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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Arwen Orka.
It had been almost two months since she was discharged from the hospital.
“Unni!”
Lea smiled brightly and took a seat next to Arwen.
“Ah… That was my seat.”
Drake, who had his seat stolen in an instant, expressed a small complaint, but his opinion was quickly ignored.
Drake, with his shoulders slumped, staggered and moved next to Colonel Heinz Bismarck.
Lea and Arwen, regardless of that, clapped their hands or laughed and fell into a trance-like conversation.
“So, you’ve been doing well. What about you, unni?”
“I’m the same as always. But compared to when I was at my busiest, I have more free time now.”
The eradication of military corruption led by the Inspection Department was entering its final stage.
Under the active support of the President and the acquiescence of the Supreme Commander, Arwen Orka was literally a tank.
No matter what corruption there was, no matter how deeply rooted that corruption was, she utilized the authority of the Inspection Department to the fullest and burned it.
Not only the field-grade officers who were her subordinates, but also the big shots ranging from colonels to lieutenant generals.
Arwen’s blade did not discriminate against the opponent.
It was no wonder her new nickname was the Silver Guillotine.
Didn’t she cut off the heads of the officers who were sticking their necks out, saying they were this commander or that corps commander?
“Major General Arwen, what on earth are you doing? Your notoriety has even reached here.”
Lieutenant Colonel Lydia Glenova, the head of the education department at the Imperial Military Aviation School, smiled and said to Arwen, who was firmly massaging her shoulders.
Then Arwen also countered with a playful smile as if she wouldn’t lose.
“Everyone, be careful, okay? The eyes of the Inspection Department are always open.”
“It’s really scary….”
“Well, well, now that everyone seems to have gathered roughly. Let’s stop the chitchat and have a drink first?”
“Sounds good!”
“But Charlotte isn’t coming? I heard she invited us.”
“It’s a bit complicated, but that’s how it turned out… She said she was sick enough to take sick leave since yesterday.”
Arwen nodded at Drake’s answer.
It was news that the two of them had heard a few days ago.
Originally, they would have canceled, but they couldn’t just cancel when people like Lea and Lydia, who lived in workplaces quite far from the capital, had taken the time to come.
Anyway, they had planned to hold an alumni reunion-like event at least once, so it wouldn’t matter if they thought of it as practicing once in advance.
The 5 years they had spent together could never be said to be short.
Moreover, it was November.
Since it was about time to prepare for the end of the year, it could also be seen as an early year-end party.
“By the way, where exactly did Major Charlotte go?”
“I think she said it was the Future Military Technology Research Institute under the Imperial Defense Industry Agency. She was originally close with them anyway.”
They could easily recall the logistics staff officer who had frequented the arsenal located in the Central Military District, always talking about new weapons.
“Aha, so she went to the Defense Industry Agency. I didn’t know.”
“Keep in touch, man. Keep in touch.”
Anyway, it was just enjoyable to see each other’s faces.
Even the restaurant they had gathered at was newly opened by a soldier from the Graveyard who had been discharged.
“Here, the food and drinks are here! Enjoy, our precious officers.”
Hubert from the 4th Battalion, who was no different from his soldier days, appeared with steaming dishes in both hands.
Soon, another former soldier who was standing next to him popped open an expensive bottle of champagne.
“Then, since everyone has a day off the day after tomorrow, let’s go all out!”
“Yeah!!”
The night for those who had left the Graveyard had just begun.
***
“Uhhh… Ughhh…”
Zombie-like, unhinged groans were heard from here and there.
As a result of Charlotte, who had made a fuss about an emergency call, being absent, the purpose of the gathering that might have been there had disappeared, and only the entertainment remained.
It had already been four hours since the party started.
The champagne bottle that had been popped at the very beginning had long been thrown into the corner, decorating the grave of countless liquor bottles.
And the ones who survived until the end were, without fail, the main characters of the Graveyard.
Most of them were strong drinkers, and they all had a certain rank, so they were immune to alcohol pressure.
Who could possibly drown the Silver Guillotine of the Inspection Department in alcohol or shove a bottle into the mouth of the Fire Bear guarding the President?
Of course, the reason why Second Lieutenant Lea Gilliard was still alive was simply because she could hold her liquor.
She was one of the few people in the Graveyard who could endure drinking seriously until Luthers Edan got drunk.
“I’m glad you’ve fully recovered.”
Arwen said, fiddling with Lea’s cheek.
Lea didn’t avoid that touch, but she couldn’t respond enthusiastically like a little while ago.
It was because the more the alcohol kicked in, the more that man’s face came to mind.
Still, unexpectedly, being with the people of the Graveyard didn’t double her gloomy mood or anything like that.
It was because it wasn’t only Luthers Edan who had given her good memories.
Even in the 34th regression she remembered, the people of the Graveyard were the driving force that made her move forward and the reason she didn’t give up on life.
Perhaps the reason Luthers Edan had emphasized ‘never sacrificing’ so much in this cycle was to show the future she was enjoying now.
Thinking that way, it seemed like her heart felt a little better.
At least until some clueless person started talking to Arwen.
“By the way, Director. Has Commander Luthers really retired?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I checked it myself. I heard he settled in a rural village in the south.”
