"No."
Celine, her face pale, dropped the embroidery and needle she was holding. She staggered as if her soul had left her, then shook her head violently to regain consciousness.
“Get the car ready, I’ll follow him.”
“I’ll go with you, miss.”
“No. Nanny has something to tell Father.”
Celine, desperately searching for an outer coat, grabbed her nanny. The thin, white hand that gripped her shoulder was shaking uncontrollably.
"The border town of Kaneso isn't that far, so I can go and bring him back right away. Tell my father I went with him. He'll abort the plan for my safety."
"...All right."
“Nanny, I was thinking of giving up on him. It felt like everything was my fault.”
Celine's large, green eyes sparkled. Though she smiled, tears streamed down her face.
"I'm going to divorce him and remarry, as my father wishes. Cesare Conrad, the eldest son of the Conrad family, has been secretly in love with me for a long time. Instead, I'm planning to ask my father not to kill the lieutenant colonel. I want to save him."
Because she wanted to let him know that her heart was truly sincere, even if they couldn't be together. In Janet's eyes, Celine's resolute appearance seemed even more poignant and sorrowful.
"Miss."
Janet, who had collapsed, finally covered her face and burst into tears. She couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for the woman who was like her own daughter.
“I’ll be back, Nanny. No, Mom.”
Celine smiled brightly.
“I always wanted to call you that.”
Janet captured her departure through tear-filled eyes. Her blurred back seemed to mirror her own long-dead daughter.
Celine was driven by a chauffeur to the command center in Cainsoe, a country bordering the northern border of Belford, not far from the capital, about a four-hour drive away.
“Why are you going to the border city of Cainsoe?”
The elderly chauffeur asked Celine. She caught a glimpse of his graying hair over the driver's seat.
“Because he left something behind.”
"I see. There will come a day when he makes a mistake. Or maybe he just misses his beautiful wife."
Celine also smiled bitterly at the driver's laughter.
“Jeremy, how long have you been working here?”
“Probably, it was when the young master was in school. I helped him get to and from school.”
“I want to hear stories about his childhood. Can you tell me?”
“Yes, I will let you know since the road is long and you might be bored.”
Celine smiled repeatedly as she listened to stories from Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal's childhood. He always got good grades, excelled at sports, and possessed a righteous personality that couldn't stand injustice. He also told stories of how he and his brother cried for days when their dog died.
Before they knew it, they had reached the border city of the Principality of Cainsoe.
Celine, who had been in the car for quite some time, shielded herself from the dazzling afternoon sunlight streaming through the window with her hand. Through the shadow beneath her hand, the summer-tinged landscape caught her eye. As she gazed out the window, a realization struck her. While she had once longed to be by his side, sharing that beautiful scenery with him, she now longed to fully experience the beauty of everyday life—the greenery, the streetscape, the blue sky, and the sunshine. She longed for his happiness, even if she herself was absent from that happiness.
“I loved you.”
Tears fell like rain on Celine's lap, where she lay quietly muttering. Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal denied it was love, but it was a form of love that had abandoned greed.
She had never wanted anything from her love, and in the end, she couldn't express it. Celine realized her feelings were true love, but she knew she couldn't express them now. Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal couldn't accept her love, even morally, and this feeling only tormented him. Therefore, she decided to let him go and leave without regret.
“What is that?”
As they passed through the square of a border town, the driver muttered something strange. Celine raised her head in surprise at the loud alarm she'd never heard before. At the same time, the bells in a nearby belfry began to ring so loudly they felt like they were about to shatter.
Celine looked out the car window at the bizarre sight of everyone on the street, all stopped in their tracks and staring up at the sky. A screech of wheels swung her forward, and she clutched the seat with both hands. The driver brought the car to a sudden halt, then got out and opened the door on Celine's side.
“Jeremy, what’s going on? What’s that sound?”
"It's an air raid warning, ma'am. We need to get out of here quickly."
"Air raid?"
Celine followed the driver's gaze and looked up at the sky. Her clear green eyes reflected the high-altitude planes flying toward her like flocks of migratory birds. Unlike her older driver, who had already experienced the war, she had lived unaffected by it, so she couldn't tell whether they were bombers or pleasure craft.
