Contract of Submission with the Enemy - Chapter 26
Rité slept like the dead, clutching Nox’s photo and dog tags to her chest. After fighting for her survival in the warehouse all night, her physical wounds were healed, but her mental state was in shambles.
A long time passed before someone knocked on the door.
“…Rité Rainhills, are you in there? It’s Benyak.”
When Rité didn’t respond, Benyak cautiously opened the door and came inside. Awakened, Rité slowly turned over and struggled to sit up without looking at him.
“What’s the matter? Is Aster making me train again?”
“No. The Major asked me to take you for a walk after your meal, to help you stretch.”
Benyak placed a meal tray on the table, then paused as he noticed something. His eyes widened slightly.
“Isn’t that Eisen’s?”
Rité’s eyes widened, and she clutched Nox’s dog tags tightly, pulling back. Benyak, puzzled, asked, “Do you know Eisen?”
“…No! No! He has nothing to do with me!”
Rité screamed suddenly, hugging the photo and dog tags to her chest and curling up like a wounded animal. Benyak, taken aback by her overreaction, reached out but then stopped.
Curled up and trembling, Rité’s wide eyes were filled with fear, making her look pitiful. She resembled a frightened hedgehog, bristling its spines for protection.
Her heart pounded uncontrollably. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing the items she had managed to obtain, or of putting Nox in danger by letting his existence be known to the enemy again.
Rité began to hyperventilate, her breaths heavy and labored, almost like she was having a panic attack.
Benyak, seeing her distress, tried to calm her down, speaking softly, “I’m not going to take them, so relax.”
Rité clasped her hands to her chest, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths to calm herself. This was a technique Commander Maud had taught her to quickly regain composure when she had panic attacks.
Benyak watched her, speechless. He was startled to see her, who always seemed so fearless and arrogant, now so frightened and vulnerable.
He understood why Aster had suggested taking her for a walk. She wasn’t in a normal state.
Once somewhat calm, Rité shakily tucked Eisen’s photo into her inner pocket. Benyak asked quietly, “…Are you Eisen’s sister?”
Rité froze. Benyak murmured in amazement, “So that’s why the Major did what he did… I never thought he’d partner with someone he didn’t know, and it always puzzled me why he brought you into the Shadow Unit, but now it makes sense.”
Benyak had often marveled at Aster’s seemingly impulsive actions that later proved to be meticulously calculated. It was why his subordinates followed him without question. Yet, Rité’s recruitment had always been a mystery to him, one that was now clear.
Rité’s quiet voice broke the silence, “…Keep it a secret.”
“What?”
Rité slowly turned her head to look at him, tears brimming in her widened eyes.
“Please, pretend you don’t know. I beg you.”
Her sky-blue eyes, clear and transparent like a lake, left Benyak speechless. Rité mumbled like someone in a trance, “Aster told me… not to mention anything that could be a weakness, even to my brother, for his sake…”
Recalling her conversation with Aster, Rité tightly closed her eyes.
“It’s best to watch what you say here. Don’t tell anyone your brother is in the army. It will become your weakness and be used against you.”
“A weakness?”
“There are many eyes and ears here. Someone you shared meals with yesterday could be your enemy today. With so many people already looking down on you, if more people start threatening you with your brother’s life, it’ll only harm you.”
Rité could endure torture and training, but she couldn’t stand the thought of Nox being in danger because of her.
Why did she keep making careless mistakes? Why did she always relax as soon as she thought she was out of danger? She couldn’t forgive herself.
“If there had been guards in front of the warehouse, you would have died. Don’t let your guard down just because you succeeded in escaping. People are most vulnerable when they feel the greatest relief.”
There was nothing wrong with what Aster had said in front of the warehouse. He knew her actions better than she did.
Then, Benyak handed something to her. Seeing the chocolate bar right in front of her, Rité hesitated, then looked up at him warily.
“…What’s this?”
Benyak, slightly embarrassed, turned his gaze aside and said, “A tranquilizer.”
“A tranquilizer? I may have lived poorly, but I know this is chocolate.”
Thinking he was mocking her, Rité responded coldly. Benyak, looking more awkward, explained, “It helps calm people down. Take it. It’s hard to come by. I was saving it for myself.”
Rité accepted the chocolate bar without dropping her suspicious glare. As she unwrapped it, thick chocolate emerged. She stared at it in silence before taking a bite. The sweetness and bitterness filled her mouth quickly. Though the taste was contradictory, she liked it.
At that moment, she heard Benyak chuckle. Snapping out of her thoughts, she glared at him.
“Why are you laughing?”
He replied, still smiling, “You looked really naive for a moment.”
“…”
“I told you, it’s a tranquilizer. Eisen used to stop crying instantly whenever he got one of these.”
At the mention of Nox, Rité paused mid-bite. Benyak glanced at her. Her face showed a mix of curiosity and unease, as if she wanted to ask but couldn’t.
“Relax. You can trust me. Despite how I look, I value comradeship the most.”
Rité, still wary, asked, “How did you know Eisen had a sister?”
“How do you think? When he first joined the military, he kept looking for his sister. Of course, I knew.”
Rité’s eyes widened. Benyak sighed softly, “When he first arrived, he used to cry every night, sweating with fever and calling out for his sister.”
Remembering Nox’s frail voice calling her “sister,” Rité felt tears welling up. Imagining how scared he must have been in such a harsh place without her, her heart felt like it was tearing apart.
The air around her began to ripple with the weight of her guilt. Feeling a sense of foreboding, Benyak hurriedly spoke, fearing she might lose control again.
“But even so, he eventually adapted perfectly to military life. So, you can too. Whatever happened between you two, know that as long as you’re in the military, both you and your brother are my comrades.”
He said this with a face full of camaraderie and pride, his muscular chest puffed out, making him look somewhat comical.
Rité stopped crying and responded dourly, “Do you know that the ones who desperately plead for you to trust them are never truly trustworthy? The moment you believe them, they’ll betray you as if they never said a word.”
Benyak widened his eyes. “Oh, I’ve seen that a lot in plays.”
Rité glared at him, though the wariness in her eyes slightly softened.
“And another thing. No one who lures you with food is normal. No one offers food without some ulterior motive…”
Rité trailed off, realizing that there was one exception. That person was Commander Maud. When she was a child, he had looked at her with a generous and solemn face and said:
“I permit you to consume the rations without restraint.”
Recalling this memory, Rité smiled faintly. She was glad she had repaid his kindness by offering him her meal.