Please Forget Me - Chapter 171

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

The principal’s carriage stopped in front of a familiar farmhouse. Johann got down first and reached out his hand to me. Even after I stepped out of the carriage, Johann didn’t let go of my hand.

He lowered his voice, making sure the principal, sitting on the driver’s seat, couldn’t hear, and gave me his tiresome instructions.

“You know you’re not supposed to say anything to Mrs. Bauer about leaving or that today is our last day, right?”

I had come to the Bauer house today to give a gift to our first landlady, whom we had been indebted to.

“I know.”

“Have a good time, and then come to school. After class, we need to go get the permit together.”

“I know that too.”

“Don’t walk here alone. Ask Mrs. Bauer to take you by carriage to the entrance of Eschbron village.”

Mullenbach village was isolated, and the road leading to Eschbron village was a forest path with no houses. It also led to the bunker, so Johann was worried.

“Rize, promise me.”

“I promise.”

Still, Johann seemed to not fully trust me, so he gave me one last reminder before finally letting go of my hand. Then, he reached out to kiss my cheek, but I quickly turned my head to avoid it.

“I’ll go inside now.”

“…See you later.”

Johann looked at me with confusion, but since the principal was waiting, he didn’t ask for an explanation and let me go.

I had only planned to give a gift, but Mrs. Bauer kept me there for the entire morning, chatting about our recent happenings. Of course, as Johann had instructed, I didn’t say anything about today being the last time. After lunch, I took the carriage driven by Mrs. Bauer to the entrance of Eschbron village.

“Thank you.”

“I should be the one thanking you. I’ll put it to good use.”

What Mrs. Bauer was grateful for was the ration card. Since it was no longer useful to us, I gave her the remainder as a gift. Mrs. Bauer, who had already heard rumors about Johann’s connections with high-ranking officers at the headquarters, gratefully accepted our generous gift without questioning it.

“Come visit again.”

“I will.”

I lied as I waved at Mrs. Bauer, who turned the carriage back toward the forest. A bitter taste lingered on my tongue. It had been a good relationship, yet I was leaving without even saying goodbye.

I hoped she wouldn’t be too disappointed…

After all, we would probably never see each other again, and it didn’t matter how I left her in her memory. Still, I hoped it would be remembered as a good relationship. I watched until she was out of sight, hoping she wouldn’t forget us.

Rustle.

Then, the sound of heavy boots behind me made me regret standing at the entrance of the sparsely populated village for so long.

“Rize Eineman.”

It was Major Felkner.

“Don’t come any closer!”

As I took a step back and shouted, the major stopped but didn’t retreat. I reached into my pocket, where my revolver was, and warned him.

“You’ve been warned not to approach me? If you don’t leave now, I’ll report you to General Hildebrandt.”

“Afraid? I guess you must have thought I heard you leaving and was about to abduct you, didn’t you?”

“Whatever your reason for coming, get out of here now.”

The Major scoffed at my warning as though he found it ridiculous.

“You’d be sorry if I left. You know, I finally found out the past that the man who claims to be your husband will never tell you. You’re curious too, right? So I came to kindly share it with you.”

Whoosh. Flick.

The major threw a bundle of papers that he had been holding under his arm at my feet.

“If you don’t believe what I’m saying, just look at this.”

I changed my mind about running away now.

Johann’s past?

The major might have found proof that Johann is a deserter. Eyeing the papers cautiously, I picked them up, and the major twisted his lips into a sharp smile.

“Alright. Let’s start with something light. Johann Renner isn’t a teacher.”

If the papers didn’t show proof that he was a deserter, just some made-up stories, I was going to ignore them no matter what that person said. But as I flipped through a few pages, some terrifying words caught my attention and stopped me in my tracks. I couldn’t leave now.

“He was an army officer.”

Johann had originally been stationed on the front lines of the Western Front, but two years ago, he had been reassigned to the operations command in the northwestern town of Leningen.

The commanding officer had been suffering from a chronic illness and was so fond of the renowned doctor he had obtained and even going so far as to assign a security detail to protect him, a civilian.

Johann had been appointed as the head of this security detail. And it seems that I was placed under the chief doctor.

“Did that man tell you that you were a nurse?”

How did the major know my past, something I had never told anyone? His words started to crack the solid foundation of my belief that this was all just a lie.

‘If that’s true, then the conclusion on the first page of the documents might be true too.’

Fear began to grow inside me, but the small crack was still not enough to shatter my belief.

“They said you were a smart, diligent nurse who was very trustworthy. The officer who testified must have been misled by your face. Anyway, one day, the operations commander suddenly died while under the care of the capable and diligent nurse and the famous doctor.”

At the command post, they suspected poisoning based on the symptoms, and the military police interrogated everyone—closest aides, servants, assistants, and even the medical staff.

“That means you were interrogated too.”

Could it be… Was that the memory I had of being interrogated by military officers back then?

“In the end, there was no solid proof, so everyone was released, but the command post suspected that the poison had been mixed into the injection the commander received. Only the chief doctor and the nurse had access to it, but the doctor said the nurse had mixed the poison into the injection, while the nurse claimed the doctor had already filled the syringe and handed it to her, so she just administered it as it was. So who could the real culprit be?”

At first, I thought this was a revelation about Johann, but it was a revelation about me

The revelation that I was a murderer.