86 - Volume 10 - Chapter 1.8

Appendix

Noticing the door to Shin’s room was open, Raiden peered inside. The room was bright with sunlight, and Shin was lying collapsed on the bed. He was curled up like a child with the covers just barely spread over him, his back exposed.

Seeing this, Raiden exhaled in exasperation. The floor between the door and the bed was littered with his flight suit’s top and collared undershirt, like some kind of trail of footsteps. Shin’s attitude with regards to his everyday life was terribly messy and rough. It was like an almost scary contrast to the lethal precision with which he danced upon the line of life and death when he was on the battlefield.

He showed such little interest and care for himself, and it manifested both on and off the battlefield.

If nothing else, the thought of at least folding and putting away his clothes didn’t so much as occur to Shin. But given the way some of his clothes were scattered in random directions, he must have been very exhausted.

At this point, as trivial as it was, Raiden had to wonder how Shin ever managed himself in the dorms of the special officer academy. That place demanded stiff adherence to regulations, and he couldn’t imagine how they’d ignore that kind of behavior.

A certain bespectacled classmate of Shin’s from the academy would have sarcastically noted that Shin was on point during his time at the special officer academy, but sadly, Raiden never met him.

Either way, he entered the room, his military boots clicking loudly on the floor. As he walked, he picked up the flight-suit top and undershirt and…

“Clean up after yourself, asshole.”

…dropped them over Shin’s head. Ruthlessly.

“…?!”

The armored flight suit might have been made out of fabric, but it was bulletproof, resistant to blades, and heavy overall. Having it dropped over his head, even over the covers, was enough of a shock to jolt him awake. Shin squirmed his head out from under the mountain of fabrics and spoke in a groggy voice.

“…What?” he asked hoarsely.

“Don’t ‘what’ me. I know we spent all night training, but put your clothes away before you go to sleep.”

Why was he being scrutinized with such judgmental eyes? Incidentally, Raiden still wasn’t aware that his penchant for making these kinds of comments was why everyone was calling him Mom behind his back.

For now, Shin sat up in his bed. The flight-suit top slid off his head and rustled to the floor. With his flight suit off, he was in the Federacy’s plain underclothes. He had two ID tags—which they had never been given in the Eighty-Sixth Sector—hanging on a silver chain that was dangling against his tank top. Looking away from that silver glint, Raiden settled his gaze on the red scar etched into his throat.

Looking at it made Raiden ponder. When was it that Shin stopped being so adamant about not letting others see his scar?

When they first met, Shin absolutely loathed the idea of people catching sight of it. He’d always have that scarf around his neck, and people simply mentioning the scar seemed to annoy him. By the time he felt comfortable talking about the story behind the scar, he wasn’t hiding it as adamantly. Although, he was still mostly concealing it with his scarf.

This was something Raiden had worried about when they came to the Federacy and joined the army. The Federacy’s uniform was a blazer, and even if its collar was mostly hidden, the scar could still be visible from certain angles. And while one could modify the way they wore a flight suit, that wouldn’t fly in a training facility like the special officer academy.

So Raiden was concerned about it at the time, but he never said anything since Shin didn’t seem all that troubled by it. Despite it being summer, he never loosened his tie and continued to wear his scarf, even during battle. So he was still at least somewhat intent on hiding it.

Raiden looked away, his gaze settling on the azure scarf. It was faded from years of exposure to sunlight on the battlefield and sat folded on Shin’s desk.

…When they were first rescued by the Federacy, they collected their personal belongings, and out of everything they had, Shin only asked that they return the scarf and his pistol.

“…You sure?”

Shin blinked at first, taken aback by Raiden’s sudden question, but upon seeing his gaze on the scarf, he gave a vague nod.

“Yeah…”

He put a hand to the scarf. It was probably an unconscious gesture. Then he shrugged.

“I think it’s kept me safe for long enough. I just don’t have any reason to let go of it or put it away… It’s from the first person I promised I’d take with me, after all.”

“…”

So it was a memento of an old comrade. Someone Raiden didn’t know, from the first squadron Shin was assigned to. Shin curled his lips into a somber, serene, and slightly soft smile. When Raiden first met this guy, he never imagined he could smile this way.

“It doesn’t bother me anymore, but…I don’t really want anyone…especially not Lena to know the story behind it.”

The story of someone who was already gone. Someone he had to slay at all costs…but never truly hated. The story of that sin.