PLOM Chapter 24

KindapitiedMielle9-11 minutes 17.06.2023

<Episode 24>

By the time we finished matching the men’s shoes to the clothes, the sun was setting behind the mountain. It was the first time since I’d begun my job as a maid that I got a spend an afternoon in which I wasn’t doing any labour – and yet strangely, this felt more tiresome than quietly cleaning. Perhaps I’d gotten more used to the life of a maid than I realised.

“Do you want some?”

We were on the way to the park right behind the busy street, with me half-dragging my tired body. Rue suddenly opened his mouth and pointed somewhere. My eyes followed the direction he was pointing at and found a colorful ice-cream cart.

“…will you be buying it for me?”

You’re suddenly doing me a favor? That sounds suspicious.

“It is most effective when the carrot and the stick are given together. Traditionally, while training dogs, they learn rather quickly if you give them snacks in between.”

Are you saying I’m a dog?

But for the sake of the free favor, maybe it wasn’t bad to become a dog for a very short while.

When I nodded cautiously, Rue pointed with his chin to a bench at the entrance of the park.

“Sit quietly and wait.”

Following that, Rue headed directly to the ice-cream cart.

It’d be my first time eating this. This was an unexpected development.

‘Come to think of it, there’s a manpower office near here.’

Hmm, it’s already been a long time since I was homeless and living here in this park. 

Looking through the inside of the park, my gaze stopped at a spacious cemetery.

‘Was there a cemetery here? I didn’t notice since I only came here at night.’

It’s a cemetery in the middle of such a big city, so it must be a national cemetery.

The landscape and grass were neatly trimmed, and colorful flowers were blooming everywhere, so the dreariness that usually accompanied a cemetery was nowhere to be found. I examined the hat resting on the nearest grave.

It was a hat belonging to the Magic Union.

The name of the area was engraved on the stone plate in front of the bridge connecting the park and the national cemetery in neat handwriting.

Midwinterre National Peace Cemetery.

I walked there like I was possessed.

When I got to the bridge, hundreds and thousands of graves appeared in front of me.

On the tombstones, which stood upright like a block, the names of those who died in the war, and even those who were unnamed, were etched.

So many people used to live in Midwinter. And died.

This city in the north was far from the front-lines, which is why I thought they would be ignorant of the war. I couldn’t say anything at the sight of my arrogance being pointed out.

“Is there a grave here for the people whose names I wasn’t able to get during the war?”

The moment I crossed the bridge engulfed in strange sentiment and took my first step into the national peace cemetery,

[Hey!]

A shrill sound of waves passed by.

The smell of blood filled my nose. I was so familiar with the scent that I reflexively turned my back. I couldn’t see anything.

There was no longer a large park here – nor the ice-cream cart beyond it, or Rue’s back as he was supposed to be paying for the ice cream in front of it.

All there was in its place were burned ruins, corpses, the trembling ground and soldiers running forward with clenched teeth.

What is this?

[Hey, where are you looking?]

Someone roughly shook my shoulder, as if in a hurry.

A man’s face came into my shaky view. There was fear and anger towards death on his face, stained with blood and dust.

[What are you doing? Pull yourself together, you punk! You’ll die if you lose focus!]

Oh yes. This is the battlefield.

We’re at war.

I stirred my head to come to my senses. Was it because I hadn’t slept properly in the past few days? I think I’d fallen into a fleeting dream while standing for a moment.

Until just now, it felt like the dream belonged to a different world, but now I can’t even remember what it was.

What an interesting experience.

[Mefisto’s devil army stormed inside from the east. There’s too many of them – we have to give up on this town. Evacuate the residents!]

“And you?”

[I’m going to the castle. I heard that elderly people having trouble moving are being treated there.]

“All right, you take the lead. I’ll cover you.”

The ground shook greatly. It was a sign that the enemy was fastly approaching.

We ran to the castle on the higher plains of the the town.

“Find a cart! If there are too many old people there, we can’t afford to take them one by one.”

[the castle lord was managing quite a large farmland, so there must be a cart around somewhere here…]

At that moment, a wave of dust hit us.

Whoo!

It was a long-range wave attack by a formative devil. Dust was everywhere when the indiscriminate attack hit the ground.

