It was noisy in the pub, and in a dark corner sat a playwright, an actor, a singer, and a poet. The four artists were discussing a profound topic.

Is there such a thing as undying love, and are humans really the ugliest animals in the world?

Chloe, one of the group, and the centre of attention, was listening to her friends, and she muttered to herself.

“Those embarrassing artists….”

Chloe looked at the guests around her and half-hid her face in shame. That’s because this was as much a celebration of her as it was a condemnation of her ex-boyfriend.

A few days earlier, Chloe and her friends had busted him in the act of cheating on her, and they’d witnessed it firsthand.

What had started out as an innocent conversation had turned ugly.

“Chloe, I told you he has a poor impression from the start.”

Andrea, one of Chloe’s best friends, put her head in her hands as if in pain.

Andrea was a leading actor belonging to a famous theater company. And she was the one who slapped her ex-boyfriend in the back on Chloe’s behalf.

She had the facial muscles of a theatre actor, buts she also had soul in her fingertips. She had the kind of slap that comes out when you want to make the right person feel really bad.

“I should have killed him on the spot. From the first time I saw him, him eyes were weird.”

“No, Andrea. You’ve told me before that he’s definitely cool and collected.”

“When did I?”

“I know you were drunk, but that doesn’t mean you should make up stories where there aren’t any.”

Julia corrected, looking at Andrea reproachfully. It seemed like she wanted to whisper, but as the singer in this gathering, her resonance was different. Occasionally referred to as a princess, Julia had a knack for speaking in a way that would make her words resonate in the ears, no matter how softly she whispered.

The drunks at the neighbouring tables kept glancing at them. The drunken actress was now in tears and sobbing softly. It was an unbroken line of emotion.

“I don’t know what kind of heart I let you have…. I knew it would end up like this….”

“Andrea, Chloe’s decision has nothing to do with whether you approve or not. You’re being overly self-conscious.”

Soon even Benjamin, the least talkative of the group, joined in. It was ironic that Benjamin, the most cynical of the group, was a poet who only wrote love poems.

And the actor, already quite intoxicated by his own inner performance, didn’t stop.

“Snowy-footed bastard. It’s just because our Chloe is feeling a bit cold, but how great is she… This is just Chloe’s way of judging a man based solely on his appearance when she meets him.”

“Admit it.”

“Well, I admit it.”

Chloe, who was still listening, said, ‘What?’ with a face of disbelief. If she really was just looking for a face, she shouldn’t feel like crap. She shook her head repeatedly.

“It’s not like that at all.”

Chloe didn’t judge based on appearance alone. She didn’t even see his face. She simply didn’t assess his character.

Then the three of them stopped talking at once. Six pairs of eyes turned to her at once. Julia broke the silence and corrected Chloe.

“Chloe.”

“Yes.”

“You honestly look at your face.”

“…….”

“Of all the people here, you look the most.”

Eventually, Chloe narrowed her eyes and stared at the three of them. Her continued expressionlessness was met with a frosty glare from two of them, but not from Benjamin.

“Chloe, your expression right now is as dry as a side dish.”

“…You did call me here to comfort me.”

“…….”

“Well, I’d appreciate it, then.”

“…….”

“People who pretend to worry while teasing openly are worse than those who openly make fun of others.”

Chloe thought she’d have to get out of this distraction someday, so she could go out in the sunshine and socialise like a normal person.

But after glancing at them for a moment, Chloe smiled. She thrust her vodka glass in front of her and clinked them together, because, after all, listening to her friends was a hundred times better than being stuck in her basement studio right now.

Chloe Liberta.

Lately she had been suffering from a terrible slump.

She was a playwright, mostly of fairy tales and lyrical music theatre. She was never very successful, but she did make a name for herself. At least enough to get her name out there.

She hadn’t been able to put pen to paper for quite some time, not even a single line of text or a single note. She was having a hard time with her daily life, even with her boyfriend, whom she had been dating for a while.

Worse, she has a serious problem that even her friends don’t know about. Her manuscript, which she’s been working on, has been stolen.

