Chapter 3
Air Raid
Translator: Rae
***
The man had grown more mature and elegant than Asili remembered, and beneath the pouring moonlight, he glowed softly.
Since they were at the same base anyway, she had fleetingly thought that before she was sent off to the field hospital, she wanted to see him properly just once.
Even if only from afar, she had wanted to look at the real him rather than some crude newspaper photograph. If possible, from up close.
And yet, as if in a lie, here he was standing right before her.
‘Would he… recognize me?’
Asili had even volunteered for the front lines to avoid him, though he might never have come at all. But now that the chance to face him was right in front of her, a quiet desire began to rear its head.
If possible, she wanted to see not just his back, but his face—and from close by. And though she knew she shouldn’t, she wanted him to remember her, to recognize her.
The thought startled Asili the moment it crossed her mind.
‘And then what would I even do?’
Weren’t they the kind of people who, rather than greeting each other warmly after so long, would be lucky if all she got wasn’t resentment?
That small flicker of hope immediately turned into self-reproach. Quietly, so he would not notice, Asili began to turn away.
She had tried her best to move silently, but a small stone hidden in the shadows cast by the collapsed wall struck her foot.
“Don’t move.”
Almost at the same time, Jude drew his pistol and aimed it at Asili.
“Raise both hands and turn around.”
This really was the worst. To run into him like this.
With both hands raised, Asili slowly turned around.
"A military doctor?”
The moment the face of the awkwardly turning woman became clear in the faint moonlight, Jude’s finger—just about to settle on the trigger—stopped.
He didn’t know whether such a thing as fate existed, but if it did, it was terribly cruel.
That after all that time, after circling endlessly without their paths crossing even by chance, he would meet this woman on the very day he found her name on a battlefield.
“Hasn’t lights-out already passed?”
Yet unlike the turmoil in his heart, the words he offered as he lowered the pistol were cold.
He was old enough now not to be swayed by emotion, and stingy enough not to show it.
Startled, the woman avoided his gaze and spoke haltingly.
“I’m part of the medical team, so…”
“Ah, I see.”
Jude’s gaze came to rest on Asili’s white doctor’s coat.
She had always wanted to become a doctor, following in the footsteps of the grandfather who had raised her in place of her parents, and it seemed she had finally achieved it.
Well, she should have. That way it would feel a little less unfair.
“Wasn’t the permitted area limited to the military hospital and part of the nearby quarters?”
“I’m sorr—”
“Return immediately. I’ll overlook it only this once.”
Before Asili could even finish answering, Jude had already turned and started walking away.
As the distance between them gradually closed, Asili’s heart began pounding madly.
Even when shells burst nearby, she had only felt fear, not tension.
But when he brushed past her, it felt as though she forgot even how to breathe.
Unable to look at him properly, she squeezed her eyes shut. Then, after he had passed, Asili finally turned back around.
The moment she fixed her eyes on his retreating figure, a thunderous roar sounded and the outside suddenly lit up red.
“Wh—!”
Before she could even make sense of what had happened, Jude grabbed Asili and threw himself forward with her.
Sheltering beneath the collapsed wall, he looked outside.
Explosions rang out one after another, and flames shot up here and there.
“D*mn it. An air raid.”
The curse he muttered scattered above Asili’s head.
At the same time, the alarm rang throughout the entire temporary headquarters.
Outside grew chaotic at once. Emergency lights came on, and retaliatory fire followed.
‘I have to get back to the hospital.’
It had already been over a year since she began serving as a military doctor. She had long since stopped being a novice who panicked in confusion at an air raid.
Asili quickly regained her composure. The emergency response manual would already have been activated, and as a military doctor, she needed to remain at her post in preparation for critical situations.
The moment she finished thinking and urgently tried to rise, Jude grabbed her again.
"Not now.”
Asili belatedly realized that she was nestled in Jude’s arms. It had not registered just moments ago, but once she became aware of it, her whole body stiffened.
They might die at any moment, and yet the fact that she was in his arms made her more tense than the air raid itself.
Within his embrace—familiar and unfamiliar all at once—Asili curled in on herself, not knowing what to do.
“...”
Once the bombing had somewhat died down, Jude stuck out only his head to check the situation outside.
Then he grabbed Asili by the wrist and pulled her to her feet.
"Follow me."
“Yes, yes.”
When they emerged from the ruined building and reached the front of the military hospital, a horrific sight unfolded before their eyes.
The sky was quiet now, after the biplane had dropped a round of shells and flown on.
