Fish Don't Know About Water - Chapter 4

Viett lay on the dusty-smelling stretcher, staring at the low ceiling. The stifling humidity that pervaded the entire ward made it hard to breathe.

Compared to the special ward for officers, it was a cramped space with traces of neglect evident throughout the room. Nevertheless, Tenessa, the head of the field hospital, insisted on placing Viett there. The reason was simple—compared to the regular wards where dozens of injured soldiers wailed in pain, this place was like heaven.

Viett buried his face in the soft pillow, his limbs restless, unable to find peace to sleep. It was all because of those damn new recruits.

During a one-on-one firearms training session, a rookie suddenly triggered an explosion of magic. Unfortunately, he specialized in fire magic, and with no magic department personnel around, the damage was significant.

The vehicle Viett and the general were in was flipped over completely, throwing them out. If Viett hadn’t skillfully protected the general, the elderly man would have broken his neck and died on the spot.

Fortunately, Viett only suffered a slight leg fracture, but five rookies who were caught in the explosion died instantly. Their bodies, along with the one who self-detonated, were burnt to ashes without a trace.

It saddened Viett to know that most of the victims were young recruits. Even the one who caused the explosion was just a sixteen-year-old boot polisher by origin.

Viett rubbed his throbbing forehead against the pillow in frustration.

“Hey, Viett. You still alive?”

As Viett tried to rest his face on the pillow, an old wooden door swung open without a knock. A female officer in dark green military attire quietly entered the narrow room.

“Rose…?”

After staring for a while, her large glasses and graceful face finally came into view. She was his only sister, Princess Rosemary.

“Rose, do you… have cigarettes?”

He reached out to his approaching sister. Rosemary grimaced and pushed her glasses up her forehead.

“Quit it! A patient with cigarettes, are you out of your mind? And didn’t you prefer a cigar?”

“You should r-roll around in this shithole too.”

“Well, here it’s probably hard to find a fancy cigar.”

Rosemary sighed as she looked around the plain and small private ward.

“For someone of royal lineage and a high-ranking officer, what’s with this ward? It’s so inadequate!”

“Well, o-other soldiers share a space with d-dozens of people. Compared to that…”

“It’s like heaven here, right?”

Rosemary blurted out, Unable to hold back her words. She dragged a wooden chair towards the bed while clicking her tongue.

“How are you dealing with the pain? Can you endure it?”

As she prodded his injured leg repeatedly, a chilling pain surged through his veins like an electric current.

“It, it hurts like hell. What do you want?”

“Brother, you’ve had a weak magical body since you were young. So, healing magic wasn’t of much use.”

That’s all because of Father. Viett started stuttering at the age of four. The king was ashamed of such a second son and was determined to ‘correct’ him in any way possible. Since then, there was no treatment he hadn’t tried.

The king especially pushed the magic department officials to experiment on Viett. But nothing had any effect. Viett, even after over 20 years, remained a pitiful stutterer and experienced the side effect of rejecting all magic due to the periodic injections of magic he received since childhood.

Every time he heard the vigorous marching sounds of soldiers echoing outside the window, his resentment towards his father grew even stronger.

If Father had just left me alone when I was young, I wouldn’t be lying in bed like this, wasting my time pitifully.

“By the way, I heard from Tenessa that they’ve already fired four dedicated nurses?”

Rosemary carefully adjusted his pillow height as she spoke. With her help, Viett slowly leaned back against the head of the bed.

“They’re doing a good job. How long has it been since those poor souls who dedicated their lives to the nation have been confined to these sickbeds, with only the four walls echoing their cries?”

“Th-they didn’t cry out.”

“They couldn’t stand your difficult personality and ended up crying and running out of the ward?”

Viett recalled the women who annoyingly clung to him as his dedicated nurses. Irritated for a moment, he closed his eyes tightly and ruffled his hair with his unscathed hand.

Those damn teal skirts and white aprons. The badge with a red cross… Looking at the nurses’ attire reminded him of that crazy maid. Even the novel he was trying so hard to forget was the same.

