CH 14

On the way to the tram stop, she stopped by Madame Benoa’s cafe.

“Pack this and this, please.”

Due to her tight pocket conditions, two pieces of cake at a high-end cafe were unreasonable. However, she wanted to give Fred’s older sister and childhood friend, Nancy, who works in the safe house, a little luxury.

The bike was tied to a pole at the tram stop and loaded onto the tram heading to Winsford. As she sat by the window and looked out, the idyllic landscape of sheep grazing soon turned into a gigantic factory area emitting black smoke.

It was once an apple orchard.

Although the landlord cut down all the apple trees a decade ago and sold them to an auto parts company.

As technology advanced, those who owned the land became richer and those who farmed the land became poorer. After being kicked out of the farm and working intensively without seeing sunlight for dozens of hours in a factory, the meager wages they get are usually wasted as medicine.

The building that passed in front of her slowly rose. The gap between the rich and the poor, which was inconspicuous in small rural villages, became more pronounced as it approached large cities.

Sally got off the tram when she saw the grand opera house.

Walking through the crowd busily on her way, she came across a large department store. A young woman, with colorful sable fur over her shoulders, unsuitable for the mild weather, was walking towards the sidewalk taxi stop, holding the hand of a boy about ten years old.

In the child’s hand was a train set that was recently made famous by the youngest prince as a gift from a foreign royal family. A boy of the same age standing by the side of the road was glancing at it with unfocused eyes.

A piece of cardboard was hung from the neck of the child, with coal soot smeared on the child’s face.

Seeing that, Sally took some of the bills from her money, which she was going to send as a military fund, and handed it to the child.

The child widened his eyes, though he did not take the money willingly.

“…What’s going on?”

It meant giving a large sum of money without any bargaining to get the child to do something tough.

“I’m just giving.”

Blinking his eyes like a frightened puppy, he slowly reached out his hand, blackened under the fingernails.

The kindness that he did not expect was rather terrifying.

Swish.

The money was snatched from Sally’s hand. As soon as the child grabbed the money, he ran away without a thank you. He was running away because the stranger might change his mind and ask for the money back or drive him as a thief.

Distrust was not just confined to the child’s mind.

On the other hand, she also had to leave quickly. It was because the child could have a bad heart, drag bad guys in, and rob her instead. She had to be more careful now that she didn’t have a gun.

In the end, she decided to use the department store as a detour.

Ahead of Easter, the department store was decorated in a cute and colorful way, like a fairy tale world.

‘Come to think of it, I have to buy stockings…’

The stockings that Winston ripped yesterday because he couldn’t just make a hole in them are useless now.

Sally approached the shelf where the stockings were displayed. The clerk, who was counting on the ledger lifted the corner of her eye, which had been pulled out with black eyeliner, slightly to look at her before glancing down at the book again.

The clerk’s eyes were not wrong. The luxury stockings in the department store were not for her.

Sally pretended she didn’t like the stockings that she had picked up, so she let them go and turned away. On her way back to the mansion, she would need to see if there were rayon stockings on sale at Halewood’s general store.

As soon as she turned the corner, she suddenly stopped.

It was because of the reflection of her humble self in the glass. An old light gray cardigan, a white blouse with an unembroidered round collar, a navy pleated skirt to the knee, and a worn brown leather bag…

Standing behind the glass was a mannequin dressed in a gorgeous dress, perhaps ten times her weekly wage, making her look modest and shabby.

“Don’t grow up prettily. Don’t even decorate yourself prettily. Don’t let anyone see you.”

Her mother’s voice resounded in Sally’s head as she had been imagining herself in that gorgeous dress.

‘…After all, I’m not the kind of beauty that makes all the men on the street look back at me like my mother.’

It was the Revolutionary Army community that raised Sally, as her mother was away for a long time due to her mission. Occasionally, she came back to the house once in a while, and she pretended to be asleep when she was back.

