Please Forget Me - Chapter 302

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

That suspicion crossed my mind as well.

And when I returned alive once again and faced him, the bitterness on his face convinced me my doubt had not been unfounded.

It had been a battle with unusually heavy losses, but the unit achieved its objective and recovered all the wounded. By military standards, it was a successful engagement. Rupert had earned merit.

“With Sir present, it feels as though God Himself is watching over our soldiers. It gives me great reassurance.”

But the regimental commander credited that success to me. Rupert’s face stiffened.

In the end, driven by the inferiority he felt toward me, he decided to put into action his hollow dream of dying gloriously at his peak and being immortalized in history.

“Read this.”

One day he handed me a document. It was a proposal outlining a plan to infiltrate the Highland Operations Command.

“Well? What do you think?”

“Why are you showing this to me?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to take part.”

He was neither a skilled tactician nor an intelligence officer, just a company commander who despised me. Yet he was asking me, of all people, to join an infiltration mission. I couldn’t tell whether he was serious or merely showing off.

It seemed unlikely he’d want to share credit with me, which made it feel like bravado. But another thought crossed my mind: maybe he was serious. The moment we crossed into enemy territory, my so-called immortality would end. That would surely delight him.

“It’s not my place. I wish you luck.”

Whatever his true intention, I had no reason to become his comrade. I refused outright.

He didn’t bring up the issue again. Later I learned that at the time, he hadn’t even secured approval from our command.

Higher-ups had opposed it, calling it reckless.

Our military already had professionally trained agents embedded in Highland’s northwestern military and government institutions along the front lines, gathering intelligence. If Rupert—who had no intelligence experience—forced an infiltration of the operations command and exposed those networks, the damage would be immense.

But he reportedly applied relentless pressure, using every ounce of influence and connections he possessed.

“A captain bored of playing soldier now wants to play hide-and-seek—who would dare tell him no?”

I remember the regimental commander muttering something like that, exhausted from dealing with Rupert, who never even set foot in the trenches.

In the end, Rupert got his approval—under strict conditions. If captured, the nation would deny him. If he died, there would be no responsibility taken.

If he wanted to go die alone, that was his business.

But he wasn’t going alone.

“Father, I’m here.”

One day, after you had been gone for about a week alongside Rupert, you knocked on my window.

“Where have you been all this time?”

Until then, I had assumed you’d taken leave and gone home. Seeing how noticeably gaunt you looked startled me.

“I was training. You know the operation, don’t you?”

“The Leningen Operations Command infiltration? You’re being deployed on that mission?”

“Yes.”

“Why would you—”

“I can’t bear watching soldiers die here while the front stays stagnant. If the sacrifice of a few can end the war sooner, it saves lives and benefits the country, doesn’t it?”

I thought those weren’t your words, but Rupert’s. That you had been persuaded by him.

It drove me mad to see someone as intelligent as you trust and follow a man as foolish as Rupert. Honestly, watching you defend a man who was obviously a fraud and call it love had disappointed me more than once.

I wanted to stop trying to interfere. But letting you walk willingly into a minefield? That was something I could never do.

“Father, please share God’s protection with me.”

You were afraid—afraid of being discovered and killed during the infiltration—and like soldiers heading into battle, you asked me for a blessing.

As I watched you clasp your hands, press your head beneath mine, and pray, I finally brought my long inner conflict to an end.

“Dana… there’s something I need to tell you.”