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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“I resent you, Luthers.”
I love you, Luthers.
Enough to protect you even if it means doing things I shouldn’t.
Even if I’m pointed at by everyone and eventually disappear as the dew on the execution ground.
“Enough to kill you.”
Enough to kill myself and deceive everyone.
Enough to take on all the burdens you’re carrying.
Now Charlotte Evergreen remembered it all.
When she had boarded an untested prototype to help her comrades on the battlefield, only to be shot down and barely survive.
Luthers Edan had single-handedly pierced through the encirclement and managed to save her.
There was even a time when she had been captured by the Titans.
She could only helplessly watch as her captured comrades were subjected to all sorts of terrible biological experiments before eventually becoming Titan food.
Even at the moment when the entire defense line collapsed and the Empire’s capital fell, Luthers Edan had managed to come and save her.
It was to keep the promise they had made in the very first cycle when their connection had started.
-Whenever it is… if I die, Luthers. I want to die in your arms.
In every cycle, Luthers Edan never left her alone.
Even though he had other lovers like Arwen Orka and Lea Gilliard, Luthers Edan always kept that promise.
But it was time to sever that long and tenacious connection.
‘We were the ones holding him back.’
There must have been a better plan.
But Luthers stubbornly insisted.
He said he couldn’t push those he loved more than his life into a plan that would surely lead to their deaths.
So when Luthers disappeared to solve everything alone, those who couldn’t wait any longer would follow after him.
That was truly a nuisance.
Everything they had done with only the desire to stay by Luthers Edan’s side, without the skills or qualifications.
Sacrifice?
What sacrifice did they make?
In the end, the one who was sacrificed was Luthers.
Wasn’t it the same in this cycle?
As soon as he intentionally distanced himself from them, Luthers grasped victory for all to see.
The biggest reason he had faced death forty times.
The reason he had experienced forty times of loss.
The reason he had gone through forty times of frustration.
It was the responsibility of all those people, including Charlotte Evergreen.
To make matters worse, in this cycle, they had poured all sorts of slander on Luthers.
Even though they knew nothing.
Even though they had just been freeloading on Luthers Edan’s sacrifices.
They had disparaged and belittled their former lover who was struggling alone for their sake.
Moreover, Charlotte herself was largely responsible for Arwen exposing war hero Luthers Edan and burying all his honor in the mud.
If she hadn’t passed on all the corruption.
If she had belatedly discovered the strange points in the account books.
If she had realized that everything they had misrepresented as military corruption was actually an unavoidable choice to save everyone in the Graveyard.
At least she might not have made the terrible mistake of personally tarnishing her lover’s honor.
Perhaps Arwen would have completely turned a blind eye too.
Unfortunately, Charlotte didn’t have the ability to set everything right.
The spilled water couldn’t be gathered back.
It was because she wasn’t a superhuman like Luthers, nor a ‘regressor’.
The only thing Charlotte could uniquely do was defy the foreseen fate.
That was the reason she had no choice but to shoot Luthers.
She couldn’t let him take responsibility anymore.
As long as they existed, Luthers Edan would never stop.
As he always had.
He would continue his lonely fight alone.
Because that was Luthers Edan.
The Empire’s watchman and the Graveyard’s guardian.
Praised as an undefeated hero, but bearing the pain of countless defeats beneath it—.
A pitiful and unfortunate man.
The only one who could give true salvation to that Luthers was Charlotte.
The sole project leader of ‘Project Oracle’ conducted at the Future Military Technology Research Institute.
It was she who had to inherit the Graveyard’s future, not Luthers.
She could never watch her beloved lover be defeated by that mad President.
She could still vividly see his helpless form.
As he watched his loved ones die, writhing in pain.
Ah, Luthers.
Resent me for this instead.
Because this might be the last time I can face you properly.
I will atone for all the wrongs and mistakes I have committed against you with my final sacrifice.
It was then.
Luthers looked at her and moved his lips.
Charlotte unknowingly approached him and listened to his voice.
“I’m… sorry…”
The words Luthers squeezed out with his last strength were neither resentment nor questioning towards Charlotte who had shot him.
Just.
Humbly.
He was only saying that all of this was undoubtedly his responsibility.
The moment she heard those words, Charlotte Evergreen couldn’t hold back the emotions she had been suppressing.
Tears fell incessantly from her eyes.
Charlotte carefully embraced her unconscious lover’s body and buried her face in his chest.
“No, Luthers… You have no reason to apologize. In the end, it’s because we… were all powerless. Disgustingly powerless.”
At the same time, she sprayed the hemostatic spray she had on her onto the wound on his shoulder.
The wound that had been gushing out red blood was coated with white powder and quickly coagulated, stopping the bleeding.
After confirming that the bleeding had completely stopped, she carefully lifted her lover’s body and walked in front of Akasha.
Then the fortress’ giant quantum computer, which had been silent, responded by scattering a red light.
[Also, judging that the highest priority commander is in critical condition and has a problem with his safety.]
[Detected that a serious threat to the fate of the world has occurred along with the execution of the Missing Protocol.]
[Temporarily transferring access authority of the Graveyard Akasha to the 3rd commander Charlotte Evergreen, the only person within the current communication radius.]
[Sending request for approval.]
Charlotte hesitated for a moment, then soon shouted in a determined voice.
“Request approved.”
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Karin Maven paced back and forth with a worried look at the entrance leading to the innermost part.
It had already been well over an hour since Werner Grimm had gone inside alone.
Because she didn’t know what was happening or why he had visited this place.
It was then.
Thud, thud.
A person wearing a hood appeared in front of her, who had been about to greet him with a bright smile, thinking it was the director.
It wasn’t Werner.
Karin immediately took a defensive stance at the suspicious atmosphere that anyone could feel.
“Wh-who are you?”
“Ah… so you’re that girl.”
The person walking with a staggering gait answered in a very tired voice.
It was a melodious voice.
As she raised her head, a black eye patch covering her right eye and a blue eye appeared.
Enough to momentarily remind her of Werner.
“Take good care of him. You will be able to do what we couldn’t.”
Charlotte said as she brushed past Karin.
“And… if possible, tell him I’m really sorry. If you have room in your heart.”
“What do you mean…”
“I’ll entrust Luthers to you. He’s inside.”
Feeling as if time had stopped, Karin blankly looked at her, then came to her senses and rushed inside.
And the one left there was Werner Grimm, lying face down with a gunshot wound.
“Di-Director!!!!”
Karin Maven ran to him urgently, screaming almost in a shriek.
“Are you alright!? Director! Please come to your senses!!”
Fortunately, he was breathing properly.
Emergency treatment had been done too.
Karin Maven instinctively knew that the woman who had brushed past her a moment ago had done this to Werner.
“What on earth…?”
But there was no time to think about that.
Karin hurriedly lifted the unconscious Werner in her arms and left the fortress.
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Whooosh—.
“Haa… it’s cold…”
Lea Gilliard tightened her coat sleeves even more at the ear-numbing cold.
Winter was approaching, but perhaps because it was the Northern Hemisphere, the cold she felt was on a different level.
She shoved her body into her jacket and slowly walked.
Soon, the scenery of a street covered in a thick layer of white snow came into view.
Bent street lamps.
Abandoned cars.
The buildings and shops that were once the foundation of many people’s lives exuded a gloomy yet somehow mysterious atmosphere.
It felt like she had reached the end of the world that no one had ever reached.
Lea unconsciously let out an exclamation at the sight.
“Wow…”
She stood there for a moment, then soon continued walking.
Towards the building of the Empire’s Northern Command, which had been erected at the end of that path and was now abandoned as a no man’s land.
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