How a Two-Life Scoundrel Lives

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【Chapter 69】

“Do you know me?”

“Hm?”

“This is my first time meeting you, sir.”

“Is that so?”

Maranello examined Kudo closely before speaking.

“You…”

Kudo smiled brightly with his usual squinting eyes.

“Oh my. It seems I’ve mistaken you for someone else. My apologies.”

“It’s fine. There are many people who look alike in this world.”

Carlisle, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, sensed something strange in the atmosphere and frowned.

“Do you two know each other?”

“No.”

“This old man seems to have been momentarily confused.”

Kudo and Maranello shook their heads simultaneously.

“Hmm.”

Though Carlisle felt something suspicious, he didn’t dig deeper.

Given the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he’d get any meaningful answers even if he pressed further…

“Private Carlisle.”

“Yes?”

“Brigade Commander Selena is looking for you.”

“Why?”

“It seems she’ll be leaving soon. She probably wants to have a brief chat before departing.”

“What chat?”

When Carlisle let out a bitter laugh, Kudo spoke as if he’d been waiting for this.

“The message is to come immediately. She also added that it’s an order, so if you don’t go, you might be court-martialed for insubordination.”

Selena seemed to have anticipated that Carlisle wouldn’t come obediently.

“Let’s go.”

“…When told to do something, I have to do it.”

Carlisle grumbled and stood up from his seat.

“I’ll be back.”

“The young lady will be waiting, so you should hurry along.”

“Take care, Young Master.”

“Nom nom. Come back. Nom nom nom.”

Maranello, Evangeline, and the Baby Dragon saw Carlisle off.

“Well then, I’ll take my leave. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

Kudo bowed politely and followed after Carlisle.

On the way to meet Selena.

“You know the butler, don’t you?”

“How could that be possible?”

“Really?”

“How could a mere soldier like me know the messenger of the Northern Region? Haha.”

When Carlisle asked just in case, Kudo waved his hands dismissively as if it was preposterous.

“Hmm.”

Carlisle glared at Kudo with suspicious eyes, but Kudo was a man whose expression was nearly impossible to read since he always kept his eyes squinted.

Occasionally, when his emotions ran high, a chilling murderous intent would flash between his long, narrow eyes…

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Selena was waiting for Carlisle in Helen’s office.

“What?”

When Carlisle spoke as if annoyed, Selena’s face immediately scrunched up.

“What do you mean ‘what’?”

“There must be a reason you called me.”

“How dare you.”

Selena glared at him.

“You dare speak informally to a general-level officer? A mere private?”

“Ah, yes. Brigade Commander. You called for me. Loyalty.”

“This is really…!”

“What, are you going to hit me again?”

Carlisle spoke while recalling childhood memories, or more precisely, the memories of this body’s original owner.

“Forget it, let’s not talk.”

Selena seemed to think it wasn’t right to beat up her younger brother even as a grown adult, so she tried to calm her anger.

“Anyway, I’ll be leaving here soon. The Northern Front is urgent, so I don’t have time to stay long.”

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so’? I’m saying farewell.”

“…?”

“It would be awkward to just leave without saying goodbye. We are siblings, after all.”

“You don’t need to worry about that stuff. I’m fine with it.”

“What…?”

“I mean we don’t need to bother with formalities when we’re both uncomfortable with each other.”

The reason Carlisle reacted this way was because he truly felt uncomfortable.

He had been an only child in his previous life, and being possessed in someone else’s body made it somehow uncomfortable to get close to that person’s siblings.

“You really… Sigh.”

Selena let out a deep sigh and nodded as if she understood.

“Fine, I get it. Go rest. I’ll be leaving now too.”

“Okay.”

Carlisle turned around.

Step, step, he had taken a couple of steps.

“Um…”

Carlisle, who had reached the door, opened his mouth.

“What, why? Do you have something to say?”

“Thanks.”

“Huh…?”

“Thank you for coming to rescue me.”

“You brat…”

“I’m going.”

Carlisle left the room before even hearing Selena’s full response.

“What am I going to do with you really…”

Selena shook her head as if she couldn’t handle him.

A faint smile appeared on her lips.

* * *

The next morning.

The aftermath cleanup began.

It started with the belated arrival of the reinforcements.

March! March! March! March!

When the two company-sized force sent from the 2nd Army Command Headquarters entered Bowden Fortress, complaints burst from the soldiers’ mouths.

“Damn bastards! What were you doing that you’re only crawling here now?”

“Why come after we’re all dead?”

“Khaak, ptui!”

The soldiers’ sentiment toward the reinforcements was extremely hostile.

How long had Bowden Fortress waited for reinforcements?

And how desperately had they hoped for withdrawal orders to come?

If they had arrived on time, if the withdrawal orders had come on time.

It would be redundant to say that the number of casualties would have been dramatically reduced.

“What are you staring at? You sons of bitches!”

“Did you come to clean up corpses?”

It was so bad that several hot-tempered soldiers openly picked fights with the reinforcements, growling at them.

“Why are you giving us shit?”

“Is it our fault you guys died? Huh?”

“Fucking hell. It’s not like we were out playing around, damn it.”

From the reinforcement soldiers’ perspective, they couldn’t help but be angry at being cursed at out of nowhere.

“What are you glaring at?”

“What did you just say?”

In the hostile atmosphere where a brawl could break out at any moment, Carlisle let out a snicker.

“Kuk.”

“Is there something amusing happening?”

“It’s funny.”

Carlisle answered Kudo’s question.

