PTSD Military Chaplain of the Academy

Dennis wakes up around five or six in the morning, just as the sun starts to rise.

Upon waking in the twilight hours between dawn and morning, he finishes a quick wash as usual and hurriedly grabs a sandwich that his wife has prepared for him before heading out of the house.

Running a small company specializing in building interior designs, Dennis arrives at the office only around seven o’clock. His usual start time is always at seven in the morning.

Once at the office, he greets the staff and heads to the cramped break room to grab a coffee, receiving work orders through a phone that he paid a high price for.

Although expensive, government offices and referral agencies that provide work nowadays mostly communicate via phone.

This was not the case before the war. It wasn’t until after the war ended that communication technology through magic tools could rapidly spread to the private sector. This was the so-called “bright side of the war.”

Dennis holds the phone for a long time while sipping coffee at his desk. The phone remains silent, not ringing.

Contrary to Dennis’s hopes, work doesn’t come in every day at the office.

His office isn’t terribly large, but it isn’t big either. At most, there were only ten employees.

It’s slightly below average in size. It’s best not to expect a flood of work to pour in as soon as he sits down.

As a result, Dennis, who had come in early to match the staff’s arrival time, had nothing to do but stare blankly at the phone. He was different from the other employees who were busy tinkering with various equipment as soon as they arrived at the office.

Hence, today, too, Dennis looks at the phone.

About three days out of the week, the phone is quiet. He feels a bit anxious that work might dry up, but it’s not too concerning. At least, the office had never completely run out of work.

This is because there has been a so-called reconstruction boom in refurbishing dilapidated or code-violating buildings on the outskirts of the city.

However, that was already three years ago. It’s about time the bubble bursts in this nationwide project carried out by the royal family and construction development offices.

Dennis wasn’t the type to expect great luck. After returning from the battlefield, he became even less so.

He just wanted to live slowly and steadily, looking ahead with a long-term perspective. He was far from a laid-back person. He simply desired a stable life.

Dennis knew well how many young men had met a short and thin end to their lives on the battlefield.

Amidst that chaos, he had survived.

If he survived, he could continue to live on afterward.

There were many who couldn’t, but he was not one of them.

“Boss.”

At the call from an employee, Dennis looked up. He glanced at the phone, which remained silent.

“Are we heading out?”

“…Is it toward Pavisk?”

“Yes. These days, that’s mostly the case. We finished work at that shopping district by last week, but we haven’t wrapped things up yet.”

The reason work didn’t come in every day was that interior design work typically wasn’t completed in just a day or two.

Dennis slowly nodded and stood up from his seat. Perhaps due to the coffee, there was a slight sourness lingering in his mouth.

If the work wasn’t finished, now was the time to go out to work.

Dennis leaves the office again at eight o’clock. Unlike when he came in, he brings along a few of the office staff. The remaining people at the office consist of two or three administrative staff.

“Hasn’t the pension increased lately?”

An employee walking next to Dennis kicked at a stone on the road. Just as Dennis had participated in the war, around five or six of the employees at the interior design office were indeed former soldiers, much like him.

As a war veteran who participated in the war and returned injured, Dennis received a monthly pension. The amount he received as a soldier finishing his time at the battlefield was barely enough, but it wasn’t bad since it was combined with the disabled veterans’ subsidy.

Of course, the price he paid wasn’t light.

His right hand’s fourth finger was almost entirely gone, and his left eye was cloudy and blurry, rendering it nearly invisible unless he wore special glasses. This was due to a few seconds of exposure to enemy nerve gas.

Still, if someone were to ask whether surviving was a blessing, he would say yes, but being healthy was paramount.

Thinking that old sayings never prove wrong, Dennis nodded.

“Didn’t they say the laws have changed?”

“I’m pretty sure they mentioned reducing pensions a few years back…. I guess they made a mistake.”

“It doesn’t matter. They say they’re increasing pensions now.”

“They should have done this long ago.”

Just as the complaining employee said, wouldn’t it have been great if this had happened sooner? Dennis awkwardly scratched his rough chin and let out a sound as he reflected on the matter.

“Did you shave over the weekend?”

“My wife doesn’t like it.”

Right after being discharged, Dennis had been working like a dog.

He needed money to send his daughter to the academy and to ensure that thuggish boys wouldn’t look down on her when she got there. The tuition for the academy wasn’t cheap to begin with.

As he lived without taking care of his appearance and solely focused on work, his wife did not particularly like the rough stubble that had grown on his face.

Recently, she had complained about it a few times, so Dennis quietly shaved. Just the fact that their marriage hadn’t soured during all his hard work was largely thanks to his wife’s considerable understanding.

“Honestly, I don’t think you should grow a beard, boss. If you do, you’ll look like a complete bandit.”

“Do you want your salary cut?”

“I’m sorry.”

Looking at the yawning and grumbling employees, Dennis continued to walk.

Unlike the subordinate employees, who were trudging along, Dennis was different. Unlike his right hand, he absentmindedly rubbed the wedding ring on his still sound left hand, calculating his pension.

“In a few years, Sonette will enter the academy…. Since the pension has increased, I might barely make it for the tuition.”

Even upon reevaluation, the academy tuition was not light. Especially, the academy in the city was even more so.

Given that he wasn’t in a financially comfortable situation, relocating because the city’s academy was expensive would amount to more trouble than it was worth. Not only were the moving costs considerable, but he had recently signed a contract for a decent single-family home due to veteran benefits. If he moved, he would have to give up those benefits.