I felt a sharp pain in the back, but that was it. Fortunately, I wasn’t injured too bad.

[Cough!]

But that wasn’t the case for the soldier I was moving with.

“Hey, you….”

[Ahh! My legs, my legs…!]

One of his legs had been cut off, and the other was in poor condition.

“For God’s sake.”

Coincidentally, I couldn’t afford to stop the bleeding right now. I hurriedly supported the man’s arm and shouted.

“Wake up! This is no time to lose consciousness – grab hold of my neck, I’ll help you.”

[No…]

A breath soaked in fear befell my ears. He pushed my arm away and spoke,

[It’s okay…just leave me behind. Instead, just deliver my last words to my mother-]

“Don’t talk nonsense! Tell her yourself when the war is over.”

[Stop it. I can’t even feel my left leg anymore…I can’t move, I’ll just be a burden. Now listen, my name and my hometown is…]

“Didn’t you hear me? Tell her yourself when the war is over!”

Amidst the confusion came a cold voice.

“No, Daisy. The war is over.”

What do you mean Daisy? Is it this man’s name?

Though I believed it was a pretty unbecoming name, I struggled as I raised him up.

“Yes, one day, it will be over! But that day is not today. Stand up, my friend. First, let’s find the cart. You wait here-”

“There is no cart here. There is no sanctuary, there is no demon legion, and there are no old people you must save.”

Something’s wrong.

I looked back at the man. The man had stopped. There was no dust that hovered around us, no shaking ground, no screaming, no wailing – nothing to be heard.

In a space where time had seemed to stop, someone told me.

“The war is over. Now come back.”

“…is it over?”

“Yes, no one is going to die. See? The only thing dying right now is your ice cream that I’m holding.”

I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t see the owner of the voice. I wondered what had happened.

“That’s a relief, she’s a little stable now. I think you talking to her has been effective. This young girl…was she a part of the allied forces?”

What I heard this time was a relatively older voice.

I looked at the man I was supporting. His body was breaking down very slowly and gradually. Like a sand castle collapsing in the waves.

“I’ve often seen war veterans like this lady. Phew, it is sad. It is a tragedy that is irreversible. I can’t bring myself to believe that the very heroes who brought about peace have to suffer even after they achieved it.”

An invisible force gently lowered my arm. Standing blankly, I could feel the warmth of the hand patting my head.

“Let’s go back now. It’s better for you to take a good rest.”

Who is the owner of this voice?

The question did not last long. The world flashed as my body got heavier and I felt a thud.

When I opened my eyes again, what I saw in front of me was an unfamiliar landscape.

It was already dark outside. However, the moon outside the window was so big and bright that I could see the whole of the illuminated room.

My whole body was tired.

‘…the last thing I heard was Rue’s voice. This is not some strange place, is it?’

The moment I looked over to the window with such thoughts, a familiar panorama view caught my eyes.

The Weatherwoods mansion was visible right under the bright full moon.

That means,

“The water is over there.”

This is the Eachus mansion.

And it was Rue, the new owner of this mansion, who sat on a chair in a dark corner of the room, reading.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable to read in such a dark place?”

Even though all of my five senses are extremely sharp and developed, I was still reluctant to do it.

However, it was not the first time that Rue did something strange, so I drank water first.

I recognised that I felt dehydrated only after water entered my mouth. As my head cleared up, I remembered the moments until right before I fainted.

The horrifically realistic hallucinations that I had at the national peace cemetery.

‘I wasn’t just dreaming. I couldn’t tell the difference between illusion and reality.’

I slowly put down the glass. My hands were shaking so much that I thought I would drop it.

Just by looking back on it, my palms were soaked with cold sweat and I felt chills.

I felt completely vulnerable.

This feeling of not being able to control one’s own body is deeply unpleasant.

In the latter part of the war, I hadn’t experienced an instinctive fear like this. 

Why is this happening now?

“…thank you for your help.”

Translator’s note;

Hey guys, Ami here. Sorry for the late update. My laptop has been down for more than a month and I borrowed one from someone to translate this chapter. It’s hopefully only a matter of a few days before mine gets fixed, I’m still trying. For now please bear with me, and I will try to make it up to you when I can. 

On another note, this chapter made me cry.