Chapter 09
Unable to keep pretending any longer, she finally looked up at him silently.
Hey… isn’t this kind of soft, sentimental topic… not really appropriate right now?
“Alvin. Are you interrogating me?”
Chloe gave him a mild, cautionary look. A few people were already glancing at the two of them, and drawing attention like this wasn’t good for anyone.
But he didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. That calm expression made Chloe wonder if she was being overly sensitive.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she answered.
“I thought there was….”
…There wasn’t?
Perhaps he inferred the conclusion from the trailing tone of her words, because Alvin nodded right away.
“Yeah. If there had been, you wouldn’t have come this far.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If your woman says she’s going off to die, what kind of man would just sit back and watch? Or are there a lot of those in Edelrin?”
He casually dragged Edelrin into it, but Chloe didn’t rise to the bait so easily.
Among her friends was someone famous for carrying deadly poison needles in her mouth. Chloe wasn’t quite that extreme, but among the quadruplets, she was the only one who could go head-to-head with Benjamin.
They rarely argued. Knowing each other’s capabilities, they understood that once a fight started, neither side would come out unscathed.
On the rare occasions they did clash, everyone in the salon would gather around them. People who frequented the salon often thought:
“The pen really is mightier than the sword. You can kill someone with words alone.”
The only irony the literary world had yet to resolve was that one of them was a poet who wrote only love poems, and the other a fairy tale writer who used nothing but soft, harmless words.
“You have a more conservative view on relationships than I expected.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course you’d worry. But in the end, it’s a decision each person has to make. Even a lover doesn’t have the right to stop it.”
“If that’s the measure of conservatism, then I guess I am one.”
Chloe quietly nodded. He was the first formidable opponent since Benjamin to make her heart race. It wasn’t easy to win an argument against someone who calmly accepted everything without taking any damage.
“So what, did you come here to get over a breakup or something?”
Chloe frowned slightly. She’d heard that kind of nagging so often from her friends that her ears were practically bleeding.
“I’m not passionate enough to stake my life on romance. And I’ve never been hurt badly enough to need ‘getting over’ anything.”
“Then why are you here?”
“……”
That was what Alvin had truly been curious about. But as the conversation circled around, he found himself more interested in the process—her answers—than the original question. There was still so much about her he wanted to know.
Chloe scratched her chin with an awkward smile. There was never any grand reason to begin with. And it wasn’t exactly a topic she wanted to lay bare—it was too pitiful for that.
As she put up her guard again, he watched her quietly before blurting out:
“For the record, I don’t have one.”
“What?”
“No lover, no wife, no kids. Clean on paper.”
“……”
“So stop pinning that ridiculous playboy label on me.”
Caught off guard by his sudden confession, she burst out laughing.
That comment from earlier really bothered him, huh? But still…
“Sorry, but I didn’t ask—and I’m not interested.”
“…That’s a defensive ability worthy of being recorded in the history of warfare.”
Alvin let out a theatrical sigh. Resting her cheek on her knee, smiling, Chloe looked up at him and said:
“But Alvin, I think I’m actually more of an attacker.”
“Sometimes offense is the best defense.”
“Yeah, I think so too.”
The representatives of the two nations laughed aloud. Hearing the low rumble of his voice as his Adam’s apple moved, Chloe belatedly became aware of the people around them.
She quickly composed her expression and gestured for Alvin to stop laughing too. Laughing at a funeral would earn them a slap—and rightly so.
By now, both sides had lost far too many people to grieve each death individually.
Alvin shrugged at her warning, and in the meantime, the Fitzmark soldiers carried the bodies into the pit. As people began shoveling dirt, a young priest from the temple started reciting a prayer.
“O Edelaina, who watches over the continent and Edelrin, please forgive the sins they have committed here…”
Not being a believer, Chloe simply lowered her gaze and stared blankly at the priest. The prayer was always the same. She could practically recite the next lines herself now.
