Please Forget Me - Chapter 138
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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The Corporal smiled with a heavy expression, as though he had just put down a burden. However, even though his business seemed to be over, he didn’t leave. Instead, he kept speaking to me.
“Everyone in the village is saying that you and Mr. Renner are kind-hearted people.”
“Is that so? I’m glad they think well of us.”
Now, reputation is more important than ever.
“I didn’t witness the events of that day myself, but I heard the story. When I heard that Mr. Renner, who is usually so good-natured and polite, said such things… I thought that he must have been through a lot of mental turmoil.”
“Yes…”
As I recalled the confrontation between Johann and the sergeant that night, a sudden thought occurred to me. If Johann found out that the sergeant had hanged himself, would he feel guilty?
“By the way, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”
“Anything, just tell me.”
“As you know, my husband has been struggling a lot, so I don’t want him to hear about Sergeant Hoffman trying to take his own life.”
“Ah… I see. I’ll keep it a secret.”
“Thank you. And…”
I felt like this person would be honest with me, so I had the urge to ask about the Major’s reaction and why the man who should have come to me that day had remained silent up until now.
“The Major…”
“I was going to mention something about Mr. Renner. Ah, you go first.”
But the Corporal interjected, having something to say about Johann.
“Really, you go ahead.”
I insisted, as I was more curious about his news.
“Well, actually… Mr. Renner.”
Is this something Johann shouldn’t know? The corporal lowered his voice even further, casting a quick glance toward the direction of Johan’s classroom. My heart began to race with unease.
“A few months ago, he asked me and Sergeant Hoffman several times if it was really true that Madam was only cleaning the Major’s office…”
He paused suddenly, as if the information weighed heavily on him.
“Jo, Johann?”
The fact that Johann had been asking about such things in secret meant that he had been suspecting something for a while, or perhaps he already knew everything.
“So, what did you say?”
“Don’t worry. If Madam had kept it secret, we made sure to keep it that way. We told him you were just cleaning the office, and that’s what the other soldiers answered when they were asked about it too.”
“Ha…”
I sighed in relief.
“Thank you so much.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that. But… it seems that Mr. Renner also looked into the Major’s past.”
“Really?”
“He looked into why the Major avoids married women but doesn’t seem to care about other women.”
“Is there a reason for that?”
“Didn’t Mr. Renner tell you?”
I shook my head, and the corporal looked just as puzzled.
“From what I can tell, that night, Mr. Renner seemed to have precisely targeted the Major’s weakness. I thought you might have known…”
The reason the Major avoids married women is tied to his own weakness.
“Could you explain it in more detail?”
“I’d appreciate it if you could keep what I say a secret.”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“It’s just that… the Major originally had a strange obsession with only pursuing married women…”
This was already shocking. The Major, who now avoids married women, was completely different in the past.
“It happened back when the Major was still a second lieutenant…”
He had an affair with the wife of a fellow officer at the military academy. It was discovered by the officer, and tragically, it happened in their own bed. The officer went wild and pulled out a pistol, threatening to kill both of them.
But, incredibly, the Major managed to turn the situation around by reporting the betrayed husband to the police for attempted murder.
The woman, after being coerced and manipulated by the Major, made false statements to the police, claiming that her husband had been abusive before and had threatened to kill her.
Not only had the poor man been betrayed by his fellow officer and his wife, but he was also framed as a criminal. He was unable to bear the humiliation, ended up using the very pistol that had been aimed at the Major and pulled the trigger on himself. The wife, unable to cope with the guilt, also took her life by committing suicide on the grave of the husband she had betrayed.
What could have been a simple scandal turned into a tragic event with two lives lost. The military heard of it, and the Major was demoted by one rank. Betraying a comrade and causing his death damaged his reputation among officers. He found himself unable to dream of a promotion.
Despite this, the Major shamelessly remained in the military, determined to survive.
Then the war broke out, and his situation changed dramatically. The military, desperate for experienced officers, no longer cared about reputation or morality. The Major seized this opportunity, gained recognition on difficult battlefields, and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually achieving the rank of Major in just a few years.
Now, he had made it all the way to the highest command.
“This was a chance he couldn’t afford to miss. If he appeared to have let go of his old bad habits, others might not question his rise. But if his past actions were exposed after the war ended, they could use it as an excuse to push him out of the military. I overheard other officers talking about it.”
“Ah… So, that’s why he avoids married women…”
It wasn’t just a matter of morality. It was because the Major had acted in ways that still defined his character today.