She had a prime suspect. Her long-time patron and lover was the only one who had been in and out of her studio. But she wanted to keep it quiet for now.

‘If I tell them about this, I’m sure these guys are not going to stay still.’

An actor had many skills besides slapping. He could pretend to hit without hitting, but he could also pretend to hit without hitting.

A singer could make your eardrums bleed just by shouting, and a poet could shoot venomous stings from his tongue at a moment’s notice.

Telling a story was bound to result in bloodshed, whether it was true or not.

“Yes. These are all my sins. What more can I say?”

No matter how much she didn’t expect it, that guy wasn’t that guy. That’s why there’s a saying that while anyone can meet someone, you shouldn’t just meet anyone.

After taking a moment to reflect on her life, Chloe looked tired. She let out a small sigh as her friends watched her go.

A young boy who shouldn’t have been in this shop was wandering around, looking for someone, and Benjamin, noticing him, tilted his head in question and waved.

The group was made up of the children of the house, all but Chloe. The boy was a labourer at Benjamin’s mansion, the oldest of the family.

Benjamin generously handed the boy a handful of silver coins, and the eyes of the three now converged on the piece of paper Benjamin accepted.

And when they saw the common language written on the tattered paper, they couldn’t help but groan in unison.

Dawn of the 13th. A clash erupted between the Kingdom Army and the Fitzmark Army in the border region. Both countries declared war.

The same news seemed to be reaching other tables one by one. It didn’t take long for the jovial, somewhat revelry-soaked room to be filled with murmurs.

There was a general sense of bewilderment and anxiety, but also a sense that what was going to happen eventually had to happen.

You never know when neighbouring countries on the same border will have a falling out. Moreover, Edelin and Fitzmark had a history of bad blood, perhaps more so than any other kingdom on the continent. Since its founding, there hasn’t been a day that hasn’t seen the name of Fitzmark appear in a major Edelin incident.

Chloe, meanwhile, had been staring at the paper since earlier, her expression growing more and more serious and serious, and Andrea, noticing, whispered in her ear.

“Chloe. What are you thinking? You have this weird look in your eyes.”

“What.”

“Look, one bad relationship doesn’t mean your whole life is ruined….”

“Okay, just shut up for a second. Let me think.”

“Somehow I don’t think I should think about it now…?”

But after that, Chloe remained silent, her light blue eyes slowly beginning to glow.

She had been depressed for some time. She had been so dry and unstable that her friends were worried. She was like a gnarled twig, ready to snap at any moment, and the section that would finally be revealed would be sharp.

Her eyes were now filled with a strange heat, and the change in temperature brought Andrea to tears again.

“…Our Chloe. Oh, my baby, she’s completely turned.”

Chloe often referred to her bad friends as always being the same, like triplets, and would stick out her tongue. When she felt very embarrassed, there were times when she would walk as if she were not part of the group.

But some of the people in the industry who came in and out of the salon knew her well enough to know that she was a quadruplet. She was, after all, part of this selfish, half-screwed group.

***

The sun was hot, and it was hard to see. Sand and dust everywhere, not a blade of grass underfoot.

It wasn’t the desert that you might expect at the edge of a continent. The area around the front had long since been turned into a wasteland by countless shells and gunfire.

Out in the lull, Chloe and the others were breathless, but busy. They were searching the bodies for supplies. It was their job to identify them and notify their units and families.

Chloe eyed the corpse carefully and cut away the name he’d apparently sewn onto his uniform. On the other side, wounded soldiers were being attended to, and there was no time to take in a cold corpse.

It was then. Chloe put a hand to her forehead to shield her vision from the harsh sunlight. The sight that met her eyes was not unfamiliar. The dirt-stained dark khakis were the uniforms of Fitzmark soldiers.

The only thing different was the slight rise and fall of his chest as he leaned against the rock. Chloe took a few steps toward him.

“…Hey.”

“…….”

“Did he faint? He seems to still be breathing.”