"That's a Lenin B-17 bomber! Quick, we need to get to the shelter!"
Countless tiny dots, spread across the azure sky, were falling. Driven by the driver's hand amidst the screaming chaos, Celine muttered, as if she had lost all sense of reality.
“Jeremy. I saw that in the paper.”
In an instant, the high-explosive bomb exploded with a deafening roar, engulfing the surrounding area in an instant.
Heaven and earth flipped upside down in an instant, and her vision shook dizzyingly. Her body floated into the air, then plummeted with a violent impact. She felt her soul being sucked out and then back in, and her flaming platinum hair fluttered before her eyes, turning to ash. Celine held the clumsy hand of her driver, Jeremy, in her right hand, but it felt empty, weightless.
The shattered glass of the store scattered before her eyes.
All these black-and-white scenes flashed by very slowly. No sound could be heard; only a long, red-lined tinnitus rang in her ears. Her whole body writhed, as if melting, hot. All she could see before her eyes was someone's leg, torn off and rolling.
'Daddy, Nanny!'
As soon as she realized it was her own shoe, she screamed at the top of her lungs, but no sound came out. She was inaudible.
'Jeffrey...'
Soon, everything became silent. From then on, all she could see was darkness, and she couldn't hear anything. The only things she could hear were distant hallucinations.
“Celine, my beloved daughter.”
“I thought of you as my daughter.”
Against this backdrop, countless memories of the past unfolded before her eyes. Her father, who smiled at her. Janet, the kind nanny who filled her mother's void. Her wedding to her beloved Jeffrey.
The pitch-black darkness that obscured her eyes was smoke. The searing pain of her skin and eyes grew increasingly clear. The agony of her esophagus and stomach boiling made it difficult to breathe. It was a terrifying pain she'd never felt before, a pain so horrific she'd wished she'd die, yet she couldn't move a finger or scream. Celine lay helplessly, and before she could completely go blind, she saw the gray ruins of a collapsing building through the smoke. Hot tears flowed from her eyes, now pale from the heat, soaking her cheeks and ears.
Jeffrey,
Will you mourn the death of me, whom you do not love?
Will you feel sorry and regret my death, having loved you?
Janet returned to the port city and headed straight to Naval Headquarters to meet with Admiral Claire.
“The Commander is currently in a meeting with the Captain.”
“Please tell him it’s about his daughter. It’s urgent.”
“Daughter...”
The naval officer nodded and left. He then returned and told Janet to come to the commanding officer's office.
The admiral, sitting upright, smoked a cigar and asked her.
"Is something wrong with Celine? I heard she's been sick recently."
Janet, who was staring blankly at Admiral Claire in his white uniform, asked in a dry tone.
“Were you planning to kill Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal?”
The admiral's lips twisted as he chewed on his cigar. He stubbed it out in the ashtray, leaned back leisurely against the back of his chair, and answered.
“He doesn’t love Celine anyway. I guess she’s noticed.”
“How can a man whose daughter loves...”
"Trying to change the heart of someone who doesn't love you is futile. I know that very well. No matter how hard you try, nothing will change."
“The young lady went with the lieutenant colonel.”
"...Where?"
“Belford Army Command Headquarters in the border city of Cainsoe.”
As soon as Janet finished speaking, the admiral's face paled and hardened. He sat there, unblinking, motionless, seemingly frozen.
The admiral barely opened his mouth and muttered slowly.
“There’s no way they’re going together. Those two are completely...”
“Please stop the plan. She might get hurt, the young lady.”
“Is it really true that they are together?”
“It’s true. The two of you are still together.”
Janet's face, barely holding onto her senses as she spoke, twisted with rage. She clenched her fists so tightly that blood ran down her fingernails, screaming.
"Winston Clare! What are you delaying? Are you planning to kill your beloved daughter?"
Her tearing, piercing roar filled the command room. Despite Janet's angry rebuke, the admiral stared blankly into space.
“No, Celine is my whole life.”
"Then call them right now and stop that plan! Couldn't you just abandon the man your daughter loves? Everything is her choice, and she has to navigate it on her own. How could you possibly think of separating them through death just to satisfy your own greed? That's not how you love your daughter!"
