Please Forget Me - Chapter 164

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

The General burst into laughter as soon as Johann asked dryly.

“Yes, a young man should have this level of courage, but….”

I thought it was a relief that the atmosphere had lightened, but the General squinted at us suspiciously and asked,

“Are you also trying to leave with us?”

Instead of answering, Johann simply smiled and picked up the cards that had been flipped over. The General let out a short laugh and then alternated his sharp gaze between Johann and his wife.

“Now I see. The two of you are plotting together. And is your wife on this side too?”

I subtly nodded, and the General sighed as he grabbed his cards.

“Everywhere I look, it’s enemies.”

Surrounded by enemies, the General couldn’t withstand the combined pressure of the three of us and ended up with the lowest score, taking last place in the first game.

“You said you couldn’t play well, but here you are, a pair of cheaters.”

It seemed the General was pleased with our card-playing skills, as he frequently called us over afterward, even while knowing we would bring up uncomfortable topics.

“I’ll think about it. For now, focus on the game.”

But despite enjoying being outplayed by us in every game, he never seemed to fall for our persuasion.

* * *

“Ah, finally!”

Had he received a letter from his son on the front lines?

The joyful exclamation of the Principal, who had gone to check the mailbox in the front yard, drifted in through the open window. Not long after, he came into the kitchen, his face bright with excitement, holding not a letter but a government publication.

“Everyone, listen up.”

The Principal, after adjusting his voice, began reading the front page of the official gazette in front of the three busy women preparing breakfast. Could it be a groundbreaking article?

“Wait, you said ‘finally.’ Could it be that the war is over?”

I thought it was news about a ceasefire agreement, so I listened intently, but…

“The youth wandering in a faraway land, to our homeland!”

After hearing it, I realized it was just a speech by the Prime Minister.

“Though my body may be in hell…”

It wasn’t unusual for the Prime Minister’s speeches to appear in the official gazette, so why was he reading it out loud? The Principal often criticized the government for dragging the war on and pushing millions of young men to their deaths, so he wasn’t one to particularly admire the Prime Minister.

‘Well, that was a letdown…’

Anyway, since it didn’t seem to be the ceasefire announcement, I went back to putting some of the precious tea leaves I had gotten from Mrs. Hildebrandt into the teapot…

“Thou art my soul. Without thee, I am but a lifeless shell, wandering a distant land, destined to become dust and scatter…”

“Ah?”

I flinched and poured too much into the pot.

“…The faraway land I wander will become thy home.”

The speech was familiar. No, it wasn’t a speech. It was a letter. The letter Johann had written to me last summer.

“Wherever you live and breathe, that shall be my home…”

I could never have missed this, knowing how many times I had read every letter and poem he had written for me. Though the words weren’t exactly the same, the content and expressions were identical.

The only difference was that ‘you’ had become homeland, not lover.

Screech.

Johann, who had gone to the backyard to fetch eggs, entered through the back door of the kitchen.

“Rize, today the hen…”

When he saw me, his words faltered as he smiled, about to say something, but then he tilted his head, looking at me with confusion in his eyes.

“What’s going on…?”

Before he could ask, his brow furrowed. Now, he was hearing the speech being read by the Principal.

“Principal, that’s enough.”

But the reading didn’t stop. When words didn’t work, Johann practically snatched the government gazette from the Principal’s hands.

“Haha, you’re embarrassed, aren’t you? It’s such an honor, you should enjoy it proudly. If it were me, I’d be bragging to the whole valley.”

The Principal misunderstood Johann’s discomfort and thought he was just pretending to be upset.

Thud.

Johann’s face was rigid as he ripped the first page of the gazette. He hesitated as he crumpled it in his hands, then stopped, folding it neatly and shoving it into his back pocket.

“Right, haha. That’s something you should keep as a family heirloom.”

“Johann, what’s going on?”

My question was drowned out by Mrs. Werner’s loud voice.

“Did… Did the Prime Minister’s speech come from you, Mr. Renner?”

“Listen, here’s what happened…”

Instead of Johann, who was now silent in discomfort, the Principal proudly explained.

Last week, the Prime Minister had held a patriotic essay contest, and the teachers responsible for the first round of judging had selected some of the students’ submissions to be sent to the government office.

The office then reviewed them and was supposed to select the winning entries…

“Two days later, the public relations’s office barged into my office like a bull, demanding that we immediately bring in the student who wrote this essay. I thought we might have sent something subversive, and I was so nervous.”

In reality, the office loved the essay. Instead of just awarding the prize, they decided to make a few edits and publish it as part of the Prime Minister’s speech in the next government gazette.

“The kid should’ve been ecstatic thinking that the work would be read by the entire nation. But that kid—wouldn’t even lift his head and was all sheepish.”

But soon after, that student confessed…

“This was actually just a copy of something the writing teacher had written on the chalkboard as an example.”

“Oh my! The little rascal had the nerve to steal someone else’s work!”