Derl quickly pulled his leg out. As blood flowed back into the pressed leg, a distinct pain was felt. It seemed like it would be difficult to walk properly right away.

However, he knew that if he had delayed a bit more, he wouldn’t have even felt this pain.

Damion helped Derl up to his feet. Derl stared intently at Damion. Damion casually surveyed the surroundings and spoke.

“A vehicle should be coming to pick up soldiers who didn’t manage to escape like you. Let’s take that and go back.”

“Why… did you save me?”

“Rescuing a comrade is only natural.”

“I mean, why did you come all the way here from your safe quarters to save me?”

“Do you want an honest answer?”

“So what you said just now was a lie?”

Damion lightly nodded his head.

“As you said, Colonel, it’s inefficient for me, who was in safe quarters, to come to the center of a bombing where I don’t know when I might lose my life. Not from a personal aspect, but from a public one. Losing one of the commanders would lower the morale of our troops too.”

“Really… how unlucky.”

“Nevertheless, there is one reason I came to save you, Colonel. Because you are Ansi’s elder brother.”

“……”

Damion spoke as if it was the most reasonable and proper reason, and Derl also accepted that answer as a matter of course. Because he had also expected that the reason Damion did this would be Ansi.

Derl had constantly distrusted Damion for being an Orphe, but on the other hand, he knew that what Ansi said was true.

That smart kid said he was different from the Kardian Orphes she knew. She said he was someone willing to give up everything for Ansi.

His anger, not knowing where to direct it, had silently turned towards Damion. He thought he absolutely could not accept him. But at least for now…

Derl opened his mouth to say thank you.

That’s when it happened. A military vehicle was seen coming from the other side. It belonged to the Velgader army. Damion signaled towards the vehicle.

“Looks like we can go back sooner than expected.”

Soon, the vehicle came and stopped in front of them.

However, there was one problem.

The vehicle was already over capacity. They could squeeze in one more person if they crammed themselves in. Grasping this situation, Damion immediately pushed Derl into the vehicle.

“I’m fine. Colonel, you should get in…!”

“The injured have priority.”

“But….”

“Lieutenant Colonel Rubel, are you going to break the rules? I will wait for the next vehicle.”

Without giving Derl a chance to argue, Damion closed the door. There was no time to delay. The vehicle left immediately.

In the center of the ruins, only Damion remained.

Should he walk back to the camp? As Damion was contemplating that.

Feeling the presence of people nearby, Damion swiftly crouched down. Lezen soldiers were inspecting the traces of the bombing. That meant the bombing was over now.

Damion held his breath and watched the enemies. Fortunately, they passed by without discovering Damion.

But this spot was dangerous. Since it was next to an already collapsed building, there was relatively little space to hide.

In the end, Damion hid behind the wall of another nearby building.

And he checked his weapons again to be ready to engage the enemy at any time.

It was a perilous situation, but strangely, it didn’t feel like he would die here.

That’s when it happened.

“Damion!”

Ansi’s voice was heard.

Damion’s brows furrowed.

That couldn’t be. Ansi should be in Marel right now. She should be there, greener and safer than anywhere else.

“Damion!”

When Ansi’s voice was heard once more, Damion turned his head.

His eyes trembled.

The person in front of him was clearly Ansi. It wasn’t an illusion. She was really here, in the middle of this war.

“Get away from that wall!”

Ansi cried out urgently. Ansi looked like she was about to cry. Damion instinctively began running towards her.

The building collapsed at that moment.

Startled by the loud noise, Damion looked back. The wall he had been hiding behind and leaning on had collapsed. The spot he had been in was completely ruined.

Ansi had saved him.

The moment he realized that and turned back towards Ansi.

Bang!

Piercing through the numerous surrounding noises, a clear gunshot rang out.

Ansi’s face was stained with pain.

No.

Damion staggered as he ran to Ansi.

At the same time, Ansi collapsed.

She sank to the spot too easily. Like a flower petal crumbling, it was a quiet and futile motion.

No.

“A civilian?”

“There’s a soldier next to her too! Shoot quickly!”

A few Lezen soldiers approached. Damion took out his gun and aimed at the other side. That process flowed too slowly.

No.