"Janet. I entrusted my daughter to you because I thought you were wise. Why didn't you stop Celine?"
Janet tried to scream again at the admiral's resentful voice, but seeing his lifeless face and pained expression, as if he had lost everything, made her unable to speak, and she unconsciously clenched her jaw. It was so similar to how she had felt in the past, when she had lost her family. The admiral, who had been staring at Janet, speechless, stood there dumbfounded. He lifted his wrist and looked down at his naval officer's watch. His blue eyes, raised, were gleaming with helplessness and despair.
“That’s not something I can stop.”
“What does that mean?”
"Today..."
Admiral Claire, his voice trailing off, leaned back in his chair, seemingly in pain, lifting his chin. His throat heaved as he swallowed back despair and grief. His bloodshot eyes narrowed, and he slowly stood up, his body unsteady. Admiral Claire, rising from his seat, looked up at the ceiling and murmured a sigh.
“Because it’s the day the world war begins.”
At 3:20 PM on July 6th, the Frogen Empire and the Lenin Federal Socialist Republic, which had signed a non-aggression pact based on cooperation and friendship, invaded the Kingdom of Irene, which had diplomatic relations with the Third Republic of Francia and the United Kingdom of Medea, and simultaneously bombed a city in the Principality of Cainsoe, Belford's ally.
The border towns of the Principality of Cainsoe were instantly reduced to ruins by the countless high-explosive bombs unleashed by Lenin's bombers. Because Lenin's forces failed to issue advance warnings of the air raids in accordance with international law of war, civilian casualties and missing persons were so numerous that the government struggled to compile accurate statistics. Celine was one of them.
Two days later, a meeting of seven major nations, including Medea, was held. The Peace Coalition, formed around them, declared Frogen and Lenin, who had violated international law and peace treaties during wartime and massacred civilians, to the world as "war criminal nations." At the same time, Medea declared the dissolution of the alliance and the dissolution of the alliance with Frogen. A Peace Coalition was formed to suppress them, and a Conquest Alliance centered around Frogen was also formed.
Peace, conquest. The worst world war in human history began, a total war between great powers divided by common cause and shared purpose.
Celine, her face pale, dropped the embroidery and needle she was holding. She staggered as if her soul had left her, then shook her head violently to regain consciousness.
“Get the car ready, I’ll follow him.”
“I’ll go with you, miss.”
“No. Nanny has something to tell Father.”
Celine, desperately searching for an outer coat, grabbed her nanny. The thin, white hand that gripped her shoulder was shaking uncontrollably.
"The border town of Kaneso isn't that far, so I can go and bring him back right away. Tell my father I went with him. He'll abort the plan for my safety."
"...All right."
“Nanny, I was thinking of giving up on him. It felt like everything was my fault.”
Celine's large, green eyes sparkled. Though she smiled, tears streamed down her face.
"I'm going to divorce him and remarry, as my father wishes. Cesare Conrad, the eldest son of the Conrad family, has been secretly in love with me for a long time. Instead, I'm planning to ask my father not to kill the lieutenant colonel. I want to save him."
Because she wanted to let him know that her heart was truly sincere, even if they couldn't be together. In Janet's eyes, Celine's resolute appearance seemed even more poignant and sorrowful.
"Miss."
Janet, who had collapsed, finally covered her face and burst into tears. She couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for the woman who was like her own daughter.
“I’ll be back, Nanny. No, Mom.”
Celine smiled brightly.
“I always wanted to call you that.”
Janet captured her departure through tear-filled eyes. Her blurred back seemed to mirror her own long-dead daughter.
Celine was driven by a chauffeur to the command center in Cainsoe, a country bordering the northern border of Belford, not far from the capital, about a four-hour drive away.
“Why are you going to the border city of Cainsoe?”
The elderly chauffeur asked Celine. She caught a glimpse of his graying hair over the driver's seat.
“Because he left something behind.”
"I see. There will come a day when he makes a mistake. Or maybe he just misses his beautiful wife."
Celine also smiled bitterly at the driver's laughter.
“Jeremy, how long have you been working here?”
“Probably, it was when the young master was in school. I helped him get to and from school.”
“I want to hear stories about his childhood. Can you tell me?”
“Yes, I will let you know since the road is long and you might be bored.”
