Iden spent a week holed up in one of the officer rooms Erwin had approved.
On the desk, the stack of documents Melissa brought was piled like a mountain.
Unit members' personnel records, duty logs, maintenance history, accident reports, and even official documents.
He didn't use tricks like scanning only what looked important.
He read from beginning to end, without omitting anything.
He didn't skip numbers carelessly, and left marks on ambiguous expressions to ask Melissa.
His sense of time blurred.
The boundary between day and night could only be gauged by the thickness of the documents.
Around the time his eyes felt like they would pop out, Iden lowered his head pressing his temples.
His vision shook for a moment.
He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, catching his breath briefly.
"Take it easy. They aren't urgent things."
Melissa approached carefully and put down a teacup.
A cozy yet subtle scent spread.
"It's baby's breath tea. Good for fatigue."
"Thanks."
Iden nodded and lifted the cup.
In a week, Iden was showing the attitude of a superior quite well.
It was Melissa's earnest request.
To treat her as a Senior Adjutant would.
Iden took a sip of tea, and felt the warmth filling his empty stomach.
"Why are you overworking yourself to this extent?"
Sincere worry bloomed fully on Melissa's small face.
"If you keep this up, you'll really collapse."
It was definitely a fatigue of a different texture from mercenary life.
Should he say the weight of hardship moved from body to mind?
Iden thought for a moment, then smiled ambiguously.
"Because it's a habit."
He spoke shortly.
Melissa didn't ask further.
Instead, she nodded and took a step back.
She thought it was an answer fitting for her Senior Adjutant whom she had watched for a week.
Because he really worked like it was a habit.
Iden drank tea and fell into thought.
The time left until the war is at most a little over 1 year.
However, the outer castle defense repair had to be planned again from scratch.
On record, it was 'maintenance', but the actual state was close to neglect.
He couldn't understand that fact at all.
The Engineering Captain is the Lord's daughter.
That daughter visited directly to demand budget increase, and the justification was also clear.
But the answer that returned was 'That's not what I supervise'.
It didn't make sense.
The story that the Lord isn't involved in budget allocation was something that couldn't be established especially in a border city.
Even if he isn't involved, it means he didn't review even once even though his own daughter and the head of the core defense unit complained about the unreasonableness of the budget.
If he had reviewed, if he had inspected the state of the outer castle, the current situation couldn't have been created.
Eventually, the current situation was highly likely the decision of the Lord soaked in greed and debauchery.
An excuse to avoid responsibility.
A choice to hide behind immediate profit.
Lord Valewin had clearly acted as a cowardly father in front of his daughter.
Iden put down the teacup.
The site condition seen on the first day of appointment, and the gloom recorded in detail in the documents.
He even worried that perhaps the time of 1 year might be insufficient.
Last night, he had asked Erwin.
If there was no other way to pull budget.
Or if additional budget allocation is confirmed, how long it takes.
Because if he borrowed the power of the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter, he might be able to borrow possibility.
But as recorded in the document, Erwin was already skeptical.
To her, who had no leisure handling the Engineering Unit's problems faced right now, 'budget increase' was no longer a consideration.
Time named procedure was always slower than war.
If the supplementary budget takes time, preparation inevitably becomes late, and if late, people die.
"Hmm..."
Iden let out a groan.
Hearing such Iden's groan, Melissa was a little puzzled.
It felt excessive.
Or, it felt like something was urgent.
She also knew about Iden's alias.
She also knew about the existence of the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter.
She didn't understand why such a person bothered to come to this barren place and walk a hard path.
Melissa, who was caressing the teacup, carefully broached the subject.
"Um, Senior Adjutant-nim."
Iden turned his head.
"May I ask something?"
Melissa continued carefully.
"You have the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter. With that document... you could have gone to a place much better and much more comfortable than here."
Her gaze scanned the officer room once.
Desk full of documents, temporarily patched chair leg, still remaining smell of stone dust.
It was too shabby a place to serve someone acknowledged by the Grand Duke family.
"I don't really understand why you bothered to choose this place."
Iden didn't answer for a moment.
Looking at the castle wall visible outside the window, he catches his breath shortly.
Knowing this question would come, he had prepared the answer in advance too.
Rather, it was a question that came late.
Turning his gaze towards Melissa, he spoke calmly.
"Protecting something, isn't it romantic?"
Melissa's eyes grew a little big.
Iden didn't add.
As if that one phrase was enough, he rose from his seat and picked up his uniform coat.
