It Will Continue in the Future Too.

There was a war.

Many people died, and adults who were once children were driven to the battlefield, repeating over several generations.

The time when even children who hadn’t even become adults were driven to the battlefield.

‘Will you show me your condition?’

In the cave I arrived at following such victims, there were children all alike, lying powerlessly.

At most, the oldest might be just about to enter high school?

Of course, they wore enemy military uniforms, but I wanted to tend to these children’s wounds, so I changed their bandages and sewed up their wounds with thread pulled from clothes.

Even though divine power was limited, I bestowed light in a way that minimized its consumption as much as possible.

‘Thank you, big sister.’

And at that time, I decided to treat them like civilians.

In the first place, the Red Cross doesn’t attack even enemies unless they attack first, and if they’re injured, depending on the judgment, we give first aid and send them back.

Of course, outwardly it’s to bestow even a little grace, but I thought it was good to reduce sacrifices regardless of any policy.

‘You look like students, how did you end up here?’

Especially since those I met at that time were children who hadn’t even become adults yet.

‘That’s…’

‘Is it because of money?’

I thought I could ask this much since I had treated them.

At that question, the boy reluctantly nodded.

Of course, as the war drags on, taxes increase, so those without means have no choice but to live struggling with money, whether for livelihood or studies.

‘It doesn’t seem like you’d come this far just for tuition, is your family situation very difficult too?’

‘……’

‘…I see, because it’s wartime.’

Isn’t it ironic?

Although the ancestors started it, it’s the later generations who inherited their ideologies and foundations that are paying the responsibility and price.

Unless it had been decided from the start, even if they won now, all they could do is rummage through the destroyed debris to cultivate the destroyed foundations.

‘Big sister.’

And the children are in a state where they don’t even have the luxury to realize such things.

That’s why they will always be curious.

For what reason did people with more experience than themselves participate in this war?

Do they really think this situation is right, and if not, why don’t they try to change it?

‘Big sister, why did you become a soldier?’

Probably to such a question with that meaning implied, I answered casually.

‘Because I want to see my dad.’

‘Your dad?’

‘Yes, he’s probably still saving people somewhere on the battlefield right now.’

It wasn’t a lie.

Regardless of how the process was or what my current mindset is.

At least the beginning stemmed from the stubbornness of wanting to follow the person I came to love.

‘Aren’t you scared?’

‘I am scared.’

And that answer also taught that I was no different from the boy.

What difference does it make if one’s an adult or a child?s can’t go against their environment.

Disasters that penetrate an era, like war, visit everyone equally.

‘Then why…’

‘Because I know it will end someday.’

Yet I didn’t regret stepping into this place because I knew the future.

Whether the Empire wins or the Allied Nations win, the war will surely end.

‘Really?’

‘Yes, it won’t be long now.’

It was because of such firm belief that I showed mercy even to the enemy soldier boy.

That’s how I tried to maintain humanity in that way.

‘Then, can we survive until then?’

But I couldn’t answer the question that followed immediately after.

Even in the game I saw, there was an ending.

But until that ending came, countless deaths had to be mobilized.

‘…I don’t want to die.’

Everything that was expressed as numbers in the game had become reality.

One of those beings that became reality was the blonde boy in front of me.

‘I don’t want to die. I want to go home.’

Just one soldier, he said.

A being that I couldn’t just pass over by saying that.

‘I miss mom…’

But why?

Even though I saw a sight that anyone would feel sympathy for, I couldn’t recall what I answered him.

No, I couldn’t recall it. This was a memory I wanted to forget.

Still, if I went back to that time.

If I went back to that time again, I think I might have left words like this:

“We adults are sorry.”

Right after uttering that low apology, I felt the entrance of the cave brightening.

I didn’t turn my gaze towards it.

This is just the past anyway.

I just recalled that at the time, I was late in noticing it.

-Boom!!

Yes, it’s really a common occurrence.

The army that discovered the abandoned student soldiers using them to set a trap to buy the enemy’s movement report rather than recovering them.

Since no one would think that student soldiers dragged to the front lines would return alive anyway, they don’t hesitate to carry out bold operations if there are no witnesses.

It’s a ridiculous act.

If they hate units that save enemy soldiers, they could just create a rescue unit like us.

‘…Harsion.’

But it’s always easy to say, and even if they could do it, it doesn’t erase what has been done until now.

By the time I came to my senses, I had already come back too far…

Such a realization, even if it’s a dirty act, erases hesitation about a relatively easier path.

‘Was it your order?’

The guy who appeared in front of me at that time was someone walking such a path.

The collapsed cave. When I escaped from there, what was grasped in my hand was only the academy emblem that the boy who was a student soldier had possessed.

It’s something I brought along, unable to let go of my attachment even though I knew I couldn’t save them anymore.

Even recognizing that, the other person just spoke indifferently.

‘It was an order from above.’

‘Well, I guess it’s comfortable to act as a puppet like that.’

A man staring at me with only a long blunt weapon leaning on the ground.

The color of his pupils visible through the sandstorm was already faded as much as it could be.