Celine smiled repeatedly as she listened to stories from Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal's childhood. He always got good grades, excelled at sports, and possessed a righteous personality that couldn't stand injustice. He also told stories of how he and his brother cried for days when their dog died.
Before they knew it, they had reached the border city of the Principality of Cainsoe.
Celine, who had been in the car for quite some time, shielded herself from the dazzling afternoon sunlight streaming through the window with her hand. Through the shadow beneath her hand, the summer-tinged landscape caught her eye. As she gazed out the window, a realization struck her. While she had once longed to be by his side, sharing that beautiful scenery with him, she now longed to fully experience the beauty of everyday life—the greenery, the streetscape, the blue sky, and the sunshine. She longed for his happiness, even if she herself was absent from that happiness.
“I loved you.”
Tears fell like rain on Celine's lap, where she lay quietly muttering. Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal denied it was love, but it was a form of love that had abandoned greed.
She had never wanted anything from her love, and in the end, she couldn't express it. Celine realized her feelings were true love, but she knew she couldn't express them now. Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal couldn't accept her love, even morally, and this feeling only tormented him. Therefore, she decided to let him go and leave without regret.
“What is that?”
As they passed through the square of a border town, the driver muttered something strange. Celine raised her head in surprise at the loud alarm she'd never heard before. At the same time, the bells in a nearby belfry began to ring so loudly they felt like they were about to shatter.
Celine looked out the car window at the bizarre sight of everyone on the street, all stopped in their tracks and staring up at the sky. A screech of wheels swung her forward, and she clutched the seat with both hands. The driver brought the car to a sudden halt, then got out and opened the door on Celine's side.
“Jeremy, what’s going on? What’s that sound?”
"It's an air raid warning, ma'am. We need to get out of here quickly."
"Air raid?"
Celine followed the driver's gaze and looked up at the sky. Her clear green eyes reflected the high-altitude planes flying toward her like flocks of migratory birds. Unlike her older driver, who had already experienced the war, she had lived unaffected by it, so she couldn't tell whether they were bombers or pleasure craft.
"That's a Lenin B-17 bomber! Quick, we need to get to the shelter!"
Countless tiny dots, spread across the azure sky, were falling. Driven by the driver's hand amidst the screaming chaos, Celine muttered, as if she had lost all sense of reality.
“Jeremy. I saw that in the paper.”
In an instant, the high-explosive bomb exploded with a deafening roar, engulfing the surrounding area in an instant.
***
Heaven and earth flipped upside down in an instant, and her vision shook dizzyingly. Her body floated into the air, then plummeted with a violent impact. She felt her soul being sucked out and then back in, and her flaming platinum hair fluttered before her eyes, turning to ash. Celine held the clumsy hand of her driver, Jeremy, in her right hand, but it felt empty, weightless.
The shattered glass of the store scattered before her eyes.
All these black-and-white scenes flashed by very slowly. No sound could be heard; only a long, red-lined tinnitus rang in her ears. Her whole body writhed, as if melting, hot. All she could see before her eyes was someone's leg, torn off and rolling.
'Daddy, Nanny!'
As soon as she realized it was her own shoe, she screamed at the top of her lungs, but no sound came out. She was inaudible.
'Jeffrey...'
Soon, everything became silent. From then on, all she could see was darkness, and she couldn't hear anything. The only things she could hear were distant hallucinations.
“Celine, my beloved daughter.”
“I thought of you as my daughter.”
Against this backdrop, countless memories of the past unfolded before her eyes. Her father, who smiled at her. Janet, the kind nanny who filled her mother's void. Her wedding to her beloved Jeffrey.
The pitch-black darkness that obscured her eyes was smoke. The searing pain of her skin and eyes grew increasingly clear. The agony of her esophagus and stomach boiling made it difficult to breathe. It was a terrifying pain she'd never felt before, a pain so horrific she'd wished she'd die, yet she couldn't move a finger or scream. Celine lay helplessly, and before she could completely go blind, she saw the gray ruins of a collapsing building through the smoke. Hot tears flowed from her eyes, now pale from the heat, soaking her cheeks and ears.
Jeffrey,
Will you mourn the death of me, whom you do not love?
Will you feel sorry and regret my death, having loved you?