Melissa also rose from her seat and asked.
"Wh, where are you going?"
Iden answered while buttoning his uniform coat.
"To the Main Castle."
After Iden headed to the Main Castle citing budget issues, Melissa received Erwin's call and arrived at the office.
Erwin spoke without taking her eyes off the document.
"Melissa."
Melissa, who was standing at the door, immediately fixed her posture and approached.
"Yes. Captain."
"How is he."
It was a short question.
Although there was no subject or object, the meaning was clear.
Melissa thought for a moment, then organized what she saw and heard and opened her mouth.
"He is trying to grasp the Engineering Unit work even reducing his sleep at night. He doesn't skip a single document carelessly, and checks everything. He is passionate... and seems sincere."
Erwin's pen, which was moving ceaselessly, stopped for a moment.
She was roughly guessing.
That he wouldn't fall out overnight.
Because his face returning from site inspection was rather blooming.
"So it's a little strange."
Melissa added.
"Usually, if it's someone specially promoted, they are calculating, right? But the Senior Adjutant is... far from calculating, he looks a bit urgent as if chased by something."
Erwin nodded without a word.
She was also vaguely feeling that feeling.
Since it was the first time seeing an adjutant who holed up in the officer room and lived in seclusion as soon as he was appointed.
"So?"
Melissa continued.
"I asked just in case. Why a person who even received the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter applied to such a place and volunteered for hardship."
Erwin's gaze slowly went up and reached Melissa.
That question was, in fact, what she also wanted to ask.
"What did he say."
Melissa chose words for a moment, then conveyed as is.
"He said, 'Protecting something, isn't it romantic?' It's quite strange, right?"
"...."
For a moment, Erwin couldn't say anything.
While she paused, the air in the officer room became loose briefly.
And very subtly, Erwin's mouth relaxed.
It was an expression she herself wasn't conscious of.
[Protecting.]
That word had disappeared from her life for a while.
A word she didn't even know she forgot amidst fiercely woven budget tables, crack reports, and consecutive cut notices.
That one word heard suddenly dragged up old memories.
Early days.
When she had nothing.
When all she had were obstinacy and will.
Herself who vowed to protect at least this city's safety with her own hands.
It was a heart she had folded away from sometime amidst tight finances and endless responsibility.
And it was a heart she hadn't dared to take out again.
Erwin lowered her gaze to the document again with an expressionless face.
"So, is the Senior Adjutant still absorbed in documents?"
However, when the answer that should have been heard was delayed and she raised her head again.
"No. That... he said he's going to the Main Castle..."
Erwin's brow furrowed.
When she heard the report that Iden headed to the Main Castle, Erwin stopped her pen for a moment.
It wasn't an unexpected event.
No, perhaps it was too predictable a choice.
'...As expected.'
Is this it.
That thought came up first.
Seeing the Engineering Unit's reality for a week, checking numbers, and stepping on traces of cracks and neglect directly, she thought it was a natural result.
That there is nothing more to do here.
That there is no reason to bother staying in this mud with a recommendation letter.
Erwin had no intention to blame that choice, nor keep it in mind.
He was passionate, his questions were persistent, and his judgment was fast and accurate.
But the more such a person is, the faster they realize reality.
The Engineering Unit's problem wasn't of a nature that could be solved by individual will.
Even if he is one who received the Wintel family's stipend.
'....'
Of course, she didn't conclude.
Erwin unknowingly clenched and unclenched the back of her hand.
Main Castle.
That word remained in her head.
Don't tell me he went to request budget allocation?
But if he scanned the documents, he wouldn't think of doing such futile things....
The treasurer hid behind the Lord, and the Lord hid behind numbers.
Responsibility was always postponed, and that wall was hard enough not to be broken.
Enough that even if a mere Senior Adjutant rams into it for thousands of days, it won't budge.
That's why Erwin was cynical.
Whether he requests withdrawal of assignment, or requests budget allocation and gets frustrated, the result would be the same.
In the first place, this wasn't a place worthy of harboring the Official Wintel Recommendation Letter.
'....'
Erwin picked up the pen again.
And quietly, opened the next report.
Nothing would change.
As always done, as always flowing, the Engineering Unit does its best to protect the outer castle.
Erwin thinking it's just that.
Regrettably.
"...Se, Senior Adjutant-nim. Wh, what is all this?"
Although cracks were forming in her skepticism that had been fixed for a long time.
Iden, who headed to the Main Castle, had returned dragging a cart with a man who appeared to be an attendant.
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