Chapter 357
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
Up until now, the investigators assigned to me had all been non-commissioned officers or junior officers. But starting this week, none of them appeared.
“Please, today at least…”
The investigator newly assigned to me wore insignia equivalent to a major. I was, at best, a captain and a suspect at that. Yet his attitude toward me was completely different from the others’.
“I hope this pen finally serves its purpose.”
In practice, he was doing the same thing as every other investigator: sliding a statement across the table and pressuring me to sign it.
Of course, the contents were different, but just as fabricated.
This time, they had rewritten me as a covert agent acting under secret directives from Operations Command, deceiving even you, infiltrating an enemy bunker to extract intelligence on their leadership.
What on earth did the military receive in exchange to erase my crimes?
Dana, what did you give them?
I asked the investigator in your place, but received no answer. I didn’t need one anymore. A few days ago, he had shown me the exposé written under your name.
Dana, I survived because you killed your honor. That alone was more than I deserved. Don’t sell other people’s lives to buy my freedom on top of that.
“I can’t sign a false statement like this.”
So my answer was the same as always. The investigator gave a wry smile, as if he’d expected it, then suddenly slapped his forehead.
“Oh dear, how careless of me. I nearly forgot to give you your gift first.”
He slid the paper box he’d brought—along with the false confession—toward me. One glance at the ribbon and knot was enough. It was unmistakably your taste. Your hands.
I shook my head, but the investigator casually untied the ribbon you’d tied, opened the box, and laid its contents out in front of me.
“Socks. Ten whole pairs.”
I recognized them instantly, every one of them made by you.
“A book… a poetry collection, I think?”
It was the same collection we once used to exchange love letters.
Clink.
“Oh? What’s this?”
The investigator couldn’t have known what had been tucked into the middle of the book. As he lifted it carelessly, a silver chain slipped free.
Your forget-me-not necklace fell into my outstretched hand.
You must have packed everything that could remind me of love into that box. Dana, even without all this, I’ve never forgotten you.
A letter was half-visible between the pages of the poetry book. I wanted to know what it said, and at the same time, I didn’t. While I hesitated, the investigator rudely opened it and began reading.
“To Killian, ah, that’s not my wording. That’s how the Madam addressed the Father in the letter.”
He cleared his throat awkwardly but kept going anyway.
“Go ahead. Deny everything. Call yourself a traitor. Then I’ll turn myself in as your accomplice. Being hanged side by side sounds rather romantic.”
His voice sounded nothing like yours, and he had no sense of your cadence. It was unbearable to listen to. I held out my hand, and he finally passed the letter to me.
My resolve to keep myself apart from you had already begun to crumble the moment this necklace touched my hand. In the end, I read your letter of my own will.
[A lady’s honor may be her life.
But I am not a lady.
You are my life. If you die, then I die too.
If you don’t sign immediately, I’ll assume you want me dead. I’ll go to hell first and wait for you there.
Then we’ll meet in hell, my love.
Your wife,
Dana.]
“….”
I can hardly believe it. You wrote a threat letter? Not following me in death, but threatening to die first if I don’t do what you want?
And yet, there was no denying it was your handwriting. Even the tone was so unmistakably yours that I could almost hear your voice.
“…Ha.”
Accepting that you were threatening me made a hollow laugh escape me. The contrast was absurd. My beloved you, delivering such a ruthless ultimatum.
And before I realized it, I imagined you—lovely and gentle—issuing a terrifying threat.
My chest aches now. Like a wounded soldier feeling pain in a limb already gone, I kept feeling a phantom chill where you had been cut away.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Across from me, the investigator asked,
“So. what does it say?”
As if he hadn’t already read every word.
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