It was because if she was awake, her mother was always hard on her in front of others. Sitting on her bed, she would stroke her hair when she fell asleep. It was a gentle touch that she would not normally feel.

“Don’t grow up prettily. Don’t even decorate yourself prettily. Don’t let anyone see you.”

Her mother always repeated the same words like a mantra. Those words were not just meaningless monologues of drunkenness, so when someone bought Sally cosmetics or pretty accessories, she hated them and even threw them in the trash.

Even when her father bought her a red lipstick for Sally’s fifteenth birthday, she was so enraged that she even threw the wine glass at him.

When she was young, she was sad, too. Her mother’s dresser drawer was full of colorful cosmetics, and her closet was full of expensive dresses and shoes that she didn’t know where the money came from.

‘Then, why did you do that to me…?’

Even though she wanted to ask that, her mother was not of this world.

Whatever the reason, it did not change the fact that her mother was a great Revolutionary Army member.

‘You are a great Revolutionary Army member, too.’

Sally looked down at her reflection in the glass and smiled faintly. Riding her bike, she combed her hands neatly through the tangled hair a little.

This was the path she had chosen.

º º º

A very heavy silence settled in the sedan that had left Winsford’s western headquarters and started running toward Govurn.

A low voice mixed with laughter broke it.

“At this rate, I’ll only have bones.”

Leon turned his gaze outside his car window to his superior, Colonel Humphrey, who sat in the seat next to him. There was no need to ask whom he was talking about. Even in his mind, the Western commander was already screaming at the site of Govurn’s attack with a sullen face.

“Moderate weight loss is good for your health.”

“If only I could live longer.”

The fact that the driver and the mistress turned out to be rebel spies meant that the commander’s future was on a precipice.

Nevertheless, while escorting one of the spies to the camp, they were attacked by the rebels and missed. The convoy also suffered casualties. If the commander was summoned to the royal court, the reprimand he would face was doubled.

The commander had lost his modesty and dignity as a soldier and was left with only greed. Leon was always disgusted, but these days, he seemed pitiful.

“I’d like to see Harris’ face.”

The lieutenant colonel laughed, mentioning the commander of the convoy. The intelligence agency in charge of the lieutenant colonel was not responsible for this incident, so he was laughing like a stranger.

But, could he say it like it was someone else’s business…?

Leon stared sharply at the back of Lieutenant Campbell’s head in the passenger seat.

…How did he know that the destination was Govurn?

They didn’t dispatch personnel to follow the convoy and hit it. While waiting on the outskirts of Govurn, a convoy was attacked. The raid was organized and meticulous. Consequently, this meant that they knew in advance when the convoy would take place…

Information leaked out somewhere.

This may not be the first time.

A few months ago, the person who was discovered as a double agent was eliminated in just two days. In the end, doubts turned into certainty. Of course, the information could have leaked from the convoy or other divisions of the command.

‘Though what if…?’

If anyone under his command had informed them, his path would be precipitous.

‘That won’t do.’

He wasn’t naive enough to just hope it wasn’t. He had to find it and bury it before the superiors could find it. It meant that the body of the person who reported it should also be buried somewhere after asking the subordinate to inform him of it.

‘Campbell…?’

Leon softened his gaze as he stared at Campbell’s back.

That person couldn’t do that.

After all, the Campbells were vassals of the Winstons for hundreds of years. Now that their vassal status was gone, they were running a military business with the help of the Winstons. Lieutenant Campbell was a dog that Leon handcrafted from the Campbell family that he could play to his heart’s content.

‘I have to give you orders.’

After arriving at Govurn, he was planning to give instructions if the lieutenant colonel was absent. Keep track of the latest trends in the soldiers stationed in the annex and the latest development in the domestic intelligence department Leon is in charge of.

‘And…’

Leon’s pupils, who inadvertently turned his head out of the window, widened in an instant.

‘Why is that woman over there?’