But below, unfortunately, it was anything but.
The collapsed buildings, the flames shooting skyward, and the black smoke were ghastly to behold.
“Hk—”
Asili sucked in a breath and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Beyond the black smoke, she caught sight of the barracks building, more than half of it collapsed.
The soldiers, struck in their sleep before they could even evacuate—their mangled corpses, or fragments of them—lay exposed beneath the red blaze in hideous forms.
“Godd*mn it.”
Jude cursed under his breath.
An air raid might have been unavoidable, but the fact that enemy aircraft had breached the airspace within the Kingdom of Eupendea was not something that could simply be ignored.
“Go inside.”
"Your Excellency?”
“Patients will start pouring in soon, so brace yourself.”
“Ah, yes.”
Asili was following Jude’s broad-striding figure when she spotted a wounded soldier sprawled on the ground.
She ran over in a panic and checked the soldier lying on the ground, who was groaning in pain.
Fortunately, he was still breathing, but he had lost a great deal of blood.
"Hey, can you hear me?”
"Ugh…”
“Just hold on a little longer.”
Without hesitation, Asili tore the hem of her blouse and pressed it against the wound. Judging by the amount of blood, if she left him like this, he could die from massive blood loss.
After binding the wound, Asili lifted the soldier’s arm and slung it over her shoulder.
But it was not easy for Asili to move the man by herself, now even heavier because he had lost consciousness.
Just when she barely managed to raise his upper body, the wounded soldier’s full weight suddenly pitched toward her.
He mustn’t fall onto the wound. The moment Asili braced his body with all her strength and was about to topple backward herself, the weight suddenly became lighter instead. She didn’t fall back after all.
"Your Excellency?”
“Let go.”
Hesitantly, Asili released her hands.
As Jude pulled the wounded soldier toward himself, the man’s weight tipped forward, and the dog tags that had slipped out from the front of his uniform gave a faint clink.
“Lead the way.”
"Yes, yes.”
Hurriedly getting to her feet, Asili ran toward the military hospital, and Jude followed behind her with the wounded soldier slung across his back.
“Over here.”
Moving quickly, she dragged a portable cot from near the entrance to the hospital. The moment they laid the soldier down, Asili immediately checked the wound and worked to stop the bleeding, while Jude stepped back and watched.
The eyes of a doctor—serious eyes doing everything possible to save a life.
They were the same green eyes as Asili’s grandfather, the very eyes of the man who had once saved Jude’s life.
“Thank you. Please excuse me, I’ll go ahead first.”
With that brief word of thanks, Asili turned the locking pin on the cot and pushed its wheels forward. Jude watched her retreating figure disappear inside, then clicked his tongue under his breath.
This situation—dragging back the past he had long forgotten—was far from welcome to him.
But he soon turned away and headed back outside.
This wasn’t the right time to idly retrace the past.
***
Toward dawn, the confusion at the temporary headquarters had begun to settle down. The acrid smoke and ghastly wreckage remained, but the recovery of the dead and wounded was nearly complete.
And so, at the very hour when the medical staff were the busiest, Jude entered the military hospital. His adjutant, Felix, and several soldiers trailed after him in a fluster.
“Your Excellency, please wait a moment. They’ll obviously take care of things perfectly well without you coming in person, so why must you grace this place with your noble presence?”
“...”
"Are you listening to me? Pardon?”
Felix stuck close to him, persistent in trying to stop him.
The situation was urgent, certainly. Just a little while ago, during the meeting, they had pieced together scattered bits of information and confirmed the existence of a spy planted inside the temporary headquarters.
On top of that, the fact that their airspace had been breached and a spy had infiltrated the camp had dealt a serious blow to Jude’s pride as well.
But even as commander, there were times when he needed to preserve himself, and this was exactly such a time.
As both commander and royalty, his value as a hostage was immense, and even k*lling him alone would throw the chain of command into chaos.
“Did the bombing damage your hearing? Hello? Your Excellency?”
Trying to get a reaction, Felix needled him in an obnoxious tone meant for Jude’s ears alone.
Felix, who had known Jude since they were childhood playmates, accompanied him to the battlefield in a role akin to a personal aide, holding a rank equivalent to a major—placing him in a position where such behavior was permissible.
Fortunately, Jude came to an abrupt stop not long after.
“Your Excellency?”
Normally, Jude would have shot him a fierce glare at once, but this time he said nothing for a long while.
Puzzled, Felix followed Jude’s gaze, and eventually shut his mouth like Jude.
***
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