Anette entered the room at the very back of the first floor of the residence. When she turned on a few incandescent lamps mounted here and there along the walls, the interior was revealed.
In the center of the room lay something large, covered with a white cloth. She grabbed the edge of the cloth, hesitated for a moment, then slowly lifted it away.
A glossy black surface was revealed. It was the piano she had used since her girlhood. It had moved from the Rosenberg estate to the Valdemar estate when she married, and after Heiner became commander-in-chief, it had been brought to the residence.
Anette sat on the bench and opened the piano lid. The keys were clean, not a single shade faded. However, it had been so long since it was last tuned that it seemed difficult to expect a clear sound.
She gazed at the keys silently. She was still certain which note would sound if she pressed where.
‘Though it’s all useless now.’
After her father’s death, she naturally could not participate in competitions. All the career Anette had built collapsed. Labels followed, saying they were things achieved using power, pulling strings, and spending money.
It was from then that she had become unable to play the piano. She could not even press the keys, let alone perform.
At first, she had tried countless times to play again, but all ended in failure. After that, she turned her back on the piano completely. She lived trying to forget. She had tried.
‘I thought I would be fine once some time had passed…….’
Reflected in the dim incandescent light, the keys had pale surfaces. It felt as though her fingertips would freeze and shatter into pieces if she touched them.
The dead of night deepened. Anette, who had been sitting before it for a long while, suddenly realized.
There was truly nothing left for her.
***
“The standard-issue rifle has been adopted as a .30 caliber bolt-action rifle with a five-round magazine. The sealing is certainly strong, so it appears unlikely to fall into malfunction.”
“At this level, we won’t need to use semi-automatic firearms. And here, can’t we have the barrel separated as far as possible from the gun body?”
“I will mention it.”
Heiner nodded and rewrapped the gun model in the cloth. In the case of standard sniper rifles, he tended to personally review and approve the models.
“It’s past closing hours. Let’s stop here for today. Good work.”
“Yes, sir!”
Brigadier General Fritz and Major Eugen saluted and exited the commander-in-chief’s office.
After reviewing and stamping the documents regarding fighter aircraft purchases, Heiner looked over the diplomatic status report on Franche.
‘Weapons purchase records…….’
Heiner’s brows furrowed as he checked Franche’s military supply table.
Latland had gained independence from Franche long ago, but many people of Franche still lived on that land. They were a pro-Franche faction that desired reunification with Franche. The motive for war was ample.
Moreover, Latland was in a state of internal turmoil due to frequent military coups. If this civil war spread to become a diplomatic issue among the great powers, a great war could break out.
Heiner was smoothly maintaining the defense treaty with a seasoned sense unbefitting his age, but this could not provide a certain answer.
‘No clear signs have emerged yet. But that doesn’t mean we can sit idly by.’
It was a time when most nations were taking on nationalist tendencies. A war breaking out at such a time would surely spark a fervor of voluntary enlistment. Countless sacrifices would follow.
Heiner knew well what kind of aftereffects war left behind. He had, and his comrades had. A person who had experienced some shock would certainly, in some form…….
“……I want to go home.”
His thoughts suddenly halted in one place.
Heiner, with a somewhat annoyed expression, took the hand that had been on his forehead away. Why was he thinking of that woman here.
He rubbed the corners of his eyes once and looked back at the documents. But the letters escaped the realm of comprehension and merely decomposed into fragmented spellings.
Even when he tried to push out distracting thoughts, it did not go as he wished. It was always like this when it came to that woman. Heiner took his eyes off the documents as if he had a headache.
A series of scenes replayed repeatedly in his head.
Eyes that had looked at him as if seeking help, a body trembling faintly before the piano, a choked face rushing out of the banquet hall, the sight of her crouching and retching dryly…….
The behavior Anette had shown then had looked like the manifestation of trauma.
“Ha.”
Heiner let out a hollow laugh without realizing it. Trauma? Trauma, you say? What trauma could a woman who hadn’t shed a single tear for the past three years possibly have.
‘She used to cry just fine over petty reasons when she was young.’
When that woman shed tears saying her piano skills weren’t improving, Heiner was undergoing harsh training under cursing and beatings at the training camp.
When that woman was holding elegant parties in a splendid, peaceful mansion, he had killed people and been tortured under the pretext of operations.
That kind of woman, trauma.
The documents in Heiner’s hand crumpled slightly. Clenching his teeth, he tossed them carelessly. The papers fell with fluttering sounds.
