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LOS 79
Giles couldn't believe it. How had he been able to just sit still before? It felt as if the Giles of that time had been a being momentarily detached from himself.
At this moment, Giles's nerves were completely on edge. On the surface, he appeared docile, but his mind was racing faster than ever.
Anna had awakened him while he was standing still, momentarily lost in despair. Since meeting her, even if only through the radio, Giles was absolutely not the same as before.
He didn't know how many days were left until the trial, but it certainly wasn't enough to allow for any lingering.
Giles sat like a compliant prisoner, staring into the void. The soldier on guard must not suspect him. He had to wait for the right moment.
Giles waited calmly for the appropriate instant to arrive. Just as he had long ago, when he was drafted into the sniper unit and waited for the target to enter his range.
Luise had said Anna would be fine. But he couldn't believe Luise's words. Anna had risked ruining her interview to scream for him to please come back. That fact alone made it seem like Anna was not fine at all.
He could not let her efforts go to waste.
Giles had to do something. Even if the probability of success was extremely low.
How many days had passed since the broadcast? Though he had been searched under the pretext of borrowing a lighter, Giles had kept a relatively low profile. To the point where the soldiers looked at him as if wondering, 'Is this really that vicious bastard?'
But did he do that because he actually wanted to be a model prisoner?
Giles closed his eyes and muttered under his breath. Please. Please. The opportunity must come today. He didn't want to waste another day.
Anna was waiting for him...
Before long, he felt a faint flickering in the surroundings. Giles opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. The lights were blinking. After flickering on and off a few times, his vision suddenly went completely dark.
In an instant, there was commotion outside the door.
The faint sound of soldiers talking reached him.
"Damn it, what now?"
"It seems to be a power outage."
"Heinrich! Follow Hindler and get it restored as quickly as possible!"
"Understood."
Since the majority of Beldam's main power sources had been bombed, power outages had become a very common occurrence. The lights would come back on within a few hours at most, but the soldiers didn't have the luxury of waiting that long.
Giles stood up after confirming the sound of the guarding soldier moving away from the door. He took out a screw he had spent several nights prying from the floorboards, hidden inside his shoe. Click. The lock released via the screw, and the handcuffs fell to the floor.
Now his two hands were free. Giles took out the lighter he had hidden inside the mattress and set fire to everything that would burn easily.
Air circulation was necessary to start a fire effectively. Using a poker lying in the abandoned fireplace, he tore away some boards.
As soon as he opened the window, the wind rushed in. The fire began to devour the room in an instant. The lights had not yet regained their glow. This meant there was enough time. Given the structure of the building, it would take some time before they noticed.
Now, Giles would open the door and escape the room. Then, he would find a soldier left alone, strangle him, and steal his uniform jacket. In the darkness, it wouldn't be easy to distinguish Giles from the other soldiers. He planned to use that gap to stealthily slip out of the mansion.
Giles grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it. But the door was locked. For a moment, his movements stopped. Had they been locking the door normally? At least, he didn't recall hearing the sound of a lock turning.
He was momentarily flustered by the unexpected situation, but he soon regained his composure. Giles swung his fist and smashed the glass window in the door. He tried to reach through it, but he couldn't quite reach the doorknob.
Now he had to break the door down with force. He slammed his body against the door. He felt that if he repeated this a few more times, he could break through. Despite coughing from the smoke, he tried to break the door with all his might.
Just then, a familiar voice rang out.
"Giles! What the hell are you doing in there!"
Damn it! Giles covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve. The flames, fueled by the wind, did not wait for him for long. He was so close to breaking the door. Because of the coughing, he couldn't put strength into his body. To make matters worse, his head began to spin.
It's okay. The attempt was good.
That was the last thought that crossed his mind before he lost consciousness.
Luise was smoking outside. She remembered her colleagues nagging her to stop smoking so much, but she didn't care. How was she supposed to live if she couldn't even do this? People like Luise either became alcoholics or chain smokers. Or perhaps something even worse.
She was thinking about what Anna had said. She didn't think Anna was a con artist who had teamed up with Giles.
The reason she had visited Anna was simply because she was curious how she could have ruined a broadcast in such a way. She wondered what on earth Giles Hessen had done to her, and whether she was even in a sane state.
However, she ended up hearing things she shouldn't have.
'The reason he was able to avoid going mad was that he clung to his memories of the past until the very end. That's how Giles was able to avoid turning into a completely different person.'
But was that all?
'At first, he said he had thrown all the events of the past out of his head. That he felt he would go mad if he held onto them. But later, he confessed to me that it was all a lie. While telling me about his memories of Beldam, he said he was afraid that without them, he would truly become a monster.'
Sigh... Luise let out a sigh in the middle of her cigarette. This was because it wasn't just Giles's story.
A person who desperately clings to the past to avoid becoming something other than themselves. That was Luise's story too.
Was Giles like that as well? But how was that possible? Giles had killed his friends and even his only sister. How is it possible to live while cherishing memories of the good times after doing such things?
If that were true, how was he really able to avoid going mad?
If Anna wasn't lying... how many lies were contained in the propaganda the government had spread?
Luise shook her head to scatter the puzzle pieces. It was just useless thinking. There was nothing to be gained by being emotionally swayed by a prisoner who would soon be dead.
She muttered in her head. Don't forget, Luise Gottlieb. Giles Hessen is no longer your peer; he is your mission. You just have to carry out the mission. Just as you always have...
Taking another drag of her cigarette, she absentmindedly looked up. Rather than a thoughtless action, she felt an intuition that something strange was happening.
Sure enough, a window that should have been completely blocked by boards was open. That wasn't all. The light visible through that gap... could absolutely not be the light of a lamp.
"Fuck!"
Cursing, she turned on her flashlight and rushed into the safe house.
Giles! Giles Hessen!
As if to prevent his body from becoming any more lethargic, someone made a noise that felt like it would tear through his ears. It sounded like something was breaking.
The woman continued to shout. "Get out! Get the hell out, you bastard!" Giles tried to move his body. But he had no strength. Sweat streamed down his face.
Is this the end?
Just as that thought occurred, heat engulfed his entire body.
Shortly after regaining consciousness, Giles fell back into darkness.
"Wake up."
Someone splashed water on his face. Giles opened his eyes blurrily. His vision was bright again. However, his mind was not yet there.
As if she couldn't tolerate him not waking up, Luise repeatedly slapped his cheeks. It hurt, but it was effective. Every time he was hit by her rough palm, it felt as if lightbulbs in his head were turning on one by one.
However, Luise, thinking he was still hovering between life and death, was gradually losing her reason.
"Wake up! Fuck, wake up! Giles!"
After hitting Giles's face like a madwoman, she lifted something that looked like a weapon. Seeing this, a subordinate who could no longer stand by grabbed her arm.
"Major."
"What, let go of me!"
"You're a bit too excited."
"Don't talk nonsense! I have to wake Giles up! I have to! If he can't open his eyes, he'll just die!"
"Major Gottlieb..."
Ultimately, unable to resist her subordinate's dissuasion, Luise dropped the object in her hand. She shouted one last time.
"Captain Hessen!"
He felt that her voice sounded a bit strange. Giles struggled to open his eyes. Drenched in water and shivering, he slowly realized that it wasn't just the water making him wet.
Luise was crying, her eyes bloodshot.
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