Henet walked through the crowd.

Ansi turned her head at the approaching footsteps.

“Sir Henet.”

Ansi blankly muttered his name. The next moment, an inexplicable hope bloomed in her eyes. Soon, she lowered her gaze, noticed the blood-stained sleeve of his arm, and spoke.

“Please sit down, I’ll treat your wound.”

Henet sat down as Ansi led him and rolled up his sleeve. As she cleaned the wound, Henet looked at Ansi with a face mixed with pain and bewilderment.

“Lady…… did you work as a nurse after divorcing Damion?”

“No. I volunteered recently.”

“Volunteered? Do all the people of the Rubel family do this? When something like this happens, you unconditionally volunteer without fail?”

“Dehl might be like that, but I’m not.”

Ansi began stitching Henet’s wound with a disinfected needle. Henet frowned and asked.

“Then why are you here, lady……”

“You know, Sir Henet? Where Damion is.”

“……”

“I also know that he is at the front lines. But even when I asked the people here exactly where he is, they didn’t know. But you would know, Sir Henet.”

“If you know where Damion is, are you going to look for him?”

“Yes.”

Ansi firmly nodded. Henet opened his mouth, dumbfounded.

“It’s the front lines. The place where bullets fly and bombs fall every day. Don’t you think it’s dangerous, lady?”

“But that’s where Damion is, in that dangerous place.”

Ansi stopped wrapping the bandage over the stitched wound. Her blue eyes were unwavering. She spoke again.

“Please, Sir. Tell me where Damion is.”

“Damion wouldn’t want that.”

“I know. But I want to.”

Henet couldn’t understand why she was going this far.

Honestly, Damion was the same.

Everyone said he volunteered to go to the front lines out of loyalty to Belgader, but Henet knew. It was because he didn’t want danger to reach his wife.

How could someone who had been so calculative about gains keep creating equations that only resulted in losses for himself? It was truly incomprehensible.

But…… this side was also at a loss.

And in the end, the will to save each other, that extremely personal reason, was now saving the lives of countless people. Thanks to the two people who accepted the loss, so many were gaining here.

So Henet had no authority to stop it.

Eventually, Henet opened his mouth.

“……Damion is in the Keff region. Not far from here.”

“Thank you.”

Ansi’s eyes were filled with hope. At the same time, the treatment of the wound was finished. Henet stood up from his seat, pulling down his sleeve again.

And he said to Ansi.

“I also have one thing I want to ask you, lady.”

“Please speak.”

“The person who sponsored the revolutionaries in Orphe’s name, it was you, right?”

“……”

Ansi narrowed her brows for a moment.

She wondered how Henet knew about that.

She had never publicized the sponsorship she had made in Orphe’s name, and the newspapers also did not mention anything about it. Yet, the fact that Henet knew about Orphe’s sponsorship meant……

“You are also part of the revolutionaries, Sir.”

Henet gave a small nod. Ansi answered his question.

“You’re right, I’m the one who sponsored them.”

“I knew it.”

Henet wasn’t surprised at all. He seemed to have asked with near certainty.

Ansi spoke to him sincerely.

“You are a good person, Sir. A good friend to Damion too.”

Although his motive was impure, Ansi was not ashamed of sponsoring the revolutionaries. Because the world they wished for was in line with the world Ansi wished for as well.

Someone who could embrace people from all walks of life with a warm gaze. It was fortunate that such a person was by Damion’s side.

“I hope to meet you again with Damion when the war is over.”

“Me too.”

Henet gave a short bow and turned around. Ansi also began moving busily again to look after the surrounding patients.

The military vehicle heading to the field hospital in Keff departed at night after checking all the critically ill patients. In the jolting vehicle, Ansi tried to fall asleep.

It was a convention that existed between all countries not to attack hospital buildings.

Even in the midst of war, bombing a hospital would be met with criticism from numerous nations. It could also serve as a justification for neutral countries to side with the opposition.

So going to Keff as a nurse was not frightening.

Moreover, even if something were to happen, it was highly likely that she would save Damion first. In that case, Ansi herself would no longer be of this world anyway.

Ansi was well aware of the situation she was in.

