Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 3

[Translation By Divinity]

[To help the Second Lieutenant, whose memories of home are fading, visualize the scenery I see, I’m writing this letter from a field filled with cosmos flowers. The sun is strong, so I’m sitting under a gazebo. The colorful cosmos flowers swaying in the wind against the backdrop of the blue field are so beautiful. Do cosmos flowers grow in Lebe too? If they do, I wonder how they compare to the ones in Istarica.]

Damian paused mid-sentence, bringing the letter to his nose and sniffing.

He had wondered why there was no perfume scent today, unlike before. Instead, a faint grassy fragrance lingered.

[On the hill opposite, daisies are blooming beautifully. But I’ve been seeing daisies since spring, and I’m a bit tired of them, so I came to see the cosmos today.

Honestly, I’d rather write about you and me than about these things. Admit it; you brought up the weather because you couldn’t think of anything else to say, right? I’m the same. Conversations that start with the weather are nice. You can learn a little about someone just from their comments on the weather.

Besides the weather, aren’t you curious about me at all? I’ll tell you as much as I can. I want to know about you too! Like, what your day is like, or what happened while my letter was being delivered… things like that.

But if you’re not curious and don’t want to share, it’s okay to keep talking about the weather. Istarica and Lebe have different environments, so even weather talk could lead to different conversations, right? Please let me know what topics you’d like to discuss.

July 21st, 1878. Always wishing Second Lieutenant McCord the best of luck,

Lintray.]

Damian scratched his dark brown hair. ‘My story? What am I supposed to write about?’

‘Today, I saw intestines spilling out of a corpse hit by a shell.’

He couldn’t write something like that, could he?

That thought made Damian realize that being on the battlefield for a year and a half had warped him in some way.

During battles, it was common to trip over body parts while moving around. He had seen countless wounded soldiers in states where death seemed preferable. Every day, he thought about piercing enemy skulls with bullets dozens of times.

War, the military… that was his everyday life.

The peaceful daily lives of ordinary people didn’t exist here. Fields of cosmos flowers or daisies on hills would be instantly destroyed by falling shells.

Here, he saw pools of red blood, black ashes from exploded gunpowder, and smoke-filled, cloudy skies more often than green fields, clear blue skies, or shimmering water.

‘She wouldn’t want a letter about this kind of stuff.’

Damian’s mouth tasted bitter. But he didn’t want to open up about his own story either. His gloomy past was nothing to brag about.

While crammed inside a guard post, aiming at the enemy lines and trying to think of what to write in the letter, someone approached from the other side, giving the password.

“Second Lieutenant, it’s time for your shift change.”

It was the next person on duty.

Damian left the cramped guard post, but his heart was still heavy, unsure of what to write in the letter. So he asked the person walking beside him, who had also been on guard duty.

“Sergeant Tennant, do you know what to write in a casual letter exchanging greetings?”

Tennant replied with a rather strange expression.

“Is it a woman?”

“…Woman or not, it doesn’t matter who it is.”

At the slightly delayed response, Tennant grinned unpleasantly.

“Well, you could say something like ‘I miss you’ or ‘I love you’…”

“We’re not like that.”

Damian said bluntly, but Tennant, seemingly delighted to have found a new source of amusement, walked backward in front of Damian, facing him.

“That might be the case now, but who knows about the future? You’re handsome, Lieutenant, so you’ll be popular with women. If you could just do something about that gloomy expression, you’d be even more attractive.”

“We don’t even know each other’s faces, so what…”

“How about writing a poem?”

“I have no talent for that.”

“Then, should I write one for you…?”

“Just shut up. I’ll handle it myself.”

“Come on, Lieutenant. At least tell me who it is.”

“…A friend.”

“You don’t have any friends, Lieutenant.”

Damian rubbed his eyes. He had no idea how his reputation had become like this. He thought he maintained decent relationships with others.

“A pen pal friend.”

Tennant finally nodded.

“Ah, the one they’re doing for the soldiers these days…”

“Yes, that one.”

“Lucky you. I applied for that too, but I got rejected.”

“Then do you want to write for me?”

“Nah, I can’t steal the Lieutenant’s girl.”

“Why are you so sure it’s a woman?”

“Because with your personality, Lieutenant, if it were a man, you would’ve read the letter and thrown it straight in the trash without replying.”

Again, Damian couldn’t understand why his reputation was in such a state.

“Does that mean I only care about women?”

Damian asked in a slightly crooked voice, and Tennant quickly shook his head.

“You’re tough on us, but you’re kind to the weak and women. More polite, I’d say. Honestly, I didn’t think you were the type to keep up with pen pals, but since it’s a woman, you couldn’t ignore it out of courtesy.”

“Am I really like that?”

“Yes.”

Damian awkwardly scratched his head, having never really thought about how he acted.

“Just relax and write. Guys like you become even more boring when you try too hard.”

Damian groaned. He shouldn’t have said anything. Tennant continued, his grin unwavering.

“Oh, and just in case, never make any promises with her about what you’ll do after the war ends.”

“Why?”

Damian tilted his head slightly, and Tennant replied with a serious expression.

“In novels, people who make those promises usually die. Lines like, ‘When this war is over, I’ll propose to her,’ are the worst.”

“…”

‘He shouldn’t have asked.’

☆

[Dear Lady Lintray,

You asked to know more about me, but I’m truly someone with nothing remarkable to offer, so I spent a long time pondering what to write.

Then I realized I don’t have many things I particularly like. Of course, there are things I dislike. But aside from those few, I don’t really care much about anything else.

And it’s probably best if you don’t ask about my work. It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, but a soldier’s daily life on the battlefield isn’t something a lady should hear. I don’t want to share the feeling of having to learn about the human anatomy even when you don’t want to.

So, I’ll ask you instead. What do you like, Lady Lintray? What’s your daily routine like? What kind of person are you?

If you tell me, I might borrow some of your answers for my own letters.

July 30th, 1878. Second Lieutenant McCord, diligently brainstorming topics that might interest you.]

[To Second Lieutenant McCord, who is trying to cheat his way out.

Oh, to be honest, I briefly suspected you were going for a mysterious concept. But it seems you’re sincere. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have replied so quickly.

As you can see from the return address, I live in the countryside of Edenfallen. My family consists of my father and a servant. My mother passed away when I was young. Since you mentioned not knowing what to write about, let me ask you this: What is your family like? Are you married?

I used to live in a different city and moved here last year. It’s a lovely place. It’s a small village, and maybe because old customs still linger, people here are quite intimidated by nobles. So, even though I’m from an insignificant family, it saddens me that they find me burdensome just because I have a noble title. Because of this, I haven’t been able to make any close friends.

But it’s alright. The village headman’s son is around my age, and he often takes me places. It’s a shame I can’t go too far because of my poor stamina, but he’s a good conversationalist.]