Chapter 72

Father (4)

“W-what? Don’t tell me His Excellency suspects me...!”

Bones immediately shook his head.

“The person His Excellency suspects is me. Why would he suspect you, Captain Josef?”

“Ah. Of course.”

Josef forced his gaze, which kept drifting toward Haydam, back onto Bones.

“But I never imagined His Excellency would suspect you. It isn’t as though you could commission your own murder.”

After barely managing to respond and compose his expression, Josef tilted his head as though he still couldn’t understand.

“But why would he suspect you? You were the one who nearly died in this incident...”

“Apparently, the leader of Team Two never confessed that Lieutenant General Max ordered him to do it.”

“What?”

Josef’s voice rose at the unexpected answer.

He hadn’t confessed that Lieutenant General Max ordered it?

Then what exactly was the confession the Commander, Haydam, and Plato had supposedly heard?

“Then what? Are you saying the entire confession was fabricated?”

“The leader of Team Two’s real confession... no, his real testimony was...”

Haydam, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke.

Josef looked toward him, while Bones lowered his head as though he already knew what Haydam was about to say.

After glancing at Bones, Haydam continued.

“He said the incident began when Bones and Lucas stubbornly tried to distinguish themselves and accidentally killed one of their team members. According to him, they murdered the rest of the team to silence them and cover up their mistake. That was what the leader of Team Two originally told us while he was trapped in the crevasse. He claimed that he had fallen in while trying to escape from them.”

Josef’s eyes widened.

So he said exactly what I instructed him to say. Then the confession His Excellency supposedly heard... was fabricated?

Since those were the exact lines Josef had ordered the Team Two leader to deliver, he naturally concluded that the version currently known to the public—the claim that Lieutenant General Max had commissioned the murder—was the fabricated one.

Even so, he feigned ignorance and asked,

“No... then what is the confession everyone knows about?”

Bones answered in Haydam’s place.

“I only learned the truth after Lord Haydam told me. His Excellency suspected us, so he fabricated the story about Lieutenant General Max being the culprit to observe our reactions.”

So that’s what happened...

The leader of Team Two had testified, as Josef ordered, that Bones committed insubordination.

To determine whether that testimony was true, the Commander had fabricated a second confession.

That also explained why Lieutenant General Max’s punishment had been delayed until now.

“But I truly didn’t do it! The leader of Team Two, that bastard, was the one who told me Lieutenant General Max had ordered it! Lucas heard him too! Our seniors died because of Lieutenant General Max’s orders... and as if trying to kill me wasn’t enough, now he’s trying to pin the crime on me...!”

Bones continued speaking, but Josef barely heard him.

To summarize... Bones believes Lieutenant General Max ordered the attack, while the dead colonel testified that Bones committed insubordination. Their accounts don’t match, so His Excellency detained Lieutenant General Max while observing Bones’s reaction. And because Lord Haydam believes Bones, he brought him to me.

In any case, within this complicated incident, the culprit appeared to be either Max or Bones.

Josef himself wasn’t under suspicion.

That realization brought him relief.

“If Lieutenant General Max truly did this, the more I think about it, the more reprehensible it becomes. But why did you remain silent until now?”

“The reason I didn’t testify was... because even if he tried to kill me, he was still someone who had shown me great kindness and whom I sincerely respected. But this is too unfair. Please help me testify, Captain Josef.”

Bones stepped down from the sofa, knelt on the floor, and pressed his forehead against it.

“H-hey.”

“I beg you.”

While pretending to be troubled by Bones’s plea, Josef quickly calculated his options.

What should I do...?

It made no difference to Josef if Bones ended up being declared the culprit.

However, he had already lost eight valuable soldiers, including the colonel.

If Lieutenant General Max suffered no damage at all, then everything Josef had done would have been pointless.

In that case, it would be a better outcome for Josef if Lieutenant General Max were framed as the culprit and punished instead of Bones.

This might also be his final opportunity to earn favor with Haydam, the district’s future successor.

When else would Haydam personally come to him and say he needed his help?

Josef didn’t even need to prove Bones’s innocence.

He merely had to show that he believed in the innocence of a newly commissioned officer.

If such a small effort could earn Haydam’s trust, it was undoubtedly profitable.

Once he finished calculating, Josef helped Bones to his feet and firmly clasped his hand.

“Second Lieutenant Bones, I believe you. I will accompany you when you give your testimony.”

“Thank you very much, Captain...”

“Lord Haydam.”

Josef turned toward Haydam with a determined expression.

“Please leave this matter to me. This old man will watch over Second Lieutenant Bones until the end, so that no one can twist or misinterpret his testimony.”

An inscrutable smile appeared on Haydam’s lips.

He seemed so cold and calculating, yet he takes surprisingly good care of those he considers his own. Thanks to that, I’ve found a way to save myself as well.

Josef had no idea that the leader of Team Two had initially accused Bones and Lucas of pursuing him, only to confess under Haydam’s interrogation that Lieutenant General Max had ordered the attack.

He was simply pleased by the prospect of making Haydam indebted to him.