After a few gunshots, Damion picked up Ansi and began to run. An ear-piercing tinnitus penetrated his head.

He could no longer hear the surrounding sounds well. Damion shook his head. He was just too terrified of her limp form with her eyes closed.

No. No, Ansi.

He couldn’t remember well how he reached the field hospital. The moments in the ambulance carrying Ansi were spotty and disconnected.

When he came to his senses, she had already entered the operating room.

“…Colonel.”

Damion, who had been sitting on a makeshift chair set up in front of the operating room, raised his head. A crutch touching the floor entered his haggard eyes. He slowly examined the face of the soldier standing in front of him.

“….”

Looking at his appearance, Damion silently shifted his gaze towards the operating room door. In front of the tightly closed door, he couldn’t say anything to Ansi’s elder brother.

“Ansi will be fine.”

At Derl’s words, Damion scoffed at himself.

He had seen numerous gunshot wounds so far. So he knew. How serious Ansi’s wound was.

Damion raised both hands and looked at his palms. Hands stained red with Ansi’s blood were terrible and terrible again.

Somehow… he seemed to understand now.

Why she so hated that plum-colored dress she wore at her wedding, and the red canopy curtains.

“The Lezen army is pushing in. Colonel, you have to go.”

“Why me?”

Damion leaned back in his chair with a sarcastic and apathetic gesture. No more motivation could be felt from him.

“You are the commander. Just because Ansi is here, you can’t stay only here.”

“Don’t need it. The title of commander or whatnot.”

Derl realized. Truly… this man’s gaze was directed only at Ansi.

“Ansi would be so delighted to see you staying like this.”

Derl spat out the words as if chewing them. At those words, Damion contorted his face. He inhaled a painful breath as if thinking of Ansi, then spoke as he exhaled.

“You should curse me, Colonel. Your sister came to save me and got shot. Because of me, Ansi ended up like that.”

Damion wanted Derl to curse at him. He hated himself so much for causing the current situation that he would rather die.

However, Derl stood there and countered his words.

“If you put it that way, it’s because of me that Ansi got hurt. It’s because of me that you, Colonel, who should have been in your quarters, came all the way to the city.”

“….”

“So now is not the time to determine whose fault it is. Didn’t you also say, Colonel, that you wouldn’t let even the hem of the Lezen army’s clothing be seen where Ansi is? Right now, this is where Ansi is.”

Damion closed his eyes tightly.

His eyelids trembled finely with anger at himself.

But… Derl was right.

If he really cared for Ansi, now was not the time to sit slumped like an idiot.

This place was a military hospital located in the rear. Even now, fighting would be going on at the front lines, so it was relatively safe compared to there, but it was unknown when the Lezen army might rush in here as well.

If they gave the Lezen more chances to gain the upper hand by being caught off guard like Kef had been, they might push in all the way here.

He couldn’t let that happen.

Damion slowly rose from his seat.

“…I entrust Ansi to you, Colonel.”

Derl silently nodded. In any case, he wanted to go and fight, but with legs like this, he would only be a hindrance.

“I will contact you as soon as she wakes up.”

At Derl’s words, Damion nodded his head and turned around. His back as he walked down the corridor was composed, unlike the person who had been leaning sarcastically just a moment ago.

“Ansi…”

In the spot where Damion disappeared, Derl endlessly waited for Ansi to come out, leaning on his crutches.

Although he told Damion it was no one’s fault, he was just as distressed.

If only he hadn’t gotten hurt there, if only Damion hadn’t come there, Ansi would have been fine.

Rather, if he hadn’t separated Ansi and Damion from the beginning, then they wouldn’t have had to face each other in a place like this.

Such thoughts continued.

But regrets solved nothing.

Derl stopped thinking and simply waited for Ansi.

The time until Ansi came out felt too long.

In a secluded place in the northwest of Velgader, a shabby inn.

Kardian, wearing a pressed-down hat, entered. Past the narrow corridor, two men were guarding the appearing room. After showing his face to them, Kardian opened the door.

“Hello, Viscount Orphe.”

The man who had been waiting inside greeted Kardian with a smile. Kardian grinned at him.

“Since we’re both busy, shall we get straight to the point?”