What she was truly afraid of was not going to Keff…… but something happening to Damion before she arrived in Keff.

Ansi closed her eyes tightly. In the deep night, the vehicle kept driving towards Keff without stopping.

And after some time had passed.

“……Gasp!”

Ansi, who had fallen into a light sleep and woke up, covered her mouth. She suppressed her breathing so as not to wake up those traveling with her.

She had a dream.

In the dream, it was just daybreak. Amidst the ruins of buildings, in the center where sand and dust were blowing, Damion in military uniform stood alone under a building.

Ansi called out to Damion, but no voice came out.

Ansi hurriedly approached him.

And at that moment, the building collapsed and fell onto Damion.

Ansi, who had woken up, stared into the air with wide eyes and hugged her knees. Sleep no longer came. She just hugged herself tighter to calm her trembling body.

After driving for a long while more, around the time when dim morning light began to pour in.

Suddenly, a loud explosion rang out. Ansi was startled and opened her eyes wide. Those who had been sleeping also got up and surveyed their surroundings.

“Wh-what is it?”

“Is it an air raid?”

The earsplitting explosions were heard several more times after that. As Keff drew closer, the alarm grew louder. The vehicle sped up even more.

Anxiety consumed Ansi.

As soon as the vehicle stopped in front of the field hospital, she jumped out and grabbed any soldier she could see, asking urgently.

“Where is Colonel Orphe?”

The soldier stepped back, startled by the sudden question. But soon he recognized Ansi’s face, which had appeared in the newspapers a few times, and his eyes widened.

“Are you Madam Orphe by any chance?”

Ansi nodded vigorously. The soldier spoke with a crumpled face.

“I don’t know. He went to the city earlier saying he was going to look for a soldier……”

“No……”

Ansi’s face turned pale. The ruined city and the scene with flying dust. She was convinced that what she saw in her dream was today.

Ansi left the field hospital without delay. The city was not far away.

The alarm echoed through the streets.

Amidst it, Roma’s voice saying this would be the last time seemed to be heard. The familiar sensation of her heart being squeezed was felt.

She was afraid.

But she couldn’t stop.

Carrying that fear, Ansi began running to find Damion.

“Damn it.”

With the sudden air raid, the soldiers deployed in the city hurriedly returned to their respective units. But Dehl couldn’t move and was sitting on the ground. It was next to the ruins of a collapsed building.

His leg was caught under the building when it collapsed. He tried to pull it out, but it was impossible with his own strength. There was no one passing by, as if everyone had evacuated.

Even if he shouted for help, there was a high possibility that the enemy would hear his voice before his allies.

Boom. A huge explosion rang out not far away. Dehl closed his eyes and swallowed his dry saliva. The sensation of the ground shaking sent shivers all over his body. Death seemed not far away.

He had no regrets. He had already resolved that he could die once he set foot on the battlefield.

Nevertheless, a deep sense of defeat mixed with resentment enveloped him like fog. The images of Ansi looking at him reproachfully and Sofia holding back her tears and smiling warmly came to mind.

As Colonel Orphe said, he had to protect Marel where Ansi and Sofia were, but this was the result. Thinking like that, he felt infinitely helpless and pathetic.

But now there was nothing he could do.

Dehl was just waiting for death like that.

“Lieutenant Rubel!”

At the voice calling him, Dehl raised his head.

“……Colonel Orphe?”

It was definitely that man’s voice. Kardian Orphe’s younger brother.

Soon, Damion emerged from the thick dust. He frowned upon seeing Dehl in a situation where he couldn’t move. But without further delay, he reached out his hand.

Towards such Damion, Dehl asked as if he couldn’t understand.

“What’s going on? Didn’t you return to the quarters earlier, Colonel?”

“I don’t think that’s important right now. Do you have sensation in your leg?”

“……Probably.”

“That’s a relief. I’m going to count to three now. The moment I lift this, you have to get out of there.”

Dehl unknowingly nodded. Damion, who immediately counted to three, exerted force to lift the building debris that had fallen on Dehl’s leg.

A small gap was created between the rubble that seemed like it would never be lifted and Dehl’s leg.