“Let’s get divorced, Heiner.”
A woman who was so shaken by a mere piano, yet prattled on about divorce with a composed face. As if such a thing meant nothing at all.
“Is there still any use left in me?”
Use? There was no use. But the time to discuss use had already long passed.
Heiner knew that this choice was irrational. But he could not let her go peacefully like this.
What had he endured to obtain that woman.
“It must have been hard pretending to love the daughter of your enemy.”
“……Damn it.”
Heiner roughly swept his face with one hand.
It was merely a clumsy, one-sided love from his young and lonely days, a past he wanted to erase.
***
The butler delivered a message to Heiner upon his return to the residence. His expression hardened stiffly as he heard the report. Without even changing his clothes, Heiner went straight to Anette’s bedroom.
After the opening banquet at the Bellen Hotel, Anette had confined herself to her room. She had never been one to go out much, but this time it was severe.
According to the butler, she was refusing meals as well. It wasn’t something he needed to be greatly concerned about, but it irked him thinking it might be an act of defiance.
His hand, about to fling the bedroom door open, halted for a moment. Heiner clenched his fist tightly, then unclenched it, and knocked twice.
That noble young lady would scorn an ungentlemanly attitude.
‘I’ve already offended her every which way, and yet here I am. Ridiculous.’
Heiner opened the door, self-mocking. Inside, Anette was embroidering with an upright posture. She still looked haughty to the point of unpleasantness.
Anette didn’t even give him a glance. Her profile, eyes lowered and lips closed, was flawless as if drawn with a ruler.
Unlike that perfect still-life-like scenery, medicine packets were scattered about on the side table. Displeasure flashed in Heiner’s eyes at the sight.
“……Have you been doing nothing but embroidering in your room all day? Skipping meals too?”
He spoke, hiding his irritation beneath a cold tone.
“Are you staging some kind of protest?”
“It’s not like that, so don’t concern yourself.”
“How many medicines are there, exactly.”
Heiner muttered and strode over to the side table. The semi-transparent papers scattered on top were all empty. He opened the drawer beneath the side table.
Anette, who had been threading colored thread through the cloth, raised her head sharply.
“Why are you opening it without—”
“Did you hide classified documents or something?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then is there a problem with me looking?”
No more words came from behind. Heiner closed the first drawer and opened the second. Inside were a few medicine packets and one palm-sized container.
Inside the opened container, white pills were about half full. He poured a few into his palm to check. Small round pills had letters and numbers engraved on them.
“What is this?”
Heiner turned and asked. Anette blinked a few times and answered hesitantly.
“……Just medicine.”
“Don’t you receive medicine periodically from Arnold?”
Anette was a woman who took medicine more regularly than she ate. Thinking she seemed to overuse medicine excessively, he had told Arnold to prescribe them in individual packets by schedule, definitely not in bottles.
“I haven’t been taking them well lately…… They piled up since I wasn’t taking them.”
Piled up? If they had truly piled up from not being taken, they should still be in their individual packets. Not collected separately like this.
With a stiffly hardened face, Heiner closed the medicine bottle lid.
“I’ll take this for now.”
“Why would you take that?”
“There seems no need to keep old medicine. Get a new prescription from the doctor.”
It was a stubborn voice that permitted no excuse or refutation. Anette moved her lips as if to say something, then soon dropped her head powerlessly.
Suddenly Heiner’s gaze fell on the embroidery cloth on the table. The embroidery on the white cloth was a crooked mess even to his untrained eyes.
Heiner knew that her embroidery skills were quite outstanding. In the past, Anette had gifted him several embroidered handkerchiefs she made herself.
“Heiner, it’s a gift.”
The embroidery on the handkerchief she had passed to him with a shy smile had been extremely delicate and beautiful. Heiner had thought that if this subject had existed in the training camp, he would have undoubtedly failed.
He had even scoffed that noble young ladies only learned these prim and elegant things, overflowing with leisure.
He hadn’t used that repulsive handkerchief. But he couldn’t throw it away either. Even now. In truth it was nothing more than something stashed away, but he remembered the shape and intricacy of the embroidery vividly.
The embroidery from then and the embroidery now were so different it was hard to believe they were done by the same person. As if a child had done it…….
Heiner looked at the embroidery cloth before him as if it were repulsive, then pressed the call button. A servant came in immediately. Without looking back, Heiner ordered.
“Bring a meal. Something light.”