“Why are you so frustrated that you can’t charm those nurses? Missing your ex-fiancée?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I, I can hardly remember that woman’s n-name now.”

“Oh, really? Then is ‘Pepe’ the one you’re concerned about?”

He opened his eyes wide and stared at Rosemary. She looked back at him with a sly smile.

“To be honest, I was thrilled to see my dear brother appearing in my favorite novel. You know I’m a fan of ‘Pepe,’ right?”

“Th-there’s no way I wouldn’t know.”

“Look at this. I even personally clipped out the part where Pepe insulted you.”

Rosemary slid a file she had tucked into her side onto his lap and spread it out widely in front of him. The scene where he first appeared in the <Pepe> novel was meticulously clipped and preserved.

Even the line where Phenelity Cochrun cursed at him as ‘You scoundrel!’ was underlined in red pencil.

“I don’t know how happy I was when I saw her in person! Cecilia was right. She really looks just like Hughey Gallant.”

“Hughey Gallant? Th-that actor’s been dead for a while now…….”

“You don’t know. Hughey Gallant is a legend in Westenia’s film industry. You don’t know the saying ‘the handsome man of the century’? No actor has surpassed him yet.”

Rosemary was an avid fan of the novel <Pepe>. She clipped the serialized page of <Pepe> every day and meticulously collected Phenelity Cochrun’s portraits.

He should have peeked at Rosemary’s collection if he had known. If he had known the face of the protagonist of <Pepe> in advance, wouldn’t he have been able to quickly avoid that woman when he saw her on the street that evening?

“B-because of your nasty hobby… I guess you took that woman and i-interrogated her before c-coming to visit me in the hospital.”

“Oh, I didn’t interrogate her. I just wanted to see Pepe’s face up close, so I used interrogation as an excuse.”

“B-because of such a trivial interrogation, you… you came all the way to this camp?”

“Well, maybe I wanted to tease my brother who is experiencing the pain of a broken engagement?”
Rosemary smiled mischievously.

“You made a good decision to break off the engagement. Although she was my friend… Cecilia, that high-class woman, was never meant to be a prince’s consort. If you had married her, she would have been the first royal consort to hang herself for fame and actually die.”

“It’s, it’s outrageous to say such things to a childhood friend.”

Saying such harsh words to her only childhood friend. It seemed that Rosemary harbored a grudge against Viett’s former fiancée for slapping Phenelity Cochrun.

“You, on the other hand, brother, there’s nothing you won’t do to your sister’s friend.”

“M-me?”

“In the first place, it was a problem that you were engaged to Cecilia.”

Even Rosemary’s playful smile faded for a moment, and her expression turned serious.

“I’m worried about the future. Now that Cecilia has been broken off too, who will willingly marry a royal problem child?”

It’s needless worry. In any case, someone will come forward. The king won’t stand by watching his second son grow old and die alone, and nobles eager to become royal relatives will be overflowing.

“In that sense, I brought a gift for my brother.”

Rosemary clapped her hands lightly. The tightly closed door of the ward swung open with a creak, and her aide appeared pushing a mobile tray piled with files like a mountain.

“Good job. Leave it there and go out.”

Rosemary lightly pulled the mobile tray that her aide had stopped beside Viett’s bed toward him.

Viett couldn’t hide his surprise as he looked at the tall stack of files. He knew very well what those files were. They were his sister’s never-ending scrapbook of <Pepe>, which she adored.

“W-why did you bring your treasure to the battlefield?”

“It’s spare. My real collection is carefully stored in the palace.”

Rosemary picked up several files from the pile and tossed them onto his bed.

“Read ‘Pepe’ while you’re in bed.”

“Why would I-I read such stuff…?”

“I think you and Phenelity Cochrun are not just ordinary acquaintances.”

Me? With that woman? Viett struggled to hold back the urge to say such words. From the moment he mentioned ‘Pepe’ as ‘such stuff,’ his sister was already holding back her anger. It wouldn’t be good to provoke her further.

“There is an implicit prohibition against royals directly appearing in novels by commoners, but fortunately, you broke that prohibition. Thanks to that, I could meet Phenelity Cochrun using an interrogation as an excuse.”