To gather her thoughts, she looked around her. However, the people who were moving quickly to evacuate were unable to stand up straight even once due to the rush.

Finally, Chloe gingerly swung in front of the enemy soldier’s face.

“Ugh…!”

The man’s eyes snapped open before her hand was anywhere near him, and Chloe barely swallowed the scream that threatened to escape. In a flash, he snapped her wrist back, pinning her down, and brought his index finger to her lips.

It was an effortless motion, as if he’d been waiting for the opportunity to come, and his eyes were as intense as blue flames.

Chloe whispered under her breath.

“Where is it written that you should resort to violence against innocent civilians from the enemy country…”

“…….”

“Where is….”

“But you don’t seem like just a civilian.”

He glanced at the dagger Chloe had held in her hand just moments ago. The man’s eyes and voice were unimaginably calm for someone so wounded.

But his side was darker in colour than the rest of him, as if a bullet had grazed it. Chloe stammered a few times, trying to explain the situation.

“It’s not for that….”

He didn’t listen to her, and continued to grope her breasts and other parts of her body. Chloe clenched her shoulders for a moment, but the man’s touch was dry, but nonetheless invasive.

In her arms, a cache of weapons and supplies dripped.Now Chloe was a suspicious person even to her own eyes.

“Who are you?”

“Those aren’t mine….”

“Tell me.”

Chloe desperately tried to identify herself.

But at that moment, after a few days of silence, the area was once again disturbed. Boom, bang, the sound of mobile cannon bullets popping was heard one after another, and the sound of the explosion was clearly getting closer.

Suddenly, the unidentified man, staring at his surroundings with a stony face, grabbed Chloe by the shoulders, which stiffened her as well.

“Get down!”

No one spoke first. Hugging each other tightly, they instinctively rolled on the ground. Each time the man’s body came up, there was a crushing pressure on her lungs. Chloe gritted her teeth to get as far away from the barrage as possible. To stay alive somehow.

But at that moment, there was a flash before her eyes that made the world go white, like a bolt of lightning. The man and Chloe froze at the same time, exchanging a wordless glance. She could feel the skin on his chest tense.

He seemed to grit his teeth for a moment, then cleared his throat and looked at Chloe. He seemed to be contemplating something, and it was only when she became aware of his breath against her earlobe that she realised she was breathing very hard.

He whispered, his face calmer than before.

“Cover your ears, if you don’t want your eardrums to fall out.”

“…….”

“We’re running out of time. Quick.”

“…….”

That wasn’t a shell or anything. It was classified, but Chloe had heard rumours of what that flash was a precursor to. Fitzmark was about to perform a large-scale fire spell.

Chloe covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, and he went straight down on top of her.

There was a boom, an explosion like no other, an earth-shattering roar that pierced the backs of their hands and reverberated through their ears several times.

It took far too long for the roar to subside and a cloud of acrid dust to rise. Chloe bit her lip reflexively as she caught the unpleasant, familiar smell of something burning in the distance.

That must be the smell of someone disappearing. And finally, she heard the lonely sound of the sandy wind brushing against the man’s back.

They waited for it all to pass. They clung to each other in the middle of the battlefield until the sun went down and the stars rose.

A few days later, a scorpion flew into the Fitzmark royal palace.

Urgent.
Secret Commander A.F.F. Missing during operation.

It was the 183rd day since Chloe arrived at the rescue shelter.

✦✧✦✧✦
⟢Male lead:
Alvin Flare Fitzmark – Disguised as a common soldier in the Kingdom of Fitzmark, he hides his true identity. Calm and collected personality. A caring man who listens to everything Chloe says, even though he sighs heavily every time. Later, he finds himself helping her without saying a word.

⟢Female lead:
Chloe Liberta – A playwright and composer in the kingdom of Edelin. Raised by a gypsy mother and a bard father, she is sensitive and prickly, but has a kind heart. She keeps her distance from the enemy soldiers and pretends to be cold, but gradually warms up to them as she falls in love with Alvin.