“Let’s get off.”

“What? But…”

Seeing her bewildered face, Jens suddenly asked, “Have you ever been on a train before?”

“This is my first time.”

“Hmm…”

After contemplating briefly, Jens turned around.

“Let’s board then.”

Aira stared at him in disbelief as he reversed his decision, then followed him while asking a question. Thanks to regularly writing him letters, she spoke formally to him more naturally than the last time they met.

“Wasn’t our meeting place supposed to be in Oculer? Why did you come? Aren’t you busy?”

“I found some time. Besides…”

Jens glanced down at her.

“I realized it’s not a short enough distance for a child to travel alone. It’s better that I come.”

Aira’s jaw dropped. Of course, only two months had passed since their last meeting, but his continued treatment of her as a child was absurd.

“A child?! I’m receiving military training. And it’s only a three-hour journey.”

“Well…”

Jens gestured toward the open window. Outside, a little lady of about eight was twirling around showing off her new dress to what appeared to be her father.

Realizing that he had just witnessed her doing the same thing, Aira’s face turned bright red.

After glancing at her, Jens strode forward, held the door to the next car, and asked, “Where’s your seat?”

Aira pressed her burning cheeks and answered, “We can sit anywhere. It’s third class.”

Jens paused at her words.

“Third class?”

“Yes.”

Jens frowned.

“Why? Is the money Kle sends not enough?”

“No, that’s not it, but…”

Aira awkwardly turned away. While it might be pocket change for the Will family, he was sending quite a generous amount each month for a cadet to use.

But she didn’t want to be indebted to him any further. From the burden he took on by sending her to the military academy in this life, to the debt from the past he couldn’t remember.

The “wish” magic that trapped her in this repeating life was a contract with a fair exchange. But separately, Aira felt indebted to him. That’s why she didn’t want to owe him anything more, even something trivial. She was saving every penny his secretary sent. She would return it someday.

In addition, she was also saving her cadet allowance and government settlement support. Not knowing how her quest to discover and fulfill Jens’s wish would end or how long it would take, she needed to prepare as much as possible.

Moreover, in her previous life, she had experienced all the wealth and luxury available to an Imperial princess and the Queen of the Archipelago. She no longer yearned for dresses, accessories, or even physical comfort.

After all, she was little more than a living corpse.

However, unaware of these feelings, Jens looked at her with displeasure before stopping a passing attendant.

“Do you have first-class seats available?”

The attendant rolled his eyes as he examined them. But when Jens stepped forward to shield Aira and slightly lifted his hat to reveal his face, the attendant turned pale and frantically offered to call the conductor.

Jens politely declined and asked about seats again, and the attendant guided them to a special first-class compartment usually reserved for distinguished guests.

The car they arrived at featured luxurious red velvet sofas facing each other, befitting a special first-class compartment. A heavy table with gold trim sat between them, and a small gas lamp burned above.

The lamp was lit despite it being daytime, seemingly showing off the recently developed technology of safely supplying gas through pipelines.

Aira entered the special first-class compartment awkwardly as the attendant respectfully held the door. Jens followed her in but stopped the attendant from closing the door, instead fixing it wide open.

“If we’re going to leave it open anyway, third class would have been fine… Ah, but that would be inconvenient for you, Commander.”

“What’s inconvenient about it? If I cover my face, no one recognizes me. Besides, where do you think I spotted you?”

“You came in third class then?”

Jens nodded as he took his seat.

“No need to make a fuss over a mere three-hour journey.”

“…That’s exactly what I was saying.”

“That’s talk for grown men. Kid.”

Being treated like a child again, Aira felt indignant. But Jens looked like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Try sitting alone in third class as a young woman in a fluttering dress without a guardian. All sorts of ruffians would be drooling over you.”

“I told you I’m receiving military training.”

“What can you do with barely two or three months of it? Do you even have a revolver?”

Jens looked her up and down, seemingly assessing her. His gaze lingered on her arms for a moment before he let out a small sigh.

He was undoubtedly questioning what she could possibly do with those arms that hadn’t even developed proper muscles yet. Aira gave him a sharp look in response to his question.

“A revolver? Are you trying to get me expelled?”

“I’ll have Kle send you one later.”

“You don’t think it would be caught during inspection?”

“Hmm. I’ll have it kept somewhere suitable so you can carry it when you go out.”

“That would get me not just expelled but deported from the Republic.”

Aira remained standing as she answered. Jens tilted his head. Soon the train blew its whistle loudly and departed.

Though she had braced herself, Aira stumbled slightly from the unfamiliar motion.