“The ones at fault are the idiotic higher-ups, but the soldiers are fighting each other.”

“Is it okay for you to curse your great-uncle like that?”

“I never said great-uncle, but what does it matter. We even curse the king when he’s not around.”

“Haha. That’s true too.”

Kudo nodded as if he agreed.

“Well, cursing at commanders’ screw-ups isn’t just a day or two thing. Just let it be.”

“That’s right.”

Carlisle shook his head back and forth.

“If a brawl breaks out soon, I’m planning to watch from a corner.”

“Fight watching is always the most fun.”

However, Carlisle’s expectations never became reality.

The command headquarters’ method of suppressing the soldiers’ complaints was ‘very’ simple.

One hour later.

“Everyone, attention.”

Helen gathered the soldiers of Bowden Fortress in the training ground and spoke.

She continued performing her duties even while her entire body was wrapped in bandages.

“I just received orders from headquarters. Command has decided to grant special commendation leave, highly valuing our unit’s military achievements.”

“…!”

“The target is all personnel. Without a single exception, everyone will be granted two weeks of special commendation leave.”

“Wooooooooooooooo!”

Cheers burst from the soldiers’ mouths.

Helen allowed the soldiers some time to chatter, then opened her mouth again.

“In two days. Our unit will withdraw from Bowden Fortress. The reinforcements that just arrived will replace us. In other words, in two days we’ll all be going on two weeks of special commendation leave.”

“Kiyaho!”

“Wooooooo!”

“Leave, it’s leave!”

The soldiers cheered as if they had never been angry.

“Of course, all additional allowances will be paid, and those who distinguished themselves will receive medals as well as additional rewards, so keep that in mind.”

“Ooooh!”

“So for the remaining two days, focus on post-war cleanup. That is all.”

Helen said that and limped away from her position.

“How long has it been since we had leave!”

“I have to go see my youngest! Haha!”

“I was missing my mom anyway.”

The soldiers, filled with anticipation, each chattered excitedly about something.

Indeed, it seemed the best gift for soldiers was nothing other than leave.

* * *

The soldiers of Bowden Fortress, facing withdrawal and commendation leave simultaneously, began full-scale post-war cleanup.

The post-war cleanup was carried out frantically busy.

Because there was a mountain of work to do within two days: recovering the corpses of fallen comrades, repairing the collapsed and broken fortress, maintaining or replacing their individual military weapons, and so on.

In the midst of this, they also had to hand over information about Bowden Fortress to the reinforcement troops, so everyone had no choice but to move busily.

The reconnaissance unit was no exception to this.

They had to inform the newly arrived reconnaissance personnel about basic reconnaissance routes and various precautions.

Meanwhile, Maranello and Evangeline did not leave Carlisle’s Bowden Fortress.

Since they had come this far anyway, they planned to return to Dekaron together when Carlisle went on leave.

Civilians(?) weren’t supposed to stay in military areas, but no one would dare find fault with Maranello, the head butler of House Sigmund and a legendary knight, and the young lady who would become a retainer of House Sigmund.

“This is the first time this road has looked so safe.”

Carlisle muttered incredulously as he walked along the path.

Carlisle was currently deployed in an operation with the scout members to recover the corpses of the fallen.

Since this was an area where fierce battles had taken place until just a day ago, there could be remaining forces of the Butcher Tribe or other threats lurking.

Nevertheless, the reason Carlisle felt safe was because Maranello was beside him.

With a master strong enough to toy with Zarkan using just a feather duster nearby, he felt ‘no’ tension at all even during the operation.

Moreover, wasn’t Evangeline, the Earth Elementalist, also beside him?

‘Am I just going to kill time like this and then go on leave?’

As Carlisle was thinking that.

“Over there.”

Marder took the lead.

“Piiiii!”

Seeing Hugin, who was conducting aerial reconnaissance from the sky, chirp long, it seemed he had discovered something.

“Ah.”

The scout members who arrived at the scene sighed.

There, several corpses of the fallen were mixed together with the bodies of barbarian warriors.

“Everyone, silent prayer.”

At Begman’s words, the scout members all knelt on one knee toward the fallen and bowed their heads.

Silent prayer was the very first procedure and ritual when recovering the corpses of the fallen.

Civilians Maranello and Evangeline also bowed their heads in silent prayer.

Honoring the fallen was not a choice but a duty.

As fellow Northerners, as citizens of Dekaron….

Carlisle also knelt on one knee toward them and bowed his head.

Ding!

A notification window appeared before his eyes.

[Notice: Traces left by The Dead in the world have been detected.]

[Notice: Lingering thoughts remain somewhere nearby.]

[Notice: Traces left by The Dead in the world have been detected.]

[Notification: Residual thoughts remain somewhere nearby.]

[Notification: Traces left by The Dead in this world have been detected.]

[Notification: Residual thoughts remain somewhere nearby.]

[Notification: Traces left by The Dead in this world have been detected.]

[Notification: Residual thoughts remain somewhere nearby.]

[Notification: Traces left by The Dead in this world have been detected.]

[Notification: Residual thoughts remain somewhere nearby.]

Carlisle, having finished his silent prayer, moved his steps as if entranced.

Where Carlisle stopped, a single small military boot lay fallen.

‘This is…’

Carlisle recognized at a glance that the small military boot belonged to Gwen.

Remembering that one boot had been missing when they recovered the corpse, his heart ached with pain.

Swoosh, Carlisle bent down and picked up the military boot.

[Notification: Residual thoughts have been discovered.]