PTSD Military Chaplain of the Academy

Alan Madison, not the top professor at the Caldera Imperial Academy, enjoyed alcohol.

No, it would be more accurate to say that he used to enjoy it.

He only drank occasionally during the rare times he socialized, and it had been a long time since he had smelled alcohol in his daily life.

Until a few years ago, he had been trapped in alcohol addiction.

This was right after the Great War ended. In other words, only four years ago.

It was a continuous struggle to get through each day without relying on alcohol.

There was a time when he drank so much in such a short period that he lost consciousness and collapsed on a street whose location he couldn’t even remember.

He had woken up several times in a nearby public security station. However, that was considered an inevitable part of life for Madison.

He hadn’t always enjoyed drinking before he went to the battlefield. It was just that there had been no other form of stimulant like that in the war.

Many soldiers used stimulants. The pill-type stimulants supplied by the military allowed soldiers to be active for twenty-four hours on a single pill, but the addiction and side effects were severe.

So, more soldiers often sought alternatives for the military-grade stimulants.

Some boiled bitter, tasteless black tea as if it were water. In worse situations, boiling water was restricted, yet some stubbornly managed to brew tea.

Others relied on cigarettes and alcohol. Knowing that the supplied pill-type stimulants weren’t good for their health, it was ironic that they turned to equally harmful cigarettes and alcohol.

However, the choice between living in a ruined state immediately after the war or slowly succumbing to addiction was a different matter.

Most soldiers chose the latter.

Madison was one of them.

After the war ended, while there were soldiers who suffered severe injuries, like losing an arm or a leg, Madison was fortunate enough not to endure such horrific fates and drank freely with all his limbs intact.

Countless times, he drank until he was completely drunk and could not remember the previous day.

It was a nightmare so severe that he sometimes wondered if a portion of his blood was made up of alcohol.

Alan Madison didn’t particularly try to hide this past from those around him.

It was simply that after living in a drunken stupor immediately after the Great War, it hadn’t been long since he had almost quit drinking.

– *Pong—!*

Unlike the past, when he drank alcohol instead of water as if it were a necessity, now he only drank during the annual gatherings of the academy’s professors.

The bottle of alcohol popped open with a clear sound, releasing a distinctive, sharp, and unpleasant aroma.

“Hmm…. This scent. I can’t resist it.”

It was the apple cider he loved, and among his favorites, it held a special place.

Sitting in the quiet shade of his front yard, Madison unscrewed the cap of the apple cider and tilted the bottle to take a sip.

Since it was a light apple cider that hadn’t been aged for long, the remaining sweet apple flavor filled his mouth delightfully.

“It would be great to have this with vanilla ice cream… or maybe cranberry pie, cheese and crackers, or even rich foods like turkey or pork….”

The slumbering instincts of a drunkard stirred within him, but Madison barely managed to suppress them and took another sip of apple cider. The cool spring breeze gently brushed his hair.

“Speaking of which, spring is almost over, isn’t it?”

With the bottle still at his lips, Madison gazed across the yard at the vegetable garden, lost in thought.

It had been three months since he submitted his leave of absence from the Caldera Imperial Academy.

As expected, his leave was approved, and Madison could take precisely one year off, as noted in the leave document.

In truth, he hadn’t intended to be a professor at the academy even after the war ended. It was merely a fitting job for someone like him, who wanted to forget about drinking and immerse himself in something else.

During the height of the war, he had to be conscripted as a wizard rather than an academy professor.

This was despite most educators at the academy being exempt; however, some unlucky ones were dragged to the battlefield.

Madison was among the unluckiest. He had been deployed near the front lines.

Although he had participated in the war,

he had recently brought back tomatoes harvested from there to make a salad with cheese, a perfect side dish….

“…No, that’s not right.”

Madison suddenly snapped back to reality and shook his head. The unpleasant scent of apple cider and alcohol lightly tickled his sensitive nose.

He wanted to drink more, but if he continued in this state, it would be hard to control himself. He quickly closed the cap of the apple cider bottle.

The unique scent of cider dissipated into the air.

“……”

Realizing this, Madison blankly looked up at the tree he was leaning against.

“Being forgotten is sad, and clinging on to the end is despair….”

But what disappears is fearsome.

After pondering for a moment, Madison ultimately reopened the cap of the apple cider bottle.

“Ah….”

Even if nothing happens, a person could die from an accident tomorrow, and even if one does not go outside, they could perish today due to a gas leak or some other cause.