It had been a long time since he had abandoned all humanity.

This place called the front line was full of such bastards.

‘You can resent me if you want.’

‘Why would I resent? I’m in a position of saving those who kill your subordinates too.’

To the extent of desperately fighting for victory even like that, both forces were in a desperate state.

In such a situation, it would be a waste of time to argue about how cruel and unethical the things happening there are.

‘Still, it feels wrong to just pass by without saying anything, so how about we make a bet on who survives here disobeying their superior once?’

So I didn’t blame him.

Even though he sacrificed the children who followed him here trusting him.

Because I knew that was also a problem an individual couldn’t do anything about.

‘What do you mean?’

‘That it will continue in the future too.’

I just expressed a simple hope at that moment.

As it’s a scene where knives are pointed without reason or hatred for each other.

That we shouldn’t look for understanding or principles in the choice to end it.

‘Everything that you and we have seen growing up… will continue in the future too if it doesn’t stop someday.’

So I hope it ends, even if forcibly.

That was probably the thought held by those who would become teachers teaching children in the distant future, at the scene full of corpses of boy soldiers.

---

And then.

“Are you awake?”

As I gradually opened my eyes recalling such memories, I realized a familiar face was greeting me.

It was a face I had seen to the point of nausea when roaming the front lines.

“…I woke up and there’s a gorilla here.”

“I’m human, you brat.”

“If you don’t want to be misunderstood, why don’t you shave your hair?”

He used to look decent before, but now he’s become a complete bearded old man.

I raised my body slightly from the bed and immediately looked around.

It was the middle of the night. In the scene where moonlight shining through the infirmary window with curtains drawn back substituted for lighting, only Harsion sitting in the chair placed beside the bed was facing me.

Cle seems to have finished the treatment and left, but my body was wrapped only in bandages to the extent that my collarbone and abdomen were clearly visible…

Damn, they didn’t dress me at all.

“You didn’t do anything weird while I was sleeping, did you?”

“Don’t say such horrible things. How many times have I almost died because of you?”

“We only properly clashed once. You’re not going to blame me for your superior being upset that he couldn’t catch me, are you?”

“…If you can’t speak properly.”

Well, we’re not that kind of relationship.

Harsion immediately threw me a white gown and said.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time we’ve faced each other like this since the war ended.”

“Haha, so what? Do you want to settle what we couldn’t back then?”

“No, it was a fight I lost from the beginning, so what’s there to settle? I just wanted to pass on some words.”

Words this guy wants to convey to me…

Ah, there is one thing.

“I safely returned the emblem you gave me to the families.”

At that time, I had a big fight with this guy betting on discharge.

The reason I spared this guy at the end of that fierce battle was because I hoped there would be at least a minimum of conscience in his worn-out heart.

“The grave?”

“The families built it. Due to circumstances, they couldn’t bury him in the national cemetery, but…”

“Don’t worry about it, I didn’t expect that much anyway.”

I snorted and answered to his voice tinged with uncharacteristic guilt.

In fact, even in the world I lived in, most of the student soldiers who participated in the war couldn’t be buried in the national cemetery, right?

Although it was desperate, the attempt itself would be considered a blemish for a country and military that should know honor.

It would be more strange to try to leave records of driving children to the battlefield for the sake of national prestige.

“…So, what happened after that?”

So let’s stop talking about the old grudges that were lingering.

With that thought, I tried to change the subject immediately, but Harsion was already preparing to leave the infirmary as if he had finished his business.

“It’s better to hear that from that child than from me.”

“What?”

The moment of confusion was brief.

Soon I became aware of a faint presence from the opposite side of where he had been.

Damn, I was late in noticing because I just woke up.

“Teach…er…”

A boy crouching in his seat, sniffling.

His eyes were swollen as if he had been crying all day, and even now sobbing sounds could be heard from his throat.

“…Dale.”

Does it mean he was that worried about me?

Or does he feel that much guilt for me ending up like this?

“Come here.”

“But…”

“It’s okay.”

As I reached out my hand to examine his condition, it was only for a moment.

In contrast to his sniffling appearance until just before, I noticed his body becoming excessively stiff.

Is it because my upper body is only wrapped in bandages?

Well, no matter how amazing things he did, in the end he’s a boy in puberty, right?

“You don’t seem to be injured anywhere. That’s good.”

“……”

But there seemed to be something else unsettling, as Dale’s head bowed deeply as soon as I finished my diagnosis.

In that state, he just tightly gripped what was placed on his thigh.

“…Is there something you want to say?”

No, looking closely, there was something placed there.

It’s a paper envelope commonly used to store documents.

“Teacher.”

How much time had passed?

The hand holding that envelope soon began to move towards me.

“Please, take this.”

“……”

Silently, I received what Dale handed over and read what was written on its surface.

[Withdrawal Form]

Those were the three characters written on the envelope.

As I had expected before receiving it.

And it was also something I absolutely didn’t want.

“I’m going back to my hometown.”

Now that even the war has ended.

Why would a child who came to this school just to enjoy his studies and youth try to return to the darkness where the light of the world doesn’t reach?