Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 15

[Translation By Divinity]

In hindsight, he wasn’t just resilient to bad luck.

If there were a god, they must have showered Damian with blessings countless times, only to curse him for his lack of faith, and many priests would have been jealous, claiming that God favored Damian alone.

No wonder Paul had kept his distance for a month, calling him crazy and insane.

Gunshots rang out, closer than before.

Damian ran again. But the enemy gunfire drew nearer, and his legs grew heavier.

Bang!

A bullet grazed his left ear. It hadn’t hit him directly, but his ear felt hot, perhaps from the shock. Damian rubbed his ear with his left hand and thought as he ran.

‘I’m going to die.’

The word “death” flashed in Damian’s mind. His heart pounded like crazy.

If that bullet had been just a little further to the right, his head would have exploded, and he would be dead. It was just luck.

But he didn’t know how long this luck would last.

Bullets were flying from behind. He was running in the opposite direction of the main unit. He was alone, and the enemy was at least a platoon in size. Even if he hid, the chances of being discovered were high. His right arm was injured more severely than he thought, and he couldn’t hold his gun properly.

‘This is what they call a dead end.’

Damian laughed weakly. He didn’t know why he was laughing, but he did. But it wasn’t a lighthearted laugh.

‘This time, I’m really going to die.’

He had always called the battlefield a pit of death, so it wasn’t strange for him to die here.

‘So, this is how I finally die? It’s a shame I couldn’t see what lies at the end of this war, the end of my fight… But I have nothing to live for, and my life isn’t precious, so… it doesn’t matter.’

Damian shook his head.

‘It doesn’t matter, but… I don’t want to die. So let’s run, avoid the enemy, and if I have a moment to catch my breath, I’ll think of a way to survive…’

His thoughts were fragmented and drifting due to blood loss. He shook his head, and then he heard the sound of a small object cutting through the air. Slower than a bullet, but larger in size.

Damian quickly turned his head and looked at the object flying towards him.

As if time had slowed down, he saw it approaching in slow motion, clearly recognizing its shape.

It was a grenade. It was flying towards him at high speed, much faster than he was running.

”There’s no way I can dodge this, even with all my luck.”

When the thought of death had crossed his mind earlier, his heart had pounded like mad. But now, facing the actual crisis, Damian was strangely calm as he looked at the grenade.

He had survived so far because he could maintain a detached state when accepting the worst-case scenario, allowing him to make rational decisions. But even with rational thought, he couldn’t think of a way to escape this.

‘I can’t dodge it.’

‘If I can’t dodge it… then I’ll die. Well, it’s not like I didn’t expect this kind of death…’

Just then, he seemed to hear a voice that shouldn’t be there.

[If you die, I will genuinely grieve and cry my eyes out.]

Someone had said those words to him once. It was definitely an unfamiliar voice. But it was also a voice he had imagined countless times.

Damian’s lips moved.

“Lint… ray…”

[So please come and see me safely.]

‘Ah… I don’t want to die.’

Damian thought without realizing it. Before he could be surprised by his own unconscious thought, he heard a loud noise, and then everything went dark.

Damian felt a bright light through his eyelids.

He wanted to sleep more and was about to drift off again, but a sudden, intense pain throughout his body forced his eyes open.

“Ugh…”

He let out a pained groan, but his voice didn’t come out as he intended. There was a metallic taste in his mouth. His entire body ached so much that he wished he could just pass out again.

Damian gasped for breath and blinked. His blurry vision slowly cleared, revealing his surroundings.

The first thing he saw was the window across from him. Bright sunlight streamed through the uncurtained glass, indicating it was midday.

He turned his gaze to examine where he was. He saw white walls and two empty beds lined up beside him. There was a faint smell of alcohol and medicine in the air.

‘A hospital…?’

He didn’t know why he was here. Damian tried to recall his last memory.

‘Forest. Smoke. Running as if my lungs would burst…’

His head ached, making it difficult to continue his train of thought, but Damian managed to piece together his fragmented memories.

‘While running… a grenade flew towards me, and I thought it was the end…’

”So I didn’t quite die…?”

This didn’t seem like the afterlife. The surroundings were too mundane for that.

”If this is a hospital, there should be a call button for the medical staff…”

He looked around but couldn’t find a button. It was probably near his bedside.

Damian tried to raise his right arm, but it wouldn’t move, weakly flailing under the blanket.

Instead, he turned slightly to his left, propped himself up on his elbow, and reached out with his right hand to feel for the button…

“…What the…”

Damian gasped and swallowed. His eyes widened involuntarily.

His right sleeve hung limply, swaying. Damian reflexively grabbed his right sleeve.

But all he felt was thin fabric; the most important part was missing. He frantically groped his right arm and then rolled up his sleeve. He couldn’t help but hold his breath.

The lower part of his right forearm was gone.

Damian opened his mouth, then closed it again, and looked around as if his arm might have fallen somewhere nearby. But that was impossible.

Still, Damian tried to get out of bed to look for his arm. But his body was completely limp, and he tumbled to the floor with a loud thud.

“Ugh…”

His whole body already felt like it was being stabbed with knives, and the impact with the floor brought unbearable pain.

As Damian curled up and groaned, he heard footsteps outside, and someone burst through the door.

“Oh my! Patient!”

The owner of the startled voice rushed over and helped Damian up.

“Are you awake? Please lie down.”

Damian collapsed back onto the bed, weak. Judging by the person’s attire, they seemed to be a nurse.

Damian coughed a few times and then spoke.

“Haa… Where am I…?”

He asked in a raspy voice, and the nurse replied,

“You’re in the hospital.”

He knew that. But he wondered why he was lying in a hospital bed, or rather, how he even got here.

The place where he had been fighting was far from any civilian areas, deep in the mountains. And there was no way civilians would be wandering around during a battle.

He had many questions, but the nurse simply adjusted his IV lines and said,

“The doctor will be here soon to explain everything.”

“But…”

He was anxious, wanting to ask about his current situation, despite being told to wait. Damian reached out with his left hand, and the nurse, seeming to understand, held his hand.

“It’s okay. It’ll just be a moment.”

Then she hurried out of the room. Damian stared blankly at the door, then turned his gaze to his empty right arm.

“Huh…”

Damian sighed involuntarily.

He tried to move his right arm, or rather, his right shoulder a few times. He tried to flex his elbow, but it felt strange. He thought he was moving his arm, but since he couldn’t see it, it felt like a disconnect between his mind and body.

Damian put his half-missing right arm back on the bed and thought.

‘Compared to the cost of my life, this is cheap…’

He was disturbed by his physical condition, but he wasn’t as shaken as he thought he would be. As he had thought, losing his right arm was better than dying.