“Why aren’t you sitting down?”

“I can’t sit.”

“What? Why?”

Jens raised his eyebrows. Aira replied expressionlessly.

“How can a junior sit when a superior officer is sitting facing backward?”

“…Is that how it is in the Empire?”

“It’s not just the Empire, it’s how the military works, isn’t it?”

“You really are something else.”

Despite Jens’s sarcasm, Aira stood firmly with her legs shoulder-width apart. Hadn’t she decided to consider him her superior when seeking asylum in the Republic? The boundaries needed to be clear.

As she tensed her legs, her eyes naturally grew stern as well. Seeing this, Jens leaned back crookedly and said:

“Ah, if you have some lady’s ailment that makes sitting difficult…”

Aira’s expression became indescribable at this unexpected nonsense, and the tension left her eyes and knees.

Jens didn’t miss the opportunity and quickly pulled her wrist, seating her opposite him in the forward-facing position. Aira stumbled and barely perched on the edge of the seat.

“Since it’s your first time on a train, sit there and don’t make yourself sick with motion sickness. Three-month-old chick cadet.”

Aira quickly composed herself and corrected her posture.

“Chick or not, I’m still a cadet, aren’t I? Principles must be followed.”

“Principles, huh.”

He looked at her with fresh eyes.

“Is there anyone who has broken principles more than a princess who fled her country seeking asylum?”

“…That’s exactly why I must follow principles more strictly. All my actions will be viewed with suspicion.”

“Is school life difficult?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Aira shook her head and looked at his face. His incredibly shrewd gray eyes were carefully examining her.

Unlike the past when his face was unreadable, he was now showing fragments of himself. These emerging fragments were pieces of concern and interest about her.

Suddenly his letters came to mind. Despite his instruction not to write too often, she had sent them at appropriate intervals. Contrary to his warning not to expect replies, she could tell he had responded almost immediately, considering the distance.

Whether answering her questions or addressing her needs, his replies were brief but all for her benefit.

And through this correspondence, people continued to learn of the connection between Aira and Jens.

Perhaps that was why she hadn’t faced much hostility or suffering.

Though there might be inevitable basic emotions from those born and raised in the Republic, few at the academy openly scorned her. Some even envied the shadow behind her.

By continuing to exchange letters, Jens had been looking after her life.

‘Why go to such lengths?’

“Why?”

Had she been staring too long? Aira shook her head again.

“Nothing. So, are we going to Oculer?”

Jens shrugged.

“This is the Eastern Region Loop Line. We can go to Oculer, or if we stay on, it will circle back to Conifer. Is there somewhere you’d like to go?”

“Since my purpose was to meet you, Commander, staying on the train is fine.”

“…Well, we can also have meals, so it’s not bad.”

Jens stopped a passing vendor.

“What would you like to drink?”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“One coffee and one milk.”

“Milk?!”

Regardless of her incredulous expression, the vendor mechanically poured coffee and milk, took money from Jens, and moved on.

Seeing Aira’s disgusted expression, Jens pulled the cup of milk toward himself with an amused look.

“Don’t like coffee?”

“…Thank you.”

“If you don’t drink milk, you won’t grow taller.”

Annoyed, Aira rummaged through her small bag and firmly placed coins for the coffee on the table between the seats. She was already uncomfortable at the academy because of her short stature, so his comment particularly stung.

Jens looked at those coins with disbelief. But Aira stared at him stubbornly. Who did he think would end up owing whom?

“You should drink plenty and grow taller yourself, Commander. Just don’t grow tall enough to pierce through the train.”

“By the way, does your life jacket fit during training? It could be dangerous if it doesn’t. If needed, I could find you a child-sized one.”

“What exactly do you take me for?”

“A child?”

“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not a child?!”

At her outburst, Jens smiled even more mischievously.

As she leaned forward in anger, Aira noticed the smile hanging on his lips up close, and she stared for a long time, finding it too unfamiliar.

In the past, she had spent the final year with him. During those days stained with blood and carnage, his face was always hardened like a figurehead.

But just as a figurehead is gradually worn down by waves and storms, his unchanging face had slowly eroded over time.

That was the extent of the change Aira had witnessed in him in the past.

But what was this lighthearted demeanor? Or had he always been this way in the past she didn’t know?

What happened between now and then that turned the thirty-year-old Jens into someone like a figurehead, cracked from repeatedly drying in the sun and getting soaked by waves?

And what had changed to divert him from his predetermined future path?

Aira asked the question she had been holding in her heart all along:

“Why did you choose to go to the Paul Nor?”