In the end, it was all debt, but since the laws had been amended, it wasn’t as significant a sum. Thankfully, this alleviated some of Dennis’s burden.

Aside from that, if the pension hadn’t increased after the law changed, Dennis would have to suggest to his daughter that she give up on attending the academy. This was an unpleasant thought as a father and the head of the household.

“The money I was supposed to receive after this job…. Tsk. At this rate, after paying out salaries this month, there will be nothing left.”

Hiring employees with similar backgrounds like Dennis who also had war experience was a commendable thing. Morally and in terms of Dennis’s own satisfaction.

Dennis wanted to help those who were in a similar situation as his. He understood very well how former soldiers who had been discharged and unceremoniously thrown into society felt.

However, paying salaries to his employees was no small burden. There was enough money remaining for Dennis and his family to get by, but with a lovely daughter growing up, Dennis had to save money.

Considering that Dennis wasn’t that old and didn’t yet need to think about retirement, he wanted to send his daughter to at least the academy she dearly wished to attend. Although she was still very young, getting a head start was always beneficial.

As he pondered these various thoughts, Dennis strolled around the large central square until he finally arrived at his workplace, the Pavisk administration district. He spotted the rundown shopping street in the distance.

“Let’s go. The interior painting will be handled by the Goss team.”

“Yes, boss.”

Dennis finally arrives at work just as it turns nine o’clock.

A letter arrived at the office, where he had not been present, around lunchtime.

—

Now, in a place he did not recognize, a man opened his eyes once more.

But he couldn’t see anything ahead. Only a slight hint of red darkness blocked his view.

With his most important visual information cut off, he could only gather information about his surroundings using less familiar senses: his hearing, smell, and touch.

– Scritch-scratch!

The sound of something moving quickly. Startled by the noise made by a small object skimming the ground, he shuddered and trembled.

– Squeak?

It was a mouse. A creature he didn’t need to fear.

“Hoo… hoo…”

However, that was enough to induce fear. The man knew all too well why mice wandered around in these kinds of places.

The presence of a mouse signified that this was not a place where humans lived.

Or perhaps, someone was deliberately raising mice.

No, perhaps it was both.

As the sounds his hearing picked up consisted only of the mouse scurrying around, he found that the only senses he could trust now were his smell and touch. The man frequently twitched his nose, where hard crusts had settled.

He could feel the crust within his nose peeling away from his skin, and a few strands of nose hair being yanked out, but there was nothing he could do about it.

A slightly warm and stinging sensation suddenly returned. The man realized that what was dribbling down his thigh was blood from his nose.

As he lowered his head, more blood dripped down in a steady stream. The sensation of becoming lukewarm and wet was not pleasant.

As he kept his head down for a while, the nosebleed eventually stopped. However, he did not dare to sniffle again to smell. He especially wished to avoid injuring himself, particularly bleeding again.

Thus, the last remaining sense was touch.

He didn’t have to concentrate to feel it. The cold air and the occasional chilling breeze skimmed over his body, and each small movement sent waves of intense pain coursing through him.

“Huff… ugh!”

Fear consumed his heart. A month had already passed, yet he had no idea where he was. Since being brought here, he had only experienced removing the blindfold a few times.

If anything, the opportunity to take off the blindfold might come now.

– Squeeek—.

Now, only when he heard this chilling sound.

“Ugh…! Hoo…!”

The man reflexively wanted to scream. Of course, given that his hands and feet were tied to a chair and a gag in his mouth, there was nothing he could do.

The sound of approaching footsteps stopped right in front of him. As he gasped heavily in terror, as usual, a blinding light shone into the man’s eyes.

“Hoo…!”

“Wow… You’re really something.”

Struggling against the sheer intensity of the light that he faced after more than half a day, a voice that resembled that of a demon seeped into his ears.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

“Honestly, things could have gone better…. Don’t you think?”

“Ugh….”

The woman in front of him smiled sweetly. Her ponytail swayed along with her.

Sweating cold, the man glanced down at his hands. His hand with three fingers cut off looked pitifully dreadful.

“I hope you’ll answer today. It’s not like I enjoy doing this, you know?”

Regardless of her words, the woman in the jet-black coat reached out toward the tray beside her. A metal tray gleaming with shine, incongruous with the decaying scenery of the moldy room.

As she lifted the kettle from the tray, her hand exhibited unusual grace. Steam billowed from the kettle’s spout.

“My younger sister doesn’t know that I’m doing this kind of work. If she were to find out what kind of person her sister is… that would surely scare her, right?”

“Ugh… ugh…”

“Is that not the case? Hmmm…. Well, even so, this is all for the sake of the country.”

“Ugh! Ugh!”

“Don’t worry, we were about to start anyway.”

The white cloth covered his face in layers. That in itself would make it difficult to breathe.

“Since you likely won’t cooperate… I suppose I’ll just go through with it? We can talk afterward, right?”

“Ugh—! Ugh—!”

“Yes, yes. Academy terror attempt suspect. Shall we begin?”

Nina von Valdek tilted the kettle filled with hot water. Slowly, but making sure the stream didn’t stop.

– Swoosh—!

“Ugh!! Ugh!! Uugh!!”

“Hang in there~ Don’t worry, you won’t die~. If you faint, I’ll just refill the kettle once more?”

“Ugg—!!”

Within the abandoned factory, the man’s screams continued.

His suffocating howls broke only after an hour had passed.

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