The day after Josef requested an emergency meeting of the command staff so Bones could testify, a peculiar rumor began spreading throughout the district.

***

Josef was working in his office as usual.

His only role was to arrange a place for Bones to testify and protect him until his testimony was safely delivered.

Bones was the one who would actually have to testify at the meeting.

In truth, there was nothing Josef needed to prepare.

Lord Haydam didn’t ask for anything beyond that, either.

However, his adjutant had been pacing restlessly for some time, like a dog desperate to relieve itself.

After finishing the document he was reading, Josef looked toward him.

“If you have something to say, say it.”

“N-no, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing? Have I only known you for a day or two? What is it?”

“Well...”

Apparently, the adjutant really did have something to say.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally opened his mouth.

“To be honest, it sounds rather absurd, so I wasn’t sure whether I should report it.”

“Your introduction is too long. Get to the point.”

“There is a strange rumor going around.”

“A strange rumor?”

“It concerns Colonel Samson. His death was announced as a suicide, wasn’t it?”

His adjutant also knew that Colonel Samson had been made to commit suicide.

Even though the two of them were alone in the office, the man still watched his words in case someone might overhear.

That cautiousness was typical of Josef’s adjutant.

“That’s right. What about it?”

“There are people claiming to have seen Colonel Samson.”

“What?”

Josef frowned.

Now he understood why his adjutant had hesitated instead of reporting it immediately.

“Are you saying the colonel’s ghost is wandering around?”

“That isn’t what I mean.”

The adjutant shook his head and spoke in a grave tone.

“There is a rumor that Colonel Samson is alive.”

“A rumor that the colonel is alive? Since when?”

“Several soldiers claim they saw Colonel Samson getting into former Captain Anton’s vehicle a few days ago.”

“What nonsense...”

“That is why...”

The adjutant stepped closer to Josef and lowered his voice as far as possible.

“You and I only received a report that the colonel died. Neither of us actually confirmed the body, did we? What if...”

“Are you suggesting those men failed to carry out their task properly?”

By “those men,” Josef meant the soldiers he had ordered to disguise Colonel Samson’s death as suicide.

Some of the soldiers assigned to guard Samson had been lured away by other subordinates.

The remaining soldiers were supposed to stage the colonel’s suicide, leave the area, and later report that they found him hanging when they returned.

His adjutant was suggesting that something might have gone wrong with their work.

“Those men might not have taken money only from us. They could have accepted payment from someone else as well. If former Captain Anton spirited Colonel Samson away to prove Lieutenant General Max’s innocence...”

It isn’t impossible.

Just as Josef had bribed soldiers to kill the colonel, Anton could have bribed those same soldiers to smuggle him out.

But his death was officially announced as a suicide. If Anton had taken Colonel Samson away, there’s no way His Excellency wouldn’t know. I may have intended to disguise his death as suicide, but a dead man can remain silent. If he were alive, he would have been caught by His Excellency’s intelligence network somehow. Besides, the eyewitness accounts have spread widely enough for even my adjutant to hear the rumor.

When Josef considered why the Commander would allow such a thing, only one conclusion came to mind.

His Excellency believes Bones is the culprit, not Lieutenant General Max.

Now he understood why Haydam had come to him instead of going to the Commander.

“If Colonel Samson truly is alive, we’re in trouble. The colonel will testify that Bones is the culprit, and that will put us in a difficult position. You already promised to support Second Lieutenant Bones.”

Indeed, Colonel Samson would testify that Bones had committed insubordination.

If he claimed that he had acted under Lieutenant General Max’s orders, Samson himself would be unable to avoid punishment.

But if he claimed that Bones had committed insubordination, then Samson would be nothing more than a victim.

“Perhaps you should withdraw the command meeting while you still can...”

“No. First, we must confirm whether Colonel Samson is truly alive.”

Every one of these assumptions depended on Samson being alive.

They couldn’t exclude the possibility that it was merely a baseless rumor.

“Investigate the soldiers who claim they saw him getting into Anton’s vehicle. If Anton truly has Colonel Samson in his custody, then a retired civilian must be held responsible for arbitrarily concealing a vital witness.”

“Understood.”

“And bring ‘those men’ to me as well. I need to ask them personally how they handled their work.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Rrrrrumble...

Josef looked up once more at the sky, now filled with thunderclouds.

He had a very bad feeling.

—Captain Josef has begun to move. Just as you predicted, Lord Haydam.

“That confirms he had something to do with the supposedly dead colonel.”

—Wouldn’t it be more reliable to capture his adjutant and interrogate him?

“That would only create a second Colonel Samson. Leave him alone until the command meeting. My objective isn’t to uncover the real culprit anyway.”

—If you aren’t trying to expose the real culprit, then I have no idea what you’re planning... Understood. We’ll continue watching him.

“Good. Keep up the work.”

After hanging up the receiver and turning around, I saw Bones anxiously bouncing his leg.

Still trembling, he asked me,

“If you don’t reveal the real culprit, how are you going to prove Lieutenant General Max’s innocence?”

I gave him a brief answer.

“I’m not going to.”

“What?!”