Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 2

[Translation By Divinity]

After escaping from Paul, Damian returned to the barracks, towel-drying his dark brown hair, which appeared even darker when wet.

Unlike Damian, who was accustomed to early bedtimes and early mornings, his fellow soldiers seemed to have gone somewhere, even though it was dusk.

Left alone in the barracks, he casually dressed and sat on the edge of his bed.

He massaged the back of his neck, which felt stiff, when he noticed the envelope lying haphazardly on the desk in the corner of the barracks.

“Make sure to write back. If there’s no reply, they’ll think you died before you could even write, so don’t let anyone down.”

Damian had been about to ignore it, but Paul’s words nagged at him, so he picked up the letter. He hadn’t even looked at the envelopes Paul offered, just grabbing one randomly. Now he saw it was made of expensive-looking pearlescent paper.

It had a blue wax seal, with traces of it having been opened and resealed.

All letters exchanged between soldiers and the outside world were monitored to prevent espionage or the leaking of military secrets. So the fact that the letter had been opened once wasn’t a big deal.

He removed the wax seal and opened the envelope, releasing a subtle floral scent. Damian tilted his head, sniffing involuntarily. The fragrance was pleasant, but he couldn’t identify the specific flower.

He’d heard that spraying perfume on letters was trendy among young women his age. But he had never received a scented letter before, as he had no one to exchange such letters with.

“A woman?”

Although there were female soldiers, the military was mostly full of hot-blooded men who got excited at the mere mention of women. So, if the idea was to boost morale with letters from women, the higher-ups weren’t entirely wrong.

The problem was that the recipient of this letter was Damian Stern, and frankly, he was indifferent.

Damian took out the neatly folded letter. The floral scent intensified.

The letter paper was of good quality, but not as extravagant as the envelope. He unfolded it, and round, cute handwriting greeted him. The neatly written letter wasn’t that long.

[Hello, unknown soldier whose name and face I do not know.

I am glad to have this connection with you. I am merely a humble noble lady living in a beautiful countryside. I am not someone extraordinary, so I have nothing much to boast about when introducing myself.]

‘Noble?’

Twenty years ago, when Istarica was still a kingdom under the Suvelz Empire’s colonial rule, many nobles, including the royal family, were massacred or stripped of their status.

But even though they were reduced to the same level as ordinary citizens, those with strong pride still clung to their noble identities. Just like Marquis Jeska.

‘So, a pretentious noble with nothing but a fancy title is doing this for fun.’

Damian thought it was ridiculous and focused back on the letter.

[This pen pal event is meant to boost the morale of the soldiers, but I apologize for being a boring person. Even though it’s a foreign land, I’m not sure if I can be of any comfort to the soldiers who are fighting for those who share our pain. However, if you’re willing to exchange letters with someone like me, would you spare some of your precious time to reply?

Of course, I won’t be offended if you don’t reply because you don’t like me. But if I don’t hear back, I won’t be able to shake the thought that you might have fallen in battle, so please send me a brief reply.

July 3rd, 1878, while watching the swans gliding on the lake,

From Lintray.]

The letter contained little substance. All he learned about the sender was that she was a woman named Lintray.

He wasn’t even sure if it was her first or last name, but he assumed it was her first name since he’d never heard of such a surname.

‘Well, what deep conversation can you have with someone whose name and face you don’t even know?’

Having nothing else to do and being the type to finish his tasks early, Damian sat down at his desk.

He took out the provided stationery and envelope for the reply and picked up a fountain pen.

At that moment, Damian understood why Lady Lintray’s letter was so short. She probably didn’t know what to say either.

Damian started writing, trying to recall some appropriate social graces.

[Greetings, Lady Lintray.

First of all, thank you for your letter. It is an honor to make your acquaintance.

Lebe, where I am stationed, is further north than Istarica, so the weather isn’t too hot even though it’s July. How is it in Istarica? I imagine the heat is starting to intensify. It’s only been a year and a half since I left home, but my memories are already fading.]

Talking about the weather was always a good conversation starter. But after writing about the weather, he ran out of things to say.

Damian pressed the tip of his fountain pen against his forehead and started rambling in desperation.

[Honestly, I’m not sure what to write about myself. I’m good at reading, but my writing has always barely scraped by with a passing grade. So I can assure you that my story will be even more boring than yours. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about being uninteresting.

Even if your story turns out to be genuinely uninteresting, I’m in no position to complain. My superior let me choose any pen pal letter that arrived at the base, and unfortunately, I happened to pick yours.

If you’d like to switch soldiers now, I can forward your future letters to my colleague in the same platoon. He’s quite handsome and popular with women, so he’ll probably write more interesting letters than me.]

His mind blank beyond that point, Damian was about to conclude the letter with a farewell when he paused.

Lady Lintray hadn’t revealed her full name. Did he need to reveal his? Besides, the name Stern was too conspicuous. So Damian decided to use a pseudonym.

[July 14th, 1878. From the boring barracks,

Second Lieutenant McCord

P.S. The name McCord is a pseudonym. Please understand that I’m using it because my real name isn’t very pleasant.]

Damian finished the letter and handed it to the person in charge the next morning after breakfast.

The letter would reach Lady Lintray’s house in six days at the earliest, ten days at the latest.

Damian thought about the mail delivery schedule and found it quite inefficient.

He could only exchange letters with her four times a month—twice from him and twice from her.

Face-to-face conversations were already difficult; how was he supposed to have a meaningful exchange with someone who wrote a reply a week ago?

As he expected, Damian completely forgot about the pen pal exchange after that.

He nearly died twice and got scolded by Paul four times before a letter from Lady Lintray arrived.

At first, Damian didn’t even realize the letter was for him.

Since Lady Lintray didn’t know his name, the envelope was addressed to Second Lieutenant McCord, and it had been sitting in the mailbox for three days before someone noticed it.

Inside the fancy pearlescent paper envelope was another letter written in round handwriting. However, it didn’t have the perfume scent this time.

[To Second Lieutenant McCord, who thinks he’s more boring than me.

Hello, Lieutenant. I’m glad I have a name to call you, even if I don’t know your real one. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘not a very pleasant name,’ but I understand that you dislike it. So I won’t pry into the reasons.

It’s an honor that you chose my letter out of so many.]