Concept: World - Chapter 11: Sacrifice and Choice (2)

Ethel spent the Second Squad's standby day in his own room.

Unlike the Second Squad, who remained on their floor throughout the day, he wasn't required to stay with them. As long as he didn't leave Central Headquarters, he was free to spend his standby time wherever he wished.

By now, he had become familiar with the Second Squad's combat style.

Including Soth's Concept Release.

"During Concept Release: Ricochet Plane, he can freely control the direction of every reflected attack. He can also reinforce the rebound by injecting additional Force into the reflection. Whether it's bullets or blades, everything gets reflected."

It was a Concept Release capable of turning perfect defense into offense in an instant.

There were countless tactical applications.

None of them, however, were what Ethel needed to worry about.

Unlike in the Third Squad, where he helped direct battlefield tactics, the Second Squad only expected him to minimize casualties.

In fact, tactics weren't on his mind at all.

Lying on his bed with his eyes closed, he listened to voices that didn't exist.

"If sacrificing my entire arm is what it takes to achieve the objective..."

A severed arm, dripping with blood, appeared before his eyes.

He knew it was only a hallucination.

He ignored it.

But he was beginning to fear...

...that the voice was right.

What exactly was sacrifice?

To accomplish a mission...

...did one truly have to sacrifice everything—

—even human lives?

He already knew the answer.

Yinbing had told him.

Soth had told him.

But when that moment finally arrived...

Would he really be able to make that choice?

Only now did he truly understand why Tia had chosen the path she walked.

No.

I can't think like this.

He forced himself to breathe.

There was no room for emotion on the battlefield.

Only absolute reason.

Captains protected their squad members.

They did everything they could to keep them alive.

Yet when the time came...

...they still chose sacrifice.

If even they could do it...

...what excuse did someone like him have?

This wasn't murder.

It was a necessary evil.

...

Then why...

Why was Oenone still unable to face the members of the First Squad?

To her...

Choosing sacrifice was no different from killing them herself.

The ones sacrificed wouldn't resent her.

They had accepted that possibility the moment they enlisted.

The others who witnessed it wouldn't blame her either.

They all knew this was simply how war worked.

But what about the one who made the decision?

If he survived...

...because someone else had been sacrificed in his place...

Could he still face himself afterward?

For ordinary Force users—

and even for most Lost Ones—

they would likely never stand in that position.

They would only ever be the ones sacrificed.

But Ethel was different.

If he truly wished to become the strategist directing battles from the rear...

Then someday...

He would be the one ordering someone else to their death.

"..."

Ethel slowly sat upright.

He shook his head, forcing the hallucinations and voices away.

For the first time since joining the battle force...

He felt completely lost.

Unable to change anything,

all he could do...

...was pray that the day he had to choose would arrive as late as possible.

The Second Squad's standby duty ended at six in the evening.

Unlike the Third Squad's shortened standby schedule, which existed to keep inexperienced soldiers out of nighttime combat, the Second Squad's shift simply ended because Tia only took half a day off each month.

As soon as six o'clock arrived, Ethel left his room in search of dinner.

He chose not to eat inside Central Headquarters.

Instead, he went out alone.

Right now...

He wanted to be by himself.

After finishing dinner, another problem presented itself.

Before joining the battle force...

Ethel had never had a nightlife.

He had no idea where someone was supposed to go at this hour.

He only wanted something—

anything—

that could make him forget the thoughts inside his head, even if only briefly.

After standing there for a while...

He turned around and headed back toward Central Headquarters.

Inside Drunken Night City,

Ethel allowed alcohol to numb his thoughts.

For the first time in days,

the question weighing on his mind finally loosened its grip.

Perhaps...

Oenone had felt something similar during the gathering.

The warmth of alcohol spread through his body.

His head grew pleasantly light.

The entire world seemed to sway gently around him.

As he rested his forehead against the bar, savoring the rare moment of silence...

Someone took the seat beside him.

"Were you waiting for me today?"

The moment he heard the voice,

Ethel's drunken haze vanished.

Beside him sat none other than—

Captain Tia.

"N-No..."

"I didn't know you'd be here..."

He stumbled over every word.

"Really?"

"Then why have you shown up here on the thirteenth two months in a row?"

"...Huh?"

Only then did Ethel realize—

the night before the simulation battle...

had also been the thirteenth.

"It was... just a coincidence."

Tia said nothing more.

She accepted the cocktail the bartender handed her and took a small sip.

"Something's troubling you."

It wasn't a question.

It was a statement.

"Yes."

"Go talk to Oenone."

"She's your captain."

"That's her job."

"...Captain Tia."

"May I ask you something?"

Perhaps it was the alcohol.

Perhaps it was courage borrowed from intoxication.

Either way...

He asked a question he never would have dared while sober.

Tia glanced sideways at him.

Her cold eyes slowly swept across him.

"Go ahead."

"When you're forced to choose..."

"When someone has to die..."

"What should I do?"

"The option that causes the least damage."

Her answer came immediately.

"What if..."

"The choice is between sacrificing someone else..."

"...or saving myself?"

Tia's eyes widened.

In an instant—

the nightmare she had spent years trying to bury resurfaced.

Almost reflexively,

she emptied the entire glass in one gulp.

Even that wasn't enough.

She snapped her fingers toward the bartender.

Another drink.

Beside her,

Ethel waited quietly,

too drunk to notice what he'd just awakened.

"It was me..."

"I was the one who got him killed..."

Her voice was barely audible.

Only she herself could hear it.

"...What?"

"I would sacrifice myself."

"No matter what."

She forced the words out,

her expression calm despite the storm beneath it.

"Even if..."

"That sacrifice leads to something even worse in the future?"

It was the very thing

Oenone...

and Cypher...

had tried to tell her countless times.

Yet Tia had never changed.

She couldn't.

Because...

She herself had survived...

...only because someone else had made the wrong choice.

She turned to look at Ethel once more.

His head had already fallen onto the counter.

Fast asleep.

Holding the second glass in her hand,

Tia drifted back into memories she could never escape.

She knew.

She had always known.

She was making the wrong choice.

Walking the wrong path.

A path that would eventually place everyone she wished to protect...

...in even greater danger.

Yet the obsession buried inside her refused to let her change.

"Captain..."

"...why?"

"Haha..."

"My body just moved on its own."

"We can still make it..."

"If we hurry back now—"

"It's too late."

"I already know."

"What are you saying?!"

"Stop joking around!"

"Tia..."

"I'm an idiot."

"I've spent my whole life making the wrong choices."

"If someday..."

"You have a choice..."

"Don't become like me..."

His voice faded.

The light left his eyes.

And with it...

Tia's soul disappeared as well.

"...How could I not become like you?"

"You were my hero."

The present-day Tia whispered softly into the empty glass.

ns216.73.217.114da2

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