living leisurely?
He realized it was no different from bullshit, denying all the lives he had lived so far.
Werner Grimm.
No, the duty given to Luthers Edan, the former commander of the Graveyard, had not yet been released.
Light and shadow are inevitable.
The cycle in which he had twisted the result of their sacrifice and reached the end of his efforts to make them happy.
For them to be forever in the light.
He had to be forever in the darkness.
He couldn’t let their hands be stained with blood or dirty filth anymore.
That was enough even just in the Graveyard.
It was a place like home where all the memories were deeply rooted, but it was also a graveyard where everyone’s pain was engraved.
That’s why he disbanded the fortress command.
Only those who stand on the past and rise can move forward, so the people of the Graveyard must leave the graveyard behind and step into the bright world.
So that even if they live an ordinary life, they won’t fall into despair.
So that they can live a life where they form families with other people and smile together with children who look just like them.
But Werner couldn’t do that.
Regression.
As long as he was born with this cursed ability, he could never escape the battlefield.
As someone who constantly goes back to the past and makes choices he won’t regret, he had to slaughter and eliminate all those who try to disturb their happiness and ruin their peace.
“Only now do I realize how stupid I was.”
Werner let out a hollow laugh.
How foolish was it?
Even though he had decided not to regret, he made another choice he would regret.
They still needed him.
Even after the Titans disappeared, there were countless things that threatened their happiness and safety.
Werner’s eyes flashed coldly.
He had to finish all the wills of Luthers Edan left in Akasha throughout the numerous cycles.
Even if what’s in front of him is a chalice filled with poison, he will silently down that cup.
This time was no exception.
As it had always been.
The moment Werner made his resolution, someone knocked on the door.
Knock knock knock.
“May I come in, Major General?”
When humanity achieved complete victory over the Titans, Major General Luthers Edan was a figure who had mastered both the light and the shadows.
If the people of the Graveyard were his comrades in the light, naturally, he also had comrades in the shadows.
“Come in.”
It was them.
===
It must have been around the fifth regression.
Luthers Edan realized the inevitable limitations he had.
Humanity was not only fighting against the Titans.
They were also fighting against humanity itself.
The fear that the world might end tomorrow covered the entire Empire, and the Empire became a hotbed of all kinds of crimes.
This was also the reason why the President’s authority became even more solid.
Although he had no military knowledge, his political skills were outstanding, so he left the management of the front lines to Supreme Commander Arthur Philias and stabilized the domestic situation.
He mercilessly crushed the opposition and executed them all on charges of national treason.
If they were lucky, they went to a concentration camp.
If not, they were executed.
If they were unlucky, their entire family was massacred.
Of course, in the process, the President didn’t only use righteous methods.
Many members of the People’s faction following the Revolutionary faction were enormously sacrificed at that time.
Putting aside the cruelty of the President, who created false charges and executed innocent people.
Luthers realized that it could also be a method.
What was visible on the surface alone couldn’t change the war situation.
To achieve complete victory, even the darkness operating under the surface had to be utilized.
The truth realized in the fifth regression.
The people he had ties with in the sixth cycle became Luthers Edan’s faithful shadows until the fortieth cycle.
The so-called ‘Cornerstones of the Tombstone’.
At Werner’s words, five men and women poured into the room.
“When you said you were retiring, I thought our Major General had finally lost his mind.”
A man with scars all over his face laughed cheerfully.
It was ‘Godfather’ Matheus.
He was the boss of a gang organization that led the violence groups in the capital, and was purged for rebelling against the President’s orders during the suppression of the People’s faction.
If it weren’t for Luthers, who had timely lent a helping hand, he would never have survived.
Therefore, Matheus moved to the Graveyard in the north after that and helped Luthers’ underwater work with the surviving members of the organization.
It wasn’t just Matheus, the gang boss.
‘Hetaira’ Dorothy, who manufactured powerful illegal drugs.
‘Murder Ghost’ Legorodo, who had taken up the profession of assassin since childhood.
Lastly, ‘White Captain’ Saloca, who mainly dealt with smuggling and information.
They were all prominent figures in the underworld, but at the same time, they were also Luthers Edan’s faithful hands and feet.
Their notoriety was so widespread among the public that Dane Schmidt of the Revolutionary faction, who was dragged along with them, felt like his mind was going blank.
“It’s been a while.”
“Oh my, you’ve become incredibly dashing since I last saw you. The original was already no joke, but… this is a bit tempting.”
Dorothy tempted, bringing her finger to her lips.
Of course, Werner didn’t even spare her a glance.
“…You’re still cold though.”
“I didn’t call you here for such nonsense. I’m sure you roughly know from Saloca.”
Werner turned his head towards the man in the most plain outfit among the four.
“Oh my, was I supposed to tell them? I thought everyone already knew when they came~.”
White Captain Saloca.
The reason he got the nickname White Captain was nothing special.
Information begins with hiding one’s identity.
Saloca was also a master of voice imitation and disguise, so he could produce voices of up to a hundred people.
He imitated Dorothy’s coquettish voice and burst into laughter.
“Hey, you copycat. Didn’t I tell you I’d kill you if you imitated me one more time?”
“You said you’d kill me. But so what?”
This time it was Matheus’ voice.
But Matheus just laughed out loud at Saloca.
“Hahaha, damn it, it’s really crazy. Yeah, this was it, do you know how much I missed this bastard for not seeing him for 6 months?”
Dorothy, who had actually become the target of ridicule, was blushing with anger.
“Enough with the jokes, so what did you call us for, Major General?”
“In fact, there are many targets, right? If you said you’d wash your hands of it and then summoned us again, it must be a big shot… then the President? The Supreme Commander? If not… Arwen Orka, who bit her master without any fear?”
“Ah, that’s right… I heard that Arwen, that bitch, betrayed you. Every time I see her, her gaze that looks down on people is the same, so if I soak her in a high-concentration aphrodisiac, it seems like she’d have no regrets.”
“…Don’t cross the line. Before I kill you.”
However, the moment Arwen’s name was mentioned, Werner’s voice, which had been somewhat friendly, changed.
Dorothy had no choice but to swallow her dry saliva and step back at the sight.
“Ah, I got it. Why are you getting so angry? I can’t even speak as I please…”
“Arwen did nothing wrong. She just acted as I intended.”
“Even if that fierce woman did it, it wouldn’t have been easy for her to openly oppose you.”
“To cut to the chase-.”
Werner looked at Dane Schmidt, who was trembling between the four cornerstones, and said.
“This time, the target we have to dismantle isn’t just one or two people.”
“Then the military itself or something?”
“No, it’s the Revolutionary Front.”
Luthers Edan.
The other identity he used was not just Werner Grimm, the director of the SSA.
He, who was also a big shot in the Empire’s underworld, emphasized once again.
“The Revolutionary Front, we have to tear them apart and kill them all.”
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