Arwen Orka said with a somewhat refreshed expression.
Lea Gilliard flinched at the mention of Luthers Edan.
She didn’t know why Drake’s expression next to her had stiffened, but she focused on Arwen’s next words.
He settled in a rural village?
Then… would it be okay for her to go see him?
The war was over anyway.
She didn’t know how Luthers would accept her, but if there was no one by his side right now, Lea was willing to give up everything and stay by Luthers’ side.
Wasn’t it what she had always dreamed of?
Time for just the two of them.
A house for just the two of them.
A daily life for just the two of them.
It wasn’t that Lea Gilliard was hostile to other fiancées like Arwen or Charlotte.
During the forty regressions, they must have built trust with Luthers in their own way that Lea didn’t know about.
It might not be entirely beautiful, but the feelings they had developed through it were similar to Lea’s, if not less.
No, perhaps rather.
This might be an opportunity.
She was the only one who had regained her memories.
But how difficult was the process of regaining memories?
Having the memories of several years forcibly pushed into the brain was not a pleasant and interesting experience, even in empty words.
Rather, it made you want to die— in fact, the end of memory recovery ended with your own death.
The emotions felt at that time, the thoughts you had, the sight of your comrades dying helplessly, the memory of putting the gun barrel in your mouth with trembling hands, the pain of your legs and arms being torn off, it was a matter of engraving all the memories spanning several years in your head.
“Ugh…”
Just recalling it for a moment made her stomach queasy.
Lea desperately suppressed the sudden urge to gag and rinsed her mouth with cold water.
Arwen and Drake showed surprised expressions at Lea’s rare dry heaving.
“Lea, are you okay? You drank quite a bit today. Is this your first time drinking in a while?”
“Ah, no, it’s not that… I’m fine. By the way, unni, do you happen to know where that address is?”
“Who? That man Luthers?”
Arwen’s brows furrowed.
“Don’t tell me you still haven’t given up? Even you said it was just a misunderstanding with your own mouth.”
“Ah…”
Lea couldn’t bring herself to answer.
It was one of the mistakes she had made to Luthers.
It was a story after she was rejected when she threw out a confession-like thing while they were out on a supply mission.
Lea Gilliard had never thought she would be rejected, so she had spread rumors about it all over the neighborhood.
Now, there was no point in bragging about it, but she was very young back then, wasn’t she?
“No, it’s not exactly because of that…”
“Enough, stop worrying about it. No matter how I think about it, it’s too much of a waste for you to be interested in such a worthless man.”
“What?”
In the past, she would have just agreed.
But now that she had regained her memories, Arwen’s words were enough to trigger Lea’s anger.
Who? Who on earth was worthless?
Lea was startled by the blunt tone that had unknowingly popped out and tightly shut her mouth.
“Huh?”
“Ah, no. I think I’m a bit drunk right now… My mind is a bit.”
“It must be difficult to drink after a long time, right? Then you can rest for a bit. I think everyone will disband soon anyway since they seem to have passed out.”
Lea sighed, hoo.
Was it because of the alcohol that had gradually risen?
She almost made a mistake without realizing it.
She knew that Arwen had lost her memories, so she was even more so.
She also knew that Arwen had sometimes loved Luthers more passionately than Lea herself.
But Arwen didn’t stop.
“Come to think of it, I wonder if he’s living well… That man.”
“Didn’t Major General Arwen cut off his pension? With this, he can’t even call himself a war hero anywhere. He was originally a reclusive loner anyway.”
“Right, right, he couldn’t get along well either. He gave off a somewhat gloomy and musty feeling, so I ended up avoiding him.”
Once it started, the bad-mouthing about Luthers continued.
Lea’s breathing, who had been trying hard to endure it, started to become rough.
Lea slightly distanced herself from Arwen as she became more and more uncomfortable.
It was suffocating.
This reality that she couldn’t tell.
The reality that she couldn’t reveal that Luthers Edan was not someone they could talk about like that.
She just gulped down cold water.
Even though they would all regret it if they regained their memories, they were spewing out bad words as if it was nothing.
“Now, now, everyone seems too drunk. What’s the point of talking about old stories? The present is what’s important, the present.”
At that moment, Drake, who had sensed something strange, proposed a toast to change the atmosphere.
But Lea’s thread of reason snapped at Arwen’s next words.
“The past? Important, my foot. You all know what that man has done so far, right? The amount he embezzled is hundreds of millions of marks.”
“Arwen….”
“As the head of the Inspection Department, that’s the conclusion I reached after thoroughly investigating. That man was never upright. I just hope he regrets and pays for his sins that much.”
Arwen waved her glass with a flushed face.
“By the way, Lea, wait a moment….”
Slap—!
“?”
At the moment when Arwen was about to reach out her hand towards her, who had distanced herself, Lea fiercely brushed off that hand.
“Lea…?”
Surprised by the completely unexpected reaction, Arwen showed a startled expression.
Lea was crying.
“Unni, you can’t say that. No, no one should say that….”
And then.
“How can you say that? After snatching away my chance every time, now you criticize that person as if it’s nothing? Do you really think it makes sense? Honestly, what did that person really do wrong to you, unni?”
Lea Gilliard began to pour out barbed words towards Arwen.
“Answer me, unni.”
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