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Chapter 6
He fell into thought once again.
Giles had certainly felt a momentary happiness while spending time with Lily.
But the thought struck him that such meetings might ultimately bring her harm.
The revolution was drawing to a close, yet remnants of its enemies still lingered in hiding across the country. The leadership, eyes blazing, was hunting them down.
In a way, Lily could also be considered one of their targets.
If her whereabouts were ever exposed…
If, by some chance, the leadership learned of her and ordered Giles himself to arrest her—
A chill crept down his spine.
Was it truly right for him to keep coming here? Would his visits expose her location?
“Giles, what are you thinking about again?”
The ever-perceptive Lily asked. Giles merely gave her a faint, blurred smile. But even that did not last. He was still a member of the revolutionary army.
Which meant he had the authority to arrest anyone.
Lily had survived. He ought to be satisfied with that fact alone. No matter how he thought about it, his continued visits here only invited suspicion.
Giles looked at Lily’s back. She now had the strength to live. Flesh had returned to her body, her voice no longer cracked.
That was enough.
He would have to stop coming here.
Reason told him so, though his heart still yearned to remain by Lily’s side.
“Don’t worry about me. Just focus on this moment.”
He spoke not only to Lily, but to himself as well.
Giles Hessen lowered himself and sat beside her. Feeling her presence close by, he tried to soothe his own lingering attachment.
I wished only for her survival. Not to dream of a future with her.
As he repeated this to himself, Lily spoke.
“I think it’s my fortune to have met you.”
Giles closed his eyes.
End it here.
Remember—if you cling to her, Lily might be put in danger. You might be the one to destroy her with your own hands.
He should have said farewell. But in the end, he didn’t.
Because once spoken aloud, it would become a final, irrevocable goodbye.
The day of the mission. Giles had not slept a single wink when he boarded the military truck. At dawn, before the darkness had fully lifted, his subordinates were already waiting inside.
As Giles silently stared down at the map, his adjutant spoke up.
“How’s your condition, sir?”
“No issues.”
“It’s been a while since we had an operation this early. Back when the revolution was at its peak, overnight missions became second nature. A few quiet days, and now my body’s starting to complain.”
Giles ignored his adjutant’s pointless chatter, meant only to lighten the mood.
“Is everyone assembled?”
“Not a single one missing. All present.”
“Signal the driver to move out.”
The adjutant banged his fist on the thick partition dividing the driver’s seat from the back. The truck rumbled to life and began moving.
Their destination was the ruins of a small village near the border.
In Beldam’s days of dominance over Ipswin, nobles had used the place as a kind of retreat, drawn by its beautiful scenery and convenient travel routes to Beldam. But with the revolutionaries having burned the buildings to the ground, only gray ash remained.
It wasn’t surprising that fugitives would choose such a place as a waypoint.
Maienhebach. Tracing the name once given by the Beldamites with his finger, Giles suddenly raised his head.
This mission was unlike those he had handled before. Giles was no saint, but neither was he so cold as to fail to recognize the faces of his own men. These were not the subordinates he usually led. Among them were soldiers he had never seen before.
Harrington’s words about a “special mission” resurfaced in his mind. Was that why the unit had been reorganized?
The revolutionary army was a patchwork at best, hastily stitched together like a net with holes. In short, it was still in the process of formation. If the pieces didn’t fit, replacements filled the gaps.
But Giles had greater concerns. In the rattling truck, he forced down the nausea by reading through the file of intel—profiles and routes of the targets.
“Bring them back preferably as corpses.”
The order to kill, he could accept.
But why insist on transporting the bodies?
Ipswin wasn’t a vast land. Within a few hours, they reached their destination. Giles stepped off the truck with relief. No matter how often he endured the experience, being crammed with more than a dozen men in a jostling space, every bump of the rough road felt unbearable.
According to predictions, the fugitives had only two or three hours left before crossing the border. Giles ordered his men to fan out and search the area.
It was late October. Winter was approaching. To his surprise, Maienhebach was already covered in its first snow.
A good omen. Footprints in the snow would make tracking much easier. The chances of failure were slim.
“Have you ever gone rabbit hunting, sir?”
The adjutant suddenly asked. Giles frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Rabbit hunting. Literally. Have you ever hunted rabbits before?”
“…No.”
“Rabbits are timid creatures. But their small size and speed make them hard to catch. If you rely on brute strength and speed alone, you’ll end up with nothing. Like any hunt, it requires strategy.”
Giles thought it best just to humor him.
“And what is that strategy?”
“First, you find the burrow. Then you station men all around it. Especially in winter, rabbits will always be hiding inside their burrows. I told you, didn’t I? They scare easily. Once you and your men shout in unison, the rabbit panics and bolts out. That’s when you strike.”
“And what does that have to do with this mission?”
“Nothing, really. It’s just… being out here searching like this, it feels like rabbit hunting. Only the rabbits are people now. Otherwise, it’s the same, isn’t it?”
Giles lifted his hand, halting the adjutant mid-step. There were faint footprints. And they were certainly not from military boots.
“Charlie, we’re the only unit covering the northwest, right?”
“That’s correct.”
We’re close.
Just then, a shout echoed from afar. Gunshots followed. Bang! Bang! And something dark darted between the trees.
Without hesitation, Giles sprinted after it, leaving his adjutant behind. The black figure ran for its life. There was no doubt now—it was a fugitive.
As certainty struck, Giles drew his pistol and fired. Bang! Bang! The figure, growing ever smaller in the distance, collapsed to the ground.
But capturing one didn’t mean it was over. Giles shouted to his adjutant and ran toward the direction of the noise.
“Charlie, finish it!”
The commotion suggested complications. Giles tore off his heavy coat, which hindered his running, and charged toward his men.
The ones who had fired first were his subordinates—yet they still hadn’t captured their target?
Drawing closer, Giles saw them struggling with a woman. Shoot her! Shoot her! he roared. But they ignored him.
The sight of his men failing to subdue a mere woman filled him with rage.
The woman broke free from their grip and darted forward. They had to be sabotaging the mission—how else could such a ridiculous scene be happening?
“Useless fools!”
Giles chased the woman, who was bleeding from her side yet still fleeing desperately. His lungs burned, his body protested, but he pressed on. If I lose her, it’s over.
Her wound slowed her, allowing him to close the distance.
Giles seized the back of her neck, and the two of them tumbled together into the snow. Cornered, she resisted with all her might, but in the end, she was pinned beneath him.
He pulled away the scarf covering her face.
Half of it was disfigured by burns. But he’d already seen her photo in the file. That detail was no surprise.
The problem was that the file’s photograph had been of poor quality.
Seeing her in person, there was no mistaking it.
Though burned on one side, the other half of her face remained intact. The short-haired blonde woman’s surviving features were unmistakable.
“…Celeste?”
The shock numbed his senses, clouding his judgment.
Why… why was his sister fleeing in such a state?