At the corner of the season, Madison continued to savor what might be his last apple cider.

She returned just as Madison was nearing the end of his apple cider.

* * * * *

The seasons return.

Spring is ending, and signs of the approaching hot summer are becoming evident.

“Ugh…. The nightmare of summer is already coming to mind….”

Sofia Sub-priest mumbled while sprawled on the professor’s office sofa, sipping a ginger ale filled with ice and enjoying the air conditioning.

As she said, summer was indeed on the verge of starting.

Considering the recent warmer weather, it seemed likely that soon, conditions appropriate for summer would be established.

Of course, it did feel a bit premature to be running the air conditioner already.

“Sofia, it’s not warm enough to be using the heating system yet, is it?”

“But, Head Priest! It’s too hot! The daytime temperature was 24 degrees today! I clearly saw it on the thermometer by the main entrance!”

“That thermometer reads 2 to 3 degrees higher than the actual temperature.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Sofia Sub-priest, who heard my words, awkwardly smiled and quietly turned off the air conditioner. She almost reached out her foot to turn it off, but considering that she was prone to feeling hot, she sighed instead.

“I’ve been feeling this lately, but it really seems like I’m raising a child.”

“Considering the age difference between you and the Head Priest, it would make sense to think that way.”

“…Are you teasing me?”

“No, that’s not it…. When you just became an adult, I was still at the academy, you know?”

“……”

Even though Sofia Sub-priest said that, I couldn’t quite recall my memory of becoming an adult. The tumultuous events of the past ten years were just too intense.

The only thing I could remember was serving as a sub-priest in the quiet outskirts of a satellite city near the city.

While I was reminiscing about those distant memories, Sofia Sub-priest suddenly stood up and poured ginger ale into the glass, which was left with only ice.

“Please, have some, Head Priest. You should drink something cool on hot days.”

“I’m not particularly fond of ginger. More than that, I’m not even hot yet.”

“Come on…. You’ll change your mind once summer comes.”

“…Shouldn’t that be decided in the summer?”

“Well, that’s true.”

With a sigh, I turned my chair to look out the window of the professor’s office.

I noticed a few groups of students walking around the Main Building Courtyard.

Students were chatting animatedly. Some laughed while viewing the freshly bloomed flowers in the flower bed.

Looking at the bright smiles of the students, which almost seemed dazzling, I thought to myself.

‘I must protect it.’

To protect means to cherish. It is something that no one can possess carelessly.

Are you prepared to lay down your life for others, or will you just take credit and run away? No one is foolish enough not to know the difference.

I am not a fool. Still, I was ready to lay down my life to protect those smiles.

‘Damian…’

Damian had asked me to protect the academy, and now I had roughly begun to understand why.

Of course, that didn’t mean I had any intention of looking out for Damian’s circumstances… not for now. It didn’t look good to agree to something that could push students into a dangerous situation during emergencies.

There were considerations to take into account. The point was, who exerted external pressure on Damian.

And….

‘The revision of the compensation bill for war veterans…. Damn it. Why do I have to think about all this when I didn’t even propose it?’

I hadn’t heard any good news from Duke Adelhaid. On the contrary, the silence only heightened my anxiety.

Since the veterans’ association, I hadn’t met Dennis separately.

I thought Meijhem might have known Dennis’s residence as he sent him a letter inviting him to the veterans’ association, and I tried visiting him….

But I hadn’t received good results. To visit Dennis with Meijhem was a second option, but I wasn’t sure if it would be a good influence to visit Dennis’s house without permission.

Even though we used to fight back-to-back, it felt pathetic to be contemplating this for such a reason. Yet, recalling the sensitive side Dennis had shown in front of the tavern made me hesitate.

Of course, I had to visit Dennis reluctantly in the end.

The problem was, Dennis had not been home every time I went to see him.

– Don’t call me Corporal—!

Dennis’s shout still lingered in my mind.

Telling me to throw away that memory that connected me to Dennis shouldn’t have been uttered in front of me.

‘Next time we meet, I have to be mindful of titles.’

Thinking that, I naturally reached out and picked up the glass on my desk.

Taking a sip of the ice-cold golden-brown, semi-transparent liquid….

“Whoa…! That’s what I was drinking…!”

“Cough! Cough! Cough!”

“That was the drink I had….”

As soon as it touched my lips, the dreadful taste of ginger invaded my mouth along with the carbonation.

Indeed, no matter how the seasons changed and time flowed, some things would always remain unpleasant.

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