Whether Edelrin soldiers died or Fitzmark soldiers died, the priest always prayed for the forgiveness of the sins they committed in war.
A deep question stirred within Chloe.
If both sides are committing sins… then what is this war even for? What did our ‘righteous’ young people from Edelrin come all this way to do?
Is the security awareness and friend-or-foe distinction in this base really okay like this?
As she entertained these somewhat blunt thoughts, she slowly scanned the people around her. No one seemed to care—they simply accepted it as it was.
A quick glance to the side showed Alvin lost in his own thoughts.
Though she had dodged his question, Chloe found herself wondering something similar about him.
How did you end up drifting into a place like this?
And… is it really okay for us to have that kind of conversation?
Alvin observed the atmosphere inside the base with an indifferent gaze. Every day, he calculated the patrol schedules of the guards. If he couldn’t leave with the soldiers, he might have to escape on his own.
Then he noticed Chloe talking with a group of armed personnel. His gaze on her was so obvious that even Ducrain had begun to notice.
“Com—”
As Ducrain tried to address him by title, Alvin frowned and shot him a sharp look. Both men glanced at the soldiers around them, but fortunately, no one was paying attention.
Scratching his head awkwardly, Ducrain hesitated before lowering his voice.
“Then… can I just call you by name and speak casually?”
“Ducrain.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t call me. Don’t even talk to me.”
“……”
His adjutant fell silent with a sullen expression. But unable to suppress his curiosity, he eventually spoke again.
“Are you interested in that woman?”
Alvin gave a short nod.
“She’s not a doctor. She barely carries a rifle. And she’s not from the temple either.”
Ducrain, who had already revealed her identity once, looked puzzled. Was that really such a big deal?
Clicking his tongue, Alvin continued:
“How many non-combat roles do you think there are in a unit? And she doesn’t fit any of them.”
In war, once you step onto the battlefield, a person’s value is judged by their ability to kill—or at least to heal.
“Sure, this isn’t exactly a formal unit. But that just means she’s not essential. Not this close to the front line.”
But that wasn’t the most important point.
“What this really suggests is something else.”
“Ducrain, that woman… is the real power in this base.”
“…You think so?”
Alvin had easily deduced that she was a “parachute”—someone placed there by influence—despite doing all the miscellaneous work. Anyone paying a bit of attention could figure it out.
Young, inexperienced soldiers treated her casually, as someone they could befriend. But the base officials behaved differently. They were careful around her, sometimes even seeking her opinion.
“Is she a noble? Doesn’t seem like it…”
“……”
Ducrain nodded repeatedly, looking somewhat relieved.
The base maintained its own order and seemed peaceful on the surface. But their situation was far from easy. They needed to lie low to avoid having their identities exposed—not just to Edelrin, but even to Fitzmark.
Only a few people in Fitzmark knew Alvin’s face, but they couldn’t eliminate the risk entirely.
And yet, Alvin was showing interest in some random woman—something he wouldn’t do even outside of wartime. The bold commander had even started casual conversations with her himself.
So it was all for official reasons…
Ducrain nodded again.
At that moment, something subtle caught Alvin’s attention.
Chloe, who had been explaining something, frowned slightly. The people around her smiled awkwardly.
Among them, one man stood out—Matthew, smiling as well. He began kneading her shoulders as if giving a massage, then patted her back a couple of times.
Chloe didn’t seem to mind at all.
Alvin narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
“That bastard… the way he’s touching her feels off.”
Ducrain stared at him. To him, it looked perfectly normal—just a friendly, encouraging gesture between comrades.
But in the next moment, Alvin’s expression grew even darker.
Someone handed Chloe a rifle.
Soon after, the tightly shut gates of the base opened. With the rifle slung over her shoulder, she ran out with the others.
Alvin shot to his feet without realizing it.
He rushed to the window—but all he could do was watch her back disappear from sight.