***
Janet returned to the port city and headed straight to Naval Headquarters to meet with Admiral Claire.
“The Commander is currently in a meeting with the Captain.”
“Please tell him it’s about his daughter. It’s urgent.”
“Daughter...”
The naval officer nodded and left. He then returned and told Janet to come to the commanding officer's office.
The admiral, sitting upright, smoked a cigar and asked her.
"Is something wrong with Celine? I heard she's been sick recently."
Janet, who was staring blankly at Admiral Claire in his white uniform, asked in a dry tone.
“Were you planning to kill Lieutenant Colonel Groenendaal?”
The admiral's lips twisted as he chewed on his cigar. He stubbed it out in the ashtray, leaned back leisurely against the back of his chair, and answered.
“He doesn’t love Celine anyway. I guess she’s noticed.”
“How can a man whose daughter loves...”
"Trying to change the heart of someone who doesn't love you is futile. I know that very well. No matter how hard you try, nothing will change."
“The young lady went with the lieutenant colonel.”
"...Where?"
“Belford Army Command Headquarters in the border city of Cainsoe.”
As soon as Janet finished speaking, the admiral's face paled and hardened. He sat there, unblinking, motionless, seemingly frozen.
The admiral barely opened his mouth and muttered slowly.
“There’s no way they’re going together. Those two are completely...”
“Please stop the plan. She might get hurt, the young lady.”
“Is it really true that they are together?”
“It’s true. The two of you are still together.”
Janet's face, barely holding onto her senses as she spoke, twisted with rage. She clenched her fists so tightly that blood ran down her fingernails, screaming.
"Winston Clare! What are you delaying? Are you planning to kill your beloved daughter?"
Her tearing, piercing roar filled the command room. Despite Janet's angry rebuke, the admiral stared blankly into space.
“No, Celine is my whole life.”
"Then call them right now and stop that plan! Couldn't you just abandon the man your daughter loves? Everything is her choice, and she has to navigate it on her own. How could you possibly think of separating them through death just to satisfy your own greed? That's not how you love your daughter!"
"Janet. I entrusted my daughter to you because I thought you were wise. Why didn't you stop Celine?"
Janet tried to scream again at the admiral's resentful voice, but seeing his lifeless face and pained expression, as if he had lost everything, made her unable to speak, and she unconsciously clenched her jaw. It was so similar to how she had felt in the past, when she had lost her family. The admiral, who had been staring at Janet, speechless, stood there dumbfounded. He lifted his wrist and looked down at his naval officer's watch. His blue eyes, raised, were gleaming with helplessness and despair.
“That’s not something I can stop.”
“What does that mean?”
"Today..."
Admiral Claire, his voice trailing off, leaned back in his chair, seemingly in pain, lifting his chin. His throat heaved as he swallowed back despair and grief. His bloodshot eyes narrowed, and he slowly stood up, his body unsteady. Admiral Claire, rising from his seat, looked up at the ceiling and murmured a sigh.
“Because it’s the day the world war begins.”
***
At 3:20 PM on July 6th, the Frogen Empire and the Lenin Federal Socialist Republic, which had signed a non-aggression pact based on cooperation and friendship, invaded the Kingdom of Irene, which had diplomatic relations with the Third Republic of Francia and the United Kingdom of Medea, and simultaneously bombed a city in the Principality of Cainsoe, Belford's ally.
The border towns of the Principality of Cainsoe were instantly reduced to ruins by the countless high-explosive bombs unleashed by Lenin's bombers. Because Lenin's forces failed to issue advance warnings of the air raids in accordance with international law of war, civilian casualties and missing persons were so numerous that the government struggled to compile accurate statistics. Celine was one of them.
Two days later, a meeting of seven major nations, including Medea, was held. The Peace Coalition, formed around them, declared Frogen and Lenin, who had violated international law and peace treaties during wartime and massacred civilians, to the world as "war criminal nations." At the same time, Medea declared the dissolution of the alliance and the dissolution of the alliance with Frogen. A Peace Coalition was formed to suppress them, and a Conquest Alliance centered around Frogen was also formed.
Peace, conquest. The worst world war in human history began, a total war between great powers divided by common cause and shared purpose.
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